Phone Pole Poetry
Jean O'Neill and Douglass Ridgeway
A Phone Pole (Dead Trees - Usually Southern Pine, Red Pine, Lodgepole Pine, Western Red Cedar or Douglas Fir Trees), Paper (also Dead Trees), Ink (Industrial Chemicals), Staples (Zinc-Plated Steel Wires and Glue)
Various Sizes. Most Phone Poles are About 20-30 Feet Tall and About 1 Foot Wide (a 65 Year Old Tree)
Accepts Commission Assignments - INQUIRE
New Fairfield, Connecticut
These poems were created as a call and response between two neighbors after a conversation about social justice one evening. Here are the first four.
Phone Pole Poetry
July 2, 2018
By Jean
It all started last night
Talking in the grass
Something about restoring ones faith
In Humanity
How Does One Do That?
From within
From without
From talking in the grass
I rise in the morning foggy
July 3, 2018
By Douglass
I rise in the morning foggy.
𝖳̶𝗋̶𝗒̶𝗂̶𝗇̶𝗀̶ Failing to remember what we talked about last night.
So I start over. Try to clear my mind.
Think about my dying lawn not my faith nor humanity.
I spend time figuring out the sex of my pumpkin flowers.
Feeling the heat already. oppression.
Watching the birds makes me want more.
I’m not ready for this kind of connection.
There’s responsibility in a response.
But silence is not an option.
sotto voce
July 14, 2018
By Douglass
let’s not talk about it. anymore.
let’s put it aside. breath deep. move on.
mountains between us. insurmountable.
maybe silence is the golden answer.
a small gift in a blue velvet box.
dressing up our monsters with bows and trinkets.
maybe i want to stop being such an asshole.
maybe i want to stop being so offensive.
maybe i want to stop being so defensive.
i want to see you for who i know you are.
not the pattern of behavior between us. blinding us.
let’s not Talk about it anymore. let us Do something about it.
Untitled
July 20, 2018
By Jean
Yes lets do something
Extend a hand
Skip a stone
Bite the tongue
Time is most precious of all
Finding good parts
Here there now in memory
To inspire
A small gift in a box
A meal
A flower
A thank you