DYI

 The reciprocal saw needed a new cord. I used a cord off an ancient drill that was frozen. It works. 

Ole Homewood

 Old Homewood

John Stokes

On this October 16th, Rev Luther Ray Stokes birthday.

The coming November turning of the mill

Around old Homewood the family collecting

Traveling to gather for the syrup making

To Thanksgiving blueberry pancakes waking.

Hear the old yellow Gravely powering up

Setting the wheels upon the circling path

Warm to the rabbit burners kerosene drip

Soon to boil the juices hop and skip.

Face aglow he adjusted the burners flame

As buckets of juice into the kettle came

At sixty gallons we stopped the squeezing 

To begin the boiling juices skimming.

Nearing noon the right specific gravity

Down to ten gallons the syrup beginning to candy

Quickly we quenched the flame and dipped

Through muslin the amber poured and bottled.

Then we would give thanks around the mill

In the sugar shack tables were filled

And we would pray this would always be

The making of old Homewood with friends and family.

Remember Luke’s wife

 

Cast off

 

A shy cow

 

As trees

 As trees 

John Clare Stokes

You get to the age

When you think

By now I should 

See clearly

But the vision is

Still cloudy

Men as trees walking

Not discerning

An arm from a branch

A leg from a root

And the voice you hear

Is it of man or is it

Of fowl

I take to the limbs

Carefully

Saw in hand

I begin cutting

Not knowing from

Whence comes

The screaming.

Is it sap

Or is it blood?

Missing men formation

 Missing Men formation

I am not certain which is worse

The missing of the living

Knowing they are somewhere out there

If they too are longing for you

If ever the Holy Spirit will break through

Or the missing of the gone

Knowing they are safe with the Lord

And that we shall soon enough be home

Yes, it's the missing of the living

Praying that before eternity they 

Make it home.

Today, Oct 16, my father would have been a hundred. He went home in March of 2011. It's been since 2012 that we have heard any word from our first son Landon in the Air Force.

Jordon

 And on this day, my fathers birthday, our second son, Jordon Curtis, was baptized at Grace Life Church by pastor Russell Taylor in 2011.

The sun shown bright

 Oh the sun shown bright

One highlight of Kentucky are the amazing horse farms with the chestnut thoroughbreds worth millions. The Shakers, into utility, used draft horses, just as beautiful to me.

Gadarene

 Gadarene

Sometime I see myself as the crazed

Gadarene

Living chained among the tombs

Striking great fear

In all who would venture near

Other times the one in his

Right mind

Sitting quietly at the Masters feet

Striking great fear

In all who would venture near.

Bleach blonde

 Bleach bond

john clare

The bleach and the vinegar were a volatile mixture

The fumes finding their way into the bedroom

To satin sheets to settle upon

The wrapped mints on the pillows melting

The roses on the bedside table wilting

The deadly fumes inhaled  slowly

She tried desperately to hold her breath

But she was soon drowning

Sinking deeply into dreams

Of when it was not such 

Drudgery, the laying, the bleaching, ironing, washing, scrubbing, living, loving, breathing

Along beside her once lover in unison

This stranger who once showered her with 

Roses, wild flowers, candy, mints, poetry, living.

They found her turned a beautiful shade of jade 

The bleach and vinegar they said leeched her color

Leaving her but a shell 

Like a porcelain glass statue

Going up until the end

Through the motions, moving 

in unison with the strangers

rising and falling breaths

Beside her.

The burning out

The burning out

We do not know

What came first

If it was the leaving

Then the burning

Or the burning

Then the leaving

Only the chimney remains

The memory up in flames.

The lone chimney

Near Luraville 

Nothing evokes sadness 

And melancholy more

Than a lone chimney

In a field or beside a lane

Or under a spreading tree

The speculation 

Of who warmed by the hearth

And what came of them

If they had to flee

A late night burning

Or if they just up and

Abandoned 

The embers smoldering.