Long Mississippi Poems

Long Mississippi Poems. Below are the most popular long Mississippi by PoetrySoup Members. You can search for long Mississippi poems by poem length and keyword.


Premium Member Navigating Through Life's Highway

If there were a diagram of my life's journey,
it would begin in The Southern United States;
and crossing the mighty Mississippi River,
proceed North and slightly East for about 600
miles.

After some 5 years, it would then point further
North but slightly west for about 100 miles.
One year later, career circumstances would then
force a return to the point from which it last came.

After another year, the lines would then portray a Southern
turn back to the point where my life began. Another 4
years would pass, and the line would then point straight
West for some 2000 miles to the Pacific Ocean.

After a stint of 8 years there, the diagram would proceed North
and slightly East for about 100 miles. After a long duration
of 36 years there, the line would about-face and show a
return all the way back to my Southern roots. Who knew?

This navigational diagram had no prior dream of pursuing
such a course, but life happened and a Divine Plan unfolded.
I went along for the ride. There were some difficult navigational
twists and turns, high tides, and troubled seas. There were good
times and bad times, fires, quakes, flooding, and perfect storms.
But what could be a final landing has proven to be a God encounter.

Through the journey on life's highway, I have learned the truth
of God's word which says, "In their hearts, humans plan their
course, but the LORD establishes their steps". *

012523PSCtest, Pick-A-Title, Vol 34. Edward Ibeh
Title choice: Navigating Through Life's Highway.
*Proverbs 16:9. NIV
Form: Narrative


Premium Member Muscatine, IA

Mark Twain recalled my town for its extraordinary sunsets.
Under rainbows too, I’ve seen its rows of corn stalks glow.
Summertime brings big scrumptious melons famous for being the best!
Come winter, you can ice skate or sled down hills of snow.
At one time, Muscatine gave refuge to escaping slaves.
The largest black community used to once live there!
Indians of Iowa built large mounds for graves.
Nearby you can see some parks with green mounds everywhere,
Evoking times when natives thrived upon this land so fair.

Idyllic is this area; its beauty you must view.
A city on the mighty Mississippi waits for you!
Form: Acrostic

Premium Member The Night That Lutie Mae Mcdaniel Sang the Blues

I was on my way to Nashville,
Planned to be a country star,
The Grand Old Opry was where I was meant to be.
I drove across the Mississippi,
Stopped in Memphis for the night,
And that's where fate stepped in and changed my destiny.

I found a cheap motel and showered,
Went out to get a bite to eat,
My cash was low, so there was little I could choose.
A cup of coffee, and a burger,
A slice of southern pecan pie,
And a copy of the latest Opry news.

But in a small café on Beale Street,
Upon a postage stamp-sized stage,
A pinpoint spot to frame her face was all they used,
I watched my dreams of fame in Nashville
Fade like smoke rings in the air
When I heard Lutie Mae McDaniel sing the blues.

You could tell she'd been a looker,
But her voice, once pure, I'm sure,
Now was raspy, wrecked by cigarettes and booze.
But every word was raw emotion,
Full of love, and loss, and life,
And I felt every single one down to my shoes.

There was no one on piano,
Just Lutie Mae and a guitar,
At break I asked if my assistance she could use.
She drawled, "Auditions are tomorrow."
I said, "Ma'am, here I am tonight."
Then I sat down right there and knocked out "Beale Street Blues".

If you should ever get to Memphis
And find you've time upon your hands,
Check out a small and smoky dive called "Beale Street Lu's".
That's now my little slice of heaven
Where each night at eight and ten
I play while Lutie Mae McDaniel sings the blues.
Form: Verse

Premium Member Catfish

Online:Profile

(LIE):  "Hi! I am a single man, Bachelor clean shaven not even a mustache"
Truth:  I'm a cheat, dirty soiled minimal waged job go-tee liken a cat or muskrat
(LIE):  Born in Saint Louis Missouri Own my Marketing Company
Truth: Birth in Caviler, Mississippi 2 generation catfish fisherman, got 2 girlfriends one I call my wife;
Have a total of  6 children (one's belongs to the mid wife); 
(LIE):  Live in a Town home paid for has 4 Bedrooms, Library, Den 5 baths;
Truth: I live in the what we call the bottoms in a shack;
(LIE): 28 Years old
Truth: 57  man that's bold your youngest girlfriend 20
(LIE): Picture posted Clean shaven, Good looking chiseled chin handsome neat trimmed hair
Truth: Such a old intended man with a mustache liken a 1920 criminal whisker like barbels around the mouth only got 3 teeth at bottom of his mouth
Looking like some crazy big-eyed Catfish a freshwater or marine fish with,        
                                typically bottom-dwelling.
      In reality I am not the picture posted, I'm not that good looking really
      The cat fishing getting better and better fishing the Mississippi River,
                                far below its normal level

(LIE):Let's meet at a private(public) placement go on a date
                                Signed: Austen Daniels
Truth: My name is Alan Dunes Jr.
…...........“And I ain't got nothing but trouble for you we're gonna hook up on   
                                    Jerry Springer”
                          GIRLFRIEND,Ya just been...........
                                      CATFISHED


05/12/18
Catfish - Poetry Contest 
Sponsored by: Catie Lindsey

Premium Member Premonition At the River

Where a rustic bridge once crossed from my hometown in Iowa 
                                                                                  over to Illinois,
I used to go and play at a spot     
                   where children’s feet ran helter skelter through sand.

It was long, so long ago. 
                 In summer’s dusk, I held on to one of the park’s swings.
 
With feet pumping, I lifted into the air; 
                                  it was as if I almost flew above the water.

The Mississippi River had become a long grey ribbon
                                                         beneath the darkening sky.

What strange gloom flowed over me 
                            while all of those around me were so happy?

I sit here in this park fifty-some years later, 
                                                        and it dawns on me -

My childhood foreboding was a premonition 
                               of the very way I’m feeling    
                                                               right here and now.


for Mark Toney's 
2019 Poetry Marathon Mile 27 Poetry Contest


Premium Member Dance Or Dangle

The road was mostly broad and straight with ample lanes.                                                                                   But toward the latter portion of the route, the road split to
form a "Y" and created a puzzle he never dreamed of solving.                                                                                        There was no such indication on the roadmap nor the GPS.
It presented a dilemma at the junction of Dance and Dangle.                                                                                          There would be no going back; his options were just ahead.
He had been feeling it for months, but not until now had he been                                                                            given words to describe it.  Perhaps as did he, everyone has or
will at some point experience that same feeling of dangling between                                                                      the future and the past while coming to puzzling crossroads of sorts
where one has to dance as well as dangle while choosing between                                                          east or west, tomorrow or yesterday, what's coming or what's going.
Maybe it's aging that has him musing, dangling, and dancing in the fork of                                                                      the road. But at least this morning he has words to express to himself how                                               
he really feels.  Sometimes, I guess that's the part that really matters.  He doesn't want to dangle anymore but just to dance today and celebrate the 
future with his 3 kids and 6 grands.  But he also longs to remanence the past through the eyes and hearts of his siblings living near or east of 
the Mississippi.  For the first 29 years of his life, he lived east of the Mississippi River and for 40 years, he has resided 2000 miles west of the Mississippi.  On 
this matter, he was less stressful today than yesterday. But he must stop  
this dangling and decide if he is to cross that river and live east of it again 
near siblings, listening to stories he's long forgotten and talk about  'once  upon a time people' forever gone so long ago.  

10132018PoSoup

Premium Member Southern Hospitality


It could be a friendly wave from a stranger; Or
A "How are you doing?" from across the parking lot.
At other times, just the simple words of, "Follow me".

Northern Mississippi is where I was born and raised.
It's where I was well taught about how to behave.

After 17 years, having finished high school, I migrated North
From the delta cotton fields of Mississippi to the asphalt jungle
of Chicago and onward North to the dairy land of Wisconsin.

I was trained to be a pastor in Chicago and appointed to be head
master  of a small Christian school in Southern Wisconsin,
but I was taught "HOSPITALITY" in the magnolia state.

In a grocery store parking lot, I heard a voice saying, "How are
you doing?" The voice was too far away for me to think that it was
directed at me. But as I looked across the way, I discovered indeed,
the gentleman was speaking to me.

In search of a popular grocery store in Greenwood, I asked
for directions from a local motorist. She simply said, "Follow me".
On another occasion, in search of the DMV in Greenwood, I
sought directions and he also said, "Follow me". In Yazoo City,
I sought directions to the power company, and the motorist 
like his fellow Mississippians also said, "Follow me".

The prior 50 plus years I spent in Illinois, Wisconsin, and California
taught me a myriad of treasured lessons, but I learned about real
down home HOSPITALITY in Mississippi.
Form: Narrative

Premium Member The Deal With Trucks

The deal with trucks (should you not own a truck)
that lollipop horsepowered cylinders -
is really how remarkably well they suck
the rubber tread where the interstate scissors
its cousin, Dixie, born Mississippi,
born as a man and staunch straight-ticket-down
yee-haw! Republican, a down-low-bi-
sexual, wearing Grand Wizard wedding gowns
in pappy’s cabin built on rolling logs,
who each day climbs the thick-cylinder pole
that proudly displays confederate cogs
to the eighteenth turn called a glory hole
where all the king’s horses and all the kings men
absolve all the crackers their cracker-crumbed sin.


12/23/2018
Form: Sonnet

Premium Member In With the New

We don’t need guns, knives,
fists, or words to wound people.
A flag will suffice.
Our state flag was divisive.
The new one is for us ALL.

January 15, 2021
entered in the Completely Your Choice (40) Contest
Sponsor: Brian Strand





The flag of Mississippi features a white magnolia blossom and the words ‘In God we trust" on a red field with a gold-bordered blue enclosure. It was passed by the state legislature on January 6, 2021, and it became the official state flag of Mississippi on January 11, 2021 It replaces the previous flag that displayed the Confederate battle insignia in the upper left-hand corner, which was retired on June 30, 2020. (Mississippi, twentieth state; gold star, symbolic of the indigenous Native American tribes of the land that would become Mississippi)
Form: Tanka

Premium Member Let's Pass a Good Time

Come one, come all to New Orleans
March and dance with King and all kinds of Queens
Year round festivals in town
Don't hesitate, catch a ride, come on down

Come on down to the Mississippi River Crest
You want a party, New Orleans does it best
From Bayou St. John to the French Quarters
Street cars, horse drawn buggies, to river boat charters

Greek, Italian, Irish, Vietnamese, Cajun, Creole, German, Black
Parades and festivals, there is not one who will lack
Christmas, New Years, Fourth of July, most any day of the year
Is an excuse to celebrate and drink plenty of beer

Oysters, gumbo, mirlitons, tomato, a good Po Boy
All kinds of food festivals for you to enjoy
You like music, festivals for that, too
Rock and Roll, Jazz, Zydeco, and get down Blues

Of course, Mardi Gras is at the top of the list
Biggest free show on earth mustn't be missed
Doubloons and beads are thrown to you
Holler, “Throw me something, Mista!”all you have to do

So much sadness in the world, so come on down
New Orleans will have a festival that will  give you a smile and take away that frown
Check out the festival calendar for most any day or night
We'll pass a good time, Shah, yeh u rite
Form: Rhyme

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