Long Oklahoma Poems

“Son”...”say goodnight to grandpa”

Spurred by mother dearest 
as well as other politesse
drummed into her second born
fobbing blandishments as incentive
tumbled off fingers of prodigal son
tripped wordsmith to splutter forth
forthwith the following lines.

Back in the day 
quaint...

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Merov’s Ghost (1) and Other Shots Across My Bow!

In mid-November of Fourteen, I published my first web verse here, (2)
the earliest spanned sixty years, composed for Senior English class
one night in Nineteen Sixty-One. Assigned just...

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My love is light (a fairy kiss?)          
               Like the pressure of...

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Imitation! Creative Compliment, Lacking in Originality, or Plagiarism? 

This week takes me back to college days. I was taking a graduate course (as a Physics major)   in 'Modern Poets' at the University of...

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- - - Chapter 1: Early Days - - - 

My father was a rich man, la, *
Though schooled in poverty, (1)  
As such he seldom raised his head, 
Displayed humility.
The center of the...

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I have so many places/acts dear to my heart
I’m just dying to share some with you
Not to boast, I but honor them, all played a part,
I'm sure helped to bring me in your view!

Tell me...

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Dedicated to the 2000 National College Football Champions, the Oklahoma Sooners 

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Over fifty years, boy and man, I’ve been a Sooners fan
Watched and reveled in their glories, every one;
But there’s no more glorious “Sooner Magic”...

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"Present!"

It's a lackluster answer (1) to simple life question,
"Hi! How is it going Mom? You feel OK?"
She was lonely for sure, saw no chance of a rescue,
She fought for her kids, though art dreams went...

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Oklahoma cowboy, tough coal miner’s son
Born in Henryetta, south of Tulsa some
Raised by daddy’s momma, taught him wrong from right
Daddy taught him ropin’, taught him how to fight
 
Herding made no money, its stock was...

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I was only twelve or thirteen when Dad bought
	The twenty acres alongside the highway
		On the east side of town in 1956,
That seemed so quiet then, unimportant even.

A piece of ground where horses had been kept...

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Dedicated to the Oklahoma Sooners & Saint Barry Switzer

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Fifty years, boy & man, I’ve been a Sooner Fan;
And, like others, I’ve wondered many times:
Just what is Sooner Magic?
Is it real…or only in our minds?

Sooner Magic...

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We all have roots from seeds
In and on the fertile soil of our lives
Where we are planted to need
The place we know as home to thrive
Shaped and harvested we live to die
As the grains of...

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“They took the whole Cherokee nation
Put us on this reservation
Took away our ways of life
The tomahawk and the bow and knife”
        From “Indian Reservation” by Paul Revere and...

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Gunshots and tasers aimed at the back
tracking the movements and memories
of unsuspecting dark-skinned citizens 
marked by the scars of a history denied

For Rumain Brisbon, 34
it was crime to be black in Arizona
For Tamir Rice, 12
it...

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Emancipation: Delayed But Not Dismayed
      (Apropos Of Juneteenth Celebration)
[As Relevant Today As When First Posted, 2021] 

This is the day the Lord has made.
Let us rejoice and celebrate
We’re still here,...

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Can you guess?
Can you look into my eyes and guess what im thinking?
If you do, please tell me.
Because i dont even know.

I have been laying on my bed for two days straight and my mind...

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The truth is stranger than fiction.
As they say,
you can’t make this stuff up.
It was the middle of summer,
And I was looking for a way to defeat
Fort Sill’s Oklahoma heat.
Escaping to the cooler climate
of Buffalo New...

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Under the watchful eyes of the Democratic Party, Red China is buying up American
farm land in Oklahoma, by paying farmers large amounts of cash.  Oklahoman's
voted for medical marijuana  but wisely voted against recreational...

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Every other Friday afternoon before Bumblebee would leave on her special errand, her mother would open the old cedar trunk at the foot of her bed and give Bumblebee three things to carry with her...

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(A Pre-Memorial Poem for Bob Lind)

Well the day that I met Bob Lind stays in my mind
For we met in a restaurant farmer’s still use,
A fond memory with me for twenty five years,
Of friends meeting...

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(Apropos Of Juneteenth Celebration)

This is the day the Lord has made;
Let us rejoice and celebrate
Because we’re still here…marching on
With our eyes stayed on the prize.
Let us rejoice and celebrate
Because we’re aware that we are not
The...

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(Apropos Of Juneteenth Celebration)

This is the day the Lord has made;
Let us rejoice and celebrate
Because we’re still here…marching on
With our eyes stayed on the prize.
Let us rejoice and celebrate
Because we’re aware that we are not
The...

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I said, “Take my hand, girl, let’s go for a ride.
You gotta choose soon, you gotta pick a side.
Pick me, the good, or pick them, the bad."
She said, "Babe, I pick you." That made me...

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When Pigs Fly
by Michael R. Burch

On the Trail of Tears,
my Cherokee brothers,
why hang your heads?
Why shame your mothers?
Laugh wildly instead!
We will soon be dead.

When we lie in our graves,
let the white-eyes take
the woodlands we loved
for...

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City Skin

    A city can be so close, 
    enclosing, 
    familiar, 
    that it leaches into one’s soul,
    becomes...

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