Long Straggle Poems

What is happening on the inside is a reflection of what is transpiring on the outside. What is happening on the inside is far damaging than what is going down on the outside. The dog...

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I kneel to pray beneath an oak tree’s leaves,
where my journey began.
Broken limbs straggle over a patchy lawn,
a neglected place full of holes, 
shoveled from childhood memories.

I bow at the altar of the tall oak.
Days...

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Heavily laden boats, rectangular sails billowing 
    Under seas of low cloud, braving the fierce Yangtze;                ...

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THIRSTY GENTLE GIANTS

Animals dread a drought!
As do Elephants 
Who are heavier and more stout,
They need to find water fast,
Before poachers find them
And become History
Once lived, now past!
Elephants are patient with
Their young, they are slow
As their...

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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...

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The briny tears have dried
The sounding knells are stilled
The grieving crowd, dispersed
The parting pain, allayed 	

Benumbed lie the dead
Beneath the marble vaults
Bereft of power and prowess
Benighted and beaten.

The sun shall never cast its glorious rays
The...

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That’s jake, said the dewdropper to the bluenose who snorted. 
Mind your potatoes, said the wurp.  He had had too much footjuice.
The bluenose held a gasper out to the dewdropper. Here.
Nozzled, the wurp stumbled...

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Confusion hangs in the air like lanterns not yet lit
I look around in a daze, as if I have gone astray 
memories somber, like watercolors flooded in gray, 
I shrink in the silence that floods...

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Tongue twister line: 
From the rustic rover to Samuel Sanders,  they try to tickle the tongue with tricky tongue twisters. 

1. A rustic rover round the ricks ran restlessly,  and restive, he rushed...

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need beacon contest
better than all of the rest
my poem which was best

a thought conveying
your front page needs a saying
should be displaying

need perfect excuse
news by Beacon did break loose
suffered from much abuse

what will stimulate
Beacon known to...

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Dawn awakens, lets yawn red searing sigh,
summer steams sweltering sweating sunlight.
Street's hot bed of coals smolders in July,
temperatures torch with tropical smite.

Haze humid stir-frying Bronx crispy craze,
housing is tinder, youth straggle sapped streets.
Rainstorm naught, nothing...

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Summer Beach

Sifting warm sand 
through my fingers
lustrous fine grains 
glitter my palm.
Soothed by
the soft powdery touch,
I sit for a while 
under the rocks,
my bare feet 
swirl patterns in the sand
as I watch
a beach life unfold.

Bustling...

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An Elusive Star

In the vast silvery world he walked
  Between dancing white elves of snow,
    Singing to him in soft suppressed sounds:
      "Come to us, stay...

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I can’t live like this, when you expect so much. 
Don’t rush it like it’s ending like a love story. 
Give me time to think about it, don’t press forward,
I can’t take much more than...

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When we were young, we'd freely roam
While supervision stayed at home.
We played the seasons' major sports
On vacant lots and playground courts.

No tryouts or permission slips.
No uniforms or coaching tips.
No judges, umpires, referees,
Or grownups whom we...

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Part 1
The straggle into the board room, as usual was a bore
Idly quoting poets long dead, only this and nothing more
Howled when we learned TGIF fridays were forever gones
Terrible gnashing of teeth, moaning as we...

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Your Grandmother's Hands--

Misshapen pain ridden
Yet still fixes Sunday dinner
Straggle and worn, somewhat torn
Afflicted with arthritic pains
Barely can wash her hair
Opens up window breathes in fresh air
And a velvet ribbon
She’s had since adolescent
There’s a secret box
That...

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If you may die old or young, 
With all yearning and desire, 
Knowing this song not yet sung, 
With aspiring air through cold lung, 

Thine books and wallet on shelf, 
Straggle attires and overcoat, 
And...

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Before the crack of dawn
  Quickly washes, throws her clothes on

Hustles downstairs in a second or two
  In a rush: Instant coffee will have to do

With love she makes breakfasts for her other...

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I buzzed around
Amid our clan’s beesound.
My swarm buzzed in cloud
In beespeak spoke aloud.

But the babble of the bees
Suddenly did cease,
For one with gut swollen,
Legs burdened by pollen,
Dropped out of the swarm
And sounded an alarm.

We came...

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Last winter on the village pond, but three
Geese.  Brilliant white with yellow beaks, come see,

With pride they sit and guard the village green,
Such anserine confidence must be seen.

Spring spawns new life right here, remarkably,
Nine...

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I lie back in the weather-proofed green chair
To gaze up at the flowering maple tree.
Now, touched by sun,lungs full of scented air
I embrace with joy the beauty I now see.

Old celandine show brightly by my...

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Kiss not kiss,
Kiss yes kiss,
Kiss for kisses,
As sins for death,

Kiss not me
I cried,
But kiss me 
Cried another,

I waken up emotions, 
And give ambitions to many,
And kiss me, said me
And kiss not me,

Said my jealous neighbour,
I...

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Eleanor cleans the church
Wednesdays, Sundays
And after weddings on other days
She sweeps up the rice
Remembering her own wedding
So many years ago
She is lonely
Her husband was killed
In the Vietnam war
And her children
Never call anymore

Father McKenzie reads from
A...

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There is often a moment
after a good class,
when because of the beauty of things said, 
and comments made,
you know some chords, 
were struck.

And some students linger, 
feeling the echo
and reverbs of those chords, 
and more...

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