Blank Verse

. Some Satirical Epigrams in hendecasyllabics (essentially trochaic pentameter with a dactyl for the second foot) . Complaint to a...

. Remorseless Back on 19, returning from the lake, Where she had stowed sling chairs for next week’s meet, Her...

. A Novice Speaks to a Guardian Tell me, Oh honoured one, The secret of the Way, Of how to...

. El Melon There is a maze or map on melon skin Even the blind could read and seek to...

. La Sirena At some point they ceased to be beautiful. Even their voices. Bare breasts, bare arms, screams Savage...

. Time Travel I chance upon a sylvan glade, an Orphic place: moon threads, a lace of nightkin shadows. A...

. The Calendar You are the festive dregs of January,you liven February with Valentine’s.You are the March that gives spring...

. La Bandera “ never begins an attack, nor, when once engaged, ever surrenders” —Benjamin Franklin It was the feast...

. Two Empty Chairs “We did the NFP bit for awhile ... and have felt revulsion over it ever since....

. Toward Yehuling, 1211 Unfolding steppes emerge as flattened plains Of long grasses of gold and April-green, While crystal streams,...

. Nessun Dorma after the Italian libretto by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni  The aria "Nessun Dorma" was played for...

. Nero Before the Tomb of Simon Magus And Peter, looking steadfastly against Simon, said: “I adjure you, ye angels...

. Lullaby of New Mexico, Part Two Part One can be read here. Duerme Papi---Dad, it’s time to rest. I...

. Gone Are the Days The tragedy of old age is not that one is old, but that one is...

. Lullaby of New Mexico Duerme mijo---sleep my weary child As we drive south upon the interstate. My side-eye checks...

. The Photograph The snowflakes tumble down like frozen tears, Which fall from every eye this winter day; They heard...

. The Automated Phone System I called up a business But no person answered, I got a phone system With...

. A Glass for My Father Marie-Maurille de Virot, Mademoiselle de Sombreuil (February 14, 1768—May 15, 1823) My father was...

. And Turn Thanks for the twenty seconds of Your crisp, medicinal perspective, Encapsulated in a laugh That shook like...

. Where Your Treasure Is “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and...

. Now Once Again How many years ago, I’ve lost the count, we lay beneath these trees at summer’s end;...

. Read by Susan Jarvis Bryant . In This House... In this house... We value science so much we accept...

. Guardians of the Sunset III. The years go down like liquor.  Drink and pour and drink again, and laugh...

. A Clamshell in Concrete  I was a child in kindergarten class. My mother held my hand as we trod...

. The Hypodermic For a poet, the pen is merely part Of the apparatus of addiction. He emulates the frozen...

. Everlasting I must admit, when I arrived in Hell I was surprised.  Not, as you might surmise, Because I...

. To a Girl Named Olivia What shall I say to you of untold love In this more than empty...

. The Crucifixion of the Serpent And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and...

. Apocalypse The fractured sky splits, flaming at the edge— The earth heaves upwards in explosive wrath. No eye can...

. Albert Pierrrepoint (1905-1992) served as one of GreatBritain’s chief executioners from 1931 to 1956, duringwhich time he hanged over...

. Heliotrope Phaeton, son of the god Helios, attempted to drive his father’s celestial chariot. His inexperience caused him to...

. The Carnelian Ring: A Still-Life Footfalls echo in the memoryDown the passage which we did not takeTowards the door...

. Isolde and the Men of Stone Who could believe, except on ancient trust? The stones grew pliant, yielding into...

. The Bibliophile’s Birth Certificate Marius Michel (1846-1925) was one of the most prominent and gifted bookbinders in France. He...

. Charles Maurras (1868-1952) was a highly influential French poet, essayist, and political journalist. He edited the rightist paper Action...

. The Death of Today’s Sequoia Flecte ramos, arbor alta, tensa laxa viscera: Et rigor lentescat ille, quem dedit nativitas,...

X No tengo más que darte —Inscription on a Spanish sailor's gold ring, in the shape of a hand holding...

…anulbaṇáṃ vayata jóguvām ápaḥ. Weave ye the singers’ work without a knot. —Rigveda 10.53.6 Those pale cream swaths of handmade...

  Palermo’s great basilica is still— All prayers are tongueless for a lonely hour. Here high and holy silence can...

  The Graeco-Roman historian Lucius Dio Cassius, in his Roman History, describes “dark dinners” that were given by the emperor...