Beauty

. The Garden Dense boughs and variegated blooms __That once festooned a garden Are dying as November births __Pellucid forms that harden On them, my attic's roof, and grass. Now every morning when I pass __This place, once deeply green, A stark, white blandness greets my eyes; __No colour's to...

. A Recruiter Tells It as It Isn’t Your World War One recruitment agent prays he finds you well. Your King and Country says we need you for a dalliance in France. In gay Paris, you’ll get to chat and dance with mademoiselles before you reach the Front. With pals,...

. Homeostasis "When it is not necessary to change, it is necessary not to change."  —Lucius Cary, Viscount Falkland In general, everybody wishes things Would stay the same. An endless barbecue Of ribs and marinated chicken wings Prepared by chefs with nothing else to do Sounds fine to me; for others,...

. The Ghosts of Altamira ---a meditation A herd of prehistoric bison; blood beliefs Depicted in concentric whorls with prints of hands. Stick petroglyphs which hint at ice age births and griefs, And spells to bind the mammoths close to tribal lands. A saber-tooth lies buried in an earthen carpet...

. Contra Computerdom I hold this fountain pen with thumb and fingers, burgundy barrel, gold and rhodium nib, Montblanc white-sea-star floating on its cap. German, this instrument, successor to the stylus trimmed from common river reeds, Sumerians marking wedge-shaped cuneiform on tablets fired from Tigris potash clay; the Roman calamus,...

. Simplicity “Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.” ---Sir Isaac Newton I smell you in the fresh-mown lawnAs linen billows in the breeze.I hear you in the chirp of dawn__And splash of seas. I taste you in the velvet...

. Elegy for a Cowboy Cousin An autumn wind is stirring strong across the dusty hills, As tumbleweeds leave skittered tracks within the sandy rills. The western sun is slanting deep through breaks in gathering sky, And washes waning villages where watchful ravens fly. Here in Round Top’s ruffling breeze...

. Loose Me! “Loose him, and let him go.” ---John 11.44 O loose me, Jesus! Jesus, set me free from all that binds my soul and blinds my way. Unwrap the shrouds of death that cling to me! Let every shade of doubt enlightened be, the gloom of night bathed...

. Song of the Spirit After midnight slightly drowsy, Contemplating writing lousy, While the script-score I redacted, Something in my head reacted. Dreamed I heard a stirring curtain, Though my mind remained uncertain. Wondered whence had come the stir, As upon my feet upspringing, Heard a hissing and a whir,...

. The Iron Road  Flecked with the dust of snow, the iron rails Lie still and undisturbed beneath a sky Of cloudless blue where eagles freely fly, Their wings outspread to catch the wind like sails. They soar in circles high above a scene Of rocky crags and canyons where...

. Passing Through a Graveyard Marred old friends whose breath has passed Are cold friends whose breadth I pass. Some I pray they pray for me. Some they pray I pray them free. Hewn in granite where was wrought Endings lest they be forgot. . . Robert Nachtegall is an...

. Prayer as an Antidote for Unbelief Just imagine if, while you’re entreating the sky, You were met with the wink of a generous Eye. __A very grave disaster it would be __If all there was to your approach to God __Were, now and ever, for eternity, __Dead fingers pushing...

. Autumn I find myself possessed among the red (The maple) and the yellow (oak); possessed Of some distinct yet subtle joy inbred So deep within me, there so dear impressed Its merest hint the whole world reinvests With all the native goodness of that day When its Creator, just...

. A Ballad of Bellport In stockings and slippers, A dress to her knees, She scans the horizon And takes in the breeze. She glances to Heaven, Peruses the seas. Reports of a mishap Have filled her with fear, But surely his promise Would bring him back here. O, please,...

. The Good Life What is the good life that God is providing? What is the good life He seeks to impart? How can I know that I live in God’s favor? How can I know that I’m close to His heart? If in my life I am faithful and...

. S O S Keep the fleecy wolves from bleating. Hold the pack of jackals back. Seize the greedy grubbers eating Scraps from bowls of those who lack. Bar the charlatans from cheating. Quell the yak of quack and hack. Snare the fat cats trick-or-treating--- Stealing sweets and doling flack....

. Look Up Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn on a world split apart The prophet scorned the academic dress of those who had invited him to their Parnassus of the Ivy League. Why wear their garb, when he intended not to bless them, but to warn, and even to condemn their way of...

. Skellig Michael a remote island off the Irish coast A whispered, whistled wind resounds the echo Of the circling gannets’ raucous cry. While far below, the white noise, sea surge surf Collides with barren cliffs and wraps the Skellig Michael in a timeless shroud of mist. As like a...

. The Walk Whether you call it a walk or a run, some animals tread on the water for fun, to flee, chase their food, or show off for their mate. Grebes, doing a dazzling dance for their date, slap their lobed and impressively wide and flat feet on the...

. Tattered I watched a butterfly today, grappling with the barbarous breeze. She was suspended and entrapped under a canopy of trees. Her tattered wing was on display, a tragedy for all to see. Descending onto blades of grass, so frail and weak she seemed to be. But then she...

. Apologies at Antoninus Pius’s Table, 155 A.D. . I. Rome’s Glory “Arriving at this feast, how proud I stand that Rome endures to succor those who dwell here in this citadel and those whose hands till soil across the empire that reaps well.” Sharp Aristides spoke to those who...

. To Melody, on Her Wedding Day And now the hour has come for you to fly, To leave your early nest and take the air For vistas yet unseen (though God knows where He’ll take you, as He knew in days gone by). For since the moment that you...

Old Chestnut I’m the spirited girl with the chestnut hair, Common countenance pale, smile occasionally stressed, High forehead and wide, sculpted jawline square, A pert single chin, curving neck recessed Over straight honest shoulders of soldierly flair, Alert at beginning a whimsical spree. My first tresses were trifling and thin...

. Three Death Musings . 1 One day the conqueror worm will conquer me And therewith render life the Joker's joke. Ensuing laughter will then posit the Arch-ruse and waft away the Joker's smoke As I emerge a Mensch, though once a bloke. . 2 The icons of the human...

. Westward, with Columbus The North Atlantic Ocean was awashwith monsters and leviathans, or sowe fearfully supposed, and thought it toshby sailing west, to India we could go. Then Christopher Columbus raised three crews.From Spain we sailed. A westward route we took.For sixty days no terra firma news---we took our tight-lipped...

. To the Autumn Birches The languid light of waning day Glares undiffused by any cloud, Still strong, defying its decay, Then breaks on a dark colonnade— Oak, ash, and beech—a somber crowd Of mourners cloaked in winter’s shade. But you—you stun the dozing gaze; You stand apart and deign...

. Ghosts of the Watchtower The end-of-summer breeze gives hint with cool caress Of coming autumn gales and forecasts of distress. But who beneath the sun, when halcyon days abound Imagines they will face the storm tide’s rising crest? The tower stretches high above the granite ground So built to...

. The Meaning of Pearl Necklaces Most pearls are prized because the luster of Their loveliness lies held in shapely spheres— Though never perfect.  Given with a love Strung out on strings of strength to last for years, The little globes repose on bodies made For fondness.  Warmth of skin...

. Consideration in Friendship In The Inferno Canto Twenty-Nine, When Dante pauses, looks with longing for His uncle’s son amid the suffering line Of falsifiers---Virgil, growing sore, Asks brusquely if he means to count them all, To which Dante responds he merely sought His kin, and hopes Virgil will let...

. Remnants of the Spring Lupine, Paintbrush, remnants of the spring Color summer’s browning meadows, splashing Renoir dots and drabbles along freshing Snow-fed streams whose whispered burbles sing Odes to joy beneath blue silent skies Stretching to eternity; Sierra Granite mountains, lakes and forests where a Zephyred evening sunset breeze...

. Riverside Park—Labor Day An ambling river. Just a wheeze of gentle breeze. My soul aquiver. . . Desert Only sand and dread. Sunset looms in bloody red. Buzzards overhead. . . Chatter Throngs of chirping birds Flit above the lowing herds. Who discerns the words? . . Benjamin Cannicott...

. Autumn Reversed Once snowflakes have recrystalized,__they rise from where they fell;in Earth’s alternate universe__it’s early winter’s knell. The frost unfreezes, rain unfalls,__leaves littering the groundascend into the naked trees__and soon become unbrowned. As acorns torn from squirrels’ paws__unripen in the boughsof oaks de-ageing, dairy maids__unmilk the oom-ing cows. Then crops befall de-harvesting__and...

. Plowing Plain plowing cultivates delight Of partnership with animals: Two horses and a man unite To draw behind them crows and gulls Feeding on worms in furrows found As a plowshare tears and turns the ground. Creation of earthy crevices From which to live with self-respect Depends upon the...

. Downtown Like an iron maze, Clustered close, towers rise, Caging the very sky. Casting their cold gaze Through myriad glazed eyes Apathetically. Beneath, the streets swell With jostling crowds of masks. Their blank stares never meet, Never see, but tell Of cares and woes none asks, Tales left incomplete---...

. Resolve Much gain involves much pain and we can see, That discipline is hard, like pumping steam, Spending each glorious day sowing seeds Striving all summer to fulfil a dream. That’s tough, but leads to joy so well deserved, Delighting in achievements richly earned So that when mellow autumn...

. Dusk Come down! you fading orb of heat, __Come down, and rest your head, I watched you in your slow defeat; __This day you had is dead. What marvel! that you lived at all, __What marvel, that we share, This day enlightened by your fall __Was worth my every...

. Cutie Pie Cat The pink-nosed face of Prospero my cat, Pink nose and white fur face, is what he rubs Against me, purring.  He does not know that I love him since he’s cute.  My finger scrubs His whiskers and his ears because I think He likes that kind...

. Let Them Go Children born around the world __some fifty years ago were free to roam and run and hide, __to ramble high and low. The bigger people stayed inside __and never really knew how far the little children went __in search of something new. They found a cave...

. The Dying It’s getting to be time again when all the leaves, their labors nearly done, prepare their legacy. We see them everywhere at work on this, the brilliant hues of fall announcing the new terms of each leaf’s call. And soon the trees will cast them off to...

. Nothing Compares Last year, on a private tour of Italy and Spain, I saw the Colosseum and cathedrals… so sublime. I found it hard to comprehend the patience and the skill It took to build those masterpieces so far back in time. And then, a couple years ago, I...