Long Hattie Poems

This is the 2nd Half - sorry, this is the only way to get my long pieces posted - an full length audio version is also posted 


“Every single person, and the minister agreed…and just...

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Thank You!...

It's Black history month, so we come to celebrate, 
all the hues of brown that made our nation great! 

From Fredrick and Harriet to Mandela, and Muhammad Ali, because of the stance they took,...

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“Wha’da-ya’ s’pose he’s thinkin’ about,” I heard a nurse inquire, “he sits there almost every day just gazin’ at the pond?”
“Hard to say,” a laundry gal replied, “but chances are...if you could, somehow, read his...

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Note: this is the 2nd HALF of this piece, a little too long to post as one poem, sorry. If you enjoy story-poems, it's definitely worth the read, believe me. (Or the "listen".)


“We learned of...

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If you don't love dogs, you probably won't like this poem...my wife and I DO!


Can’t believe I used to think - when I was very young - that dogs made poorer pets than cats and...

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While sorting through the remnants of my mother’s life one day, 
Trying to make decisions of 
“to keep”…… 
or “throw away”……

I chanced upon a letter she’d just written, from her bed.
It started out…. 
“Dear Imogene,”...

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We all think that when we were young 
The sun shone for 23 hours a day
Not altogether true
But it seems that way in hindsight
But things always look better looking back
They were more innocent times
More naïve...

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“Ever met the Pinkertons?” I asked my friend, Nadine. “Well…Dexter’s wife, Matilda, is a gossip through and through, 
And yesterday my sister called to see if I might know if what Matilda’s aunt, Marlene, had...

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Miss Jill may find a way.

As I thought about your kindness
And the kids you teach at school.
I pondered how any help can come
From the ink of this old fool.

Is there any value in his work?
Reading...

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HURRICANE HATTIE                                 ...

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Ned Shepworth lived in a small, frontier town,
that just three years before had been empty ground,
he tried to keep up with the latest style,
and worked as a clerk in the mercantile.

Now Ned was in love...

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She’ll always be our family’s valedictorian of sight…
For
 She was the no nonsense type of woman who gave all of her love and insight to the world…
That was her gift, her sight and God’s sun...

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My real name is Billy,
But my friends call me Silly.
My girl friend's name is Nellie, 
and I have a twin brother name Stevie,
whose girl friend's name is Shellie Kellie.

A week ago, I met this guy...

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There’s something very special about country life
It took me back to when things were so slow
I would sit under a tree with an apple and a pin knife
Gazing out over the corn and counting each...

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James McKee Rogers

1836 – 1900


I offer up this epitaph as an ode instead,
An ode of love, affection and gratitude
To Whittier, my true home away from my one true home.
I dedicate this plain and humble song
To...

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Hattie L. Rogers

1844 – 1917


The playing cards of life are a stacked deck.
As soon as you begin to breathe
You begin to die and disintegrate.
All of the winners in life  
Eventually end up the losers.
You...

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JULY 4TH

I hate to say it    but
“In the old days –
        (will all the ancient folk ever tire of retelling?)
July 4th was a big BIG...

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Sammy Squirrel is having a party
And inviting all of his friends.
Robert Raccoon and Peter Possum
Have their names marked off as he sends.

Charles Coyote and Will Wolf are invited,
Edgar Eagle and Hattie Hawk too.
They say they...

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Sunlight entered the aquamarine potting shed from the east
Beating the master gardener by a few minutes or steps
Ruffled marigold seeds were waiting to be planted in seedling trays
It was March the fifteenth, an opportune time...

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life itself is an ocean

full of whales and sharks

sometimes swimming, sometimes sailing

sometimes surviving in an ark

don't be scared John Henry

just avoid the guns and knives

stay away from jealous men

and don't look at their wives 

don't...

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...Elton mountain up, was off in a whirl,
determined to save his beloved girl.
Ned followed after, still pushing quite hard,
trailing the mad Elton, but not by far.

Down through the street the angry Elton tore,
then he spotted...

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"Why that ain't nothing but my red petticoat that you done bought me Mr. Rhett." mammy 
says after he ask her what the rustling sound is he hears under her skirt.  "Let me see!"...

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In Memory of Hattie McDaniel

By Elton Camp

Hattie McDaniel built her career playing a maid
Back then, blacks were called “Shine” or “Spade”
Recognition of her acting talent did finally begin
With role of Mammy in “Gone With the...

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Being an early African American actress, included moments of outcries & burst
That ended with pride & joy, on being so many of our first

Like the first African to win an Oscar, for the movie Gone...

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Young Hattie Hope does not like soap
She’s not too keen on water
Her dad’s even given some soap on a rope
To his favourite, grimy daughter

The greengrocer gave her a cheque
For the sprouts growing out of her...

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