Poetry

  The Sky Small wonder we placed God up in the sky, Within its infinite and blue construed Eternity and beauty on the fly And in its midnight dark could scarce absorb The mystery divine so archly strewed Amid the seething sheath of star and orb. It prompts a motion...

  Out at Third We’d been good friends until I kept saying, “Yes!” And she, who felt uneasy, kept saying, “No!” My heart was beating hot, I must confess, When she said, “Stop,” and my green light said, “Go.” At times we’d been to First and Second base But even...

  Though My Eyes Grow Dim The world that was my senses, Of smell, of taste and sight, With feeling and with sound, Have vanished overnight. Although I hear less sharply The sounds—both low and higher--- I hear the singing now Of the angel choir. Though my steps are slower...

  Different Strokes The sin for which old Yahweh leveled Sodom, Though scholars, on this point, may disagree, Is penetrating someone else’s bottom, And so today we call it sodomy. But what, then, should we think about Gomorra, Which perished in that same destructive wave? Did people there, complicit with...

  Violin Vengeance In circumstances that exist no more, A rickety old mill stood near the border Of provinces in Poland and Ukraine, And there a Jewish miller ground the grain Of peasant farmers whose good land and weather Produced enough to eat or sell or trade, And pay tax...

  The Color True It bruises dusk with velvet shade, Descends where ocean dreams are laid. It clings to wings in mid-air flight A jay, a thought, a piece of night. It hums within the glacier’s hold, In sapphire flame and silence cold. It dresses flowers, firm yet shy The...

  Rain and Snow on Christmas Day In songs of old and times of yore, _'Tis Snow that rules the day, Her lacy crystals dress the land, _With bridal white array. The towers housing silver bells, _That ring on Christmas morn, All sing the praise of Snow the Fair, _Their...

  Jekyll and/or Hyde When we observe what seems to us to be phenomena that should not co-exist, but somehow do so paradoxically, our brains freeze while our thoughts contort and twist. We’ve seen light act like particles and waves, which we have proved, but still can’t understand. We’re smart...

  Prophesy to the Wind “Prophesy to the wind, prophesy, son of man….” ---Ezekiel 37: 9 Prophesy to the wind---for only the wind Listens. None in this dry, eviscerated land Hastens To hear; they’re deaf to prophecies, and blind To demons. I whisper warnings, breathe them through dry grasses. Omens...

  Qoheleth —Hebrew title for the speaker in Ecclesiastes I know a God-sized hole stays in our souls. The mind abhors a vacuum, seeks the whole. God set eternity in human hearts— A worthy search, until things fall apart. It seems so much in life is hit or miss. How...

  Liturgical Loopholes   I. Scheduling Redemption: The Pious Musings of a Serial Sinner I must confess when I transgress I keep my conscience squeaky-clean. A swift disclosure lessens stress. A sinner’s innards burn and roil. I keep my conscience squeaky-clean. A word of mercy quells the boil. I’m quick...

  America! ---for the one-year anniversary of the second Inauguration of President Donald J. Trump, leader of the Free World Oh, giant of the Western hemisphere! Colossus of the gently setting sun! Where liberty is held supremely dear And fight for truth and justice never done. A nation born in...

  Threefold Sorrow by Anonymous, 13th century translated from Middle English by Martin Briggs Among my thoughts are always three That steal my happiness from me. One is that I must away; One, I do not know the day; The third One is my greatest woe: I know not whither...

  The Tomb on the Hill The ancient tomb sits brooding all alone Atop a rocky hill, remote and bare. Perched like a vulture on a dismal throne, It overlooks a valley green and fair With baleful gaze, as if to guard its own. Dark, slippery steps of crumbling cobblestone...

  Vilnius Opera, 1993 "Those costumes look professional!" he gasps, Goggling the stage through my aunt's high-end glass. Of course they are. What does he take us for? This is a European capital. I'm half-American myself. It rasps--- Association with his lack of class. I'm almost twelve, look daggers at...

  Burdens "eternal weight of glory" ---2 Corinthians 4.17 The conifers out back, weighed down with snow, seem like a band of weary pilgrims who have stopped to rest along their way. They know their burden will be lifted soon, yet through this season, they must bear it frequently. They...

  The Scapegoat Their memories select the bad, forget The good. Their hypersensitivity And need for higher maintenance won't let Their feelings dwell on positivity. They lay you out and flay you out to save Their cultic souls from self-reflecting doom, Ignoring facts, inventing ways to tar And feather you,...

  Why Did I Kiss You? _I kissed you with no warning. _You softly asked me why. _I said that passion baffles, _that it can mystify. The reasons why I kiss you are _like petals on a rose. There are so many that it’s hard _to pin it down. Who...

  Bird Song At five a.m. the avian chorus starts So fervently you’d think they had not heard That men subdued the earth and killed the birds (Too many hit the skyscrapers, etc.). Now these descendants of the dinosaurs (The last great owners of our pendant world), Not having learned...

  Ulysses He stands upon the sandy strand alone. He has been dropped off, stranded, left. A crow caws out above a fleshy bone. Unknown, this no one in particular, so low in spirit, walks along Poseidon’s ledge. He looks on naught. There is no Trojan Horse. Long suffering, he...

  A Tribute to Scott Adams ---1957-2026 We lost Scott Adams, and his fertile mind. We mourn his passing, but he left behind a truth and wisdom-filled satiric view of what life’s like inside the corporate zoo. He knew exactly what it meant to be a worker stifled by bureaucracy....

  To Once Have Been Immortal A mountain swollen with the impudence of jaunty youth, unfazed by plodding Time, aspires to lofty realms of Providence as blight and battle interrupt the rhyme of living Earth. And that was I, a life ago, oblivious to wisdom, drowned by notions of a...

  The Bartender He seemed a little out of place when he walked in that night. The bar was pretty crowded, it was nearly 10 p.m. He slid a little money on the bar and grabbed a beer, then found his way to where the smoke was thick and light...

  The New Satanic Mills "And did the Countenance Divine, Shine forth upon our clouded hills? And was Jerusalem builded here, Among these dark Satanic Mills?"  ---William Blake Whatever’s happened to that scepter’d isle, That earth of majesty, that seat of Mars, Where aged veterans were wont to smile, And...

  Telling by Not Asking I called up somebody I knew back in school, _Beginning six decades ago. Someone I spent six years of doing things with, _But since then we’d not said hello. I asked him about his whole life, and learned facts _To a rather extensive degree, The...

  Leak Oh, versifyingʼs worthless unless you know the what and why Of saying something deep and true, or of the moon and sky. Now, nature doesnʼt interest me---no matter how celestial. The music of the spheres to me, it doesnʼt sound orchestral. Iʼm gloomy almost all the time, and...

  Shards How unexpected did that moment come; How swift and sudden did that moment pass. A fleeting touch that left my spirit numb; A shattered mirror, shards of broken glass. A moment etched into my memory As if engraved on cold, unbending stone. A passing moment in eternity; A...

  When from the Damning Writs When from the damning writs of men’s assize I flee the dock of ignorance and woe And seek my room, where walls may stifle sighs A refuge from the slings all wounded know And find, within that keep, a soft-bound treasure To hold, it...

  Mac Modernist All mortal works are destined to decline, And in this fall, doth poetry align, As all inheritance is thrown away, And our dear art is subject to decay. As Flecknoe’s kingdom, ancient and forlorn; Revived by petty princes full of scorn, Is made the lesser through the...

  Thomas Paine Publishes Common Sense   London, 1774 A man walked through the door, escaping rain. His shoes were full of holes where water trailed. “Beg pardon, sir, the name is Thomas Paine. I need some work.” He held an ad Ben nailed. His concave abdomen, curtailed In thickness,...

  Seven Sonnets of Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo Translated from French and Curated by Adam Sedia Introduction Joseph-Casimir Rabearivelo (1903-1937) was born on March 4, 1903, in Antananarivo, Madagascar. At the time Madagascar had been a French colony since 1897, when it had annexed the island kingdom. His native language was Malagasy,...

  The Measure of a Woman (or a Man) We’re measured in our mother’s womb by ultrasound to check all’s well, a heads up for an infant’s room, to know will pink or blue be swell. We’re measured on the day we’re born, when by the pound and ounce we’re...

  Encounter with My Dead Father I am holding my father’s hand so white, and in silence we walk up the whispering track. Dark figures with helmets lie out of sight, blue shapes of hands wave to me through the night--- _and I dare not look back. No purple blood...

  Two Sonnets by Nino Martoglio (1870-1921) translated from Sicilian by Joseph S. Salemi   I. Young lady, you who work embroidery At your small loom, behind the window’s glass— Tell me, why is it that you gaze at me When there in the morning I go by and pass?...

  Wall of Ice I have met an icy barrier On this pleasant journey Life That has tried to freeze my spirit In its paralyzing vise. Like an animated iceberg Sporting crystal hands and feet--- Like a SEAL that’s on a mission It intends to bring defeat. In its fist,...

  King of Poets Salaciously Saul slouches on the throne (Backbiting envy never sits upright) Since David’s victories surpass his own. The king’s hard heart and weakened faith excite Malevolence for which he won’t atone. Young David could have cured the spirit’s flaw With moving melodies from seven strings To...

  Watercolors Before her was a canvas, white as snow. Beside her, watercolors, bright and clean. For hours, she sat quiet, stared at both. And hours later, still there was no scene. No still life piece contrasting dark and light. No lovely garden Renoir, no Monet. No Autumn Blossoms, nor...

  Art and Nature The well is deep Where poets keep Their unused words, And sylvan groves Are treasure troves Of singing birds That imitate The lyric prate Of mantic bards, Which might be why The morning sky Above our yards Inspires the mind To seek and find A soaring...

  Star of Wonder We read of three Wise Men at Christmas each year Who left home on a journey in search of a King. A light in the heavens God made to appear And then told them to follow and leave everything. Like them—if you’re wise—God will give you...

  Yeonmi Park’s Advice to Americans You don’t ever want to be a country that’s like North Korea, where a massive central power makes its citizenry cower. But each year, you cede control of more and more, which is the goal of those who run in each election, so you...