Lost

 If ever you find yourself lost

Keep the way points to yourself

You may want to return someday

Rage

 Raven 

The epitome of one

Such as I

In shadow and darkness

Dwelling

Crying out as Dylan

Rage! Rage!

Against the dying of the light.

Heart level

 The more you take at face value

The less you see at heart level.

A worthy pursuit is to grow beyond the face value of like and not like, the disappointment of apathy, the obscurity of heart, the contentment of dwelling in the cleft, in the closet, in the unknown.

Silo storm

 Silo storm

The silos outside Archer are gone

The swallowtail kite has long flown 

The storm has ceased its roiling roam

The scene yet forever lives on.

Thigpin

 Thigpins portraits 

Johnclarestokes 

Thigpin had no use for sycamores

Thigpin spent his days inside

His two dogs and the memory

Of the ones gone on

Every one with a portrait on the wall

Thigpin had a man

That did his mowing

Leaves just fell in the way

Thigpin will eventually

Hang upon the wall

Between the last two dogs

In the hall.

I drove by Thigpins yesterday 

It was completely gone

Even the Sycomore trees

Just the memory

Remained 

Waltz of life

 waltz of life

John Clare Stokes

And she waltzed with me

And she soared with me

And she taught me

The dance with eternity.

Down Pounds

 Pounds

Long I’ve pondered why it’s called

Pounds Hammock

I’m sure some pioneer had the name

But to me, it’s because my heart pounds 

whenever I round a bend and I am

following the tracks of deer

giving rise to the flying ones

beckoning me from the slow sand.

Foot falls

 Foot Falls

John Clare Stokes

Often in the journey through 

he recalls the foot falls

the gentle, soft shuffling steps

in the night

soothing the frightened calls

in the lightening squalls

putting to flight youthful fright.

In the deep swamps of a hammock

by the Gulf

lost and calling for father to find him

the familiar foot falls through 

palmetto rough

as safe they compassed course back

to ole Camp C.

On the long marathon race there

came a wall

the runner came to a crawl

the legs screaming to quit

when from behind the familiar 

sound of foot falls

his old runner friend to pace him

through the final splits.

In the grand sanctuary of Asbury 

upon his knees

Crying out in his agony of sin 

came the hushed foot falls to 

pray beside him 

to rise and to a new walk begin.

When you pass through along

this journey

What sounds do your foot falls bring?

Do they ring with Grace and mercy 

Give the heart a song to sing?

Pause and listen above the din 

for the foot fall that ever treads 

walking ever to the never’s end

ever calling the lost to walk with Him.

To the memory of Elizabeth W. Noyes 

the only person who liked this when posted

years ago.

Vogue

 Ellen Von Unwerth, the Vogue fashion photographer said, I like to photograph people before they know what their best angles are. Most men will line up for a photograph in that typical hands protecting the jewels baseball player pose. But the women! Get out the camera and immediately the hand goes to hip and the opposing leg juts out and I guess they look ‘fashionable’.

It got so bad, this jutting, my brother, my niece and then great granny began the accentuation. What’s a photographer to do? Take the photo first then say on three say cheesie.

Flat out

 It didn’t  matter how fast he sped

He was doing over sixty in a twenty five

Flat lining the entire way

Then cloudy becomes

Saturday following the full moon

It’s my usual routine to sit outside

To watch the moon set as the sun rises

I prefer it to the sun set as the moon rises

Today the window of watch was short

Came the clouds to hide the moon

So I’m back inside finishing the cold coffee

With more hope for Sunday. 

American Woman

 American Woman

Were I not sixty old and married young, I think I’d absolutely despair. I know that I am basing my narrow despair from what I come upon in my forays to docks about town.  The other evening, one such came with one of those little short rods with the zebco and began fishing beside me. Like I said, were I not, this person with the personification of a long ago flame, I do think I’d have thought, my days of despair have found their end. The Osprey came and broke the spell beside me. American woman, stay away from me.