Beauty

. Ex Nihilo Is a Joke “. . .it starts with an empty universe” ---Stephen Fry, Cosmos, vii An empty universe is paradox. In such a boundless space there’d be no time. Among all other blanks there’d be no clocks. Eternity could not produce a chime. This space would be...

. Little to Regret When Time has stilled my body __Think of me now and then, Asleep beneath the wattle, __Which flowers yet again. And as the summer follows __With rays I cannot see, Let the warmth embrace you— __My passion cannot be! And when your time approaches __(In many...

. Pergola My vines entwined around your posts and beams of weathered wood the sun had silvered gray. My trunk extends its arms, your trellis teems with viridescent leaves throughout the day. The hungry children broke your lower rail. They stood upon it, grasping grapes that hung beyond their reach....

. Memento, Homo… "There is no architecture in New Orleans, except in the cemeteries." —Mark Twain If we should go to New Orleans We’ll see our share of raucous scenes At Mardi Gras soirees and balls With kings and queens in grandiose halls. We’ll see the floats sail down Saint...

. Beneath the Tide The tidal basin ebbs and flows each dayAs if it were a sentient, breathing thing—A pas de deux, a moon-dance interplay—As time and space, in silence, sway and swing. As like a fraying tapestry unweavesThe sea withdraws to show its stone-strewn floor;With empty clamshells lying thick...

. Salieri on Mozart More wine, Signore... Should I say mein Herr? I know! French cognac. Spirits help me share Dark thoughts. Now listen. I take one full year To pen these operas Kaiser Josef lauds; Then you compose a piece in half a season--- Vienna, Prague, all history applauds...

. Spring The Spring is coming and each day Earlier falls dawn’s curtain grey Before the star-enchanted world Where, in each other’s limbs fast curled, As Venus, our directrix, bade, In many acts our masque we played, Then, in a night-long revelry, Entranced I slept and dreamt of thee. But...

. From the Tower by Francisco de Quevedo (1580-1645) | translated from Spanish by Elwin Wirkala Retired to these deserts and at peace, and with but few, though learnèd, books beside, I live conversing now with the deceased, and listen with my eyes to those who died. Open, whether or not...

. Come Winter, Come Come Winter, come. Lay this body down to rest. A squalling wind is blowing, north by northwest; __And every tree a bower __In Nature’s darkest hour, __And every creature deep __In hibernation sleep; And how I yearn for peaceful, calm repose! So come, Dear season, cover...

. When words are sharp, and clash like iron blades, I swallow swords. I grimace, turn away. You fear I wield a shield, that love will fade, That wordless I our promises betray. Yet iron sharpens iron, I have heard, And so I breathe and write and learn to speak....

. Bluer Skies after Ogden Nash Spring ain’t sprung, the grass ain’t growed, The fields ain’t fit for man nor toad. They tell us that the world is warmin’, ‘Pears to me the world is stormin’. Snow ‘n’ rain ‘n’ wind a’ blowin’, Local rivers overflowin’, Global warmin’ diagnosed Yet...

. Music of the Contours part of "A Double Unfinished Symphony" sonnet sequence The way that curls sway lovelier than straight, ..And curving strands of gold set pearls in grace, ....That nuns' bow necks to take novitiate, ......That perfect comets bend to spangle space, .......Your memory impairs and sags my...

. The Ugly Child Some poems “hit the spot” and please the crowd--- Relatable, well-crafted, poignant, funny--- They beg to be perused, reread aloud; They squeeze tears from the low, perk up the sunny. Some dazzle with heroic, epic tales Of battles far away and long ago; Some---deep, concise, and...

. Gift for the Living The life that he led is a memory now, Subjugated by settled existence, With old hunting grounds bearing the imprint of plough And a musket ball hail for resistance— Certain death the result of resistance. He remembers the spark of the campfire bright As the...

. Flying Home Alas, I missed My flight back Home, After all these years In life I've roamed. I had then raced To make my flight, I thought I had My timing right. But there before My startled eyes The clouds rolled in And filled the skies! The plane stood...

. You’re In Control In all, you’re in control; your imperious charms Have inspired a near-insatiable itch in my arms To reach and grasp and hold, in hopes to soothe, To bring our fire and ice together to prove That we can melt together in the end, And form of...

. Tonight I Sail the Dreamy Sea Tonight I sail the dreamy sea Where we can find tranquility. The sails are set. The sea remote. Just you and I within the boat. I’ll sail to you and pick you up; Then we can dine and we can sup. A picnic...

. I’m Here __Your smile, it hypnotizes. It rises with the Inca doves and sun. __Sleep done, your love surprises And spices dawn with lush and precious fun. __Your widened eyes are fashioned In passion that I simply can’t dismiss. __Insistent, blue and flashing A brash and playful prelude to...

.   https://youtu.be/3XWcnISYGSE . Rondel for Saint Valentine's Day by Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1340–1400) | modernized in the original lyric form by Margaret Coats Now welcome, springtime, with your gentle sunThat wintry weather milder soon will make,And tiresome nights' long shroud of blackness shake. Saint Valentine, great triumph you have won,And...

. An Oldie's Valentine Love Poem We met when she was seventeen, The fairest maid I’d ever seen. With eyes of blue and flaxen hair, My mouth agape, I had to stare, And wonder, if a girl like she, Would ever choose a fool like me. But now she’s just...

. To a Girl Named Olivia What shall I say to you of untold love In this more than empty space that lies between Our two selves wound in tongue-tied reticence? I have touched your hand in images and dreams, As the old remember and the young foresee, Feeling only...

. Road Trip I ride the countryside for you my friend. The white and yellow lines can’t separate The dots I will connect at this trip’s end. With spinning force that pushes on the bend Until the highway comes out smooth and straight, I ride the countryside for you my...

. No Going Back We feel our lives are slowly closing round Us when the nights grow longer than the days, When winter brings us sadness and malaise, And all around us is a chill profound. Across the moss the hare limps and the hound, No heart to follow, with...

. The Agony and The Ecstasy I beg among the lonely hours__oblivious to time and spaceand pace beneath the Sistine towers__where pigments paint my puzzled face.Why call me to divine commission,as if I am the King's magician,to turn blank skies to holy vision;__oblivious to time and space? I flee to...

. A Winter Snow a rhupunt The white snow falls in swirling walls that so enthralls as in my youth. The wind is slight; flakes from great height a blissful sight--- whole life to sleuth. Each crystal flake a snowman make down by the lake--- old thoughts that soothe. Years...

. Ode to Joy My final symphony---my best by far!--- Which crowns a challenged life of brilliant works. Vienna’s finest came! Some from afar: Nobility, musicians, Prussians, Turks. A triumph! Yet it made my proud heart bleed: The orchestra refused to let me lead. They argued I could not conduct...

. Great Lakes Weather Gaffe Beyond the equinox by thirty days, With trees and shrubs bedecked in glorious bloom, Onto the scene the weirdest weather strays And plunges all back into winter’s gloom. Snow smothers lawns and settles on the roofs. Fierce wind sculpts strange, belief–defying drifts. It’s one of...

. Those Who Go Down to the Sea in Ships a poetic paraphrase of Psalm 107:23-30 The men who go down to the sea in their ships, Who sail on the water and pursue their trade, The sound of the sea echoes back from their lips; Their eyes see the...

. Missed Call O Muse, would you call back another time? My little boy, armed with a sharpened stick, winged with a blanket, sure that he can fly, is leaping off the countertop to try things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme. Poems are slow to grow, but kids are...

. Plum Blossom Blessings The pine, bamboo, and plum are winter’s friends, Yet plum trees bloom to overcome the chill And herald spring. Resilient health extends Throughout my struggling mind and body ill; Spiced fragrance with that ruby beauty blends. Flame-draped in cozy apricot orange twill, A wealth of blossoms...

. The 10 Best Love Poems of 2021 What makes a great love poem? Love is such an emotionally charged topic that the answers to that question are going to vary tremendously depending on who you ask. But all the same, coming up with a good love poem can be...

. Tel Shikmona Mosaics here surprise: you wouldn’t know, tramping on thistles, dry late-summer stubble and tripping over rubble, stumbling, slow, that this rough trail leads to the long-ago till suddenly—a broken arch, a floor patterned in blue red black, flowers and birds outlined in tesserae; below them, words in...

. My Mother’s Eyes We took a ride into the countryside to search for bluebells but we first saw phlox. Delighted by the sight my mother cried, “Look at the flowers flutter on the rocks! Look at the bluebells!”  I looked at my clock. Long ride, no blue, no bells,...

. Sir Percival A quiet desperation lives within my soul: to find the Holy Cup, the Grail; to touch something beyond this mortal pen, and taste my God, His blood, from Cross’s nail. I am not worthy, this I know too well, though we are all the Son, all Christ,...

. Solitude by Wilhelm Müller (1794-1827) | from German by Joseph Greene As when a cloud is darkened And drifts through sunlit sky, While through the many treetops An icy breeze does fly: As such I make my journey I trek with weary feet, All round me life is cheerful,...

. Bach in Heidelberg for Marjorie Bach’s chorus didn’t leave us much to say After the Easter Monday concert in The Holy Spirit Church. Taking our way Over the Old Bridge seemed like we’d just been Visiting Heaven.  The flooded Neckar’s din Blurred the cantata fading in my head, As...

. You Are Too Far from Me Send me your love for I’ve nothing to write,And my words are vacant or ugly---I slept through the morning, I raved out the night,And you are too far from me. I feel the entropy taking the world,Send me your love while loving can...

. The Two Corteges by Joséphin Soulary (1815-1891) | translated from French by Hadyn Adams Within a church two groups of people met: An infant’s funeral cortege, the first: A woman followed, her heart fit to burst Within her breast repressing her regret. The second for a baptism all set;...

. Toasting Burns    His words ring out from windswept glens. __They lilt from lapping lochs. I see love through his red-rose lens; __I hear the midnight clocks In castle nooks chime Auld Lang Syne __As kilted suitors croon To bonnie lasses rapt with rhyme __Beneath a Highland moon. His words will please till seas gang dry __And rocks melt wi’ the sun. They soar beyond Ben-Nevis high...

. Dystopia Reality is never what it seems To be.  It hides itself in shrouds of mist, In bulging envelopes of gilded dreams, In requisite pronations of the wrist That guides the palsied hand that holds the pen. What good is it to cry that life’s unfair If one does...