the South – Page 3 – My husband's poetry

Folklore 101

May 6, 2020

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by

in childhood, Family, history, Racial & Social justice, the South, War & Politics

Grandpa said varmints nest in wood piles He made mom move the wood pile every week A snake or rat was never seen in their wood pile Something about southern cockroaches on steroids evokes Screams and thrown shoes from my wife and makes me laugh I moved our wood pile and palmetto bugs did not…

Loblolly pine

Mar 25, 2020

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cfblack

in humor, pollen, Spring, the South, trees

Dog tree sheds like a Siberian Husky Covers my clothes and shoes Desecrates upholstered lawn furniture Porcupine quill porch and window screens Dog tree leaves pine cones in the yard to step on Roots grow under feet to trip me Dog tree pollen chokes like a dog farting at my feet 3-25-20

Imagining My Northern Mother as a Southern Girl

Feb 11, 2020

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cfblack

in Family, flowers, Spring, the South

tulip trees and camellias flash spring fashion reds and pinks and whites my mother would of loved April and May arriving in February I wonder what she would have decorated her yard with I imagine a magnolia yellow day lilies and something purple like grandpa’s irises that bloomed in May she would have grown vegetables…

Shareholders

Jan 18, 2020

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cfblack

in corporate America, freedom, history, Racial & Social justice, the South, War & Politics

I rake dead leaves and pick broken branches from a city lot cut from a plantation corpse Land stolen by kings and politicians with a pen of cultural entitlement Cleared by a people stolen Currency of Atlantic trade Collateral in the bank Children of the dispossessed ask for a fair share of profits from land…

Cayce river walk

Jan 9, 2020

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cfblack

in Aging, childhood, light, the South, trees, water /muddy water

In shade of an eddy where you drank children fished for brim and sunfish with a cane pole and a worm every summer you leaned a little more above the river towards the light where no trees stood I would sit at your feet watch spotted newts hide in plain sight and ask you the…

Dressing for sleep

Jan 5, 2020

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cfblack

in Belonging / Loneliness, Death & Afterlife, Family, humor, the South

This morning, I read poem by a poet about the passing of her mother and the washing of her body. When my parents died the funeral home came and got them to prepare for burial It was all prepaid – just like in the ads on TV. The caskets and grave site already chosen. We…

Father Barzare

Dec 27, 2019

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by

cfblack

in animals, humor, irony, spiritual, the South, TV/movies/tech, water /muddy water

Father Barzare blesses 100 gallons of water Father Barzare loads it in a plane Father Barzare crop dusts his little Louisiana parish Father Barzare blesses saint and sinner Father Barzare blesses rich and poor souls Father Barzare blesses the cow, the pig, the chicken, the rat, the insect, snake and worm Father Barzare blesses the…

Conversation with a dying cypress

Dec 22, 2019

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cfblack

in balance, Belonging / Loneliness, Death & Afterlife, holidays, humbleness, sun, the South, trees

On the day before the longest night before the earth tilts back towards sun you walked high ground of cypress swamp among trunks stripped bare of green of fern, of leaf and vine You stood and asked questions of a dying cypress its root mound raised up on one side as if years ago it…

The quietude of wet

Oct 30, 2019

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cfblack

in animals, Birds, coffee/tea, daily life, Fall, friends, night, rain, the South

3 am, dishes washed clothes in dryer butter in coffee come sit and watch night from my porch smell the wet of moldy leaves damp soil and warm coffee the frost of autumn comes late in the South and that’s okay light rain drips – sparkles in trees asphalt can’t suppress crushed stone’s glisten only…

Category: the South