Poetry

n fifth street poem #32   when we moved into this big empty house in 1970 the kids put up their homemade but genuine tepee in the spacious back yard a few of the poles were promptly stolen so they moved the tepee inside into the main room the one with the big bay window […]

back in 1981 a musical “The Endless Pavement” was performed on the new         SSU auditorium stage (not yet finished) 40 local kids in little cars they’d built The Great Computermobile controlled  all the humans the kids sang danced drove their cars defeated The Great  Computermobile it was a grand success jim grimes at the vocational […]

for 25 years I published a newspaper The Empty Nest News Letter it wentfirst to family but its popularity caused the mailing list to grow to 200 its masthead featured a bird  with empty nest later she preened the current news there was always a bird quote commenting on the contents (“hail to thee blithe […]

anniversary poem 2019 my daughter’s birthday is come around again sometimes I think it’s probably better she succumbed to her own demons  (though she claimed they weren’t her own) for if she’d lived how could she endure our present demonic days? nato/nafta threats   threat to her british birthland – climatecatastrophe plus human greed and need […]

a kind of glory my folks remodeled an old farmhousea mile from the dairy when I was ninemy cousin paul architecture studentwas a laborer every noon the workerscame down to eat dinner at our housethen sprawled on lawn floor couch eyesshut for the rest of their break all butpaul he sat at my mother’s grand […]

archival discovery #14 found my oldest sister’s well documentedbaby book the rest of us had semi-docsor no baby book at all in it jo’s mom wrote ananecdote: “Little Joan, 3, had heard us speak of playing cards but had never seena game. One day she called that she hadsomething to show me. I found her […]

TO THOSE WHO LIE IN BELLEAU WOOD This poem by my mother, then Vera Wardner,was read at a memorial service held at Bois deBelleau, Aisne, France, Dec. 25, 1923.My father was also there with 30 Boy Scouts, orphaned, who’d hiked 20 miles from Chateau Thierry, where my future parents were working. Both American and French […]

 Friend’s poem: Little Treasures A quiet morning. Just the sound of the fanand the ticking of the clock. Both comfort.You ask of childhood treasures. I think back,I see a walking doll. A dictionary. A partial setof encyclopedias. Paper and pencils. Discardedpaper sacks to draw on. Imagined housesin a friendly neighborhood. A jar of flashing lightning […]

tis the season poem #6 advent and hanukkah are now herea story: a student lived at my housea while back I found him rummaging inthe attic among his stuff stored therewhat are you looking for? my menorahI told my mom I’d use it I can’t find itwe both searched gave up returnedto the kitchen I […]

political garb poem #7 let’s give a cheer for ruth b g!what’s a rib, e’en two or three?we’ll wave our pink caps!raise some hollers!don our lacy ginsberg collars! ©2018 Jacqueline Jackson

personal eco-thanksgiving poem time to count blessings! I’m grateful toattain (so far) a ripe old age p’raps here’ssome credit: being a depression then ww2farm kid I ate no processed food frozenfood; plastic wrap not yet invented ourmilk was whole raw from grassfed cowsno growth hormones antibiotics in meat fruits veggies only in season strawberriesa treat […]

punditty poem my all hallows garb was total bluea blue wave kept wearing it thrunov 6 I sherrad with you nowI’m still blue thru all recountssims to me (if you axne) I’mnot disappointed with the schiffin power – by gillum I espy betoin our stars and a full nelson we’llwatch (with rbg’s film) the sinema©2018 […]