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Best Poems Written by Franklin Price

Below are the all-time best Franklin Price poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

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May May Be

May May Be
By Franklin Price
4/25/2015

May may be the nicest month
Of all the dozen best
You may ask why would I say this
Let us put it to the test

The days of winter gone
Freakish April in the past
Flowers are still blooming
We have not seen the last

The days have balmy temperatures
The nights are sleeping cool
Hot Summer days are not yet here
The kids are still in school

I remember dancing 'round the pole
When I was in grade three
Over under round about
Was a lot of fun for me

May has many holidays
In abundance they abound
Can celebrate or commemorate
With silence or with sound

May Day's the first with dancing pole
Cinco de Mayo, Teacher's Day
Victory in Europe
Take your mother out and pay

Don't forget our soldiers
For our freedom lives they give
Memorial Day is at the end
Celebrate the lives you live

For May and all the other months
Last words I say to you
Respect yourself and others
In everything you say and do

Copyright © Franklin Price | Year Posted 2015



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The Complex Math of Living

The Complex Math of Living
By Franklin Price
4/3/2015

The complex math of living
In this 21st Century
Is all about the numbers
Don't add up for you and me

Billions of people live on earth
Trillions of dollars spent
To cost a million of either
Would not even make a dent

Such thinking is the danger
To see just what I say
Look around the equal sign
Does not add up today

Nor do the powers want it to
For millions count as one
It's not too much to buy them
With trillions it is fun

Subtract the cost of purchasing
A people or a place
Divide and power conquers
Much of the human race

People multiply like rabbits
Power needs so few of them 
Attract a small percentage
Find the ones whose wits are dim

Make promises that can't be kept
To add more to the crowd
Truth lost in presentation 
When the words said very loud

Convince them all to work as one
To follow formulae
Put the blinders on them 
They will follow 'til they die

If you are of the masses
Check the math of what I said
Don't follow power blindly
Don't support them 'til you're dead

Copyright © Franklin Price | Year Posted 2015

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Our Education's Who We Are

Our Education's Who We Are
By Franklin Price
8/2/2016


Our education's who we are
And in what we do believe
How we deal with our emotions
How we give and we receive

Education shows the way
From the first breath to the last
Look to learning from the future
While remembering the past

When you're meeting someone new 
Choose carefully your words
Education may not be the same
May think your thoughts are for the birds

When in doubt just listen
Words work when moving either way
There are many lessons to be learned
When we hear what others have to  say

None of us knows everything
Please consider this next thought 
Sometimes we are the teacher
At other times we are the taught

The trick is in determining
Which we are and when
To use our mouths or use our ears
When to stop or to begin

When we no longer listen
Think ours is the only voice
It's time to be a hermit
So others may rejoice

Copyright © Franklin Price | Year Posted 2016

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Friendship's All About Respect

Friendship's All About Respect
By Franklin Price
4/7/2015

Friendship's all about respect
A meet a greet cause and effect
I don't know you you don't know me
Yet there is a commonality

We like to talk the subjects wide
Views apart or side by side
It matters not how we connect
Must for each other have respect

You have your right to have your view
I have my right to have mine too
Variety of thoughts abound
Discussion makes for common ground

The way we state our own belief
Can bring on stress welcome relief
Can bring together bonding more
Or sadly start another war

Words can hurt or heal the mind
The healing we should try to find
In all discussions to the end
If we're to keep a friend a friend 
 
When it comes to you and me
We can agree to disagree
I still like your company
You are still a friend to me

Copyright © Franklin Price | Year Posted 2015

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The Highways and the Byways

The Highways and the Byways
By Franklin Price
10/27/2107
(Inspired by Nancy McIntyre Stepp)

 The highways and the byways
Of this life in which we've grown
Bring back many memories
Of  places we have known

The Interstates most boring
They bypass most the towns
The back roads way of  living
And the country sights and sounds

We travel now from tank to tank
As fast as we can go
Many exits tempting
To go the way we used to know

We really have to get there
Where ever there may be
Don't have the time to see the sights
That in our youth we used to see

Two lane roads that sometimes share
The space with horse drawn carts
The smell of fresh mown hay in fields
That once had our minds and hearts

Dammit let's just do it
The next exit is the place
We'll get back to the byways
And from this high speed race

We see the sign for “Once Was there”
The exit is a mile
We're going back to memories
And a time that made us smile

Off we go in search of youth
And how things used to be
Do such places still exist?
We'll see what we will see.

There is the city limit sign
Now a wide spot in the road
With just a little country store
And the owner's small abode

The railroad tracks are  rusty
No trains for many years
I think I see a side track
And a factory appears

The factory's old and  leaking
Every time it storms and rains
There are no longer workers
As the tracks that have no trains

Just outside the little town
With the little country store
We come upon great farmlands
A thousand acres, sometimes more

Air conditioned tractors
Large as  a semi-truck
Farming scientifically
Not by the almanac and luck

Not seeing what we're looking for
Wonder why we came this way
Think we'll go a little farther
A little patience, now, may pay

What do we spy just up a head
Trees shading most the lanes
Not like the closed up factory
The rusty track, and missing trains

Hoping there is more to come
We slow to see what we can see
There is an antebellum home
Just where it used to be

A well kept home, a happy place,
For the residents and us
Still there as in our younger days
When we came by on the bus

The wheels are singing on the road
The miles go slowly by
We find ourselves relaxing
Don't even have to wonder why

Speed limit sign says forty
The trance of joy soon leaves my face
The blue light from the small town cop
Say a speed trap is in place

We were looking for the good old times
Should  remember this when done
A small town source of revenue
Ticket comes at forty-one

We'll now look out for speed traps
They don't give us any grace
We paid our fifty dollars
So we could leave that place

We traveled farther into town
Nice homes on either side
Well kept yards of country grass
This place is quite the ride

Not long before we're downtown
Old shops are on the street
There's no sign of  a Wal-Mart
We need to find a place to eat

Up ahead we see a sign 
'“Best place for home made pie”
We pull into a parking place
To see the reason why

When entering we see a sign
“ We would like to make this clear
Save some room for home made pie
After all, that's why you're here”

The menu's on a blackboard
Just above the pass through door
Fried chicken , and fried okra
Fried country steak and so much more

Fried gizzards, and fried livers
Fried potatoes. onions too
Green tomatoes that also fried 
Fried's the country thing to do

Oil's made to lubricate
It is your auto's guard
We don't ruin food by using it
That's why we cook with lard

We finished all our gizzards
Had some chittlins just for fun
Left some space for a piece of pie
But only space for one

They had strawberry rhubarb
That's as country as can be
It was the best we ever had
They had not lied you see

We paid the tab and left a tip
Out the door for under ten
We'll stop to have the worlds best pie
If we come this way again

The sun is set and dusk is done
Store lights are blinking out 
The streets rolled up at eight o'clock
That's what country's all about.

We're full and tired of driving
Must  find the Interstate
No motels on the byways
We  remembered that too late

Hope you saw while reading
That I used the royal we
Wanted to bring you all along
To the roads that used to be


Epilogue
Remember how it used to be
Get off the Interstate
Slow down a little in your life
You'll find it's more than great

 Get off the super highways
And when stopping at the light
Find some new adventure
By turning left or right

If you're happy in your travels,
And you're the only one to say,
If you traveled where you wanted
And you went your chosen way

When the sun sets in the western sky
And each person's day is done
Don't have regrets for what you missed
Don't be the coulda, shoulda one

Copyright © Franklin Price | Year Posted 2017



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Political Correctness

Political Correctness
By Franklin Price
6/16/2016

Political correctness 
Is what it's all about
Makes me want to pull my hair
Run around and jump and shout

I ask myself what's happening?
Where is my right to speak?
Think it's not here any more
Years ago it reached its peak

I'm not in a minority
In color, creed, or sex
My opinions often viewed upon
As a curse or witch's hex

What happened to majority?
No longer is it cool
If I say I'm one of them
I'm something of a fool

The rich and the minorities
Now politically correct
You can tell by what is going on
By the causes and effect

Rule by the majority
If all considered in its view
Is politically correct for all
It's something we should do

We need to band together
Bring the masses to the fray
Be politically correct for all
As it was back in the day

Copyright © Franklin Price | Year Posted 2016

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As You Travel

As You Travel
By Franklin Price
3/2/2016

As you travel through this life
Do you hear a little voice
Each time you reach  a fork
In the road  and have a choice?

Is there a  little feeling
In your gut that makes it tight
Telling you one way is wrong
And the other one is right?

Best to listen to that voice
And the tightness that you feel
Experience is showing you
That the choice is yours and real

No one can make it for you
Though they may show the way
In the end the choice is yours to make
As you travel day to day

The voice and feeling always there
To Show the path and give the nod
If all is right when the choice is made
Could be the hand of God

If a second voice interrupts the choice
And you know that voice it is wrong
Could be the devil tempting you
To a place you don't belong

In the end it's binary
The choices only two
The voices there to tempt 
The choices up to you

Copyright © Franklin Price | Year Posted 2016

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Finding You

Finding You
( to my wife Barbara, just because)
by Franklin Price
6/8/2018

Finding you has been the best thing
That ever happened in my life
Beginning when I met you
Better since you've been my wife

We both were less than happy
Was not hard to understand
Marriage was a disappointment
Before my ring was on your hand

Won't say it's all been easy
Life's just not to be that way
 I've never had one real regret
Since you said yes that day

We've worked through every obstacle
Together we would persevere
Raised a daughter to be proud of
She turns fifty this fine year

She has born two fine daughters
We know both of them are grand
They're thriving in this world of ours
That's not too hard to understand

We have been empty nesters
For more than just awhile
Every day when I awake with you
I look and have to smile

I pray its far from over 
Many years before the end
No man could have a better wife
Or any better friend 

No it's not our anniversary
Or any other special day
Just woke up there beside you
And thought there's something I should say 

Finding you is still the best thing
That's ever happened in my life
Every day I thank the good Lord
For the years you've been my wife

Copyright © Franklin Price | Year Posted 2018

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Times Are More

Times Are More
By Franklin Price
10/7/2016

We met at a great celebration,
Of a graduation, from a Texas High School.
Although he was dressed as a farmer,
I knew he was far from a fool.

He was sitting and watching the people,
Was leaning against an old tree.
As I walked past he caught my attention,
And here's what he said to me:

“Times are more like they are right now
Than they ever have been before”,
Quoted this wise old gentleman;
So apparent, that he knew the score.

He grinned at the end of the statement,
Of these meaningless words that he said.
To indicate it was humor he spouted,
In my confusion, I was more than just glad.

Has been many years since that meeting.
Still remember those words that I quote.
Were they humorous gibberish I heard then,
Or were they great wise words of note? 

For the times in which we are living,
Are not the same as they have been before.
Maybe that old man I met then,
In humor, quoted what was in store.

Copyright © Franklin Price | Year Posted 2016

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The Candles On the Birthday Cake

The Candles on the Birthday Cake
By Franklin Price
4/23/2019

The Candles on the birthday cake
One for each and every year
We light them just to blow them out
With friends and family near

When young, it makes us happy
Blowing candles not a feat
Can put them out with just one breath
Don't have to watch the cake we eat

Years pass by and candles grow
Takes many matches to be lit
For the birthday celebration,
On the cake, they barely fit

When we get to middle age
And we're forty-five or more
We substitute the birthday candles
For birthday numbers from the store

The numbers also candles
With just one wick on top
When we extinguish only two
They're out and we can stop

Once we're over seventy
Blowing two is still a bit
So we forgo the candles
And have a drink to get us lit

Barb you're in this group with me
Only two years, not a lot
We don't do candles any more
Is here an  interest in a shot?

Happy 71st  birthday
You're still 23 to me

Love, Frank

Copyright © Franklin Price | Year Posted 2019

123

Book: Shattered Sighs