Long Southland Poems

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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Odyssey from Africa 14g

“This research by young Alinda
Tells us something most important 
For we find upon our beaches
Plants that are entirely different 

“From the flora on our island 
Or from the adjacent mainland 
This can...

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Odyssey from Africa 15c (Southland, continued...)

Being rich in skill and talent
He soon gained the feel and measure 
Of the boomerang’s employment 
Sent it arching near the treetops 
 
Then returning where it started
As the king...

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King Ptolemy the Second (cont.)

Sleek of line for speedy sailing 
It was rugged in construction 
Several layers of well cured timber
Lined the hull and bridge and gunwales 
 
There were four great masts with mainsails
Han...

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Odyssey from Africa 15b (Southland)

“Like an antelope in stature 
Yet they hopped along like sparrows!
On big hind limbs like a rabbit’s
With a rat-like tail behind them
 
“At the sight of such strange wonders
I was wakened...

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It was after Mom’s dad passed her mom bought canaries.
Grams felt life less lonely, I think, with their singing,
and gave her idea that flying the coop to
live close to my mom could be Southland for...

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Oh, what a year this past year has been'
I hope we don't see one like it again.
First a tsunami in the Far East;
Thousands killed-to say the least.
Mudslides and earthquakes in diverse places,
We found out how...

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Well, I woke up this morning 
Put my blue jeans on 
Drank my morning coffee 
Answered the telephone 
Had another assignment 
Another body had to die 
No need to ask what for 
It was my...

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In a house by a highway by a railroad 
Eyes open to a self-set sleep-destroying buzzer 
That waking mind impudently pretends 
To ignore. 
Penetrating the window barrier 
The air conducts a heavy diesel lullaby. 

Over...

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So many lives lost, so many hearts shattered
Across the Deep South, twisters shook all that mattered
All over our nation, heads are bowed to mourn
A show of support for the weather’s war torn
The storms that have...

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Jesse rode with Quantrill as did his brother Frank
They were soldiers of the southland before they robbed a bank
Quantrill was a hero to the southern rebels when
He sort of lost control of his senses and...

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All my mortgage years
This featherless gosling flightless
Kept chickens for peers
Suffering gravity's wretched pain
While dreaming of the southland
Coded in my bones

Like a chicken I circled 
The pond of tears, while the lake
Brimmed with spectacled
Difference of salt...

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A melancholy fills my soul,
When Lady Northwind wails.
She lifts the waves and churns the foam,
As she fills the schooner's sails 

While the clouds of winter gather
Across the lowering sky,
I feel a storm of loneliness,
As I...

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The fall birds sing a sweet refrain,
The melodies from my youth
Surge forth to bind me to the land.
The darkened trail by the pasture vale
Comes into view as the leaves pass through
On their mystery tour to...

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