Beauty

. Heirs to Alexander These snuff-brown mounds piled up ten thousand feet Gaze on toward Hindu Kush peaks twice their height; Green threads of valleys mark the rough retreat Wherein Kalasha keep their...

. Inviting Some Friends to a Birthday Dinner after Ben Jonson's "Inviting a Friend to Supper" Tonight, dear friends, you’re welcome to observe Another birthday dinner---and deserve To know it’s mainly an...

. The Elders I watched them wilt, I watched them fade, I watched them pass In the evening shade, And now I tread The path they trod, Having walked the walk For seventy odd, And though I know The course is...

. Valiant Men The sailors brave the angry storm __As waves the ocean brings. It seems to them one hundred years Of fighting death despite their fears, __Like ancient warring kings. The frigid water stings...

. Potina’s Charm In this excerpt from the screen novella, Potina, Lady of the Stag, Potina speaks to Kaptara, the god of the volcano that she approaches. She is an initiate in the mysteries and is a...

. Leaves Behind In size and shape and symmetry The leaves upon a maple tree Are like small selfies of the tree itself. And in their veins the leaves display The trunk and branches in a way That equals any...

. Repaired Debris drifts down my lacrimosa stream shards discarded when my life exploded. Her cheating ripped apart my every seam left a rubble heap she soon unloaded. Finding all my parts, your love resummed...

. The Return of Trump No matter how you try to stop Don Trump __He always will come back. __He’ll lie in wait then jump __In tiger-like attack. You put him in a box that’s wrapped in chains __And throw...

. The Last Man on the Moon for Gene Cernan My gaze was set toward the Western sky, To see if I could see him flashing by, I’d never felt so glad to be alive, With my model of the mighty Saturn five. With...

. Writing a Poem Our planet moves, and so do we, By forces that we cannot see. Rhyme, meter always seem to track The rhythm of the planet. Lack Of sense or sensibility Inhibits our ability To see. In every...

. Lullaby of New Mexico, Part Two Part One can be read here. Duerme Papi---Dad, it’s time to rest. I smooth your blanket here at Desert Sage And look with worry at your wrinkled face. My calloused hand...

. Do Not Return "...forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead." ---Philippians 3:13 Do not return where once you were contented--- It is a trap to seal you...

. Our Superman Porfirio Landa (1925–2022), one of the United States Army’s longest surviving World War II veterans The modest glory of this veteran Began when he was born a Mexican, Baptized before the...

. Mother Nature Is Bipolar Mother Nature is bipolar. She needs to take a pill. One minute she's a blowhard. The next one she is still. I've seen her hail in April. I've seen her snow in May. I've seen her sun...

. The Cricket These mornings there’s a cricket cross the way Whose chirrup purls and eddies in the air, Autumnal now and cool, to counterpoint The city’s muffled thrum as well anoint The drowsy traipsing...

. Autumn Trail Dreamy glimpses of a world recalled and yet to come: The Stagecoach Trail declines and wends through thickets under trees, Illumined red and gold beneath November’s slanting sun And rustling...

. Note: The above photos are of the poet's grandparents, Herbert W. & Evelyn Slater Tweedie in 1914 Wedding Picture; Glacier Point, Yosemite; Top of Pyramid Peak, Desolation Wilderness . 1914 Sierra...

. Sonnet to a Friend It’s you who’ve been a constant in my life from earliest thirst and to this very day. You’ve helped me sail through lassitude and strife, have always kept the ennui at bay. You’ve...

  The Players Legacy: The Saga Begins is a 14-chapter narrative poem that is set to launch on January 21, 2023. This is an excerpt from Chapter 11 in which Vallenbee the Wise speaks to the main character,...

. Gone Are the Days The tragedy of old age is not that one is old, but that one is young. ---Oscar Wilde Gone are the days—the halcyon, magical days of yore, When you were young and full of marrow in your...

. A Half Century Ago Oh there once was a time in our nation so fair, When the pledge to our flag was in schools everywhere, When young children could safely walk daily to school, And not be attacked by some...

. The Modern Prometheus Grrrr! Linden trees with falling leaves infest These ancient mountains. Crimson-faced they scream Like mobs in Transylvanian villages Which brandish knives and torches....

. Everyday Angels  inspired by Guadalupe Amejorado (1955-2021)  They don’t appear in swathes of white   __On scintillating wing.  Their heads aren’t crowned with rings of light.  __They never...

. Cemetery The grasses, flowing amber on the breezethat speaks to me in verses intimate,are stilled, as if contented to appeasemy meditative spirit, to permitobeisance from afar to monumentsof lifeless stone....

. Storehouse of Memories My memory seems worst of foes when conjuring the times she knows will hurt me worse than fist-thrown blows __and bring hot tears. When memory is best of friends, sweet thoughts of...

. While Reading Burns' 'Stanzas: On the Same Occasion' "Fain would I say" Burns wrote, has me inspired. Perhaps this inspiration’s meant to be a call to listen to a hope desired from Jesus.  Those once...

. Meditation Say to yourself at break of day: today I shall meet people who are meddling, ungrateful, proud, treacherous, envious, malicious. All this is because they do not know good and evil. But I know...

. What Life Throws at Us A sentiment can sometimes get the best Of me and bring hard logic to an end. I need someone to share my destiny; Perhaps I need to find a better friend. Just why I feel this way is...

. The Trees: A Moment Amongst the trees in such a wood That veils the sky with vaults of green, In sudden joyous peace I stood As nature did in full convene; The leaves and boughs above my head, A narrow path...

. Ambience Oh, what a difference lighting throws __On these autumnal scenes, As back and forth it hides or shows __Drab browns or emerald greens. When cloud conceals the light of day, __The life it also...

. When Orpheus Looked Back I find no peace. I lean upon this stone As wine-dark waves crash on the Grecian shore, My voice and lyre silent as the grave. I have no songs for children nor of war Nor for a...

. Last Words They say I traced my finger in the air Before I died and let the wind erase My final, silent words. Those who were there Had fixed their eyes upon my dying face But found they were unable to...

. The Red Sea From quite far off we smelled its salt And now stand stunned upon its shore. We stare into the writhing vault Where Moses sees a corridor. It seems there were not graves enough In Egypt so that...

. Eluding Beauty  “No legacy is so rich as honesty.” ---William Shakespeare I yearn to write about the moon, __The moon and that is all--- The moon, a lunar-pearl balloon, The moon that drenches mossy...

. Just Not Alone…   I never asked For easy tasks, For burdens light For just delights. Expected not The breaks I’ve got, And when they came I sought no fame. As demands abound, I’ve stood my...

. Moonburst I saw a comet streak across the night, And rend the sky with fire-tipped harpoon; While stars went out in fits of astral fright, The comet struck and burst the silver moon. The moon came down in...

. Σχολή (Leisure) A Meditation on Horace’s Carmen I.IX You see the glist’ning peak of Mount Soracte, which towers, high with snow, its straining forests bent low and cracking under their wintry...

. Making Apple Butter Once he got the fire good and hot, Old Silas filled the kettle with some cider; and when it boiled down to golden amber, he added quartered apples to the pot. He settled in his chair...

. Critical Failure Failure to launch in every direction; Ran out of fuel before firing the rocket. Time for some long internal reflection; Retool the nav and reschedule the docket. Lost in the black with no...

. Tower of the Winds Eight winds blowing, bluster overflowing,Buffet all the crevices of earth.Eight winds searching, lustily and lurching,Spawning every misery and mirth. First blows Boreas, minion of...