Beauty

  250 More My country, sweetest home I’ve come to know, Your wings have sheltered me, a foreigner. I came to you a migrant as a boy, Without the blessing of your government. But still you loved me, educated me, Prepared me for the tasks I bear today. America, I...

  Americans Cross the Rubicon   1. Preamble Be proud, be grateful that we’re here! We came In pain from stifling lands which we outgrew, And crossed the wildest seas that we might live. It’s madness to assume a stance of shame. We took vast risks and offered all we...

  Clarence Thomas, American Hero “The mob I now faced carried no ropes or guns. It s weapons were smooth-tongued lies spoken into microphones and printed on the front pages of America’s newspapers. It no longer sought to break the bodies of its victims. Instead it devasted their reputations and...

  The Second Rain A grandly booming, flashing shower Comes flying in and promptly starts To soak the neighborhood an hour. This done, still rumbling, it departs. The garden plants, once somnolent, Are jostled wet awake and clean, While in long grasses skewed and bent Droplets shine and the day...

  Archaic Torso of Apollo by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) translated from German by Mary Jane Myers We'll never know his head, its mythic fame, the fiery ripening-apple eyes, although his torso casts a candelabra’s glow, the gaze now dialed down to a lower flame, its gleam preserved. Or else...

  Not Small At All I’ve gained appreciation for the smaller things in life, The uneventful days when all is pleasant, free from strife. Where family’s fine and things I need work perfectly each time, While plans are all accomplished, and there’s calmness that’s sublime.     Human Nature? If...

  Kaddish for My Father Yitgadal v’yitkadash sh’mai rabah… I’ve said the mourner’s kaddish now a thousand times To mark the 30 years since I last held your hand And hoped that you could hear me through the tubes and drone Of the machines that kept your weak lungs pumping...

  Spring Song Spring sings through the woods, her own special song Sometimes short ’n’ sweet and sometimes too long. It wafts through the branches, it hums in the trees It starts up the dancing of flowers and leaves. With dandelion choirs in yellow and gold The buttercups join in,...

  The Eagle He flies... so quickly, cutting the air’s depth with tawny wings, the messenger of Zeus—the eagle—bold, his thunderings, relying on his mighty strength, the wide lord covering the sky, beyond where other birds refuse such hovering. The great Earth’s mountain peaks do not hold him, in his...

  The Cottage on the Ridge The gray mist lingers in the wooded vale And drifts across the piney hills at dawn, Infused with light, as daybreak sheds its pale First rays upon a lonely ridge, whereon A cottage sits in quiet solitude, Amidst the ancient landscape lush and green....

  The Sowers by Gabriele D’Annunzio (1863-1938) translated from Italian by Joseph S. Salemi Strong lads drive the docile oxen through The field. Behind them open furrows steam As plowshares tear the ground in preparation For the sowers’ casting of the grain. Then with a sweeping gesture of their arms...

  April Flowers Bring May Showers You festive blossoms---whose ephemeral lives are poured Ecstatically into youthful grass as you dance toward Your death---your petals ornament the air, drift down From winter branches that appeared bare aging bone Before your lavish gift of flesh and color.  Dense- ly robed with Easter’s...

  O Come, Holy Ghost "The Fear of the Lord Is the Beginning of Wisdom..." ---Proverbs 9:10 O Come, Holy Ghost, and send us Thy gifts, Confirm Thou our souls, give cause to their lift. Offer us counsel through life’s destination; Make us more wise: illume preparation. Ever bestow Thy...

  Home I wandered lonely, not so much a cloud As more a type of fog, as something cool And indistinct, ephemeral, endowed With little of that which an older school Would call of moment: willful, silly, proud. But things then shift somehow, by sudden grace Or simply desperation. Old...

  Coach “Black Mike” Castronis, Athens Y Camp ---1947-1987 “Enthusiasm” was his word, Win or lose, he bore it well, From the front he ran our herd, This was clear and one could tell. Led the hikes to Rabun Lake, Called us men to not forsake The Lord. And when...

  Mosi-oa-Tunya Mosi-oa-Tunya is ‘The Thunderous Smoke’; twixt Zambia and Zimbabwe it sits; Doc Livingstone, that missionary bloke observed its wonders, loving it to bits. This waterfall feeds two almighty gorges, descends into a geologic gash one hundred metres deep, and there it forges a one-point-seven-kilometre slash. The longest single...

  Creation of Mom God flew through the Halls of Heaven _From His throne into his lab. Angels came to watch Him since _His inventions were always fab. Excitedly they gathered round; _They knew they should be calm. One quietly asked “What is it?” _He said, “I'm making Mom.” They...

  A Lonely Sliver “The wood is dead,” he pointed out _the windows rimmed with frost; “those columns there—” he meant the trees— _“are done and finished, lost.” My grandfather, whose wisdom, once, _no argument could shake; who’d plied his atlas, maps, and tomes _with knowledge-thirst unslaked; Now stranded on...

  On An Old Photograph It was late fall of 1944. Dad was back from Italy, on leave, When no one dreamt the Bulge would soon explode, Or that an A-bomb waited in the works, Or that a world was crumbling while they smiled, Sure that the war would wind...

  Where the Sweet Bluebonnets Bloom There is one thing a Texas cowboy _Always takes into account: _A cowboy will ride to heaven _On his favorite trusty mount. There is a crowd of clapping hands _As he rides through heaven’s door. _The open range is boundless _With bluebonnets evermore. There...

  The Waters _'Tis more than oceanic seas ___That bring me Wonder. I have tasted spray from New York's waterfall, _And counted ripples on the rills ___In places yonder. My spirit gravitates where waters call. _In years of yore, we sailed the bay ___In San Diego. I've known the Salmon...

  https://youtu.be/jd7Zxqf4zDs?si=Ny4BwTAKFJ0378sl   The Last At-Bat of Lyndon Braun The crowd was on its feet because they knew it was the last at-bat of Lyndon Braun, the biggest name to don the Falcon blue, but they were down by eight with no one on. In hardened hands, he lugged an...

  Spring in the Moment It is a time to learn to walk. Too many ages have we spent In plodding with aggrieved intent. Let’s go with smiles and little talk. Cooperating bones will bear A body where the path allows, And please do note, the willow bows, As we...

Deep Water   I. Kōan I ponder by the ancient pool. A frog jumps in. I hear a splash. The sun is hot. The moon is cool. What could it mean: this vernal jewel--- This scintillating Bashō-flash? I ponder by the ancient pool. My school of thought is back at...

  The Dunes The dunes are marching, blown along Saharan landscapes. Grain by grain they stream across a barren plain, their sibilance a desert song. From sandstone hills, detached, they fly and join an undulating sea of desiccated waves, set free beneath a steely, sun-drenched sky. These rock-sheared motes are...

  After the Turning Point ---a double refrain ballade At slender hindrances we fall, Uneven ground, path shadowy; To tainted food or alcohol, Blood clots or bullets, frail are we, But choosing a healthier strategy, An enterprising, purposeful view, Our disciplined efforts turn energy To forward the rational good we...

  To the Captive Sun You set now, levitating low, Just deigning lazily to throw Your gently flaming, scarlet glow On empty miles of windswept snow, Tinging the icy, barren white With fiery red as if alight Yet melting not, to tease the sight Before you fade to darkest night---...

  The Birthday of a Bride A woman, when she enters into labor on the day She brings at last into the world the object of her love— A long awaited, precious baby, sent from God above— Knows well that, to receive this gift, she has a price to pay,...

  The Precious Blood The blood of Jesus bought me from the hands Of foes for whom I scorned divine commands. My guilt is gone: His blood grants purest grace, And entry to His heart’s most holy place. His bloodshed seals our ceaseless covenant In goodness vigilant and militant. His...

  What We Learn From Breaking Waves Those who climb the furthest up the shore Are not the waves that break from greatest height, Who must contend with those who broke before And spend their force against their backwash flight. More to be admired are quiet swells Who bide their...

  How Septuagenarian’s Cope Past seventy. Age does prevail. _The day is growing dim. I’ve managed through life’s calms and gales— I still can trapse through woodland trails _And work out at a gym. Past seventy. Age does assail. _Our grandkids prove time zooms! Their one-track minds never derail: Just...

  Upon Meeting a Crane ---at the Wilmington VA Medical Center I met a crane; the crane met me beside A hill ambitiously too mowed, Girdled by a semi-liquid stream--- The kind that swells and empties with the tide. The crane and I perched, motionless, serene, Bore witness as the...

  The Face At night, surreptitiously, it emerges out of the TV screen, or when the light bulb's put to rest, its wave of horror surges from darkened corners, weakening my sight. It foams up in the bathing tub, assails my morning mind that's fairly free of thoughts. It smirks...

  The Teahouse Garden A place where you can leave your cares behind And have a restful, meditative mind; A Zen-like atmosphere is what you’ll find Without distractions. Put away your phones. Beginning with a path of steppingstones, Observe the moss, the ferns, the verdant tones, The koi-filled pond, the...

  Morning Glory The mornings are a challenge for the old man. Get up. Get dressed. Get the dogs out. Get them fed. His several pains are worse. It’s cold and dark outside. The world, it seems, is set against him. But he knows that’s not the case. He hums...

  Prayer (5:00 a.m.) Some stubborn pain (the world… the past…) Is peeking through the cracks, and all I want is somehow to at last Come home to something steady, fast, (I won’t say innocence, but still…) To something pure and whole that will In me a simpler soul recall....

  Damon and Pythias The two spoke number lore with every breath, Disciples of Pythagoras and friends, But one was seized and chained, condemned to death As loud opponent of tyrannic trends. He felt a need that normally attends Life’s end, to go and settle his affairs. The tyrant said,...

  The Throne at Knossos Kings, nations, empires, tongues have passed, Through fourscore centuries, but you last, _Carved from immortal stone Long before Caesar was to reign Or king of England, France, or Spain: _Europe’s most ancient throne. Within this crimson-frescoed hall, Enthroned on your majestic, tall, _White alabaster seat,...

  My California A tangled maze of gushing streams My sunny California cries. Her sky is veiled in morbid memes That source her sad and raining eyes. What doleful demon of despair Has dared to infiltrate your skies? What craven catalyst of care Has dared to blur your sparkling eyes?...

Beneath an Iron Hand Though they spent years beneath an iron hand, the quiet people still knew how to sing and hope moved soft but steady through the land. Their murmurs grew, hushed voices echoing like hidden water stirring under stones, true hearts began to share what they could bring....