The year was 1995 and
I remember seeing news footage live
as the Oklahoma Murrah building
was destroyed as domestic terror
hit heartland America
in such a devastating way
168 people died that day
because of the derangement
of Timothy McVeigh
and America was forever changed
By: J.N.R Dutton
Keith and Lorrie’s Love story
I’ve heard it many times
It came flooding back
fresh to my mind tonight
As I heard Lorrie singing in his memory,
& of what seeing him again might
be like, what I saw when I looked
into her eyes is the pain of his loss is
still fresh to her as if it were still 1989
The year Keith left this world behind
By: J.N.R Dutton
He’s always been a little of the restless kind
Never slowing down, always running wild
if he stopped, then in the quiet of the night
he’d have so much on his mind
Like, the long hot Summer when he was 17
Down in Alabama ‘neath evergreens
That Summer he met the woman of his dreams
She stood only 5 ft. 3, her heart was pure
and her mind was keen, their Love was real
but the world got mean, tore them apart
like a scene from a Shakespearean tragedy
By: J.N.R Dutton
There’s a crisis in the border towns
that some choose to deny
but I have seen the evidence
with my own two eyes
How many people have to get hurt,
how many have to die
before this humanitarian disaster
Is taken care of right?
By:J.N.R Dutton
In a town called Paradise, California
There was a now infamous blaze
They called it “The Camp Fire”,
such an innocuous sounding name
it kind of hides the scope of things,
The entire town was razed
& Eighty five people perished
Such a horror, tragedy, & a shame
By:J.N.R Dutton
In early grade school I remember
having a school assembly
Where my class was informed
we lost a kid named Anthony
All these years later,
I don’t know why it stuck w/me
Except it was one of my earliest
experiences of tragedy
I never got to meet him, thinking back I wish I did
they say he jumped or fell from a railroad bridge,
There were rumors of intentional suicide,
but if so, I’ve got to wonder, what could drive a kid?
By:J.N.R Dutton
I heard a song today that shook me to my heart & soul
The singer was a man dealing w/loss
though I could sense his heart break
& it seemed like more than he could take
He still held tightly to his faith,
I’ve got to say, I could totally relate
It stuns, when a song hits you
in a deeply personal way
I’m glad he had the courage & strength
Even in the midst of his pain
To put the song’s words to the page
I sincerely think that through it
Lives will be changed
By:J.N.R Dutton
A Pennsylvania town, serene
but then a flood washes through
like a disaster movie scene
I’ve heard the story,
Though I wasn’t there that day,
A dam exploded, so people say
Over 2,000 people washed away
By:J.N.R Dutton
A drunk driver hit him, driving in the wrong lane
leaving his car engulfed in a ball of flames
from then on, nothing for him was ever the same
It’s crazy, and so strange, how in a single instant
a person’s whole world can change
By:J.N.R Dutton
There’s a poet called Mourning Phoenix
because despite the pain he’s known
He’s always found the strength to rise above
& overcome, even when @ first he felt broken
and alone, his heart’s mounted up
on eagles wings & flown
By: J.N.R Dutton
The Poetry Of J.N.R Dutton 