Not Making it Home _ new poem 2023

Not Making it Home

Oh, Lord, please
On the side or the road
I might not make it home
It's a Friday night
Things feel right
But I've wrong
Now sing the song
"Sing, me back home"
Pinch myself
Can't feel a bone
All alone
On side the road

September 22, 2023
John Alan Cone Jr.
Poet
MyStrawHat.com

Good wishes,
John

Sent from my iPhone

The Babushka _ new poem September 2023

The Babushka 

It’s not a person.

Like an immigrant boxer / mill hunky

Greased like a pig in the ring

Pursed pig lips ready for a cigar

Pierogi chest muscles to feed slums

No six pak abs but a quarter barrel keg

Blue eyes filled with hate and intolerance 

And the fear maybe it’s not 100% fixed

And he may be exposed as a 100% fraud

No spin from “the boys” could substantiate a win.

It’s not a place.

Like a club for men and whites only

Filled with permeating thick cigar smoke

The pungent smell of sloppily spilt stale beer

Men in three piece suits and beaver pelt hats

Pocket watch chains dangling on fat stomachs

A place they’d never let in suckers that vote for them

Suckers on the teat of spoon-fedfed division; culture wars

Slapping each others backs where lying is the art of the deal

It’s a thing.

Brought to North America by immigrants most of us are

And like other American fashions adopted by our ethnicities

A symbol of the melting pot of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 

With a utilitarian attitude expressing rugged commonality 

My grandmothers and their friends wore them almost always 

Except when they wore something more formal for Mass

In my mind I recall my young attractive mother with one 

As others of her age at Steeler games on Sunday television 

Waving them in the air on big 1970’s Pittsburgh Steeler plays

Written Saturday Morning September 9, 2023

By John Alan Conte, Jr. 

Poet

MyStrawHat.com 

Before Your Very Eyes_New Poetry Summer 2023

——-{{{@

Before Your Very Eyes

In the land where campfires glow
The only kind of life you know

Waking up this early morn
After an overnight storm
Where everything was looking worn
The new day feels refreshing
Like a spiritual blessing
Rain falling down from the heavens
Prayers answered with forgiveness
Washing away our sins

A blade of grass
A green leaf
A colorful flower

Time goes fast
Nature speaks
Inside a rain shower

Summer 2023
July - August
John Alan Conte Jr.
Poet

#new #summer2023 #poetry

——-{{{@

Untitled One: new poetry July’23

Was feeling so low
Like a drowned boat
Was down so long
Wondering where I belong
Then there was hope
Holding a grain of sand
In the palm of my hand
Finding heaven in a flower
Feeling eternity in an hour

How I Fell Into You _ July New Poem 2023

How I Fell Into You

We were all kids 

In our reach there was a crick

Where we would catch crawfish 

Rocks we'd turn over and flip 

Often finding a healthy salamander 

In that cool downward rushing water 

Oh, how our summer loving would last 

Yeah, you could say we had ourselves a blast 

In the summertime, summer's past 

You've been forewarned 

Summer's almost gone 

Holding hands for the fall

You cheerleading football 

Pictures torn and frayed 

Smiling through we made our ways 

-July 8, 2023 

J. Conte 

MyStrawHat.com 

Good wishes,

John

Sent from my iPhone

“How I Fell Into You”

Open my shared note:

How I Fell Into You Notes

Good wishes,

John

Sent from my iPhone

Predawn Prayer Song

Why do birds sing in the predawn?
Is it a sort of roll call from the infinitesimal to the cosmic collective?
If so, I'd like to sing back. I'm here.
An infinitesimal prayer for peace & love to the cosmic collective to the omega …
#pre #dawn #sunday #morning #song #prayer #for #peace #and #love
Good wishes,
John

The Queen of May _ new poem 2023

The Queen of May (a day early)
#the #queen #of #may #new #poetry
#a #day #early #everyday #poet #poem

Good wishes,
John

Sent from my iPhone

Silver Lining _ new 2023 poem

#silver #lining #poetry #picture #amwriting

Good wishes,
John

Sent from my iPhone

The New South _ new poem March 2023

The New South

It was one of the best meals I ate
As I cleared that dinner plate
With fried chicken in my mouth
It read: Welcome to The New South
We do not segregate
We learned old Jim Crow
Isn't the way to grow
Now I'm waiting on a train
For my cousin from Maine
As I stare at those tracks
Ghosts appear with whipped backs
Listen to these words from my mouth
Down here in The New South
We aren't afraid of some CRT
A losing man was General Lee
We do not segregate
We learned old Jim Crow
Isn't the way to grow
Now I'm on a talking panel
On the Bluegrass Junction channel
We learned to live a new way
And it's more than words we say
Our doors are open as long as you can stay
{March 11, 2023 MyStrawHat.com}

Asked to Take Photo of Me for Fashion

Was just approached by a young woman accompanied by a young man while sitting on bench after eating a turkey sandwich, taking a call, typing a couple work messages and the woman said she was a fashion student and asked if she could take my picture for a project! Lol! So let her. And I figured I better take a look at what I got going on for her to ask to take my picture (I thought they were gonna ask me to take their picture) lol! #solicited #for #fashion #project #picture #lol #cool #look #river #road #sunglasses #hair #beard #smile #blue #sky #outdoors #nature #fort #macintosh #history #beaver #county #pennsylvania

Dad _ #ThrowBackThursday _ Love Light

Dad, I miss you! Sometimes I feel you're love light shinning (as love is love and will not fade away) #grateful #dad #love #light #tbthursday #tbt #throwback #throwbackthursday #tbt❤️


Good wishes,
John

Sent from my iPhone

Dear AARP This Is Our $ NOT GOP!

Dear @AARP,
The house republicans @HouseGOP @IowaGOP @SpeakerMcCarthy including total fraud of New York hair twirling @NassauNYGOP @Santos4Congress are actively working to cut Medicare / Medicaid and Social Security UNDER FALSE PREMISE THAT THESE ARE ENTITLEMENTS & NOT OUR MONEY

Winter Morning: Mourning Doves _ new poem

Early winter morning brings
Whistling of a mourning doves wings
As they fly from the ground to sky
It may sound like a lament; a cry
But that's just what their wings are doing
Doves are mainly monogamous; cooing
Open the door and hear their sound
In the moment, we know we're still around
—Winter Morning
Poet, John Conte
MyStrawHat.com

Good wishes,

2022 Backyard Highlight Award: Nature Wins

2022 Backyard Highlight Award: Nature Wins = Hawk is hanging out on fence. Cat jumps up, sticks the landing like an ex-pro and scurries like the squirrels do along the top of the fence. Amazing 😻 #nature #wins #backyard #hightlight #award #top #cat #hawk #jump #on #fence #perfect #balance #outdoors #newyear #2022 #outside #photo #happy #healthy #joyful #safe #2023

So You Know _ new poem

Fever drew me back home again
Floating outside my father's den
Praying I can read all the books
Without it being like what it looks
Lying in a fever dream death bed
Remembering every inch of homestead
I love my family so and I hope they know
When I'm buried I won't let go …
Oh, no, I love you so … so you know
—- So You Know
John Conte
MyStrawHat.com
December 29, 2002

A New Year Poem _ new poetry

What we may wish for today
Some people say …
That a cardinal is a loved one past
That a cardinal is signaling love does last
And those cardinals all alone in the snow
They are here at year end and another to go
As December comes to a close
January skies may be dark but stars will glow
Days, weeks, months, years pass us by
As simple as it is, it's a gift to be alive
Happy New Year to you and yours
—-A New Year Poem
By John Conte
MyStrawHat.com

Good wishes,
John

Sent from my iPhone

By the Numbers: Jerry Garcia Grateful Dead

By the Numbers: Jerry Garcia Grateful Dead

Will Trump’s #SCOTUS End Democracy? _What Mark Twain Would Say

If Mark Twain were alive today he'd write that the Independent Legislature theory that #SCOTUS just heard allows for the equivalent of a "participation trophy" in our politics for political losers.
…And, furthermore, encourages habitual losers.
#MarkTwain #American #democracy #writer

Good wishes,
John

Sent from my iPhone

Happy Democracy = Anti-Imperialism

Thankful to have grown up in the hills very near the Indian Village of Logstown, Reverand Father Joseph De Bonnecamps, S.J. celebrated the first Holy Catholic mass in South Western Pennsylvania, Beaver County, August 9, 1749 = with democracy for all and anti-imperialism #grateful