Sandhill softly

 Sandhill softly

Excited we heard before we saw

that deep felt call from the sky

Passing beneath the chicken cage

did the hens not say,

There must be more than eggs?

For my love

 Bouquet Boy knew his love adored the cats

Something made him recall geraniums too

They said an artist Renoir had just that

In 1881 he shared with those passing through.

It was worth the long trip back

Anything for his love and her cats

Geraniums and cats

Pierre Auguste Renoir

1881

Oreo

 Stokes gets in your eyes

Whenever someone to this day blows smoke up my ego, I think of mamma. Once a member of the church trying to impress mamma, told her I saw your son playing basketball, he’s so good,what was his number again?

It was obvious she never saw me play. Mamma simply said 21, my away ”white” jersey number.

In this photo, in case you don’t recognize me, I wore my number 20 home jersey.

Silent Yeats

 Silent Yeats

Johnclarestokes 

Last evening sitting beneath the heavens with Yeats

We had long silences and pauses between the 

Silence

When he spoke

Pity the poor who know not the poetry

Who must fill the silence with words

I sighed

Oh Yeats, must you too ruin the silence?

By the fire

 By the fire they were there

Johnclarestokes 

There seems to be

Some remnants of magic

In the old syrup kettle

For every time it's fired up

And the warmth is spread

The smoke ascends

It seems there are those

Descending around the glow

The embers are stoked

Without a poke from anyone

These days the kettle fires

In the cold

Are the only way they come.

Then sing the Sandhill

 Then sings the Sandhill 

In > formation upon > formation

Came the Sandhill, the currents taking

to far distant destinations

What to remember

 What to Remember

Author unknown

From the 40 poems found  in a ditch

Woman remembers the yearning, not the getting.

Man remembers the gift, not the giving.

Babe remembers the sucking, not the breast.

I remember the living, not the dead.

Tomb remembers the dead, not the living.

Governments count the fed, not the starving.

Child remembers the answer, not the calling.

Rain remembers the sky, not the falling.

Tide remembers the shore, not the rising.

I remember the living, not the dying.

Azalea plea

 Azalea Plea.

Should I bloom for you

 or freeze and fall

 life between gray and blue

 Saint Peter and Paul.

wailing wall or 

curtain call

Bloom not for me

Or Peter or Paul.

Bloom only

Despite us all.

The February azaleas

Convict in the loft

 Convict in the loft 

Johnclarestokes 

It evokes a few lines of prose in me

That old wood and tin I once knew

In the cool dark sand among the relics

Sun light glaring in between the cracks

Sounds in the rafters would startle

In reality but a corn snake after the mouse

To me the escaped convict hiding out

And I’d quietly creak up the clasp

Scurry into the kitchen beside grandma

She’d glance down from the stirring, say,

“Why boy, you look as if you’ve seen a ghost!”

I didn’t venture much into the dark din

Every now and then I’d bravely peer in

Listen for the rustling from the rafters

Never told the Sheriff I knew where the

convict was they were after

Free to this day in the shadows hiding out.

Olustee

 It’s almost time.

Bert’s

 Illumination in the Flatwoods

A season with the wild turkey

by Joe Hutto

There is a book I highly recommend written by Joe Hutto and his experiment in imprinting two dozen wild turkey and living with them. The place where this took place was on the property surrounding Bert Roddenberry's old Florida home place in the Apalachicola National Forest out from Sopchoppy. The man in the overalls and boots is Brother Robertus or Bert, 1890-1981. The man in the dapper city clothes was Lawrence George, a gospel singer, in Sopchoppy for a revival as the song leader for my father, the late Rev Luther Stokes at the United Methodist Church in Sopchoppy.

Wawa

 Hill stop 

Johnclarestokes 

Leaving Bronson on 27

Through the scrub and

Sandhills passing 

Just ten miles more

He promised his bride

It’s a lovely hill top view

All the way down Noble Avenue

Why, they even have a swimming pool

We can order the southern fried chicken

In the family restaurant 

Maybe later snuggle at the picture show

down on Main if you want

Afterwards, sneak into Blue Grotto

For some skinny dipping

Oh my lovely bride 

Just ten miles more.