My 69 Trilogies: Poems in Groups of Threes

By Luther Whitley

Poems for all reasons and seasons.

What is the meaning of life?
Yes, why are we here?
It is to serve Almighty God
and in Him alone be in fear

Not with a morbid kind of fear
that tears one down
But rather, we should have a godly
fear, reverential and profound

We, therefore, should study His Word
and learn His will
For only by doing it can we expect
our lives to be fulfilled.

Whether we do nothing at all with our lives
or whether some dream we chase
God holds each one accountable for the live he is
given and for any life he may have taken.

So a life....is a terrible thing to waste

— from the third trilogy

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: May 14, 2019
• ISBN: 9781728310268

Luther Whitley

Luther Whitley is a native Washingtonian and was educated in the D.C. Public School System. A voracious reader and serious student of the Scriptures, he spent many years in his church ministries, especially in speaking and teaching. Writing Bible discourses, songs and poems, as well as attending writing seminars helped him to develop his writing skills. It was his eighth grade English teacher he says who excited his interest in poetry. There were two poems that he fell in love with and immediately committed to memory. They were Thanatopsis by William Cullen Bryant and The Raven by Poe. Whitley says that he has read and studied many of the great poets of the world. He is especially fond of those whose writing style is similar to his, those noted for the use of everyday dialect as well as free verse. Whitley has read and has been the featured poet at venues all around Washington, D.C. This list includes Howard University, Martin Luther King Jr library, SW Library, NE Library, Oxon Hill Library, Bowie Library, Largo/Kettering Library, just to name a few. Whitley’s books include The Truth About Capital Punishment and Thou Shall Not Kill, Christmas – The Lie That Everybody Loves, Proverbial Sayings of an Ordinary Man, The Plight of the Honey Bee and other poems; The Spectacular Rise and Foretold Fall of Christianity and My 69 Trilogies–Poems in Groups of Threes.

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© 2019 Luther Whitley. All rights reserved.

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 05/10/2019

ISBN: 978-1-7283-1028-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-7283-1027-5 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-7283-1026-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019905921

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.

Contents

Introduction

Blood

Sweat

Tears

Heaven

Hell

Purgatory

The Meaning Of Life

Death

The Devil

Bodies

A Soul

Our Spirit

Love Is

Hate

Jealousy

Knowledge

Understanding

Wisdom

Sad

My Dad was Mad and Mean

Happy

Vegetarian

Pork And Red Meat

Sprinkle Your Own Salt

The First Rain

Sleet

Let It Snow, Let It Snow

Earth

Wind

Fire

I Never Talked To The Sun

The Moon

From Whence Came The Stars?

Mountains

Hills

Valleys

Butting Heads

The Plight Of An Arachnid

How They Find A Mate

Quick Draw

Americans Love Guns (Satire)

T’aint Nuttin’ Like A Gun (Satire)

Cockroaches? F-T-N

Mr. Mouse

Run or Fly (A Riddle)

Chest

Waist

Suzie Has Hips

Only Seconds

Got A Minute?

Punctuality

Dirty Words (#$@&%*!)

The F Bomb (#$@&%*!)

The Vanity Of Profanity (#$@&%*!)

Yesterday

Today

Tomorrow

To Be Economical

Cheap, Cheap, Cheap

Do Not Be Stingy

To Be Meek

Mildness

The Power Of Kindness

Thou Shall Not Kill

Does God Get Upset?

Does The State Have The Right?

And Then There Is Love

Falling In Love

My Dad Loved Me

Jesus Christ, The Man

How We Show Our Love

Called By God?

Blessed?

Cursed

Saved?

Gun Possession (Satire)

Gun Obsession

America’s Fascination With Murder

The Weather

I Love Nasty Weather

The Blizzard Of 2010, No Cabin Fever

Industrious People

Lackadaisical

Lazy People Are Crazy People

Paula’s Pilfered Poetry

What Is A Poet?

A Little More Of The Beautiful, Please

Ballet ― Poetry In Motion

Why Some Dancers Dance

I Want To Dance

The World’s End

Armageddon Is

Judgement Day

Gun Worshipers Song

Disarmament

Guns A Lot I’ve Got (Satire)

My Fair Maiden - Sonnet

Distant Lovers

June (A Song)

A Smile

A Frown

A Smirk

No More Night

Uninvited

The Last Enemy

The Word Of God

No Myths

Turn The Other Cheek

My Toddler

What Did She Say?

Would Someone Pass The Damn Potatoes, Please?

No Tithing (Always One-Tenth)

No Plates Or Baskets Passed

An Example For Ministers

I Am A Flower

Trees

Leaves

Heed The Need … To Read

Books

I Taught Them How To Read

Always Eat Your Greens

Food

Junk Food

Air

Water, H20

Land

Every Few Months

Gun Shows

My Gun Is My Shepherd (Satire)

Gold/Golden

A Rule That Is Golden

He’s A Gigolo ― She’s A Gold Digger

Racists

You’re A Racist

Racism Is Learned

What Is Day?

What Is Night?

Twilight Is

Why He Quit His Church

Why She Quit Her Church

Why He Started Going To Church

Grass

The One Plant That Everybody Loves To Hate

Mac Daddy

How To Beat A Bully Without Using Your Fists

Stop Sexual Harassment

Stop Clergy Sex Abuse

Naming Children

The Naughty Choir Member

Out Of The Mouths Of Babes

Birds, Bats And Squirrels

Bees

Birds And Bees Do It

Two Days With Avi

My Four Grands

Afraid Of Everything

If I Were A Carpenter

Do You Know Amps?

What Do Plumbers Do?

Adam And Eve Should Still Be Alive

The Blame Game

Humans Were Created To Live Forever

It Was Her Money

The Love Of Money

How To Get Rich

Outside Of The Supermarket

Will Work For Food

A Damsel In Distress?

Sky

Why The Rainbow?

Clouds

The Hypocrisy Of Democracy

America The Ugly

Politicians

No More Death

When Death Came A Knocking

Home Going

Design Or Chance

The Big Bang Theory

Evolution, Still A Theory

About The Truth

Are You Free?

The Nation Of Christianity

TV Preachers

Curse Or Blessing

My Last Time In Church

Father’s Apartment

Dust Is A Must

I Love A Clean House But …

Why The Tithe?

Believe It Or Not

God Loves A Cheerful Giver

I Made Something Of Myself

Give Me A Title, Please!

What Is Poetry?

I Always Loved My Mother

Mother’s Day

You Won’t Believe What My Mother Once Did

A Sister Is The Last Thing We Wanted

Emma’s Pocket Books (Purses)

Linda Loved Mother

A Little Bathroom Humor

Don’t Drink That Water

Bathroom Rule

Sports Fans

Is God A Sports Fan?

Bodily Training (Sports)

God’s Patience And Mercy Will Run Out

The Auspicious Death Of Hell

My 10 Limericks

My Ten Haikus

My 10 Proverbs

About The Poet

This book is dedicated to

My grandchildren

Dion, Joey, Dante’ and Avi

And to my great-grandchildren

Josiah and Dylan

Introduction

I caught the trilogy bug after writing the poems, Vegetarian, Pork and Red Meat, and Sprinkle Your Own Salt.

A trilogy is of course, a group of three literary or dramatic works that are related in subject matter or theme.

For the book I was then writing, From Whence Came the Stars, the poems Earth, Wind, and Fire came easy. That is when I decided to do a book of trilogies.

Thus was born My 69 Trilogies. After deciding the related words, names and subjects, it was just a matter of coming up with something poetic to say about them. A number of my poems are satirical related to America’s proliferation of guns and gun violence. Some have been set to music.

Frequently, I employ anaphora. Anaphora is the repetition of a key word or phrase at the beginning of successive lines. This can be seen in the very first poem, BLOOD.

I also have a fondness for Limericks and so I included 10 of them, as well as, 10 Haikus and 10 Proverbs.

Over half of the poems in My 69 Trilogies are new, written during the winter of 2017 and 2018.

Blood

Blood is the river of life that flows

   through our bodies

Blood is called the river of life because

   we cannot live without it

Blood is pumped by the heart to all of our

   body cells supplying them with

   oxygen and food

Blood carries carbon dioxide and other

   waste products from the body

Blood also fights for us, fighting infections

   as well as keeping our temperature steady

Blood even has substances that plug holes in our

   vessels to keep us from bleeding to death

Blood is not always bright red, for at times

   it is brownish

Blood has a chemical makeup so

   exceedingly complex that there is still

   a great deal about it unknown to scientists

Blood, we therefore ask, was it by design or chance?

Sweat

Some people in some circles sometimes say

   some things strange about

   sweat and sweating

What do some people in some circles

   sometimes say strange about

   sweat and sweating?

Some people in some circles sometimes say

   that ladies don’t sweat,

   that they perspire

Well whatever ladies do and whatever they

   call it, that saline solution they secrete

   through the pores of their skin,

   just like with men, it comes by way of

   the sweat glands, the sweat glands

Tears

Songs about them are many

Songs about them are plenty

All about tears or the shedding of tears

Tears are those clear drops of saline liquid

secreted by the lachrymal glands

which are found around the eyes

And what do tears do?

Tears you might say are like a shower

for the eyeballs

Just as there is a need to wash one’s body

Regularly, there is also a need to wash one’s

eyeballs regularly

You see, when