Charlene Neely

Charlene Neely has been a dishwasher, waitress, cook, babysitter, nurse’s aide, stock clerk, elevator operator, paste-up artist, service girl at a candy factory, Fuller Brush man, Avon lady, printer, copy machine operator, circuit board imager, wife, mother, grandmother, great grandmother, chauffeur and sometimes tries to put it all into poetry. She is published in anthologies and magazines and mails silly postcard poems to friends and family.

In 2016, her book The Lights of Lincoln was published by Fusion Media. It chronicles the public art project Illuminating Lincoln: Lighthouse in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Her email motto is "The home of a poet is full of Delight!"

* Charlene's poem, "The Poem I Should Have Written," is included under the Introspection category in the Origami Poems anthology The Best of Kindness available on Amazon.

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► Charlene's Origami microchaps & selected poems are available below. Just click the title.

Origami Microchap	Selected Poem(s)
My Life in a Zip
Click on title to download PDF microchap. Cover collage by Jan K	What’s a Zip Ode? Memorialize your federally appointed numerical designation by writing an ode to your zip code. Each zip ode is five numbers, so each Zip Ode will be five lines – the number of words in each line is determined by the number in your particular zip code. If your zip code has a zero, that line can be left blank, or use a symbol such as !, #, $, the number 0 or a capital O. Try making a map of your life with your zip codes. · Charlene Neely © 2019	51560 Oakland, IA we crossed the Missouri River eastward from flat lands to hills ancestors once did this in reverse ! • 68446 Syracuse, NE a short stay in this town but we all enjoyed every minute of it we packed the car two times a day took the road to new adventure • 68443 Sterling, NE a café for a living room, people coming and going all the day long the smell of food the smell of coffee until we left • Charlene Neely © 2019
Soup Dreams
Click title to download PDF microchap. Cover : www.bbc.co.uk •	Note I'm Sure The Plumber Meant To Leave on My Refrigerator Door Missus, The door was open so I let m’self in pipe was leakin’, you said, I shut the power off not wantin’ to get shocked by garbage disposal leavin’ me with the need to reassure m’self all was back to workin’ ‘fore my tools got put, an’ I left the premises checked the fridge to see nothin’ went bad while I worked up my appetite under yer kitchen sink which is why you’ll find the left-over chicken an’ cherry pie gone missin’. • Charlene Neely 2014	Soup Dreams A big bowl of tomato soup and me in search of a spoon. The drawer was full of bees, I took the bees to the backyard only to find their hive covered with bath towels which I folded and returned to the cupboard. The shoes that fell out when I opened the door marched off with me in a parade down Main Street where I found a haberdashery that had one spoon but when I returned home the dog had lapped up every drop of my soup. • Charlene Neely © 2014
Lessons Learned
Click title to download PDF microchap. Cover image from the Web •	Lessons Learned This is the lesson I learned when my dead father returned. Leaning against the coffee shop wall he just waited for me to acknowledge his presence, to tune out the espresso machine, the teen-agers at the next table discussing a teacher they hated, the new-age music coming from poorly concealed speakers in the rafters, the fire truck racing by siren blaring headed for one emergency or other. He waited for me to settle my notebooks, put my cup where it couldn’t spill, get out my pen and look up to see him. Then he told me the secret is to listen. Listen for the quiet that lies underneath the mayhem of everyday life. • Charlene Neely © 2014	Beginnings My father came from a place that was always moving from one end of the country to the other and back again. From the end of the line where the railroad stopped, they doubled back to Tennessee and then to Denver, the Mile High City. When moves came before the end of the school year, home was whoever would take him in and feed him. He learned early to fend for himself. He learned that every ending was just another beginning. • Charlene Neely © 2014

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