Beauty

Musical Version by Lex McKee     Cetus and Jonah’s Lament "And Jonah was extremely happy about the plant. But God appointed a worm when dawn came the next day, and it attacked the plant and it withered." ---Jonah 4.5 When I think now of you, great Cetus---Whale--- And me...

  The Ground of Being Consider that our world may be sewn through With sentience, intelligence and thought. The dead philosophy that we've been taught Has bridled us, imprisoned me and you. Behold, Life! In its innumerable forms, The glory of an animated sky. Expanding from our penchant to ask...

  Swimming to the Waterfall at Uvongo In the heat of the early winter By the haunts of the southern strand. Filled with a lust for adventure We forwent the safety of land. But the cliffs watched on with suspicion, In silence they warned us and said: “Beware of the...

  Just Do It. _My spirit’s wings shall soar _Although at times I stray. When I’m downcast… when life’s storms blast… _I gaze upward and pray. _Fed up with sin and war… _Outside, inside my mind. I do not know where I should go. _What task have You assigned?  ...

Diocletian’s Horse “Save it for your horse.” ---Oedipus Tex, P.D.Q. Bach (Peter Schickele) While Diocletian owned the home Octavian built (although he ruled from Asia Minor, don’t be fooled, He was the emperor of Rome), ambition and a lack of sense brought some in Egypt to rebel against his title....

  Morning Rain Veiled sky, dusk at dawn, Night gone---yet not gone; Half-light, hardly day; Weird world, dim and gray. Rain falls---steady, soft. Mists rise, twirl, and waft. Gentle pattering Drowning everything, Drumming---constant, deep--- Coaxes back to sleep. Sleep, though, now eludes As day’s darkness broods. Thwarted, still I lie...

  Timeless The timeless, gentle swish of wave-washed sand; The echoed “chock” of rounded wave-washed stone; The silent, skittered feet of pipers and A distant sea-tossed crab boat’s throbbing drone. The squawk of gull, the sharp-shrill caw of crow; The unseen shaft of air where eagle’s soar; The dance of...

  Longfellow I first met you in the schoolroom, _When I was but a child, And read your words and heard your voice _Sing out so sweet and mild. But as I grew, I saw your work _More cast off and despised, By those critics who now believe _History should...

  Seeing Shen Yun in Milwaukee The curtain rose—divine, resplendent stage, Where heaven’s hues met earth in living grace. The dancers turned as petals in the wind, Each step a vow, each motion born of truth. Then silence fell—a single voice arose, A song of gold descending from the clouds....

  Early Days The scent of roses, and the blazing sun, The gas pump next door busy—day’s begun. No school; some insects flit. I feel the heat Upon my skinny shoulders and my feet. As Mama’s chickens cackle in their pen, I revel in the world I’m in. But then...

November by the Sea The cliffs, they are eroding On old Pacific shores, But chill November calls me To where the ocean roars. I hear the rolling breakers As they approach the land. I hearken to their thunder Resounding on the sand. And then I'm looking skyward Where there's a...

  Upon Seeing a Stump Where a Tree Once Was When in the park, I passed a felled oak tree That once with lofty boughs would softly sway. At least, I’m sure, it must have waved that way Had I but stopped with eyes willing to see. Had I but...

  Solid Oak The oaks are always late to shed their leaves. They cling to vestiges of summer raiment, Now woebegone and sere, as though it grieves Them to remit the final scheduled payment. The russet husks do battle with each gust Of wind. They rasp and rattle, go to...

  The Long Journey Home I’ve traveled many miles on this long road, Across cold, barren hills and sweeping plains, To reach my home and shed my heavy load And warm my hands where hearthfire's glow remains. The wind blew bitterly across my path, And snowflakes caked my lashes, as...

  The Reliquary One early morning long ago, I stopped to watch the Avon flow. Long-steeped and weedy, olive green, Its waters slipped along below, Slid over rocks, and in between--- Gelatinously smooth and slow, High-hung by vine and leafy screen--- A fragrant, forested ravine. The sun of that Midsummer...

  Listening to Incense A spiral from ignited aloe rises, Translucent, swayed with compound camphor salve Through azure air that gently opalizes The things we see and think we know or have. Soft cloudlets drift from dimness overhead, Obscuring colors as they wreathe the room Where scroll-arm chairs are darkly...

  Hoosier Autumn October! Morning nips and noontime burns; Crisped, sere, dun cornstalks fall beneath the scythe; Chrysanthemums blaze as the woodland turns To living flame, a golden land of myth: Bright yellow birch and beech and tulip-tree, Red sugar-maple, rainbow sassafras, And flame-orange pumpkins fattened lusciously Like Hesperides’ fruit,...

  Alas! “Alas!” A word of grief and rueful mourning; A gut-punch from what was but is no more Or “almost was,” miscarried, died aborning. “Alas!” A raven croaking, “Nevermore.” “Alas!” Shall time deface, erase, surrender The still-warm memory of love’s last kiss? A gasping grasp at fading spectral splendor;...

  Rainbow's End I came upon a rainbow’s end that seemed to have sprung full grown from a little field and launched itself up to the sky and on beyond the far horizon. Grass stalks gleamed with all the colors, spread out like a shield upon the short-cropped ground. Then...

  Blowing Bubbles ---for Lisa Mourning a mother, I gratefully smiled, When you sent me a photo of your little child, To see how she conjured a stream of bright bubbles And set them afloat, so perfect, untroubled, Like meandering thoughts of an innocent mind, To squander themselves on the...

  Lead, Kindly Light ---in the voice of John Henry Newman (1801–1890) Firmly I stand by virtue of belief, Belief in God who wills we act and speak, And aids our feebleness to sanctify What is of earth, of humble worth unique. As one to One, in love to Him...

  Overture of Rain The birds in the thicket lament in the breeze, expose unfurled backs of silver leaves. Clashing in brass, the bugler’s horn blows, resounding in echoes booming below. The reeded timbre of the oboe’s song shaking the Earth with thunder strong. Bowstrings vibrate in a taut staccato;...

  Like a Book He reads me like a book, the One Who wrote Me; knows, it seems, each page of me by heart And can to my chagrin succinctly quote Each savory (and somewhat less so) part. His first draft was, of course, a work of art, But soon...

Lotus First flower, from primeval flooding sprung, In virtuous, voluptuous perfection, The lotus favors eye and mind and tongue With vigor, through life-cheering introspection Involving ever-vibrant petals white. Its blossoms affably exchange affection While practicing rhymed raptures of delight In measured, complementary reflection. Escaping deafened depths of murky mud, Poetic...

  My Bed When life has burdened me and robbed me of an easy way, I’ve looked for succor, such as one can access every day; A simple, sweet solution to the traumas of my mind; A place where I can hide and heal, that’s never hard to find. The...

  I Dwell Within a Tidal Pool I dwell within a tidal pool; My world, though small, is most complete. I float around, I play the fool, And hang with creatures that I meet. Sea urchins are my boyhood pals, Blue mussels open up to help The small green crabs...

  SCP Poet Paul A. Freeman recently won the King's English Poetry Competition with the below sonnet:   February Fog in Abu Dhabi A nebula of sight-resistant fog creeps in at night, proceeding to erect a barricade of cotton wool to clog the air. Eyeball integrity is wrecked. My universe...

  Dinner Served The sun breaks through the coastal fog, Replacing damp-chill hidden mysteries With warm-wrapped scented dialogue Between the sand-surf and an offshore breeze. From shoreline poles the eagles stare To watch a squawking beach-blown seagull flap Its upraised wings in proffered prayer In hopes of pecking up a...

  Gul, the Grocer Oh! To be like Gul, the grocer! Disquiet's cuirassier can't toss her __Comfort away. She sits under a fan all day, Waves at the residents who cross her, and dabbles in the lines of Chaucer. No office work. No horrid boss. Her __Ancestors bought This little...

  The Elements Within Beginning with the morphogenesis Of cells—of gel-like tissues, organs, skin— Inside a water bath becalmed with hush; Becoming, taking human form; in bliss Until the fetus reaches growth within; When suddenly, the sac expels a gush Of water, followed by a microburst Of woman’s push and...

  Sedona, Arizona Nestled in a canyon sits Sedona, Beauty complementing deep mystique. Mighty walls of rock and cliff and towers--- The atmosphere responds to those who seek. Natives of that canyon, they discovered Enlightenment and overwhelming peace. Wonderment abounds in those surroundings, A purity which offers life new lease....

. Profoundly Original Everyone is born as an original, but may die as a photocopy. –Carlo Acutis (1991–2006), first millennial saint, canonized 7 September 2025 This teen proficient at computer gaming Spent utmost technologic talent framing “Eucharistic Miracles of the World,” Brave signal flags of his own site unfurled, Displaying...

. Sancho Panza’s Choice Well-met, Señor. And blessings on your inn.You are the landlord here, is that not true?Please sit with me and drink. I’ll pay for two.Your least expensive, though. My purse is thin.I serve my master gratis. Yes, that’s right---The white-haired viejo now in sleep’s embrace.Don’t say “Señor...

  The Truth Won’t Die ---a villanelle for Charlie Kirk They clung to hate and jealousy and lies, While he spoke words that could have set them free. They tried to kill the truth but truth won’t die. At first they used profanity and cries Of outrage while debating angrily....

. Treasure Trove There’s treasure in the words we say, The words we read, the words we write; There’s treasure in each dawning day, In sunlit glow and dark of night. There’s treasure in a landscape view, In rivers, trees and mountain peaks; There’s treasure in a sunset’s hue, In...

  The Bachelors' Debate When I am put before my friends, around the dying flame, And we have burnt through all our songs that we consider tame, We all decide to sing a song before we go to bed A song about the secret thoughts that swim within your head....

  Autumn Air There’s something in the autumn air, Something beneath the mounting chill Of which we’re vaguely unaware Until it says our name, until It softly taps us on the heart. Something beneath the yellowed oaks Intones a hymn in counterpart Whose voice exults but also chokes; Something that...

. Rare Books ---Magdalen College, Oxford, November 1993 From London, westward ho, and slantwise north, I journey into Oxfordshire and see, through outsize windows on the Stagecoach bus, green meadows framed by thick-set hawthorn hedgerows, the spreading canopies of great-trunked oaks, fat-uddered cows serenely foraging, joy-barking collies chasing squirrels and...

. When Helen Keller Met Mark Twain ---a poem about America Date: November 2, 1934, Place: New York City: Madison Square Garden after Helen Keller delivers a speech honoring the Salvation Army. An old reporter recognizes one of the attendees. You flatter me! It’s rare I’m asked to speak. I’m...

  Emily Dickinson: A Brief Synopsis Emily Dickinson Wished Mr. Higginson Hadn’t been so loath Her poems to critique. Higginson, piqued At her rhyme and her syntax, Wished he could toss them Right into next week. Em then dissembled— She loved to seem small, for It lessened the hurt Of...