Beauty

  250 More My country, sweetest home I’ve come to know, Your wings have sheltered me, a foreigner. I came...

  Americans Cross the Rubicon   1. Preamble Be proud, be grateful that we’re here! We came In pain from...

  Clarence Thomas, American Hero “The mob I now faced carried no ropes or guns. It s weapons were smooth-tongued...

  The Second Rain A grandly booming, flashing shower Comes flying in and promptly starts To soak the neighborhood an...

  Archaic Torso of Apollo by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) translated from German by Mary Jane Myers We'll never know...

  Not Small At All I’ve gained appreciation for the smaller things in life, The uneventful days when all is...

  Kaddish for My Father Yitgadal v’yitkadash sh’mai rabah… I’ve said the mourner’s kaddish now a thousand times To mark...

  Spring Song Spring sings through the woods, her own special song Sometimes short ’n’ sweet and sometimes too long....

  The Eagle He flies... so quickly, cutting the air’s depth with tawny wings, the messenger of Zeus—the eagle—bold, his...

  The Cottage on the Ridge The gray mist lingers in the wooded vale And drifts across the piney hills...

  The Sowers by Gabriele D’Annunzio (1863-1938) translated from Italian by Joseph S. Salemi Strong lads drive the docile oxen...

  April Flowers Bring May Showers You festive blossoms---whose ephemeral lives are poured Ecstatically into youthful grass as you dance...

  O Come, Holy Ghost "The Fear of the Lord Is the Beginning of Wisdom..." ---Proverbs 9:10 O Come, Holy...

  Home I wandered lonely, not so much a cloud As more a type of fog, as something cool And...

  Coach “Black Mike” Castronis, Athens Y Camp ---1947-1987 “Enthusiasm” was his word, Win or lose, he bore it well,...

  Mosi-oa-Tunya Mosi-oa-Tunya is ‘The Thunderous Smoke’; twixt Zambia and Zimbabwe it sits; Doc Livingstone, that missionary bloke observed its...

  Creation of Mom God flew through the Halls of Heaven _From His throne into his lab. Angels came to...

  A Lonely Sliver “The wood is dead,” he pointed out _the windows rimmed with frost; “those columns there—” he...

  On An Old Photograph It was late fall of 1944. Dad was back from Italy, on leave, When no...

  Where the Sweet Bluebonnets Bloom There is one thing a Texas cowboy _Always takes into account: _A cowboy will...

  The Waters _'Tis more than oceanic seas ___That bring me Wonder. I have tasted spray from New York's waterfall,...

  https://youtu.be/jd7Zxqf4zDs?si=Ny4BwTAKFJ0378sl   The Last At-Bat of Lyndon Braun The crowd was on its feet because they knew it was...

  Spring in the Moment It is a time to learn to walk. Too many ages have we spent In...

Deep Water   I. Kōan I ponder by the ancient pool. A frog jumps in. I hear a splash. The...

  The Dunes The dunes are marching, blown along Saharan landscapes. Grain by grain they stream across a barren plain,...

  After the Turning Point ---a double refrain ballade At slender hindrances we fall, Uneven ground, path shadowy; To tainted...

  To the Captive Sun You set now, levitating low, Just deigning lazily to throw Your gently flaming, scarlet glow...

  The Birthday of a Bride A woman, when she enters into labor on the day She brings at last...

  The Precious Blood The blood of Jesus bought me from the hands Of foes for whom I scorned divine...

  What We Learn From Breaking Waves Those who climb the furthest up the shore Are not the waves that...

  How Septuagenarian’s Cope Past seventy. Age does prevail. _The day is growing dim. I’ve managed through life’s calms and...

  Upon Meeting a Crane ---at the Wilmington VA Medical Center I met a crane; the crane met me beside...

  The Face At night, surreptitiously, it emerges out of the TV screen, or when the light bulb's put to...

  The Teahouse Garden A place where you can leave your cares behind And have a restful, meditative mind; A...

  Morning Glory The mornings are a challenge for the old man. Get up. Get dressed. Get the dogs out....

  Prayer (5:00 a.m.) Some stubborn pain (the world… the past…) Is peeking through the cracks, and all I want...

  Damon and Pythias The two spoke number lore with every breath, Disciples of Pythagoras and friends, But one was...

  The Throne at Knossos Kings, nations, empires, tongues have passed, Through fourscore centuries, but you last, _Carved from immortal...

  My California A tangled maze of gushing streams My sunny California cries. Her sky is veiled in morbid memes...

Beneath an Iron Hand Though they spent years beneath an iron hand, the quiet people still knew how to sing...