The Wood Pile: A Collection of Poems and Short Stories

By The Running Writer

The Wood Pile is about some life experiences and life lessons seen through my eyes. Some of my stories are fiction, and some are nonfiction. The Wood Pile is a collection of short stories of life experiences.
I hope you can relate to most or some of these life stories and feel enlightened, inspired, refreshed, and motivated by this book!
Thank you!

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Mar 29, 2019
• ISBN: 9781728304267

The Running Writer

I was born in a town in Mississippi where I picked cotton and started school at age eleven. I picked up a pencil and track shoes in Cleveland Ohio. I earned a track and Cross Country scholarship to The University of Tennessee; where I graduated with a degree in education, and became a five time All American in distance running and Cross country. I also became a member of the 1983 World Championship team, and I ran for the Mayor of Cleveland in 2001.

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© 2019 The Running Writer. All rights reserved.

Cover Illustration by Ricky A. Pittman Jr.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 03/27/2019

ISBN: 978-1-7283-0427-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-7283-0426-7 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. 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.

I DEDICATED THIS BOOK

I Ricky L. Pittman/ The Running Writer dedicated this book to my Grandmother, Idela Pittman, Mother Cellie Pittman, Coach Jim Emery, Coach Stan Huntsman, Mr. Sam H. Miller, Mr. Albert B. Ratner, Ms. Annette Tears, Dr. Hodges, English Teacher at the University of Tennessee, and my Wife Bonita Holland Pittman for believing in me. These people helped me believe in myself; without God and them, this book would not have been possible. I thank you for believing in me.

CONTENTS

The Author

A Flower Blooms

Birds Fly and They Land

My Harp, My Rose

Bag Of Bones

Birds Fly and They Land

Drift Wood

Free to Be Happy

Holding on to Love

Nice Life

Rest In Peace

Sweet Apples

Why

You’re Here

That Walk Of Lies

A Kiss to My Grandmother

Crazy Love

Drift Wood

Changing Love

Sea Of Life

For The First Time

Speaking Hypothetically

Cookie Jar

For The First Time

Forever

Heart Love

A Flower Blooms

A Flower

Love Pain

True Love

My Pen Will

To Be Remembered

You’re Here

A Rose

For Love

I Say

Love Is

Your Dreams

Be Free to Be Me

Changing Seasons

Cotton and Gin

Don’t Cry

Freedom

Ghost Friends

Confidence

I Am Winning Again

I Can

I Say My Friends

If I Could

A Full Deck

Cleveland’s Mayor

Courage

Diamond Like Sand

Feel Good

Free to Be Me

Go Pre

Golf Has No Color

Loose Lips

Mr. Dan Gilbert

Mr. Jimmy Haslam

Mr. Ratner

Young Bright Eyes

Your Dreams

Diamond

To Mr. Parks

Life Is Great

The Street Life

Fish Tank

Planting Trees

Push

I Can

Rolling Along

Take Me to My King

Thank God For God

The Power Of The People

This Is Our Empire

Time Travel

To My Coach

Tower Of Power

Track and Field

Weight to Bare

You Got It

You Will Never Know

A Person

B.b. King

Being A Dad

Chuck Berry

Greatness

I Am A Candle

Jesse Owens

Like The Weather

Mayor Carl B. Stokes

Mr. Arnold Pinkney

Mr. Sam Miller

My Angel

Rev. Dr. E.t. Caviness

Ricky Rock

Ricky’s World

Stephanie Tubbs Jones

Thanks to All My Greats

The Greatest

Tracks Of Life

That Walk Of Lies

Passing Time

My Pen

Mystery

A Man

Air Plane

Happy But Happier

Life’s Lessons

Like A Butterfly

My Time

One Banana

One Step Away

Oreo

Our Last Step

The Roots

The Wood Pile

I Am Trapped

Why Me?

Me Teach You

A Promise

Black Raisin

I Done Messed Up

I Like My Rims

In My Mind

Apples

Black & White

Dance Boy

Dance

Flowers

For Sale

Girls

I Am Trapped

Sex Appeal

Sweet Apples

That Cable

Valentine Day

Accident At Sea

She’s A Great Ride

That Other Thing

That Sexy Way

Wish

At The Top

Black Gold

The Black Race

Boy

Cats and Rats

Crabs & Threads

Crash

Disrespect

Face and Space

Hate

In Their Minds

My Knees

My Wallet

Notes

Red, White, and Blue

Shut Up Man

So Funny

Standing Around

That’s All You See

Haters

We We

White Cotton

White Haters

The Laundry Mat

Counting Ribs

I Am Trapped

My Cry

Insects Off Me

Keep My Eyes Open

Like Lent

Haters

Slick Cats

You Can’t See Me

University Of Tennessee

About The Author

THE AUTHOR

THE RUNNING WRITER

By: Rickey Lamar Pittman

I was born in Charleston Mississippi population 2,072. I picked cotton before moving to Cleveland Ohio in 1972 at age 11, with my mother and two younger brothers into public housing. I started school for the first time in the third grade, and graduated from East Tech H.S. in 1980. I earned a track and cross country scholarship to the University of Tennessee, became a five time All-American, a member of the 1983 World Championship in the 3,000 meter steeplechase, Helsinki Finland, and graduated in 1986; after redshirting in 1984 to train for the Olympic team. I have been a teacher, track coach, business owner, maintenance man, and I ran for the mayor of Cleveland in 2001. It was during the mayor’s bid that I started writing, and my wife said, I think you are a writer. I said you are the second person to say that; my college English teacher, Dr. Hodges whose class I was failing was the first. My wife asked me to try my hand at poetry. Over the years I have been writing poems, songs, and political solutions, and policies to better people’s lives. I hope you find my book enlightening, moving, enjoyable, and thought provoking.

LOVE

A FLOWER BLOOMS

A flower is beautiful when it blooms in the sunshine, and father time has been kind.

A beautiful flower is like fine wine because it takes time to shine.

A beautiful flower will bloom only with rain, sunshine, mother earth, and father time has been kind.

You can’t rush a flower to bloom. Like Betty Boo, in the Cartoon, you need lots of room, to grow, and be groomed, like a full moon at twelve p.m., you look beautiful at high noon.

A flower blooms when everything is in tune with the moon, stars, and the universe. That is when a flower blooms.

By: The Running Writer

December 24, 2017

BIRDS FLY AND THEY LAND

Birds fly and land; just like love flies away and lands.

What goes up must come down; so don’t cry when you love lands, just get back up and learn to fly again.

It’s like riding a bike, you never forget; it’s that perfect fit.

I hope you scratch your itch, understand this is not my plan.

Love is like sand in an hour glass; birds fly and they land without a plan.

That is love. Birds fly and they land.

By: The Running Writer

November 18, 2013

MY HARP, MY ROSE

Your heart beacons me in the wee hours of the night.

Why do you hide your heart from me?

My harp is playing a love song for you.

Don’t you see my harp is playing for you?

Don’t you hear my harp playing a love song for you?

Don’t you see flowing roses in my garden for you?

Don’t you smell the roses that bloom for you?

You are the rain and the sunshine that makes my rose bloom bright and true for you.

My harp my rose, why do you hide your heart from me?

Is it out of fear or pain that stabs like a knife?

I hope you hear my harp that plays a tune for you!

I hope you smell my rose that grows in my heart for you.

My harp; my rose!

By: The Running Writer

September 12, 2013

BAG OF BONES

I don’t see the same old bag of bones that you see.

I see that old bag of bones as someone, who did not get that call on the phone, and all they heard was that tone; on the end of a call.

Now there not standing so tall because of the weight of it all.

They used to walk tall, but now they walk with a hitch, and their gate don’t swing from the hinges, like they used to.

They can’t do what they used to do anymore.

I see the greatness that used to be in those old bag of bones; that is waiting to go home.

I wonder did they get that call on the phone before they became a bag of bones.

By: The Running Writer

February 8, 2018

BIRDS FLY AND THEY LAND

Birds fly and land; just like love flies away and lands.

What goes up must come down; so don’t cry when you love lands, just get back up and learn to fly again.

It’s like riding a bike, you never forget; it’s that perfect fit.

I hope you scratch your itch, understand this is not my plan.

Love is like sand in an hour glass; birds fly and they land without a plan.

That is love. Birds fly and they land.

By: The Running Writer

November 18, 2013

DRIFT WOOD

Our love drifted away like drift wood down a river.

I watched you float away, I tried to catch you running along the river bank, but the current was much too strong.

I lost you in a sea of drifting wood; I watched you as far as the eye could see.

I made my way down to the edge of the river,