Beauty

. How Great Thou Art __An Easter Ballade . It’s Easter. I can hear the choir sing. The gospels have been prayed upon and read And now I cheer the news the watchmen bring With shouts of “He is risen!” I...

. After the Storm All darkness past, the sun now shines Through shredded storm clouds drained of rain; Its bright beams crown, as day declines, The Victor’s head, now free of pain– That holy head, which...

. Hymn I met Him on that Sunday afternoon I trod the Kentish cobbles through the streets Of Rochester past dwellings in the gloom Of fog laced with the waft of teashop treats. I entered the cathedral...

. . The Shroud of Death The shroud of death’s night-shadow fled Before the dawning light of day; Unveiling tombs wherein the dead In grave and solemn stillness lay. And earth-life voices stirred the...

. Of St. Vitus Cathedral, Prague Once I used to live a waking dream Devoid of starlight: lanterns on the hill Betwined the huddled palaces which gleam In reverence to the crown cathedral’s will. I saw her...

. Deconstructing Grűnewald’s Crucifixion It isn’t de rigueur these days to show A bloodied, tortured Jesus on the cross. Post-moderns would prefer we came to know Him as innocuous instead of gross. No...

. The Faithful Who Have Chosen Not to Wait He rose and told us He would come again To supervise a world of righteous men And women who believed in what He’d said, That both the living and the wakened...

. The Wound in Christ's Side Culprits inflicted countless injuries On Jesus’ body during fifteen hours; The spear-thrust (last of loathsome savageries) Ripped out from His dead Heart, for sins of ours, Water...

. True North Light, opalescent, swirls the arctic bright; Siberian, Scandinavian, Alaskan lights. The morning sun, Aurora, hides her face. King David sings a chariot’s fiery flight, a psalmody of light,...

. The End Unraveled string may be rewound, __A hidden thing be sighted; A missing object may be found, __A fallen object righted; A candle snuffed can be relit, __And if a glass has spilled, That doesn’t...

. Regret The rivulets, the patterns in the glass, the dots of rain that race down to the sill, the treacle speed of days that somehow pass, she thinks will kill her, but they never will. It wasn't all her...

. The Mystery of Poetry The mystery of poetry __is found between the lines. The poet sends the signals while __the sentence shows the signs. Alliterative artifices __alert the adept minds. The power of each...

. La Muerte In those days, no king ruled in Ithaca. A pack moved in with communist ideals: An orgy funded by another’s store. Wine flowed like beer, with all the women free. All except one. Plus one too old...

. Shishaldin Radiant angel, bathed in light, Gleaming opalescent white _On the smooth, sheer snow Clothing your smooth symmetry-- Smooth cone, sculpted gracefully _Like no peak I know--- Rising from the icy...

. . Ballerina The balanced ballerina on her toe was poised with perfect posture—back and chest. The crowd, in silent awe, enjoyed the show, as she maintained a flawless arabesque. The dancer twirled to...

. Song of the Wailing Women Her spirit has gone forth. Return her to the earth, Released from work and words; In death she is the Lord’s. Did Adam bury Eve? Leave Abraham to grieve The wife no longer...

. In My Wilderness Once, I thought I saw things clearly. Certainty felt quite sincerely. But, my path was very nearly Overgrown by worldliness. Without charts or maps beside me. With no compass there to guide...

. The Cat Who Barked There is a row of trees that crowd the ground, They’re dark and still. My cat lies in that spot. His tiger stripes were equal all around, But now lie wrapped in shrouds and put to...

. Promise While winter holds her icy grip __There’s promise in south breezes That make their yearly northward trip--- __Springtime, she comes and teases. The snow and ice as water run forth __As she firmly...

. The Glass Delusion of King Charles VI of France ‘His malady grew worse every day until his mind was completely gone. Sometimes he thought he was made of glass and would not let himself be touched. He had...

. The Dandelion Suburbia frowns upon her sunlit face: “Out, out thou upstart weed!” Poor Dandelion —like sisters Cinderella, Queen Anne’s lace— a beauty cast aside; no bed to lie in. Medicinal,...

. To the Reader of Verse Ah, lover, critic, arbiter of verse, divulge your passions, fill a lusting soul with praises. Let the balladeer coerce the skeptic. Let the troubadour cajole Antaéus: wrestle not with...

. Old Orphan They’re over on my dresser, simply framed And looking 1940s fresh and young. There’s something to them holy and unnamed, Some song inside them waiting to be sung. And I their youngest, young...

. The Last Night That We Met in memoriam CQD, Halifax, February, 2001 We gripped hands awkwardly. I’d grasped your shoulder To say goodbye, and, that cold winter night A month before your death, you asked...

. St. Jerome’s Cicero Obsession based on St. Jerome’s letter to his disciple St. Eustochium in Rome, A.D. 384 When I was young and foolish long ago, I traveled to Jerusalem alone To fast and pray away from...

. Beatrice Smiles: Canto XXXI of Purgatory by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) translated by Stephen Binns “You, on the other side of the sacred river,” __Lethe __she called to me, and sharply to the point,...

. The Sea Cliffs Imposing, somber, motionless they stand, Like ranks of rugged soldiers primed for war, They stand where they have always stood before Through generations—guardians of the land. In dark...

. Britomart and Marinell In Edmund Spenser's epic poem, The Faerie Queene, Britomart is a female knight who represents the virtue of chastity.  Marinell is a knight whose mother has prophesied that he...

. The Scottish Gourmand A culture-rich country which lay to the east where we were invited to conference and feast from Cuba to China, and some of the rest they bade them here gather and money invest for...

. Winter Sunset Gnarled, naked boughs, shadowed skeleton arms Stretch in despair and agony. They frame Like barbed-wire twists the western sky aflame Red-orange, ember-glow that no longer warms--- The blasted...

Pastoral Calls—Part 2 of 3 . Face-to-Face A weeping woman called me on the phone And said, “My daughter’s in the county jail. They will not let me see her on my own She’s charged with murder with no...

. El Melon There is a maze or map on melon skin Even the blind could read and seek to solve. A little girl watches the housewives, deft, Touching the head shapes swiftly, one by one, Until they somehow know...

. Poet Tree Legacy: The Saga Begins is a 14-chapter narrative poem. In this excerpt, the adolescent hero Abelbee, who has to venture deep into the Great Wood to find wise Vallenbee, arrives at...

. Farinelli A thousand thanks, Martini, for your visit. Bologna is a town of balladeers. You’ll love it! Now I wonder, how long is it Since we both quit Madrid? Ah! Twenty years Since I last sang before the...

. Lean on Him after Ecclesiasties We labor long beneath the sun. Forgotten soon by everyone. We come from dust and end the same, Depart this life just like we came. It’s all just chasing wind...

. Evolution I can’t run fast or jump high anymore. Mistakes I make I never made before. Some maladies and aches don’t have a cure, Alertness and reflexes are less sure. My memory is challenged on most...

. Before Going to Sleep as a Boy I saw Him when I closed my eyes, Gazing down sidelong, seeing all, Serenely, stoically wise. I knew that judgement was to fall But found His habit was to look Past me—a...

. Ruben “We have words that speak of the ongoing presence of such privations: orphan, widow, widower. And perhaps the fact that we have no word for the parent who has lost a child is itself a testimony...

. Of When I Lived in Prague--- I wander through a maze of gold and stone, Mosaic pavement watched by gilded faces; Bridges, towers etched with cryptic traces Of bygone kings that haunt a bygone throne. I...

. Peach Blossom Dreaming Peach blossoms furnish inwrought dreaming room Intangible to fingertips corrupt; __Substantially beyond each tapered petal’s plume Flow fragrances to subtly interrupt The wintry...