Beauty

. Be good, my Sorrow. You may rest assured; The Evening whom you called descends; Behold; The fall of dusk leaves some in towns obscured With newfound peace, yet some with cares untold. Through gauntlet...

X Every Little Thing I. His Version She treasured every little thing that you                gave her: the sparrow necklace (hazel blueto match her eyes) the bracelet slipped insidethe box of...

“I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” ---Martin Luther King, Jr. “I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically...

. Rosarium a sestina A rose arises red from its green sheath Adorned with swords that prick and pierce: the thorn, Whose vigil kept ensures its life's not brief. Unmatched in charm though fresh from garden...

. My word will not survive a fire: the dust, the ash of paper singed by matches struck by fingers bent on silence. And it must rot here in summer heat in humid muck where mold will gnaw away at every page. My...

_ Orchestra Tuning Up Is this the way the universe once sounded?A mass confusion of discordant trumpets,Flutes, horns, and violins like baffled cometsWithout a geometric course, confounded? Can this be how the...

. Stress can envelop, encircle, entangle. Strictures can pressure from every angle. Tripping and slipping to ways that are errant happen to all who endeavor to parent. What should you do when in need of a...

. Portrait of God drawn from Scripture by François-René de Chateaubriand (1768-1848), translated by Adam Sedia Know you the jealous God, who dare engage In sin, whose impious deeds ignite his rage? His...

. Rapt “I must go down to the sea again,  to the lonely sea and the sky…” ---John Masefield  Today I felt the roil of sky and sea Merge to form a swathe of seamless blue, Where surge of...

  You can’t imagine what I saw,Some clouds that only God can drawWith pinks and reds and violet blue.He painted with a heavenly hue. Then from my mountainside retreatI had a special viewing seat.The distant...

. Spacious spans the starlit sky; Silver shines its light; Vast the veil, Pearly-pale, Drawn o’er the dusky night; Silently the star-strewn brooks Through flow’ry meadows flow; Glitt’ring gleams On...

. Benvenuto Cellini’s Salt-Cellar A woman sitting back, just mildly curious To hear a man’s contrived, seductive patter, Waiting to see what fabrications spurious He’s dreamt up now. It doesn’t really...

. Behold the father of this infant land, Conductor of our daunting foe’s defeat, Now warmly laureled for his noble stand Through which our liberty was made complete. Yet Washington the praise did humbly...

. Humility Lo, I have seen the Muses plain. What need Have I to go on living?—’Twas in Rome: I touched the flesh (it was a holy deed) That Michelangelo shaped out of stone. O what a great and glorious...

. I wonder where my father’s cardinal is--- The colored-pencil drawing that he made In art class---he was only in fourth grade, I’d been impressed to learn. _____________________It was not his Idea to...

. With Goals in Tow I’ve fewer days ahead of me than those I have been blessed to see. Though time moves on so rapidly, my hopes sustain. God still has plans for me, I know. He’s guiding me as to and...

. Flodden Historical Note: The Battle of Flodden took place between English and Scottish armies on September 9, 1513. The battle proved a tragic disaster for the Scots who lost an estimated 12,000-17,000 men...

. The Death of Today’s Sequoia Flecte ramos, arbor alta, tensa laxa viscera: Et rigor lentescat ille, quem dedit nativitas, Ut superni membra regis miti tendas stipite. —Venantius Fortunatus (c. 530-609...

. In nature’s loving show of all things fair the fruits of youth seem sweetest to the eye, the world applauds youth’s beauty as most rare and pours sweet praise on looks that sadly die. Light limbs,...

. The Inca Kings Who stole the kings? Even Pachacutec's mummy now is gone from Lima's hospital display of Inca royalty—the T-Rex of them all, ferocity turned brittle bones and shrunken body in a...

. An Ode to Letters We cannot be sure what the future will hold, But I doubt this prediction will fail. That no one will ever unearth in an attic An old treasure trove of email. . . Outvoted In my marriage I...

. “Di pensier in pensier, di monte in monte” by Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374) __From thought to thought, from mountain to mountain, Love guides me, and every path in which I’ve strayed is hostile to a...

. From Parthenope’s coast each to his post, Beseeching eyes upraised with steady gaze. That night would nature’s cruelty erase A city from the broiling earth and roast The dying with the lying dead....

. after Matthew 2:1-12 From distant regions of the east they came, Wise Magi, searching for a royal son, Into Jerusalem with single aim: Determined, they, until their search was done. “Where is this little...

. Away with loneness--he whose winter bites, who haunts the wasted wilderness and shores, born in thunder on the misty moors; who, bred by wolves, with howling fills the nights. But bring his smooth browed...

. . Hunting My father strides ahead of me.His khaki cap is all I see,beside the barrel of his gun.We’re hunting upland quail that runfrom us in loose community. The way is one that he knows best:zigzag...

  . Old doors to opportunitiesare gone, so, not one opens.Enticements that were there, just tease,no keys, just slot-less tokens. Lost gains are gone, missed chances gone,mistakes abound like raindrops . ....

. . Ode on ​Bertel Thorvaldsen’s Ganymede and the Eagle Bending down in offering, a Boy extends a shallow bowl; Craning neck of eagle dips, the Child foresees his coming role. Swept from earth to...

“Pride Goeth . . . .” “How dare you, sir! Your libel will not stand!” The words flew out across the now-hushed room. “Retract your vile lies or face your doom! “Repent or you shall die by my...

. Anno Domini 1348 ‘Tis thirteen months since those twelve ships of death Docked in Messina bearing vicious plague From the Black Sea. The fevers, rasping breath, The frightful buboes, tortured minds gone...

. The leaves may shine with colored gloss, But they will fall, forever lost. In this false world, what soul, I ask, May hope in timelessness to last? Today I cross these mountain depths With no vain dreams or...

  This is the day for manifesting soul To flesh, for making contemplation real; Incorporeal yet real and whole Advancing to some heavenly ideal. Not such transcendence as annuls the Earth Or...

. The Night after Christmas You better not cry. “Deplorable” might be how best to putit, just to underscore the gravityof chores that border on depravity,begriming Santa’s uniform with soot. A...

 . To miss the mark, to lose my way,to choose the dark, on Christmas Day. No star I see, no Virgin Birth.No joy for me, no peace on earth. But for a wretch like me He came,to fetch me from my sin and...

. Wake up and raise the blinds, to see the light, The colors; hark, the carols, feel the cheers Emerging, from within this Holy Night. Hear choirs of hope, in spirit, ‘mid your plight, While you can’t...

  Christmas trees and Christmas carols, Christmas lights and reindeer, too.Christmas cards and Christmas presents, wrapped with paper, bows and glue.Christmas bells and Christmas cookies, Christmas ornaments...

X The play of the breeze brings the music of childhood, The tinkle of laughter as light and as clear As were our voices when singing in Wildwood The day before Christmas—the best time of year. The songs...

In This Post Christian Era “For he nil falsen no wight, dar I seye, That wol his herte al hoolly on him leye.” ---Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Love Unfeigned” In this post-Christian era I believe; In this...

_ I How will I know you or will you know me?When every bird has hurtled to the ground,When every whale and every fish has drowned,And every beast, engaged in killing spreeHas eaten every one that cannot...

. . The Rape of Lady Liberty In Memoriam: November 3, 2020 by Patrick Henry Redivivus They did the awful deed within the dark--- Brute men with beastly hearts, as black as coal, And blinded minds, like...