Assorted Poems (With Nuts)

By Jerrel Dean Parent

The poems selected for this volume are politically incorrect, spiritual, whimsical, clever, and charming. What else would one expect from the youngest of ten siblings who lived in holey-roofed houses, picked spinach and cotton, and rode stick horses; or from a man who jumped out of airplanes wanting to be a hero, survived a car wreck which rearranged his face and body, quit drinking at age fifty, divorced and remarried, learned to play the piano, took up drawing and oil painting, and delved into the works of Carl Jung, resulting in an acute psychotic episode and an early retirement. He is currently dealing with memory loss and autumn leaves.

Jerrel has written thousands of poems that reflect the disparity of his nature and interests. In arranging this book for him an assortment of topics and moods fell naturally into place. As it says in his poem, The Writer:

Words tumbled from his pen like rocks in an avalanche,
The only obvious meaning is something came loose higher up

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Dec 24, 2008
• ISBN: 9781440116186

Jerrel Dean Parent

Jerrel Dean Parent was an army paratrooper (Korea), took his MS from Oklahoma State University, and is retired from Rehabilitative Services. His children are Terence, Douglas, Hayley (deceased), and Stacy. He has five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. He lives in Chouteau, Oklahoma, with his wife, Linda, and their three cats.

Book preview

Assorted Poems(With Nuts)

Jerrel Dean Parent

iUniverse, Inc.

New York Bloomington

Assorted Poems (With Nuts)

Copyright © 2008 by Linda Parent

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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ISBN: 978-1-4401-1226-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4401-1618-6 (ebook)

Printed in the United States of America

iUniverse rev. date: 12/15/2008

Contents

How Could I Bless You Now?

Twilight in Autumn of Life

Maple Autumn

All He Giveth

Life Goes On So Delicately

Sunset

I Bow to Reason

Humor and Sadness

No One Knows

Sweet Violet

Light Snow Arrived

My Soul Cries

Lead Us On

Bumblebee

Peach on Earth

A Streaming Glimpse of Childhood

Orangutans

Greenhouse Effect

The Nature of Things

Scientists Estimate 15 Billion Years

The Philosopher’s Stone

I’ve Heard Hank Sing the Lovesick Blues

Ginger

Nothing More

Extraordinary People

This Far

Backtracking Life’s Trail

The New Old Age

I Saw a Fat and Balding Man

Chance

Beware

Put Together

Death Is the Angel Who Follows

The Poet

The Baby Seal Is Number Ten

Sing to Me of the Universe

Idea Man

What Absurdities Lurk in One’s Mind

Dough World

Winter Coming On

I Was a Boy with Cheeks of Tan

Dirty Creek

Lost at the Exit

Redemption

Whose Bird Is That?

The Things I Do

Philosophy

The Solitary Green Heron

Why I Don’t Own a Dog

The Flight of the Firefly

Aspirations

I’ll Take One Please

Go Tell the Birds and Bees

Deception

The Phone Call

To Laugh or Cry

The Only Friend Left

Ferris Wheel

Turn Back the Pages

What Is Man That Crawls?

Jest for Lolita

As the Wind Blows

Asparagus Sprang Up

Enough Already

My Ideal

Family

Fact and Fancy

While on One Level of Hell

I’ve Learned

Serpent’s Power

The Lower Levels

Doe and Coyote

Wild Goose Flying High Tonight

To Undo the Past Is Individual Quirk

Coming Through the Lie

The Plotted Line

Dream

Poor Whites

Childhood

Millennium

Who Put the Moo in Music?

Walk in Late Summer

Virginia Creeper

Country Music

So Many Things We Have Are Cute

I Like Old Cats and Old Trees

Rapture

Give Me One More Crumb of Bread

The Occult

Yes, I’ve Wandered Through the Skies

Psychosis

I Thought the Day Was Gloom

The Roads in Hades

I See You There Standing

Hallucinations

The Hen

Put Your Ducks in Order

The Consequence

Symbols

Balloons

Loosen Up

Therapy Class

Creative Urge

Don’t Check the Buttons

The Bow-Backed Ash

The Same Book

The Old Man’s Room After Death

Meditation

We Fall in Love Because

If I Were Light Itself

Hearts of Clay

Love Is Like the Evening Still

Reckoning

Standing Here in Eternity

Suffer Fools Gladly

I Am a Seashell in a Mirror

Take Life as It Comes

You Had the Orbiting Outer Shell

To Walk in Mud Among Tall Grass

Spring Fever Comes Before Spring

To Curse and Scream or Pull My Hair

Body and Soul

All I Wanted to Say Is I Love You

The Magic of a Kiss

It’s Hard to Rope a Snake

All My Life I’ve Been a Fool

My Song

Note Dropped from a High Rise Apartment

All Is as It Should Be

Titmouse and Robin

Cosmic Omelet

The New Age

Bright Is the Light That Follows Me

Despair

Bone for the Anthropologist

Let Me Look Again into the Abyss

Judgment, Faith and Mercy

Dust unto Dust the Kingdoms Fall

Age Seems to Be Overcoming Me

One Sad Day

Another Spin

I Finally Left This Jolly World

Nevermore

O Make the Pigeons Fly Again Today

Science Is Now Apocalyptic

Caught in the Matter of Earth

Poor Creatures of the Earth

Life Is a Ferry Boat

Slaughter

How Evil Works

Some Are Called

Into the Abyss

Without End

The Bear

The Rocks Cry Out

Come into the Garden of the Soul

Tie Me to My Naval Cord Again

Life Is Man’s Greatest Hoax

Against Life

A Mere Particle Is My Soul

If I Should Live to Be Old

Redneckish

Drunk Image

Sins of the Fathers

Still I Would That Anger Pass Me By

When I Am Upset

Cunningly Greedy

Sharing

Yuk, Yuk! Said the Yak

The Skunk and the Opossum

The Lady Mouse and Her Spouse

Mother ‘Possum

Spiders Are a Handsome Lot

Eternal

Night in the Corn Crib

How Like the Night

The Mysterious Ways

Heirs

Poor Whites

The Merry Chase

Pass It On

The Sins of the World

Long Shadows

There Was God

The Weight of Guilt

Seared Brain of the Drug Culture

He May Someday Pick You Up

Agony and Woe

Comfort

Let Us Leave the Flower Behind

A Leap of Faith

I Am Not Related to the Doubter

The Christmas Gift

Forty-Five Cats

Why Cats Are Smarter

Old Men’s Souls

Fools Aplenty

A Lad with Bib Overalls

You Say There Is No God

The Beast Will Walk the Earth

I Really Know Nothing

Theology Is Intellectual

The Old Ones

Building New Heavens

The New World Order

A Path Well Beaten

Social Commentaries Are Vain

Yearning

Liberal Spin

Whom Do We Praise of Famous Men?

A Glass of Water Underneath the Bough

The Prevention Of

The Terrorized Left and the Cowed Right

No Surprise

Success Story

Welfare

In the Interest of Society

Free Speech

Telling Tales of Yore

Equality

Weary of It All

Seems I’ve Lost My Mind

Love

Thriftiness Is Wise

Cheez-Bits

Whole Grain Cereal

Space Is Hungry

Full of Bull

Who Cares Whether You’re Famous

Write the Line Then Fit It In

Sad But True

My Birth

He Gathered Dandelions

People Are Paper Dolls

Brown Leaves Playing on the Lawn

Museum Art

The Right Side

Resting

A Common Touch

Intellectual Poetry

Imagine, I Once Thought

Boozing Along

Reality Check

Well-Fed Nation

Marching On

Cows Coming Home

All the Neighbors Know

Humanity Is

Early Old Age

The Dung Beetles

Dear Anon

The Flame Within

The Toad’s Request

If the Time Is Only Now

Mother Earth

Hey, Weather Man!

The Ideal

I Know the House Sparrow’s Small Talk

Aging

‘Round About

Expanding Minds

Deep and Wide

Life Is Being, and Being Illusion

The Hollow Men Are Bloated

Without Words

How Does One Die with Dignity?

The Pantheistic Groundhog

The Bluebird Sang to Us

Old Memories

Why?

The Hands of Time Reached Out

Is It So Bad?

Blade of Grass

Old Age Is Frightening

I’ve Had a Good Life, Lord

The Nervous Neigh

The Nature of Joy

Imaginary Wrongs

Southern Wind Brought Rain

An Upper Story House

Going ‘Round the Sun

Dream State

A Child Running

Bugs Are Pretty Creatures

Like an Engine

Santa Claus Came and Went

You Better Watch Out

Genetic Code

How Many Souls?

The Place of My Birth

I Am the Son of Peonage

Winter Wren

Walking Upside Down

We’re in the Center of an Egg

First Evening in Beppu, Japan

Follow

He Foraged at Night in Off-Streets of Beppu

She Took My Hand

The Vultures

Bleached Bones

Heaven Forbid!

New Age Philosophers

I Accept the World as It Is

Some Worship the Instincts of Fears

A Sex Test

Flattery

Fall Warbler’s Songs

Sometimes It Seems Life’s Not a Dream

The Stars Are So Far Away

To Sleep, to Snore, to Dream

I’m Not One to Criticize

A Bit of Nonsense

Darnedest Thing I Ever Heard

I Laughed Till I Cried Then I Wept

On the Subject of Evil

I Hallucinate, Therefore, I Am

What Is Man, Indeed?

I Read Max Brand

Eternity

Armageddon’s Coming On

The End of Time

Highs and Lows

The Boy from Down the Road

Grandpa Lit His Pipe

Corn Liquor

Glimpse of Childhood

Life Is But a Little Walk

He Hid the Hides

Epithet

When I Look at the World

Descartes Was Odd

Farce

Who Am I to Question the Inscrutable?

Belief

Take Note

Down at the Yarn Shop

Seasons Come and Go

My Part in the World

The Lord Made a Line

The Worst of Times

In Season All Fruit Ripens

Don’t Rely on ESP

No Hero

Be Thankful That You Are Here

Confusion

Do Some Good

The Sea Dog

I Have No Longing for the Sea

My Belief

Echoes

The Sins of Adam

The Writer

Brain Damaged

Spaced Out

Enough Tears I’ve Cried

Psychic Ditty

Fast-Food

By the Shores of Mitsubishi

The Old Folks at Home

Christmas Past

The Skunk and the Terrapin

Fricatives Frolic

My Rosey

Tortured Love

Write Me a Letter

Warm Red Wine

Rainbow at Midnight

Man Is Wise Beyond His World

A Sense of Being

Third Eye

Psychosis

The Condition of My Mind

Digging Deep

Personal Contact

Blue Is My Sky

The Torn Fabric

The Imperial Queers of England

Call Me Naïve, Immature, Erotic

Falling into the World

The Jung Guru and the Blue Gnu

He Stirs Up Too Much Dust

Tillers of the Sod

No Mystery

This Mind of Mine

Let Me Sleep Till Day Returns

The Meek Shall Inherit

Newspaper vs. TV

The Giraffe

Trees Lose Lots of Weight in Autumn

Ah, Let It Be

Hanging On

The Falling Falcon Fell Upon the Ground

Another Year Has Come Around

Once Upon a Simex

Inside the Looking Glass

Let Us Sit Here ‘Low the Apple Tree

In the Graveyard

Sex and Hopes

Fantasies

Parlor Games

Four Rams and Seven Ewes Ago

Mysteries

Cry

Not My Fault

Like a Mountain Lion

Obsession

Lord, You Have Lifted Me Up

Verse-Reverse

Sainthood

The Professor’s Wife

Old Age

Just Swiveling

Five Senses

Collective Unconsciousness

All’s Been Told

He Found a Silver Chalice

Lousewort Beefsteak Snaffles

The Cat Said

The Wind

Caterpillar Dreams

There Is a God Who Created the Universe

The Visible Manifestation of God

Temptation

This Hybrid Sinner

This Wandering Child

Not in My Soul Have I Supposed

Now It Seems Somewhat Distant

A Foolish Ape

Is She That Part of Me?

Lost Art

I Have Crossed the Line

A Look into the Abyss

Nothingness

Hallucinations Depend on the Cultures

When I Was Coming Thru the Rye

Miles Away to Flee

Mumbo Jumbo Soup

The Puzzled Hog

Get Thee to a Cavern

It Is True

D-A-N-G-E-R

Modern Revenge

Hummingbird Sex

God Created Wickedness

Poetry for Your Time

About Poetry

The Poet’s Pouting Verses

Babbling Brooks

When You Are Gone

Dreary Winter Days

The Morn Is Cloudy Here Today

Cardinal

Gifts of Light

Love and Innocence

Scooter

Let It Be

He Stood Below the Gnarled Oak

All Things New

Lord, Lift Me Up

Day in the Sun

The Clan

Chance of a Lifetime

Free and Unequal

The Kingdom of God

Childhood

Doesn’t Everybody?

Come Go with Me to Insanity

Strange Sensations

Everything Having Gone to Hell

Minor Wisdom

Dawn Breaks

My Soul Speaks Out

He Would Neither Practice Nor Preach

Looking Back

Cauliflower

Cry Mercy!

An Elegant Ring

Millennium

Joe Camel

Heaven

She Glittered

Black Holes and TV

Tell Me, Grandpa

In Days of Old

Let Us Now Praise Normal Women

Welfare Culture or Bust

Land of Milk and Honey

Naïve Nation

My New Poem

The Morning’s Sweet Songs

Knowledge

Recall

The Gift

Last Stop

The Wailing Wall

Persimmon Country

To Old Friends

Old Cattle Trails

All the Old Diseases Hang Around

No PC

The Creation Is Merely Vibration

The Pantheists

Farewell to Charms

Shortness in the Whale

Worm in the Apple

Newborn

The Blue Racer

The Hummingbirds Have Multiplied

Once Upon a Time

The Marred Edge

Circling

Mania, Perhaps

Ninety-Five Mph

A World of My Own

Sunny-Side Up

Unconscious

The White Mountain

My Soul

The Hand of God

Christ the Shepherd

I Walked the Hills of Hell

A Small Bluster

I No More Wait with Bated Breath

No Big Deal

The Natural Mirror

Narcissus Bound

Dream Girl

The Doe

Mama Nature

The Tree That Makes Little Green Apples

Reveries

Before the Cream Pie

The Backhoe

Musings While Sitting on a Camp Toilet

Music of the Spheres

A Civilization at Ease

Prefabricated Dreams

Brochure for Alaska Nightmare Cruise

The Minimum Wage and Welfare

Something for Everyone

Hate in Its Prime

The Keeper of the Gate

Merry-Go-Round

Miner of Illusions

Dark Days

In My Face

Zip! The Years Have Flown

Spaces

When Insight Comes Late

Something to Think About

The Valley Creature

Only Me

Reverse Narcissism

Plastic Soldiers

Right Brain, Left Brain

Believe It or Not

Eat All the Vegetables You Can

Recycled

Jet Trails

Chamber Pot

Wise Sayings of Ignorant Men

Give Back My Corn Liquor

Somewhere, Some Fear Abides

Mozart

Up in Smoke

When Sin Was Sin

I Repent of My Sins

The Magic Years

Feline Solution

Getting Old

I Was a Lad in the Woods

A Peaceful Rain

Life and Love

Reformers

The Essence of Woman

The Formal Creation

Awaken!

Particles of Being

Perfect Man

Suffer Your Mate

You Be the Singer

Yawn

Still Water

Quite Contrary

I Play on Words

Nine Lives

New Cat in Town

Roosters

Go Ahead

Moth Diet

I Missed the Classic Education

I Have Only My Belief

Unbelievers

A New Generation

Love Is Blind

Free Speech

Tales of Hell

Sins and Fears and Doubts

Created for a Reason

Dusty Road

Give Back My Spirit

Fine Tuned

Spring Birds

State of Love

All the Wise Have Fled

Astuteness

All God’s Creatures Have to Eat

Fond Memories

All Is Vanity

Night Song

The Best Laid Scheme

Heaven’s Dole

Last of Ten

Fairy Tales

We’ll See

The Haiku’s Nest

Sad Blah Blights the Bole of Marriage

Wax Works

If the Universe Won’t Weep for Me

Born on Lincoln’s Birthday

Clouds Fluff the Air

My Soul Speaks Out

If I Had

The Poor Poet’s Letter to His Wife

Out on a Limb

Paid-Up

A Minor Thing