Beauty

  Our paths vanish; our footsteps fade From forest glades, from wave-damp sands From sunlight’s dazzle and twilight’s shade. Babes and toddlers, not yet afraid, We reach and roll and often stumble From sunlight’s dazzle to twilight’s shade. In youth we lie ‘neath moonlight’s blade, Cut by love; like kisses...

  Though I’m eighty and have survived I’m the oldest man that never lived My life flew by too fast for that Each mountain climbed now seems so flat Always a mountain yet to climb, Even now, surely there must come a time When life’s no longer just a test...

2016 Primaries This season, Mr. Trump’s a raging wildfire, a storm ignited by reality TV, fodder for anyone who likes good satire. He’s poised to win as far as I can see. The exit polls are making me perspire. Who gives a damn about democracy? A welcome distraction from death...

Gaunt fades the twilight, nearly gone, a weary world wearing thin Since last the unremembered sun smiled upon the land below, And sluggish sinks the eventide, smothering all warmth and light, Until, at last, the gloom of night entrenches there, deep and low. Dreaming, doubting, mortals slumber in a dreary...

Go Forth, Graduates! To all you graduates, fare well! This world is yours today. Don’t follow the masses who sell Their minds or don cliché For meaning. The sky is crimson But not dark, the body Sick but not dead. Summon Your courage and join me! Get ready for the...

What if the tall tales we’re told as children, are in fact true?Lost stories about elves, hobbits, and knights of great virtue-Waging battles of honor, searching for glorious men,Fighting wretched villains in disguise once again.Old lore more true than not, yet older than your oldest thought, Over time most men...

Original Shakespeare followed by imitation.   Sonnet 49 Against that time, if ever that time come, When I shall see thee frown on my defects, When as thy love hath cast his utmost sum, Called to that audit by advis'd respects; Against that time when thou shalt strangely pass, And...

I thought that maybe you’re no longer free To think separately from Time’s favored paths Choosing its well-worn roads to unmarked streets, Gathering fruitless branches, your trip won’t last. I can see someday you’ll fall forward, Tripping over the silent ground face first Unto fresh scents of petrichor towards Unforgiving...

Chapter I: Arrival in Beijing Inspired by real events   Sing to me, Muse, who flies through Heaven’s realms, Sing of that night when terror swept the land And peaceful practitioners of Falun Gong Were made to live in fear, their practice banned. What was it like to know tomorrow’s...

  The Mirror True When all at once I seem to see you there I find I never knew you from the first When all that I once thought you seems reversed I wonder what my mind could so ensnare. How could I so mistake your every mood Give words...

  Spring O hallow tulip, flower of the spring, I cannot wait until the sun may bring, From out the earth your amethystine grace, Your smell, your pinkish shade, your tender face. For of your musky scent does bringeth glee, So come! My lovely spring, come gladden me!   The...

In the Lotus Pose By Uwe Carl Diebes At first, he was uncomfortable in the lotus pose, but as he sat down carefully, his upper spine arose. Though startled where he found himself, he gradu'lly became relaxed, content, at peace, alert, like as a spirit flame. His inner being danced...

A Riverside Sonnet Under a tree and upon roots I sit, Drinking a forlorn draught of love’s sweet rhyme. Leaves fall and birds fly to distract my wit, For I’ve seen her not in so long a time! Days beyond counting are measured in years, Stretched out by feelings so...

. . Tahoe Plane On the above photo by M. Kirson Far above the lake I soared, Above the dock, above the shore, Above the rock, above the pine, Mid snowy cloud and engine whine. Below, the cafe - orange duck - Amid the forest, doe and buck, Composed in...

Born at Constantinople in 1762 of a French father and Greek mother, André Chénier grew up in pre-revolutionary France and studied at Paris. Well-read, and enamored with ancient Greece, he is considered one of the last classicists in verse, and for his sentiment, a precursor to the romantics. He was executed...

A gray mid-March day: the bare branches lean across the blank sky. All colors moved indoors where my daughter and I play with her toys laid out on the rug: rattles, dolls, and trucks, nesting plastic bowls, a flock of yellow ducks. Shakily she stands, her tongue darting like a...

Storyteller We sit around the fire. The storyteller drones, until his words expire in silence like the stones. Primeval darkness frames the flower-yellow flames enlightening our faces. Like breeze-blown blossoms, we shift mutely in our places within the ring while he, as yellow flowers fail, resumes again his tale, which...

  The Clockwork Butterfly When I was a child, and my dreams were of gold I always believed everything I was told, My faith was implicit, my innocence pure And magic existed, of that I was sure. My old uncle Arthur was always in bed His twinkling eyes sunken into...

By Dusty Grein and Evan Mantyk “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe remains one of the English language’s most popular and influential poems since it was written in 1845. Much of this was Poe’s own doing, as he performed it quite frequently, and wrote many essays and commentaries on it...

The Rock Climbers By Cal Wes Ubideer I saw them climbing up the gray-white, rocky mountain hills, like any mountain goats, where over all the sunlight spills, so beautiful, so free, o, nature's booty draped in green, and up above a little pool of water, splashing, seen. What were they...

August 13, 2012 I dreamt last night of singing with Li Po. (Or is he now sleeping, dreaming of me?) How much we drank… The world all vertigo… He brought his ch’in.  It was life’s apogee. Yet thinking back, if he dreamt me before I went to sleep, what would...

Sonnet II The spark which lights my innermost desire,     whose flame burns fierce in Spirit and in vein, your blinding glory makes my heart aspire     to grasp the highest good one can attain. Of all the worthy joys that I could gain     from all the ecstasies of earth’s delights, I’d...

. Dunblane Cathedral On the massacre of sixteen children and their teacher at the Dunblane Primary School near Stirling, Scotland, March 13, 1996 LOVE’s light lost the bleak night breathes a black breeze of loss. The dread dawn dons dusk’s vale. “Is death dead?” the bells Ask across the mourning...

. . Metaphysical Mortar Between the cobalt and the blueGlean gestalt and sum of trueAll and each be more than sixWall and reach be more than bricks .   Photo by A Sclamberg & H Hall . . Tahoe Navy, cobalt, slate of blue,Bright and white and cold of hue,Bold...

  A Fifteen-Year-Old's Response to Frost "This 'pome' don't make NO sense! What junk!" the scowling students muttered. "Two roads in the woods!" one hissed. "Such bunk"-- opinions rudely uttered. I quelled the urge to hurl my book. I said, "Can't you surmise what they might mean? Let's take a...

Transient I lingered along the sandy runway Hearing the winds blowing about; A tender voice from far, faraway, “Hurry, or we’ll be late,” calls out. I cannot tear myself from it all. “Wait,” I say, “Let me be a while For the seagulls call, the waves call And the call...

Horses Tell me what power hits the ground, heard a mile away, ear to mound? Earth’s tympanic membrane resounds; like kettle drums, the hoof beat pounds! Or what, when they run together, frightens every flight from feather? Deer run sideways and leave their young; minnows from shallow creeks are flung....

Apes or Angels Humans, some say, aren’t much more than an ape— A reasoning beast, quintessence of dust. Others believe we’re of angelic shape. Hungry for morsels, we scrabble and scrape, Leaving the tree to indulge termite lust. Humans, some say, aren’t much more than an ape. Yet not all...

  In China now are shadows forged from fire, a DNA pre-history. They cloud troubled villages, rice fields, goldfish ponds. Stones form, creating outlines with moving corners of such mild movements of peace. Finest threads link, form love that birth-screams, sucks air from smoke. This China has two hues, crimson...

  The journey back to your own true self Is not paved by comfort and untold wealth, But by finding the universe’s Great Law, Looking inside, and clearing what you saw!   Eddie Aitken is a director and trustee of Zhen Shan Ren Arts (UK), a UK registered charity showing the...

The Great The great are often shunned by their own age, While even the noble dead are sometimes mocked, And eras are damned when none who sees is shocked By scads of scorn spat on a sacred page. Today the sneering cynic’s deemed a sage. The door to love and...

Choice Now to change; rise to rearrange; fix buckled tracks; iron out the cracked strange. Time to take off the human make- up, look within and see beyond the fake: catch and count seeds in the air; mount heaven’s stairs; stay aware; stay calm; pipe fount- ains from seas; drop...

Riverside Sun rays glisten Reflect the river I stand and listen Can’t help but shiver Restless fish swim Graceful, majestic Watching sunlight dim Thoughts are monolithic Nature’s beauty endless Never ceases to amaze I stand still, breathless Caught up in a daze   Persecution of the Wiser I believe in...

  Valentine The name of Spring is ever fresh and fair;     Her sound is ever gentle, ever true; The Spring is like the songbird of the air     Who sweetly choruses the good, the new. And we, my dear, have often seen the Spring     Arrive with promise, blossom, fade and go...

Xerxes My power does lie In hue of the sky In the refined folds of God’s estate My throne I have carved Of sapphire hard And I crowned it with God’s ark of Jade My hosts of legions Number in millions Like a cloak o’er the land are they spread...

So many lasers stroked the night, the sky simply purred and burst apart. We held our breaths, but not from fright - the fireworks had launched their start. like mad housewives and activists, the missiles screamed their courses out. And yet we were amazed and pleased when globe-sized dandelions shout...

  We left the Port of Joy so long ago, And ebbed so much the while and knew no flow, But still another strait we headed to. Whatever we did, wherever we steered All things led to one place, to that placed veered, As if forever condemned to be there....

Sedona (A Rhupunt) Deep shadows fade Red rock cascade To purpled jade— Sun sparks ignite. Stone sentries stare Sightless through air At treadless stair Spanning the height. No mortals dare Enter the lair Or linger where Spirit meets sprite. This shrine of stone And bleached white bone Hides secrets shown...

The Gathering Upon the 400th anniversary of the founding of the town of Virginia in Ireland Oh town of the Virgin Queen I hear you call me back To your ancient Way of Woods following Vikings track Your castle is long gone But your market house still stands Four hundred...

Night vision: a process Of the unconscious mind That the poet uses In order to find An acceptable first line Still divested of meaning Wanting only to sing These words forward leaning More words stimulating Which then will define Whether the poet’s craft To make right choices By listening carefully...