Long Galveston Poems

Dear Toni,

I saw you on The Daily Show
the other day
having your way
with Trevor,
or was it the other way around?
Not sure.

I'm also not sure where we first went wrong,
but I'm sorry for once having thought you...

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"He made a difference."

Gramps, my mother's father, 
Dave Luke -- my grandfather, 
a tall unlettered white (decidedly white) 
Louisiana man -- was born August 1888.  
He lived 87 years.  He grew under 
the...

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Mitchell: Good sirs, my word was fair. No discrepancy stains the pages of my ledger. The fifth tier is a sub-basement beneath the cellar floor of the temple’s vestibule. Any woman who is not tagged...

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June nineteenth one hundred and fifty years ago

Juneteenth hint: three hundred
and sixty six days
after eighteen sixty four.

Major General Gordon Granger
led the Union Soldiers to Galveston, Texas,
to announce the end of the Civil war
and the freedom...

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(Taking headlines from October 1964,
the poem revisits our shared experience ...)

Monday 5: Fifty-Four East Germans Tunnel to Freedom

Back then, it was not in doubt,
(Richard Burton Tony Quinn):
the Wall was there to keep us out?
No –...

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(This piece is dedicated to those innocent youths gunned down inside institutes of learning, by guns improperly regulated, and utilized by cold, heartless entities who committed these crimes without an iota of guilt or remorse....

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Ike The Terrible

Ike; You had gone to many places and than you came
to Texas. You were not invited, but you decided to come
anyway. A lot of people left before that terrible day. A lot
of us...

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Riley Ann Sawyer

A little Angel she was. She came to Earth one day
her stay here was short. instead of heaven - she 
found Hell. It happened in 2008 We can only wonder 
and imagine what...

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The sun, an igneous ball, is falling down the sea.
 The wave is locked, and a new night is seen.
The fishing boat heads to open ocean
 with songs ballooning the sails.
 
 
Songs tell numerous...

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Where have you been
Darkened with uncertainty
No place to be found
Chanted spiritual songs within one’s encouraging thought
I need to be free
I pray to thee
Thunder raw
Lightening outburst
Slavery was hard and tormented
Beaten and torn
Sunrises being a forbidden rise
Working...

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I sat in a flop house common room
Doing social research one Christmas Eve,
Galveston in '79, I do believe.
I was there in a room full of strangers.
Sammy Davis and Old Blue Eyes 
Sang on the TV...

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It was dusty, dry and endless 
Stretched beneath an empty sky
From horizon to horizon 
Where the turkey buzzards fly,
Like a landscape meant to warn you
Just how far a man can fall.
Except for Ruby in El...

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Jubilant celebrations ring out all over the

                United States of America each year on the

     ...

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Gun Play in the Meat Locker 

At the bottom in the Mexican bay rests a 22 calibre pistol,
it is in a box and the box is in a plastic bag that moves 
with the tide;...

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I went to Galveston one time
In the Spring of the year
I was just a cowboy back then
An' had no thought of fear

I'd never seen the waves roll in
Or heard the muted roar
The smell of salt...

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Words flowing like an raging river
Got me feeling like dominoes back in the day 30 min to deliver
Beautiful pictures and stories I will always remember
Looking forward to the spring in the cold of the winter
Opening...

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Ava - I spoke to your half sister today.  
She says it’s warm in Albuquerque.  She tells you hello 
and to please wish your mother, her step-mother,
a happy Mother’s Day on her behalf.
She...

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Places Are Not Home 
Anywhere that ewe are at,the Place that ewe could be. 
A House in Galveston,a canyon of the mind. 
Lost songs echo shouting backward into time. 
Anywhere that love is at is...

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Wish I was somewhere else today
I ain't partic'lar where
Maybe upon a mountain top
Breathin' that cool blue air

Or I could fish a mountain stream
Catch me a big fat trout
Maybe wander to Galveston
Get a sunburn, no doubt

I...

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Jubilation in the city of Galveston ensued when 

Union soldiers brought to the enslaved

News of an

Emancipation that had been proclaimed by Lincoln

Two whole years before the Texan slaves 

Ever even heard of it!

Equality, of course,...

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Largely overlooked
Juneteenth Independence Day, Freedom Day 
Emancipation Day – commemorates the end of slavery 
In the United States
Most States that is
There are 20 states still holding out
In 1863 slaves were freed
Texas withheld the information
It wasn't...

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On a cool winter night spent under the stars,
 the wind has calmed down some

I lay back and trace distant 
satellites across the sky

My mind starts to wander from Oregon
 to Fargo and Galveston Bay

We...

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