Long Hoeing Poems

I retired a couple years ago
and decided to take a gardening class
because otherwise I probably would starve
even with food stamps,
given my retirement plan
was mainly to live off my still-freeloading adult perpetual-children.

This gardening class cost more...

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Two bails of straw, an ornament, 
                            ...

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A pretty girl in a long ago time, was out in her garden one day when a handsome prince rode by on his big white horse.  She liked horses and was gazing at it...

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I occasionally reach back to yesterday,                             ...

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April has come but March still lingers, this is the reality of the east winds,
April and May, a the time for poets, as they write off the tyranny of reality,
Fickleness and uncertainty, has always been...

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Some healers counsel us not to count the cost
of healing deficits

But
successful greenest healers
win by counting costs
yet not worrying too conflicted much
about how we will cooperatively pay them
and when
and over how long a climatic time period
and...

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The Stop & Shop strike v. Game of Thrones. 
In Game what’s not made plain
is the condition of the people
compared with warriors and queens.
There’s no mention of land-clearance, tree-felling, 
pruning, chopping, digging, hoeing, 
weeding, branding,...

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There's weeds in my
garden I can't use a
ho(e)
The man who could
pull them don't care
no mo

The shit's overgrown
I might need a plow
But it's waited so
long that it's no
use now

When we planted the
thing we both shared
the work
Then...

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We have moved to higher Grounds.

The ridge enclave in mist and cold
Sight is poor as in jackets we fold
Peering below at the stagnant pools
-Covering to brim our hoeing tools.

Ink that was too thick is diluted
Scribbling...

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I dare not to enter this zone,
The zone of fantasy that is forbidden.
I’m talking about the forbidden fruit, 
That fruit in which they feed off of.
I must shield my eyes from this zone,
It is perverted...

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My alarm clock was set to go off at eight
When I lurched out of bed oh heck I was late
Forgot to move on the clock for an hour
I was late for work – no time...

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The laugh like cry of the April woodpecker happy in the early spring,
And the dry harsh note of the Jay, awaken the forests and everything,
The dusky wings of rook’s glance in the sun, they are...

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Ma issued a decree that Pa received with very little ardor:
"A vegetable garden is needed to supplement our meager larder!"
Pa would rather spend his leisure time snoozing on the couch,
But he allowed he'd better get...

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"Caleb, go fetch me some dewberries from the fence row," Momma says, 
as I polish off my Saturday morning breakfast. "I'll make us a cobbler." 
She stands in her humble kitchen, the light of a...

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Summers meant harvests of berries and such,
chores to do before play.
Running barefoot in lawns that were lush,
the smell of fresh mown hay.

Hoeing the garden to keep down the weeds,
cooling off with the hose.
Bagging up the...

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Standing hoeing garden stones
Eyes awash with tears
As memories flood back from
More than sixty years,
To the little village churchyard
For which my dad cared
And which duty I, as a child,
So very unwillingly shared.

He dug the graves, cut...

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A gardener is an artisan unique,
Being a special breed, so to speak!
Cultivating plants of all descriptions,
Daring to overcome Nature’s restrictions;
Ever passionate about their chosen delight,
For them, a garden is a hallowed site.
Gardening being regarded their...

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The hoes
The projects
Always think you fly
Yet, your mother struggles
Father, has two jobs
Don’t have enough money
And your still getting robbed
Walking through the hood
Guys always stare
Look left, Look right
Cops always there
Run up in someones house
Don’t even have...

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Once, a little Spanish girl 
was given a "regalo" - 
a dainty little potted plant, 
a purple-petalled mallow. 

She set it in a sunny spot, 
beneath a southern window, 
re-housed it in an iron pot...

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Harvest of Mind
               by Odin Roark

Acres of mirrors
Reflecting yesterdays upon today
Refracting wisdom’s tundra of experience
Into regret's abstract lessons.

How flexible
This mind of...

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A Dream

Who has control of a dream?
Who can cast it down like a lot from heaven?
Perhaps the angels?
Or is it from the gods?
Dreams are birthed as ideas from the mighty throne of our Creator
Who can...

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A myth and a fable can be found on a table. When an old man does look in an ancient book. Dragons and periodic charts do not mix. But historical inaccuracies a horse with wings...

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Purple haze

Came a purple haze one of those days,
Back home in Dirranbandi
Amongst the trees grey haze we see’s
Just the spirits walking grandly

If you please old Joe he see’s ,
 a mate who was old Jack,
down...

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On my day's journey
Think going to a basketball tourney

Stopped by sisters house
It was as quiet as a mouse

Out in her garden she sits
Hoe claw and gloves of misfits

Peddle pushers to kaboot
Gotta love her for she's...

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Witch One had no mind of her own.
She followed Witch Two around doing whatever she did.
Witch Two tried to shake her, left her at home.
But she always came running up; she had lost her own...

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