Body Beautiful

Those health nuts are a bunch of dweebs,
And doctors too, I’ll bet,
They seem to think a fellow’s worth,
Depends upon his sweat.

They claim that I need exercise,
That I’m no work, all play,
But they discount those efforts which,
I work at every day.

Exercising caution,
Throwing in the towel,
Jumping to conclusions,
Running off at the mouth,
Wrestling with my conscience,
Jogging my memory,
Flipping through the channels,
Going for seconds,
Pulling your leg,
Skipping the salad bar,
Pushing seventy,
Racing to the john,
Pumping irony.

I now have reached the perfect shape,
I have achieved my goal,
My body is my temple now,
My sense of worth is whole.

I will not change my regimen,
Not even if they beg,
Some folks want those six-pack abs,
I’m better, I’m a keg.

Bessie

From the foot of Lookout Mountain,
On the banks of the Tennessee,
Came a girl from deep depression,
With a spirit wild and free,
She crawled up from the gutter,
She performed in streets and bars,
From the time she was a little babe,
She was lookin’ up at the stars.

Bessie, Bessie, reachin’ for the golden ring,
Bessie, Oh Bessie, Lordy that girl could sing.

She learned from Old Ma Rainey,
How to polish up a song,
How to put her soul into the words,
How to bring the crowd along,
She sang of love forever gone,
Of poverty, loss, and booze,
She sang of lonely darkened roads,
She was the Empress of the Blues.

Bessie, Bessie, reachin’ for the golden ring,
Bessie, Oh Bessie, Lordy that girl could sing.

And then Fate brought out a hammer,
And put out Bessie’s flame,
And since that day on that highway,
The world ain’t been the same,
It seems no one has filled her shoes,
No one has had the fire,
Now she has found the Promised Land,
And she’s singin’ up in that choir.

Bessie, Bessie, reachin’ for the golden ring,
Bessie, Oh Bessie, Lordy that girl could sing.

America

What does America mean to me?
The land of the brave, the home of the free,
The gallant banner, red, white, blue,
What does America mean to you?

The Admiral of the Ocean Sea,
Finding a land where China should be,
Kitty Hawk, where man took flight,
Paul Revere, riding in the night,
The famous shot heard ‘round the world,
Ft. McHenry with the flag unfurled,
The Louisiana Purchase and Fulton’s Folly,
Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly,
The Mayflower Compact and Plymouth Rock,
Daniel Boone and his old flintlock,
The Constitution and the Bill of Rights,
The Golden Gate and Broadway’s lights,
The soaring eagle, our national bird,
Jackie Robinson sliding into third,
Thomas Edison and Henry Ford,
Billy Graham, praising the Lord,
Guadalcanal and Bunker Hill,
Johnny Appleseed and Pecos Bill,
The Pony Express boys bringing the mail,
Herding cattle up the Chisholm Trail,
Dashiel Hammett and Ellery Queen,
Uncle Miltie and Bishop Sheen,
Andrew Jackson and John Calhoun,
Neil and Buzz out walking on the moon,
Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration,
Guiding the way to a brand new nation,
The Oregon Trail and a wagon train,
Remember the Alamo, remember the Maine,
The honored crack in the Liberty Bell,
Tecumseh Sherman saying, “War is Hell,”
“These are the times that try men’s souls,”
The Great Depression and the Great Dust Bowls,
P.T. Barnum and Earth’s Greatest Show,
Bob Hope’s tours for the U.S.O.,
The American Odyssey – “Huckleberry Fin”,
Ellis Island where they let us in,
Valley Forge and that bitter winter,
The Sultan of Swat and the Splendid Splinter,
Gold discovered at Sutter’s Mill,
Belleau Wood and Pork Chop Hill,
Lewis and Clark on a three-year trip,
The Manassa Mauler and the Louisville Lip,
Lincoln at Gettysburg and his Address,
Little Round Top and the Wilderness,
Patrick Henry and Thomas Paine,
Humphrey Bogart and the Duke, John Wayne,
A shootout at the OK Corral,
“Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal,”
A picnic on the Fourth of July,
With fireworks flashing in the sky,
Doctor King, who had a dream,
The banner seen by twilight’s gleam,
Captain’s America and Kangaroo,
The Uncle Sam poster – “I Want You!”
General MacArthur who did return,
Liberty’s torch that will always burn,
The railroads meet with a golden spike,
“Win with Wilkie”, and “I like Ike,”
Manifest Destiny and elbow room,
The Unknown Soldier’s hallowed tomb,
We hold our freedoms despite the cost,
Emily Dickenson and Robert Frost,
D-Day on the sixth of June,
Dancing along to a Gershwin tune,
Prairie homesteads made of sod,
A single nation under God,
The greatest country under the sun,
Remember Pearl Harbor and 9-1-1.

That’s what America means to me,
The home of the brave, the land of the free,
The gallant banner, red, white, blue,
What does America mean to you?

My Dream

Last night I heard God chuckle,
It was in a dream I had,
Our Father up in Heaven,
Was laughing with my Dad.

The two of them were joshing,
With dear and long lost friends,
And then and there I realized,
True friendship never ends.

They were having such a jolly time,
Swapping tall old tales,
But as I stood apart, I felt,
The wind go from my sails.

There they were together,
And there I was alone,
I longed to gather up the gang,
And bring them all back home.

Then the Lord looked down upon me,
And He spoke into my heart,
He said, “Your Dad has never left,
No need to feel apart.

He’s with you every day of life,
He’s there each breath you take,
He’s a major force behind,
Decisions that you make.

He’s watching everything you do,
From his place up above,
He’s watching all his loved ones,
And he’s sharing in their love.

I know you miss your Dear Old Dad,
But you must know My son,
The world’s a sadder place these days,
But Heaven’s much more fun.”

Last night I heard God chuckle,
Best dream I ever had,
I loved to see how close they were,
Our Father and my dad.


I awoke on what would have been my father’s 85th birthday, March 9, 2002, with this poem running through my head.

My Yellow Rose

My Yellow Rose is gone from me,
A victim of the frost,
When winter’s wind has scourged the land,
And everything seems lost,
The world is bleak and featureless,
And life is bare in scope,
My garden is in dormancy,
Without a ray of hope.

I don’t believe in what they say,
That deep down in the earth,
Is a seed of love that holds within,
The promise of rebirth.

Late winter winds keep up the chill,
But the sun peeps through the clouds,
And occasionally, a burst of warmth,
Will thaw away the shrouds,
The garden’s still in silence now,
But in the new sun’s beams
Are rays of hope awakening,
From unremembered dreams.

Perhaps there’s truth in what they say,
That deep down in the earth,
Is a seed of love that holds within,
The promise of rebirth.

The early spring brings verdant hues,
With buds and sprigs of grass,
The snow is all but melted now,
As the pain of loss will pass,
And though I never shall forget,
What my Rose meant to me,
I’ve come in time to realize,
That what will be will be.

I think there’s truth in what they say,
That deep down in the earth,
Is a seed of love that holds within,
The promise of rebirth.

My garden’s filled with beauty now,
The flowers bloom in May,
And though my Yellow Rose is gone,
She left me a bouquet,
I see her vision everywhere,
She’s watching, I suppose,
The glory here reminds me of,
My Blue-Eyed Yellow Rose.

I know now what they say is true,
That deep down in the earth,
Is a seed of love that holds within,
The promise of rebirth.

Virtus junxit, mors non separabat

(Virtue joins, death does not separate)

Tupelo Jail House Blues

I got me a woman mean as can be,
She spends her time raisin’ hell with me,
She gives me lip and I can’t talk back,
All she’s good for is givin’ me flack.

I came home from work feelin’ worn and beat,
Hopin’ for a slab of good red meat,
I shouldn’t a whopped her up side the head,
But she gave me a tofu burger instead.

I always make the wrong choice when I chose,
I got the Sittin’ in the Tupelo Jail House Blues.

My woman was madder than I ever saw,
She picked up the phone and she called in the law,
The sheriff put the cuffs on and said, “Hey Sport,
You and I are headed straight down to court.”

The judge on his bench looked down at me,
Sayin’ “Son, you’re a menace to so-ciety,
I’m givin’ you five long years in jail,
Startin’ right now, no chance of bail.”

I’ve just been nailed and I got the screws,
I got the Sittin’ in the Tupelo Jail House Blues.

They got no red meat in this jail,
Just bread and water and the bread is stale,
They got no wine and they got no beer,
But they don’t serve tofu burgers in here.

Spend my nights behind bars and locks,
Days on the chain-gang breakin’ up rocks,
Missin’ the time when I was free,
And my cell-mate’s taken a liking to me.

It seems like I always get bad news,
I got the Sittin’ in the Tupelo Jail House Blues.

I shouldn’t have given in to all that rage,
All it got me was this cold iron cage,
If ever I get out of jail alive,
My woman’s waitin’ there with a Colt 45.

At night I lay here behind these bars,
Talkin’ to the Lord up there in the stars,
Askin’ why he gave me the life I got,
And the Lord, he answered and said, “Why Not?”

I tried to win but I always lose,
I got the Sittin’ in the Tupelo Jail House Blues.

Moab

I’m living in my memories and dreams of long ago,
Of the land that filled my childhood, and how I loved it so,
The cottonwoods in springtime, the aspens in the fall,
They held me ever thunderstruck, the beauty of it all,
Perfection unexpected in the crimson cactus rose,
That town in Spanish Valley, where the Colorado flows.

The red cliffs in their majesty, the arches made of stone,
They made me see the Purpose, and I felt it to the bone,
At night beneath the cosmos and the vast eternal plan,
Brought me closer to my Maker than cathedrals made by man,
To me that place was heavenly, as heaven only knows,
That town in Spanish Valley, where the Colorado flows.

I’ve seen so many wonders since the day that I left home,
The Grand Canals of Venice and the glory that was Rome,
I’ve seen the Alps at sunset and the castles on the Rhine,
But none of them can quite compare to that sweet home of mine,
The tempo of the canyons where the pace of living slows,
That town in Spanish Valley, where the Colorado flows.

Oh, I’ve been gone for many years, but do not feel apart,
That place is still inside me for there’s blow sand in my heart,
And in my mind I see it still, and all the folks I knew,
It was the land and people there that taught me what is true,
They gave me needed stamina to face life’s highs and lows,
That town in Spanish Valley, where the Colorado flows.