Whence the Day

 Whence the day

John Clare Stokes

I told my love

There are fields

I know of

Where the fritillary 

Hover in reach

Above

Where there is

No time

No time at all

And that is why

I want to take you there

1000 words

 Once I was told something to the effect a picture tells a thousand words, so I wrote a thousand words about the picture.

Rev Eubanks

 Between the water and the word...there stood a mile of wood...Brother Eubanks would wax long....Long after our thoughts had turned toward water....

Dixie Lily

 It was Palm Sunday and our long journey home was not lined with palms but littered with the charred stubble of cotton fields, the rubble of a lost cause strewn before us, not the kingdom of jubilo we had fought for, the old home place on her last breath of an iron lunged reconstruction...not even ole Gabriel the mule to lift the joist to level the sunken porch....taken to bear the strain for the rogues now in control....in the overgrown grass out back...I bent and picked some of the wild hurricane lily's growing under the pecan canopy....found one of the few unbroken jars and made an arrangement....It stood in stark contrast....but I knew the rubble called the South would some day.... like these white lilies....rise despite the storm and bring again a beauty to this land of Dixie....

First trip

 It was his first canoe trip in the Okeefenokee. Robert "Bob" Jones and I loaded his new Kevlar and Fiberglass Mohawk canoe and we set out from the Stephen Foster  Park in the refuge at the end of 177. Our plan was to paddle West down Billy's Lake, through River Narrows and to the Suwannee River Sill. He did well on his first outing and by the time we made our lunch stop along the banks of the Sill, he was fast asleep. We unloaded and made him a makeshift bed from life preservers, towels and boat cushions. Someday I pray to be able and take him and his son upon the same trip.

All alone

 She stood all alone in the rain, no one came to offer shelter, from where she stood, it seemed it would rain forever.

He stood all alone in the sun, no one came to offer shade, from where he stood, it seemed it would shine forever.

They stood all alone each one, no one coming at all, from where they stood, it seemed this would always go on.

Limp Dick Bend

 Thirty three from Fargo

Suwannee River 

One mile above Cone Bridge boat ramp

Limp D Bend sandbar

Walking on air

 Children gaze open mouth

Taken by surprise 

Nobody down below believes their eyes.

A Pentecostal Moment

 A Pentecostal moment

It could have been attributed to the early rainbow at sunrise, but whatever it was, while it lasted, it was grand. I could suddenly understand the language of fishermen and he could understand the language of photographers. He did not look at me cross eyed as I talked of f stops and shutter speeds and fishing for eagles with glass. He understood. And I did not feign knowing as he expounded deep water lures and watching for signs of shad leaping. We understood. And it was good.

Hopewell

 Between the water and the word

There stood a thick mile of woods

Brother Eubanks would give thanks

Waxing long

Long after our thoughts had turned

From the word

To water, I Suwannee!

Hopewell Primitive Baptist

Northern most Florida off Road 6.

Down Leslie Wood

 Down Leslie Wood Lane

Columbia County

Down Leslie Wood lane

Things remain about the same

As when the wagon came

To take the cured tobacco

Into the warehouses

Down in Lake City

The Barwick chimney

 The Barwick Chimney

Columbia County

The trumpet vines know

Where they weren’t allowed to go

The heat of winters

Keeping the tentacles confined

To the outlying branches

In the cold yard

But no longer comes the pruner

And wildly they flee the tree

To scurry up the cold chimney

The fear of fire

But a distant memory.