Beauty

. Lee in the Furnace "He who thinks of Lee Must think of Washington. . ." ---Herman Melville So Oleh, Chief, my other grandfather, Mine on the distaff, on the losing side. The furnace burnishes your graven face. You smell destruction, like a gathered tide. As all your features soften,...

. Insouciance When circumstances wear you down Consider this important fact: It’s easier to smile than frown. When autumn leaves have all turned brown, Your borders breached, your cities sacked, And circumstances wear you down, Go find yourself another town To capture what you’ve always lacked: A cause to smile...

. Tampering with Permanence  a Seattle pantoum __Here where I live, a cloud looks like a mountain; mountains float. Like love, illusions laugh out loud. We’re stuck in nature’s drunken boat: looks like a mountain; mountains float and fade to air, though made of rock— we’re stuck in nature’s drunken...

. Voyage to Scotland Constantius II, son of Constantine and emperor from 337 to 361, hoped to glorify Constantinople by collecting relics of all twelve Apostles. He took Saint Andrew’s remains by force from the saint’s principal shrine in Patras, Greece. This violent robbery greatly distressed the people of Patras....

. There Are Not Enough Hours in the Day There are not enough hours in the dayto take all of the naps I want to take.As soon as I have sprung up from the hayI think I'd rather dream than be awake—so long as they are of the pleasant sort,not...

. Revolution Puckish Schoenberg, bored with Bach now assaults the tonic scale, pounding (his a frontal shock), on Mozart's coffin, a modernist nail. He scans the twelve established tones, then briskly rolls the musical dice, overturning melody’s throne, emancipating dissonance. What’s he doing, anyway? Has he made a radical break...

. 2 Peter 3 “Consider that our Lord’s patience is directed toward salvation.” ---2 Peter 3:15 For once in church (before, I think, the Sacrament) In silence deep and cast adrift in prayer, I folded in upon the immanent For just a moment (maybe more) and there Was made of...

. Wayward Their frosty hearts and polished oaken door Slammed shut the night she found her stolen voice. She sang a moonbeam song---a shocking choice In mystic keys that spurned the common score--- A black-sheep beat that rocked the status quo In jarring notes of pink and indigo. Her sickened kin---they banished her from sight With tongues so sharp they severed touch and tie; With barbs so blunt they bruised her summer sky. Through squalls of pain her bold refrain took flight--- A...

. Spirit of Thanksgiving Past O, noble Spirit of Thanksgiving Past, You are a very strange yet gracious host! Of course the thought of going back brings joy--- To see my life when I was just a boy! So guide me as an insubstantial ghost And through a mist we’ll...

. World View Beyond the line where sea and sky collideLie distant lands beyond myopic sightWhere men and women live and love besideThe self-same sea beneath the same sun’s light. Where East meets West depends on where one stands.I travel west to reach the OrientWhile those in distant cross-Pacific landsLook east...

. . Reversing Babel . I. Babel “Now the whole earth had one language and one speech.” ---Genesis 11:1 . An ill wind blows through Babel, where all speech Is one, so that it’s possible to plan--- Then build---our city’s tower, which will reach To realms where God can be...

. “United” Nations? The U.N. won’t condemn Hamas’s slaughter,Supporting those who want Jews underwater.Iran’s a U.N. human rights group head,Though it would like Americans all dead. Two U.N. questions thus remain unclear---Why we’re still in it, and why it’s still here? . . True Apartheid Leftists say Israel uses “apartheid,”Though...

. Prayerwise for Gloria (1934-2013) Tough, keen, opinionated, shrewd:Collected junk, shared what she foundWith those who shared her roof and food,With those who shared her daily round. She prayed her daily round of beads.She loved the ancient Latin Rite,The Athanasian among creeds,Allied with Michael in the fight. Her children chose...

. Fungible Assets A pint’s a pound the world around. Now, lay your oars athwart the gunwales And let your aching muscles get some rest. Relieving strain on carpal tunnels, Your doctor says, is always for the best. What use, my friend, is all the rowing When final destinations are...

. What Do You Do When You No Longer Drink What do you do when you no longer drink, no tossing out the empties in a bag as one by one you hear that cautious clink then wipe end tables with a beer-soaked rag? Face reality? No, not right away....

. Poetry A poem, subscribing to a plan, Flies higher than the highest planes, Seems safer than a rose-red tan, Or traffic in the fastest lanes, Where people die in random crashes. And yet how dangerous are words? Combined, their meaning soon surpasses A single, random act. Like birds, We...

. It Seems Like Only Yesterday Votes and virtue did not yield Control of our own border, And context did not supersede A breach of law and order. Most people thought the playing of Our anthem was the grandest, The media told what they saw, And weren’t just propagandists. Then...

. Sounds Like Paradise Kids are in the backyard playing; __The dog is playing too. I think that sounds like Paradise--- __Doesn’t it to you? Wife is in the kitchen humming, __Making pumpkin pies. Husband working on a project— __Sounds like Paradise. Christmas gifts under the fir tree; __Each with...

. Beware the Lion "Your adversary the devil prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour" ---1 Peter 5:8 Beware the lion! Stealthily he creeps By dark of night, or camouflaged by day In leafy veils. He stalks his fated prey With icy stare, then without warning, leaps,...

. Glow Brave little candle, shining bright! You send out rays of hope all night. Within your heart you hold a flame, A yellow flame, with loving aim, A flame that banishes the dark, Dispels despair and lights a spark Of faith and hope in every heart. Ignites a love...

. The Soldier He started as a little boy from any small hometown. He loved to throw and hit a ball but never gained renown. His parents taught him right from wrong and how to do his best, So he grew up a normal way, not unlike all the rest....

. War Paths in honor of veterans I have known through the retelling of their stories. . “Any Man’s Death Diminishes Me” Preface “Be killed or killed! Be cursed or cursed!” __A lose-lose battle cry. For even if I kill him first __a part of me will die. And though...

. Returning Soldiers With hedgerows, fields and trees the soldiers of a forward trench have rested with unease, reduced beyond a carcase stench. Beneath a one-time, war-torn land they’ve lain---forgotten bones. A century plus has spanned since Frankish earth expunged their groans, flung up, with shrapnel fed, that nowadays rears...

. Carving Fingers "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." ---St. Paul Percy exhales with a scowl and he spits. In his hickory fingers, an obstinate block; in his critical snicker, a grin; on his table, a cup of the bitterest chicory left to go cold, but the...

. Until You Try "You’ll never know Until you try…" Make this mindset Your battle cry! Your first few steps, A paper route. Try out for sports. Doors all about! Reach out your hand, And make a friend, And when you fail, Make true amends. A summer job, A new...

. Alfie’s Answer “What’s it all about, Alfie?” ---Hal David Not selfish pleasure, as I thought, but love For isolated pleasures quickly sour. Love feeds a hunger nothing else avails The power of love all others overpowers And love is needed in the giving too, For giving love gives more...

. Ecstasy and Me I’ve not, I fear, the spiritual thrust To quite propel myself to mystic heights; To taste the inconceivable delights That saints have savored, hallowed and nonplussed By drawing near to something so august The very soul with tender awe ignites And somewhere in the human heart...

. The Miasma Enshrouding Disneyland I came here as a fairytale-struck child; The tickets cost less than a week of pay And we would spend a carefree, joy-filled day. The park was clean; the rides were fun though mild: Space Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean. The Haunted Mansion where blithe...

. Beyond the Shadows  The light from above may be blinding And cause us to shelter our eyes, But promises God makes are binding, For laggards as well as the wise. At last we get used to the brightness, Descrying a path up ahead That leads to a place where uptightness...

. Child's Laughter It bubbles forth from deep inside his soul; Joy twinkles brightly through his youthful eyes, For any pain he knows, his laugh defies: This shattered world has briefly been made whole. It rings out clearer than choir bells toll, And sings God’s promise out to hopeless lives....

. All Saints' Day by Gabrielle de Coignard (c.1550–1586), translated by Margaret Coats O Saints, you have your heritage in hand Because you battled Satan’s sanctimony! Though burned or tortured, you gave testimony; A thousand torments tore your valiant band. Arrived in port, you see the whirlwinds fanned Around our...

. Extract from DoorWay Canto 3: Constellation of the Virgin DoorWay is the Poet’s journey through Heaven. Having left the constellation of Libra in Canto 2, he now enters the Constellation of Virgo where he finds and meets various ‘innocents’ and literal virgins of life, as well as Dr. Johnson,...

. Autumn by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), translated by Bruce Phenix The falling leaves seem fallen from afar, as though in heaven distant gardens faded; they fall with gestures that deny, negate. And, falling in the night, the earth’s sad weight finds solitude apart from every star. We all fall....

. The Reincarnations of Donald J. Trump after Andrew Benson Brown’s Legends of Liberty  . I. 218 B.C. Above the mellow grass, cliff faces soar Like walls to house a huge primeval god. The pass into the valley is his door Through which a hundred thousand soldiers plod. Their war...

. The Word “Let there be light,” He said and light there was. The seething chaos split to day and night And space and time were brightly set abuzz. From atom unto Adam, highest heights To deepest depths His mystery did unfold Although we still don’t understand it quite: Among...

. The Truth about Fall Colors  I am October’s most submissive bitch, And just when I believed I’d struck it rich, The gold that hovered overhead was blown Away before I’d claimed it for my own. And now the maples turning scarlet red Will shed their leaves on every flower...

. Quiet Night Thoughts by Li Bai (701-762), translated by Talbot Hook My bed looks over bright moonlight. I muse: could it in fact be frost? I lift my head and watch the moon; I bow my head and think of home. . 静夜思 , 李白 床前明月光 疑是地上霜 举头望明月 低头思故乡...

. Unveiled, They Appear Reminiscence, and longings, and echoes unseal, from the depths in the ground which has covered, concealed, recollections of those who you meant to reveal. What your senses revere, neath our cavern of earth, Is the essence you feel, for all that we’re worth. In your mind...

. My Brother in Galilee I had a fearsome dream---I saw my friend -- My teacher-brother---nailed onto a cross. I wept with sorrow at my brother’s feet. He said his mother henceforth would be mine. Unearthly lightning blazed across the land. I gasped and woke, my blanket cold with sweat....

. Autumn Winds have Come Again Autumn winds have come again, Whistling wafts are dithering, Trees are shedding leaves like rain, Garden vines are withering. Looking from my window sill Out into the snowy night, Snowflakes clad the leaves until My world’s wrapped in a winking white. Here inside I...