Long Redding Poems

On a sunny morning in September 1984
My mom’s best friend Linda drove to the grocery store
With her four-year-old daughter Becky in tow
Listening to the radio, Becky amused herself in the back seat, looking out the...

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"When I was a kid my dad left me in a bad way .... he was 
in the lives of my sisters and brothers but he wasn't in mine."

      ...

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AntiPoem 2

You know only one thing and that is:
Dying is not on the agenda.

Let us march now inside St. Mary’s,
March reverently through these green repentant doors,
These holy portals to grace and absolution,
Into a stain-glassed sanctuary...

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I cannot read small labels, my eyes don’t see so well
The labels on my spices: a culinary hell.

I came up with a system; it’s pretty hard to beat,
‘Cuz most of what I cooked before was...

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Imagination
( you are never too young or too old to put your imagination to use)


                 Imagine the concert

 ...

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Music comforts the soul, cures that restless spirit.
       Some songs will make you crank up the volume so everyone can hear it....
Music can alter moods, and talk to you.
...

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Music Memories

	I am flipping through my LP’s and forty-fives. Long ago memories captured for posterity. I look at the cover art, lost in today’s digital world. As I go through them, I think of the...

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On Interstate 5 In A Greyhound Bus

mother pauline boards the big greyhound double decker 
her freckled son goes before her wearing a cub scout cap
hurry up she says as they climb the stairs to the...

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Ordinary words cannot express the glimpse, this strange eclipse of wonder
Driving over hills, just north of home, it captures first my curiosity
Amid the landlocked green of rolling hills, trees and rocky tundra
Could it be, perhaps...

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Led down from the tower
Head high and hands bound
Blindfold declined against the wall
Black square pinned to his heart
His eyes afire and shining
And he sang...

He sang of Caruso, Townes Van Zandt
Pavarotti, Bocelli, Mercury,
Carreras, he sang of...

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Redding Poem 1
"Oh Noisy Redding"

There at the Thunderbird Lodge in downtown Redding,
I heard the gods screaming from steel axles with rubber
Claws, scratching the timeless asphalt streets with mayhem.
I heard the sirens from the mysterious distances...

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I've always been a mellow
type of fellow
Laidback like dem seats
in that Cadillac
Yeah! Real chill like that
sleek '73 Deville
Even as a little boy
the jukebox was my toy
Sweet rhythms of life
abating all ills and strife
A manchild in...

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There are milestones I’ll never remember, and one of them may have been the first time the notes kissed my ears.
Or were they her lips?

She taught me which songs were worth it, and I know...

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The lines are blurred when blended
I know first hand that govenment grilled cheese sandwiches
are delicious as I shared them with Phillup my best friend,
black as night and true as time...he was my ace
His mother, my...

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On the Seventh Day,
 it is often written,
often said,
that the creator rested....... 
I BEG TO DIFFER!!!!

Fore I believe that on the seventh day,
that he set at the helm of his creation called mother earth,
thinking humm...

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Redding Poem 4
“Flying Down Interstate 5”

We departed Redding at 3:45, 
In the dead of an October night.
Those tumultuous streets were morgues then,
As we raced to the deserted Interstate 5,
Zooming across the snoozing Sacramento River,
Going at...

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As the years passed as their darkened grip grew
The white right began their searching pursue

Armies they, to the black attacked
Fearing nothing but good, for freedom they react

Legions of Hades descended on mother earth
Decrying her beauty...

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Mr. Prim provoked shame, guilt, and fear
In every heart, mind, and soul of Redding
Pointing his long, boney finger at whoever was near
Screaming out sinner, to hell you are heading!

Mr. Prim went to church three times...

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I Recall the Smell of that Place

I recall the smell of that place.
It came from the small side cafeteria.
I ate there daily for two months of my young life; 
From the heat of September 1959,...

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~

A beauty from Redding,
alone on a hillside,
where dreams play viola
and wishes agree

Hair spun of moonbeams.
as eyes tend to wander.
while sharing the shade
of a sycamore tree

Gathering daisies.
with petals for pulling.
near shadows now painting
designs on the ground

Following...

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Where I’m From…..

I am from bar-b-ques and live family feuds.
Walks to down town Paterson laughing at women and men who allow their selves to be called 
hoes and prostitutes.
Fast behind little girls and quick to...

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I yearn for shades of Autumn and all that it could bring 
the chromis strews of redding bricks the chilly burrr 
Blushing apples high as kites tied to apron strings   
and acorns full...

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After careful thought
Alot of consideration
I've decided to dedicate
My one and only vacation

First stop is helping Roger
For he is in despair
He lost his only son in Iraq
But his belongings are everywhere

Then I'm off to Redding
A lady...

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What We Need
(RESPECT)
By Franklin Price
06/24/2020

What we need in times of struggle
Is a place we can connect
We the people need to search for 
Common ground for some RESPECT 

Otis Redding wrote RESPECT 
A thought provoking song
Only...

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October Visitation

A peeking orange smear
Talked to the lad inside his head,
When he was eight and nine months,
On a breezy October twilight in 1960,
As the orange light told him silently,
To go to the river's edge behind...

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