Curve

It’s just a simple curve, gouged by a string
to make a tidy border in between
the walkway and the yard. On one side, green
grass glistens, wearing morning dew like bling.
And on the other side, the walk’s the thing.
A simple pleasure, not some glorious scene
replete with soaring mountains, bright blue clean
expansive skies, or oceanscape, or spring
bouquet. No one will ever paint or sing
its charms or mysteries. Simple and pristine,
it speaks to me of verities unseen
but real, which all around us loom and cling
__and beckon to horizons far above,
__and curve my soul upwards to heavenly love.

 

In Two Minds

Οὐκ οἶδ᾽ ὄττι θέω, δύο μοι τὰ νοήματα  —Sappho

That Sapphic fragment is a window to
the soul: I know not what to do; two minds
exist within me. Everybody finds
themselves here, unsure what to do
or how to choose between two options. You
know what she means. Confronting different kinds
of choices and decisions often blinds
us to the obvious path, the right and true:

Whatever aggrandizes self at the
expense of others, chooses chaos more
than order, mere expression without beauty,
or despair instead of hope, just cannot be
right thinking. Faced with some uncertain door,
enfold yourself in truth. Then do your duty.

 

Peanut and the Crow

That peanut, resting on the snow,
must have appeared as Leda to
the hungry Zeus. But as the crow
swept down, he brushed his plumage through
the powder, broke the surface of
the snow, and, panicked, launched above,
his prize abandoned there below.

 

 

 

T.M. Moore’s poetry has appeared in numerous journals, and he has published five volumes of verse through his ministry’s imprint, Waxed Tablet Publications. He is Principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, he and his wife, Susie, reside in Essex Junction, VT.

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6 Responses

  1. Sally Cook

    These poems are lovely, accomplished and deep.

    Thank you — I will look for more.

    Reply
  2. James A. Tweedie

    T.M., You threw us a curve with these poems. They left me smiling, pondering, off-balance, and impressed. Like Sally, I am eager for Moore.

    Reply
  3. Monty

    These are two very competent sonnets, TM : both of which contain a light touch and immaculate grammar.
    I feel ‘Curve’ to be the embodiment of what is sometimes a poet’s duty; to take a small, normally-unheralded thing (the stringed border in the garden) and to expand upon it in a way that the reader may also sense the beauty in the smallest and simplest of things.

    As for the ‘Nut’: it’s very imaginative of you to display the accompanying image: it’s given me the impression that I’ve just read a ‘live and direct’ poem . . as it happened.
    Well captured . .

    Reply
    • T.M.

      Monty:

      Thanks much. I delight to see the beauty, humor, and even wisdom in simple, everyday things, or in the merest fragment of someone else’s work. Poetry is for me the vehicle to share that delight, and I’m glad you experienced it, too. Yes, I wrote “Peanut and the Crow” not five minutes after watching the event and taking that photo. It’s a nod to Yeats’ “Leda and the Swan.” Blessings.

      Reply

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