Beauty

  Bone China My dear ones soon to marry, if you’re able Do plan good dishes for your dining-table: Selecting china for your registry Requires that you do not choose foolishly. Bone china’s beauty and utility Embody strength, and not fragility. As Noritake’s teacup, eggshell-thin Appears too delicate to hold...

  Unrest On the Floodplain The rain commenced in darkness, flung upon These acres as the heavens thumped and crashed. I scarcely slept and got up to no sun. In gray light I went out; my footsteps splashed. The creek close to the house, not far below, Raced by me...

  Latitude and Loss One spring morning they announced themselves at last: a faintly murmured intercourse emerging surely from the shoring waves like ancient spells incanted in Old Norse. And there they came, low-beating over crests intently on beneath the broken cloud, a skein of purpose following the coast, straining...

  Solitude Bright Venus, crescent moon, faint pearl-gray sky obscurely light the scene. A giant dolmen prostrate, astride huge boulders: megalith collapsed, rock flotsam strewn across the fen. Thin corkscrew trees extrude brown elfin leaves. The time is evenfall, the hour when quietude reigns: no sounds of creatures stirring, of...

  The Sparrow It started in the dark and early hours. Kyiv—asleep, enjoying blissful dreams. Then missiles streaked. Explosions. Debris showers. Smashing walls and windows. Sirens. Screams. Ivan recalled this, walking Podil’s streets. No patrons enjoying coffee and cigarettes. Abandoned stores were still. Some rubble heaps. He wept to see...

The Passing Place me not in a bed at my dying; _I'd rather a bench by the sea Or a patch of green grass in a meadow _Where blossoms rejuven the lea. Let me draw my last breath to the whisper _Of breezes aswirl and adrift; Maybe sigh and then...

  Allegrezza In the harbor, the masts tilt left and right like metronomes conducting waltzes made of wind and wave, while on the shingle, gulls pluck whelks from briny nooks, their gullets pulsing hard to gulp the rubbery flesh. The shroud-light dims, diminuendo made of mist descends, and all the...

  The Last Voyage of Barnaby Bear When first the winter twilight dimmed the pane And rain beat softly on the nursery wall, I spread a blanket like a royal train Along my shoulders at adventure's call. My bed became a ship beneath full sail, Its wooden posts rose tall...

  Impressions How often are impressions deemed profound, Accepted fully, carried all around, And stated with assertive satisfaction, From merely a few moments’ interaction?     The Hand of God I have felt the hand of God Securely on my shoulder, With comfort of His staff and rod More clearly...

  The Reveal of the Rocks The August days of summer weighed in full Upon us, green and heavy with sweet scents. That month had seen a drought--the worst in years; The brook beside our farm had ceased to flow. Just trickles now where springtime melts had rushed, Stones long-submerged...

  Art Work First thing each morning, Susie makes the bed. I should say, “sculpts the bed”, because she treats this effort as a work of art instead of just a chore. With care, she works the sheets back into place and smooths them with her hands. From side to...

  The Gold Star Mother “Dear Mom, Dad, Billy and Baby Sis, It’s rough out here but I’m with some great guys. We look after each other, so mom, I’m well taken care of. Believe it or not, there’s no place I’d rather be. I finally found the place where...

  An American Dash There are two dates on a headstone: the date we’re born, and then the last. And between them there’s a little dash reflecting every day that’s passed. A little dash that represents our life--- all the smiles, and all the tears, all the minutes that turned...

  The Anonymous Soldier Beneath these granite monoliths we stand, Immortalizing warriors’ names in stone. We oft forget the sacrifices made, For liberty is all we’ve ever known. Amongst these tributes stands an unmarked grave, A peaceful seeming monument of stone. It rises proud for all the brave unnamed, Who...

  For Those We Never Meet Before the dawn could touch the pines, _Or gild the ridges high, The miners left their narrow homes _Beneath the August sky. No trumpet hailed their marching feet, _No drum proclaimed their names; The mountains watched them wind below _Like sparks before a flame....

  Ben Franklin's Copper Fugio Cent Designed by Benjamin Franklin, the copper Fugio coin was the first coin circulated in the new United States. On one side of the first coin minted in the new United States you see a sun dial—not a king or queen or anyone— and embossed...

  The American Spirit (One Voice, 250 Years)   I Brave loving hearts have helped our nation stand, though history forgets the giver’s names; no marble marks the works of helping hands, but countless lives are strengthened all the same. A meal that’s shared; a burden freely borne; a word...

  The Ballad of Zebulon Pike In Colorado’s mountain range _There stands a peak named Pike’s. Named for our hero Zebulon The revolution’s own true son His father fought for Washington, _Our freedom and our rights. Like our country, born at war _In George’s winter camp--- A Jersey boy who...

  A Snowy Egret While driving down the road one day, in the pouring rain, a snowy egret flew above him, like a mighty crane. He saw its giant underbelly and great wing-span soar; it was not anything that he had ever seen before. He wondered why it bade its...

  The Swearing-in of Calvin Coolidge ---Plymouth Notch, Vermont, 1923 Strange, the postman’s loud, insistent knock (The nearest phone, in town, two miles away) Which roused them out of bed at one o’clock, Tired from bringing in the August hay. And stranger still, two telegrams they read By lantern light:...

  Birdsong If I might for a moment go all soft And corny; hold in humble hands aloft A simple thought about a simple thing: The sound of morning birds who sing and sing As daylight starts its soft intrusive creep And drives away the blurry world of sleep. I...

  American Dreams   I Dreams of new realms, refuge outside The scepter’s and the crozier’s reach: Dour, black-clad zealots braved the seas, The cold, gray waves, the churning tide, To glimpse upon that distant beach A hostile waste where north blasts freeze--- An untamed, virgin world to build Their...

  Omaha Beach The ramp went down, and the brute din of war Was like a furnace. Some collective will Drew us into the water, and the air Bloomed with sour bullets. They sank their roots in me As if I were a rotted corpse. I fell, And I was...

  A Gentleman’s Guide to Losing a War I hold my spyglass to my face, _And straighten my cravat. A cannonball just flew on by, _And flattened my best hat! I brought some fancy silver spoons _To have a pleasant war, But soon the stupid peasants came, _And battered at...

  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...