Beauty

. Durus Frater, Alma Mater Spring forward to where former arch-rivals Fall back on tall stories of the travels They enjoyed after two years of college, Before graduation sealed the knowledge Of how little...

. Time and Place He gave me his coat once in Dublin At dusk in a damp, chilly draft. We spoke of those old Irish writers--- Just where had they mastered their craft? Did Wilde wield his pen in Dun...

. Soldier of the Rising Sun Date/Location: February 19, 1974---Uninhabited jungle, Lubang Island in the northern Philippines. The matter: Believing that Japan is still fighting World War II almost 30 years...

. Double Rondel for Pentecost Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire! O fire that warms my soul, You burn within to turn my love heart-whole, And burst beyond as fervor unsuppressed. Celestial flame, my most delightful...

. In Urbe Hortus ---June afternoon in the South Garden of the Art Institute of Chicago Hard stone and brick, cold glass and steel Shrink behind the canopy Of intertwining leafy boughs Sprawling from each...

. In Her Fair Foundry, Nature Forges Art by Claude Gaspar Bachet de Meziriac (1581-1638) translated from French by Josh Mitteldorf In her fair foundry, Nature forges art, Divinity of beauty knows no peer. The...

. To a Virginia Bluebell You nod to me across the trail That runs before my garden seat. With clustered bells of blue you greet My visit with a subtle peal. You wave your frolic fans of green So gaily, as if...

. A Walk in Solitude I strolled a path in solitude As snow and frosty winds renewed. The night was giving way to light When I beheld a startling sight: There was a figure up ahead Whose twisted shape invited...

. Song of the Heron by Ueda Bin (after the French of Emile Verhaeren) translated from Japanese by Yoshikaze Kawakami By the bleak golden waters, Where the water lilies bloom, The heron slowly hovers, And sends...

. Forsythia Fading ---after Robert Frost and A.E. Housman Green leaves push yellow blooms away. Bold colors leave, their lives an hour Compared with green things’ lengthened day. It’s true that nothing...

. On a Raging Storm Storms raged in the eastern U.S. in Spring of 2019. Is it a freak of summer or the norm? A gale, a blast, a squall is roaring past. In wrath that cuts and claws, the raging storm Leaves in...

. Ten Pennies Per Paper Poppy ---a childhood memory of Memorial Day Ten pennies per paper poppy I helped my mother sell We sold some fifty poppies ---She thought we did quite well. Pretty paper poppies For...

. The Genesis Wind ---written in the wake of Hurricane Milton I close my eyes to better gauge the gusting wind. It howls and tantrums hard against the metal shutters And bends the flailing palms and scrub...

. What the Caterpillar Calls the End ---for those who are becoming The light grew dim, the air grew still, The green world closed, the leaf went chill. “I am undone,” the small voice cried, Wrapped in a...

. Sonnet XIII On days you do not need my sound embrace, When tenderness and warmth envelop you And Fortune shines upon your amber face And suffering and sorrow are but few, I wonder what your mind then does...

. Young Catherine’s Vision ---on St. Catherine of Siena Invested with the Dominican Habit by Giovanni di Paola A maiden kneels on gray da Torre stone. Save for a crucifix, the room is bare. Her thighs seem...

. Sally  November rains brought to our basement door From the woods some pleading, needy eyes Staring from a fur mass, soaking wet. Our catless home (about to be no more) Welcomed her and tended to her...

. Bonanza The March of rains has staked its claim, its boast _To brag upon these thousand hills, and opened the sluice of the motherlode to mantle the slopes in yellow and gold. _From Tehachapi to the poppied...

. Going Home to Campania I come back to my cool and quiet road, Testudo-shielded by umbrella pines, Where pavement cracked and garbage overflowed To fade beyond in bright converging lines. I come back as a...

. The Spring Has Come The mating call of the black-capped chickadee (a North American songbird) sounds like "Hey, Sweetie!" "Hey, Sweetie!"—this is what you say.Small chickadee, it is your wayto signal...

. Ghost Town With phantoms, I have lived for far too long. Both day and night, I’ve sighed, without a song. In vacant shells, I’ve tried to make my home In this ghost town of memories where I roam. They...

. The Sky _I'm watching the storm_From the sea coming in,Windy and rowdy and gray._The raindrops begin_And the gale makes a spin.Pelicans swoop o'er the bay. _A downpour at last_With some lightning and...

. Riverside Breeze ___How beautiful you look __Browsing the flowers one by one _While lying down along the babbling brook; ___And there, beneath the sun, __Whose melting kisses mark your skin, _The faintest of...

. Pollinator When swift spring breezes suddenly excitethe conifers out back, they really comealive in dips and bows and surges rightbefore my eyes. I watch to see if froma few of them, or even one, a cloudwill...

. Back to the Greenwood The spring has come to England once again But I am far away and cannot see The blackthorn blossoms blowing in the wind, And blackbirds in the heavens, flying free. The sun, grown...

. Zips and Zooms The hummingbird both zips and zooms To search for nectar in the blooms Of flowers that unfold in spring. The hummingbird has peewee wings And yet she moves with lightning speed. Her eggs...

. How I Spent My Spring Vacation: Poetry and Photography by James A. Tweedie . It Begins 45 Days Surrounded by the circle of the sea I cruise Atlantic waters, eastward bound, As knot by knot each longitude...

. Heritage I’ve never asked for anything The living soil does not provide. I don’t want cash; I don’t want bling; I only want to stand beside The footprints of departed fathers, Now looking down through...

. An Ode to Silay Cathedral bells now toll, And horses march the streets, The crowd has filled the hall, We hear the priest now preach. A lady makes a curtsy To the Lord respectfully. The marble pillars...

. High Society The Cornelius mansion on Park Avenue, New York City, Sunday, August 22, 1886 A derby hat; a fresh, white boutonniereOn my lapel. You just can’t have a newBeau Brummel jacket without something...

. Linden She stands against the sunlit sky, _Her beauty plain to see. The birds sing sweet and pleasant songs _High in the linden tree. The weary travelers stop below _To rest their weary bones, And listen to...

. Anachronistic Chaucer When April showers, forecast on TV,delayed our pilgrimage to Canterbury,an eating house, clept Hooters, we espiedbeside a leafy glade where we could bideour time in revelry and...

. On Shen Yun . I. The land of China. Deep in history That like a river flows with people and culture, Extending into misty mystery. But now this fascinating, gleaming treasure Is buried in the mud beneath the...

. Voyage Among the Ancients "Tread softly, for here you stand On miracle ground…" ---Lawrence Durrell, "On Ithaca Standing" ( 1937) The Juno anchors, docks. We disembark. Each landfall’s an Odyssean...

. Who Are You and Who Am I ---a villanelle Who are you and who am I That you fill my life with light And for me you chose to die. I have fallen from on high, I am foolish, you are wise, Who are you and who am...

. Emmaus We barely saw he’d joined us as we made Our way along the road, so sad, afraid, So utterly confused by what had come To pass, so unsure as to what was rumor And what was true. And we were near...

. In the Garden of the King In the garden of the King I sit beside a crystal spring. The Tree of Life shines up above Fed by God’s eternal love. The Rose of Sharon is in bloom Freely giving sweet...

. Holy Saturday "Call the Sabbath a delight." —Isaiah 58:13 His weary, soulless body needed rest, Not only pierced and physically exhausted, But racked with mental pain, the scourging test Of misbelieving...

. Crucified  She pondered horrors of the modern age. He thumbed through piles of dusty history tomes. She craved the timeless wisdom of a sage. He chewed on clues and mused like Sherlock Holmes. He...

. Good Friday Rain I wake and hear the rain cascade. Its cleansing drops roll down my pane; They soak the garden, bathe the glade, Refresh the grass, and swell the grain. Stretched out in bed, from stress...