Beauty

  The Price (a pantoum in iambic pentameter) The sea and sky, once beautiful and clean, They’ve paid the price for man’s hubris and greed. The jungle canopies were brilliant green as nature shared her bounty, fruit and seed; They’ve paid the price for man’s hubris and greed. Depleting resources...

  Paean to “ODE TO JOY”* I heard the “Ode to Joy” today, ten thousand times at least. I could not hold my heart at bay, engorging on a feast of melody, of majesty, of rhythmic palpitations, while soaring in full harmony with Heaven’s exaltations. The clustered chords embraced my...

My Mirror Grinned (Rondeau) My mirror grinned at my first grey. With rearing youth, it’s my first fray. Disturbed, with care I plucked that bane, next day to find one more, again! I cried and sighed and went astray! That’s how began my darkest day with whitest hair and day...

  There is a tale of seven sisters whose father help up the sky pursued by Orion, carried to the heavens by Zeus. Farming season began when their star cluster appeared high— their position in the fall marked change in seafaring use. Pursued by Orion, carried to the heavens by...

  Today I may dream of stubbled fields shriveled     foretelling of future prospects grim. If tomorrow’s dreams are green, is it a given     I’ll have silos filled to the brim? Whether fields are bearing or fallow     each day’s work brings forth its yield, success evolving securely tomorrow     by the greater...

By Carol Smallwood The pantoum is a poetry form that originated in 15th century Malaysia and drifted West in the 19th century with French writer Victor Hugo, among others. While it never quite took off like the Haiku, it never fully went away either and has been steadily blossoming among...

. Unexpiring Ekphrastic on the above photo Unexpiring constant Sun, Earth untired responding spun, Surging fire, maternal birth, Urgent sire of vernal mirth. Père Sol, of ruth and blaze, Mère Earth of falling gaze. Ruth: Hebrew for mercy Père: French for father Mère: French for mother . . Longhorn Swath...

  The eyes emerge from slumber’s lake of lead, Awakened by the zephyr flying past, In wonderment to witness, overhead, An otherworldly sky expanding fast. Revolving stars in efflorescence bright Spread emerald auroras all around; Afar, huge clouds of marble, overnight, Together into mountains have been bound. Their lofty peaks...

On the shores of Lake Erie, most weak & most weary, a soldier sat sunning, returned from the wars,     And though it were bleary, he still could see clearly when a bonny lass found him— her beauty shone pure:     “Though Darlin’, I’m dying, your vision is blinding, and I can’t...

By Anonymous Sometimes I sit alone for a while, Watching life go by, Sitting high on a mountain top, Wondering just why Those ant-sized lives don’t pause and wonder “What’s this busyness for?” They never look at ground and ask “Why go on one day more?” Is life itself a...

Will Power When God asked Solomon one day     What his heart did most desire, The man said if he had his way     Unmatched wisdom he’d acquire. Now some might quibble with that choice     (I’d certainly not demur), But what would make me most rejoice     Is moderate will power. Helpful it...

  And then we remembered that cruelest spring, when we awoke to find ourselves hollow. Where once we mocked, “O Death where is thy sting?” now we lie in the mire and wallow. In the sting of April’s rain piercing my skin when we divined that there was no truth....

  The Poet’s Purpose A poet praises all of nature’s treasures, He seeks to find the pathway to her core, To laud the rarest beauty in spring’s pleasures And marvel at the waves that kiss the shore. He sees a butterfly amid some roses, An adder hid within a leafy...

Such Was My Prayer Such was my prayer. And she, so far away, Or so it seemed, looked down at me and smiled; Then to Eternal Light she turned once more. -Paradiso 31.91-93, Dante Such was my prayer – she so far away - And yet so near – as...

  Phantom skaters in the park turn, and glide, and never fall, faces clouded, figures dark. They are phantoms, after all. Turn and glide with awful grace, leave no measure, make no sound, out of moment, out of place all the earthly year around. Phantom skaters on the lake, known...

The Garden Guest Gaia has entered my garden today, She moves with a rustling of leaves. I can see her pass where the branches sway, I can feel her breath on the breeze. She laughs in the splashing of water, And she sings in the hawk’s plaintive cry, And as...

  Capturing all that isn’t blue, The sky, extending out of view, Pitches over the gathered green, Its grassy sheen Draped, reflected, along the hills, While quietly its wideness spills Wider, as if its breadth defined The limit of the viewer’s mind, As if it flew In chase of its...

Blaschka Glass By Beau Ecs Wilder So beautiful they are, the lovely Blaschka glass displays, exquisite floral blossoms and marine invertibrates; such fragile, magical designs, and educational, as if their curving artifice were purely natural. Work after work reveals subtle tease and frilly gills, as if they captured, in a...

  If I were to have been conceived Beneath a greater star, My sorrows would have been reprieved By powers great and far. Were I to have been born as strong As storm and fire and sea, Your royal heart would never belong To any man but me. Yet surely...

Inside the desire for revenge is a painful vulnerability, a reminder of damage that won’t leave, and you wish for satisfaction, or just acknowledgment of the wrong. Instead, frustration grows with denial, and suffering returns in intensity, as if time had scarcely elapsed. Better not to ask for what won’t...

To Beauty (Tribute to Sarah Lane, American Ballet Theater Ballerina) Who see you move across the stage Themselves are moved by easeful gifts That vivify as they assuage The day's reflux. Your grace uplifts The torpid languisher, inspires The anti-Philistine, assures The patron this fine art requires Him for a...

  Against the Light Watermarks are visible when held against light whispering quality, distinction, louder than a shout— are also used in banknotes ensuring they’re alright: some marks are more visible than others that are about. Whispering quality, distinction, louder than a shout made by subtle paper thickness and density...

If You're a Beggar, Be a Chooser Too (Villanelle) If you're a beggar, be a chooser too, For less is more and more can be a curse. The world will offer anything to you. You must discern the useful from the dross. With patience, judge, for better or for worse....

Petals in the Winter Three petals on a lily like the snow were held aloft And though the wind through window whipped it so just one fell off Two petals on that lily blue lamented on the sill But through and through Though grief be true It grew that flower...

This eve set as elegant exhibit of skin deep beauty for old yearning stares, is time’s harsh labor’s brief retreat. The hands, henna-designed, serpentine snares to trap young wild and restless hearts which feed on dreams sojourned in eyes, more fleeting than the flashing camera lights. Midst this confused unrest...

Marv’lous Melody I read the words all leaping from the page And hear the joyful rhythm in my head But stop for you, an even-tonéd sage And listen to the words as they are said I could grow old to listen to your voice Each nuance is so pleasurable to...

  In Defense of the Aesthetic Sense When lovely melodies arouse and wake My dormant bliss, or true words do the same, Dark, dour-visaged men intrude to claim My bliss is false, awakened by mistake. To those who fear sweet strains might make us deaf Or landscapes pierce our eyes...

Dedicated to Falun Gong practitioners who have peacefully resisted persecution by the communist regime in China for 17 years, since July 20, 1999.   When the world’s despondent spirit sets in heavy clouds of slumber, One last gaze of thought transports me to the woods of baleful bawling... Gusts of...

The waking’s spun with webs of urgent lure And sleep is shriveled dreaming marred by fear. The life allows the walker nothing sure Or level path to others once held dear. But many grasp at getting days with hope And moments still and without vice and shame. A little space...

  C0d0s0 By Leweca Derusbi The Chinese hackers who are known as the Codoso group are infiltrating sites across the Internetic loop. They're breaching banks, law firms, and varied techno-companies; they even once hacked Forbes' website with corresponding ease. There is a murky and much-hyped, emerging industry no longer found...

Lost The angel’s cry, the devil’s kiss: How did you let it come to this? You claimed the darkness too: How when the world was screaming, You thought you’d best be dreaming; You thought the lies were true— O, you have made a mess of things; The world breaks stars...

  When the wind blows true through the land Rustled leaves hold trees that withstand Tempered gusts with vicious intent. So long lives the day when air’s spent Upon the ridge: that jagged rock, Unchanged as what the ticking clock Tries to track but must then accept: The perfect clock...

Jaded I Lay Jaded I lay prostrate in bands Constructed of my self-frustration: The morning waned; so too my elation, Jade-hued, whose kite flew out my hands. All joy is rocks, soon turned loose sands Engulfed by seas' elimination To which my grief (buoy's demarcation) Holds true: Joy sinks, whilst...

Anasazi Mesa castles in the sky Where paintbrush blooms and eagles fly. A people's passage marked in stone; Artifacts of flint and bone. Cliffy cities - vanished host, Sanctum haunt of hawk and ghost; Beseech your mummies rise to tell The secrets time has kept so well. Shadow dwellers do...

Cribbed Agency (After a grating entrée) No matter how I madly strove to make sense of the garlic clove the waitress gave me with my plate, it simply made me more irate. And thus, like a rambunctious child, I called her to me, half beguiled that I could make the...

. . Lone Cypress, Pebble Beach Crack of stone for rest and bed, Wrack of storm unpressed I tread, Sun and proud and bright and gold; Dun and shroud of night, I hold. . . Fraternal I have some friends I got by word, We never met and rare conferred,...

So turn whereto it dies, Pulse of a draining sun: The face of daylight’s guise The yield that night has won. See on the far-west front, Goes trotting godly fame: The bull called occident. His white hide bears a name – By what light is yet sparred (Again, he is...

Near rugged shores and inky lochs, Schiehallion prevails. As stronghold of the faeries, she’s the guardian of their tales. And at her foot there is a strath with water through its heart— An awe-inspiring stimulus for literature and art. A shroud of grey rests moodily atop her peak of white,...

April in Washington Around the basin there’s a ring Of cherry trees now blossoming. Showing off the city’s best, They give its residents a rest From all the darker doings there That constitute the normal fare. As I observe the Asian gift, My spirits get a fleeting lift. Forgetting everything...

  Spirit Where once a spirit, pure and bright, Would sail on gossamer wings of light And pass through realms of endless night Amid the stars in blissful flight, Now life resides in flesh and bone, Amid the masses, yet alone, Concealing sins he must atone, The cares of life...