Before Mark Twain knew he would
Always love Becky Thatcher the boy
Sam Clemens  knew her as a just a
girl in the neighborhood  Saw her as
A fellow child jumping rope giggling
To her friends Not his  It was the same
With me when I was small- there was
A girl Pauline with pigtails and very
Shy.  We never spoke but I just knew
She very nice and proper too much so
To notice  a mutt like me Such like was
The girlhood of my wife All she gave
Me was a sketch of a girl I never met I
did not know I loved her back then but
I know it now.  I know it now.

My Dad he not  long before  he died
Made her a bright tangerine colored kind
Of hassock that when you zipped it open
Four tangerine cushions were stuffed in it
It was carefully crafted something I
Could never make and She loved it
.  It was leatherette and a a little gaudy
where has gone to I  do not know
but I think .ll find it with  her in
Heaven where  Father  took her When I
Was faraway I loved her then and I love her
Now She  was the  girl for me; now  she.s gone
  l loved when I saw her skipping rope
n my mind
So long ago
I loved her then
I love her still


For Barbara

Would you move away
Saying I have sojourned
Heere too long.  This swamp
This desert  Yet there is this
It takes to get away whats is
Sticking you is that you do not
Really want to leave with what
You've left undone  Something?
What?  You have hidden from
Your eyes and heart that it is a
Place you Love Confess to your
Selt that it is true and you will
Get your pass  Say Adieu adieu
I go but something of my heart
I leave with you in this place


Who was it that said Bless Me Bless me
And I will let you go When Jacob with
the angel wrestled here on earth......


For Royal Manor and Memories
Of My Mother here

To know what love"s worth
Letl ove it go and though
It ibe but a  moment it will
Seem you travel thru time
Go from youth to old age
In slow time thru a land
Of grief and tears seeing
What love is not while in
Sharp relief knowing what
Love is.  Love is Forever
This moment shall pass in
The twinkling of an eye
What then shall be? All that
We thought was lost forever
God will restore to us again

Jack said Game Over
I am. and  Your Dead
Lonely and all Alone
He said what is the use
This games a ruse that
leaves me without a friend
He looked around ghosts
All about.  So one by one
He bid them rise All the ones
He had known as friends now
Gone  Again with him to live
Another day; He said never
Again shall I play a game where
To win means saying no to love

Once there was a garden It is
Still there very near here We
Can smell its fragrance sometimes
Of honey suckle  mixed with roses as it
Comes to us upon the summer breezes
But without innocence we cannot
Enter in    Romulus and Remus suckled
Upon the she wolf teats They were babes
Knew no better than  that she was kind to
Them  Are they not our brothers too in the
Long ago when we  too dwelled there in
Were naked and  unafraid  A parable is
A metaphor to dress the truth and make it
More acceptable to some ears than what
Simple innocence  would make clear.  It
Will be with tears that we douse the fiery
Cherubs "s flames that guard the gates of
Paradise where once we walked naked and
Unashamed and knew then the purest face
Of love that we would ever know the gift
that was our beginning  to be as God  made
Us as He makes us even now dressed only in
Our Innocence that no apple comes between
That I knew not the truth I spoke not the truth
With tears of sorrow and joy I know He has
Opened the gates as if they were never there
Is this not my Father  the Father that I love

From a pallet of black and white
Sketching with my mind making
A poem which you must color in
Out of the of a dimly lit consciousness
The yet unborn is given form an idea a
Meaning that needs expression to be made
Clear Important as it once was such as
Charity when first she sprang from the
Human heart as Divine love  The Child
That was forgotten returned to the womb
The seed was planted before time began is
A new creation that I but sketch in prayer
That you may know her in all her glory


For  Debbie Ann

Do not be mad that I called you mad
I am mad too  Has it not been said:
that two negatives make a positive
Yet we shall rejoice in one another