Why Me Poem by Andy Derryberry

Why Me?

Why me? Could be a test I guess
Not by a company but by life in general
It goes after you where you”re weak
Strikes where you”re armor is thin

Could be random aggravation
Not per a plan just chaos
Hard to fight that
So many sucker punches

Maybe underlying universal evil
Kicks everyone around basically the same
Sorta fair I guess but
Maybe fair ain”t all that great

***

House Ghost Poem by David Michael Jackson

Gogglelagoshee

I am the house ghost tonight
making the floors cry out

as I try my words out
on my half lit house.
Tonight this restless soul
wanders the halls,
listens at doorways
for God,
or someone like God.
Love waits
in some of the rooms,
pain waits in others
and the ghost asks little
of either,
only a taste to say

I was
here

Creek Paintings ~ Three Paintings of a Creek

Creek Painting 48″ x 36″

creek painting
creek painting

This creek painting was painted from a photograph of Passenger Creek in 1989. There was a tree in the photo which was not falling but certainly about to fall. It makes me think of the “tree falling in the forest” statement we all know. Maybe it was caught up in that branch. It adds an element of anticipation on the creek.  Here is our earlier post of this creek painting

All paintings have a story and even maybe a byline. This one has a byline. I painted it the day my brother died. I’d cut it into a thousand pieces if I could get him back. The last strokes went on when the phone rang. I was painting it for Wayne Jackson.

Creek paintings are plentiful. Fcreek-painting-02creek-painting-o3amous creek paintings I cannot seem to reference. Maybe this should be one.  Things don’t turn out that way though.

My first effort with this photo was this smaller creek painting . This painting was owned by  Wayne and is now in my possession. I had just started painting and he put it on his wall and bought a light for it. This sparked my painting efforts. The creek, in particular passenger creek has always been special for me. The creek represents a small out of the way unnoticed peace and tranquility. A place of small sounds, insects and birds. I grew up on a farm on a creek. My earliest memories are walking the trails beside this little creek, fishing and swimming with my brothers.

These creek paintings were my earliest efforts and maybe my best. They were impressions of peaceful times, of good times as a child. Oil paint has a way of becoming more translucent over the years. These creek paintings were painted in 1989. A few years later I began painting on paper and painted this last painting of the creek. This one is dated 1992. It is the last of the series.

Here iwayne jacksons a pic of my brother, Wayne Jackson.

 

 

Here is a link to his poems. He was, and is, my brother and friend. These paintings and my art are dedicated to him. He encouraged me. That is the greatest gift.

David Michael Jackson

editors@artvilla.com

 

On the Need to Write and The Reaper Poem by David Michael Jackson

I need to remember to
write a poem before
the reaper takes me
takes me,
takes me like he took all the others.
Those
fallen down pieces of
granite were people just like
us,
fallen and unremembered by
everybody,
like my father.
There are many now
who don’t remember my
father but who
may remember me
and may someday read these
scribblings which
a nobody moron
loser like me
at least took the time to
write.
So write,
leave scribblings on the walls
of your cave.
***

If Only Poem by Andy Derryberry

If Only

If I had my way there’d only be laughs and giggles

We’d all be innocent and a little tipsy

Smiling at the slightest thing

Never hurt or angry, nor scared or injured

Soaking in every moment completely without worry

Hardly able to sleep for being so alive

There’d be no sad good-byes no aching absence

Nothing precious lost and only laughter found

Nothing to envy, only things to admire

Nothing to horde, plenty to share

Laughs and giggles
If only I had my way