Most nights, after I am asleep
You go out with your flashlight
And review things seen in day
Transformed like words spoken
First by someone you love,
Then by someone you don’t, Continue reading “Your Wild”
Your Wild
Tag: life
Sand Handle
We pulled on the handle
And went down to live with the crabs,
Burrowing in four-feet deep
To crusty water, the smell
Of ocean death and pincher,
Taste of ancestors crowding darkness,
The message of being sunk
Foundering us in the brine.
I have always wanted
To know what would happen
If I opened that door.
–Shaun Perkins
Windmill Water
I carry a glass bottle of water from home
When I go out. My well water is better than bottled,
Better than anything of purchase. After leaving
The Great Salt Plains, apocalyptic desert
Of salt and crystal, my bottle was empty. Continue reading “Windmill Water”
The Meaning of Grasp
The debris of white paint flecks in the golden hair
Of your arms is the garbage of love and light
–garbage whose original meaning was a “handful,”
A “grasp.” So I will grasp your arm, your hand,
Your chest, your body, and decorate myself
With your leavings, with your day’s work, and
Fill the nighttime world with the rubbish of worth.
–Shaun Perkins
I Have a Scary Story-Poem for You!
Howl of coyote, whimper of mouse,
Rustle in the grass near the poison oak.
Do you hear what she hears when you go out?
What’s in the silence between each frog’s croak?
Down by the pond where the creatures come
Ghosts in the air and the water shine.
The moon is new in the summer night
And black like the waters of a witch’s wine.
These are some sample lines from the story-poem I will be telling tonight during Ghost Tales at the Territory Tellers annual storytelling event! The Spirit of Oklahoma Storytelling Festival is in its 7th year at Seminole State College in Seminole. The festival starts this afternoon, June 7, and continues on Saturday, June 8 with a full day of stories and events, such as a silent auction, story swaps, and more. Continue reading “I Have a Scary Story-Poem for You!”
Poems for Tornado Victims
Some very well-meaning people are soliciting poems for a poetry anthology to sell to raise funds for Oklahoma tornado victims. Please don’t.
Material Reason
Say you manage to sell 100 of these books. The cost of making and shipping them will take up the biggest percentage of the money you get for the books. For a $15 book, you might make a profit of $1. Believe me—I know—I’ve done a lot of self-publishing. So, if you sell 100 books (very lofty goal), you will make $100. Continue reading “Poems for Tornado Victims”
Rural Oklahoma Museum of Poetry 