Fellow poet

 Seldom do I happen upon a fellow poet. She came as my last stop in the day. I tarried long beyond the allotted time.

I find

 I find my time 

is spent upon the

meaner themes

of penury 

poverty and plenty

on vocabulary 

void of the language 

that would define the

yearning inside

I read the Auden

with the Emily

and wonder how they

discovered the dialect 

even the lowest flower spoke.

Spiderwort

 and on that creation morning

When in the garden naming

Came the spider and sat upon the purple wort

and the woman given was so 

startled

the name just kinda stuck.

Gerald

 Pappa Gerald  

 by john clare

 

  Mayor of wonderful Williston 

 No finer they come  

Sunday school teacher 

 Bronson  First Baptist believer 

 Fisher fine on Orange Lake 

 Always the limit he takes 

 Best you ever saw 

 Fireman always on call 

 Cooks the finest brisque 

 You try it first he insists 

 Patient with a house full of sisters on meds 

 Mostly piddles in the man shed  

 Loves the grand kids all  

 Even from jails when they call 

 Pappa the keeper of the fire 

 Pappa the quencher of fires 

 Pappa the lover of fire  

Williston the loser if he ever

 retires....

Iris

 From the burns of fall  

 Comes the Versicolor harlequin 

 The Blue Flag iris 

 Queen of Osceola forest

Seeking

 Through the archway trap he made his way  

The seeker of elusive Sasquatch 

 Little did he know he was prey 

  That he was being watched  

 They found his camera fifty feet up 

 His tripod twenty feet under  

 Tracks ended where flesh and fur struck 

 Where they went, today we wonder?

Wake me

 Tuesday don’t wake me 

Wake me when it’s all clear

Like Rip I think I’ll just sleep

to awake after many years

in a world that never weeps.

Squash star

 Squash star

In the night there came from afar

Under the mystery of the new moon

The most perfect yellow star

To lift below those mired in gloom.

Sending bouquets

 Sending bouquets 

The most difficult task for bouquet boy

Was learning how to send a bouquet 

To one long gone from our waking way

And if it arrived and was met with joy.

Islands 2020

 Islands 

Never would have dreamed

We’d see the time we became

Islands unto ourselves

Separated all about by murky 

waters 

Fearful to venture beyond

Letting the powers tell us

This is the way

It shall be

926-7068

 Lewis, our father called....

the phone that was in my fathers old home place at 

Crawfordville, Florida. My sister Paula has it in her 

kitchen, it still works. It always reminds me of the Twilight Zone episode 19, Night Call, Season 5.

American Lady

 Madame Butterfly   

john clare stokes

Took to the field yesterday 

 Net and field guide in hand  

Chasing about the marshy land 

 In pursuit of an American lady 

 We tried to identify the soubrette  

 As she flapped about 

 I gave a joyful shout 

 Look all! Amercian Lady

 in my net!