Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $9.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Provoking Pathways
    Provoking Pathways
    Provoking Pathways
    Ebook130 pages48 minutes

    Provoking Pathways

    By Dave Close

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Most of the poems in Provoking Pathways were experienced on the frontlines of life before they were ever written down on paper. The poems were lived from the hills of Pennsylvania to the city streets of New York.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTrafford Publishing
    Release dateApr 10, 2015
    ISBN9781490758510
    Provoking Pathways
    Author

    Dave Close

    Dave Close has written three fiction books: Deadly Woods, Between Classes and Three Reading Plays for Children. He has also written two other books of poetry: Naked Tracks and Backside of Nothin’.

    Related to Provoking Pathways

    Related ebooks

    Poetry For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Help! I’m A Geriatric Millennial

      May 26, 2021

      High up on the list of ways a woman would rather not be described? Geriatric. But there it was, screaming at me during my evening Twitter doomscroll: ‘Born between 1980-1985? You’re a geriatric millennial.’ Ok, I thought, stay calm. This must be a mi

      5 min read

    • Article

      Forever Changes

      Apr 25, 2018

      Forever Changes
      7 min read

    • Article

      Lost Boy

      Jul 29, 2022

      Lost Boy
      4 min read

    • Article

      Winning Letter

      Apr 21, 2023

      I WAS fascinated by the story we have this week about people who fall in love with or are in relationships with artificial intelligence (AI). It raises so many questions about these interactions, how people see themselves and others and what it means

      5 min read

    • Article

      Feeling It

      Dec 30, 2021

      Feeling It
      3 min read

    • Article

      A Unique Estate Planning Idea: How to Write Your Memoir

      Jul 6, 2018

      Do you sometimes feel like your life isn't valuable? Everyone does at one point or another. I've interviewed all kinds of impressive people about their legacies, and you know the most-common response I get? "My life isn't that interesting." Some of t

      6 min read

    • Article

      Not All Superheroes Wear Capes

      Jul 20, 2022

      Not All Superheroes Wear Capes
      7 min read

    • Article

      Corey Taylor

      Oct 13, 2020

      Corey Taylor
      4 min read

    • Article

      Peter Dinklage

      Dec 27, 2021

      Peter Dinklage
      5 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Aug 8, 2024

      THE further I head into my thirties, the more I learn about myself and discover different parts of my character I was oblivious to when I was younger. I was speaking to a colleague recently about becoming more aware of just how much of an A-type pers

      5 min read

    • Article

      2016 Artist Surveys

      Dec 27, 2016

      2016 Artist Surveys
      56 min read

    • Article

      Thought Leader

      Nov 7, 2022

      Thought Leader
      8 min read

    • Article

      Amber Diamond

      Aug 10, 2022

      Amber Diamond
      5 min read

    • Article

      CHRIS McCAUSLAND

      Nov 11, 2024

      CHRIS McCAUSLAND
      7 min read

    • Article

      Bonus Answers

      Dec 15, 2018

      Which Muppets character are you most like and why? I saw the Jim Henson exhibit at the Museum of Moving Image (actually twice, once after a screening of Yellow Submarine)—and many original Muppet puppets are there. I saw the Janice puppet (the g

      10 min read

    • Article

      Dawn Neesom Mind Of My Own

      Feb 21, 2023

      Titanic is often said to be one of the most romantic movies ever made, even though (spoiler alert) most people drown. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet as young, class-crossed lovers, and shot both of them to the mega stardom they still cur

      4 min read

    • Article

      Fierce Julia Tiffany

      Sep 11, 2024

      Fierce Julia Tiffany
      2 min read

    • Article

      Date A Hollywood Actress

      Apr 10, 2023

      Date A Hollywood Actress
      5 min read

    • Article

      Date A Hollywood Actress

      Apr 10, 2023

      Date A Hollywood Actress
      5 min read

    • Article

      Funny Girl

      Sep 30, 2024

      Funny Girl
      4 min read

    • Article

      For The Boys

      Nov 15, 2022

      For The Boys
      4 min read

    • Article

      Basia Tyrkalska

      Jun 8, 2022

      Basia Tyrkalska
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Joy Of Quitting

      May 19, 2019

      The Joy Of Quitting
      7 min read

    • Article

      TOWN & COUNTRY

      Jun 1, 2022

      TOWN & COUNTRY
      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Provoking Pathways

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Provoking Pathways - Dave Close

      ©Copyright 2015 Dave Close.

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

      ISBN: 978-1-4907-5852-7 (sc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4907-5851-0 (e)

      Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

      Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

      and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

      Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

      Trafford rev. 04/10/2015

      22970.png www.trafford.com

      North America & international

      toll-free: 1 888 232 4444 (USA & Canada)

      fax: 812 355 4082

      Contents

      Author’s Introduction

      Prelude To Math Facts

      Truth

      A Check-out Line Genius

      What About Fuck?

      The Princess and the Pawn

      Street Plastic

      Hill 609

      Jessie

      To An Almost Dead Horseshoe Crab

      Cycles

      The Veteran

      To Hell With Them

      Beware

      Here’s to You Geronimo

      The Folder Game

      String Merchants

      The Land Lady

      The Maze

      Blink-Flash-Blink

      The Bikers

      The Parent Game

      The On-deck Circle

      Radioactive Ground

      Permanent Vacation

      Common Sense

      For My Grandchildren

      Metaphorical Spirit

      Nails

      Tug of War

      $ports $tars

      Their Painting

      Supreme Judges

      Stuck

      Screwed

      You Wonder?

      The Outcast

      Mr. Natural’s Moon

      Prozaced

      A Perfect Sunday

      For Ziane

      The Bus Station

      Perhaps

      The Beach Crow

      Mid East Insanity

      The Irishman

      They Are the Ones

      Assholes

      That Lucky Gull

      Denise

      Golden Sunday

      May Your Spirits Know Freedom

      Brotherhoods

      The Ad Game

      About Time

      Late Charges

      The Final Merger

      Blitzkrieg of Bullshit

      The Waterfalls

      The Best or What’s Left of It

      Lima Beans and Catsup

      Degrees

      Spirits

      Reasons and Deeds

      Desert Fire

      By Age Twenty

      Snowbound

      The Very Last Time

      Just Plain Stupid

      Unanswered Questions

      That to Their

      Sparks

      Ode To Joanie

      In the Meantime

      Dedication

      For

      Joanie Lyons

      (1953-2011)

      3.jpg

      Author’s Introduction

      4.jpg

      The poems in Provoking Pathways were written to express the author’s experiences… experienced from barrooms to city streets, from factory work to classroom teaching, from being on the steps of that infamous golden ladder, to living in the shadows of that ladder. Many of the experiences related to on the following pages were based on the reality of tasting and enduring life for nearly seventy years…years filled with the pleasures of love found and the pain of love lost; the question marks of a world in constant change and the history that continues to repeat itself.

      If street language bothers your mind, then don’t read Provoking Pathways, for street vocabulary echoes throughout the poems in this book, as it could not have been written any other way in order to for the reader to experience the breath of reality in the poems. Several poems deal with the word freedom and how its meaning has been used, abused, exploited and manipulated until one can become lost in the rain of bullshit pouring down all around each and every day.

      5.jpg

      Prelude To Math Facts

      Like some kind of scratched record

      played every school morning

      I listen to children pledge an allegiance

      to a colored cloth symbol

      hanging dusty in a classroom corner.

      The children recite words they do not understand

      but have memorized from a daily routine

      done right before math facts.

      I watch little hands placed over little hearts

      and hear the words, with liberty and justice for all,

      echo around the room and down the hallway.

      My mind never stops wondering about it all,

      like will those words function and work

      if you are poor, if you are this choice or that choice,

      if you are gay, red, black or different in any way?

      Somewhere inside of this educational circus

      I hope these young minds will learn

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1