I rule the Principality of Randolph and no other
I stand unshackled by political thought and the misdirection of my fathers
I've no tolerance for the panicked Gen X , Y nor Z enlightened , for I
glow vividly in the darkened apparatus of my own tinkering mind as well
I hold a book of Sandburg poetry with my right hand ,
a mattock in the left , the hefty chain of truth around
my neck , a Cherokee rose in a left pocket , a revolver in the right
I am a firm believer in the barbed wire cattle fence , bone chilling
November front porch mornings with black coffee and biscuit
The call of an Iron Bell , the clear ringing notes of mournful Dove , watchful Crow and story filled Whippoorwill* ...

Cold , clear creek water hitchhiked from Alabama , caught a thunderstorm
just the other side of Anniston ..
It rode into Palmetto at the stroke of midnight , jumped off a wall cloud and hit the ground running !
Straight down Main Street taking everything it could carry .. Pine straw , old newspapers , bubble gum wrappers ! Oak leaves , bottle caps and fast food napkins !
The storm came and went , city life returned to normal  , a hundred gallons of well travelled transpired water now has it's eyes set on the city of Savannah ..
It'll bide it's time in the heat of Palmetto , laying in a storm sewer waiting to be called skyward ... A one way ticket on the 'Evaporation Express' ,
riding within an eastbound thunderstorm , dropping in on another little city to clean and cool the street , meet at the bottom of a hill to start the journey all over again ..

At the old downtown Theater a curious group of performers appear after closing time , a little after sundown !
The pipes of the grand pipe ***** make the stage their own ...Large ones , tiny ones and gadgets the likes you've never ever known !
Instruments of various heights , shapes and sizes ! Teeny weeny flutes and big oboes answer and call ! Vox humanas sing like the choirs above , Rooga horns from old cars sound off , little blue birds twinkle lovely alms ! Wood Flutes tower sixteen feet high ! Brass trumpets heard from miles around , contra bassoons big enough to blow a man down !
The clap of wooden horses crossing covered bridges , antique telephones and drumhead switches !
Lovely diapasons lead the show , big burly Reeds make the stage their own !!
The mops , buckets , brooms and dust pans dance as the entourage bellows , the music grows louder as the pipers come together !
As all the pipes blow a beautiful song , debonair Sir Console graciously invites you all to sing along !

My early mornings are akin to warm Carrot Cake
I consume them wolfishly then lick the plate* ..

Hill Country's trilling Sparrows warble every note on cue , recall every verse and chorus , render every improvisational tune within my melancholy mind with ease and by heart ..

I will apply your benevolent nature to my own grandchildren the remainder of my days
Instill your wonderful insight on Early Girl tomatoes ,
Sassafras Sun tea , love of family , Fig and Apple
trees
How a smile can say so much , a perfect word with -
a timely , gentle touch
The first week of July in the Blackberry thickets ,
bumper crops of sweet Georgia peaches , homemade -
ice cream and Watermelon evenings
Weekends filled with wonder and love of the natural world
Homemade kites , fried Sweet potato pies , picnic lunches
at Jackson Lake
For country music Saturdays , 'Tall Tales' , hometown Honey and Cathead biscuits

Winter fires telegraph days end , fog collects in low country in the absence of light , Hereford cattle call the day to close ..
Mill workers return home , hounds bay as auto taillights streak across the meadows ..
The music of night on cue , jet aircraft seek Atlanta , the orange glow of her city lights appear at the edge of sundown ..
Stars return at twilight to shower their radiance over rural homesteads ..

Make the transition from burdensome flesh
to inanimate light , not life in the physical sense
but as proud orbs that brighten our very skies ...
Traveling waves of collective understanding ,
a peaceful unbiased advanced order , relayed through
the miracle of time and space , revealed in a
civilization unlike our own through an alien prism
reflecting brilliant as yet unknown colors ....

And on this day when our afterlife is solved ,
When all fear of death is absolved ...
The persistent needs of flesh arrested ,
Our true purpose within the Universe shall
become quite evident ...

Pitch black nights , conniving 'Beast of Imagination' inch forward
with each lightning strike
The splatter of a thunderous shower takes command
over every sound in the house , all it's occupants
roused from midnight dreams , war rages overhead ,
the dog and cat jump under the bed
Our driveway is hosed and the roof scrubbed clean ,
the Peach trees are wind dusted and the pig pen made tidy and neat
The tomatoes are fertilized , the Squash brought back to life ,
our porch thermometer is thankfully on the downward spiral and the
Cicadas joyfully return on the hour with the Canary moonlight* ....

The crying sky with heavy afternoon crystal
drops of heartache tickling
sweetgrass mingled with newfound sunshine
With piedmont wine forming perfect pools ,
ushering streams to awaiting seas
A place to bathe for romantics like me
A home for springtide antics ,
for polka dot bullfrogs , singing daisies ,
red grass blankets and apple tree sergeants
Windemere spiderlings , crooning wood larks ,
hereford dancers crossing purple clover parks* ..

Tranquility upon this body of water , killdeer , blue jay , mallard and Canadian goose occupy her shore this Summer , oasis surrounded by urban sprawl , last refuge for young at heart , she mystifies to this very day.........I skip a stone across her wide , blue expanse in the name of all that protect and preserve her , young and old , and those in the nurture of the womb , with hope that they may witness her beauty in the days ahead ...........

Skirting the railroad opportunity along the cotton mill wall ...
Bagging shards of coal in a burlap sack , to light home fires , to warm boiled cabbage on a December night ..'Tis a blessing indeed to be filled ..

We must take life indiscriminately for nourishment , has Earth been used for this purpose                                                          ­                                          
Content in the Milky Way yet trapped in some cosmic food chain
Seeded , cultivated , harvested , stored
ingested , wasted and forgotten
A condiment grown in some celestial
garden
A spice to tickle some alien palate or its
'Blood thirsty dietary practice'
A cheeseburger under the lights
A Slim Jim at the Five and Dime* ...

Fireflies shine over the midnight world
Testament to creation unfurled , Angelic
orbs that kindle the glow of young thoughts
Loves first kiss forever held in our precious heart
Writing our emotions in the twilight tapestry
The promise of forever carved on a moonlit
'Oak tree tablet' for all eternity
Holding on to one another on a Summer porch
swing , a journey through the Heavens on a
song filled evening

A piece of the world made to
contemplate creation
A place to absorb the ****** light
of the heavens without reservation
Where Cherokee tears flow freely
from pink flower encrusted observations
To catch the breath of Pine bidding warm
salutation* ...

Lakewood Fairgrounds in '68 , Southeastern Fair has come again , in awe at every turn , magical , mystery , in view of Atlanta......
Caramel apples , cotton candy , corn dogs and dill pickles ........
Natural wonders and clowns on stilts , barbecue sandwiches and licorice whips .......
******* jacks and carnival music , a haunted house and fireworks at night , Ferris wheel ,  merry go round ,ring rubber ducks for a prize..  
Milk cows and barkers , horses pulling wagons , popcorn and milk duds , Cocoa Cola and peanut brittle !! .........................

A tiny brick farmhouse , on a winding dirt road . Brake lights . Geese announce a visitor ! Frozen grass crunching beneath the postman's boots ..Advertisement , gas bill plus a precious postcard ! Weathered hands turn aged , yellowed pages to file another memento . Class pictures and cut flowers pressed between gilded sheets bring warm memories .

Precious commodity on the planet , envied by young and old , the very signature of the affluent , a blue diamond in the night , a personal star awarded the few , pirouettes beneath the midday Sun , starlight awarded all the colors of the rainbow ! Her hours numbered , the sacrificial cool ambiance bestowed upon rightful delegate , her name is Ice ! Mans only hope in the ever expanding desert ! The ozone nearly depleted , temperatures at the Equator exceed one hundred seventy degrees , Winter in Nome , Alaska , fifty degree low temps , Florida has become a coral reef , Valdosta , Georgia , Dothan , Alabama are port cities with white sand beaches ! We are a nocturnal people , the high risk of melanoma , more than the current human body can take , Winter has become the time for vacations and family gatherings , schools run from two a.m. till nine a.m. , fresh water is under government control , unlawful storage of potable water or contamination of river , stream or creek is now a capital offense ! Bicycles are the number one mode of transportation for people headed to their place of work at Dusk ! A third of the Earths human population was lost during the initial fifty year period of the climate catastrophe , World Environmental Police are granted the power of Judge , Jury and Executioner , the world now focused on ozone replacement , a green planet now barren , brown with infrequent cloud cover , one hundred degree nighttime temps in the middle of Winter !

The windswept crackle of Jehovahs machinery
Honey sweet greenery with trolling titmouse
sentries , white contrails drawn onto blue canopy and
brown leaf melodies
Woodpecker percussionist tap the song of dusk
Songs of the rusty red clover valley
and golden sagebrush
Psalms of cardinal chatter and brown thrasher cackle
Bronze raptors circling sun -streaked hillsides flushed
in crepe myrtle , yellowbell and azalea
Where the purveyors of creation live , thrive and belong*...

for hummingbirds dine upon
fragrant vessels as dragonflies
fly haphazardly above
cattle ponds are filled with dancers
upon her surface
spring winds usher in the afternoon sun
leaves are returning to the cool earth
as young couples fall in love
brown hedgerows are filled with young flowers
gardens swell to dark green in summer showers* ...

Paw Wilson clutched his dressed Auburn Market hare waiting on a trolley
His Friday night reward from a long week of barbering
Fifty cent haircuts to keep his family from starving
Paw cleaned his dress socks in the kitchen sink
Ironed his shirt an slacks while he sipped a drink
He would fall asleep drunk at the kitchen table
Paw Wilson woke up at five bells with the music of Jimmy Rodgers , whistling , ready , well groomed and able* ..

A harsh Winter day , sweating copper , shoring ditches , sporting long johns and ***** coveralls , thankfully returning home to hot coffee and a chair in the kitchen ! Glance at a seashell on the window sill from Daytona Beach , recalling beautiful blue Summer days with Brown Pelicans , white seagulls and salt water taffy ! Ships on her horizon , children laughing with frisbees and sweet Summer memories ! What beautiful token from that magnificent coastland tempers a thick skinned , calloused workers train of thought such as mine this very evening ?

Along Peachstone Shoals
Morgan horses have seized the first light -
of the spring morning
Wild Turkeys call in unison , scratch -
hurriedly along wild rose , bramble berry -
camouflage
A stoic Whitetail Buck crosses the shallows ,
disappears into hardwood spring shelter
Fog steadily burns along the holler as red winged -
blackbirds gather for the noon feast o'er purple clover
passageways , tinted with silver-gray ballooning -
spiderlings , moistened by the warm breath of the -
promising new day harvest
Farm tractors scurry county roads in route to -
awaiting plowland , Longhorn cattle vie for the sunny
hillside ..

Brake lights , running a red light , pair of white lights , the reflection in Gods eyes , beaming across the blacktop , shattered glass fell from a crepuscular blue morning sky , now covering the parkway , North and South ! Critical victims lie beside the deceased in makeshift triage , birds fly in at treetop level , gather en masse ! Sirens wail , blue , red , yellow flashing lights send them on their way ! Blackbirds gather at behest of Satan , monitor heavenly host walking amongst them ! The certain sign of Angels in our presence , blessing the wounded , gathering the chosen ! Morning fog burns from West to East , sunbeam reflects off of a hosed down street . Glass , metal , plastic and rubber now burnt offerings upon a mechanical pyre , a monument to inattentive diving , speed in battle with common sense . Reason , atonement in a car crash , chalk outlines , photographs . Yaw marks , brake lights and eye witnesses , security cameras from nearby shops that pan across the intersection ? A twenty second piece on the evening news !

A punctual Jay
Announcing our afternoon rainbow overhead
Dancing wetted wire-grass
Commanding the darkened , woodland edge* ...

Seagulls in Newnan ? Most certainly so , I've seen them many times on my way to the store , Two hundred miles from the Gulf do they fly , meandering around town late at night  , at fast food restaurants in the wee hours of the morning , gliding in heavy winds,  just like the seashore ,  back an forth , some at arms reach , just like their family at Mexico Beach ..

Midnight insomniac gibberish ..
House as quiet as a church mouse ..
Cheap Wal-mart clock ticking like -
'Big Ben in London town .'
Two refrigerators and a basement freezer-
making more noise than Piccadilly Circus
Old brick houses and Oak flooring make
one heck of a ruckus !
If I ever went to England I'll be ****** if I'd
ever put up with this much hocus- pocus* !

Swaying Pin Oaks wave to me from
my window perch , a veritable sea of gold
and green in contrast to this dark living room
I remember these majestic Water Oaks as
seedlings , held upright by kite string and wooden
stakes
Cedar trees standing o'er twenty feet tall , Wild Plum
trees congregating for a quarter of a mile
Dirt roads at each intersection , a lonely state highway
for riding bicycles and collecting empty pop bottles
Watching afternoon Whitetail Does from July cornfields ,
carving walking sticks from Hickory , climbing
Crabapple trees for midday snacks , canoeing trips on
the Indian Creeks
Where do memories find rest as the body quietly withers away

Bo Goodin Reddy was a friend o' mine
Gargled in the morning with turpentine !
Ate catfish and drank moonshine ,
Worked like a mule on the old rail line !
Bo yanked a heifer 'outta Whitewash Creek ,
He could whup a black bear with a hickory switch !
Played five card stud till the cows came home ,
Shot a pine cone off a tree at a hundred yards                                                      Man could grab a rattler before the snake could blink ,    
Bo was more man than a man could think !

I'm sorry for whatever I've done , cannot comprehend your actions against  me or my animal brothers ? Why torture , leaving me in agony ? I promise I'll do my best to make you happy , if you could just release me , I'll not tell a soul , you'll never see me ! An act playing out as I write this poem , the mutilation of precious animals , one by one , assembly line mass ****** for flesh , broken hearted creatures , do you see it in their faces ? If you happen to meet a person performing these acts my advice to you would be to run like hell ! Men and women capable of such barbarism are the most dangerous animals on the face of the planet !

A deluge rendering fuel unpalatable , depressions carved in stone that trap much needed rainwater on the mountaintop . Men deploy natures gift of mimicry indeed ! Disguised as wolves amongst brethren , a dwindling pasture filled with sheep . Beholden to Shepard , encircled by a code of conduct , contained , commanded ...Inquisitive livestock possessed with the other side of the fence ! Dependent upon their leaders during the short , cold days of Winter , seeking liberty from self described oppression in the latter days of Spring . Gather shoulder to shoulder at Natures urn ! Continually imbibe despite their thirst having been quenched .. Intent to cull the mountainside of every blade of grass before weighing heavy against their boundaries , seeking new pasture ! Relentless yet defenseless , capricious , forbade of reason !

Black clouds circumnavigate the pine forest , trees cull their mouths for Summer rains ! Black crows banter in the welcome cool breeze ,  Bessie's cowbell clangs at the molasses lick ! Pie pans glide across the hayfield , scarecrow comes alive , looks right then left ! Nanny goat calls her kids to the pole barn , head rooster crows , brings the hens to order !

The breath of the world invites the 'Dance of the Trees'
Magnolias do-si-do with Silver Maples , Red Woodpeckers-
sway as Mayflies and Field Crickets square dance 'neath the Elm's ..
Brown-eyed Susan's perform ballet in the fragrant Georgia breezes
Young Bunnies whirl away the hours , Big Bullfrogs cha-cha
croak and warble , Hummingbirds boogie among the midday flowers
Lady blue skies and vibrant greens , Crows dance 'The Charleston'
beneath the Pin Oak Trees ..

Sweet evening dove
Are you in touch with your mortality ,
are you at peace with deaths totality , do you
harbor ill will toward the western sun falling down ,
do you understand sadness as you sing so blue and profound   Your a lovely , lonesome lady on a bell tower in a sleepy town
You bring a smile with shared pain as you make your evening rounds , a reflective lullaby blocking every twilight sound ...

Little Audrey is lunatic , clutching an album , a photo of her Mother , in Knoxville , excited and free she said !  .Audrey is falling again , without friend or flying high enough , encircled by vultures that portend her future , a downward spiral , catatonia that paralyzed her little wings ! Poor Audrey is gone now , closed doors , back on the spoon , peanut butter in her veins  ,  borealis visions made her cry , to be the apple in Mom or anyones eye !!

To see the world with the eye of a photographer
To know true colors and their importance in working together , completing the page , punctuality , knowledge of shadow , the art of location , background from forefront , 'twould help all of us quite well* ..

Beer bellied Romeos stepping up to the ****** trough so their three inch piece of manhood can stand up , wives in line two picking up Xanax for the month to remove all memory of Studs ****** inclination ..Morbidly obese people jamming garbage into their buggies with a case of Diet Coke on top to avoid excess sugar ? Suits with their cell phones pressed against their ears , getting the Tuesday night grocery list sorted out , wishing they could be anywhere else but here ! Fifteen cash registers , three open , twenty people waiting their turn....A bank conveniently located here to get the cash , to buy the trash , that makes you ill , got to get " the pills " from the friendly pharmacist running the drug mill here in Grocery We Got it All Heaven for cattle , looking like their in line to be branded people like you and I , checking off a list , loading our metal wagons , in our own little world , bombarded by marketing ne'er do wells , stacking high dollar items where a child looks directly at them ! Every **** item in the store is apparently discounted ! Save ! Save ! Save is printed everywhere ! Nobody's being saved here for sure !..Later ..

I play the guitar and write poetry because I
have to , it's something I work my way through
each night , emptying my mind on paper , a few thoughts
committed to music , score books penciled in , erased ,
odd collaborations reaching logical conclusions , the first note
becoming the last , a forest fire of a past out of control ,
easing the conflagration with timely prose , ascending , descending
scale combinations , every memory both good and bad streaking
past , the mad writer with his muse on his lap , disclosing his
theory , some nights writing his own obituary , as if anyone understood ,
melody is chopping wood for the instrumentally inclined , something
to chip away the night , something to help you turn off the lights ,
to dream , revisit , reinvent , work your way through to write again* ...

Carolynn draws a picnic scene on a frosted window
Spring kites untethered and sailing , the hope of winter rainbows
Of curled leaves navigating blue lakes
Of afternoon snowflakes , the call of mandrakes
The mystical smoke of garden bonfires weighing heavy
o'er broomsage meadows
Of whippoorwills that announce the coming of night , the birth of new stars in sparkling January sky* ..

Dazed , slumber mode
Late hour aggravation
Defective diode , electrical -
brain imbalance , television overload
Book weary , legal philosophy -
theory , fly swatter Republican
county prosecutors
Night cars bound for work
Greasing the soul eating machines -
of our Corporate government
Press conference Lead Monster wannabe
students of Plato
Cookie cutter American PlayDoh

Yellow Jonquils pose with pink Begonias
Songs from the canopy , cattle calling
clover fields , the hum of Wild Locust along
back country alleys , engulfed in Summer ambrosia
beside a quiet stream
In deep retrospection , praying for a connection
A psalm for Nice , Dallas and Baton Rouge
An hour of silence for the world too* ......

Let life be about good hot coffee with an English muffin .
Paddle boat rides and endless Summers ..
Cherokee Red Pop and ******* Jacks , playful baby goats and Sugar Smacks ..
Christmas mornings and roasted pecans , John Wayne movies and cowboy songs ..
Falling stars and evenings on the lake , whipped cream topping on strawberry short cake ..
Cool well water and fried pies , the blackbirds that etch the tangerine sky ..

I defy any man or woman upon the face of this Earth to explain color to the blind , hearing to the deaf , speech to the mute  , a peach to one devoid of gustation , chemical depression to the unaffected .....

Late Sunday mornings beside 'Rabbit rock' on the walk home from Scott Lake , across the highway down Hemphill Road toward beautiful Camp Creek ... Blackberry stained hands , prying waters in search of crawdads and mud puppies , jumping 'Bobwhite's' along the Pine forest edge .. Whitetail tracks in every direction , homeward bound through fields of corn and sorghum ,  summer sky filled with the glorious music of the Bentley Hill UMC choir , reverberating through the wisteria scented countryside ...

Dry ,  gnarled arms and hands , dandruff in this old mans beard would be akin to wind carved mountain rocks . Our physicality doomed , slowly disappearing one grain at a time , to be wiped off the furniture a hundred years from now by a meticulous housekeeper ..

The secret nuance of cloud multiplied with piedmont sunshine ..
Contours of tall trees darken green flora hallways , avian brethren
call deep within wooded settlements across a planet changing
with each second ..
Deliver me minus destruction , call my name in a whisper ,
defile not one molecule or leave one impression ..
Nurturing native life-giver , recall in fine fettle , Mother Earth receive
every seed with due diligence , cross not the inhabitant path nor remove one berry in trespass .. Meditate , Live , Love .. Mourn and quietly pass ....

The ice cold chocolate milkshake and the longstanding dichotomy of poet philosopher , musician and painter
Socrates would make a point as to it's rightful owner , questioning whether or not it was even a cold , sweet drink
Dylan would make it the focal point of a tune about a small town eatery
Picasso would paint a story of deliciousness mired in loneliness
Randolph would pick it up with both hands and gulp it down

Racing thoughts along the Atlantic alabaster , sea green -connection , sundown obscuring the curve of the earth
Wondering why gulls prefer the shore as Ghost ***** -
scurry for their awaiting sandy berths
Seaweed filled foam reaching the end of its destination ,
driftwood skeletons shadow white sand westerly creation
Venus sits alone in 'Sailor delight red sky' , North Star forever bright
Tonight a beacon light pans the open waters ,
A peculiar turquoise , emerald summer night collage

Busy Bluebird work songs , perched atop rustic farm bells
Maternal Thrashers and boisterous Cardinals thriving in sunlit dales
Forest of Da Vinci-esque brushstroke and Mozart timbre , living miracles pulled to Earths paternal floor , Red headed Woodpeckers tapping
on 'Heavens door'
May zephyrs spin wildflower mosaics , refreshed in the Water Oak catharsis , nurtured within her cooled forgiveness , lost in Mourning Dove musical
serenity* ....

The key to deliverance is lying in a drawer , beside a deck of playing cards and a cigarette lighter . A courageous solution , split second decision devoid of thought , arcane reasoning , the battle lost ? Catch a kiss , throw it to the ground , mingled with brain matter , blood and bone . Close red eyes , ride the light , in a parallel universe your at peace and alive ! Enlightened and immune to the demons of the mind , in tune with your surroundings , a second chance . Replaying the past , alternate roads , a Prince among men finding shelter in the storm ! Returned to the epilogue in the theater of the mind , changing the script , sickness resigned ....