Long Heartland Poems

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

oh youth in all its callow shades
               is from our hope, precisely made
        ...

Read More

The boss aka Bruce Springsteen and the E Street band

Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen 
born at Monmouth Medical Center 
in Long Branch, New Jersey, 
on September 23, 1949. 

His nationalities include hodgepodge 
of Dutch, Irish, and...

Read More

Inevitable death defines afterlife - trois

So all I ask, would be
inviting, offering, and ushering me to 
top secret cygnet committee
to give this average sized 
chapped sticky man
spinning the david bowie playlist 
as a somber dee...

Read More

I logged on to Face Book and, when my memories came came up, I saw this poem that I wrote January 2, 2020. I am editing it for January 2, 2022 as I see it.

Oh...

Read More

Oh One Oh Two Two Oh Two Oh
By Franklin Price
01/02/2020

Oh one oh two two oh two oh
Alliteration as we go
I hope the twenties, will be fun
For this our century twenty-one

First twenty years are over now
We...

Read More

Q:  Who are the modern day  people of Philistia mentioned in Psalm 83:7.

A:  They are located in the region currently mentioned as Gaza, the western
      bank. ...

Read More

I awoke at twenty five to eight.Huh,I must have been more tired than I thought.After waking at five that morning I had spent several hours working in the yard cleaning flower beds 
dead heading flowers.After...

Read More

Why am I for the impeachment of Biden, Harris and Pelosi? Reason number one Donald Trump was right our last presidential election was rigged in favor of Biden/Harris.  For example in the State of...

Read More

September 11, 2001

Our Day That Will in Infamy, our entire nation was crying on that dreadful day-
Nine one one, nine one one!!  We should have seen them terrorist---those evil men---
in those planes coming-after all--911...

Read More

she carries the child on tired hips rested on chains ‘round her waist

wasted on freedom designed to serve a white man’s lustful desire

branded inferior as time repeats itself and the pain knows no end


a tattoo...

Read More

Endless ribbon of tattered poetry in pavement,

Trail of tears for wandering vagabonds,

Seek yourself from this time forth betwixt sunrise and senility,

For the tides of the seasons grow weary with long-suffering,

To the hopes thou clingeth unto,...

Read More

I could recall the
epic journey of my
ancestors
With palm oil in
their lips and kola
nut in their mouths.
They all wore the
ancestral rope down
on their waist 
down the mountain of
wisdom and bravery 
To fight for the
freedom through the
ancient...

Read More

I'm mainly confused
  from words that you used
to tell me of yr problems present,
  I'm torn to this way
  then back to that way,
like the end of a pendulum's crescent,
 
I feel...

Read More

When Troy fell by the deception of a wooden horse,
its people fled bringing along their treasures to the shores of Italy;
and with their warriors' skills and unfailing scheme,
their destiny was manipulated by an accurate prophecy,...

Read More

A missive postkard from Russia to Amerika:

Deer Amerikan elekted leaders:
Yuri headlight Magnitsky bad policy,
of swift monetary attrition Ru$$ian decision, 
have sanktion krashed our ekonomy

Das black ice spangled action
send our oligarchy Soviet markets
ruble roulette spinning

Such rogue...

Read More

I cannot help but notice that,
since Wuhan virus was released,
we have seen a real absence of
those who proclaim themselves elite.
The lawyer and the professors,
the politicians and the like,
have all become somewhat useless,
and some have just...

Read More

Illinois, Winter of 1920

Fair crystal-like turquoise crowns o'er heartland
while townsfolk are quite briefed on purchasing,
for those who dressed warmly had only planned,
meant shopping, browsing, eat-out ere praying.

While townsfolk are quite briefed on purchasing,
comparing, what's-in, plus...

Read More

I remember as a child walking through the countryside,
People were so polite to greet each other – how are you?
With simple lifestyle in an agricultural ambience,
Theirs is my goal, my future longing to welcome.

While I’d...

Read More

Looking backward one can see so clearly. 
The priceless diamond held loosely in hand. 
Did not seem as vital but merely
What most every kid had in the heartland. 

The sidelines were of no significance
For the...

Read More

(Although this was inspired by Olusequn Adelana's poetry challenge about betrayal, it is 
much too long to enter it; but I'm thankful for any poetic inspiration I can recieve!)

What Finally Set Me Off

Sometimes Mom would...

Read More

Once we had it all, I had a nice raven-haired girl, took her three kids 
on all happy families. Guess I did love you, were we really soulmates?
Yet you were never a goth, never understood...

Read More

Come,
remember with me
the day that brother fought brother,
the bodies piled high
behind the false security of the stone divisions
drawn through the heartland.
But when the fighting ceased,
all that remained
was a flag on the grave
of  every brother...

Read More

Apocalypse

The throb of heavy engines rises swiftly to a roar, 
The brakes released; the asphalt strip unwinds, 
Airborne - she passes low above the surf along the shore, 
The island's runway quickly drops behind.

The bomber...

Read More

TWO   KIDS   REMEMBERING


There we were

Next to the railtracks in the middle of the industrial heartland of 1950s Tyneside

Martin and me 

Summer’s day and no money and no place to go except...

Read More