Crazy Old Man: An Anthology

By Harold Cohn

The anthology "CRAZY OLD MAN" is designed to make you laugh, make you cry, and make you question why. This anthology is comprised of selected things written by this author over twenty-five years. In the book are the following genre: poetry, nonfiction, playwriting, and supposition essays. Examples of titles in the book by genre are: Poetry: "WINGED WARRIOR", "THE WHORE", "MR. GREENBURG", and "weeping willow why" (American Haiku), Fiction: The short-short story "DUI" (written in second person), Nonfiction: "POINTS of INTEREST- DEADMAN,S POINT-SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA" , "THE MOUNT LAGUANA / KITCHEN CREEK FIRE", AND "HOW TO SURVIVE A WRITER'S WORKSHOP". Playwriting: the play titled: "MIDNIGHT", Supposition essays: "BAKED-BEAN COLORED ROCK DECORATED WITH PETROGLYPHS", 'THE BALANCED SOLAR SYSTEM THOREM", and "PERALTA STONES FIND THE LOST DUTCHMAN MINE".

• Language: English
• Publisher: Outskirts Press
• Release date: Oct 12, 2016
• ISBN: 9781478783237

Harold Cohn

Harold Cohn is a published poet, writer and has been writing creatively for over twenty-five years. The author is a Disabled Vietnam Combat Vet and retired Park Ranger.

Book preview

MY DREAM

My dream, my dream, my dream

Is to write

In the middle of the night

Of wrong and right

Of war and might

Of near, far, and where

Of a dog, a cat and a bear

Of you, me, and a fair

To write a ream

My dream, my dream, my dream

WINGED WARRIOR

Winged Warrior

Your tears of flame

Drop like rain

Extinguishing the soul

Of the innocent, the young, the old

Winged Warrior your destiny

Is that of an effigy

Of man’s fascination with death, pain

And war the game

Winged Warrior fly

Surly, the rabble (the mother, the child)

Must die!

WRITER’S BLOCK

I am seated in a curved back secretarial chair. Natural light illuminates the paper beneath my hand. Mellow music flows from the radio. My pen is poised and ready to tattoo creative words and phrases into the fiber of this paper. Conditions are perfect. Yet, my hand does not move.

As I stare at the blank sheet of paper before me, the horizontal blue lines in parallel rows grow. The vertical red line one inch from the left hand border that intersects with the blue lines is menacing. These lines enclose the frightening white voids that must be filled by Wednesday night. That is when the writing assignment is due for the creative writing class.

What can I do? My mind is empty of creative thought. It is a desert; a wasteland! How am I going to explain a blank sheet of paper? Maybe, I should do something else for a while?

I could take a walk. Shoot pool? Drink a coke? Fix a sandwich with a slice or two; a slab of cheese. Toasted? Stop! Stop these foolish thoughts and get down to the task at hand. Now, gets that pen moving!

However, there is no need to write; this assignment is finished!

READ

Grandma learned to read

With Dick and Jane

Mama learned to read

By sight; how plain

I’m learning to read

With the phonics game

ONIONS

Onions, yellow and brown

When I peel

Make me frown

Oh, why, Oh, why

Do I buy

By the pound

Onions, yellow and brown

THE BOAT

Once, five men set out to build a boat. The man in