Gooseberry Lake Superior by Artist Troy Richard Thomas

Gooseberry Falls State Park, Two Harbors, Minnesota Lake Superior. The rock is stark and beautiful on the shore. It is of volcanic origins similar to rock in Marquette Michigan. One of the breweries is named after this rock.

Pipe Sculpture holding Flower by Artist Troy Richard Thomas

Yellow Roses by Artist Troy Richard Thomas

              Roses planted next to barn in 2014

Upper Iowa River by Artist Troy Richard Thomas

Gooseberry State Park by Artist Troy Richard Thomas

                     Two Harbors, Minnesota

Poem (My Homestead) From the book {Bunny Hop} by Artist Troy Richard Thomas

                             My Homestead

             The children play outside my door

Little girls screaming and giggling, turning cartwheels and tumbling to the ground

              My pool of shallow green grass

Yet there is not much left but a slip of a dream

       The sun rises and warms the brick wall

It brings a new day to this flat land where a boy and a sled finds a lonesome place

                A garden full of flowers

A town full of enough bees to fill a wine barrel

            A welcome face or a sour one

Tourism is streaming by on the wheel through a dying town of life

At the old General Store farmers used to drink and jest

Full of more gossip than the women they were hiding from

              Full of more liquor than life

Here in Homestead cats are king, they scratch at the door and own the easy chair

Each day the old sluggers reastaurant opens to fortune or fame

It is a deal a meal, a tiresome chore for cook and staff

That fills the welcome belly of tourist and local

My country home, country style, my country life

As the cat strides out the door, the light leaves this place

And the cows and coyotes begin their song in the grove

A train blows its loud whistle through the night amidst the pink neon glow of Zubers Restaurant

But by now it's nothing but a lullaby.

Poem (My Homestead) from the book {Bunny Hop} by Artist Troy Richard Thomas

This poem was written in 2003 and performed in front of an audience at the Amana Poetry Festival  in High Amana (the Arts Guild). I was a board member and brought Mrs. Mattingly from Newton to perform several songs during the show. 

Upper Iowa River by Artist Troy Richard Thomas

                          Upper Iowa River
                          Kendalville, Iowa

Flowers in the Garden by Artist Troy Richard Thomas

Daisies by Artist Troy Richard Thomas

Flowers In the Garden by Artist Troy Richard Thomas

Chair in the Flowers by Artist Troy Richard Thomas

Flowers called Angela by Artist Troy Richard Thomas

               The roses were planted in 2000.

Poem from the book the {The Lion and the Sun} by Artist Troy Richard Thomas

Drinking driving and arithmetic, an after school special

Getting the Audi Fox speeding up to one hundred ten , then doing the streets of San Francisco on the rural gravel roads of Newton, Iowa

Shooting over the tops of the rolling hills

Gliding fourteen feet in the air till you come slamming down and you fish tail in the gravel

Coning adults at the Hy Vee Grocery Store, to buy us some long necks of Buttwiper Beer, when there use to be a mall

Driving around with Al and friends smoking our cigars and drinking our beer

Picking up the girls and taking them night golfing

Going to the Capitol Theatre to throw milkduds and popcorn and spill pop on the floor (your feet would stick)

Getting slammed into windshield like a bug and flying eighty feet in the air till I skidded in the asphalt

The nurse used a rather rough brillo pad to scrub the wounds

Teasing rival cars on the strip and being chased

These guys open their van door to give us a beating

I shoot a flare gun into the vehicle and they dance like marionettes, and we escape

Watching girls in bikinis and then saying something smart ass to my girlfriend (who pushes me over a railing)

Making enough money to pump gas in my car

Working at Adventureland Amusement Park cleaning up barf from the roller coaster ride the Tornado for $2.75 an hour

The car mechanic pulls me aside and tells me to drive more responsibly

He says he is sick of working on this vehicle

The mechanic is a hippie wearing a Jack Daniels t-shirt.

Poem from the book {The Lion and the Sun} by Artist Troy Richard Thomas

 

My Kayak sitting on the Beach at Split Rock Lighthouse by Artist Troy Richard Thomas

                Split Rock Lighthouse State Park
                      Two Harbors, Minnesota

Sunrise at Burlington Bay by Artist Troy Richard Thomas