Long Susquehanna Poems

*** SINGING MEMORIES ***

“Many days you have lingered around my cabin door.
Hard times, come again no more.” **

A memory came flying through to me this afternoon
— a fine memory, not recently seen,
Up from long ago,...

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A gentle stream flows out of Glenburne pond,
north bound waters feed the Susquehanna.
Meandering highway six eleven,
through Dalton, Factoruville to Tunkhannock.

Timely announcements keep informing us,
"Beware!  Alert!   The dam may break!  Alert!"
From the...

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TRAIN – 1958

On a warm summer evening
at North Philadelphia Station
the 6:19 on track three, the "Spirit
of Saint Louis-Limited" from Penn Station
New York, Newark and Trenton bound for
Thirtieth Street, Paoli, Lancaster, Harrisburg
Altoona, Pittsburgh, Columbus, Cincinnati
Indianapolis and...

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an unexpected and unwanted child
who should have had his own basket
to float down the Susquehanna
hopefully into loving arms
rather than to drown in tears of sorrow

yet even the worst tide 
holds a treasure
beneath its murky waters
for...

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RATTLESNAKE HILL
Meshoppen Township, Pennsylvania
					
Every high summer has a magical day
when the forests and fields are impossibly
green, bathed sun-up to sundown in a 
yellow-gold light made lazily kinetic by
high-soaring hawks, busy beavers and bees, 
the ever-cautious...

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Reborn, a Christian fallacy
dreams that have haunted me
left handed, what a shame
someone has to bear the blame

a teddy bear that never speaks
guards the child from attic squeaks
goulish figures of a mothers glow
a fallen angel I...

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The word of the Lord spoke,
And from the depths, the mountains awoke.
Water burst forth, and the ground was torn.
It was then that I was born.

I journeyed south, following the mountain breeze.
And I made peace between...

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This was the first of its kind in history.
However, nobody was killed here, thankfully.
We were just able to avoid a great catastrophe.
A nuclear power plant is situated in Pennsylvania.
It lies on an island on the...

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Nobody should be afraid of a creature called a "hellbender".
It's a big amphibian related to the salamander.
If you see one in a river, there's no need for alarm.
This is a gentle creature that can do...

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