Reasoning
Everything happens for a reason,
Right?
Not that I can tell--
But  then
        I've been wrong before.

I'm Baaaaaack!

I took off more than a a couple of weeks. But I'm back. I've been working on a new script. I've been producing new plays. Working new jobs. Reading. Doing some oral history interviews. Doing some traveling. Preparing for and teaching classes. Volunteering with Hospice. Doing a bit of everything except writing poems. Well, today's my last day of "vacation." Come back tomorrow and see what's new.

Vacation
It's that time of year: vacation time! So I'm going to take one, at least from the blog. For two weeks, until July 26th, I'm taking time off. I'll go see some plays-- next up on my agenda is to go see THE WONDER TEAM at Pioneer Playhouse. I'll also be working on an oral project about the Looking for Lilith Theatre Company in Louisville. I'm producing the Kentucky New Play Series which involves premiering six (6) new plays by Kentucky playwrights at the Kentucky State Fair in Louisville on August 18th. Oh, yeah and I've started working on a new full-length play. I'm sure it will be a restful two weeks. :)

Cat Troubles
meow
  Meow
    MEow
       MEOw
Go Away!
          MEOW MEOW
I'm sleeping
me...ow

No Third Shift
All is quiet.
The lights are dimming out.
The machinery,
    presses and the like,
        have been turned off.
Soon it will be both dark and quiet,
    until the mice return from work
       and  begin to play.

Oldest Steer Roping Competitor
The man could rope and ride
   like a real cowboy.
But sitting atop his horse--
   gray bearded
    with a worn black cap
       and brown t-shirt--
   he looked more like a stubbed out cigar.

We are Insignificant

One of my favorite things about living at Roxford is the hugeness of the sky and my ability to see for miles in all directions. Thunderstorms are amazing to watch as they grow higher and higher, then roll across the landscape bringing much-needed rain, scary damaging winds, sometimes flooding. Whichever it is, the thunder and lightning always make me feel insignificant, a tiny being stranded alone on my hilltop.  ~Jeanine

It was a Good Weekend for a Poetic 'Jump-start'

Wow! What a difference a weekend makes. Was struggling to find something new to say after kind of falling into a mode of repeating myself. Turns out I just needed to get out more to find more material.

Jeanine and I went to Fourth of July celebration at Flat Run Veterans  Park where I managed to get some new material for poems. Some of that will disappear into my "never to see the light of day" box and the remainder will (if it hasn't already) pop up here. The same is also true of our excursion to the Harrison County Fair (last night and probably this coming Friday night as well). Some material will make it onto the blog, other material will just disappear.

It's good to feel renewed.

The Hippie and the Cop
Scraggly beard, tattooed and scruffy looking
   he was one vet with a long memory:
     "Jane Fonda Traitor Bitch"
said a patch on his motorcycle vest.
The cop with crew cut
    and an immaculate uniform;
he probably grew up a member of the school safety patrol
at his elementary school. 
He embodied 'policing by the book.'
So it seemed odd indeed
   when the cop mounted the hippies' motorcycle
and the hippie took the cop's picture.

A Veteran on the Fourth of July
Maybe 30 or 35,
  he walked with a
                 four pronged cane.
But was much younger than his WWII colleagues
  without their white hair,
      and no ride in the 4th of July parade.
He wore a blue fedora,
   that made him look a bit like a color blind leprechaun,
     and sun glasses
       even after the sun went down.
But he was down with Jo Jo Gunn
   and at attention when the flag was raised
        and "Taps" were played.
His story is untold, like that of many other vets,
   but his is an American story:
he stood up for his country
   when the chips were down.

Team Roping

Pursuers
   swinging and flinging their ropes
     captured the steer
       by horns and feet
in 7:08-- clean
Sweet!

Summer Teasel

Youngest Fair-goer
Toddling about on stubby
   pink cowboy-booted legs--
she was wearing more
   chocolate and ice cream
     than she'd eaten.

Barn Lot
Now reduced
   to a pile of wood and tin
the land on which the barn stood
has a new future
as a road
a building site
    for another barn
or perhaps
   a house.
Then again
grasses may be allowed to grow
and the place
become a crossing space for deer
opossums and the sort.
Or maybe a field mouse
may make for itself
a house and home
all its own.
    

Summer on Route 36
First
  I noticed
     bikined goddesses
        standing in the road.
Then I saw their car
"Do you need help?"
"It's on the way."
So ended my fantasy of being
 a  knight in shining armor
   to beautiful damsels in distress.

A New Month
Another resolution to write more.
Now if I just had more to say.
Before you decide
     to stay away.

God Laughed
Contrary to the evidence,
I put out the laundry
   filling the outdoor lines
     with shirts, socks, pants and panties, jeans and more.
In the distance
  there was thunder
    (as there had been most of the afternoon)
  which I gave no notice to
  before heading in to start a load of whites.
In the distance
  there was now lightning.
Again I took no notice
  (it had lightninged earlier, too);
I sat down to wait for the clothes to dry,
  the whites to wash.
Then the rain came:
  're-washing' our clothes
      washing gravel down the driveway
         and kicking my over confidence in the shins.

Struggling
I admit it: I'm struggling to fill this space. It's not that I can't say SOMETHING, it's that it's not interesting. To me. I know that that is the egoist in me wanting to satisfy himself, not his readers. On the other hand, I started writing this for me, not for others. Yet, the blog is now more than six months old (by a few days) and if I haven't run out of something to say much of it seems repetitious.

So, I'll continue to write. Continue the struggle.Because, let's face it, writing is a struggle. Sometimes the struggle is to find material, sometimes to find one word that will make something "perfect," sometimes to get the grammar and mechanics right and then sometimes (I didn't even know this problem existed) the problem is how to avoid sameness over a prolonged period of time.

I'll keep writing.

Please keep reading, and tell me how I'm doing.

Bill McCann

Factory Work
Wait
   for
     the
       part
         to
           drop.
Pick it up.
    Trim it.
    Stack it.
    Count it.
Wait for the next part.
Do this
    over
      and
        over.
Again.
and
Again
Come back the next day.
And do it for another eight hours.

Storm
Lightning
fills the window
   illuminating the wide outside
     and the intimate spaces
        of our bedroom.
Then the light is gone
   and all is dark.
Just for a moment.
Only until the next boom of thunder,
   the next burst of light
to be followed by
incessant
needed
rain.

Bright Lights
Under summer stars
   and stage lights
     a gem shines
in Danville:
Pioneer Playhouse.
Having given rise in decades past
  to stars of stage and screen--
Lee Majors, John Travolta and Jim Varney--
Recent years have seen
  playwrights ascendent:
     Liz Orendorf, Charles Edward Pogue
        and Robbie Henson,
whose father Eben put up the first
stage lights and dreamed of combining
bright lights
and stage lights
in Danville.

Foggy Morning
The house is shrouded in fog.
I can see only as far as the cloud allows.
Yet, I hear frogs croaking
   and birds chirping.
Soon the sun will come out,
melt off the fog
and give back the views,
as well as the sounds, that are
Roxford.

Sunset

Dangerous Roads
     Many are
     the roads
     in Harriso
     n County t
     hat if you
    don't stay
    between
   the white lines
you end up pushing
up daisies somewhere

Mowing
With each push of the mower
   each path made around the house
the 'jungle' that would otherwise
   surround us with its field mice, snakes
      and other critters recedes,
just a bit, leaving
a little bit of suburbia
in the field of dreams we call,
Roxford. 

This Morning
At dawn the symphony began:
  tweets and trills
     caws calling
        sound and response
from trees and grass and air.
I love the sounds of
early morning 
    in the country.

Fishing
For Fathers at Father's Day

Took my youngest fishing
   on the Licking.
We set in at Cynthiana's boat ramp
   floating along and talking some,
but mostly
   him casting and me untangling messes--
       pulling up alongside
trees and bushes
    to get hooks and find lures.
Finally,
    at the end of the day,
he hooked into a BIG one
it fought him all the way to the boat.
When he finally pulled it in
    we found a boot.
Being a good environmentalist I told my son,
    we'll pour out the water
    and keep the boot.
Why?
So we can help keep our river clean.
But won't it just go in a landfill?
Yes.
What's the point?
He had me there. But I still poured out the boot's water,
    and with it the only fish we'd caught all day.

Goldfish
Fishing along River Road:
calm beautiful summer day
the fish are biting.
Baseball game noises drift over to my boat
reminding me of what I'd be doing today
    if I, or my son, were still twelve.
Road noise.
A plane flies overhead--
  Cincinnati International is not far away.
Suddenly,
I hear a splash!
Looking at the river,
   everything seems to be the same.
I don't know why
  but I look into the minnow bucket:
a dead goldfish
  is floating amid the bait.
Now how did that get there?

Clouds: A Conversation
On their backs,
looking up.
How cool, Daddy.
What?
All the different shapes. There's an orange.
Oh, yeah. But this is Kentucky.
A basketball then?
Yeah.
There's an orca.
Okra? You like your Mommie's fried okra better, or Gramma's?
Orca. Like a whale, Daddy.
Oh. Where'd you learn about whales?
Sunday School. Jonah got swallowed by one.
Oh, yeah.
There's a tree.
And a ship.
Where?
Over there.
Oh yeah.
Dinner, boys!
I'm hungry enough to eat a whale!
Me, too, Daddy. Me too.

Mud Puddles
After a long dry spell,
   as we've just come through,
 mud puddles are evidence
   that rain has come
and stayed a bit.

Rainy Day
I play in the rain
  until I'm soaked to the skin.
Then I go inside
  and begin my day,
again.

Flock of Butterflies?
They swarmed
but were much too large
   to be butterflies.
Bright yellow and black
   they flew out of the locust trees
and quickly scattered:
   male goldfinches, I realized
only after they had gone.

Rain
At last!
The sky is a mottled,
    rather ugly looking gray.
But the rain falling from those clouds
    is beautiful!

Boy or Girl?
The sun rose in a sky
that was an equal mixture of pink and blue clouds
   as if God could not decide today
      whether He wanted a boy world
or a girl world.
So he gave us fraternal twins?

Snake Dance
Halli barks at a rock
   she barks boldly
then retreats
   over and over.
Suddenly the barking changes
   the retreats become longer
Ah, there's the reason:
a rat snake coiled three menacing feet high
hissing and striking back.
Jeanine
retrieves the unwilling Halli
and pulls and  carries her into the house
where a whimpering barking Halligan
seems to say,
"Let me at 'im, let me at 'im. I'm king of the jungle,
let me at 'm."

Halli the Herpetologist

Today Halli unearthed a six-foot rat snake from underneath the downspout by the back door. It was curled into a multi-curved S and striking at her when I caught her and carried her into the house. Now she's running from door to window to door, whining and yelping and yodeling, wanting to get outside.

This is her third snake, and every one she finds is bigger than the last.

Halligan the Wonder Dog

In case you were wondering about Halli, she's the biggest goofball on earth. Here's proof, in case you find Bill's poems a bit far-fetched:

She likes to play in the spray from the hose while I'm trying to water my plants. Leaping around like a complete derp, she bites and snaps at the water, ending up completely soaked.

This is the same dog who panics when it rains--let one drop of rain hit her and she is banging on the back door: Mom...Mom! MOM! It's raining, Mom! Lemme in, lemme INNNN! Mom! Mommy! I'm gonna melt, I'm melting! MOMMMM!!

The other day I got distracted by her antics and fished out my phone. Set on "multi-shot," I probably took 50 photos of her bouncing around, and here are the best ones. It's not easy to photograph a moving target when you're trying to spray a hose with one hand and not drench your camera.

All Bill's poems are true. She does steal clothes off the line. She does corner snakes under rocks. She does chase turkeys, and is amazed when they fly away.

You definitely can't say she's unhappy--being a rescue dog pretty much guarantees that a dog will appreciate living the good life in a home instead of a shelter, and her story is one of early abuse and neglect. But now? Pure joy.

Wash Day
The jeans came down
    off the clothesline
because Halli pulled them down.
Then she ran around the yard
   with me in hot pursuit
       trying to get my pants back.
I'm glad that Jeanine didn't have
   her phone's video camera going
      or I might have soon been watching Halli and I
on America's Funniest Home Videos.

Summer Sky
Thunder can be heard in the distance
        lightening streaks brighten the far horizon
But not a drop of rain for the tomatoes.

Are You an Ant?
The ant strode across the vast expanse
    of the white toilet bowl cover
and just as it was about the claim it
    for all 'antdom'-- or perhaps Pixar--
the hand of God
    (two fingers clothed in two squares of toilet paper)
reached out, grabbed the ant, and tossed it into the toilet.
Shortly afterwards
the toilet was flushed
and our hero sent swirling down the pipes
and into the nearby lagoon.
Once there
the ant crawled out of the toilet paper
and onto dry land.
Life continues for our hero,
in a different world.

Grazing
As I watched
the black and white calf
worked, cajoled, and finally
wormed her head and neck
through the
narrow
confines
of the hole
in the fence so that she could eat the green grass,
that was,
of course,
much better than what was available
on her side of the fence. 
Moments later,
naturally, she changed her mind,
pulled her head and neck, eventually, back through the fence's hole
and ambled off down the hill toward still better grasses.

Resolution and Updates
The month has gotten away from me and I didn't even manage an entry a day on this blog. Life intervened and inspiration didn't. Still, this is a new month and I resolve to do better. Currently, I am working on two projects: reading Stanley Fish's short, but challenging and revolutionary, How to Write a Sentence: And How to Read One (Harper, 2011); it is a book which will change my poetry, and probably my teaching. Also, I have been working on compiling my first book of poetry, almost completely from the archives of the blog. My hope is that that book, to be called Country Traffic Jam, will be published by JW Books later this summer.

Tradition
When the "lights" flicker on and off
    laughter is heard from children
       running around trying to capture
lightening bugs in a jar,
just as the adults watching them had once done.

Dinner Crowd
Dead raccoon on the road
Flies and maggots and other small beings
   are enjoying a feast
while a buzzard stands nearby
waiting for a car to pass
so that it can safely join in.

Changing View
Sitting at my workbench I watched
   the activities of birds and animals
       just outside the window.
But as it became dark out
   I found myself
     looking at my own reflection.

Circles of Life
The ground hog could barely be seen
    in the high grass.
He peeked around cautiously
    looking this way and that before exploring more.
Unseen by the groundhog
    was a hawk flying in circles and patterns
       undetected from the ground.
And still further above the fray
    waiting to see what the hawk might do
was a buzzard who was hoping that the remains
of the groundhog might be its next meal.

Election Day
It was a beautiful morning
  and turned into an even better afternoon.
But for one there was an unseen cloud lurking:
Elections have consequences.
There's a new sheriff in town!
  

Crippled Dog
For several days
Halli hobbled around on just three good feet
then she seemed to make a full recovery
and was again running about the countryside
at full speed.
Today,
she is again hobbling.
What did that dog do?
Sometimes, I wish she could talk.

Saturday Night
Between home and Corinth ...
  Possum
     Rooster
        Raccoon
            Buzzard
 Really?
    Yup... electrocuted
   and, near the Corinth railroad bridge--
amid the blare of blue lights and red
   and the stares of deputies, witnesses and the idle curious:
      a sheet shrouded stretcher
being managed by somber EMTs
who accidentally kick a beer bottle
that rolls across the road
and comes to rest
in the weeds.

Queen
I found Halli today
  lying on the guest bed--
pillows surrounding her
  like devoted minions
    or, perhaps, ladies in waiting.

Passing By
Standing on the factory floor
I feel the rumble and hear the whistled roar
        of a train passing by.
Moments later an airplane is heard passing by overhead.
Reminders both that
life is passing  by
      faster than ever.

New Pet "Owner'
Jeanine is gone
   to Colorado
so its me and Halli and Pinka (the cat)
striving to make it through for 10 days.
Yesterday Halli wouldn' eat
and the cat couldn't be found.
Not sure I'm cut out for pet ownership
on the spur of the moment.
This morning the cat came meowing
round the bed.
And Halli ate her fill.
Maybe I'll make it yet.

Fly Like An Eagle
Driving home after work at Bullard
   I want to push down on the accelerator and
          fly like an eagle:
Along the ridges out rt. 36
  there is mist hanging in the low spots
   and more as I drive up to the high ones.
But I drive slowly
   because my tire pressure is low
     and I can't get new tires
         until tomorrow.

Ostrich
Mist is settled on the trees
   rain is coming down
and I looked out the window to
   notice a pair of my jeans
        hanging on the line.
And then I saw the bird--
   small with white breast and brown body and wings--
sittting nearby
   looking down at them.
Looking up she seemed to look straight at me,
   "Aren't these yours? Well, get them out of the
rain, you ostrich."

Left Behind
Early this morning
    as the car,
        driven by Laurine--
mother and grandmother to--
 Jeanine and Siobhan (respectively)
      along with Bill (the cat),
and all their stuff left the drive
       on the way to Colorado--
for the ultimate "girls night out" to last
   10 days (9 nights)--
      all I could think
        was,
"What now?"

Summer Dawn
Lying in bed I see the gradual emer-
    gence of my bedroom furniture
and hear the competing symphonies
   of frogs and songbirds
   over the sound of our softly whirring fan.
Morning is slowly breaking.
 

Under New Management
Above the hummingbird feeders,
atop the  shepherd's crook
The goldfinch
   majestically regal in his
       bright yellow and black plumage
seemed puzzled.
He chattered.
"Where are my sunflower seeds?
What are these strange clear things with the little 'flowers'?"
He looked up.Then down.
He seemed to look directly at Jeanine and me
standing not five feet away,
 on the other side of the window glass.
One last time he chattered,
"Who moved my feeder?"
When we gave no answer,
Finally,
He flew away.

Beginning and End

Wildlife Encounters
Driving away from the house
   with Halli locked in
I noticed that the wild life
   had come out a bit:
a mourning dove placidly sat outside
  the living room winndow
     seemingly aware that Halli
        (despite her barking)
    was not a threat.
As we got in our car
   a tom turkey was graveling in the drive.
Moments later, we noticed
A box turtle
  plodding along up the drive
and as we approached,
it simply moved into the grass and kept going.
Meanwhile, I miss these close
encounters with wildlife that Halligan
so routinely prevents or disrupts. 

Spring Storm
For twenty minutes
   With the wind roaring
      and rain pouring down,
           pounding our poor house
                I felt isolated and
                    alone.
Then the rain stopped
     frogs and song birds could be heard
       the hummingbirds returned to their feeders
          and Halligan went outside
             to find mischief, no doubt.
Only then did things get back to normal.

We have not been posting lately-- illness and finals being at the heart of it all. However, we will begin again shortly. Meanwhile, take a look through the other postings of poems and pictures.

Pilot Truck Stops
Hummingbirds-- first seen
    dive-bombing Halligan-- are back.
 But  feeders, with nectar in them, are out.
Soon the hovercraft of the bird world will be focused
     on the red and yellow feeders....
Pilot truck stops
     for the hovering class.

Farm Life
Trees leafing out.
Grass growing faster than weeds.
Cars parked in the grass.
Bicycles leaning against the storage shed--
   Who has time?
Wheel barrows with stones and sand,
     or manure, 
           in their bottoms
A patio partially completed awaiting
    Elliott's strong arms and back.
Halligan chasing bees around the lawn--
   even if that takes her through
        where Jeanine and I are working:
she weeding the garden
me shoveling rock and sand
    and fixing the driveway.

Recipe for a Smoother Drive
Begin with a drive full of mud holes
        bumps and lumps
Add one each:
      road worker
      wheel barrow,
      shovel 
      rock pile
and
      rake.
Road worker should repeatedly
      follow processes below:
              Take empty shovel
              stab it into the pile of rock
              lift full shovel
             dump contents into wheel barrow.
             Repeat untl wheel barrow is full.
Take full wheel barrow to a mudpuddle
and dump in rock.
Rake until rock is smoothed out
(and puddle is filled up).
            Repeat entire process
            until drive way is smooth
            or until
road worker can no longer work.    

Possum
On a very dark night,
the possum looked up
as the car lights approached.
Slowly it put its head down
and with its red lazer-like eyes
giving a pink cast to its white fur
the possum continued on,
soon quickly disappearing
in the tall roadside grasses.

Rurality

Sparks
When lightning
       hit the light pole
sparks the world lit briefly
  before homes and lives
went dark
for hours.

Rain Storm
Standing on our porch
A cloud
    monstrously large and black
sat overhead
filling the entire sky.
Suddenly--from somewhere else--
a lightening bolt
zipped down
striking a tree
and
making the cloud
a thing forgotten.
Rain drenched us
while I fumbled with keys
trying to reach
the warmth and safety
of our kitchen
mere inches away.

Ripples
Toss a rock in a pond
   and the waves created
move in all directions.
Teach a child to love
   (or hate)
       and what you've taught
affects them and others
for years,
      generations
           perhaps.
  

How to Live Happily Ever After

How to Live Happily Ever After

Go amid factory noise and rock concerts, and you may not be able to hear your grandchildren giggle and coo.
As far as possible, never surrender your wallet to a friend, for it will be returned empty.
Be on good terms with all creditors.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly when required to do so in a court of law; when on  a jury, listen, for even the guilty have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they can beat the snot out of you.
If you compare yourself with others, you may realize how smart you are;
for always there will lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements, for you can plan tomorrow's accomplishments after you have accepted your accolades today.
Keep interested in your career; your paychecks pay your bills
Exercise cautiously, or you may wind up in the hospital...
but let this not blind you to what virtue there is in exercise, for the world is full of skinny people.
Be someone else for Halloween, for the holiday comes but once a year.
Especially do not feign affectation, for you will not impress others when you wear your Elvis mask..
Be not critical of lovers if they make you happy.
Take kindly the counsel of your attorney, for you are paying for it.               
Gracefully surrender your things to the youth who mugs you, for he can kill you.
Save a fortune, for money can help you avoid misfortune.
Do not distress over CAT scans yet to be taken.
Many fears are born of loneliness, so buy as many friends as you can afford.
Be gentle with yourself, for no one liked Marat Sade.
If you believe you are a child of the universe you'll believe anything. I have an ocean view property in Arizona. Wanna buy it?
And whether or not it is clear to you, I am a clearly superior being.
Keep up with the Joneses, for he who dies with the most toys wins.
Looking out at it from inside a Rolls Royce, it is still a beautiful world.
Be careful for someone is always working to undermine your happiness. Just ask  Max Ehrmann.

(With apologies to Max Ehrman, who wrote Desiderata)

Rite of Spring
Like parents and children headed to the beach
The family of Canadian geese--
       parents and four goslings--
walked down the driveway
through grass
      that often hid the youngsters from sight
to our neighbor's pond.
  

Abandoned House

What dreams were left behind when  the previous owners left for the last time?

 Writers Block
Surrounded by natural beauty of the farm
   I am sometimes overwhelmed
      by inspiration
but unable to connect that inspiration
      to suitable words:
frustrating!

What's Going on?
Last night's train
sounded like it was going
through our bedroom.
The night before the train
sounded very distant
and much more muted.
This morning, I looked:
the train tracks hadn't moved.
The train obviously hadn't change its course.
Am I living in bizzaro world?

Living in the country
I don't miss the city's sounds of
      traffic
      neighbors arguing
      loud late-night music
      sirens
      children whining
      honking horns
      babies crying-- loudly
      lawn mowers
On the other hand,
I like country sounds of
frogs croaking
whippoorwills calling
dogs baying and barking
the sights and sounds of deer jumping fences
       and crashing through high weeds
the distant calls of coyotes
the smells of skunk, manure and newly mown grass 
and even the "welcome home"
  greetings of moths
  at the back door light.
I think I'll stay a bit
longer.

Greetings
In the great silence
          that is a early morning
                                   at Roxford
Scattered sounds greet me
        when I step out on the porch:
   woodpeckers, in the far distance,
        hunting up breakfast;
crows "cawing"overhead
          and song birds making music.
Ah, the joys of country life.

Jumping Deer
The old steps,
that lead to nothing,
   stand less than 50 feet
      from our back porch.
One morning
    while leaving for work,
I heard a sudden sound
   and looked up
just in time to see a deer gracefully
jump,
over the steps
and
disappear
down the hill and
into the
forest

Deer Crossing
Like a businesswoman standing on a corner,
   the doe waited for me to stop the car.
Then it bounded across the road
   and was out of sight before I
      could even lift my foot from the brake
and press down on the accelerator.

Wading Pool Meal
Drifting on wind currents
   the buzzard patiently circles.
But when the bikini'd feast
   suddenly gets up off her raft,
the buzzard flies away.

Cat's Eyes
At the end of the couch
sat        the       black cat.
Her yellow eyes glowing intently.
I felt very lucky not to be a mouse.

Halli the Pit Bull's Latest "Find"

All the World Likes a Country Traffic Jam
Almost exactly four months after starting this blog Jeanine and I can claim that if you build a better poem or take a better photograph  (originally the word was "mouse trap"-- I know) the world will beat a path to your door. And so it is! Besides Americans this blog has been seen-- according to number of visits-- by readers in Germany, Malaysia, France, Russia, United Kingdom, China, Greece, Poland, and Australia. Thanks so much for visiting our blog and allowing us to share our small part of the world with you. Please return soon and often.

Bill McCann & Jeanine Lister

Sepia Toned World
Early today when 
the sun was risen
     just above the tree line
there was a golden haze
     of comforting warmth
around everything--
much like an old
photograph does to memories

Night Life
When the moon and stars are out
       dogs are baying
         and  frogs and whippoorwills singing--
What are people looking for
    when they seek "night life?"

Old Growth Blossoms
Went roaming among the red bud trees
   that surround our home.
The flowers bloom from the old growth--
   from the tree, not last year's additions.
Perhaps there's a lesson there.
  Am I right Col. Sanders?
     Did you say something Gradma Moses?

Wrong Profession
A teacher, a writer
of  32 years
today
I discovered
that I
chose the wrong
profession.
After fifteen arduous months
a yahoo,
at Yahoo,
walked away 
with 58 million dollars.
Now I feel like a yahoo.

Teddy Bear
Lying in the center of the bridge was
  a teddy bear--
       blue muted almost to gray by mud and water.
What brought it there:
     a three year-old's temper tantrum?
Flood waters
     of the Licking River?
Or perhaps just the fact
     that a teenager
no longer needs
protection from the monsters
under his bed?
      

Rejection
"We don't like your
      poetry
        short story
           novel"-- fill in the blank,
said the letter.
That must mean I can't write--
      so I won't, said the writer.
And yet another writer was silenced,
      another voice lost!
But,
       if you lost a single game, would you stop playing
           checkers, chess or cards?
Then why stop writing because a single editor
     is wrong?

Mustard
Why did you leave the mustard
    in the office yesterday?"
 Jeanine asked.
"I didn't,"
I said.
"It walked in there,
   all by itself."
"Uh huh," she said with a smile,
    while tossing it in the trash.
We both laughed--
   then fixed something other than
      hamburgers for dinner.

Winter's Comeback
Like an aging athlete
    or a "retired" politician
        making a comeback--
I awoke to winter's return
There was half an inch of snow
    covering everything this morning:
porch, grass, car . . .
Frogs were silent.
Birds quiet.
And for a moment it was
possible to believe
in winter again.
But the sun rose.
The world thawed out.
And like the athlete
and the politician pushed aside
by a younger colleague--
forsythia and red bud won the day.

Finally . . . Gone
With each passing day,
I happily notice:
Red buds-- popping out in bursts of color.
Forsythia -- blazing yellow splotches of color
Bradford pear trees leaves hidden among
     beautiful white blooms
And as the days pass
memories of
    the grays and browns,
       cold winds and
           piles of snow
              too long a presence
this past
win-
ter
fade
a
w
a
y.
  

An Example to Others
Be the Change
    you want to see in the world!
So how is it that I could operate on electricty
      instead of food,
 and set an example of how the
     world can run on alternative
         energy sources?

Wind and Rain
The wind rambled quickly across the roof
     and drain pipes
followed soon afterwards by
     a long drenching rain.
And when I got up the only evidence of either
     was my rested self
       and a bit more greening grass
and yellower daffodils.

Bicycle Horns
I heard them before I could see them:
"Honk" "honk"--like someone
   was squeezing pink rubber bulbs
       behind gold and black horns.
I looked around and saw nothing.
   Then I heard the sounds again,
      directly overhead:
geese, not bicyclists were responsible
    for the sounds I had been hearing.
Moments later the bicycling geese were gone.

After lunch
  I lay my head back
    closed my eyes
       and just enjoyed
          the warmth of the sun on my face
             and the cooling breeze
   before the honking and blaring of cars and traffic
      jolted me back to the reality of city life
  

Grazing
Driving home past a pasture
   I noticed three deer
      quietly grazing--
hardly giving my slow moving car
   any more notice
     than did the cattle
        one field away.

Mud Puddle

Questions
Halligan, our pit bull,
   always seems to give me
       more questions
           than answers.
Today, for instance,
   she came home
       with a turkey foot
           in her mouth.
What next?
   Later that same day she
    was seen throwing and playing
      with a dead animal of some sort--
           we never did find out
what it was because she went
running off towards the forest
below our house before we ever
determined what it might be.

Balanced
Last night I fell asleep
   to the sounds of frogs croaking
     and the distant wail of a train's whistle.
Today I awoke
   to the sounds of birds chirping
     and the distant sounds of a passing train.
Man and nature
       in proper balance.

Lighting Designer
Driving home
   the sun was behind
     black clouds
fringed with white ones.
The effect was of
   lights behind a black scrim
     with cotton masking.
Who knew that God
  was a lighting designer.

Reflection
On a quiet morning
    like today
       when  bird calls
            are the only
                noises I've heard
It can be easy to forget
    that I live among people.

Quilts
Tobacco barns
in our neighborhood
often have
wooden tapestries beautifully
painted
on their sides.
Of course, these quilts
are much too small
to provide warmth or comfort
Indeed, the animals within would sooner
have a muddy blanket
across their backs
than the cold perfection of human art.

Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'

Sunrise
Each new day
    brings possibilities
      opportunities
         and sometimes
           an end to yesterday's
dreams.

You Don't Want to be Charlie Brown
A single black cloud
   scuttles about the sky
      seeking Charlie Brown
to rain on.

Possibilities
In the moments before
dawn
the day
is rife
with
possibilities,
for
joy
hope
love
beauty
achievement
and
yes,
even,
disappointment.

Perspective
For those celebrating birthdays
   young, vital and alive:
The sun is glorious
     the wind is bracing
        birds are singing
as clouds scuttle by.
But for those in mourning
the day is gray and quiet
  with desolation
    and disappointment
filling the air.
Seemingly, the world will never to be
    as it once was.
Until with time
    it is,
      of course.

An Irony
As grass greens up
   calves and ducklings
     start growing
the death of a friend
   or family member,
     regardless of age,
      seems so unfair..

A Long Sleep
The lingering gentle rain
   upon my roof
      urges me to "sleep in,"
which I do without remorse.

Waiting for Rain
Gentle sounds of thunder
    roll across the heavens.
Clouds are mostly shades of
    blue and gray--
       though God has used some
white for highlights.
Even as the sky gets darker
    the shadows inside
       deepen-- lights are now required.
And still the rain holds off.
And
still . . . .

Seven Signs of a Roxford Spring
A moth at the porch light
Frogs croaking
Falling asleep to rain on the roof
Awakening to mud muddles
       where there had only been dust before
Mourning doves courting in the yard
Daffodils
and
Green grass!

Rain
Where
oh
where
is
the
rain?
Send in the rain.
Don't bother
it's
here!
(By the bucket,
no less.)

Around the Corner
It is a bright spring day
they day is warm
the sky is cloudless.
But when I walk around the
corner
I am hit
by a burst of wind
that makes me
believe that
winter might yet
make
a
re
appearance.

On Warm Spring Days
Everything seems brighter
   cleaner, clearer: nicer
people
roads
cattle
pets
everything!
Today it was warm
with a light breeze
and hardly a cloud in the sky.
Spring it would seem
has finally
arrived.
  

Moseying Cows
When cows go visiting
  down the road,
      around the bend.
Then neighbors meet
   to get everyone sorted out
     and back where they belong.

Writer's Block
When facing an empty
page
stare REAL hard
so that
maybe
just
maybe
the page
will magically
fill up
with
wit
wisdom
rhyme
or
something
else
that
is
just . . . .
divine!

Gravelling
Two crows wander
   up the driveway
     selecting bits of gravel
like a couple in a buffet line
choosing between crab and steak:
"Aw, heck, they both look good tonight."

Rainy Day on I-75 N
Rain falling from the sky
Rises again off blacktop
    propelled by cars and trucks
into sheets of wetness
that distort reds and yellows
and scare drivers
into driving more slowly.

Cemetery Angel

I.O.O.F. Cemetery, Corinth, KY

Footpath
Small bits of light
illuminate the path
from the porch
to the cars.

Many nights it gets
so dark here
that getting off the path
can feel like falling
off the planet.

And then She's Gone .  . .
Late at night
   I hear the sounds of galloping.
Is it the Galloping Gourmet?
   ("hedonism in a hurry,")
Or is it the Lone Ranger?
   ("...with the speed of light, a cloud of dust
        and a hearty "Hi-yo Silver!")
Closer now,
    I can see the source:
       Pinka, our cat!
And then she's
   galloping again,
      gone
 towards the other side of the house !

One Day's Weather
Yesterday was proof
    that if you don't like
        Kentucky's weather
wait five minutes.
At dawn there was a dusting of snow
   (hardly enough to know it had snowed).
By noon
   there was a snow squall
   (snow being blown around as in a hurricane)
By mid-afternoon
   there was a bit of snow of the ground
    (less than an inch).
By five o'clock
   the snow was gone
     (it was nearly forty degrees)
Today?
   who knows-- we might be living with Florida weather
      (balmy and 70 degrees)

Instant Blizzard

Just when I was thinking, "Oh, how nice--the sun is out. I should go open the front door to warm up the living room..." a black cloud rolled in and THIS happened. Instant blizzard!

       A Sign of Spring      
       Today's snow fall
    amounted to little more
        than the dandruff'
God's wife brushed from his
    broad shoulders as he
        walked in the door
           after a hard day
               last night.

Fire Lanes
Following  long lines
   of vehicles at night
up I-75,
   even at nearly 80,
is like following a series of
moving fires
    each ready to consume you
        if you touch it.

Early Morning Shock
I walked out the door,
       stepped onto the porch
and was embraced by a blast
       of very cold air!
Where has spring gone?
Where are the spring rains
       that herald the return of gardening
      flowers and summer crops?
Still in Florida
      with the rest of the snow birds?

How Now, Red Cow?

Soon it will be time for thunderstorms instead of snowstorms.

Hay Roll

Silent Treatment
Edging between Jeanine
and the wall
Halligan jumped out the window--
alright, it wasn't far,
ours is only a one story house.
Still, what could make her
     make such a leap into a black night
         without waiting to be let out the door?
The quest,
 it turned out later,
was possum stew...
or perhaps a field mouse
pick me up.
Whatever it was,
     when she returned
Halligan said not a word about it.

Watch Dog
The St. Bernard
    lay in shows next to an old tobacco barn.
As we approached she eyed us warily.
    As our car passed her
        she stood up and walked into the middle of the road.
Long she watched us
    to make sure we weren't returning
Then she went back and lay down in the shade,
   to await the next car.

Over the Wall and Far Away

Over the wall in an old cemetery in Renaker, Harrison County, Kentucky

If Wishes were Fishes
In my mind
I am
young
and handsome.

In reality,
I am
graying and overweight.

Oh that I might be
a bit younger
and that there were
a whole
lot
less

o
f

m
e
.

Bird-Feeder Bandit
It was quite a surprise--
    working at the computer
        less than five feet from the bird-feeder,
just outside the window,
Jeanine heard a strange sound.
Looking to her left
    she saw a raccoon--black eyed bandit
had shimmied up the pole that held
the birdfeeder
and was raiding the "icebox."
A bit later, in an act of vengence,
Hallie was put outside
to use the facilities before bed,
and off she sprinted hot on the trail of
our bird-feeder bandit.

Omen
Rain is coming down
  sideways-- and every other direction--
     so that soon flowers may bloom
and crops may grow.

Train Whistle
Lying in bed
I hear the long lonely sound of a train's whistle.
   And though it makes me feel isolated and alone,
        the sound also gives me
an unexplainable connectedness to places
unseen and unknown.

Parade
The hawk
   remained by the side of the road
      keeping watch over its kill
as Jeanine and I approached in our gold Le Sabre.
He kept his eyes alert
   as with every crunch of the tires we got closer.
When we were stopped
   not five feet from him
      I could see my image reflected in his eyes.
And still he stood at attention,
    watching as we drove away,
       the last float of a boring parade.

Childhood Lessons
Bozo the Clown
was interrupted
by Walter Cronkite:
      The President is dead.
My classmates and I
were eight years old
and soon to understand that
        childhood doesn't last forever.
Less than five years later,
after a night of swimming at
the YMCA with fellow
Boy Scouts
I learned that a
bigot with a gun could
         kill a Dreamer
                (but not his dream).
And then just scant weeks later,
on a Saturday morning,
instead of watching cartoons
I would hear endlessly
"Now lets go on to
Chicago and win there"
only to see
replays of confusion
and shots fired
in a kitchen
and learn that
Rosie Greer had a
life after football.
In 1968
"Tricky Dick" Nixon
won election as president
and became an exemplar of
the importance of peristenace
before,
in 1974,
becoming a pestilance
due to the 
Watergate Hearings
that revealed him to
have plumbers on his payroll
and paranoia
in his mind.
Leading to one
final lesson:
no one,
not even a president,
is above the law.

Wobbly King of a Very Small Hill
A brown and white calf
stood atop
the remains of a hay bale
on wobbly legs
hoping that a wisp
of wind didn't send it sprawling

Snow Day
I cannot help
    but look out on new snow
        with memories and dread and wistfulness.
Memories of a childhood
     of swooshing down hills,
         around curves
            and under fences
                   on a Flexible Flyer
followed by warming cups of hot chocolate
      and conversations reliving it all.
Today
    snow brings dread
       of slippery roads
            and other drivers
who may not apply their brakes
   soon enough to avoid me.
But mostly snow in the driveway
    along streets and hills
makes me wish I were 10 again
   not yet worried about idiots in cars.

A winter poem

Snow Designs
No
two
are
alike
on
windows,
just
as
no
two
snow
flakes
are.

Snow Storm

Snow Storm

Beneath the bird feeder

           A white throated sparrow

                    hunkers down.

                            Protected by a large stone

               juncos hop over her

                   seeking sunflower seeds before they are hidden beneath snow.

Meanwhile, cattle and horses,

        covered by snow blankets,

              lazily munch on round hay bale remnants.