Cherie Griffith
Watch Cherie read some of her poetry at the Porcupine Mountain Folk Music Festival. |
Hi! My name is Cherie Griffith and Ive been enjoying the lovely clean air and water of the Northland for over 9 years. I had hoped to run an Ecotel but plans changed.
I worked part time as a substitute teacher in Elmira, NY for 7 years and in Horseheads, NY for 6 years. I graduated from Syracuse University with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science.
My studies included a semester abroad in Florence, Italy as well as other travels. I have studied yoga and macrobiotic philosophy and cooking for over 30 years. I have given cooking classes in
West Hollywood, Elmira, NY and Belleville, NJ. I have lectured in Elmira, Corning, Belleville, and at the Center for Macrobiotic Studies in Manhattan.
My photograph of Dr. Anthony Sattilaro was featured in a health magazine and a photo of a group of doctors and macrobiotic practitioners was featured in Kushi Institute Brochures.
I have 3 children and one grandchild and spent a good deal of my time singing songs, rhyming words and telling them stories. Ive started doing that for my own enjoyment with occasional
performances at ABC cafι in Ithaca, NY, at a poetry slam at the Haunt in Ithaca, Black Cat and Northland College in Ashland, Hurley Coffee Company, Beaners Central in Duluth, Earth Day at
Stage North in Washburn, and at the Porcupine Mountain Folk Music Festival. Ive had some poetry published in the Duluth Reader and some displays at the Hurley Coffee Company.
I am trying to help people become aware of the benefits of whole foods, organic fresh vegetables (especially carrot juice), the use of seaweed, whole grains (brown rice), dried beans (mung),
and olive oil. I also support plant based soaps for cleaning and personal grooming and suffer terrible reactions form chemical solvents.
I also believe in acupuncture and Chinese tonic herbs, as well as several other traditional herbal systems, and the marvels of concentrated food-based anti-oxidants such as alpha-lipoic acid,
CO-Q10, and trace minerals (as in cell food). This is the medicine of the future and so I talk about it, write about it, sing about it, and Im still trying to find a way to dance and swim about it but
that is what I do sometimes.
As for what I do the rest of the time, listen to my stories and you decide how much is truth and how much fantasy.
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Let Them Eat Cake
by Cherie Griffith
We teach `em
To be helpful
We hope they
Will be kind
Then we whack `em
Out with solvents
Until they
Lose their minds
Then we drug `em
With Big Pharma
Let's just get `em
All on speed
Add a cup
Of sugar
I know that's
What they need
Then we teach `em
Math and science
How to read
And how to write
Then we find
Another drug
To help `em
Sleep at night
And we wonder
At their madness
It seems they
Cannot think
Regular
Or diet
Have another
Poison drink
I've been to
California
Boston and
New York
I tasted
All the pastries
I could fit
Upon my fork
There's cakes they make
With carrots
And chocolate
With whole wheat
It costs
A little more
But oh! It is
So sweet
We need to give `em
Healthy choices
Olive oil's
Not cheap
If we expect `em
To survive
And make that
Quantum Leap
We need to show `em
What to cook
That is
What it will take
Let's switch
To fruit juice sweetened
And then
"Let Them Eat Cake!"
Bring Back The Eagle
by Cherie Griffith
I'm glad you seek change
In how our world goes
Don't add vaccinations
To our budget woes!
I'd like to go on
I hope you're not bored,
Don't repeat the fiasco
Of President Ford!
He said vaccinations
Would cure the Swine Flu,
But people were paralyzed
And boy, did they sew!
Our county's in trouble
Because of our diet
Without media hype,
Why should we try it?
The truth's been long out
McGovern risked showing it.
The Senate, somehow,
Forgot that they know it.
We're poisoned from excess
Of dairy and meat
And chemicalized food
Which Americans eat.
There's many a mother
Who cooks half the day,
And knows that whole grains
Are the best immune way.
We're busy with keeping
A roof for our head,
We just haven't the time
To bake whole wheat bread.
We can't boil barley,
We open a can.
We microwave all
Don't dirty a pan.
Our corn we may cook,
Though we spray it to death,
And then we all wonder
Why we're out of breath.
Oh, when will we, when will we,
When will we learn?
It's how well you cook
Not the cash you can earn
That measures your health
And gives you your vision,
So choose health or sickness
It's your own decision.
Pure food and pure water
Will make our kids strong
Promote proper diet
And you can't go wrong.
With 300 million
I'd buy some brown rice
With carrots and beans
It'd taste really nice.
You want to have health?
Make herb Doctors Legal!
Get pesticides out!
Bring back the Eagle!
Don't waste all our money
There's much to be done,
Sustainable agriculture
That's number one!
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Saxon Harbor Mermaid
by Cherie Griffith
By the shores of Gitchee Gummee
Hiawatha stood
But Longfellow should have noted
It's the swimming that does you good.
And of all great bodies of water
For wanderers, landed or poor
None can compare, no I wouldn't dare
To Lake Superior.
When choppy - it's ocean
The surf gives a thrill
When peaceful - like glass
So silent and still.
I have no country
Nor have I state
Just allegiance to water
It seems too late.
[Untitled]
by Cherie Griffith
Love alone
Makes life divine
As matter takes
A form sublime
To sing with wings
To fly so high
Oh let me love
Else I shall die.
Hang Me
by Cherie Griffith
I met a sailor
Who spoke with me.
Late one night
Of the law of the sea
The Captain, of course,
Was king of the ship
And none of the crew
Dared give any lip.
And even the coast guard
When they'd board at the bow
Would request his permission
At least ask, anyhow
And all those aboard
Oh everyone knew
What the Captain asked
Now that you would do
For any and all
Who've gone under sail
Through a hurricane swell
Or a mid-winter gale
Should the Captain demand
You must trim the sails
And you answer him back
Why I must do my nails
The ship could be lost
So that's why they say
When the Captain Commands
Why you'd better obey!
So when sailing the ocean
Inspired with awe
Rember this rule
Of maritime law
The Captain can do
What e'er he please
And you can hang by your neck
And float in a breeze
As any a pirate
Of the old Caribbean
Knows of the reefs
That you can't always see 'em
So all hands on deck
Had better not try
To argue with Captain
Wasting time asking why
This thing or that thing
Must be done right away
'for the force of the storm
The wast will away
The reason is good
It makes so much sense
However, going to sea
Now makes me too tense
I'd rather be sailing
For the much lesser stakes
Of the maritime laws
Of all the Great Lakes
If may take me sometime
To master the wheel
I may never learn
Though it has its appeal
But until I'm the Captain
I'll not out to sea
For I'd rather avoid
That the Captain
Hang me!
I've Got a Little Problem
by Cherie Griffith
I've got a little problem it began with Dr. Seuss.
He's captured all my nouns and verbs and will not let them loose.
I was reading all his lovely books from morning to night.
My children so loved Horton that Thidwick's out of sight.
His grip was quite insidious and before I even knew
He'd slipped right in my consciousness and now I'm in a stew.
He will not let me speak unless it happens all in rhyme.
It's true I do like poetry but not all of the time.
I ache to say "How are You?" and "I hope you're feeling fine."
But I can only say it by adding, "you're a friend of mine."
I try to shop for carrots and some noodles and some corn,
But when I ask assistance I must add "on this fine morn."
Sometimes although I like to rhyme I do feel rather silly,
Especially when it's hot outside and I must rhyme "how chilly."
I've heard this sort of malady just comes and soon will pass
Meanwhile please excuse me if I sometimes seem the ass.
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Talk to Me of Majesty
by Cherie Griffith
Talk to me of Majesty
Talk to me of trees
Talk to me of standing tall
Instead of on my knees.
Talk to me of power
Talk to me of space
Tell me that there is on earth
A home that is my place.
Fill my dreams with wanton hope
That e'er a place should be
And travel on the winding road
And find that place with me.
Inadvertent Huffers
by Cherie Griffith
Would you like an education?
We'll teach you how to huff
Solvents and formaldehyde
As if nerve gas's not enough.
We'll add some hydrocarbons
And gas you till you're sick
You'll feel half-crazed -- you can't think straight
School'll get you whacked out quick.
Keep the F.D.A. Away from My Liver
by Cherie Griffith
Home of the brave
Land of the free
That may well be
What it used to be.
But now we have the F.D.A.
To take our rights
To herbs away.
To prove it's safe
Just can't be done
In millions of dollars
It's 231.
Now that's per herb
And that's the cost
But it's we the people
It's we who've lost.
The rest of the world
Can't feed their brains
Strengthen their hearts
And ease their pains.
That's why we're behind
And fading fast
The rule of the greedy
Must end at last.
Speak up I say
Don't sit and quiver
Keep the F.D.A.
Away from my liver.
Iron Horse Saloon
by Cherie Griffith
Oh city of relentless snow
Nestled in your igloo of frozen icing
Hail not the mermaid of the harbor
Inland to your hibernation
But rest and be still
And let the weary traveler
Find a wayside
When Lennon lives
And Hendrix does too
There's not many palces
But there's a few
With Monty Python in the brain
And Kramer on the wall
And Jim Morrision's there
To welcome you all
With real great bands
That make you dance
All tinged with a glimmer
Of true romance
If that's the life
It ain't too bad
Cause Iron Horse is the best
I ever had.
Ain't I a Woman Like Sojourner Truth
by Cherie Griffith
Ain't I a woman
Like Sojourner Truth?
Ain't I a woman
Like Naomi and Ruth?
Ain't I a woman
Like Joan of Arc
Aren't we the beams
That shatter the dark?
Why can't you give me
Just a little love?
Oh, Oh, why can't you give me
Just a little love?
Oh, Oh, why can't you give me
Just a little love?
Oh, Oh, why can't you give me
Just a little love?
Blood money killed
Your father and mother.
Oh, oh blood money honey
Is like no other.
Oh, oh blood money killed
Your sister and brother.
Oh, oh blood money honey
Is like no other.
Oh, oh blood money killed
Your father and mother.
Why can't you give me
Just a little love?
Oh, oh why can't you give me
Just a little love?
Oh, oh why can't you give me
Just a little love?
Senator Paul Wellstone
by Cherie Griffith
The soul of the Senate
May not sit in his seat
Or stand for the truth
Regardless of consequence,
However, his spirit lives
In my heart and the
Hearts of those
Who would champion justice.
Though I may not have
The strength to be a public servant
I have the same intent as he did,
To be relentless in the
Pursuit of fairness to all.
Though the body and personality may die
I believe the soul is eternal
And as I mourn his passing
(Especially now when we really need one brave person)
His essence will not be lost.
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A Million Mothers Like Me
by Cherie Griffith
Oh, there's a million mothers like me
With the vision and the eyes to see
What they're doing to you and to me
And to our children.
Ooh yeah!
And there's a million mothers like me
And we've been damaged so chemically
But the truth will set us free
And save our children.
Ooh yeah!
And there's a million mothers like me
And we are searching, searching desperately
For the answer to these and
All our problems.
Ooh yeah!
And there's a million mothers like me
And we are tired tired as can be
Of watching our children
Suffering and dying.
Ooh yeah!
There's a million mothers like me
And we won't rest until we are free
From the memory
Of suffering children.
Ooh yeah!
Those million mothers like me
We won't be poisoned oh so senselessly
By a school board that won't vote
For better paint
(environmental they ain't)
Ooh yeah!
Those million mothers like me
We should get together regularly.
Those million mothers and me
Let's change it all.
Ooh yeah!
And there's a million mothers like me
Oh there's a million million mothers like me
Oh there's a million mothers like me
And we will see
Ooh yeah!
Oh there's a million mothers like me
Oh there's a million mothers like me
Oh these million mothers and me
We will see
Ooh yeah!
Involuntary Intoxicants
by Cherie Griffith
You can get high
In the perfume aisle
So don't you walk, don't walk, don't walk
That long Mall mile
Cause that kind of high
Ain't got no style
And you don't need
Those pseudo-folk
And you don't need
Their lousy dope.
I said Dontcha, Dontcha, Dontcha
You got to go to the forest
Just past the field,
Cause if you go to the Mall
You can get high
In the perfume aisle.
So don't you walk, don't walk
That long Mall mile,
Or you're gonna be
Wacked out for awhile
I hope the darned fumes
Don't make you kill.
So get off, get off
That Mall treadmill,
Cause if you go to the Mall,
You can get high
In the perfume aisle.
So don't you walk, don't walk, don't walk
That long Mall mile.
Cause that kind of high
Makes nobody smile.
And you don't need
To fall for their hype
And you don't look
Like the mindless Mall type.
I said Dontcha, Dontcha, Dontcha
Dontcha know what's real?
You've got to head for the hills
They've got scents appeal
Cause if you go to the Mall
You can get High (way too high!)
From the perfume aisle (Don't take that aisle!)
So don't you take that
Nasty toxic long Mall mile.
Nature, let me tell you,
Is back in style.
Don't you dare take that perfume aisle.
So don't walk, don't walk
That toxic Mall mile.
It's making you die. It's making you high.
It's making you die.
Grain World
by Cherie Griffith
Every meal
That I greedily ate
Came with a price tag
On every plate.
The starving in India
What would they do?
If a grain of rice
Were left unchewed?
And for your waste
You'd bake in hell
Each leftover kernel
A suffocating shell
And so I tried
With all my might
Upon my plate
To make it right
And here I stand
It seems alone
Not quite forlorn
But far from home
And choose to eat
That low food chain
As I imagine a world
Where we'd all eat grain
There might be enough
To go around
And I'd be spared
The whining sound
Of hungry children
And mothers who would
Do any old thing
If only they could
Just fill their bellies
And get some sleep
And tomorrow perhaps
A new harvest they'd reap.
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Shakespeare Live In Ojai by Cherie Griffith
The bonds that hold me hereabouts of ever-thinning thread
Increase in subtle thickness with every play instead
Of dwindling into nothingness -- no shadow left near here
Connectors of the human yarn becoming so clear.
They've cast me all adrift you see -- the wandering hands of fate.
It's only a rare and tremulous tug of Shakespeare come of late
That pulls me onto solid ground and clasps me close once more.
All that from a couple of lines and a properly timed score.
Thanks to Lena Fredericks and to all her cast and crew
Who've shared with me their rhymes and songs without too much ado.
It matters not to stay or go -- it matters not to all
For I've been charmed with poetry -- I've heard the great Bard's call.
For Shakespeare lives in Ojai though he's dwelt in parts diverse.
He might have chosen better -- though he chould have chosen worse.
In any case he's here to stay in revelry and ease
So you can all enjoy the show as often as you please.
Wherever I Walk
by Cherie Griffith
Wherever I walk I hope to leave behind
A trail of smiles I know I don't mind
Wherever I walk Oh under the sun
Wherever I walk Even under the gun
I hope to leave behind A trail of smiles
I want to leave some joy And I've walked so many miles
Let the vicious feed Oh on their own flesh
Oh I don't need Their viciousness
Wherever I walk I hope to leave behind
A trail of smiles I hope that you don't mind
Wherever I walk Oh under the sun
Wherever I walk Am I the only one
Who wants to leave behind A trail of smiles
I want to leave some joy And I've walked many a mile
Wherever I walk On this earth of mine
Wherever I walk Whatever I find
What will I leave behind
What will I leave behind
Wherever you walk Wherever you've gone
Wherever you walk What ever you've done
What will you leave behind
What will you leave behind
Nukes and Beyond
by Cherie Griffith
How can I tell you in only a page
How filled I am with burning rage
That the offspring I've nourished so tenderly
Are practically glowing in front of me?
Radwast is oozing nearer, it's true
Projected control starts in 2002.
The entire earth is smothering so
And when it succumbs, where shall we go?
We are one with the earth, that's what I say
Stop hurting me please, and stop it today!
Here I am but one small voice,
But with your chorus, we'll make the choice.
No more nukes not any more.
It's self-destruct way beyond war.
And as for limits, fallout will spread
Until we are all mutated or dead.
And I bet there's a mother in Russia somewhere
At two a.m. in her rocking chair
Hoping and praying that this can't be
And wishing for peace just like me.
Surely she can't be the only one
The end of humanity can't be fun.
The horror of this holocaust isn't science fictiony
No air, no food, no water no joke to me.
Earth's 50,000 nukes will soon be on computer
And if two survive mistakes, their gender will be neuter.
It only takes 500 for MAD to level all
That's mutually assured destruction everything will fall.
Do you think you'll have some notice for a war that no one wins?
Well, you'll have about a minute before the end begins.
Are peaceniks Commies all rabbis, priests, and preachers, senators
and scientists,
doctors, mothers, teachers?
We're not supposed to blindly trust.
We've got the technology to know what we must.
You can't have peace without parity
And that's what we've got approximately.
So the Russians have more, on land, yes it's true
But not if you count out air and subs, too.
Building shelters instead of warheads for reactor leaks is fine
But 80% survival is really out of line.
Already cancer takes one life out of four
Just add more radiation and you'll get some more.
If only our leaders can keep their cool,
Perhaps our children won't play the fool
And think that we must bully each other
Instead of trying to use the word brother.
We as a race, what's happened to us?
We hear annihilation and wonder at the fuss!
We take in as food the earth that we've made
Polluted with stuff that makes life forms fade.
Our food is so processed it's in cahoots
With so much pollution, we've lost our roots.
Growth-causing hormones, humans shouldn't eat
And yet they are found in all but wild meat.
If industry would stop adding poisonous stuff,
Degenerative diseases wouldn't be making our lives so rough.
And no one in six black city kid's head
Is only part functional it's poisoned with lead.
Combine the gas fumes with CO and then
Crossburnings? Nothing's like murder by pen.
The cities are choking the countryside's sprayed
It's teratogenic these mutants we've made.
Have we really just coddled the unfittest along
Or have we begun to sing sickness's sad song?
Revere the earth the air is free
Let city folks breath with suburbia's glee.
At least let us breath as creatures we must
Pollution control before all turn to dust.
Our people die like flies every family's links are broken.
We are crumbling and diseased and not a word is spoken.
Our health's degenerating and our judgement is too.
We're no longer close to the grain that is grew.
It's this degeneration, so awesome and so real,
That's ruining our nation poisons in each meal.
Synthetics we eat give us Chemical Brain,
So to us such an earth may not seem insane.
Our soil's dying, useless, ruined by chemical abuse
Versus no nutritious food, nukes aren't any use.
Do we use our grain to make our children strong?
Is a Russian cow's stomach where it should belong?
We make them more aggressive by providing them with meat
So think of peace and choose with care everything you eat.
Peace on earth and health it's not as hopeless as it seems
If only all of humankind dare to dream such dreams.
So let us work toward a peaceful world renewal
We humans have been given live let's cherish well this jewel.
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