Culture

  Mother’s Loom ---after Li Bai's poem "Midnight Song of Wu" The moon above the palace, Reigns bright within the gloom, And mothers seeking solace, Work quietly at the loom. Cold autumn breezes shear Away their fondest tears, "Oh when'll my sons be home From deserts where horses roam?"  ...

  The Sons of Issachar “The Sons of Issachar understood the times in which they lived, and knew which way Israel should go.” ---I Chronicles 12:32 I tilled the soil, and worked and thought, And listened, as the country fought. I walked my furrows, planting seed, My brow not furrowed,...

  Will the Sentence Get the Death Sentence? ---a triolet I write a line, then I decide: will it survive, or must it die? Before I can enter a stride, I write a line, then I decide if it allows my mind to glide. If not, once more I’ll have...

  Mass Destruction Give me a reason to trust in words spoken--- Tricksters have twisted the truth till it’s dead. Decades of pledges are buried or broken. Faith is now riddled with bullets and dread. Bombs are exploding and bombast is blasting--- Slick tongues of silver spin slogans all day....

  Mixed Blessing Our image of ourselves helps keep us grounded, As thoughts and deeds conform to feel well-founded. It also tends to make us less adaptive, Erecting walls inside of which we’re captive.     The Worst Time to Talk The absolute worst time to state a feeling Is...

  The Otherhood of Man “He who is compassionate to the cruel will ultimately become cruel to the compassionate.“ ---Jewish folk saying You think your words bless others. Wrong. They curse. But you’re so pledged to liberal ideals You’re blind to their casuistry and cracks. Such questions that you ask!...

On the Ruins of the Ancient City Cumae by Jacopo Sannazaro (1458–1530), translated from Latin by Margaret Coats Here the far-famed walls of ancient Cumae rose, _Prime glory of the clear Tyrrhenian Sea. Here awestruck questioners came rushing evermore _To hear your oracle, O great Apollo. Here energetic sailors found...

  250 Years of the "Invisible Hand" We should all want to shake the invisible hand, since it knows how to balance supply and demand which creates a free market, so everyone knows their decisions will optimize capital flows. As the hand guides producers, they fiercely compete, then each buyer...

  Bombing Iran How sad that war provokes such controversy. Why can’t we just get on with it without A bunch of angry nay-sayers? Lord-a-mercy! “Give Peace a Chance!” “Make Love, Not War!” they shout As if they think it’s 1969 Again. Same anti-war conspiracy Except that now, instead of...

  The Number 86: A Humean Tragedy "For my part, when I enter most intimately into what I call myself, I always stumble on some perception or other, of heat or cold, light or shade, love or hatred, pain or pleasure. I never can catch myself at any time without...

  Who Wrote Shakespeare?   It could not be the glover’s son; _it had to be the Earl. To know how courts and kingdoms run _is far beyond a churl. The poet knew Verona well, _the politics of Rome. How could a Stratford merchant tell _of things so far from...

  Hidden Harmonies “In all chaos there is cosmos. In all disorder a secret order.” ---Carl Jung   I. Slaying Chaos ---a pantoum I’m searching for a meaning in this mess. I’m wading through a shady lake of murk To find a shred of sense in senselessness. I’m trawling where...

  How Fast __How fast can AI do Theology? How quick can it descry _The infinite, sort somehow through _The web of Being, figure out _A fact it can’t objectify? Can a machine slow down enough to doubt? __Can algorithms mix And match at record speed until at last _Upon...

  Undone Decisions made in haste are doubts deferred. The need to come off confident, to seem As though in charge, is really quite absurd When self-control remains a bootless dream. Those sudden unexpected bouts of rage Belie the promises you whispered in A semblance of remorse and turn the...

  The Departure His soulful eyes did look on life, and sorely did he weep. He turned his head upon the gate. His heart hurt hard and deep. He saw the door from hinges torn. He had to take this trip, and leave behind the pegs, without a hawk’s or...

  Apologia We stand on others’ shoulders. That is why I sometimes speak a thought already spoken. It’s tradition. Truth endures unbroken and belongs to poets; others lie. So why disparage metre, form and rhyme as habits of a hidebound intellect? What pleased yesterday, today rejects; but canons and conventions...

  Montaigne and Us He holed up in his tower of stone, alone, Sickened by what he saw had overcome All France: religious wars, the worst they’d known. Was Paris worth a mass grave? Yes, said some. His library well stocked, his pen in hand, His essays surveyed his own...

  A Song for the Survivors of Grooming Gangs Clutches of cowards stain once restful ways Where doors opened on twilight and sweet calm And families shared joy at close of days, In Oxford, Oldham, London, Rotherham, Cologne. The numbers of the wounded rise. No mercy stays Rogues’ bodies or...

  True Susanna Susanna, beauty faithful to young love, To marriage, and to parents’ righteous ways, But most to God, found only one defender Against two judges wasted by lewd gaze. Corrupted, with no power to look above Their loins, these lustful gaffers had aspired, Each one alone, to force...

  Olympic Gold _Eat the beauty and the beast. Ingest, digest until you’ve had your fill. _Sojourn till the west meets east And find your fortune sliding down a hill. _Future past, time out of mind To strike it rich, your long-sought mother lode. _Seek and you will surely find...

  Atomized The Great Stillness fell throughout the loud town. A quiet dust began to settle down. Where laughter once had echoed in the square, Now only silence lingered in the air. The cathedral doors stood closed and shut fast, No kneeling form to seek a rite long past. The...

  The Vault _The turning sky enwraps the world. Each day, entreating eyes wide-open to This circling vault shall earn a benefaction, A grain of living salt; and over time Ensues discerning capability To separate inconsequential things _From those that absolutely matter. _Autumnal rains quell squirrel chatter, The leaves grow...

  Clonmacnoise (Cluain Mhic Nóis) Rocky gray ruins, round tower stronghold, speckling a wide expanse of green, residuum of a fabled scene: fine flourishment of monasteries, communes in strict ascetic mold, launched by godly visionaries. Saint Ciaran found this perfect site: the Shannon meets a key trade route. High kings...

  Song of the Beelzebots We lure you with our speed and with our flair. We snare you with our lexical appeal. We’re here to make you ever more aware Of why and how. And no---we cannot feel. We gather scattered fragments of ideas. We seek and scan and sift...

  Modern Generation Gap I wish some young folks’ touchiness was less extensive, _So more of them could ponder this apt dictum--- Some things can be perceived as other than offensive, _Thus there are ways to feel besides a victim.     Worries Of the large and small matters I’ve...

  Beauty Is a State of Mind A young Masai tribe suitor who is wanting to get married, Must offer to her father cows, but the number’s varied. The more prestigious or more beautiful the woman is The more the cows to offer for the prize he wants as his....

  The Triumph ---on the three lost legions, and the abrupt end to expansion under Augustus The lovely face of recent progress made On far-flung savage shore, by loyal arms… And yet as though another roadway laid Away from Rome somehow, that now alarms As though behind the lovely mask...

  Carnival Quintilla Subtly startling Harlequin, Mutely miming tenderness, Yang you are and I am yin, Thrilled to feel your eyes’ caress Flashing as you nimbly spin. What appeal do you intend, Speechless dancer with a smile? Near and clearly to commend Sympathy as you beguile Ardor toward an early...

  Village There once was a village where everyone shared _whenever another had need. The folks in that place were all so filled with grace _and joy in the absence of greed. One evening a clown strode into the town _his face covered up with a mask. He hid his...

  Thoughts at Daybreak At break of day, you rise up quietly To check on our young daughter, who lies ill. From out the corner of my eye, I see You tie your robe, while I keep lying still. You slip out of our room, and soon I hear The...

  Humpty Dumpty Redux Some say we stole the land we think we own, and that we must return it to atone, but practically, it’s very hard to know just how far back it’s possible to go to find who first owned every property, so we can track down all...

  A Forecast of Fortune Here’s my forecast of fortune for today, The local and the universal too, Informed by signs the elements display. I hope you’ll find it meaningful and true. Regrettably, it seems a random stroke Of storminess might hit us here or there To vex us and...

  The Cupbearer or the Baker? --Genesis 40 A dream goes through a sieve once we awake, With only fragments left to contemplate. Although we think that what we saw is fake, we sense a meaning that we can’t negate. Thus, we try to decode the visions seen by ruminating...

  A Panegyric on the Nativity Babies are cool In spite of the drool And inordinate stool. Babies are cool. Babies are fat And better for that, To pinch and poke at. Babies are fat. Babies are silly: Wailing willy-nilly (Their drawers are frilly). Babies are silly. Babies are slobbery---...

  Tapiola Tapio is the Finnish god of the forest; Tapiola is his home. Only a fool disturbs my sylvan solitude. _See how my vassal firs crowd all around you, _Jostle you, silently surround you, Erasing every trace of one who dared intrude. Into my presence, shadowed by mortality, _You...

  Breath by Breath An orb of light in darkness flickers out To halt the marching steps of eager trust; As trembling nerves bite down into the dust _And sense the slow but pressing clout Of imminent defeat. Thus, breath by breath, The lonely heart must wander, losing sight Of...

  The War in Heaven ---for the IDF But stranger still and most sublime of all A second vision sweeps across the skies. The ancient war in Heaven before the Fall Is now arrayed for modern London eyes. Primeval paladins with arms adorned Appear across the firmament in flight; Dark...

  A Surviving Maduro Guard Speaks A guard who was protecting Nicolás Maduro said: “We did not hear the Yankees coming. No, we were not dead. Th’ Americans possessed high-tech that we had never seen; they took off-line all that we used—radar…everything. The US used drones, taking out our bases...

  A Bit Player A dorm in Happy Valley. Solo room, door closed: a nineteen-year-old's cozy womb. Our heroine Helen, in a cloistered daze--- studying, yes, but reading was her craze. On loan from Pattee, classic texts piled high; also, used paperbacks she’d scraped to buy. She was devouring all...

  Main Message He got a hug when he arrived, _Another when he left, But that attention felt contrived--- _With time between bereft.     Manifestations of Love Of his countless love manifestations, That which arguably tops the chart, Is his bearing untold aggravations, For the sake of she who...