On Earth As It Is in Heaven
The conflicts here on Earth are mere reflections
_Of battles raging on a higher plane.
When troubles flood the land in all directions—
_From nine-eleven to October seven—
Engendering calamity and pain,
_We’ll know what must be happening in Heaven.
The Cosmic Order
Possibilities can never be exhausted,
_For several more are ever standing by.
Branches drooping from a tree, now sere and frosted,
_Are only waiting for a brighter sky.
Iterations of what’s novel have no ending
_Because the Universe is deep and wide;
Innovations, by His Grace, are always pending,
_Imbued with Providence, and bona fide.
Lowlife
I dwell beneath the shadow of a doubt
Because I lease a zone of comfort there.
In other venues, I must do without
Protections that I’ve grown accustomed to,
Which leaves my carcass hanging in the air
For famished buzzards to eviscerate.
I take my breakfast in the morning dew
Among the moisture-loving snails and worms,
Since neither is inclined to denigrate
Another lowly creature, worse for wear,
With which the highborn haven’t come to terms.
Like annelids and mollusks I have been
At home with, wretches wrenched from Baudelaire,
The track I leave behind is pencil-thin.
first published in Blue Unicorn (2019)
C.B. Anderson was the longtime gardener for the PBS television series, The Victory Garden. Hundreds of his poems have appeared in scores of print and electronic journals out of North America, Great Britain, Ireland, Austria, Australia and India. His collection, Mortal Soup and the Blue Yonder was published in 2013 by White Violet Press.
Your first poem, “On Earth as it is in Heaven,” is a scary thought that cosmic battles are still being waged.
Your second poem, “The Cosmic Order,” with “pending” “Innovations by His Grace,” is beautifully compared to “Branches drooping from a tree” that will return in spring invariably.
“Lowlife” is a great allusion to the “earthy” snail, worm, annelid, and mollusk stemming from some of those with whom one must deal in life. The rhyme scheme in this one is challenging and inauspicious.