Beauty

. Beneath the starry firmament so dark There lies tonight an old, forgotten tree Whose bark is peeling, wretched, cold...

. Go, Fading Leaf __Go, fading leaf, Tell him who thought my heart to spurn __That life is brief (But...

. Everything is gone, gone. ____No one’s ever stayed: the family and the friends I loved, ____the bread my mother...

. How To Be Like Byron Bright butterfly, why do you fade Into that duller, browner shade That strays into...

. Ode to Spring Oh glory be to things that grow! That burgeon, blossom, bud and blow In Springtime’s light...

. . Father And John: How It Once Was Before self-righteous rules, brash and insistent,There was a natural rhythm, quite...

. The Verbum Dei Retreat Centre on the Isle of Wight aims to be a place of encounter with God...

. A coat of luminescent snow Descended on my patch of grass, And for a moment all its glow Inflamed...

 . Long View Cottage The view is long and dark atop the mountain where I roam. Birds sing a little...

.   Earth Song We longed to see Norway's Northern Lights,That great, magnetic, celestial balletOf colour, one of nature's majestic sights:'Not to be missed...

. On Rembrandt's "Return of the Prodigal Son" Three centuries have passed since it was wrought--- A work of art...

. The Death of Adam Excerpted from Musings on Piero della Francesca’s “History of the True Cross,” in the Church...

. Stream Above the bend, the water deep and clear, the current strong; seen from the Buckman Bridge, ten minutes...

. Be good, my Sorrow. You may rest assured; The Evening whom you called descends; Behold; The fall of dusk...

X Every Little Thing I. His Version She treasured every little thing that you             ...

“I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the...

. Rosarium a sestina A rose arises red from its green sheath Adorned with swords that prick and pierce: the...

. My word will not survive a fire: the dust, the ash of paper singed by matches struck by fingers...

_ Orchestra Tuning Up Is this the way the universe once sounded?A mass confusion of discordant trumpets,Flutes, horns, and violins...

. Stress can envelop, encircle, entangle. Strictures can pressure from every angle. Tripping and slipping to ways that are errant...

. Portrait of God drawn from Scripture by François-René de Chateaubriand (1768-1848), translated by Adam Sedia Know you the jealous...

. Rapt “I must go down to the sea again,  to the lonely sea and the sky…” ---John Masefield  Today...

  You can’t imagine what I saw,Some clouds that only God can drawWith pinks and reds and violet blue.He painted...

. Spacious spans the starlit sky; Silver shines its light; Vast the veil, Pearly-pale, Drawn o’er the dusky night; Silently...

. Benvenuto Cellini’s Salt-Cellar A woman sitting back, just mildly curious To hear a man’s contrived, seductive patter, Waiting to...

. Behold the father of this infant land, Conductor of our daunting foe’s defeat, Now warmly laureled for his noble...

. Humility Lo, I have seen the Muses plain. What need Have I to go on living?—’Twas in Rome: I...

. I wonder where my father’s cardinal is--- The colored-pencil drawing that he made In art class---he was only in...

. With Goals in Tow I’ve fewer days ahead of me than those I have been blessed to see. Though...

. Flodden Historical Note: The Battle of Flodden took place between English and Scottish armies on September 9, 1513. The...

. The Death of Today’s Sequoia Flecte ramos, arbor alta, tensa laxa viscera: Et rigor lentescat ille, quem dedit nativitas,...

. In nature’s loving show of all things fair the fruits of youth seem sweetest to the eye, the world...

. The Inca Kings Who stole the kings? Even Pachacutec's mummy now is gone from Lima's hospital display of Inca...

. An Ode to Letters We cannot be sure what the future will hold, But I doubt this prediction will...

. “Di pensier in pensier, di monte in monte” by Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374) __From thought to thought, from mountain to...

. From Parthenope’s coast each to his post, Beseeching eyes upraised with steady gaze. That night would nature’s cruelty erase...

. after Matthew 2:1-12 From distant regions of the east they came, Wise Magi, searching for a royal son, Into...

. Away with loneness--he whose winter bites, who haunts the wasted wilderness and shores, born in thunder on the misty...

. . Hunting My father strides ahead of me.His khaki cap is all I see,beside the barrel of his gun.We’re...

  . Old doors to opportunitiesare gone, so, not one opens.Enticements that were there, just tease,no keys, just slot-less tokens....