Long Upland Poems

Odyssey from Africa, Chapter 12 (d) The fireflower (cont.)

Dominated by one hilltop 
Round in form, it’s summit hidden
In the whiteness of a cloud base
There they saw their destination 

Now they climbed by steepening gradient
Through a...

Read More

Chapter 12 c The fireflower (cont.)

When at last they had descended 
Back down to the forest clearing 
Rosy sidled up to Lisa
Yielded up the flowering branches
 
Now they had secured the fire flowers, 
Now achieved the day's...

Read More

STROKIN’ – A QUARTET ABOUT AGING GRACEFULLY(?)
Strokin’: Hauling ass and working at it!

STROKIN’: PART ONE
THE SPRINTER

The aging Olympian ran a swift anchor leg
burning the first turn, striding the backstretch
like a big cat on the chase,...

Read More

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...

Read More

MYSTERY


The earth is young and old,
Some parts of it hot and cold,
In contrast with the N-S poles,
Earth's watchtower glitters like gold,


And the dark hours as coal,
The night breeze always cool.
So many a thing exists,
Many are...

Read More

Jeb was a veteran of the War of all wars,
When brother fought brother and families closed doors.
Wounded in battle in the year of sixty-one;
Four years before Gettysburg, fore' it just begun.

Jeb got a Medal of...

Read More

Here I am, Shake & Bake in the Far Out West
     where they now smoke down and out, their
          new front yards...

Read More

Sympathy

BY PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR

I know what the caged bird feels, alas!
    When the sun is bright on the upland slopes;   
When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass, ...

Read More

Hail, the doorway keen on the known world ... theme wails attention,
time of roses' blooms cower ... usurped magentas, aloof maroons,
for the flight of the gossamers ... assume benefits of the whole.

Latial premise culture ......

Read More

THE AL-ANDALUS QUARTET: PART THREE
GRANADA / KHARNATA 1492 AD / 897 AH

I live in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada
with my beautiful sisters Albaicin and Sabikah
The crown that I wear is al-hisn al-hamra 
and the...

Read More

The miasma of Understanding 

Been raining and the pale nature is green again like a new spring, but 
it is a fake spring, in end of November winter will pale all living plants in 
submission....

Read More

How to break an addiction. Decide to live.
What can I learn from my pain. Danger.
And friends are merely friendly, live on independent
of your injury. You will not be missed in church on Sunday.

Grass. Weed, broccoli,...

Read More

TIME   AND   PLACE


Spring is found in the Lowland valleys with gowan-filled braes of Scotland
When the early-reaching flowers bloom in cool freshness,  and
The air is bracing and always new-washed-glass clean ...

Read More

SEASONAL    PLACES


Spring is found in the Lowland valleys with gowan-filled braes of Scotland
When the early-reaching flowers bloom in cool freshness,  and
The air is bracing and always new-washed-glass clean  -
With the...

Read More

Across the limpid and serene river, the oasis of the Wild West pioneers,
there are ivory and charcoal peaks waiting for mountaineers
to discover as they rest under the long-leafed pines that sway;
on this side, the saw-tooth...

Read More

HAIKU & TWO SENRYU
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


white sky... low the clouds
winter... stuck in a drift again
spring... where are you...
~~~
the bobbin dipper flies
below our secret rivers
spring... summer delight
~~~
ring ouzel... moorland
high craggy tors... upland moors
birding adventure
~~~
the avocet
fenland treasure... coastal dream
no...

Read More

Ah Gabriel! 
How hard a task was laid on you, 
how hard the trust, 
how hard 
to travel through 
the empty miles of space 
unto a  cloistered  girl
who knew no man, 
to startle...

Read More

This time of the year again

She has gone shopping for gifts to give the young
she would not take me along, knows I would be grumpy
and sarcastic and impatient.
I sat on the plaza with a glass...

Read More

Dry river mystery

The river in the domestic landscape was not as big 
as it used to be, for years, the rain upland fell sparsely 
when the hot summer came, the river dried up.
The river bed...

Read More

The past is a thought.

The coastal fishing town in Peru was charming
its upland was bare and light brown, with roads 
looking like scars caused by a triple Bye-Pass.
The sky was enormous, the biggest ever seen
but...

Read More

On one summer night’s boldest game
We hunted and attacked vicious pirates,
Riding on bubble rafts of spokes and rubber
Our young skin caressed by the velvet air;
This mission devoted for an honored Celtic God.
Yielding our mighty wooden...

Read More

I watch fascinated 
at its teetering stance,
bobbing up and down,
picking at small insects
that infest the lonely loch,
that it chooses instead of
upland streams or creeks
or fast-flowing rivers,
or in some lonely lake.
 
Today I sit on a...

Read More

A Bridge in Portugal 
There had been much rain in the upland and the river ran 
full and strong, so forceful that a pillar, on the old bridge, 
broke off and half of it fell...

Read More

A Bridge in Portugal 
There had been much rain in the upland and the river ran strong, so forceful
 that a pillar, on the old bridge, broke off and half of it fell.
Misty night when...

Read More

Soft as gossamer, dew fresh, new,
Primrose painted with life anew,
Regeneration breathes in the earth,
Indications of nature's new birth,
Nascent and fragile, burgeoning life,
Glows and grows like a pregnant wife.

Sultry and sated, feted and frazzled,
Under blue sky...

Read More