Rains on the unjust

 But it rained

There are those

In love with woes

No matter the grace

Find it a miserable place.

No brother Lazarus

 No brother Lazarus

They would not believe

Even if one was

Heaven scent.

Power of poets

 It's the power in the poets

The ability to raise words from the dead

The ones never read

Flee from this country 

You bearer of lost words

Go to the restless swine herds

The Gadarene he rattles

Chains hold him to the tombs

Come poet, there is room.

Rusty latches to unloose

Spikenard to pour on the scar

Memorial of the poet from afar.

Hopewell

 Hopewell  

 There is a palm 

 At Oak Lawn

Separating Lilly and James 

 The palm stronger than stone 

 Pushing their graves apart  

 There was the time  

 Rev. Eubanks stood as that palm  

Separating at Hopewell  

 The hearts of stone 

 From the hearts of flesh

In my verse, I told of the palm. This is the palm I spoke of. Rev.Eubanks was the founder of the Hopewell Primitive Baptist Church in Northern Columbia County,Florida off Road 6. Rev. Eubanks and his wife are buried in Lake City at the downtown Oaklawn Cemetery Northwest of the Confederate graves.

White of way

 White of Way 

It seems we dwell in primary

Of red, blue, yellow

It's fine for most fellows

It's the pathway to tertiary.

All flesh is grass

 All flesh is as grass.

John Clare Stokes

Ground itch

Is both a symptom 

And condition

Our flesh reacts 

To grass

We are allergic to

Grass

And yet we are

Drawn to it

The world of grass

We do not want

To leave

As grass

It is our being

It takes a supernatural 

Burn of the grass

To sooth the itch

To direct our love

Beyond the lawn

Sting

 Sting

That day in the bow

You paddled through

The low

Lying limbs stirring

The paper wasps

To swarm all around

Him as he passed

In the stern

I was watching him

Fighting

Swatting 

Diving in

I was inwardly

Laughing

At your unknown

Plot of his misery

Today

I had compassion

On a paper wasp

Who was drowning

In the pool

Certain he would

Show gratitude 

For my rescuing him

He stung me

In my misery

Without mercy

Earths Communion

 Earth's Communion

The grassy recipients 

Gathered round the

Precious liquid:

Drink this,

In remembrance 

Of He who

Freely gives 

The rain

To sustain

A wind blown Magnolia petal filled with the recent rain.

Dandy Lyon

 When Dandy Lyon came calling on Lily

Now remember what we told you, if he gets fresh, offer him a glass of  Iced Roundup....

Suwannee Siago

Suwannee Sigao

JohnClare Stokes

I know that dwelling beneath

The ground, are the thriving, 

Bustling silent towns,

The grist mill grinding up

The corn, the calves upon

The hill being born,

Brick makers firing up

The kilns, the black smiths

Pounding on the steel

The one law in the town

To keep silent

For Indians are seeking

The hidden silver

DeSoto's are ever digging

For the hidden gold

Keep the secret

Of your borders

Worship quietly you

Saturday Adventist 

Be as the Methodists

Stoic and silently staid 

Not giving away

The place where the

Seminole would wade 

To raid the offering made

To silence the shaped note

Song

From lips of those

Told o'er and o'er

Keep silent

Keep still

Until they pass beyond

The ever grinding  mill. 

Slip sliding away

 Slip sliding away 

John Clare Stokes 

What do you think?

I think I see Earnest

And there's Ethel Marie

Over in the shade

I hear that snuff hitting

The Folger’s coffee can

The snap of field acre peas

Hitting the galvanized pail 

Outhouse aromas wafting past

Sure hope that east breeze 

Don't shift our

Homewood Lazing

Bringing in them 

Pea Ridge yellow flies 

My how the times slide by

Magic Canvas

Magic canvas

We gathered round the magic canvas

If it would please reveal something to us

If inspiration was in our future

Or more misery void of color 

It took an entire bottle of wine

But in the magic canvas own time

This image emerged with profound words

 But before we could write it down

Gesso was applied and the 

Inspiration never found.