Long Franklin Poems

The night Before Christmas Eve
By Franklin Price
12/17/2016


Prologue

The Night Before Christmas
A most famous of  poems
Read  to children aloud
By their parents in homes

To children who gather
'Round the brightly lit tree
To hear Santa is coming
Presents for...

Read More

Rumors
How we arrived at where we are
By Franklin Price
05/03/2020

By now you've heard the rumors
How Covid-19 came to Earth
How it did not come here naturally 
How Wuhan, China gave it birth

Maybe aided by our government
To make...

Read More

I cannot let this obsession with Coronavirus (COVID19) go
It is apparent, from the number of deaths projected, to be in the hundreds of thousands, that many Americans still are not heeding the warnings. I hope...

Read More

The Alaskan Oil Pipeline

Nineteen sixty-eight confirmed the year
Of discovery by ‘Humble Oil’
To North America’s largest oil field,
On the North Slope of the Brooks Range;
A west to east Northern Alaskan mountain chain.
An area forty miles wide...

Read More

Happy Fourth Of July, Or Happy Independence Day

On this day we celebrate and commemorate the birth of our nation, The United States of America's Independence from Great Britain's monarchical hold and liberty's triumph
Congress voting in...

Read More

The Republican congressmen,
and I do mean white privileged straight men,
came to their Democratic opposition
concerned about how depressing
December can be,
and all of winter,
come to think and feel
of dark discerning Advent,

So maybe we could stage
a comedic debate
about...

Read More

The Legacy of Ain't Barbie
By Franklin Price
03/23/2022

“Ain't Barbie” was her handle, Barbara Price her married name
She was my wife, for most my life, this is how she played the game
Her roots were from the North...

Read More

I have written this today to let my family and friends know what's going on in my life.
I am deeply saddened by where I am, in it, right now, but am appreciative of the excellent...

Read More

The Highways and the Byways
By Franklin Price
10/27/2107
(Inspired by Nancy McIntyre Stepp)

 The highways and the byways
Of this life in which we've grown
Bring back many memories
Of  places we have known

The Interstates most boring
They bypass most...

Read More

Sixty-eight and Sixty-nine
By Franklin Price
02/03/2022

In January sixty-eight, I was sent to Vietnam,
Was no internet back then, no Facebook, only Spam
I went to serve my country. Had signed the line in sixty-five
Going there to do my...

Read More

Brains and guts orbit the soul—
that polar star searing in the marrow of being.

I was born somewhere between Einstein’s neurons
Ginsburg beat poetry, the birth of rock and roll, revolution marches,
and the calloused hands of a...

Read More

As a mortal man of threescore and five years...

I bore witness and/or assimilated, gleaned,
and nursed implacable thirst for knowledge
courtesy reading factual narratives,
historical fiction, or biography
that since the advent of Homo sapiens
avast number of civilizations
and their...

Read More

I May Be Mistaken
By Franklin Price
9/19/2018

I may be mistaken but, in watching all the raves,
 I believe our founding fathers are rolling over in their graves.
We're not acting patriotic when the parties have their say.
They're...

Read More

When I Was Born in '45
By Franklin Price
08/08/202

When I was born in '45, was another time and place
Merritt Island, I called home, we had not gone to space
Segregation was the way, we lived back in...

Read More

Medicine and sickness satisfy each other.
MotherEarth is medicine.
Where do you find yourself?
     Zen Master Yunmen
     China, 800s

Therapy and trauma require each other.
Ecological Earth is nature-spirit therapy.
Where and...

Read More

The Battle Hymn of the Republic was the rallying song for the United States of America during the Civil War. It was written and published the first time in February 1862; shortly after the war...

Read More

I am so upset with anyone who has anything to do with Washington, the President and the swamp. The following is a compilation of my concerns. You don't have to read them, and if you...

Read More

It was not yet noon
when Ben said
a host of lovely things.
As far as we know,
no one accused him
of being publisher shy,
or sleeping in.

Ben said,
Early to bed
Early to rise
Makes a man,
and perhaps women and children more...

Read More

Trump's Now the President
(how he got there)
By Franklin Price
1/30/2019

Trump is now the President
Not the cause but the effect
Of  Republicans and Democrats
Refusing to connect

He's not from either party
Though Republicans have the claim
I  think he...

Read More

Have You Lost and Mourned
( Thank you Tamera)
By Franklin Price
02/17/2022

I have lost and mourn a loved one
She was my long time cherished spouse
Was the best friend that I ever had
Brought bright sunshine to our house

If...

Read More

The Snowflake That Sank The Titanic

It all begins with a single snowflake
(Each one in itself is unique)
Brought about through evaporation,
And returned by the force of gravity
In the form of snow to the planet,
To rest on...

Read More

In the Far Off Land of China
(To the tune of the Battle Hymn of the Republic)
Edit 1
By Franklin Price
03/28/2020

In the Far off land of China many thousand miles away
The Coronavirus came to its first human...

Read More

Ever wonder where big ideas come from?

Memories of FDR
from newsreel clips -
a lion-headed striking man
with rakish grin,
jaw jutting proudly, 
signature cigarette holder
clenched in his teeth
tilted ever upward...
soaring to the heavens
as he cruises by
waving to admirers
in...

Read More

Quy Nhon and The Tet Offensive
By Franklin Price
9/2/2018

Quy Nhon and the Tet offensive, more than fifty years ago
That Chinese New Year changed our world and most its ebb and flow
Until that day the boonies were...

Read More

I was seven years old when began World War Two
And eleven became by the time it was through.
I have vague recollections of things when that small,
But events during wartime I clearly recall.

Since there was no...

Read More