Long Rhubarb Poems

It's hard to say where and when our town's People of Faith Cooperative started.

After all,
we have all emerged together,
and are still emerging
people of TaoGod,
right?

Our faith includes defining our still humanizing species
as among those not capable...

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The Highways and the Byways
By Franklin Price
10/27/2107
(Inspired by Nancy McIntyre Stepp)

 The highways and the byways
Of this life in which we've grown
Bring back many memories
Of  places we have known

The Interstates most boring
They bypass most...

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After drenching biblical rainfall...
verdant green acres covered the planet of the apes
like a petticoat junction
donning barrel of skinny dipping monkeys.

Once drought stricken vast landscape
far as the eye could see
suddenly flush with promise
of budding new shoots
and...

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Make Do and Mend,

Years ago we had jobs
We had fun and money in our pocket
Things were much better then
Once you could go out the door
And never ever lock it

But still so many struggled
To buy food...

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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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Just as honesty plants seeds of integrity
so too
vulnerability plants seeds of honesty.

My primary vocation
in this my gay grandfatherly retiring age
is to parent mindbody challenged adolescents
of diverse colors
as ecotherapeutically as possible
to optimize their and our wealth
of...

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"Like a piece of ice on a hot stove the poem must ride on its own melting." Robert Frost 


 
"Bees Under Milk Wood : A Spell"



Spider Web glistens wet 
in the spoilt lies of...

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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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Memory of Lost Innocence 

We were just kids running down the hillside, with youthful spontaneity marking the passage of time. No beaten path, we just flowed where our little hearts took us, wedging our way...

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Childhood memories,making camps upon the moors
 wriggling through the bracken deep,
Making paths to our secret den.
Climbing trees,and falling too!
Moss on stones, glistening sun on stepping stones,
Swimming in the river...with a shiver.

Roly poly down the hill,...

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My voice
Alive with tone
Yet sharply censored
By a mind's take on years
Of historical notes

Tongue no longer sweetened 
By optomism
Or spiced with
Mischievous humor
Suddenly all I taste is
So dry
So predictably dull

Night steps forward quickly
Like a woman whose
High heels...

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A  LANCASHIRE  LIASON

“Laugh an world laughs with yer” she said, as she cum in.
I said,“ Do you live in a barn?” 
 She grimaced an with er large left arm she swung out...

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Alber’s Tamale Pie, Australian Meat Pie, Apple Pie, Amish Country Strawberry Pie,  
Bacon Pie, Bean Pie, Boston Cream Pie, Butterfinger Pie, Banana Cream Pie, Blueberry Pie, 
Chicken Pot Pie, Crunchy Carmel Apple Pie, Chocolate...

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Jam roly poly, treacle sponge
And sticky toffee pudding head the top of my list
But apple pie, rhubarb crumble
Or a decent cheesecake are hard to resist

Banana splits, eclairs or brownies
Dumplings, nougat, cheese board or mousse
Crème brûlée....

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Quietly filling
 deep cups of the red blossoms.
 The morning sunrise.

 The rock bowl is full.
 Filled by the rain for the birds
 and for my quiet mind.

 Dried stalks of rhubarb
 turn brittle in...

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Hey, kids, which pie should grandma make this year?
Thanksgiving Day is right around the bend—
Shall it be Pumpkin, Apple, Mince, or Date?
The choice is yours, please tell me what you wish.

Oh grandma, why don’t you...

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ONCE UPON a RUBY 

Ruby was our storyteller, 
she could spin an A-1 seller.
Tell us bout a buck or doe, 
escaping lions or wild-boar foe. 

She could give a giant rock,
spirit and life, and make...

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Villain Unmasked


In odd places the Villain appears,
In the right places he disappears-
On merry moments then re-appears.

For, such is the habit of a Villain
Who enjoys to inflict carnal pain
Yet, scarce and elusive to be slain.

He contorts...

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Butterfly wing door vestibule builds anticipation  
Shuffled, carpet muffled greetings, familiar embraces                     
Piloted by...

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Just down the gravel road a piece is an old-time country store.
On its saggin' shelves are things you won't find much anymore.
Ladies in bright calico barter with Mr. Draper their eggs and butter,
As they visit...

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On a Michigan farmer Saturday
in August,
anticipating tomorrow's evangelical Sabbath,

When late summer vacations
invoked pre-sacred house cleanings
more unusually light,

Heading outside after lunch
into this spectacularly breezy
blue billowing
discontinuously cumulus cloudy
in-between radiant sky blue
infinite wonder

Into this awesomely long leisurely afternoon
becoming...

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Troy’s head was unusual. Some might say it was cynocephalous.
But Darla liked dogs.  

He had a bad bark, she had been warned. But she was determined.
Troy is not obedient, or even house-trained, someone warned...

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From my bay window, each pane holds my small world
window leaks anticipation out and in this glassy casement
here seasons show their multi-colored faces in a whisper
 
Trees liberated from weight of their leaves, I eavesdrop...
wintertime's...

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A place I know so well, I could never get lost. 
These back roads and highways a thousand times I've crossed. 
I walk them in my dreams, sometimes I even fly!
The joy of being home,...

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Southern love,  Southern hate 
they are the opposite of each other 
 I have  memories of both in the State I love dearly.

Going back to a old plantation home in the South ,
as...

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