About Bartholomew Barker
Bartholomew Barker is an organizer of Living Poetry, a collection of poets in the Triangle region of North Carolina where he has hosted a monthly feedback workshop for more than decade. His first poetry collection, Wednesday Night Regular, written in and about strip clubs, was published in 2013. His second, Milkshakes and Chilidogs, a chapbook of food inspired poetry was served in 2017. He was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2021. Born and raised in Ohio, studied in Chicago, he worked in Connecticut for nearly twenty years before moving to Hillsborough where he lives and writes poetry.
Living Poetry
Squirrel
(In response to Bartholomew Barker’s November Visual Poetry Prompt)
By Ami (Gypsie) Offenbacher-Ferris
We sat eye to eye
Me, inside my warm, cozy cabin
Sweet scent of hot apple cider
dancing happily around me
Him, resplendent in his home
Snow framing his petite form
Boughs of evergreen
bouncing softly in the breeze
A bite of my cinnamon stick
He gnawed on his and stopped
Taunting me
Teasing me
A chattered challenge
I took up the melee
popping the entire sweet
onto my exuberant tongue
Not to be outdone
he devoured his delight
Those sharp teeth sawing
with meticulous precision
Shiny brown eyes glare at me
through frost glazed windows
Two cinnamon sticks had I
poor mr squirrel he had none
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Posted by Ami (Gypsie) Offenbacher-Ferris | November 1, 2021, 7:52 AMLovely story. Hope you shared with him!
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | November 1, 2021, 8:05 PMI like the lively tone
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Posted by Lisa Tomey | November 7, 2021, 8:58 PMGreat picture of the seeming challenge in the squirrel’s eye!
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Posted by ts19page | November 8, 2021, 8:30 AMts19page – Thank you! 😊
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Posted by Ami (Gypsie) Offenbacher-Ferris | November 8, 2021, 8:40 AMVery cute! 💚😄
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Posted by Cassa Bassa | November 1, 2021, 8:29 AMThank you Cassa! 😊
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Posted by Ami (Gypsie) Offenbacher-Ferris | November 1, 2021, 9:11 AMDon’t feed me your lies
A stick is not a nut
I hunger for truth
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Posted by JeanMarie | November 5, 2021, 9:55 PMHa! Nice little haiku. Thanks!
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | November 5, 2021, 11:56 PMPerfect!
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Posted by Lisa Tomey | November 7, 2021, 8:57 PMlove it Jeannie, what a great poem!
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Posted by Cassa Bassa | November 8, 2021, 7:10 AMRiding on the 1 – train
Not my usual R
To Upper East Side
Someplace different to ride
He sat there
In his ruddy camel-hair overcoat
on an orange-colored seat
Perfectly coiffed, perfectly perfect
With a brief glance
he sized me up
not a threat
not worthy of his attention
back to his bento box
he ate his supper
probably thinking of the sales of that day
dreaming of the upcoming weekend
I just tried to keep warm
as I jumped out to head downtown
content not to eat bento box dinners
and get back to Brooklyn before 10:00
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Posted by Chris Clarke | November 5, 2021, 10:14 PMNice story. I sure didn’t expect something like that from the picture. That’s the wonders of the prompt. Thanks!
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | November 6, 2021, 12:00 AMWell, I’m always writing about Red Squirrels and coniferous forests! Let me mind wander a bit and thought about how that squirrel is nice dressed… it went from there…
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Posted by Chris Clarke | November 7, 2021, 9:02 PMNicely done
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Posted by Lisa Tomey | November 7, 2021, 8:56 PMThe squirrel-like person we have seen from time to time, something in the pose and the eye it seems. We share less identity than recognition.
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Posted by ts19page | November 8, 2021, 8:35 AMRed Squirrel Delight
Sky rockets in sight
red squirrel delight,
quick intricate delight.
Russet fur
and conifer
further than you were,
Yet close enough
to spy the spry
sparkle in the creature eye.
Fall hispid feasts of fulsome
cones and seeds,
a crunch for lunch,
Prickle branch,the twiggy perch
woven crisscrossed and intertwined
geometrical divisions
in lines and counter lines.
He pauses here
In tangled tines
and barbed sprig, until
switched at a moment’s twitch,
the scene is gone,
scurried Sciuridae.
Gnawed, the cone falls
branch to branch
down labyrinthine ways
landing soft, weightless,
and enfolded on the earth.
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Posted by ts19page | November 7, 2021, 1:38 PMLove that Prickle branch stanza. Nicely done!
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | November 7, 2021, 1:56 PMThank you for the comment!
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Posted by ts19page | November 8, 2021, 8:26 AMIt a cool beat!
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Posted by Lisa Tomey | November 7, 2021, 8:54 PMThank you!
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Posted by ts19page | November 8, 2021, 8:26 AMTrample stomp scurries scratches
Tinny rooftop over my head
Wake up call
As the troops of scurrying squirrels
Prepare their day
It’s futile to sleep
Time to gather nuts
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Posted by Lisa Tomey | November 7, 2021, 8:53 PMNo sleep ’til winter. Well done!
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | November 7, 2021, 9:19 PMSquirrels on the roof do seem to stimulate a call to do your part to gather nuts, or poems as nuggets of thought.
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Posted by ts19page | November 8, 2021, 8:41 AMOver the Hedge
There is a food shortage
in our town
except the gated community
I’ve found a way
to climb over the hedge
to help myself
with some leftover party food
and pack some for later
On my way back down
I come face to face
with a squirrel
nibbling on a pine cone
It looks at me
I look at it
Suddenly I feel really sad
because God looks after a squirrel
better than me
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Posted by Cassa Bassa | November 8, 2021, 7:38 AMCertainly better than we look after each other. Well done!
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | November 8, 2021, 7:26 PM😊
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Posted by Cassa Bassa | November 8, 2021, 11:44 PMGorgeous shot of the squirrel!
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Posted by Susi Bocks | November 11, 2021, 12:03 AMFree stock photos can be wonderful things.
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | November 11, 2021, 11:35 AMLOL Yes, they are! I’ve been inspired by a few. 😉
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Posted by Susi Bocks | November 12, 2021, 3:03 PM