Monochrome

 

Damselfly

 That I see

That I saw

That I’ve seen

Damselfly

Suwannee

Immerse and see

 if i told you...that beyond the saw palmetto...past the itching moss...troubles would leave you...would you cut the shins...battle the red bugs...rattlers and ticks...just for a look?  If I told you to dip three times in the Suwannee...would you believe me? Immerse and see.

The writing rose

 I came upon a writing rose  

Thorns worn from her words 

 She wrote over and over 

 The wind I have heard  

I have heard  

I have heard 

 I have heard

God’s Butchers

 Butcher Bird Prophecy

  by john clare stokes

   Strike the bells of praise...  For today the invasion was stayed...  Strong upon the wind in all their glory...   Flew the Loggerhead Army...  To impale the swarming maelstrom...  Butchers from heaven come...  By night the victory fires we light...  Offerings to Jehovah....  for His Loggerhead Shrikes!

Long Distant Voyager

 

Well done

 Well done

With canvas clutched he comes

To hear the coveted well-done son

The little Vincent of starry eye

Swirling on the primary oils

With hours long the artist toils

From the studio he runs

To hear a father say

Well done son

But the words never come

And so the artist caps the tubes

No longer to a father runs

Who never found time to say

Well done son

Take time to tell someone

Well done

You may be the only one.

Blue Infinitude

 

Image Maker

A poem i wrote about the days of developing film and printing in a darkroom.

 

Monochrome ten from Instagram

 

Mashes Sands

 Wish we could always reign in

Mashes Sands

I do not know how the sand 

Came from Mashes Sands 

To Sopchoppy 

But my father got it there

And it was my kingdom  

My perimeter I only left

Whenever I would swing

And jump past the pure sandy 

Border 

Flying about into the evening

Til I heard mamma calling

And I would park the fleet

Open the sluice gates

Post the little real plastic man

With strict orders

To guard the Mashes Sands

Kingdom in the county

Wakulla

The township

Sopchoppy.

Rung of Sons

 Rungs of Sons 

john clare

you were never one

to dwell upon the lower

rungs

from a child 

dangerously climbing

toward to sky above

and in a fathers love

letting you climb

always with a ready arm

in case you fell

and so you loved 

to dwell far above

in the heavens

looking at the deer

bear and turkey

passing below

poised silently with

your handmade bow

chirped arrow pulled

taut eye focused

and then the string 

would relax and the

sight window would

rest upon an Indo

wave and you would

descend to skim over

the surface of a long

breaking hollow outrunning

the men in the grey suits

locked in

truck keys lost resting

in a tidal pool

fashioning stick and cord

to make a beach fire

blowing the embers to life

thinking of Hawaii's epic breaks

Guaranteed 

that on your bended knee

was no way to be free

lifting up that blazing fire cupped,

you asked silently

that all your destinations would

accept the one's that's you

so you could breathe

and so i let you climb

to the upper rung

just do not my son

forget a father holding

a steady arm below.