am taking a breather on my project, which now has fifty-two short verse link poems, more than the total number of states, more even (barely) than my age, but unfortunately, i have several from certain midwestern states (ahem) with which i've had more than ample experience, and none from certain others. i've had the central time zone all to myself for years, at least amongst my siblings and immediate family, but now have filled it up with a new generation of immediate relatives, and have a little too much to say. maybe another volume?

and, am glad that a couple of my old favorites turn out to be 5-7-5 also. here's one from greg brown:

walkin beans, walkin
beans, gonna walk all the way
down to new orleans

it has a season, even tells where it is, but it's not clear which state (actually, being greg brown, it's probably iowa, but that's not clear from the verse...you see the dilemmas I've fallen into. see below.

or this one from an old friend randy heuring, many years ago...

there's not much to see
in these small towns, but what you
hear makes up for it

no place, no state, just 5-7-5 verse. excellent! i guess they call that tanka-(?)...but i'm just learning the japanese words...

don't know if these folks intended to be short-form poets at all; but too bad, now it's immortal, it's graffiti, it's tagged, as i like to say.

one of my favorites is this:

clear skies at st. jo-
but the river keeps rising
right over the road

but it refers to a time i was in kansas city, and the river was basically flowing backward after being blocked by the dams downstream.

i can link it (has a season, has a state clue) but can't quite put it to rest...you see my dilemma. thought i'd share a little of the poet's experience...

may have to scrape the bottom of the memory to get states like delaware or oregon, that i scarcely set a foot in. but i'll think of something. meanwhile a few that just don't fit are going into the misc bin. that's right, i have two poetry blogs, and two others just for blogging, not to mention two new ones, one for web design and the the other for people, all kinds-a-people. it's all part of my effort to get my stuff "out here"...so i don't have to put floating mouse-over templates on it...