Loretta Lee can entertain herself better than most people I see
I check on old people who live in suburbs of Knoxville, Tennessee.
some are sad and lonely, harpy, yelling “poor me, woe is me.”
this has never been the case with the resilient and lovely Loretta Lee.
she has hobbies, interests, ideas, and projects most never will see.
making things with yarns, felt, ribbon, lace, painting stuff with glee.
projects that will take her from here to two thousand thirty-three.
she is teaching me to entertain myself and doing it for free.
the active, always-playing Loretta Lee has never worried me.
I stick her on my aged wellness check route quite regularly.
she shows me how to knit, crochet, tat, sew, and hug up a tree.
a hippie from the old south, my favorite old woman, Loretta Lee.
past knoxville and idaho city there are a pair of adorable nitwits.
townspeople refer to them as kooky oddballs, a couple of twits.
their name is easy to learn. she is backward ditz; he is fritz.
brown eyes are lop-sided, their glances can be the pits.
watch out! cautions their neighbor, they will bore you to bits.
they showed up one day unexpectedly during a neighboring blitz.
I heard they were parisians, but another told me they are brits.
fritz can do a weird almost-hand-stand, and ditz does the splits.
twits do not put on airs; neither abides by the ritz or any glitz.
they eat bland foods like porridge, oatmeal, and plain grits.
calico cats come to them all the time, presenting them with kits.
their fighting is so common, their eyes are swollen to slits.
fritz likes to knit, so their house is full of junk that he knits.
afghans, scarves, hats, potholders, and unusable oven mitts.
ditz does not wash her hair, so it is full of lice, bugs and nits.
also have zits, and they have performed some really weird skits.
I am appalled..Sickened.' uncomprehending..!
Why a medical facility 'namley fort sanders'
Small s...' Intentional..) discharged this suffeing
Woman..? How could they.? Are they a care facilty?
Or a scare facility.'? Can any out there advise me?
On the oppresive actions, started by the obviously
Heartless, mean spirited caller. Who requested that
Police attend.' And they did.' four callous minded cops
That mocked, and accused an innocent person with
Sarcasam...In the depths of her despair she pleaded
She called out..Sir..! I am incensed..I am in despair.!
To witness the mental torture..The physical inhibiting
Actions of the four thugs.' Will anybody own friendship
With these pieces of excrenent.!? Slime is above them
Thats how low they live.' I don't want to know their
Names even..' its so toxic their action.' Beyond sick.'
And the pathology.. dept..Are protecting these scum.'
In Knoxville, a place I would think on twice before going.'
With people in charge like this, and others above them'
Yet well below..? Below the lowest level of contempt.'
Here's another shooting incident we have to see:
This was at a high school in Knoxville, Tennessee.
There was a wounded police officer and one fatality.
No known students were counted as a casualty.
We have heard about shootings in the news too frequently.
I wish I didn't have to write this kind of poetry.
From a news story found on msn.com
Your leg was infected and the infection spread.
You had an abdominal aneurysm and you're dead.
The infection spread to your stomach and you hid your illness from all of us.
You didn't want to go to a hospital because doctors were people who you didn't trust.
If we'd known how sick you were, you would've seen a doctor immediately because we would've made you go.
When we found out how sick you were, you were too ill to put up a fight, you were too ill to be able to say no.
You were taken to Fort Sanders Hospital in Knoxville but sadly, it was too late.
You suffered tremendously before you died, you experienced a sad and tragic fate.
I woke up in the hospital and found you lying motionless in your bed.
When you had a deadly aneurysm, you would have no future ahead.
When I learned that you hid your illness from us, it made me feel pretty bad.
I love you Mom, you were the best mother that a person could've had.
[Dedicated to Agnes Johnson (1948-2013) who died 7 years ago today on March 6, 2013.]
Well I love Tennessee, the mountains, the rivers and the valleys.
Knoxville, Chattanooga and Nashville. But Memphis is a disaster
Waiting to happen again like it did in the late 19th century when the
New Madrid first made its presence known. The Mississippi river
Ran backwards for days and days and Thousands of Indians and
Pioneers lost their lives and homes as the liberty bell tolled the hour.
The whole east coast felt its power!
Heaven have mercy on our souls because it is overdue to shake
Things up again! Only God knows when but it's destined to come
Around again...
It seems like not too many people are unaware of the NEW MADRID
And the devastation at hand or is it we are just too preoccupied with war and
The carrying on of the other lands well I don't know but I do know one thing for sure history
Has a peculiar way of repeating its self. So let’s not be so quick to put this book back on that
Shelf. Take care in all you do don't you know we are not promised
Tomorrow and the NEW MADRID is a bombshell about to split America into
Could be the gates of hell and we're all as good as screwed!
My Mom was born and raised in Sneedville, Tennessee.
She was very special and I loved her and she loved me.
She was born in an ambulance that was parked on the side of the road.
Everybody always loved Mom because she had a personality that glowed.
She grew up in a town that was once called Greasy Rock.
But it was renamed Sneedville and it's located in a county that's called Hancock.
The town was renamed after a Knoxville attorney who was named William Henry Sneed.
Some people sued to stop Sneedville's creation but William disagreed.
He stopped them when they tried to block Sneedville's creation.
Nearly 1,400 people live there, that's its current population.
Sadly, William Henry Sneed died at the age of fifty-seven in 1869.
Many people paid their last respects to my parents and that was kind.
Mom and Dad returned to Sneedville and lived there for the last two years of their lives.
When Mom died on March the 6th, it felt like I'd been stabbed by a hundred knives.
Everybody who knows me knows what my Mom meant to me.
She and Dad always loved the town of Sneedville in Tennessee.
(Dedicated to Agnes Johnson and everybody else who lives/lived in Sneedville.)
Sandburg saw you
more than a century ago
in prairie-town Galesburg -
an old lady on the porch -
unbothered by the whooping cries
of ball-playing boys.
Strangely, you had become a missing piece
in the jigsaw puzzle of my life
and I found myself on a quest to find you.
A caption to a missing image alerted me -
followed by a tale
of deleted files and
hard drive crashes
until a reply
from a Knoxville college -
they had a picture of you!
A beggared five dollars later
your image arrived,
and I shared you with the world-
so that everyone may know
the face of the woman who taught us
the importance of little things.
____________________________________________________
Julia Carney (1823-1908) is the author of "Little drops of Water".
What's so great about Southern hospitality is when he or she is welcomed by the entire
family from the South. Southern hospitality is also considered a warm welcome for all,
that includes tourists from these here United States. It seems that all people from the
South are very friendly, especially when they want to be friends with a bunch of people
who are out of town. Upon being welcomed into one of their homes as part of Southern
hospitality, he or she's offered a glass of lemonade or iced tea with a slice of lemon.
those people from other states, including Ohio, they will have loved it when the people
from the South will have called them, "Sir" or "Ma'am." How interesting is that? I know
that when I plan on going to the South, just almost to the East coast, I'm going to have a
good time, especially when I get to meet some attractive Southern belles and I'll really
spend the next week in Knoxville, Tennessee (the city where I was born in). If everyone
can experience some southern hospitality, so can I. And upon returning from the South,
it'll be like to people have been hitched on a Saturday night in what used to be a
farmhouse in Nutbush.
Knoxville, Tennessee, is where I was born 23 years ago. The city is home to the Volunteers
of the University of Tennessee. Knoxville has almost everything any tourist like: there's
shops, theaters, including the infamous Tennessee Theater, and the Women's Basketball Hall
of Fame. The city of Knoxville has a lot of restaurant, too. This building has a giant
ball on top of it. What's so great about Knoxville, Tennessee, is that everyone can see
plenty of monuments, including the Craighead-Jackson House, James White's house, and the
infamous Gay Street. No wonder Knoxville is also the biggest city in the state of
Tennessee. It's been 23 years since I was born there. I'm looking forward to going to my
birth town; where it all began. If I were to go back to Knoxville, Tennessee, the place
where I was born in, then it'll be like a welcome-back vacation.
Alice Cooper!
Wait, you’re not Nancy Wilson!
You have no Heart!
You’re not even a woman!
Ah, but you are wafting through my radio!
And you are quite clever!
I wish I could have seen you
when you came to Knoxville
Scary!
“Freeze your nuts off”
What a gray, gray day at Lake Norman
the worst weekend for a first regatta
our sloops were plastic toy boats in a toddler’s bathwater
and we the hapless Lego men
the November wind screamed through my windbreaker,
which could not keep my quivering body warm enough
after three times out wrestling with the lake
the lake! It was the Maelstrom to my novice hands!
and I caught a monstrous cold, nearly vomiting
from the richness of the air in the Starbucks, and
four hours of carsickness on the drive back to Knoxville
Ah, but I would not trade that day for a weekend at home!
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