Poetry

They operate contrary to the rules of common sense that we hold dear as proof that what we know is right, that we’re no fools and senses we possess perceive the truth. They ramble through eleven...

The Farmer’s Wife He may as well be sitting on a piece Of junk john-boat out on some open lake. The field is shorn, divested of its fleece. The hay is tedded and the rusty rake Is resting now beside...

1.  In 373, at Antioch, Jerome asked himself if he were not a disciple of Cicero rather than Christ, his eternal home; and thereupon abandoned his early love for philosophy, law, language, and...

Bereft of the poetry of his soul The knight took refuge in the house of death Into darkness he went with his mind crushed Wandering lust gone and with his own trust. The enchanter gone And...

A disturbing riddle was told to me: “The city of evil that starts with ‘B’ That has six more letters after that one, Will be, by bloody tragedy, undone. “The nations all love this mighty...

The chicken crossed the road I heard. Which was so silly, so absurd, Especially for so dumb a bird. But when she started to come back She met an eighteen-wheeler Mack That smacked her with a great big...

Alone, I take a flight to see some friends, I gaze out over ocean from the clouds and marvel, as the plane I’m in ascends with all of us above the earthly crowds. From gravity itself we’ve all been...

The Trojan War has finished its long course. Achaeans won by sneaking past the vaulting walls As if they were a gift: a wooden horse. A decade done, at last the city falls! And yet the riches found were...

I wonder if I'll ever see a banished piece of Poetry of mine in print. I hope and pray and squint; but yet, I have to say, that I may not live long enough. The Frogs are ugly, stark and gruff. The Bog is...

Across the trough o' th' mighty Hudson River at Poughkeepsie, New York, there's a cantilever bridge of steel, connected to a walkway rail trail that makes its two thousand meter trek in standard gauge, the...

Drums lie tilted, battered and still; Grass fires gutter; none are left to kill; Bitter smoke coils through leafless trees; A stunned horse quivers on bloody knees. A tin cup's clank, a thump, a moan...

Implicitly the Cosmos has design, Just as I hold the pattern in my mind Of how this sonnet’s feet and rhymes align With where some latent motive is inclined. One cannot see the sonnet’s form...

Written in May 2010 / Revised April 2020 Trumpets blast and Heaven opens, light shoots through, Gods of all the Kingdoms smile now anew, Legions of celestial soldiers stand, salute, Drumbeats sound between...

Near a brief flash of lightning sits a bird, a white one on a gray and sloping roof, and rests against big blue clouds, like a surd, almost absurd, incapable of proof; and down below some city buildings...

God of men who’s dressed in white, Beard on face of long brown hair, Halo pattern traced in light, Nimbus flowing through the air. Glowing skin with mercy shines, Ancient toga wraps His frame, Fabric...

An Oklahoma Nightmare Leashed from the continent, it flew— on 20 May 2013— and caught the currents of the airy blue— colliding winds that swirled above—whirling. Sweet Jesus, the tornado's...

In meadows green and pastures sweet, My love and I, we first did meet; She watched me tend my flock by day, And yet at night she went away. She was my sun, my warmth and light, There by day and gone by...

Pressure is what the loam feels when, buried and dis-tracted, it cannot function right; when it cannot get at the rain and light; when it, by a hellish heat, is harried. When it is not prepared, or...

The Union army's futile frontal attacks on December 13 against entrenched Confederate defenders on the heights behind Fredericksburg is remembered as one of the most one-sided battles of the American Civil...

Grains of Time Somewhere through the hour glass, slip grains of time, eroding fast. Past and present times collide, revealing all truths hidden lies. Ties that bond are held so dear, but suddenly they...

The Ring for E. S. and W. S. "my precious," —Gollum, in The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien   I only knew but one tall dude who had a ring with magic powers. He had one large, silver ring. Although...

I saw him standing at the gate of heaven. It was in a dream, but seemed so real I was in awe. Behind him in my vision all was white and lit. Dear reader, though hard to believe, I truly saw this most...

Nothing to see here, they say each breath, People starving, as they feed us to death, Puppets on strings, all of us they bind, Right from our birth they program our mind, Who are they you ask, the unseen...

The Old Brown Carpet Hurray! I don't have to vacuum The old, brown carpet, anymore! At last, I managed to get it Removed from the dining room floor! It wasn't at all difficult Deciding it really must...

Like roaches fighting over baited trap we climbed and clambered, even pushed and shoved while scrambling for some nourishment like love we’d push the other children off Mom’s lap. So certain of the...

Exchange They go to take the heart of you, mark your skin & cut you through. With silk knives, their sharp skill connives to stroke apart flesh & lives. In surgic- al masks, they'll...

My love, accursed, will never let me go. I mourn your loss and all those wasted years. The wars that men have fought for causes, though, Can never bring you back, nor make it so That I can be a stranger...

Come, tell me your story, master of prose. Use elements of the proper language To sway me to your side, and if all goes Well, hallowed will your words be on the page. So many things in common do we...

Spirit of green engendered in liberty Sweeping across the glanded glades Tangled tree spirits in tarnished brief Dancing shades of sunlit lauded leaves. Some reveries of buttercups in a sea of...

Soft warm eyes searching, yearning full plump lips pouting and burning she looks upward in hope and desire burning inside consumed by fire. Big bright eyes warm and true deep inside, her soul shines...

A red-tailed hawk on a bridge railing looks fixed, loosed from its master. Reading one haiku, two bowls of strawberries passed through three centuries. When I looked back, o, the man whom I passed,...

How beautifully does Pisanello seize upon the Vision of Eustachius in paint, where all conjoins together in a whole to please, although a grim foreboding portrait of the saint, for he and family will all...

No one could recall When, in days of yore, The calm York River Had so breached its shore, Or where such places Roiling water went! Remarked one and all, "'Tis a rare event!" So, with great...

Department stores are nice But prices there are high If you've got lots of cash They've lots of things to buy But if you're like most folks Just trying to make do You'll want to save some bucks But...

Final Drip Sun’s broke through, it’s blinding. The crickets fade away, adjourn. The glowing, steaming mist falters; Creeps down to ground to burn. Silhouetted branches Well with tears of...

No Sweeter Spell Those things that I have told you, little things That no one else knows, things I’ve dared not share Fall out my mouth to you as if on wings - Cavorting swallows free upon the...

Translated by Lan Hua The Yu Gong Valley - I Heading into a valley Quite simply traveling With nobody else But Master Li To accompany me Nothing is needed For either of us Except a place to...

One Saturday in Boston, The Beacon of the Bay State. Many people went a'walkin' And came upon a mainstay: Disciples of a Zheng Fa, Falun Xiulian Da Fa. All gathered in a circle, Together for a Hong...

What He and Michelangelo Know "There on the scaffolding reclines Michael Angelo." -Yeats The Hudson’s sunk in this great vale of blue. The Catskill’s hackle bristles in the sky. The setting sun...

Storage Let us lug in more stuff Storage man mumbles hi First year by in a huff Second year wonder why Save dad’s lured fishing hat Mom’s torn wedding picture Worn collar from Push cat Who slept...