Hello Poetry
Submit your work and get some sparkles! Create free account
"idaho" poems
I march to a different drummer My life it is my own I'm an explorer of experience That is how I'm known I've seen snow in South Dakota I've been on the Vegas strip Had barbeque in Kansas My life has been a trip I'm a gypsy of the railways I'm a legend in my time I move on in a boxcar Brother... spare a dime? I've been through all the landlocked states Five provinces as well I've seen Niagara Falls all frozen I've seen it flowing fast as well I've had margaritas in Key West And Bourbon in Kentucky Craft beers out in Oregon In my life I have been lucky I travel on my stories Feed myself with all my tales I'm an explorer of experience I'm a gypsy of the rails I never stick around too long I don't wear my welcome out I come and see just what I want That's what life is all about I've railroad friends in Texas Some up in BC too We've shared drinks in San Diego And had a great Alaskan brew I'm not one to live by your rules I find my rules suit me fine I'm an explorer of experience And I'm riding on the lines You can find me down in Georgia Or eating spuds in Idaho I never know just where I'll be Until my ride begins to go I'm a gypsy of the railways I'm a legend in my time I move on in a boxcar Brother...spare a dime?
0
Feb 21, 2014
Feb 21, 2014 at 12:12 PM UTC
Gypsy of the Railways
New Year's Day 1:16 AM and my body is weary beyond time to withdraw and rest ample room allowed me in everyone's head but community calls right over the threshold drums beating through the walls children playing their truck dramas under the collapsible coatrack in the narrow hallway outside my room The TV lounge next door is wide open it is midnight in Idaho and the throb easy subtle spin of the electric slide boogie step-stepping around the corner of the parlor past the sweet clink of dining room glasses and the edged aroma of slightly overdone dutch-apple pie all laced together with the rich dark laughter of Gloria and her higher-octave sisters How hard it is to sleep in the middle of life.
0
10.8k
The Electric Slide Boogie
Blueberry lemon juice Gangly goose Cruel brew moon Roam Soft lovely Mary Sailor Taylor Your lord, sinking sored Vagon Ford Virginia east coast roast Most test Chest, mess Darling Dublin Idaho, Ioawa Cine noir Lullaby Mistic bee Free my blue at the noon Moaning soon And the ring mostly seen Chase my word Siren fog Heaven myths Lick a lip
0
Nov 13, 2012
Nov 13, 2012 at 10:44 PM UTC
The Dublin gangly goose rooster trooper troop
My body burns to rove far from man-made buildings, prisons for the modern soul. I need to traverse the frontiers white man stole from those who made it their home. I've been down to the Everglades of Florida. Fan boats flew through the estuary lines with roots of mangroves. I've been to the Hoh Rain Forest of Washington where fog descended on the shoreline and married the sulfur smell rising from hot springs. I must experience America's coast to coast beauty. Every spare seconds I spend luxuriating in the sun, thinking of all the places untouched. My list of desires grows as the glaciers of Glacier recede in Montana, beckoning me to the Rocky Mountain Peaks. Old Faithful gushes, surrounded by wolves and grizzlies. Someday I'll cross Yellowstone's expansive mountain ranges. from Idaho to Montana to Wyoming. On the arches of Utah I'll face my fear of heights and find solace at the tops of time-layered sandstone towers. Descending the Grand Canyon I'll study beautiful colors exposed by years of erosion. In winter Death Valley will be braved. The lowest and direst point will exhilarate me with scaled creatures as sand dunes whisper my name with every hot breath. The Badlands of South Dakota will hope I come backpacking through prairies to watch precious bison roam. California Redwood trees and I will stand side by side as friends. Yosemite will call me to her cliffs and I will chase waterfalls and sequoia groves until I've seen it all. I ache to explore the terrain that bears my name, the country I call home.
0
Apr 26, 2014
Apr 26, 2014 at 1:09 PM UTC
Ansel Adams
My body burns to rove far from man-made buildings, prisons for the modern soul. I need to traverse the frontiers white man stole from those who made it their home. I've been down to the Everglades of Florida. Fan boats flew through the estuary lines with roots of mangroves. I've been to the Hoh Rain Forest of Washington where fog descended on the shoreline and married the sulfur smell rising from hot springs. I must experience America's coast to coast beauty. Every spare seconds I spend luxuriating in the sun, thinking of all the places untouched. My list of desires grows as the glaciers of Glacier recede in Montana, beckoning me to the Rocky Mountain Peaks. Old Faithful gushes, surrounded by wolves and grizzlies. Someday I'll cross Yellowstone's expansive mountain ranges. from Idaho to Montana to Wyoming. On the arches of Utah I'll face my fear of heights and find solace at the tops of time-layered sandstone towers. Descending the Grand Canyon I'll study beautiful colors exposed by years of erosion. In winter Death Valley will be braved. The lowest and direst point will exhilarate me with scaled creatures as sand dunes whisper my name with every hot breath. The Badlands of South Dakota will hope I come backpacking through prairies to watch precious bison roam. California Redwood trees and I will stand side by side as friends. Yosemite will call me to her cliffs and I will chase waterfalls and sequoia groves until I've seen it all. I ache to explore the terrain that bears my name, the country I call home.
Continue reading...
32
a bottle of scotch had bad dreams. bullets twitch, junk sick in 3 inch thick mustard **** toe nails clipped from yeti lay strewn about the **** stained corpse of a motel six dixie cup - root canal trophy, next to a black fez with scab tassel upended. down in it. belching apnea propaganda and belladonna waiting for curious george to find a shotgun and a yellow hat and a brick banana. blowflies inhale the rank damp of a fresh **** the odd dog whines like a clown in - a blender. [ the ] house wins with a marked card; jabbing fat fingers into acned rosacea bloated with sleep lack and mortgage back stab chasing twenty ****** with a hollow point pull from an acid flask while hailing a black cab. tinsel sutures stitch eyelids as a mercy shattered bone knit hand-grenade cozies old glory, at half mast half wasted fifty stars, no light dragging on the grounds of immunity to do a line of coke stock with a basset hounds' finesse. your taxes at work in columbia, hiding from a lost farm in Idaho your american dream turning tricks in shanghai for a counterfeit egga roll your meme, devoid like an ice cube tombstone your freedom, parking cars for italian escorts smoking skin flutes for ferraris and white teeth. your integrity, sold to a hedge fund for astroglide and a pez dispenser packed with prozac pressed by ' Jose the butcher' s abuela in a narco slum that ain't seen radio since cinder blocks had wings.
0
Dec 26, 2012
Dec 26, 2012 at 2:40 PM UTC
Black Cab Charybdis
The envelope was red, white and blue just like the flag Betsy Ross spent days with bleeding fingers over so many years ago. It was addressed to me from an unknown sender. I was giggly, jumpy. Who would write to me? I wasn’t important. Just a seventh grade nobody stuck in a sparkly purple wheelchair. Mom said I could join. She secretly wanted her outcast of a daughter to have a sense of normalcy during her last fading moments of childhood. I just wanted to have fun. I wasn’t ready to accept that I was different. I knew that I was. The stares told me so but I didn’t want to be. The letter said that I could represent my fine country as America’s National Teenager. Me? All I had to do was show my ability by competing in a scholarship pageant. You know, a beauty pageant except it wasn’t being called so because adults are trying to be sensitive to teenager’s feelings because we’re more likely to be sensitive, emotional and prone to disruptive and potentially harmful outbursts. The perks of being a wallflower. Teenagers, we know this. We’re also not stupid. I and every other girl who would participate knew this pageant was nothing more than a beauty pageant; a popularity contest. That didn’t keep us from dreaming of becoming rich and famous, stop the crying fits, hormones from raging or acting like drama wasn’t our life’s goal and college major. Four days in Southern Idaho and an eight-hour drive to and from gave me plenty of time to practice my talent, an essay. Even then, I knew I had no real physical attributes. Instead, I shoved my fears aside and wrote, rewrote and polished my essay on America until my parents, teachers, and friends repeatedly had to tell me “that’s enough already. You’ll do great.” I made friends, told stories, laughed until snot came out my nose and answered the ever cautious “What happened to make you look that way?” I had the time of my life. I knew I wasn’t going to win because let’s face it, I’m not pretty enough. And just as predicted, I left with “Most Inspirational” and cried ugly tears when I didn’t come home as America’s National Teenager. Looking back, I was a real American teenager. I don't need a pageant to tell me so.
0
Aug 9, 2010
Aug 9, 2010 at 9:15 PM UTC
America's National Teenager
The envelope was red, white and blue just like the flag Betsy Ross spent days with bleeding fingers over so many years ago. It was addressed to me from an unknown sender. I was giggly, jumpy. Who would write to me? I wasn’t important. Just a seventh grade nobody stuck in a sparkly purple wheelchair. Mom said I could join. She secretly wanted her outcast of a daughter to have a sense of normalcy during her last fading moments of childhood. I just wanted to have fun. I wasn’t ready to accept that I was different. I knew that I was. The stares told me so but I didn’t want to be. The letter said that I could represent my fine country as America’s National Teenager. Me? All I had to do was show my ability by competing in a scholarship pageant. You know, a beauty pageant except it wasn’t being called so because adults are trying to be sensitive to teenager’s feelings because we’re more likely to be sensitive, emotional and prone to disruptive and potentially harmful outbursts. The perks of being a wallflower. Teenagers, we know this. We’re also not stupid. I and every other girl who would participate knew this pageant was nothing more than a beauty pageant; a popularity contest. That didn’t keep us from dreaming of becoming rich and famous, stop the crying fits, hormones from raging or acting like drama wasn’t our life’s goal and college major. Four days in Southern Idaho and an eight-hour drive to and from gave me plenty of time to practice my talent, an essay. Even then, I knew I had no real physical attributes. Instead, I shoved my fears aside and wrote, rewrote and polished my essay on America until my parents, teachers, and friends repeatedly had to tell me “that’s enough already. You’ll do great.” I made friends, told stories, laughed until snot came out my nose and answered the ever cautious “What happened to make you look that way?” I had the time of my life. I knew I wasn’t going to win because let’s face it, I’m not pretty enough. And just as predicted, I left with “Most Inspirational” and cried ugly tears when I didn’t come home as America’s National Teenager. Looking back, I was a real American teenager. I don't need a pageant to tell me so.
Continue reading...
36
To my dear son, Boaz in distant Idaho, Saturday nite, the whole of New Zealand waited in apprehension for the All Blacks rugy team to play the resurgent Wallabys @ Fortress Eden Park. The previous week at Suncorp Stadium in Sydney, in driving rain, the All Blacks muddled through a painfull draw with the Wallabys, 12 points each with no tries. The Wallabys had fancied their chances and had wanted an emphatic win on home soil. Both teams took that score as a loss and the gauntlet was thrown for the second match….. A brilliant evening, clear and fine , 50,000 people crushed in to Eden Park and you could feel the apprehension, the rest of the country sat in front of their TV willing the team on. The Haka was given a brutal rendition, you could feel the determination, the passion emanating….the Ozzies glared their defiance back…it was all on! 10 minutes into a titanic struggle with the score three all Captain Ritchie McCaw had a brain fade and was yellow carded off for ten minutes by the French referee. The crowd roared…then murmured their worry  like you’ve never heard before. The Ozzies mustered a huge scrum which the All Blacks countered with one man down…. The counter ****** pushed the Australian scrum back 15 ft. Every man in New Zealand was on his feet roaring, you could feel the spirit of nationalism soaring….the moment was a watershed. The All Blacks counterattacked showing a brilliance in attack and defence we have not seen for years… and from that moment on the game was won. Final score 51:20 The Bledisloe Cup was ours. As the match finished the TV camera panned across the solidly black clad crowd…. I have never, ever in my life, seen so many, simultaneous, sets of white teeth grinning! The trip home to Australia would have been… a very subdued affair. Thought I should share this marvellous moment with you Boaz. Luv Dad.
0
Aug 24, 2014
Aug 24, 2014 at 4:28 PM UTC
To my dear son, Boaz in distant Idaho,
To my dear son, Boaz in distant Idaho, Saturday nite, the whole of New Zealand waited in apprehension for the All Blacks rugy team to play the resurgent Wallabys @ Fortress Eden Park. The previous week at Suncorp Stadium in Sydney, in driving rain, the All Blacks muddled through a painfull draw with the Wallabys, 12 points each with no tries. The Wallabys had fancied their chances and had wanted an emphatic win on home soil. Both teams took that score as a loss and the gauntlet was thrown for the second match….. A brilliant evening, clear and fine , 50,000 people crushed in to Eden Park and you could feel the apprehension, the rest of the country sat in front of their TV willing the team on. The Haka was given a brutal rendition, you could feel the determination, the passion emanating….the Ozzies glared their defiance back…it was all on! 10 minutes into a titanic struggle with the score three all Captain Ritchie McCaw had a brain fade and was yellow carded off for ten minutes by the French referee. The crowd roared…then murmured their worry  like you’ve never heard before. The Ozzies mustered a huge scrum which the All Blacks countered with one man down…. The counter ****** pushed the Australian scrum back 15 ft. Every man in New Zealand was on his feet roaring, you could feel the spirit of nationalism soaring….the moment was a watershed. The All Blacks counterattacked showing a brilliance in attack and defence we have not seen for years… and from that moment on the game was won. Final score 51:20 The Bledisloe Cup was ours. As the match finished the TV camera panned across the solidly black clad crowd…. I have never, ever in my life, seen so many, simultaneous, sets of white teeth grinning! The trip home to Australia would have been… a very subdued affair. Thought I should share this marvellous moment with you Boaz. Luv Dad.
Continue reading...
17
It is undeniably human in how we constantly seek explanations for our problems It's funny, the way we blame the alignment of the planets for our mishaps and frustrations, calling mercury into fault for our own mistakes I have spent far too long searching for answers I will most likely never find to blame it on astrology Your hellos have morphed into avoidance and I miss the way you once looked at me like I was a single star in the middle of a loud Los Angeles sky I don't know exactly when you changed your mind or how and why but I do know that I haven't put the bottle back to my lips because the cool of it feels too much like yours Early on I prepared myself for the let down but that doesn't mean I didn't taste disappointment This could easily be an apology but I'm not sure what I have to be sorry for and the word is overused anyway This could easily be an I am still angry but I'm really not, just aching and tired of the aftermath that follows wringing myself dry I poured out all of my contents and you don't even have the decency to act like you could have loved me I used to light up like an Idaho sunrise when I saw you but now when I do I have to dig laughter out of the depths of my stomach to pretend I’m okay I am fading like the twitching light bulb in my room I am too weak to change You made the mistake of telling a collapsing ceiling its perfection; you said there was nothing wrong with the structure I watched you leave and then I caved in completely Gravity had been calling to pull down for some time so I guess it makes sense that it finally did My only regret is how quiet your smile gets when you notice me now and my inability to understand why I don't know what I did to create the dull in your eyes or what I did to make you stop caring I don’t know how we managed to go from pretend lovers to near strangers I am so sorry for something I can't comprehend, for something I didn't even do, for that which I am uncertain I am sorry that you changed and that I can't blame it on the retrograde of mercury Los Angeles has enough stars without me, I hope you find yours again one day.
0
Mar 16, 2015
Mar 16, 2015 at 4:52 PM UTC
Mercury
It is undeniably human in how we constantly seek explanations for our problems It's funny, the way we blame the alignment of the planets for our mishaps and frustrations, calling mercury into fault for our own mistakes I have spent far too long searching for answers I will most likely never find to blame it on astrology Your hellos have morphed into avoidance and I miss the way you once looked at me like I was a single star in the middle of a loud Los Angeles sky I don't know exactly when you changed your mind or how and why but I do know that I haven't put the bottle back to my lips because the cool of it feels too much like yours Early on I prepared myself for the let down but that doesn't mean I didn't taste disappointment This could easily be an apology but I'm not sure what I have to be sorry for and the word is overused anyway This could easily be an I am still angry but I'm really not, just aching and tired of the aftermath that follows wringing myself dry I poured out all of my contents and you don't even have the decency to act like you could have loved me I used to light up like an Idaho sunrise when I saw you but now when I do I have to dig laughter out of the depths of my stomach to pretend I’m okay I am fading like the twitching light bulb in my room I am too weak to change You made the mistake of telling a collapsing ceiling its perfection; you said there was nothing wrong with the structure I watched you leave and then I caved in completely Gravity had been calling to pull down for some time so I guess it makes sense that it finally did My only regret is how quiet your smile gets when you notice me now and my inability to understand why I don't know what I did to create the dull in your eyes or what I did to make you stop caring I don’t know how we managed to go from pretend lovers to near strangers I am so sorry for something I can't comprehend, for something I didn't even do, for that which I am uncertain I am sorry that you changed and that I can't blame it on the retrograde of mercury Los Angeles has enough stars without me, I hope you find yours again one day.
Continue reading...
21
Clouds are forming layers   The sky is turning gray Wind is dancing happily The trees begin to sway Creatures crawl inside Fires stoked up to heat Hatches battened down Prayers said for the wheat The ditches might flood Roofing will be torn apart But Idaho storms are lovely Like a beautiful work of art.
0
Dec 5, 2010
Dec 5, 2010 at 3:50 PM UTC
Idaho Storms
Desire woke, carried football kisses and barnyard blushes The great American pastime, getting ****** under the bleachers with a towel spread over the grass during the game Voices rip through the halls breeding rumors strong enough to plunge shame so deep into the heart of a person that it may never crawl back out through your throat, the venom spewing from your lips as dark as the blood spotted on the backseat of your father's car, that night Through the cracks in the armor, every girl carries this burden in her chest: *** is shameful, it's not to be talked about, and there are boys out there who cannot wait to take advantage of your one warm and vulnerable heart She found her own monster, one with blue eyes and a blonde ponytail like the cowboys in the movies, an Idaho farm boy with hot breath like the smoke of a gun, she gave him her secret when she was fifteen and at night she screams when she thinks of it, his ***** hands and where he put them, lightning sparks of the pain she can still feel, it sticks inside her and twists, the wound growing larger every day, she knows it will never leave, her own ****** spot to carry Patterns forever crawling up her spine in the shapes of his fingers, and someday when the one she loves drags his fingers there she will never lose the memory of that night, her promises to herself left broken and bleeding on the mattress, her crime of passion shattered in the wake of what she's done Engulfed in shame like ink dripping dark from her hair, she's ***** and she knows it, she's filthy and she swears they can see it in the bright ****** of day where she can't hide from the pushing and the smile on his face split wide, it's the Joker with his ****** grin She spent years falling for wisps of dreams she could never quite grasp, those fleeting Sundays fuzzy outlines in her mind, lust comes with a price she says, and she means it when she says that she will never love again. It was a contest, who could go the farthest without taking that final step. She lost.
0
Mar 2, 2012
Mar 2, 2012 at 2:10 PM UTC
out, ****** spot (trigger warning: rape/sexual abuse)
Desire woke, carried football kisses and barnyard blushes The great American pastime, getting ****** under the bleachers with a towel spread over the grass during the game Voices rip through the halls breeding rumors strong enough to plunge shame so deep into the heart of a person that it may never crawl back out through your throat, the venom spewing from your lips as dark as the blood spotted on the backseat of your father's car, that night Through the cracks in the armor, every girl carries this burden in her chest: *** is shameful, it's not to be talked about, and there are boys out there who cannot wait to take advantage of your one warm and vulnerable heart She found her own monster, one with blue eyes and a blonde ponytail like the cowboys in the movies, an Idaho farm boy with hot breath like the smoke of a gun, she gave him her secret when she was fifteen and at night she screams when she thinks of it, his ***** hands and where he put them, lightning sparks of the pain she can still feel, it sticks inside her and twists, the wound growing larger every day, she knows it will never leave, her own ****** spot to carry Patterns forever crawling up her spine in the shapes of his fingers, and someday when the one she loves drags his fingers there she will never lose the memory of that night, her promises to herself left broken and bleeding on the mattress, her crime of passion shattered in the wake of what she's done Engulfed in shame like ink dripping dark from her hair, she's ***** and she knows it, she's filthy and she swears they can see it in the bright ****** of day where she can't hide from the pushing and the smile on his face split wide, it's the Joker with his ****** grin She spent years falling for wisps of dreams she could never quite grasp, those fleeting Sundays fuzzy outlines in her mind, lust comes with a price she says, and she means it when she says that she will never love again. It was a contest, who could go the farthest without taking that final step. She lost.
Continue reading...
56
Times Square was once a ****** place; You wouldn’t go alone there. When darkness fell, you held on or You’d lose all that you owned there. Today, though, it’s like Disney World, With tourists, loud and surging. There’s not an inch of space unfilled Since everyone’s converging: The families from Idaho, The hawkers giving passes, The Elmos and the messengers, The bused-in high school classes… The lunch-break workers, homeless dudes, The theater geeks and shoppers, The food carts, cabbies and the cops And all the teenyboppers. I love New York; don’t get me wrong But oftentimes I wonder If gentrifying Broadway Might have been a whopping blunder.
0
May 17, 2017
May 17, 2017 at 5:59 PM UTC
Times Square
The P inside lifts to shallow pools of thirst and moving pictures. P is purpose, personality car crashes to park the private Idaho. A sign of the cross, will not stop P. Prove it to the pin drop puncture of ****** on heat, insecure to many tongues dripped in keroscene pantomine. P is pretty. P is pop. P is pandamonium. P is plucky. P is pink. Patter, panky, pips, puddle, paraquet, puncuation. Property is theft Parker, pity, purity, punt, plunder, ***** Past, paint, pander, pringle, puppy, pesky, pest, petrol, patrol, pamper, pastel, plunder, pongo, plip plop. P.................
0
Dec 19, 2012
Dec 19, 2012 at 3:25 PM UTC
P
Automatic doors part and he faces – with exposed skin brown and **** cloth – the produce section, little feet padding calmly across the cold white tile. He pauses before a bumpy slope of red onions. “Ahima,” he whispers. Low in the blue Idaho sky, near Sand Hollow’s green ground, a Grumman Ag Cat applies insecticide to an onion field.
0
May 9, 2013
May 9, 2013 at 12:02 PM UTC
Gandhi Enters a Supermarket
men would always tell me about the arcs of screaming air splitting through gaia’s hair, the heads of wheat falling, light shredding, and the sun bowing before Leah and her scythe this woman spent all her twenty one years in the fires of idaho working for her father preparing food for her brothers before their schooling. she was made to stay at home, and there she worked and washed and read and cut and crystallized business men in windup cars would see her off the highway her muscles swaying with the wind, treetop hair flogging the setting sun singing folk songs to herself in a falsetto that sounded like a rocking chair. these men would stop to chat, but soon realize that this Leah was burning too much for them. her heart was different from city folk and most country folk for that matter. her ventricles were connected through a series of crimson twigs and gnarled vines. it pumped like any other heart, but it would crack and wheeze anytime she left that farm. those businessmen expected that she would be enthralledby anything out of town. but it was the opposite; fancy gadgets bore her and snazzy suits and autos seemed like pointless little ornaments. she’d be more impressed by a man who could cut wheat like she could a man who could shoot life out of the iron earth and feed his kin with the pickings of his heart. but she never quite found a man like that. she stayed there, and let herself bleed into those idaho hills. the roots of the grain wrapped around her veins and her lungs breathed for the farm just as its rainfall pumped her brown blood. she never grew old that Leah, because she kept her crop so fresh. every morning she watered and plowed and every while, with scorching eyes and whipping locks she’d swing her scythe, and smell the breaking spines of wheat, and would quietly sing, like a rocking chair. Posted by David Clifford Turner at
0
Jul 12, 2010
Jul 12, 2010 at 11:19 PM UTC
Leah and her scythe
men would always tell me about the arcs of screaming air splitting through gaia’s hair, the heads of wheat falling, light shredding, and the sun bowing before Leah and her scythe this woman spent all her twenty one years in the fires of idaho working for her father preparing food for her brothers before their schooling. she was made to stay at home, and there she worked and washed and read and cut and crystallized business men in windup cars would see her off the highway her muscles swaying with the wind, treetop hair flogging the setting sun singing folk songs to herself in a falsetto that sounded like a rocking chair. these men would stop to chat, but soon realize that this Leah was burning too much for them. her heart was different from city folk and most country folk for that matter. her ventricles were connected through a series of crimson twigs and gnarled vines. it pumped like any other heart, but it would crack and wheeze anytime she left that farm. those businessmen expected that she would be enthralledby anything out of town. but it was the opposite; fancy gadgets bore her and snazzy suits and autos seemed like pointless little ornaments. she’d be more impressed by a man who could cut wheat like she could a man who could shoot life out of the iron earth and feed his kin with the pickings of his heart. but she never quite found a man like that. she stayed there, and let herself bleed into those idaho hills. the roots of the grain wrapped around her veins and her lungs breathed for the farm just as its rainfall pumped her brown blood. she never grew old that Leah, because she kept her crop so fresh. every morning she watered and plowed and every while, with scorching eyes and whipping locks she’d swing her scythe, and smell the breaking spines of wheat, and would quietly sing, like a rocking chair. Posted by David Clifford Turner at
Continue reading...
38
We stop our faithful car Halfway between both National parks Because the scenery Was too gorgeous To quickly forget. We sit down near a cow fence And you pick me a flower And place it in my hair, And I can tell everything With you is about the scenery, The message, the emotion. You’re an artist that never Turns away from the canvas. You never turn off the appreciation, The evaluating, the creating, And I want to kiss your Tired eyes, The ones that must dream Exhausting things All night and day, And now there are tears in my eyes And they sting And it’s because I realize How draining it must be To be so beautiful. You make me realize How similar we are, I see myself in you. Everything to me is poetry. All the double meaning And metaphor Gives me context, gives me life, Helps me make connections. It drives me absolutely insane, Being an artist at heart, And then in a twist of fate, That turns out to be Exactly what you want. Now we’re weeping On the side of the road Somewhere in Idaho, And you love me, And I know it, And it hits me hard for the first time, And I’m an artist So I want to feel it all. And we talk about love And our fears about death, How we’ll always be artists - Me, the mad one, and you, The sad one, and we laugh, With tears of every emotion, And we want to drink them up, And it’s like time doesn’t exist On this abandoned highway road With the unforgettable view, The unforgettable me, And the unforgettable you.
0
Jul 2, 2020
Jul 2, 2020 at 8:07 PM UTC
Unforgettable
And she says Nature is the devil’s church As I feel the birch trees Fall all around me And this land Seems to have an ******** From our birth From our pain And she blows her candles out Like dandelions in acid rain In Idaho fields Her own private shield In Idaho fields And if all that flies falls Who will be circling up top Who will be swimming Is there any plot of Earth Free from grid-demise Worth saving Worth slaving over On this black-top Spinning asphalt And she says All the world’s a trap The trees just create a map For the pandemonium tax And the breeze You best think twice Before you stare down The one with medusa hair In Idaho fields
0
Nov 19, 2011
Nov 19, 2011 at 8:38 PM UTC
In Idaho Fields
“Palm trees do exist” And like that I’m speechless Because palm trees are the definition of serenity And she can’t find that serendipity because in Idaho we have pine trees And fathers who are like attics Attics have ladders to climb so you can reach their expectations And sometimes his are too high If I had an attic I would cut every rung to its ladder and build my own Because I know where I’m going It might not be as high as you’d like But let me assure you I’m headed toward palm trees
0
May 12, 2013
May 12, 2013 at 9:38 PM UTC
Attics
I've lost count of the taverns Where my face has  kissed the floor at least twenty down in Texas Arizona, fourteen more twenty three in California In Wyoming, seventeen You can see there's lots of places I've been drunk But, haven't seen Kissed sixteen floors down in Nevada Twelve in Idaho Four over  in Hawaii and  in New Mexico It's not that I'm a fighter It isn't that I'm mean I'm just a drinker with a problem In the places that I've been It doesn't matter where I am I'm not selective, not at all I drink, I get in trouble I get hit, and then I fall I move around the country Kissing floors in every state I'm an alcoholic punching bag Kissing bar floors is my fate I kissed six in Massachuesetts Eleven more in Washington Twice, I ended on a table So, I just count them as one New Jersey I kissed plenty I lost count up in New York Up there the floors are softer Some floors are filled with cork Florida, I kissed the beach Seven times, at least I think One time doesn't count though I kissed the beach and didn't drink Lousianna, kissed a lot there There's a lot of floors to kiss I hit every bar down on Canal Street There wasn't one I didn't miss In South Dakota, can't remember Not too many bars around But, I did get in trouble once And yes....I kissed the ground Virginia, and Ohio Up in Minnesota too In Michigan, oh man oh man I kissed near twenty two In Illinois I kissed nineteen In Georgia, I kissed nine I found six teeth where I last fell And only two of them were mine there is not one location Where my face and floors have kissed I'm an alcoholic travel guide And I keep running into fists It doesn't matter where I am I'm not selective, not at all I drink, I get in trouble I get hit, and then I fall I move around the country Kissing floors in every state I'm an alcoholic punching bag Kissing bar floors is my fate
0
Jun 27, 2014
Jun 27, 2014 at 7:35 AM UTC
Kissing The Floor
I've lost count of the taverns Where my face has  kissed the floor at least twenty down in Texas Arizona, fourteen more twenty three in California In Wyoming, seventeen You can see there's lots of places I've been drunk But, haven't seen Kissed sixteen floors down in Nevada Twelve in Idaho Four over  in Hawaii and  in New Mexico It's not that I'm a fighter It isn't that I'm mean I'm just a drinker with a problem In the places that I've been It doesn't matter where I am I'm not selective, not at all I drink, I get in trouble I get hit, and then I fall I move around the country Kissing floors in every state I'm an alcoholic punching bag Kissing bar floors is my fate I kissed six in Massachuesetts Eleven more in Washington Twice, I ended on a table So, I just count them as one New Jersey I kissed plenty I lost count up in New York Up there the floors are softer Some floors are filled with cork Florida, I kissed the beach Seven times, at least I think One time doesn't count though I kissed the beach and didn't drink Lousianna, kissed a lot there There's a lot of floors to kiss I hit every bar down on Canal Street There wasn't one I didn't miss In South Dakota, can't remember Not too many bars around But, I did get in trouble once And yes....I kissed the ground Virginia, and Ohio Up in Minnesota too In Michigan, oh man oh man I kissed near twenty two In Illinois I kissed nineteen In Georgia, I kissed nine I found six teeth where I last fell And only two of them were mine there is not one location Where my face and floors have kissed I'm an alcoholic travel guide And I keep running into fists It doesn't matter where I am I'm not selective, not at all I drink, I get in trouble I get hit, and then I fall I move around the country Kissing floors in every state I'm an alcoholic punching bag Kissing bar floors is my fate
Continue reading...
64
Existence an exclusive dragnet In full production Operational destruction Within the dwelling Mass reduction Applied obstruction Void of causation Internal mutation Alien nation Self degradation On the street Compartmentalization Non fluctuation Auto narration Nonessential validation Superseded ideation While dormant Comatose automation Surreal anesthetization Feeble realization Pending extermination Attend the institution
0
Jan 24, 2015
Jan 24, 2015 at 1:28 AM UTC
Private Idaho
I can recall a simpler time when just spelling was the problem. But now D.C. has doubled down and is really scraping bottom. What did the humble Potato do To draw Pelosi’s ire.? Why are white potatoes banned From school lunches I inquire? Sweet Potatoes are welcome still on school kids’ lunchtime plates. But Idaho’s may not be served- That makes Michelle irate. Baked, mashed or fried There’s good inside the humble white potato. Potatoes of color are welcome too upon my dinner table. The Tuber is a starchy treat with vitamins and fiber. Whatever will the Irish eat If you toss it in the Tiber?
0
Jun 15, 2014
Jun 15, 2014 at 10:17 AM UTC
The Great Potato War
She entered through the back bedroom window . She said she had my key When I foolishly asked her "Why you crossexamining me ?" I dropped out of the University I got myself a steady job Working part time on the weekends It had benefits without the friends Then I spent the coldest winter Without any heat or bread I microwaved Idaho potatoes They called me "Tater Head" Now didn't anybody see Now was there anyone who cared Sunday was just another Monday When is a rabbit not a hare ? Well I found myself another girlfriend I was sure now of her honesty I came home from work one evening To find my microwave wasn't there Now I could have sat down and cried But I never had a chair Just some cushions on the floor Hot and cold roaches everywhere Now the future was looking bleak Winter turned to spring you see A thunderstorm turned tornadic Took my apartment away from me Didn't anybody see I'm sure that nobody cared Sunday turned into a Monday All I said was,"So there" . . . oh , my .
0
May 11, 2015
May 11, 2015 at 7:54 PM UTC
What ? It could Happen !
I thought I would never leave Again I fought so hard to return Home I found it not to be the lovely life I dreamed Crushed I still find the surroundings sweet Lush I miss my Idaho Love
0
Jun 25, 2014
Jun 25, 2014 at 12:25 PM UTC
I left my Idaho
It's snowing tonight, and I think ********* Dad, when Maryland beats Indiana and I move to text him. He's beyond snow now. So what do I do with these unbearable photos he took of me standing alone in the withered sun on monumental trains, I was six or seven, out by the rusting roundhouse in Brunswick? It's been snowing for hours & I carve a footpath out to the unplowed street to watch the shining gray banks under the amber light. There is no route to carve through this silence. My father was made of ghost towns, from Manzanar, from the endless pine-dark of Idaho's rivered night, from all the unmapped places, he grew complete in himself. And even now as I watch the snow slant and stumble I am left behind as his son apart from him and without. The snow dives into the night blankness and I wonder if I had died first, cutting short this reckless careless crooked sprawl, would he be writing here? The smeared gray glow of the screen across his hands, the fat flake snow rising like dough beneath the windows?
0
Dec 31, 2018
Dec 31, 2018 at 3:20 AM UTC
Snow Threnody
It was spring time after a long hard winter in Idaho and my family and I went to Nebraska to visit my folks. This was more than 20 years ago but in my memory is as if it were yesterday. I remember this time because when we arrived the weather was warm and my dad was still wearing his long underwear. He had not been taking very good care of himself and I offered to give him a bath. The long underwear came off leaving patterns on his skin where the underwear had pressed against his skin for a long time. While the rest of the family and visiting family were talking in the living room, Dad spent some time soaking and getting the winter’s accumulation off. He was rather pink when we were all done. I noticed that his toe nails had grown long and down under, it could not have been very comfortable. After getting him dressed in clean cloths we went into the living room. I prepared a wash basin of water to soak dad’s feet some more and got out my trusty nail clippers. At some point in the 30 - 45 minute process all the conversation going on around me disappeared in the background and I was left with the feeling of being at the feet of Jesus and washing His feet. It was one of those moments in life that defines something in your life that you haven’t noticed before. Even now, I can sit and reflect on this moment, which happens many times throughout a year, and imagine Jesus washing the feet of the disciples. It is difficult to describe in words the emotions of this brief time in my life. It had a profound effect on how I looked at those around me. The opportunities were there all along. I just had to open my eyes and “see” what God placed before me. We see what we want to see most of the time. Some place along the line, life changed from being “about me” to being “about Him”. It was so liberating and freeing in my spirit. Did anyone in the room realize what I was experiencing? No. This was something that was between my Lord and I and for a long time I kept it to myself. If I remember right, the day I relayed this moment to my wife, she had tears in her eyes. Maybe you have experienced moments that could inspire someone to be open in their walk with God. Tell them. You will be glad you did.
0
Jul 5, 2010
Jul 5, 2010 at 12:24 PM UTC
All Washed Up
It was spring time after a long hard winter in Idaho and my family and I went to Nebraska to visit my folks. This was more than 20 years ago but in my memory is as if it were yesterday. I remember this time because when we arrived the weather was warm and my dad was still wearing his long underwear. He had not been taking very good care of himself and I offered to give him a bath. The long underwear came off leaving patterns on his skin where the underwear had pressed against his skin for a long time. While the rest of the family and visiting family were talking in the living room, Dad spent some time soaking and getting the winter’s accumulation off. He was rather pink when we were all done. I noticed that his toe nails had grown long and down under, it could not have been very comfortable. After getting him dressed in clean cloths we went into the living room. I prepared a wash basin of water to soak dad’s feet some more and got out my trusty nail clippers. At some point in the 30 - 45 minute process all the conversation going on around me disappeared in the background and I was left with the feeling of being at the feet of Jesus and washing His feet. It was one of those moments in life that defines something in your life that you haven’t noticed before. Even now, I can sit and reflect on this moment, which happens many times throughout a year, and imagine Jesus washing the feet of the disciples. It is difficult to describe in words the emotions of this brief time in my life. It had a profound effect on how I looked at those around me. The opportunities were there all along. I just had to open my eyes and “see” what God placed before me. We see what we want to see most of the time. Some place along the line, life changed from being “about me” to being “about Him”. It was so liberating and freeing in my spirit. Did anyone in the room realize what I was experiencing? No. This was something that was between my Lord and I and for a long time I kept it to myself. If I remember right, the day I relayed this moment to my wife, she had tears in her eyes. Maybe you have experienced moments that could inspire someone to be open in their walk with God. Tell them. You will be glad you did.
Continue reading...
4