Leopard moon

 When have l last looked on

The round green eyes and

The long wavering bodies

Of the dark leopards of the moon?

Yeats.

Photo impression

Leopard frog under eclipse moon

Spare him

 In the presence

How do you know

If in presence of royalty 

You are?

The Monarch says

Off with your head!

The Viceroy says

To the dungeon til dead!

The Queen says

Spare the lad instead.

Williston women

 Williston women

When I came to Williston from Kentucky in sixty seven, I was not aware of the caste system. I would date some of the women, but they would eventually break up. Soon they'd end up with one with land, or road construction machines, pine trees, cattle, money , you name it,but not one who wrote poetry. They knew who to marry. One went for a spreader of fertilizer in fields, another for one with foundry connections. They knew who to cast for. I was an outsider. Little did I realize one little lady, an oil painter on Noble, had prayed that I would marry a Williston girl. It seemed an impossibility to break into the Mortgage Hill Caste system. She eventually died and I in seventy seven moved away. But God honors the prayers of his artists and at the late age of thirty three, I married a Williston girl named Melanie.

I guess it was mercy I did not marry one in my own futile efforts , as I'd no doubt be spreading fertilizer today counting my money.

Shoals Deliverance

 Muscle Big Shoals of the Suwannee River

It was right out of Deliverance

With the roar of the shoals

I stood right above the shirtless

Shot him three times 

Left him for alive 

He never knew I spared his soul....

Dew and Moo

 Teach me to temper the glory

I place upon the morning rays

For every fence that drips of diamonds

For every cow I bow and praise

The halo of light confusing me

Until your shadow falls

And then I see

Dew and moo's mocking me.

As grass

 As grass

Grass is a glorious thing

an endless expanse swaying

in the gentle summer wind 

but for a season then comes

the sickle of the harvest

to ovens the grass to bread

the man but for a moment fed.

Babel

 Babel

We haven’t changed much

We yet have confusion of tongue

We aspire to the heavens 

We construct our towers

We seek to bypass the only way



Hopewell

 Hopewell

It's about as far as one can go Northward on a public road in Columbia County, Florida. It is there one finds at the end of the long dirt road off Highway 6, the Hopewell Baptist Church and cemetery. A worthwhile journey, especially at dusk, for it is then, in the gloam as it's also called, that the Shining Congregation is in a more congenial mood to greet you. After dark, you are on your own with the denizens of the nocturne.

Faith

 Imagine Faith

Fame

 Crashing in

johnClare 

We gathered by

The crescent moon 

Knew the plane

Would be coming

Soon

For it surely came

Nearer the month

Of June

The same as

Always

When the moon

Was just behind

The Palm

Crashing in.

It came.

Bought me

Fame.

Explain that.

Mom struck

 Mom struck

In the quiet ride home

The full moon shown

But something seemed amiss

Of things she so missed

The walking on her own

The legs once so unbent strong

We turned in and she sighed

I opened her door and inwardly

Cried.

The corn field

 Passing the grand corn fields it occurred to me the awesome way the entire crop grows in unison. Imagine having to coax each stalk, some deciding not to grow, others growing way beyond the others like people.