Long Fourths Poems

Musicianship 
(3 May 2014;  For my son Steven, an ACCOMPLISHED guitarist)

Real musicianship can truly drive you nuts—
There really are no “ifs”, “ands”, or “buts”.
Practice, study, memorize, then more practice--
Is this just an obsession or...

Read More

In the dream of others, I struggle like a leaf carried by unknown winds,
Caught in a web of desires and expectations not my own, my soul a voiceless prisoner,
I navigate illusions, a shadow lost in...

Read More

Memorial Day – 2020... since time immemorial

crème de la crème strongest and bravest
forsook their lives eternal peace they rest
honored and revered succumbed mortal test.

(now pardon ma faux pas 
from dis po' pa try'n 2b sleek)
line...

Read More

My new forest and park neighbors,
mostly birds
squirrels
and strangely curious 
and ravenous rabbits,

Have become accustomed to,
spoiled by,
fragrant green sanctuary
ancient fertile memories.

But, today
our neighborly horse farm
must be cleaning house.
This smells of too rich compost
upstaging even more gracious...

Read More

By the barrage of flies, bald John can tell how
Safe his meal is for feasting. The spotted
fawn yet battered breathes. 
Clean blood is poison, he knows,
So before he drinks, he waits for the devil
To pee...

Read More

Villanelle: Wander not into a land where the indigene’s indolent

Wander not into a land where the indigene’s indolent
Likely as not the country will be run by interlopers
Open-heartedness is often a cover for self-bemusement

The first signs...

Read More

I've a father who's known for ascending a clock,
a magnificent ticking antique.
In between twelve and one,
he began and was done,
not a scratching was heard nor a creak.

He was nimble that night, as he is everyday
when...

Read More

There whirls a world about a star
Gathering motes of dust from Far-A-Far
Upon the shining silvered seas' bright skin
That cloaks the place three-fourths within.

Upon the multicolored shards of stone
Reflecting from her fragile face
Some billions of small...

Read More

A Lily is one of nature’s most special gifts
I’d pick them in ones, twos, thirds, fourths, and fifths
The exotic scent, arousing my nerves
Such a figure with the most desired curves

A Lily is mysterious
The colors drive...

Read More

Late 1940s England

the square
   was packed
& the high street full
meat&veg seemed plentiful

market barkers
  drew the queues
with jokes
         impromptu

shoppers filed
     neat&...

Read More

I come to you hands open wide no fears of past just an invitation inside. Do you see me? Around the trees of space and time i giggle and laugh as i look into your...

Read More

the square
   was packed
& the high street full
meat&veg seemed plentiful

market barkers
  drew the queues
with jokes
         impromptu

shoppers filed
     neat& formal
in sainsburys...

Read More

Which key should I put this song in?
I sing in G Ionian/major comfortably,
Likewise the relative E Aeolian/minor scale.
Plus those guitar chords are easy as sin.

I could choose a scale that’s more exotic -
D Mixolydian has...

Read More

My long time friend Bill enlisted in 1962
Back then he said, "It's the right thing to do!"
He served his country with vigor and pride 
Fought in the jungle and watched his friend die
 

A machine...

Read More

The South That Never Was
.
By Elton Camp   

A plantation, hundreds of slaves and a mansion so fine
Is the usual image of the Old South that comes to mind

But a situation like that picture...

Read More

It's morning now . . .
     the sun has brought the day

The night has pushed away
. . .no longer your touches
     drape across my vestige

     flutters of fortitude
     only a memory
     in the shaft of...

Read More

Three-fourths of a century old is mom.
While more than half a century am I.
How quickly I have aged gives me a qualm,
but I think glad thoughts. I can't multiply!
Though right behind my mom I'm following
with...

Read More

This is the weight of a soul imagine what 21 grams can do?
This is not a myth

Wikipedia
The 21 grams experiment refers to a scientific study published in 1907 by Duncan MacDougall, a physician from Haverhill,...

Read More

movement of each echo     
  pummels  ^  til outside     
    the confines of self     
  ...

Read More

It's just a row of laundromat chairs—
those molded plastic ones, 
screwed into a fake strip of tile.

The whole setup’s bolted to the lunar crust
under a plexiglass dome.

Every seat holds something left behind:
a single sock, a...

Read More