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.
A Bit of Nonsense
You look dashing, the lovely brunette said,
Thru the snow or no …
Gallant, I’d say, added another,
more beautiful than the one before …
Your clothes, you hair, a third chimed in,
I’d like to take you home …
At last, I cried, I now am dashing
finally with someplace to go.
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Posted by Dennis | December 4, 2023, 7:56 AMAt least you got dressed up for a reason this time. Well done!
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | December 4, 2023, 8:10 PMOh dashing through the snow, we go,
In a sleigh with runners aglow.
With snowflakes so white,
We zip left and right,
Laughing as fast as we can throw!
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Posted by Fay Ann Swearing | December 4, 2023, 8:07 AMA lovely winter limerick. Thank you!
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | December 4, 2023, 8:12 PMDashing through the snow
my boys so so cold
I am freezing
Not teasing
I am full on frozen
I was chosen
for this dash
but why i ask?
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Posted by Art Hernandez | December 4, 2023, 8:24 AMHa! I’ve often wondered that myself in winter.
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | December 4, 2023, 8:13 PMIn realms unseen, where words take flight,
A tale of darkness veiled in night,
May thunder from third heaven’s height,
Descend upon a scene of spite.
A soul consumed by greed’s embrace,
Who sought to shift his debts and space,
With promises deceitful, laced,
May he face fate’s resounding chase.
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May thunderbolts with fury strike,
From heavens vast, their power like,
To pierce his heart and soul alike,
And render justice, swift and right.
Oh, let him meet an evil’s end,
A fate befitting, we contend,
May wickedness its grasp extend,
To claim the soul that will not mend.
In forests draped with shadows deep,
Where secrets whisper, secrets keep,
May his remains lie in silence sleep,
A reminder of the vows he’d reap.
But let us pause, reflect, and see,
The path we tread, the choices free,
To harbour hate or let it flee,
And seek a world where grace may be.
For vengeance, though it tempts the mind,
Can breed a darkness undefined,
May we instead compassion find,
And foster love, with hearts aligned.
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Posted by EINSTEIN CHUKWU | December 4, 2023, 1:34 PMDidn’t expect that from a pic of a dog running through the snow. Thanks for sharing!
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | December 4, 2023, 8:16 PMThey put this red coat on me… humans
They put these tiny booties on too…humans
They’re running in the snow, I’m still so cold…humans
They say I’m having fun…humans
They keep snapping pictures…humans
My humans are out of their minds
smiling and grinning
talking about Santa, someone who is going to creep down the chimney, but not on my watch.
They say I look like a reindeer, imagine tiny me, a reindeer.
My humans are mad!
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Posted by DanielleM | December 4, 2023, 7:43 PMHa! A faithful reading of this poor dog’s thoughts. May he nip Santa’s ankle!
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | December 4, 2023, 8:19 PMButt-Ugly Booties
I try to try these booties on, they criss and cross too many ways.
I cannot tell which side is up, they’re on a different side from me.
The colors are a horror, more Halloween or Hitchcock.
I’d rather freeze my tootsies off than wear these ugly things.
They’re what my mother lent to me to celebrate this day.
I hope no one will see them underneath my wedding dress.
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Posted by nolchafox | December 4, 2023, 8:48 PMHa! Love the line “The colors are a horror, more Halloween or Hitchcock” Great stuff.
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | December 4, 2023, 9:46 PMThanks, Bartholomew! I’ve been writing so many doggie poems lately, I just couldn’t pull another one off.
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Posted by nolchafox | December 5, 2023, 7:37 AMYou can’t write too many dog poems.
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | December 5, 2023, 5:32 PMEven my dogs are tired of my poems. They’re pooping on them.
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Posted by nolchafox | December 5, 2023, 5:38 PMOne December the snow blew to the ground
in drifts of asters, mounding deep
over the rain-crumbled locust, poplar, sycamore
leaves, dipping into the hollow of the trench
that kept the gravel road from washing down the mountain
as smooth and suave as a lick of wave curling without end
around the mossy, mounding quartz and feldspar stones
of the river. That was the year I got the runner sled,
the year the snow didn’t melt but built a crisp
and sugared crust. Sumac-red blades sliced it;
we leaned into the curve, leapt the ditch,
made the turn to the last hill without soaring over
the hill and into the embrace of pine and briar,
glided all the way to rest, as the snow itself,
beside the river.
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Posted by Hannah Ringler | December 4, 2023, 11:00 PMGorgeous! Love the mixing of stone and vegetation and especially the “suave as a lick of wave curling without end”. Great work. Thanks for sharing!
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | December 4, 2023, 11:21 PMLikeLike
Posted by Bartholomew Barker | December 5, 2023, 9:42 PM