By SUNLIGHT You stand against the sky, today a springtime blue. Golden sunlight sparkles in your hair. That ray of sun, sent to Earth, raced through the galaxy at the speed of light. It landed here. It landed on you. ~ Cheryl Unruh
Fred’s Derby
FRED’S DERBY When I moved to this town, Fred’s Derby was the place for eggs and hash browns when the bars closed down at 3 a.m. Fred’s had been there forever, a long, white building, windows on the highway side of the diner, dead flies on the window sill, sad plastic bottles …
ABOVE US ONLY SKY
Today’s poem…. ABOVE US, ONLY SKY On summer days kids point to clouds – fiery dragons and sleeping bears, perhaps a dog chasing a butterfly. Far off, along the horizon, the sky sometimes makes jagged, purple clouds, mountain majesties, the only mountains we see in Kansas. Then October’s long barrels of …
Sometimes We Cry
SOMETIMES WE CRY On the city’s main street, wind blows things up and out of the gutter, half litter, half leaves. It’s winter now, January. Sitting in the coffee shop I hear “Sometimes We Cry.” Van Morrison’s voice scrapes the inside of my skin as it always does. We have a past, he …
What’s Next?
From a “research” hike earlier this month. Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve. Writing a book is like making a pie: it’s a lot of work to make one, but it gets gobbled up quickly, and then people want more. So, that’s a good thing, really, that people want more, but book writin’ takes a while. And …
May 29
May 29 For Marilyn Maryland, oh my Maryland. It’s her birthday today! My friend till the end: Marilyn. I could tell all of the stories – of riding around town in cars, of breakfast at The Rock, of telling tales at the lumberyard bench of machetes in the milo, of swimming in the horse …
Sunday morning in Emporia
I’ve been posting some of the poems I’ve written lately. Here’s one from Sunday morning. I wrote this while sitting on a bench on Commercial Street in downtown Emporia. May 18 Sitting on a bench along the town’s main street, two Harleys pulse the air in front of me while church bells at the …
Rain
In honor of the rain (finally!), here’s one of my poems that was published in The Christian Science Monitor. RAIN All day rain has held to the clouds, the sky turning from gray to purple to purple-blue and back to gray again. A soft wind, the breath of spring, pushes the yellow …
April 16
April 16 Oh wind, you’re such a narcissist – on and on and on you blast, a tiresome soliloquy of run-on sentences, reckless words that set the prairie afire. Leave this scarred and wind-scraped land, take your empty chatter on up to Nebraska, you’re headed that way anyway. Slam the door if you must, just …
Visiting Poets
The sky had been saving up rain for a long time – and tonight it dumped a month’s worth of moisture on us. Dave and I went out into the rain tonight and it was definitely worth the trip – to see and hear two excellent poets who did a reading at ESU. Dr. Kevin …
Porch Poetry
Dr. Kevin Rabas moderated today’s readings at the William Allen White House in Emporia – and read some of his own work. Rabas is co-director of ESU’s Creative Writing Dept. Roger read “November Leaves” and another seasonal poem. There were about 7-8 people who read poetry today.