Long Jimmie Poems

Stevie Ray's guitar spurred the 1980s blues boom.
He wasn't like any other guitarist.
Inspired by Buddy Guy, Albert King, and Albert Collins...
He linked blues and rock in the late 1960s.
He ruled the American blues from 1983...

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Born in New England in the wake of the Civil War,
Her folks fled Irish famine and landed on our shore.
At age five, she took sick, losing almost all her sight.    
At eight,...

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The first thing I remember hearing 
Was a car radio with a country song playing
A man singing while my mom was steering 
A song about heartache and pain
That’s the day the good boy in me...

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December 24, 2015

There was a boy called Jimmie who was writing his letter to Santa Claus. The list of the gifts was very lengthy. It included a control remote car, a baseball bat, clothes and...

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Foundation.

If you could escape this world, would you take that risk?


Escapism 

As if cursed by the son of perdition

As I go about my new life's mission to gain admission to her realm

With Aphrodite's dead ringer...

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Dear Jimmie, where ever you are,
I want you to know that I do fail to notice you by far.

You ill-treated me to no end when no one was there,
Around my mother or anyone you would...

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Not On The Menu



Sister girl don’t judge the brothers at

The zip mart with oily stained jeans

And dirty fingernails, judging him not clean

Turning your head, 

Sighing with dread

Thinking he got a nerve to look your way.

It...

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In December 1951, I turned ten years old-- 
	Harry Truman was president of the United States, 
		The Korean Conflict raged on a faraway peninsula,  
			The Golden Gate Bridge closed due to high winds. 
	My...

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I have attempted to capture my favorite major league baseball players in this little shape poem of home plate. Included are (in no particular order):

Say Hey Willie Mays       ...

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All of a sudden (upon
     immediately arising refreshed,
     whar these lovely
     bones did not ache
getting shut eye lasting
     amply...

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Jimmie’s dad was bent and wise, a man that life had rode by—
But Jim still recalled his words when he would laugh and half cry:
“Life’s a fragile balance between honor and what’s true—
A rare, livin’...

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My first amendment right was never fought for overseas! It was Martin Luther King who was beat to his knees! It was Fanne Lou Hamer who gave me permission to speak! It was a war...

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Sometimes a song can take me back
Make my memories come alive
To a time when love was a way of life
And families struggled to survive
Sometimes I get a little mellow
When I listen to an old love...

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Note
Pete Barnhill was befriended by the late great Johnny Cash.Both were around 13 years of age at the time.Pete learned Johnny his very first chords on the guitar.The rest is history......



PETE BARNHILL - MY TRIBUTE

Pete...

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Before “The March on Selma”, before it all began
James Orange was arrested; he was a giant of a man
It was Rumored they would lynch him
So the church gathered and they prayed
But once outside the temple,...

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I can see you Bobby sneaking a look
No, your mother did not buy you a book
Tony and Jimmie have come to see
Bobby gazing at me
My lights are bright so Santa can see
Where to put the...

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It was old Woody that lured me with
Dust Bowl Ballads and so much more
Telling stories of a West
That I'd never heard before.
I was with the Okies as
 They travelled down the road 
Got a new...

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See if you can guess where I am from 
Add all the clues up and total your sum 

Here there are many trees and lush, green grass 
Honeysuckles, crepe myrtle, and summers that last and...

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In Nashville, all those tourists visit Broadway every day;
They buy those Dolly Parton posters there;
But the record shop of Ernest Tubb won’t seem the same no more—
Sing “Adios” to Ernest Tubb—he used to walk that...

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this goes to the person who made my day's brighter growing up as a child,
who made everything just right and not to mild, the person I looked up to, who 
made me smile the times...

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Listening
As grooves whirl
A familiar track,
Once familiar refrains
Recall the vintage
Of innocence.

Scratched
In almost forgotten places,
The sound is altered ...
Yet I hear a cadence of the time
When sweet flowers grew
In an English country garden.


Inspired by a folk song...

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THE FIRST TIME I SAW YOU JIMMIE. MY HEART FELT SO MUCH LOVE AND WARMTH. YOU ARE MY FIRST SUMMER LOVE, FALL LOVE, WINTER LOVE AND SPRING LOVE. MY HEART FALLS LIKE THE PETALS OFF...

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in the 1940s many movie comedies dealt with heaven
hell, reincarnation, the devil, angels, body snatching
I get a channel called Classic Reel with my Roku
The movies shown are from the 30’s, 40’s, 50’s and 60’s

I saw...

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Somewhere tonight
Somewhere tonight they will sing from the heaven above.
Playing the music of the great for all to hear.
Good old Hank will sing your cheating heart he is so lonesome he could cry.
Patty Page she...

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She was the kind of woman we feared
As much as grim reaper or Blackbeard.
Because we did not listen or understand
We thought her intentions were underhand.

She was suspicious because of her pets
We heard that they slept...

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