Long Fished Poems

Death Watch

It was early morning.
The sun was barely above the high hills on the other side of the lake.
I was at the end of the dock slowly reeling in my line.
I could see fish jumping...

Read More

I am an Outlander
Who lives on a high hill
Overlooking a man-made lake
That once was a rapidly rushing river
Along whose banks the Ozarks Bluff Dwellers and the Osage and then Delaware
Hunted, fished, and created shelter
For their...

Read More

He sat all alone, drinking jim beam and coke

Looking out as the waves crashed ashore

He kept to himself, drinking jim beam and coke

As the storm winds would batter the door

He'd only come in when the...

Read More

I laid there in bed I found myself being called by someone. I thought for a moment, am I dreaming? The voice was clear but I felt as though I was in a deep state...

Read More

I gaze upon a moon so full and bright beneath my feet
The stillness of unbroken waters where reflections meet
The creaking and the straining as the old bridge wants me rid
Shall not give me cause to...

Read More

I.

The Fish Crow is an outcast amongst the seagulls
Standing on the hot Miami sand
At the end
Of our rose-colored beach towel

Nodding and blabbing half-heartedly
Nuh-uh nuh-uh
To the lack of crumbs

From us
The stingy blue collar visitors
From freezing old...

Read More

Submitted to the "Gone Fishin" contest
------------------------------------------------
Trollin’ the islands at Texoma,
It was April, 1964.
New rod and reel in hand,
I’d NEVER been fishing before.

A Garcia 2510T casting rod.
The reel, a Mitchell 301,
Plus hand-selected worms and lures…
I was...

Read More

It's the weekend (Friday night). Lisa and I are hangin’, music’s playing, and we’re rummaging through my suitcase, for an outfit option, for me, tonight. Call it cliché, but we like going out - and...

Read More

The old sorcerer was teaching his apprentice a lesson about the moon, but as usual the subject drifted, this time, to witches. “How would I know a witch if I saw one?” The apprentice asked.

“It’s...

Read More

I need a little change of pace
take a flight to outer space
make an attempt to paint a face
upon a planet without moons
make an attempt to just spin across the rings of Saturn
I just need a...

Read More

Along the road called forestry, the silver ash weeps over me
as I meander 'round the dell and glade.
Pass scars of sand pits long disused, where gullies, washes speak ‘abused!’
Reclamation offers now a new facade.

Need for...

Read More

The date
July Twenty Eight
The year, 1914
The War which we feared 
It began, something we could not foresee
This date, still haunters me
To this very day
Those bewailing screams
And those traumatic scenes
Words to do not to justify 
The...

Read More

In the late 1970s, I was going home on a Friday evening,
and needed a little more fuel in my truck, 
enough to get back to work on Monday morning.
I had $3 on me, pulled into...

Read More

Permaculturists,
like Taoists
and Buddhists
and Hindus, etc.
Consider neighbors
extended and respected family,
ZeroZone Kin,
regardless of zone status
near or far,
regardless of species,
regardless of living
or gone
or not yet arrived.

Dear Neighbors,

I make no proud claims
of embracing a GREEN lifestyle,
making green integrity choices,
No...

Read More

AKULA

Mark and I caught the last plane from Ft. Lauderdale to New Orleans to escape Hurricane Andrew, leaving Akula ,our boat, tied up at Rolly Shipyard to face the wrath alone. The next few hell...

Read More

It seems just like yesterday not even gravity would take me off the earth
But when you took me into your arms, you changed it all

Scenes keep locks on the sound of love
I feed on riddles...

Read More

When shall we smile again?
When shall the farmers return?
When shall all fingers become equal?
When shall mothers return to the kitchen?
When shall the lizard have hairs on their back?
When shall the He goat smell no more?
When...

Read More

I’d never been outside Victoria except once on the Murray,
where we fished for near a week only giving carp some curry,
but of course that was my highlight going on that camping trip.
I talked so much...

Read More

II.

The clothes went flying, much fun was had,
she had to admit he wasn't that bad.
So much so that after filming had ceased
she stayed with Norm for another two weeks.

It wasn't all sex, though both had...

Read More

This is the story of Slim & Chance,
Always peacock-ing and runnin’ game
Dubbed the neighborhood know-it-alls
No two stories were ever the same.
Flashing names like badges
Like detectives on a case.
Til the tangled web of lies
They wove gave...

Read More

Biological entities or angels of God; who are we? 
Ten times two, youth, we set to the island.
If day here is pleasant freedom and lost in wilderness,
Why not night?
A simple request from boatman; we smiled...

Read More

On the banks of the mighty Skagit,
where the rushing waters flow,
sat a fisherman of merit,
the one known as Farmer Joe.
Long he sat there, long he fished there,
always waiting for the day
he would catch a mighty...

Read More

At Sixty-One I write these stories not for fun or prosperity....
Or profit.....

You have to understand the times.....It was the Fifties....
The Smith boys..all three of us...
Greg, my brother Reggie and Me...
We had it all....and didn't know...

Read More

If we start we may not end
but, here it goes for a special friend.
In no particular order or rank,
too many people to mention and thank.

So lets move on to other things,
like a package waiting when...

Read More

Early in the morn, just before the sun would rise
The scent of bacon, thick enough to burn my eyes
Crept under my door, across the sheets and into my nose
The aroma I smelt every morning before...

Read More