Beauty

. For All Who Labor by Christine de Pisan (1364-c. 1430) Lady, fair branch where God’s grace blooms,Our labors, Saint Bernard assumes,Are benefited by your taskTo help those who ply hoes or broomsWhen night falls and when day resumes.Our guiding star and shield, now askFor all who labor on the...

. Garden Party The sparrows near the feeder flit and preen While predators politely quit the scene. A mockingbird is chirping up a storm, And soft drinks on the cart are getting warm. The worms beneath the mulch are lying low, But old cock robin knows just where to go...

. Observation ____Comes morning, __And fog fills the forest Where bluebirds are wet on the wings. ____The toadstools __Are soaking up moisture, One cricket in solitude sings. ____The fog lifts __And drifts like a phantom; Trees are subdued in a shroud. ____A vapor __Descends low and lower To hang o'er...

. Ode to the Zeer Across the Sahel states, the humble zeer, A pear-shaped or full-bellied earthen pot Strains muddy water, turns it cool and clear Beneath a tree or other shady spot. Constructed from alluvium and clay, It’s reddish-ochre hue’s a welcome sight To travellers and thirsty passers-by, Or...

. Autumn Fades The orange leaves decay to crinkling gray, And sunsets sink and fade the clouds to black. “You’ll see them all in Heaven,” so they say. The decades start to dwindle, day by day. Time whips the weary world along its track. The orange leaves decay to crinkling...

. Hard To Tell With attributes that only those who know him understand, A countenance deceptive, and a being hard to gauge, Within what seems indifference, in the still and quiet man May lurk a warrior’s courage---and the wisdom of a sage. . . Lightning Bugs Wafting through the quiet...

. Leave Above the land, suspended, green and grand and splendid, we furnish food for trees, whisper with the breeze till cold winds bluster in and we turn harlequin. Now that we’re on the ground, you tote your toys around, which scrape us up or, roaring, send us whirling, soaring....

. Tranquil Tokonoma One thing a perfect purple rose cannot Accomplish is a type of sadness.  Man Is best at that.  That is mankind’s special blot. The plants and animals have learned to ban Such uselessness.  They settle in their fur Or leaves and just get on with life and...

. Emergence A child within the chrysalis, __awaiting to emerge. __Fruition and desire, __hoping to converge. The years prove long and arduous __and obstacles demanding, __with journeys full of strife __and lessons notwithstanding. Despite the labyrinth of thorns, __the roses always bloom. __And golden days prevail __amongst the gray and...

. Patient in a Nursing Home Such a frantic brilliance in the flagpole’s banging chain! I’m blind, __confined, ____but now I know: Winter’s here again. . . After the Funeral Her shoes capsized on the floor by the door, Abandoned clothes make a trail through the place. The cat, her...

. Phoebus I saw the sun catch in your hair, Your silhouette against the glare. I heard your laughter rise and fall And shatter in the frozen air. The sun sank down behind the trees Yet brighter suns burned in your eyes. You set the darkened woods agleam With secret...

. An Invitation While treading my locality's __New-slathered pavement grass, There came a flying, loud "hello" __From sprightly Mr. Das. "Black skies. It seems a squall will lash __Our town," he said to me. "Come, get inside. We'll treat ourselves __To gingered pu'er tea." The first "no" is for etiquette....

. Across a Strong Bridge upon the marriage of two friends In a weary world that's grown quite old, Where men grow weak, and thought grows cold, Two hearts can make one serious dent For virtue strong. As cool as mint--- Transforming ice, into this force: Connecting love---a Cross, of course....

. Hope Hope feels so strange these days, at times a bit Like something old that now no longer fits; It’s stretched beyond repair and somewhat scratchy And moths have made of it such daily bread That even its most solid parts feel patchy, Its former comforts weak and thinly...

. Mud Our clip-on angel wings are cast from shards of glass, The sorry hymns we sing are drowned in blaring brass. It’s not that we are crazed as we rub our magic rings, but our spirit has been caged by a lifetime’s mud that clings. Though we grandly theorise...

. The Web of Sustenance __Voraciously the lion feeds, But leaves the scraps for jackals and hyenas— __To each according to its needs, In Nature’s sprawling tawny-grass arenas. __The residue will nourish seeds Selected to renew the vast savanna. __By sundry means at different speeds: To every living tribe its...

. The Leper “When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, 'Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.' Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. 'I am willing,' he said. 'Be...

. Lucifer’s Lament They’ve gone too far. They’ve set the bar So high that I’m no longer star Of My own show. Their hellish plot Has hurled Me from the hottest spot. Their claims of care are thin as air. They castrate all the boys who dare To think in...

. Lunatic Paused at a churchyard when it’s eventide I see flit by a bright blue butterfly. Magnolia fragrance wafts through the twilight. Somewhere I hear a distant whip-poor-will. Although the air is warm, I sense a chill. As I glance up, something is not quite right. I feel a...

. Holding Dad's Hands . Friday May 3, 2019 I’m driving fast (at least it’s fast to me,) The nurse’s call gives reason for my haste. She says that dad has fever and it seems His time remaining is in hours or days. The sky is sunny and the road...

. The Wise Farmer ---based on a Zen parable attributed to Alan Watts A farmer in China was left by his horse. He took up his plow and continued his course, And right after sunset, he finished his labors. When he told it in passing to some of his neighbors,...

. Moon Glow The calm of the twilight should bring him some peace. He sees yellow remnants of sun get deceased. A tropical fragrance now floats through the air. This beauty is breathless; no words can compare. The lights of cabanas expose the dark piers, The rush of the ocean...

. Paperbark Maples The leaves grow bright with dew; the trunks grow dark. A contrapuntal autumn morning stirs. The smoothest trees are wrapped with crumpled bark and up above, the play of breezes spurs a brimming sparkle in the air. A dash of pepper accents smells of fresh-cut grass. Bouquets...

. Winter’s Bed Ere the sun should spread its beams We sleep and pray for candied dreams. An angel to the bedpost flits As hours pass beneath our lids. Should baby cry, then mother’s kindness Gracefully restores the silence Whilst we wait for half past eight And day to come...

. Dublin Swans “Wholly serene and sure, with regal composure, allows himself to glide.” ---Rainer Maria Rilke, “The Swan” I stop to watch the swans swim by, __Through lily pads they pass. Mounds of rubbish clog the water __That winds through clumps of grass. The birds float by so leisurely,...

. Prodigious Dreams Let not these Autumn notes lead you amiss. Autumn, indeed, is come (the signs are all around). This aging empire wanes, its fall accelerates: decay effects abyss. Our Winter now approaches, precipice we didn’t foresee. Our legacy? A squall that confiscates our children’s wherewithal! Still, as we...

. But Who Am I? “But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?’” ---Exodus 3: 11 God, did I hear you right?  Did you tell me (But who am I?) to lead...

. Sicilian Samurai circa 1700 He made a startling, militant request To journey to Japan—strange land long closed To foreign influence. The Pope’s behest Asked that authorities be unopposed— But how to know, if not to make the test? Giovanni Battista Sidotti, thirty-five, Saw Africa and India in a year,...

. The Outdoor Concert ---Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra at Wilton House, 2004 The long thick winding snake must stretch two hundred paces, Of early birds in haste to grab the nicest places, Buy programmes, chat. Their eager smiles creased wide on faces, With open gates, they rush to bag their favoured...

. Beltane Dream Did I pass that way in dreams or waking? For truthfully, it seems to me a dream: Fields of yellow through the green hills breaking, The Hawthorn blowing incandescent steam Through the greenwood, ghostly in the hedges. Across the glassy river running green, Willows reach from muddy...

. Chasing Time  "But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not...

. The Loons of Colby Lake a true story As thawing white gave way to budding green, two loons upon the lake would mark the Spring, and they would build their nest, then teach their young how life was lived and how a song was sung. The male was velvet...

. The Faltering In time the sharpest mind begrimes with rust and memories are flaked from softened steel. Beliefs once clutched and voiced in utter trust now falter and befog in weakened zeal. The brilliance once displayed now cracks like crust and any efforts to reheal unseal. The process always...

. Like Him "But we all, with unveiled faces, looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit." ---2 Corinthians 3.18 ___The soul yearns forSo many things which are so...

. The Lighthouse In honor of the Thridrangar Lighthouse and the intrepid men who built it. Alone it stands, perched high atop a rock That rises from a tossing, troubled sea. It crowns that lofty tower which, round the clock, Is thrashed by crashing waves relentlessly. Resisting wind and rain...

. Ephemeral Our lives are like a summer’s day So swift, so swift, it flies away. A butterfly that’s newly born The brief blush of an early dawn. That’s all it is and all ‘twill be A mere blink in eternity. And yet we try so hard to leave An...

. Beauty Flowers are the faded stars that fall from silver skies, Raindrops are the sacred tears that leak from angel eyes. The wind is but a melody the gods bestow to earth, The sunrise is an ember that has dropped from heaven’s hearth. Beauty has a language; if you...

. In the Shade There Meekly Grows a Plant urushiol (yoo-roo-shee-awl) is the name of the compound in poison ivy that causes allergic reactions. In the shade there meekly grows a plant With roots that hold on gently to loose soil. In spring it rises up because it can’t Contain...

. When I Have Penned My Final Thoughts _When Ihave penned my final thoughts and left to meet_the sky,don't organize my table; let the sheet,the thumbtacks, and the cartridge pen lie there;let them assume I've gone to get some air. _Don't switchthe desk lamp off. Its glow will reach me...

. Cracks in the Ground Today the mourning parish bells have pealed. Men broke the dirt with family gathered round, And sang the songs of Heaven while we kneeled. __Now we make these cracks in the ground. I stand atop that hill of graven stones. Before me sits the aging...