Sonnet

  Morning Glory The mornings are a challenge for the old man. Get up. Get dressed. Get the dogs out....

  Prayer (5:00 a.m.) Some stubborn pain (the world… the past…) Is peeking through the cracks, and all I want...

  Damon and Pythias The two spoke number lore with every breath, Disciples of Pythagoras and friends, But one was...

  At the Wine Bar Embrace the riverlike and endless flow, the rush of energy, the burgundy of Cabernet, Petite...

  Bombing Iran How sad that war provokes such controversy. Why can’t we just get on with it without A...

  Spring Storm A stirring in the pine, a tomblike pause, and then a rhythmic misty harmony is tapping on...

  Undone Decisions made in haste are doubts deferred. The need to come off confident, to seem As though in...

  Montaigne and Us He holed up in his tower of stone, alone, Sickened by what he saw had overcome...

  Garden Goddess   I. This humble plot of land is bogged in snow And ice, with twigs and brushy...

  To Thine Own Text Be True For My Autocorrect on Valentine’s Day You turn my hope to mope, my...

Listen, Wishin' Star Listen, you cotton pickin’ Wishin’ Star, I know how far up in the sky you are. I...

  Hallmark Holiday Some chocolates in a crimson, heart-shaped box— if ever there’s a thing that says I love you...

  The Mystery That Is You The gasping hulks of rusted wrecks that share with eyeless scavengers the mysteries of...

  Snowshoeing on a Winter Morning A silver flicker in the tangy pine has stirred us: she, engulfed in puffery...

  Liturgical Loopholes   I. Scheduling Redemption: The Pious Musings of a Serial Sinner I must confess when I transgress...

  Vilnius Opera, 1993 "Those costumes look professional!" he gasps, Goggling the stage through my aunt's high-end glass. Of course...

  Burdens "eternal weight of glory" ---2 Corinthians 4.17 The conifers out back, weighed down with snow, seem like a...

  A Tribute to Scott Adams ---1957-2026 We lost Scott Adams, and his fertile mind. We mourn his passing, but...

  Shards How unexpected did that moment come; How swift and sudden did that moment pass. A fleeting touch that...

  When from the Damning Writs When from the damning writs of men’s assize I flee the dock of ignorance...

  The Measure of a Woman (or a Man) We’re measured in our mother’s womb by ultrasound to check all’s...

  A Cardinal on a Snowy Day A single cardinal, on a snowy day, Cloistered in a nearby hemlock branch...

  New Year’s Peeve   I. Cassandra’s Countdown The Eve arrives in sequin-spangled zing. The clock ticks on as tipsy...

  Darkness and Dawn   I. Christmas Whispers A brood of vipers slithers in the sun With darkest hearts and...

  Virgo Too late, too late, the summertime has gone. Alone, I wander in the bleakening That creeps across the...

  Summer’s End ---an Alfred Dorn sonnet It must have been a dream: the nodding boughs Of loveliness, midsummer nights...

  Blooming Early or Late? This tyro of six years reads hardly a word. The idea of language displayed on...

  Magic Show, North Country The puddling snowbank spills a silver trace, its melt a mirror shattered on the earth....

  Grandbaby Oh little child, you bring the mysteries of rainbows, storybooks, and pixie dust to life with tiny smiles....

  Burnham Beeches A weary pilgrim rests ‘neath ageless trees, Enraptured by a blackbird’s ancient rhyme; The tones of his...

  Perfect Synchronicity He thought back to that hour at dusk’s still height, When bird-song sounded both, outside and in...

  A Genuine Petrarchan Note on William Wordsworth’s Ecclesiastical Sonnets How did it end, then, for Romantic Bill? He labored...

  Feeble Best We try to earn God’s love but can’t succeed. When on His narrow path, we trip and...

  The Ground of Being Consider that our world may be sewn through With sentience, intelligence and thought. The dead...

  Swimming to the Waterfall at Uvongo In the heat of the early winter By the haunts of the southern...

  Timeless The timeless, gentle swish of wave-washed sand; The echoed “chock” of rounded wave-washed stone; The silent, skittered feet...

  Early Days The scent of roses, and the blazing sun, The gas pump next door busy—day’s begun. No school;...

  Sonnet of the Hardened Heart Care less, I warn myself; bother no more With inner crevices: prying the shell...

  The Golden Soldier ---for my grandfather He had a calming charm. He always spoke Of garden-basking instances of joy---...

  Alas! “Alas!” A word of grief and rueful mourning; A gut-punch from what was but is no more Or...