Beauty

. Lessons from the Sky I breathe the bracing air, I feel the dew Wet through my shoes and socks. The morning’s fair, The sky’s a waiting canvas backed with blue, The sun still sleeps, my eyes cut through the air. Absorbent blue near hides a beauty rare: The morning...

. Sonnet for Houston The highway shuffles traffic as the sun begins to bake the tarmac; its black emits waves of heat that waver as it gets a thousand fractions hotter. Heat is one of many factors I find under sun: the buildings rise to meet the sky, as fits...

. The Merry Wanderer When God wills man to know His favor, He sends him where the wide world gleams And makes him wonder at the splendor Of mountains, forests, fields and streams. The lazybones at home lies jaded; Dawn never rouses him from bed. He only knows poor children’s...

. . Tucson Sunday Morning Chorus: Tucson Sunday morning, See the sage brush come alive. Gold upon the Rincons, Catalina mountain sides. Saguaro in the desert Lift their silent arms in prayer. The mission bell is tolling, My stage will soon be rolling, But my dreams will still be there....

. Overheard in a Mexico City Cantina A downpour started. The cantina beckoned. I sat and heard two men debating change; How Mexico’s divisions should be reckoned. These words are what I heard in that exchange: “You radicals are dull. You bear this chip Of weighty social anger on your...

. . Poetics the Ginger Cat —Ποιητική: ‘poi-EIGH-tee-keigh’ By a caged fire I read. Around me walls of ancient lore, of poetry and war….           Prometheus bound, flames behind glass doors:  . I pause, plying the sage, musing upon a well worn Mediterranean page. Poetics now plays...

. The Old Place Once there was a family here Where now is all plantation pines. There’s a cabin—I see the lines— It was their home for many years. This farm was poor but to them dear, A world whole in its small confines. They labored as the soil declined,...

. At Thirteen At thirteen, I received a birthday card from Buffalo, my aunt sent my Dad’s poem he’d written at thirteen.  Our plain back yard picnic table became a podium as I savored every word… “Oh for a good old Summer’s day / with no cares in my way.”...

. Something Higher the brown scapular of Elijah Departures and arrivals. Passengers. The life of one old man describes an arc: A sudden collapse from sitting. Messengers, Come lift my weight, grown lighter than a lark, The height we rise to not the length I fell But something higher. Seated...

. . Virgil Departs, Beatrice Arrives: Canto XXX of Purgatory by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) translated by Stephen Binns . Now when the primal Heaven’s Septentrion—____seven lights of the Holy Spirit __which does not rise nor set, and whose report __goes unveiled to us but by mists of sin, which guided...

. My Favourite Photo of Mum I’ve just found my favourite photo of Mum, standing in the snow of a new century in the back garden; her sweater’s bottle-blue, her smile an ad for British dentistry. Sleeves rolled up, stood beside a wooden fence, she acts as if she’s conjured...

. Deep in the Heat of Texas a rhupunt One hundred one, a scorching sun that I should shun. I shed no tear. Sun blazing down, the grass is brown, I do not frown I’m in good cheer. The soil on fire as we perspire in all attire. I am...

. First Footsteps on a One-way Journey to America Leave home behind, another lies ahead, Beyond these hills, these clover-covered dales; Empty the mind aboard those sea-bound sails, To fill with saline tears the ocean’s bed; But forward steps make thought turn back my head, The thought of all that...

. My Boy His mess of hair plays with the wind; Eyes beaming now, he shines alive, A thrill to watch amongst his friends, The guys who throw, and hit a drive, And catch the fun, with glove and dirt, And run ‘round bases on the field, to home, from...

. Lahaina I’ve felt your restless tides and watched your palms Sway in the breeze that sweeps in from Lanai; I’ve joined your mission church in singing psalms, And gazed across the strait at Molokai. Hawaiian royals occupied this place; Explorers came, and whalers from Cape Cod; And missionaries; men...

. Mighty Oak Spread thy boughs, oh mighty oak, __Let fall thy wine-red leaves, Which, when the rains around thee soak, __Shall pile up high as sheaves. Some leaves are scorched in summer sun, __Or lost in violent gale; Some leaves don autumn’s raiment dun, __Till they, too, finally fail:...

. Beach Fragments A million tiny fragments strewn across the sand Along the foaming margin of the boundless sea--- The spiraled, fluted castles built so splendidly Now smashed and shattered, mere detritus on the strand. The sculpted contours, hues and patterns tell how grand Slow, humble, unseen labor shone once...

. The Outing . I Miss Deidre Ealing of Tiny Tots School, A woman who'd never be anyone's fool, Observing her charges like little buds sprouting, Decided the next day they'd go on an outing. Departure was posted that morning for nine; No clouds could be seen and the outlook...

. Facing a Famine of Fatherhood in memory of Father Peter Carota They say a country road or city street, The pavement, stones, and dirt pressed by his feet, Recall a holy man who passed thereby, But what of paths where bytes of data fly, The fibers, wires, or airwaves...

. Two Summer Villanelles . l. Lone Star Sear The burn and boil is grim for some. I’m red of neck and flushed of cheek. I’m roasting under summer’s thumb. Cicadas thrum and twang and strum Their shrill and tinny, eerie shriek. The burn and boil is grim for some....

. To a Sand Gazelle You must believe the light will carry you, Across the Rub al Khali of your life. Let happy times light up your whole life through. Green oases are scattered through the dunes, It’s true, the empty quarter nurtures life. You must believe the light will...

. Curious Couplets . Goose Lady When driving through a blizzard, Marge Espied a goose, not over large. Determinedly it marched along— One wing dragged as it sang its song And whistled wee wee as it went— A crippled chick, quite innocent. What could she do, or anyone? The gosling’s...

. The Blame Game a kyrielle They rile. They gall. They know it all. These irksome jerks in folly’s thrall Are perilously cretinous. __It’s always Them. It’s never Us.   They grouse and groan. They mope and moan. With spines of sponge and souls of stone These gutless gripers cuss and fuss. __It’s always Them. It’s never Us.  They’re dull of head. Their wits have fled. Their loony lips are spewing dread--- The...

. Conversion The great advantage of the years I stacked up often carelessly And often as a mutineer Against all simple things and dear, Is how I purely now by grace Within the smallest moments trace A curious sublimity. For though I once played beauty false And goodness for a...

. The Forgotten Earl He thought about the sonnets that he wrote; The time he spent composing metered lines Of rhyme, divided into quatrains. He Alone devised the scheme;—but Virgil’s books! If only there was time to translate more Than two from The Aeneid epic poem; A masterpiece about a hero called...

. August. The rose-of-sharon blossoms float like stars Within my reach: I’m lying on the grass Observing sunset fade and twilight pass Between their leaves.  Cicadas sing their airs, A gentle dirge: the summer’s passing, too, With ticks and tocks of crickets counting hours That still remember June’s long days. ...

. The Sky Within The rolling sea becomes a frothy lather When argent Sister Moon calls forth a tide And sooty billows on the skyline gather. A flash of lightning urges us inside Where we observe the phases of our moods, Uninterested in commonplace diversions, And when a shadow of...

. Death Musings . 1 On New Year's Day my body fell as dead Before a frightened child who hid her face From terror's flaunt. Death-taunts delivered dread To this dear child with cold and reddened face Till I woke up astonished by God’s grace. . 2 My dance with...

. The Heavy Launch of the Siegfried Idyll The landing offered just the space required for Wagner and the band that he had hired to play the idyl Cosima inspired, the mother of young Siegfried, whom he’d sired. The able men there present were quite tired from long rehearsal, yet...

. . Learn Now, Learn Now, Young Master ‘Learn now, learn now, young master; You soon will take your test. The books to learn are plenty; You need to do your best; No time to take a rest. Your marriage is awaiting; A house you have to buy. Keep on...

. Key West Rum, reeling, raunchiness, and revelry, Palms, poincianas, palaces of old--- All lie behind; the Morro Castle’s hold Guards old Havana past the sparkling sea A half-day’s sail south from this furthest Key; A torrid gap that spans a war still cold, An ocean’s breadth between two worlds---I’m...

. Henry at Morning Time I’m lost in Greek or Latin, when You break into my life again. “Daddy, look! It’s morning time,” You say, as rays of sun sublime Bring color to the room. The leaves of Philosophes serene Read better in this morning gleam, But I’ll not sit...

. Seaside Retreat Footsteps move slow through shifting sand; A weather-beaten picket fence Encloses beach verbena fanned By sea oats where the influence Of busybody breezes fades. The cottage yard commingles shades Of leafage subtle and subdued; Indoors, the feel of worn brocades Retouches the expectant mood. Bright painted clapboard...

. Formulas for Failure I’ve seen too much of devastating failure, In almost every avenue of life. One might guess lack of skill the main derailer, But that’s not even close to what’s most rife. A bigger reason’s lack of confidence, You must have strong belief that you’ll succeed. A...

. Back to Sleep In very early years, now far behind, When I returned to earth at midnight deep From nightmare scares within my frightened mind, My mother rocked and sang me back to sleep. I hid in bed from monster and from man As blackened shadows seemed to slowly...

. The Sea The sea rolls on, unchanged. Unmarred By earthly wars it stays unscarred. Always as long as man exists, The sea will froth in perfect bliss. When our life is borne away, And sunlit fingers point the way, The sea will simply shrug its shoal, For who shall...

. On Lies and Liars A Double (Petrarchan) Sonnet . “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he...

. Melodious Curlew Melodious curlew mottled brown and bister, No longer raise your crescent-shapen beak Towards the waning moon, to which you shriek That harmony which haunts the twilight’s glister; Your love, though flown afar since last you kissed her Beneath the heathy hills along the creek, Has parted on...

. Via Appia Beneath the pines of Rome, the wrinkled sibyl will croak your future for eleven cents, and with her finger in the dust will scribble predictions of uncertain consequence. But go near, fix your eyes on her immense eyes, clear blue like the Roman sky but colder: you’ll...

. Meditation on the Moon O! think about that strange celestial clump, That ball of dust God found beneath His bed And set it spinning round the Earth instead Of tossing it in outer space’s dump. Its orbit’s but an apathetic slump Of quarters, halves, and shadows dark as lead...