Scott SimpsonSongs, Poems, Stories.

Scott Simpson · Poetry archive

Poetry

Find a title, follow a theme, or linger in a collection.

484 poems and collection versions across 8 books and collections

Leather-bound journal on a woven blanket

484 poems and collection versions

Earlier Poems

Joe and Marge at the Movies

They were getting old and they didn't even know it. Joe smiled like the crowsfeet and the false teeth and the double chin didn't show--- weren't there. Marge walked just like the base of her neck didn't bow up and hump down into her spine--- just like the index and middle fingers of her right hand weren't twisting slowly, year by year as the knuckles grew to the size of chestnuts. Joe held that hand when they strolled down the aisle to find their seats, bought popcorn that they put between them, placing their hands in the sack together, later, fighting playfully over the last kernels. And as the movie progressed, Joe slid his arm behind Marge's thin shoulders, resting the crook of his elbow around her crooked back like they were made to fit like that. At the end of the show Joe would grin big as a kid or maybe cry and, either way, Marge would stretch over with her tiny face and kiss his chin, the touch soft as the muzzle of a colt. They would leave slowly, reluctant as lovers at the end of a long-awaited first date, wanting to stretch it out, wanting it not to end, waiting to see all the credits, hear the very last

Love & intimacy
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Earlier Poems

Eldorado Arkansas

Back where I belong, people eat black-eyed peas and collard greens, they sit in fenced in porches and smell the neighbor's trash burning and hear the cicadas buzz out in the pines and watch the darkness of twilight seep down the long straight lodge-pole trunks like molasses until it pools along the ground to mix with the dry needles.

Nature & landscapeFamily & ancestrySeasons & change
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About the archive

The archive brings together poems from Scott Simpson’s books and collections. Collection-specific versions remain distinct so their wording and lineation can be preserved. The original anthology also retains its six section labels. Themes are discovery tags, separate from the poems. Prose, exercises, commentary, and quoted poems by other authors are excluded.

The poems are presented as selectable text in DM Sans, the website’s main body font. Original line breaks, stanza spacing, indentation, and placement are retained. Copyright footers, page numbers, and empty page margins are separated from the verse. Page continuations remain identified.