Culture

. I Failed I failed so dramatically most early days I failed horribly in most critical ways I failed to use schooling at each different age I failed in the waste of my talents each stage I failed with some friendships in whole or in part I failed big time...

. Reflections on a Visit to Saint Augustine With each step up the old Castillo wall I pray The hurricane will detour east past Grand Bahama. If windborne flooding comes, it can’t be held at bay--- St. Augustine has only minimal protection: The remnants of its wall won’t hold off...

. St. Patrick’s Day, 2025 While swathed in swirls of green, some raise a glass Of dark elixir topped with sheeny cream. Some twirl through Derry streets and Kerry grass In dreams ablaze with leprechauns that beam With larks as lilting harps spill silver tunes Of mountain thyme with shivers...

. Simple Simon Responds to Sayings of Captain Obvious English literature tends to be wordy. Many tricks are exceedingly dirty. On a bright sunny day the whole sky appears bluish. All the teachers that pray in Old Hebrew are Jewish. The weather is always mercurial. Some questions are strictly rhetorical....

. A Summer Evening The sky begins to cloak its face, Removing every streak of red. Above, two weary flyers trace The way back to their bough-held bed. A boy, awash with joy, returns Soil-vested from a football field. To celebrate the victory earned, He swaggers with his pride revealed....

. Mussolini's Minions ---Segesta, 2012 Entranced, we wander round the temple site.The hot Sicilian sun beats down. I’m frayed,now seek the parking lot's uncertain shade.My brother John’s nearby, though not in sight.I spot a limestone post, eye-level height.What are these bas-reliefs, chipped and decayed?Focusing on the figures, I’m dismayed.Bound rods,...

. Cherry Tree One summer day not long ago a man planted a tree, With tender love and patience he invested energy. He poured his hope and faith into the little budding leaves, For by this time next year he thought that apples he would eat. But then the year...

. The Core of War a pantoum The trickster charms and arms both sides--- He funds the ally and the foe. His hype unites and it divides. He’s oh so anti… also pro. He funds the ally and the foe. His crimson riches rocket in. He’s oh so anti… also...

. Of Elizabeth Bishop Ms. Bishop is one able–eyed observer;her vision is acute, that’s plain to see.Staring at her, I doubt I could unnerve her,though from the page she sometimes unnerves me.The variations she can ring on linesthat reach their end in (word, not fact!) “disaster,”wherein her art so eminently...

. An Ode to a Hymn “Like aught that for its grace may be Dear, and yet dearer for its mystery” ---Percy Shelley in “Hymn to Intellectual Beauty” Cathedral with its prayer sings homily _About an ancient mystery, _What is this ancient mystery! Oh God, are you in truth my...

. Nishijin Weaving In the tranquil heartThere is no scattering ofBlossoms once gathered. ―Satomura Jōha, master of linked verse The shining fabrics of nobilityDemand the planning of a pattern first.The weaver trusts to instinct in design,And looks ahead to twenty tedious tasks,Each specialized. There is humilityIn knowing all and delegating...

. Craft ---a conversation between Beauty and Productivity "You don't have time for this, you know." "Says who?" "That daily checklist down there in your tool bar, that's who says!" "Calm down. You need to cool your jets and let me think." "Think? That's what you call this? You look...

. A Token of Espousal Sister Elisabetta Dardinelli Speaks Concerning the Token of Espousalof Saint Catherine de’ Ricci (1522-1590) Dixit mihi Dominus meus: Ne timeas, filia: Non rapiet tequisquam de manu mea. My Lord said to me: Be not afraid, daughter; no one willtake you from My hand.  —Carmelite Breviary...

. Ashes Before the Lenten ashes fade and thin, I might remind myself of those regrets More earnest than a taste for sweets Or bad TV and that my conscience meets With frightening ease at times far greater sin. I might recall the truth the sign abets: The cross traced...

. The Greatest Time of Fatherhood I know that I’m supposed to say The finest time is now—today. And with all their accomplishments, That would indeed make lots of sense. And yet the greatest time of all To me was back when they were small— With boundless joy they would...

. We Already May Be in Purgatory The Peterson Postulate "What if this life is just a test so we can become better people?" ---The White Lotus HBO TV series What if God has sent us all to Purgatory? It’s our second chance in His Reformatory. Here, we toil and...

. Zelensky Gets a Hard Lesson Zelensky comes strutting, in hope of a payout— Trump and young J.D. are trusting that he’ll Accept their diplomacy’s well-crafted layout Of how the Ukraine needs a cease-fire deal. Zelensky has burned through a mountain of dollars— (Three hundred billion is what he’s received)....

. The Vice Worse than the addiction of a smoker, And harder to get over than cocaine, More drawing than to gamblers their poker Is a vice that never ends the game. It’s worse than the attraction of a hooker And easier to fall into its claws. If Death came...

. If I Could but Touch His Hem ---Mark 5:25-34 Forgive me, Lord, you know it’s true That I have prayed twelve years to you, To stop the bleeding and the shame To live a normal life again. And now there is this man I hear From far-off Galilee he’s...

. Trumped by Reason Our elitists loved extolling all their virtues while controlling each dimension of all nations through new laws and regulations. The more burdensome the better, and they held us to each letter of each law while loudly screeching, and ignoring their own preaching. Each elitist thought it...

. As Hamas Celebrates Dead Babies The Bibas deaths... how do I tell this news? A mother and her sons---all blameless Jews--- Killed senselessly. My words seem desecration... For I have not one word of consolation, No explanation, nor a gift for silence When faced with ululating savage violence. No...

. Chasing COLAs in a Hard World COLA: cost-of-living adjustment We learned, each time we tried to file a claim, _That dealing with the Demiurge Adjustor _Takes all the fortitude that we can muster, And that the ploy of reassigning blame Is not a winning move within this game. _The...

. Scarlet Pimpernel Amassing clouds—the air still warm; But you, my scarlet pimpernel, You sense that there's a coming storm, Compress your petals, and transform To brave the current's rising swell. . The pimpernel is also called the "old man's weathervane" because it closes when there's a drop in atmospheric...

. Made from Scratch! An ever-growing-number of our adolescent children are suckled by the biased breasts of prejudice and greed--- born to persons steeped in hatred, keen to fashion soldiers built to fit in tightly with their anarchistic breed. Unaware their destinies are virtually preordained, raised by those who thrive...

. Fifties Country Living Sit down with me my children, come! __I'll spin a tale or two About when I was just a kid __in nineteen fifty-two. No cell phones, televisions, laptops, __email, or internet, Connecting with each other face __to face was your best bet. Oil was for cars...

. Evensong The embers dimmed on the Pacific; _The sky a scarlet hue. One might conclude the fire seraphic--- _A seascape brushed by the muse. Some mares’ tails smudged the vista with soot _While gulls alighted on sand. The beach was wet---I’d not set foot _And desecrate this strand. The...

. The Clown I went inside my mind today. I hoped my thoughts would want to play. But all they did was get me down. I saw a large imposing clown. She had some tears upon her face, and tried to lock me in embrace. Against restraints, I will rebel....

. Reflections on Still Waters . Isaiah 55:12 You shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace, And a song will break forth from the lands. While the echoes of praise in the hills never cease, And the trees of the field clap their hands. . 1...

. Piazza della Signoria, Florence: February 7, 1497 Savonarola gets up off his knees (much contact with the ground has formed a welt) and lights the bonfire of the vanities. His purpose is to purge the city’s sleaze. The virgin in that painting is too svelte. Savonarola rises from his...

. Lament to the Passing of Paper I learned to write my A-B-Cs and form my shapely 1-2-3s on paper, when I was a lad; but now, since I’ve become a dad, the era of the written word is passing like the dodo bird. The whisper of the turning page,...

. Our National Precipice The time has come for all good men To recognize our nation’s end. We have been silent much too long, Just caught up in a siren’s song. That song, that beckons our demise, Brought on by fools that think they’re wise. They spend our wealth without...

. . Sonnet 1 I felt like trying something new today, And so I put my pen upon a page To mimic Shakespeare's famous olden way— A style which, I hear, was all the rage. So here I am committing fourteen lines, To document my thoughts dynamically: I think it...

. The FBI---Then and Now So respected when I was a kid, For the things we all read that they did, It’s substantially altered today--- Now we hardly trust one word they say. . . The Modern Mainstream Media Not long ago the mainstream media, Brought facts like an encyclopedia....

. Dead Sea Scrolls Trilogy “Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.”...

. The Untimely Demise of My Dear Uncle Sam I received the somber news __as sun set low today. My beloved Uncle Sam __by death was swept away. It wasn’t on the battlefield that __he met his demise. ‘Twas long before when men ignored __the counsel of the wise. Through...

. Accidents Happen We’re told time tends toward catastrophe, And that a butterfly’s ephemeral wings Might quake the sky somewhere across the sea By strange cascades of simple happenings, Arousing thus a violent hurricane; Which is to say that no one really knows Just how or why occurrences occur, But...

. The Settlers —to my forefathers, and all the intrepid men and womenwho settled the Oklahoma panhandle. Across these barren hills, the cold winds blow,As bitter now as in those days long past,When first their rustic wagon, rolling slow,Came down a slope against an icy blast, And settled on this...

. Rather Drown Than Hang “He who is destined for the gallows will not be drowned.” ---Russian proverb A lethal thing, the writ of man _that soaks this realm like rain, from the code of Hammurabi _to the law of club and fang. If in your courts I stand accused...

. Mexican Sestina Perhaps I left because I got too bored, and no one could put sense in my thick head, or talk me out of trekking to the beach by reading newsclips of prolific death by drug cartels or government. Not one could change my plans to move to...

. Libra There in my hand I held a crystal vial Of distillation potent, red, and sweet, By which my broken heart was put on trial, And golden apples scattered at my feet. Ask not the name of him who gave to me The dark elixir, nor the price I...