Long California Poems
Long California Poems. Below are the most popular long California by PoetrySoup Members. You can search for long California poems by poem length and keyword.
The sun was nowhere in sight…
All of our wonderful might
Has deserted us out of the blue
Our hope was as fresh as dew
The sky was overcast
There were hardly any stars, twinkling so fast
The moon was shining all night long
And the wind rustled along
The breeze was whistling a pleasant song
The rain was cold as ice
It hit our skin…our kin paid the price
We should’ve worn a hat
Who would’ve thought of that?
We ran in the sheets of rain
With our dog by our side
We ran merrily around the block, we couldn’t refrain
From having a good time – no need to hide
No need to hide,
For our joy hasn’t dried
The concrete was wet with sorrow
We ran with smiles caked on our soaked faces
The green grass was glistening with gratitude – imagine if it rained tomorrow?
The sun never showed up…we were expecting it
Like a special visitor, keeping us company
The pitiful clouds pushed it away…where is it?
Where is it now? The sky wasn’t blue like the gracious sea
But, it was as black as a mysterious crow
The moon was shining up above
The soft rains reigned upon California, who would’ve known
There was a thing called love
That saved us from being used as a mat
Don’t soak in the guilt,
We’re running in the rain – we’re well-built
Ordinary words cannot express the glimpse, this strange eclipse of wonder
Driving over hills, just north of home, it captures first my curiosity
Amid the landlocked green of rolling hills, trees and rocky tundra
Could it be, perhaps a sailor gone astray, whose ship has grounded
Upon the rocky valley floor....so far from sea?
With mast, the sail that hangs so high...pointing sharply to the sky?
This mystery of amazing engineering artistry!
A bridge!....yet, not so simply said, as to be described as bridge alone
A masterpiece, ... as if a giant human hand
Arrived upon this northern California land to craft a timepiece
A sundial, fit to mock, ...fit to rock your faith in any other clock
Where no spring will break, or battery will fail
Where motion works a shadow, which will run as silently as the sun
With a spire that one can see, for miles north and south, over trees and me...
And as the earth rotates the axis on this day
I will walk on glass, across the cantilevered span
Over river wild, and blue and green where salmon run
It gleams as if a giant alabaster sail rules the sea
And when there are clouds it will rest, and all night it will sleep
When the sun lights the earth, then across the land the time will keep.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
For Brian's Everyman's Ekphrais contest
To see a virtual tour of the Sundial Bridge, http://www.virtuar.com/california/sundial/
Or type in Sundial Bridge, Redding, California
This bridge is about 25 miles north of my home
No snow; no ice, no frost, no Santa. No fun.
I see the world’s smallest house ahead of me.
This street is ugly, I am irritated. Where is the sun?
We are going to decorate the tree tonight. Whoopee.
Christmas in a strange town, without family or friends today.
Thanks for nothing folks. I don’t know anyone in this place.
Worse, my favorite grandma is six hundred and eighteen miles away.
I slow down, dragging my backpack in a sloth like pace.
I keep my head down, so people will know better than to greet me.
I do not know anyone in California, and this place is strange and odd.
I do not look up as people pass me, maybe two or three.
Hey! Can you help me? It is a crackled voice, sounds like my Uncle Todd.
I see a man struggling with a little tree, trying to get it into a door of wood.
I am from the Midwest where everyone helps everyone, so I help with it.
When it in place, he gives me a grateful smile that makes me feel good.
Now when I pass this house with this tree, I cannot help but smile a bit.
Yes, to the dance and party at Hotel California.
You love the flirting game with pretty maids all in a row.
No more wasted time on the heartbreak endured in Georgia.
No sad desperado feel blocks your new, solo, man show.
You love the flirting game with pretty maids all in a row.
In the city, fantasy landscapes entice your lost heart.
No sad desperado feel blocks your new, solo, man show.
You believe life in the fast lane is a game you play smart.
In the city, fantasy landscapes entice your lost heart.
You long to dance sloshed into the morn’s tequila sunrise.
You believe life in the fast lane is a game you play smart.
I can’t tell you why your emotion seeks downtown tinged skies.
You long to dance sloshed into the morn’s tequila sunrise.
You’ll take one more skin or gin shot in a New York minute.
I can’t tell you why your emotion seeks downtown tinged skies.
A certain kind of fool with a broken heart, can’t mend it.
You’ll take one more skin or gin shot in a New York minute.
No more wasted time on the heartbreak endured in Georgia.
A certain kind of fool with a broken heart, can’t mend it.
Yes, to the dance and party at Hotel California.
The Eagles
Songs: Hotel California, Pretty Maids All in a Row, Wasted Time, Desperado, In the City, Life in the Fast Lane, Tequila Sunrise, I Can’t Tell You Why, New York Minute, Certain Kind of Fool
One sad day, some years ago,
I got news that my father passed away.
He lived a long and happy life,
so I felt joy and sadness on that day.
Perusing a box of photographs and things,
his drawing, a poignant feeling, would evoke.
In his childhood crayons, it was beautiful -
a tree that seemed to be an oak.
Between a person's years of birth and death,
there's only a hyphen left to show,
but, in my father's unexceptional life,
he left something more - I know.
My brothers and I, quite frankly,
I would not celebrate.
Many fathers before and after him,
by having offspring, regenerate.
Yet, when I was a boy of nine,
My dad would, my brothers and me, provoke,
by planting in our front yard football field,
a native sapling, a California oak.
That tree is now my favorite brother,
huge, but kind and strong,
hosting an entire ecosystem,
with squirrels, and birds, in song.
In their short life upon this earth
many want to build a legacy.
Here is my advice for them and those.
On a sunny day, go plant a tree.
I've always lived in Southern California.
I've never heard of summer rain.
This notion, I have to say, quite honestly,
Strikes me as insane.
I might as well speak of fluffy penguins
Who live in the Sahara,
Or opine on the wit and wisdom of pigs
Who wear lipstick and mascara.
Or interview an illustrious duck
Who opens his bill to sing,
"Won't You Come Home Bill Bailey", and then
Composes "The Rite of Spring."
I may just as well play mumblety-peg
With a hamster wearing braces,
Or play high-stakes poker with a wily fox
Who deals me eights and aces.
Or dine on blue marbles and split-pea soup
With a seasoning of Tums,
Or perform "Swan Lake' or "Claire de Lune"
On just harmonica and drums.
And now I'll slide comfortably into my fridge,
All wrapped in cellophane,
And say from the top shelf, "that's about all
I know about summer rain."
*Image of 12 Fun Facts Tom Hanks by Hotbook.
Thomas Jeffrey Hanks
Mr. Thomas Jeffrey Hanks,
Passionately pursued his dreams by pulling pranks,
By smooth-talking fellow workers, this prankster cannot be found,
As Hollywood checked in, opened doors of opportunity and he's making ground.
2021 June 28
*1st Place*
A BRIAN STRAND JULY
~~Brian Strand: Judged 2021 June 30
*Tom and I formerly worked together in the mid to late '70s at the Oakland Airport Hilton Inn in the San Francisco bay area of northern California. I worked behind the hotel desk and Tom, who is a year older though we both graduated the same year, was a bellman there while attending Chabot College in Hayward.
Know your heart, know your soul
Hold on to the dreams that will make you whole
The criss and cross, the music and the lark
Watch out for the bogyman hiding in the dark
My spirit is locked with thee and the
The birds are happy with me
And the universe is dancing with me
I have lived a thousand years and I have nothing to fear
I have metamorphosed more than a million times
with hope locked in my pockets and faith decorated on my finger tips
Passion is still flying high in the sky and my spirit is searching for
higher meaning, that will add more substance to the higher calling
I have been sittings in this park for more than a year
taking the hits and blows bad words and assault as
the morning starts, they dragged me on the ground
and tossed me about they smashed my computers
and when they could not win, they hit me in my head with a board
hoping that I would drop dead but destiny had everything mapped
out for me. They mocked and laughed at me but I
stood up on my feet and bore the pain and continue working the same
Know your heart and listen carefully to its beat
And sample an appetizer that will raise your consciousness
California wine serving at dinner on time and the Peachtree
at the mountain gate add more nutrition to the fruit cake
And provide more tea and coffee in the pantries and
Add more food on the dinner table
I have stood up to giants and bad men and I have broken
The lions neck that keep chasing me around the den
I have worked day and night and have made much painful sacrifice
to get business done so that everyone can have some fun
And when the sky is clear I make a cross and hold strong
to my conviction and hold my grounds
And so it was that destiny handed me the crown, the throne
the hammer and the gown.
What could be funnier than standing in a corner,
Staring at the wall, while your spouse watches crazy.
This wife of a husband, I was like a foreigner,
To stare at a wall, like a dunce, half-baked and lazy.
But this husband was about to get a shock.
He couldn’t imagine the turnaround of thought.
This is what happens when a husband doesn’t knock.
His mind would go haywire when a situation he caught.
You see in the bedroom, I am a gypsy.
Looping ‘round, I pace about our California king.
I may have one glass of merlot, but I’m not tipsy.
In my mouth, my husband sees electric toothbrush sing.
This husband of mine, loses his mind.
Doubled over, he paces the hall, tears in his eyes.
Tremulous, quivering, rewinds
the scene over and over - what did he spy.
“I was looking at a spider web,” I explained.
“But I didn’t expect to see you brushing after.”
Oh how he was entertained!
This man of mine couldn’t contain his laughter
9/7/2021
“H'' Contest, New or Old Poems Poetry Contest
Sponsor:Constance La France
I never met but always appreciated Diane.
Through the media, I knew her first as a politician.
From my perspective, I knew her later as a good lady.
I observed the manner of her poise and her calmness.
It wasn't her politics that I admired, but her person
that I came to respect.
I was a new resident in her beautiful city,
not there long enough to know of their problems.
But it was soon clear to me that Diane was in tune
with both the politics and the people of her city.
Mayor, supervisor, policeman, People's Temple, and Jim Jones;
Enough headline news to cause anyone's head to both ache and spin.
How would one navigate all this in a season of festivity and Thanksgiving?
I was soon to learn that Diane was well equipped for the task of calming
the storm of tragedy wreaking havoc on the people of her city by the bay.
Red state, blue state, or sanctuary city had absolutely no relevancy.
She became the first female supervisor in SF in 1969 and later its first
female mayor in 1978. She would later fail in her attempt at becoming
governor of California but succeed in becoming its first female Senator.
I am aware of her 'many firsts, her many years of service as a Senator,
and the many committees she chaired. One of the greatest lessons in life
is learning how to separate people from their politics. At a distance, I think that I learned it best from Diane.
What I remember most about Diane Feinstein and have long treasured in my heart is the way she controlled and mastered her emotions, and how she served as a conduit to release the tranquility I felt in a time of confusion as a newcomer to the city of San Francisco. I believe that this was a 'God send'.