Hail State

Hail State
by john clare stokes

Hail dear old Mississippi State
Fight for victory today
Please win this series for Will Clark
Not "The Thrill" William Nuschler of Giants fame
Nor the duo of Palmeiro and Clark of
Thunder of Lightning
But the Brookhaven Bulldog
Homewood born native son
William Clark Stokes
Bulldog fan even before sixty-one
The semi-pro who hurled fastballs in Florida leagues
Cracking leather in earshot of Canaveral's rocketry
Who after years since seeing me in Sopchoppy
Was not, so good to see you
But, you see who State signed from Pascagoula?
Hail dear old Mississippi State
Fight for victory today
Please beat those Bruins for William Clark
Who would have named his first born Bully
Had his sweet Rose Gamillion not had a say
Who believed the only pure color
Was not orange, blue, purple or crimson
but burgundy
And while all the titles went to cheating schools
State and only STATE played by the
official rules.
Hail dear old Mississippi State
Fight for victory today
Please give one title to William Clark
Who for his entire life stayed the course
Rang the cow bell when others sat silent
Wore forever the burgundy poly coaching shorts
Learned braille just so he could
make the blind see
The only thing you need to be
is a blindly loyal
Mississippi State
BULLDOG.

Lullaby

The photographs start with the last day I visited Nathaniel at his grandmother Julia's house in March of this year. I do think he knew something was amiss by the sadness in his eyes. At first when I arrived he wanted to get into the car with me and leave. The entire time it was most difficult to contain my emotions. Toward evening, staying as long as I could, he fell asleep in my arms. I gently laid him down on a pallet in the living room and slipped out of his life. Julia said that later when he woke, he went throughout the yard and trailer calling for and looking for his Pappa. That further broke my heart. The photographs then move to the first time in March of 2011 that my father saw Nathaniel at the VA in Lake City where soon there after, he passed away. It then moves to the death of Melanie's sister Melissa in December of 2012 and holding a sleeping Nathaniel in my arms.  It then moves on into dreams, of a fading memory of a Pappa, ghost-like upon the trail, of meme Clara reading to him under the all present Jesus calling painting, of his rocking horse  that mysteriously would neigh in the night and then concluding with Nathaniel looking up as he so often did. We were always looking up, seeking the moon, the stars, the clouds, the rainbows as I pointed things out to him from a little infant, cradled in the nook of my arm.
Not a day passes that I do not look up and pray for our reunion, to ring my fathers old bell announcing the joy to all that a son and a grandson have returned home, to a Pappa's arms.

Beauty and Bands

Zechariah 11:7

And I took unto me two staves; the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bands;
And I fed the flock.

I took this photograph of the old octagonal church off Price Creek CR 245 many years ago. It has been featured on a calendar for the historical society and a calendar for the college. It was said the church was built in this manner in order not to have a corner to allow the devil to hide in.
This photograph was taken with a Yashica Mat 124 2x2 twin lens reflex and personally developed.  120 medium format negatives are larger than a 35mm rectangular negative allowing greater detail, or in today's language, greater megapixels.
For anyone interested in an 8x10 print, I can print one for you.
$25.00 plus $5 shipping and gentle handling.

for Jeanne

 

 

 

 

 

Catfish memory

It was the November of two-thousand...we paddled up to Billy's Island in the Okeefenokee...Landon and Melanie sat on the dock and caught catfish....how much has changed in the thirteen ensuing years...Landon has abandoned his family....we pray daily that he will awake and communicate, restore his family to his life.

Magnolia with Stink Bug

 

Magnolia Light

 

Mag Light

With yellowflies tugging at my legs up on the ladder, I managed six shots of the magnolia in the front yard. It would help matters if I would not venture out in shorts and no socks. Waiting about until two when I volunteer my hours at the Gateway Gallery. I am going to lower the prices to see if that is a reason for no sales. Most of the comments I get are, did you do that color yourself? So I think perhaps the folks are taken aback at the saturations, not caring for it, of which I do. O well.
Here is another saturated shot for those who do not like saturation.

Nathan's Landing

Nathan has long since grown and left home. Years ago, I remember when Nathan was born to Steve and Kittie Williams on the Suwannee. When Steve was looking to advertise his canoe rental and shuttle service, he sought me to take photographs for the brochure. We gathered down at the waters edge on the steep landing. For my efforts, Steve offered me a free canoe ride for two anywhere I wanted along the Suwannee. I kept that hand signed brochure and have yet to redeem that trip as now Steve is all but out of the canoe rental business. The Mohawks and assorted few kayaks left remind me each time I visit of the many he once owned. I still have one of the green Mohawk 17 foot blazers he sold me for $200. I went by Steve's place last week but there were no signs of Steve. The dog barked inside the tin roof wood frame home. Steve several years ago divorced Kitie, the professor of chemistry at the University of Florida. He remarried a few years ago to a girl named Carmen, giving me the honor of being his best man at the Columbia County courthouse.
Nathan last I heard still lives in Gainesville where Kittie resides.
I will have to visit Steve again soon and hope to find the old Florida Panther Society Founder home.

Crested Flycatchers

The flycatchers are busy catching bugs and feeding their young nesting in the wood duck box in the back yard.

J was the theme

the art league meetings theme was J. I chose a photograph like this with a poem and a little flower holder of jasmine. Like everything at art league, it went over with a thud...

Rocky at Cone Bridge

Rocky took a swim in the Suwannee at Cone Bridge Landing on Saturday.