Kellie and I went on a hiking excursion last Saturday. I believe, though I may be wrong, it was our first real hiking excursion of the Fall and Winter season. We hiked the White River Bluff trail on Green Mountain Road near Allison. The first half of the trail is scenic. You can look over the White River from the bluff above Highway 5, and there are some interesting rock formations. The second half of the trail is walking through the woods just like any woods here in northern Arkansas, no bluffs, no creeks, lots and lots of rocks and trees. Who knows if we will hike the trail again? It could have some interesting flowers. Otherwise, my advice on this trail is to walk to the rock path in the picture above and then walk back to the parking lot. There is nothing to see past this point.
Yes, I have been away from the blog for quite some time. Primarily, I have been away for two reasons: (1) I got too sick of the ignorant, misinformed, and divisive political and social opinions being spouted on Facebook, which is my blog "connection," to look at Facebook anymore, so I tuned out. (2) My school semester was a semester from Hell. 105 students in seven writing intensive classes with only a very few students prepared for good collegiate writing. Folks, you don't have to read it here, others more wise than I am will tell you the same, but our primary and secondary education system is failing the majority of students, at least here in Arkansas. I'll not go into why because of Reason One above. I don't care about listening to people's political and social opinions right now, so why I should I expect anyone to want to listen to mine?
Hopefully, you folks are ready to read some more poems! That is what we are here about anyway! These poems are both from October 29, which was a Tuesday. I don't know what was going on that particular day, but I know that I went for a walk at the Fulton County fairgrounds/Salem City park area, most likely with Kellie and most definitely with Luna. You will remember the three Crow brothers. I must have seen them. We have a whole series of poems about them.
The Three Crow Brothers at the Gun Range
There’s them three Crow brothers
Beneath the gun range chair
A taking empty shotgun shells
And tossin’ em in the air.
“Look, I am a human,”
I think I hear one say,
“I throw these empty plastic hulls
At skinny birds of clay.”
“I am a human too,”
I heard another caw
While he stepped on a fast-food cup
And wrassled with the straw.
One says, “I’ll not be human,”
A half-chewed burger at his feet,
“I don’t know but I do think
They shit on what they eat.”
Crow brothers can’t be human,
No matter what they do.
I’m sure that they can’t copy me
But they might mirror you.
Now, I will share a poem for which I have no explanation. Can you remember why you did certain things a month and a half ago? Nope! Me neither.
Moonlight Harmony
The night world’s full of “mights” and “seems”
And tangled webs of motes and beams.
Where chaos flows, the moon folk need
To slow its rude and frenzied speed
Before they let confusion pass
Into the moon’s aerial mass.
The moon sits on its hazy shelf
And pulls all madness to itself
And gathers bedlam in its charms
To squeeze within its thin, white arms,
And when the blood ceases to boil,
It soothes the burn with almond oil.
Then, it strokes with loving care
The weary wings and tussled hair
Of moon folk who won’t make a peep
Because they are so fast asleep
Inside the moon’s eternal loving,
Their mind’s benumbed, but eyeballs moving.
Is it the moon or their minds’ wiles
That twists their sleeping lips to smiles?
And is it true or does it seem,
They only live inside a dream
That slips away like memory
As soft as moonlight harmony?
Don't forget that Uncle Boog and the Dogfight is for sale at Lulu.com and Amazon books. I haven't checked other online booksellers in a couple of months. Here is a picture of that cover. I still don't know why it looks so purple in the photo. The cover is actually blue, very blue.
Also, don't forget that the book of poems that we forged together Essential Words is available only at Lulu.com because of its large size. Let's see if I have the cover picture still.
Finally, if you want to read a great book of poetry that is a bit more literary than some of my more recent stuff. You should check out Atheists and Empty Spaces. It is for sale at any and all online booksellers to my knowledge and at Austin Macauley Publishing.
Now, I think I have a few minutes to go work on Aunt Charlotte's Crib. You can read the original version of Aunt Charlotte's Crib here on the blog under the Dewey Lynn stories, but I'll be self-publishing it as a book in the Dewey Lynn series soon.
Oh! One last thing! I haven't had a request for a poem in maybe a year or so. I still do requests. Let me know what you would like to read a poem about, and I will do my best to write one for you.
See ya!
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