Fathers of sons
Wasn’t it a grand thing
When we’d gather in
the day with laughter
enough to chase all
cares away
Oh what a day
Sunday, June 14, 2026
On the wings of
On the wings of a Snow White kite
He sends His pure delight
With a sign from the height
On the wings of a kite.
Your limb
I’m sitting watching the moon
I hear a cracking sound
A pine limb big enough to squish me
Falls within ten feet avoiding the vehicle
Don’t think tree limbs don’t have a
Master guiding them
So be prepared
Should the Master one day say
Limb, upon him.
River Narrows
River Narrows
by John Clare Stokes
Okeefenokee paddle strokes
Trembling under thwart
Bull Gators provoked
Island hammock snorts
Black bear splashing
Paddle strokes increasing
Into tannic crashing
Fear never ceasing
Into River Narrows
Suwannee's birth canal
The silence grows
Then screams and howls
Conceived into flow
Eternal toward sea
New secrets unfold
Birthed from Okeefenokee
Bob Jones in Dougon on River Narrows
Saturday, June 13, 2026
Ten Years After
Ten Years After
Johnclarestokes
Alvin Lee I would listen to
going home, to see my baby
I'd love to change the world
Everywhere freaks and fairies
We thought yesterday
Back to two oh thirteen
and before that oh three
and on and on back the
Ten years after
And how much happened
In the last Ten Years After
And wondered what could
Possibly happen in the next
Ten Years Coming.
Meme the reader
I got the old photo of meme reading a Edgar Rice Burroughs Tarzan book as a girl, printed for Paula to give to Claire.
Old town life
Old Town life
And what of this old life?
Waters paddled upon
Rivers crooked and long
Some we've been upon
Many, many a time
Others never to see
In our Old Town journey
To open a bed of worms
To open a Bed of worms
In our Williston years, my father and I maintained a bed of worms, “the best you ever saw” said Bobby Sandlin who lived next door, the worm bed defining our property line. The bed was fed by the bantam chickens manure we raised in a pen my father made, by cow manure from the Elliot Whitehurst’s huge feedlots, and every scrap left from meals mamma made and the vegetables and leftovers from the garden beside the parsonage.
And people would come and we’d dig for them a hundred wigglers for a dollar, an easy task for there were thousands in big clusters when you turned up the rich compost.
When we moved from Williston to Lake City, like all our prior moves, daddy took a large quantity of worms to start a new bed. My father always maintained one where ever we lived, for he loved to fish. I don’t miss so much the digging, but I sure miss fishing with him in Pappy’s lake.
Sandman range
Sandman Range
We climbed and climbed for hours on end
It seemed we’d never reach the summit
We heard beyond there was this vast ocean
We flung our lives as to the waves we’d plummet.
O Jude
o jude
Johnclarestokes
in the latter years, came the cankerous men, burning, creating wastelands, removing the old landmarks, swarming, ravenous as locusts, wandering, devouring, in the aftermath, the drought came, in the parched wail, birthing, a new world, disordered, discordant, disconnected, decadent.
Library show
After dropping off the entries, I see that it will be a big challenge to win, place or show, with what I saw, especially Herb Ellis large monochrome prints. We shall see Tuesday.
Bless the zinnas
Bless the Zinnia's
by Johnclarestokes
Father I trust you will forgive me
For they were Dollar General Zinnias
Four packs for a mere dollar
And I am not even sure
If I can get them to grow
the way they would for you,
Even though from far,far away
the seeds you'd let me spread,
little colored buttons soon opening
to sauce pan size growing,
and we would gather up a bouquet
upon the altar bowing as you prayed
the repentant would kneel near
the zinnias between you and their tears
watering them
perhaps revealing why
the zinnias grew so greatly.
Oh father
bless from on high
the dollar general zinnias
with my efforts be pleased.
Ernest Stokes, father of Luther Stokes in Homewood, Mississippi
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