Marathon wedding

 Marathon wedding

Our honeymoon was spent at the Jacksonville Doubletree Inn, where the next morning, my best man, Hambone Wilson and I ran the Jacksonville Marathon. Here Melanie is handing me water at one of the aid stations.

Narnia

 I'm on Aslan's side even if there isn't any Aslan to lead it. I'm going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn't any Narnia.

C.S. Lewis, The Silver Chair (Chronicles of Narnia,)

Cair Paravel

Starke

In this world

 In this world 

The hill pasture, an open place among the trees,

tilts into the valley. The clovers and tall grasses

are in bloom. Along the foot of the hill

dark floodwater moves down the river.

The sun sets. Ahead of nightfall the birds sing.

I have climbed up to water the horses

and now sit and rest, high on the hillside,

letting the day gather and pass. Below me

cattle graze out across the wide fields of the bottomlands,

slow and preoccupied as stars.  In this world

men are making plans, wearing themselves out,

spending their lives, in order to kill each other.

Wendell Berry

Cattle upon Hills hills

First date

 First date

That was the day when Magoo went down to Williston from Lake City to teach Melanie photography, that now qualifies as an old Levy picture some thirty eight years ago!

Roberta Burns

 Roberta Burns

By john clare 

It was no small deed for her to rip the

Carpet right from beneath his feet

Spread denim over him rolled tight

Exposing the soft underbelly asleep

For she's heard all the pick up lines

Endured the mis-thrusts upon 

Orange shag plush 

Short-lived ecstasy in Cohen rhyme

As she lay and made cigarette ring puffs

And he wonders why she offered to cut

Taking such vengeance on the carpet

A slice for every mis-placed trust

Makeup smeared tears she cannot forget

Feed her frappe lines if you dare

Just be not surprised when she tears

That new laid linoleum as you squirm 

Cringing at the pain inflicted from one

Roberta Carpet Burns.

All day

 In patient waiting

For one to come along

They say she walks this path

On her way home

I’ve been here all the day long

And I think they are

Wrong

Low tidal love

 Low tidal love

john clare

St Marks river at low tide

Revealed the fiddler crab trail

Guarding the bottle found

beneath the roots tangling down

Plucked from the gulf brine

Discerning a note inside

Thrown by the White's

Upon their anniversary night

Wishing he who found this note

Would be equally love smote

Too crusty for such words

Took the long journey toward

The lonely garage apartment

Arriving late a letter sent

Sent to the mailbox never used

Something made me stop

Saying,look in the mailbox

And so I read

Immediately I said

This is the Whites note answered

Waiting here all too quickly

And so immediately

I replied to the letter from Melanie...

telling her

YES

I would love to come down

to Williston 

and teach you

Photography!

The rest is

history.....

Though I am old

“Though I am old with wandering

Through hollow lands and hilly lands,

I will find out where she has gone,

And kiss her lips and take her hands;

And walk among long dappled grass,

And pluck till time and times are done

The silver apples of the moon,

The golden apples of the sun.

― William Butler Yeats

It’s a low float

It’s a low float

Today the Shoals are beneath the flooding torrent

An easy paddle through the class three rapids

The limestone knives unable to puncture or rent

Hiding even the Gator downstream lazily awaiting

Your capsizing.

Moon trap

 We decked the web with jewels

To entice a fairy or two

But we never dreamed the moon

Would fall for our ruse.

Cardinals rule

 We keep the feeders full in the yard

It’s ok if the starlings and sparrows feed

They too in winter have it hard

But it’s for the Cardinals mostly to see.

Sopchoppy dock

 The Sopchoppy dock

John Clare Stokes 

Once it was the little boys life dream

To go beyond mothers watchful eye

Out from her reach in shallow shore

To reach the distant dock with the teens

In Sopchoppy sun lazing the summer day

Where mothers watchful words weren’t heard

Now a big boy on the side of panthers screams

Watching the children in far shallows wade

Today the distance seems so easily close

Sadly children no longer play in the dark tannic

It’s long since been the old man’s life dream

Yet still to hear mamma say, John, by me stay.