Most Commented Ballad Poems (503)

I raised my own turkey one year,
to be part of our Yuletide fare,
he lived in the house like a pet,
and we spared no expense on his care.

When it came to the fateful day,
for the gathering to be fed,
it was with a heavy heart,
I took an axe and cut off his head.

Then, on the very next day,
half asleep in my favourite chair,
his spirit appeared right before me,
the turkey’s ghost on the stair.

And now every year at Christmas,
since through that bird’s neck I sliced,
my turkey comes back to haunt me,
in the form of a poultrygeist.

the cafe was closing
and the air was darker
than age
Mary was fixing
her order
and her world
had become
like a cage


will you still see me
on Sunday?
will you wear that dress
and look nice..?
but you know
that a question
ain't a question
when you
got to ask it twice..

and the sparrows
still play
in the cornfields
where we used
to make love
and you'd sing..

ain't it funny
how something
is nothing
when nothing
was once everything?

I drove down there
around midnight
past farms
that seemed
to be free

but I knew
one day
that I'd buy one
and that
would be the end
of me

talk of music
and college
of dance halls
lawyers and gown
but it's hard
to dance with a roughneck
when a banker's hand
owns town


she was getting tired
of me
my work, my car
and my dark
and I looked to the heavens
for answers
and saw nothing but stars
and a lark

"I heard she married a doctor"
my friend Dave
did say
later on

and I smiled
like it meant
nothing to me
and got sick
when I knew
he was gone

now the sparrows still sing
in the cornfields
neath the mountains
where she
used to sing

aint it funny
how something
is nothing
when nothing
was once everything

and her car, her car
is a dream.

fragments of stories
half heard in the inn
awoke in me fires
stoked by the gin

catherine anne moored
in secret twilight
buckled neath bullion
jewelled to it's height

a vast templar treasure
won by the blade
fortunes were lost
to greater one's made

made fame in fortune
in furnace of hell
to purchase a passage
to where her boards dwell

war steed I bought
to reach holy land
travelling savagely
mountain to strand

I found her in summer
asleep in her bed
I swam into darkness..

down to the dead

.

a lifetime to remember
by waiting to forget
two hands on a fender
sliding down a fret

the speed of the sound
of lonliness
smooth pebbles on a strand
they say God wrote down some music
on the back of JP's hand

I thought I could write
I thought I knew a line
that was before
I heard John Prine

this world can be a liar
but he could never be
I ain't hurting nobody
my mind's in Lake Marie


time would be a healer
just two days behind
"All The Best" he sung out
to movies in his mind

Hello In there, Dear Abby
Paradise calls you home
to an Angel from Montgomery
tired of being alone

Thats The Way the world goes round a thing that shone
quit your Spanish Pipe dreams
Vietnam is on the phone

I thought I could write
I thought I knew a line
that was before
I heard John Prine

he drove a pickup to the station
and no one even cried
the day mom got out of prison
the dog got drunk and died

the missing years of Jesus
a Broken Bottle, engagement ring
God wrote down the lyrics
John would merely sing

I thought I could write
I thought I knew a line
that was before
I heard John Prine

pause and feel it
so familier
yet you've never
seen it
with your eyes

a kind of innocent
expression
something naive
something wise

I wish I knew what you were
searching for
something shimmering and right
a favour granted by your yearning
the place you grow to
from demise

the days are listing into evening
before the sun has kissed your skin
If you were oceans on a dance floor
I wouldnt wait to jump right in

pause and feel it
without feeling
rather be it
and move on

you won't know it
when you taste it
you'll only know it
when it's gone

a kind of dreaming
way of singing
superimposed
over thought

a commodified
returning rainfall
that can't be trapped
nor sold
or bought

I wish I knew what you were
looking for
something shimmering
and light
something hewn from endless endings
something spoken
in goodnight

to a five penny piece
I shrunk to the size
as life made me hard
in the head and eyes

so pressed ganged was I
on a leathery ship
that lived in a pocket
on the side of her hip

and life wasn't easy
and life wasn't hard
it was tough bedding down
neath a sharp credit card

a religious medal
and I became mates
and we sung drunken songs
in between great debates

I dated a quarter
but often she snoozed
we laughed at the condom
that never got used

she took us to parties
she lost us in clubs
she found us in drawers
she drank us in pubs

a lipstick for pillow
I smiled at the fates
my blanket a dollar
she got in the states

when the end came
it was cold.. hard and clean
that's how I got here
in this vending machine

If you're reading this
I'm no longer around
it's a note I left
I hope it's found

when life is tricky
you gamble cares
so I slid down
the apples and pears

my rent was due
and life got cheap
finance drove off
with my off road sheep

my dog had died
and that was that
he started a fight
with a mean take that
.
I was chasing dues
much time to kill
all the stress was making me
Lilo Lil

then she pulls up
in a red corvette
twas a rainy night
and her clothes were let

"I hear they call you
Noir Blue
the only man
to beat a boy called. Sue

I said" that's true "
I said" that's right "
he broke my nose
but I won the fight

" I like your style '
she said confessin
tracing the butt
of her Smith & Wesson


to the uptown grill
for food and drink
the place was nice
at least I think

over a cold one
she got me hot
I liked her legs
I liked her alot

suddenly a party
arrived at my back
a blow to my head
and my world went black

so in this place
I met my end
a shallow grave
with a gun for a friend

and on this note
my lighter sang
I took last breath
and heard the bang

I got your picture in my cabin
your smiling face is everywhere
your ghost is what I sail on
through the ocean of your hair
and my work it takes me everywhere
and nowhere fast and slow

it takes a man to plough an acre
it takes a woman to make it grow

the sea elevates my singing
despite my ungrateful tone
my thoughts are made of music
my thoughts are mine alone
then you wander warm inside my mind
like a gift from god to me

it takes a man to bring his story
it takes a woman to set him fee

girl we never did much talking
and when we did it was so brief
we laughed about eachother
and we smiled through pain and grief
you made the mundane magic
and you fought hard for your dream

it takes a man to set a plough right
it takes a woman to hitch a team

there's an empty chair that held you
a rare creature tall and true
if life has taught me one thing
Ive learned it all from you
and you laughed at my cowboy movies
as I turned into my old man

it takes a man to work his heart out
it takes a woman to give a damn

on a spring time morn
was wonder born
a strange fluke cut
the sky

from eddied hair
a magic stare
told me that truth
can't lie

a girl who smiled
from a face so wild
my breath did leave
my mind

I somehow knew
that girl was you
and to nature
I was blind

in a wheelhouse stark
both bright and dark
her eyes they light
the way

a rippling whirl
midst seas that churn
all darkness
ran astray

my nets that trawl
her song and call
a creature
made of prayer

you can take my life
my boat my knife
but she
is always there

on a spring tide morn
her currents warm
I never
saw her more

yet I heard her song
all coast along
the inlets
speak her name

tommy was the skipper on the tugboat 'whiskey smoke`.. he lived for his two husky dogs and loved his rum and coke..

twenty one and crazy.. I was rougher than the quay.. tommy was like a father.. who saved myself from me..

tommy told a story.. of a girl he lost to time.. and the price you pay forever when you discard something sublime..

"I'll call it the bookstore and let me make this bold.. no book in this here store is ever getting sold.."

" nineteen hundred and fifty-six.. I first met Vanessa fair.. her eyes kinda made me seasick.. I'd go swimming in her hair..

but I was young and foolish, couldn't keep it my pants.. I was ruled by rum and other blondes.. it was just a temporary dance.."

"every book I have is her memory.. I can read her anytime.. but I've paid the price of losing her.. every dollar, cent and dime"..

tommy died ten years ago.. I now skipper whiskey smoke.. he left me his two huskies pups..

I call 'em rum and coke