Long Jellies Poems

I ran out of breath on the road to Mumbai ...

    Not for sake of dust or smog or even health. I had rounded a curve on
    my motorcycle,...

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I grew up and out on a four family-owned,
and cooperatively-organized,
extended matriarchal farm.

Four interdependent 1940s through 1970s patriarchally managed businesses,
without substantial questions about who should wear pants,
yet with a surprising matriarchal cooperative understory.

The boxers outnumbered the...

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Kitchen counters alive; the vivid colors of red, green, purple and yellow glass jars. Your garden flourished.
.
Pickled beets mingle boiled eggs; a pretty periwinkle purple.
.
Yellow and purple tinted fingers; dandelions and elderberries distilling; musty aroma...

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Have you swam the forests      under the seas
glided it's waters             wandered it's keys
watched the gray giants  ...

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As I neared home I went by the water works that stood for years behind the ice plant. That’s where the water for the city was processed and I remember how clean and clear the...

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Once upon a time there was a girl named Melly.
Who lived in the Kingdom of Jam and Jelly.
The fruits in the kingdom were very, very sweet.
So when they made their jellies they were such a...

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Swimming in the deep depths of tales
A place where writers sometimes go 
In urgent need to find themselves
To envision again the writing flow

A place  where words swim like fish
Many are like sirens that sing...

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She has seen so much before Her eyes 
they have lost their sparkle 
She sits in Her chair to watch the hummingbirds 
flit and sip at the bird feeders She has prepared 
She has made...

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12)Coddle- Two fish enrapt in love.

13)Mustard- A diarrhea victim who can wait no longer.

14)Jam Session- A gathering of sweet-toothed weirdos with various jams and 
jellies.

15)Coffee Table- An occasional table made of stale and hard coffee...

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Swapping and siphoning off layers upon layers of antique sprays is very very basic.  Antelopes occasionally make brick a brack piles to occupy even the most dormant of cloths. Opiniated eagle ducks soar above...

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Christmas has it's candy canes and chocolate Santa Claus doll
Easter with it's Peeps and jelly bird eggs can get a little dull
But do you recall the greatest candy Holiday of all...

Through the dark of night...

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I have many fond memories growin' up on the farm as a boy.
Such simple pleasures in times more sublime brought me great joy!
I knowed it was summer when in June Dad bought me a straw...

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“The Homestead”



In my dreams
I still see the house – 
The old country place
Nestled among the Mesquite trees
That whispered a welcoming chant.

The grandmother stands bent over
A cabinet rolling out dough for oversized biscuits
While bacon sizzles on...

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Growing up in Podunk Missouri,
meant that we had the freedom to roam.
Up and down rivers and wooded hills,
those places that we called home.

Picked berries, peaches, plums, and cherries,
and at least the ones that didn’t fill...

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Growing up in the Ozarks, for brother, sister and me
meant, for the most part, that we were totally free.

We had freedom to explore, to roam about at will,
there was no one to fear in those...

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How many years is it
From the long past decades
When we were young
And brought our children
To Martha’s Vineyard?

I often think “How many?”
How many pails of clams dug,
How many dozens of crabs netted,
How many pounds of mussels
Picked...

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Home is Where

Home is where
your first and lost loves linger
the scent of Cusson’s Imperial Leather
and lavender, like a silken scarf
curls and twines around your head, 
her marshmallow touch,
teasing your memory.

Home is where
fresh baked bread and apple...

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You are alone on a deserted island that has been filled with overgrown fruit 
and bare essentials.  The water is so clear you can use it as an honest mirror 
of truth.  Over...

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Germ-free Mason jars, hot from the pot of boiling water, gurgling on the cast iron wood stove, stood ready to receive the fruits and vegetables, fresh from the fields and orchards. Lids and sealing rings...

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Why did you stop loving me?
Did we not say that always forever we would be?
When did it come to this?
Where did we fall and miss?

I cannot stop loving you
it is making me so blue.
Our love...

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An excellent time of year,

Beautiful decorations to enhance the season,

Christmas an exquisite memory of past and present,

Divine passages at church to praise the Lord,

Excellent and honorable days and nights with relatives and companions,

Future plans and...

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Applesauce Cake

Once again autumn’s jubilee of gold and umber leaves
Drifts on a lazy Sunday morning rain
Past kitchen windows
Where scents of coffee and frying bacon
Walk hand in hand
Then race each other up the stairs
To look for...

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After weighing myself and gaining five pounds
I knew the consequences were profound
I bowed my head and softly prayed
Please let these pounds melt away

I had made a grocery list to send
It was time for a home...

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A memory from Hoosier boyhood days that yet lingers,
Is blackberry pickin' time and the stain it left upon my fingers!
Stained fingers on both hands would a country boy betray,
That he had been on another blackberry...

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(co-written with Linda-Marie Bariana, "Sweetheart" of Poetry Soup)

******              ******           ******  ...

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