Light pass

 Light sliver

John Clare Stokes

The great blue heron for but a moment

stood in the shadows then lifted into

the sliver of light, illuminating the blue

as water drop diamonds glimmered about.

Moo!

 Moo! Didn’t mean to scare you.

Under 8

 Under 8 stay forever

Deliver us

 Suwannee Mares

End of the line

 Trick or Trestle

Old rail tie over the Suwannee at White Springs

Bloody paw

 Bloody paw....late nights along Roline banks...from the murky does crawl...the worst of haints...the three pawed leviathan...hissing who took my paw...who took my paw....

Turn out the lights

 Some things I've learned

Jack O Lanterns are dark

When no candle burns

Family we think will never part

Halloween it full of trickery

Witches are often quite pretty

Candy dishes are eaten completely 

Before the first treater walks briskly 

Fall leaves even turn in summer 

Is it any wonder

Come the All Hallows' night

We turn out all the lights?

Downy boy

 Downy Boy

I think if I were with wings

I would not be affiliated

With the pileated 

His fiery, flamboyant red

His constant cackling

Nor the crow

A know it all

Nor the red-tail hawk

Again

Always having to squawk 

And I feign to diss

Their purpose

Their ways are just not for me

And I'd be hard pressed

To find a bird that's best

Perhaps the Downy

Not too showy 

Just a tad of red

Common and looks like a miniature hairy

Of which I am not

Often mistaken for a 

Sapsucker 

Who drill the parallel

Holes in living trees

To feed on sap that

Drips so gewey 

Or perhaps a turkey

But not a Jake or a Tom

Always looking for some

Oh, just little, quiet 

Downy!

Ogden Road Treatise

 Ogden Road treatise 

Seems I’d keep the Suwannee scene long

It was my favorite scene i said

And the poem was one particularly fond 

But neither inspired or led

To the heights I dreamed

It so seems I dwell in a land alone

Those tell me do not post these scenes

And so I do not seek the places drawn

The joy of inspiration it brings

They are tucked deep within the secret 

I shall not help the blind again see

They will just have to grope darkly.

We see darkly

 We live in what we deem

Sunlight bright

But it’s just the glare of night

We do not see clearly at all

We peer as through a veil

A glass of deepest hue

There is a certain kind of light

We perceive beyond the night

Faces close as can be pressed

For but a glimpse

A drawing near to

 the figure of one blessed

Who dwells within the light

Of His own eternal glory.

Thinking of 2009

 Passing the angel art on the fence yesterday, the poem from this day in 2009 immediately came to mind:

Sephiroth Sonnet

Dear Yahweh send an Uriel this night

From the southern heavens fly our way

From your Holy presence flaming light

Take our prayers to your heart we pray

On heavenly heights one mighty stands

With precious healing sent from our God

Grant us mercy to our outstretched hands

Bud anew upon this dry and withered rod 

Come Michael, O warrior of God grand

Smite this plague that thirsts to kill

Blood of the Lamb, cover this dark land

with celestial healing may lungs so fill

Come Gabriel, Come Michael, Uriel do sail

Oh Holy God, may your heavenly glory prevail!

One night stands

 One night stands

John Clare Stokes 

For one night we allowed ourselves 

to return to the field of play

bringing the ball up the court

for the brothers in red

Galloping down the field in

the loose fitting jersey 

Splitting wide in the homespun

Cheerleading uniform

Heading up the hill in the Charger

out to ghost light frights

Not daring to ask her out in our shyness

Taking a half century to muster courage 

But by then what does one do

when all the places to go are gone

even the very school and the home room

to return to on Monday 

Your friends anxiously waiting to ask

What did you do

How far did you go

And you lie and of course say

All the way to State.

Upon the 50th high school class reunion