Beauty

  Hope What task be done, you thought was not? What asked and sought, forgot, was wrought? What strain was set against a blow? As gain unfettered, bettered, lo, The frost was last before the...

Verification What further evidence will now be needed to assure Us that behind the strictly physical there’s something more, And that the natural world is clearly ordered from above, Than seeing how the...

. Visiting the Ruins of Tintagel Castle I wander through a forest deep __in Cornish countryside And think I see some elves asleep __And giants run to hide. The branches gnarled like magic wands, __Green...

From the newly released audio of Sonnets for Christ the King   XXXII CUIUS REGIO EIUS RELIGIO The self’s religion, bound by narrow ways, Behind joy’s mask disguises its despair, Adoreth...

Spring was near now Spring’s here, come to waken all the flowers and to welcome April showers. Spring was near now Spring’s here. The grass is green as green can be and the blossoms are...

Blue Star Mama painted calm and clouded landscapes Before she wed, blue-green and grassy shapes, But these went by the board just after she Jumped off into the matrimonial sea. Later, Bach rocked the...

I Watch the Sun I watch the sun, its trek, across the sky. The shadow too to see how it reacts. When light steps forth, the shadow it gets shy. Then shadow finds its strength when light contracts. A...

  Boston Public Garden On Boston Public Garden's willowed shorebank, two little girls are feeding ducks: they prance from beak to beak, arms arcing past their foreheads to farther thrust their...

White Wolf, Black Wolf: A Cherokee Story A trijan refrain Inside you lives a wolf of white— of patience, peace and love. He is forgiveness, hope and light; a blessing from above. This wolf of white...

  One Near-Death Experience at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital To be dazed out, phased out, near to dying In a hospital bed Somewhere in a street near you, Pain excessive, crying, Eyes blank at blank...

After E. T. A. Hoffman "Only connect..." E. M. Forster, Howard's End By Ewald E. Eisbruc The inner structure of the movements, working joint by joint, the way they all are linked together, toward a...

  Oak tree like a gnarled arthritic hand jutting into the sky black and bent knobby knuckles, twisted swirls and burls appearing ancient, energy spent Dry leaves are sparse, barely hanging on and...

The Theater of the Bush To westward the sun seeks a comfort nocturnal, Her warmth slipping under the covers ahead; And daylight soon passes the threshold eternal, Turns on the night-light and settles in...

Approaching Spring Above the mountain, under the sky, Canadian Geese, you hear their cry, Over the mountain, hear them sing, Man and Wife, approaching Spring.   Charge to Orion Gird thy blade...

  Are the dead at peace in the ground? wrapped in loam, slow dissolving to earth. Is the mother at peace in travail, wracked apart that a child might be born? Does a man find peace as he toils for...

  Spring is Coming From naked trees, droplets of dew, Drips like tears onto my upturned face. Everything is bleak, nothing new. No creation feels like outer space. Hear ye, hear ye, everyone...

A Pantoum The wind, it sings through trees of pine The breeze, it sweeps my senses clear This day shines bright, this day shines fine These dunes are bringing heaven near. The breeze, it sweeps my...

The Rocky Mountain Pines Written in Rhymed couplets of Anapestic Tetrameter. In the mountains or plains, with the pine in the air, I’ll awake to the sun with a chill to compare. When I hike up a hill,...

Dancer the arch of her collarbone a bridge, her legs a throne, the clean and simple lines of her body free of confines. she dances, arms akimbo, hair flowing, and I know that she belongs to the...

  Celestial Teevee Something that’s always puzzled me: Does the Creator watch us on celestial teevee the way we watch Modern Family? If so, can He (She? It?) switch channels? (To other worlds,...

  Songbirds Sing (Triolet Sonnet) As songbirds sing with joy of spring, unfolding blossoms show their hues. From my front porch the wind chimes ring as songbirds sing with joy of spring. Fresh...

  The World Is Still Too Much Too much, and much too much, it still goes on: The men and women who covet wealth and bling, And acquisition of each material thing, Yet search for some elusive...

All photos by Mark Wyatt / All poetry by Neal Dachstadter   Chant of the Wooded Hall Chlorophyll concordant eaves Soaring ceiling, verdant leaves Torah spell my secret sees Worded oracle of...

Sonnet for an Arabian Autumn After William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73 This time of year you will in me perceive When all things green take on their second growth, The sun at last agrees to a...

  This time of year makes it hard to believe in randomness. Maples flame up, then out, visible symmetry undressed as roots-in-air mirrors.  That blood moon too; imagine it even...

Often I ponder things unseen Eons of light and mysterious beings The breathtaking fallout as stars collide A silent womb where souls reside Hidden space where last breaths are kept Moss ridden stone where...

Darkness No longer did they see the need For things called books they used to read. Music—no longer symphonies, But simple tunes composed with ease. And what of Beauty?  What of Grace? They...

Riven (A Rannaigheacht Ghairid) Once I dreamed Ospreys soared where salmon teemed. Frigid streams and waterfalls Frosted walls where glaciers gleamed. Darkness cowled The moon whenever wolves...

  Winter’s Passing Now I can see no sky above your space, For dark clouds hide the blue that may be there. The air is full of rain that pelts my face, The ground is flood and mud the grieved must...

  Says Simon Cowell (A Villanelle) “Which came first, the egg or fowl? This is what I’d like to know.” “Who cares?” says Simon Cowell. (Not so much “says” as speaks in growl) I...

  Once Flew and Flown No More Such heights I once had seen and gusts of winds that caught my caution Through clouds above a world I didn't know And pressed towards horizons, body wrought with all...

  Time (for Children) Time flies, as everyone knows and time marches on, as the saying goes and time will stand still now and then when we wish but does time ever swim for fish? And does it swing...

(thanks for your kindness) How like a star in a darkening sky, appears an unexpected friendly deed. How much more so when storm warnings belie the growth potential of one’s kindling seed. But though...

Mulched beyond bones, but reprieved, Wolfgang has a home in my mind, and he’s still bereaved. From his pauper’s grave, and with a whispered pitch, I’ve summoned him with my ‘On/Off’...

  On Super Bowl LI I went to bed. The Falcon’s made it 28 to 3 and yet I never should have doubted the poised Tom Brady. Halfway through the third-quarter he had a ways to go. I woke up in the AM...

There used to be a limpid lake Home to the finest birds you'd find. We'd watch their glory till daybreak. But now those days are far behind. I used to hear the bullfrogs croak Before the pond was...

What thoughts has thinking hard put in my brain, that show a different world than my eyes see, before, things easier were, clear and plain, but now are always less than used to be. What did I learn from...

  Bubbles I swish the stick To watch a spread of bubbles gleam; Free and delightful they float Almost a dream. This pristine orbs, A fragile yet audacious batch Seem hopeless until they...

  A Strange and Sweet Unrest Awake forever with a sweet unrest . . .” —John Keats, “Bright Star” She stands at the windowpane, no one in sight, No one behind her in the silent room, No human...

“This foyer of the spirit is the seat of a sovereign.” - Anca Rosu The lyric lures release of thought, emotive creation, human-made; a breath-carved essence in one’s idea, the living word in phrases...