James Walter Orr

James Walter Orr Poems

You come to me because you say you need me.
I come because I cannot stay away.
You weep with me because our love was thwarted.
I weep with you because you cannot stay.
...

I have to this, I have to that;
What makes me think I must?
I cannot take the time to chat,
Much less escape the thrust
...

The weasels run, a mighty herd
Of charging little beasts.
They're waiting on King Weasel
To call them to their feast.
...

Her gray head bows, and in the lamps dim glow,
with steady hand she sticks the end of thread
toward needles eye, but bushy, raveled end
declines to go. She makes another try
...

SHADOWS OF SEPARATION

I call to you across the miles,
those empty miles which lie between
...

When I'm crushed between the debris
of the cold, hard rocks of space
and the end of time
and I know I'll never be free
...

In ages past, when the evening star
shone down from an azure sky,
it carried warmth from the goddess of love:
love shone from her twinkling eye.
...

Deep and solemn tolls the midnight bell.
The moon begins its slow descent, to sink,
Behind the steeply rising western hills,
And yet I lie in bed, awake, to think.
...

While waves of passion lap the shore,
I plumb the depths of Eros' lake
And drink it dry, and look for more:
Oh God! , that this desire might slake
...

I came to earth, from a distant star,
And alien point of view.
I walk this earth as I did afar,
And I search for what is true.
...

My limbs are knotted, like an oak,
that stands, devoid of leaves.
I don’t envision or evoke,
an image that deceives.
...

There’s slightly over half a moon that shines on us tonight.
Fragmented clouds approach her face, but none can block her light.
The night is nice to take my walk. My shirt is wet with sweat.
They say a rain will come tonight. I will not take that bet.
...

Easy asked the long hauler,
'What passed in the night? '
and if some sort of vision
had passed through her sight?
...

On this stormy day fell such heavy snow,
That begot such frozen chill,
The snow blocked the keenest of human sight,
And subdued the strongest will.
...

I knew a man, not face to face,
But by his reputation.
He used to come into this town
By way of central station.
...

A Sideline Sonnet
(letters on the left side of the poem make the 15th line, which is also written out in parenthesis at the end of the poem) This poem, instead of being displayed with either 12 lines on the left margin, with the 13th and 14th lines indented in modern format, or with the first 8 lines on the left margin, a line skipped and then the next 4 lines on the left margin with the couplet indented in the style most commonly used in the days of Shakespeare, will be posted in 4 line stanzas to make it easier to read the side line, which will be three 4 letter words, and one 2 letter word.

May I behold a girl this fair:
...

I watch as starlight’s gleam across the years,
recalls to me our dream across the years.

We walked together, all those years ago:
...

Gray-green rimmed the hill.
Eternal dark's chill
Approach of the night,
Glazed and dimmed my sight.
...

Ahh, life is exciting, but here is the rub
about life in the Logan Toastmaster's club:
'Twas March twenty third, two thousand and seven:
Cathe baked bread but she left out the leaven.
...

James Walter Orr Biography

A Biography of James Orr for “Third Book from the Sun” James Walter Orr was born in Amarillo, Texas, in 1930, in the fabled dust bowl days. He grew up on a farm and ranch. He has also written under the pen-name of Easy Seeker and ezseeker. He has been a husband and hobo, laborer and engineer, cowboy and truck driver, rancher and roustabout, hod-carrier and concrete finisher, rod-wrencher and pulling unit operator, and everything that has touched any of the above. He has hooked up many a separator, heater-treater and flow line manifold. He has been a collar-pecker on a screw pipeline, pulled skids on a big-inch line, cut paraffin, handled a pipe jack, used a lazy board, run a gin-truck and hacked cross-ties. He has crumbed ditches and even shot the same. He has piss-anted flow line. He has been a radio activity log draftsman, instrument craftsman and a combiner. He has performed the necessary surgery on an untold number of bulls and boars. He has notched ears and branded hips, stretched wire and built some of the prettiest fences ever built. He was an expert with a brick paddle. As a kid on the road, he has slept on top of buildings, in box cars, in the fields and under hedges, in empty airplanes in air-ports, cars, vestibules, post-office lobbies, in old boxes, deserted buildings and hobo jungles. He has been a bindle-stiff, if a brown paper bag will pass for a bindle. Oh yes! He has been a pretty good wind-mill man! He has talked his way through the road blocks of many Indian villages in a South American uprising, and been in the ONLY car that was allowed to traverse the highway. Other than a host of similar things, he has lived an ordinary life. This is his third book of poetry.)

The Best Poem Of James Walter Orr

Right Love, Wrong Time

You come to me because you say you need me.
I come because I cannot stay away.
You weep with me because our love was thwarted.
I weep with you because you cannot stay.

You say with me you can escape reality.
For me what's real is I die more each day.
Our thoughts are deep and life has so much meaning:
A life of pain that grows more so each day.

Sometimes we laugh because it seems so crazy.
Sometimes we cry because we know it's true.
The time was right, the place was wrong, but darling,
There'll never be another, only you.

Our dreams of love were pure as mountain water.
God, how we had to fight to keep them so.
Each night we pass, and dreaming while we slumber,
Of something just too sweet to let it go.

When in our dreams we touch, and touching, knowing -
Our love is one that never can fulfill
The promise that was forged from instant longing,
The moment that our eyes met, deep and still.

We have to find some way to cool our passion.
We have to find some way to stay apart.
We'll never find a way to disentangle
Our melding to a single soul and heart.

James Walter Orr Comments

Jenna Thomas 08 March 2010

I've been in a weird place. Had to delet all my writings. But going through all of my emails. I wanted to thank you for all your kind words, and wisdom. You truly were a blessing to me :) Thank you. Jenna

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