Current poems published

These two poems appear not just here, but published as well in the Summer 2007 Issues of Artistry of Life, an online literary magazine. Besides the poems, I produced another essay as part of my regular column in AOL, and wrote the Editor's Message for the summer issue, for which I served as Interim Editor.


Kansas Golden Plains
Decades gone now being nourished
by sweat shed generations ago from
farming families tilling, tending fields
into abundance as Kansas golden plains.

Rise to set, seed to harvest they wrought
America's great bounty fired in the belly
by their honest labor and forged it onto
a larder that could feed the whole world.

Pioneers, pilgrims, proud citizens
persevering as unheralded heroes
they bore misfortune undiminished
with courage, faith, determination.

Noses scent the sweet, ripe grain.
Eyes swept windy ribbon-rows of wheat,
Corn, alfalfa flow in long undulating acres.

To overcome daily toil and strife brought
liberty to their life. They mark success in
humble nobleness. Confirmed heart and soul
in self-control, head held high in stoic reply.

Adversity ignore, faith implore, a reward Divine
honorable legacy enduring, God's Grace inuring
set them a holy place, gazing on His smiling face.


Dakota Buffalo: Evolution
At present...handsome, healthy herds
Bison, North America’s great wooly beast
Restored, revived census now at 600,000.

Graze safe on federal ranges, strong, they feed full
sleep like sheep ‘neath beautiful for spacious skies.

A bridled liberty it be. A once nomadic flow
secured and sequestered by federal mandate.

Surveyed, moves monitored, mating inventoried.
Stand eyes wide open in amber waves of grain.

This Century...laid-waste, freedom lost. L’mort!
Slaughtered down 1,000, a white hunters blood-lust
kill for trophy, severe heads, leave carcass rotting.

Rescued by enlightened men of conscience
apply rules of sciences , enforce legal decrees.

In the beginning...with a big bang
Free-rovers, 60 million, unmolested Prairie Kings
thundered in massive herds over Dakota’s plains.

Pungent their musk of careless, carefree wandering
Rumbling hooves beat out an anthem of freedom.

Revered as life-giving by native American tribes.
Great Spirit’s gift food, clothing, cover,.. and all.