Long Shingled Poems

Stars fall under failing skies...stars fall...stars fall...
And sadly...i start to drive.
Through the unremarkable village with its tall 
Georgian Bay window panes, lightless,
devoid of visages; outwardly staring back at my 
Abject countenance with detached contempt and...

Read More

He said he planned to freeze to death.

Did he mean to have his body frozen?
Stored to hatch again later,
leftovers out of time's deep freezer of waiting.

No, not that.
He responds with undeniable dismissal,
this would not be...

Read More

No Roof For Reindeer

The celebrated sailing frog
from Montgomery County
went a courtin, or so the tale iz toad
to a grand ole mansion built around 1910,
and e'en 'pon
being razed ~2012 ah 
no foo fighting crash test dummy
(sea...

Read More

All In The Name Of "Progress"

The wrecking ball long since
demolished boyhood house zen
located at 324 Level Road,
a once nonagricultural,
pastoral, rural residence,
which soulful yen
I called home while
veritably sequestered, quarantined, positioned...
sprawled atop spaciously shingled roof
countless years (B)efore...

Read More

ARGH! NO MORE MEDICARE!

A worst nightmare loomed large
notification courtesy Montgomery County
Assistance Office caseworker
implied medical coverage axed
I felt hammered, nailed, shingled out...
livid with rage
frenzied, harried, jarred...
railing away
fit tubby tied to train tracks
ready to kill myself,
but dang,...

Read More

A country church nestled in a peaceful valley,
Against a glorious backdrop of tall mountains,
That were fashioned before Eden’s retched  malady,
That beset the human soul and rich surroundings.

Beautiful dog-wood trees with blossoms snowy white,
Bounded by...

Read More

ARGH! NO MORE MEDICARE!

A worst nightmare loomed large
notification courtesy Montgomery County
Assistance Office caseworker
implied medical coverage axed
I felt hammered, nailed, shingled out...
livid with rage
frenzied, harried, jarred...
railing away
fit tubby tied to train tracks
ready to kill myself!

Bajillion dollars...

Read More

As I sit here on this warm, solid shore
beneath a lighthouse I adore.
It stands perfect, beautiful and mint
the roof shingled, a lovely brown tint.
its beacons, a blazing blue hue, 
shine light upon all that I...

Read More

The House That Jack Built (Part 1)

Fatigued from years of gleaning storms of snow, sleet, and rain,
 I was yet an innocent and therefore unashamed.
 Her smothered walls creaked and her shingled roof leaked,
 The...

Read More

Recollections of childhood
when life was simplistic,
brings to memory, days 
filled of toilsome work
and long hours.
Yet in its own way, bestows
feelings of warmth, safety 
and at given times, even
conceived to be glitzy, 
shimmery.

Children, courteous
and respectful
executing daily...

Read More

the injustice of
the powder blue box
standing proudly
on the corner of
fifty-seventh and fifth

A symbol of division
extending the partition
between wealth and
everyone else

back around the way
the old shabby
half shingled house

was home to the
second hand charlie brown
size thirteen shoes

worn...

Read More

the celebrated sailing frog
     from Montgomery County
     went a court'n, or so the tale iz toad
to a grand ole mansion built around 1910,
    ...

Read More

River Findings

The Ohio winds around hills
and streams down the hollows
passes steel mills, brick yards and scrap yards.
It carries tug boats, pushes barges, and hauls
black coal stripped from the mountainsides. 

The Ohio’s littered banks 
are home...

Read More

Bygone recollected reflections while perched atop storied roof...

years gone by now with a poof
constituting one garden variety generic goof
bolle yours truly sprawled himself aloof

The celebrated sailing frog
     from Montgomery County
 ...

Read More

Cotton Picker’s Lament


 
Feet burn soul blends with the earth, the heat, the picking season
Hands, hard calloused leather punctuated by picking scars
Drag that long sack behind me across black bottom earth—

Cottonseed tucked into its sprouting...

Read More

Not Cheap
By: Tom Wright
6/8/98

Old "Chaps" weathered face,
though wrinkled, had seen.
The good side of life,
when the grass was still green.
Before the drought came,
"Long Bout" seventy-five.
When all of his cows,
and family we're alive

The "leanin" old barn,
had the...

Read More

A blanket of warmth cossets us with calm.                           ...

Read More

Heading east on 16th Street
where the road becomes a “T”
it’s the last house on the south side
that means so much to me.

Pine shrubbery up to the windows
giant cottonwoods stand guard
an arch above the driveway
an eighteen...

Read More

It was a hot summer
It was a lonely summer.
In many ways it was
Really a sad summer.
Mother with a new baby,
Dad without a job, 
First summer in Connecticut,
Far away from family, 
Far away from friends,
Far away...

Read More

I was there to find serenity
The white noise of nature
Without retreat
I knew this battle would soon be lost

The Covered Bridge

The snap of a twig, brittle leaves underfoot
Little feet scurry from this stranger’s path
I am ducking...

Read More

The lake was still sleeping
a light mist rose above,
a weathered dock could be seen,
its aged wood; full of memories.

The air crisp, breeze light,
trees majestic; watching all.
Squirrels  busy scampering,
as a flock of geese soared above.

Way...

Read More

Grandpa’s rustic, once crimson red barn sheltered so much and so many different things
From biting bitter cold, to cyclonic winds, and hard-drenching-down-pouring rains…

Great memories lie heaped, buried in antique red rubble and sifted gray ash
Decaying...

Read More

Tears... emboss old memories
Reminiscence, floods troubled mind
My eyes... slow leak as floodgates
Fighting nightly tides, that rise to blind
My sorrow drowns an aching throat
The uncontrolled dance of trembling chin
Stinging blur forces eyes tight closed
Salted lash swells...

Read More

A lone black crow
sits on a limb of a tree

amongst a crowd of trees
that surround the townhouses.

The trees' silhouettes 
are drawn on the brick; 

on the shingled roofs;
by the Sun this Late January. 

The dark...

Read More

A Leafy Land

      To the North and East, green sloped Downs above
      The Weald* of Kent. Beneath, the Pilgrim’s Way
     ...

Read More