Poetry

. Rattler ---inspired by Master Bedroom, Andrew Wyeth, 1965 The walls and windows unadorned, the bedkept neatly made, the blanket smooth as cream,two feather pillows, perfect for his headto rest against, eyes...

. Libra There in my hand I held a crystal vial Of distillation potent, red, and sweet, By which my broken heart was put on trial, And golden apples scattered at my feet. Ask not the name of him who gave to...

. On Bill Mahrt’s Retirement as Choirmaster of the St. Ann Choir (June, 2024) W e all should thank our God for William Mahrt, I nto whose hands He placed a sacred trust, L eaving to him to keep the aural...

. I Will Awaken the Dawn The birds have yet to echo Their songs across the trees, The sun has yet to whistle Its foggy rays in streams, The dark still holds the world, Creation slumbers on; But now the time...

. True Love On a hill far away, a true love waits, In a place of weathered, broken gates. And though the gates are falling down, One place on the hill is hallowed ground. Nothing moves on that faraway...

. Another Crossroads I have a rendezvous with destiny.It’s at the crossroads of Straight Street and Main.With cardboard sign, that man rules his domain.(Cops do not bother with such vagrancy.)Some iced tea...

. To Her Ghost: a Sequence from Orpheus Looks Back ---in memoriam Emily Desire Gaynor Rothman, 1964-2020 . 1. Breaking Open A sonnet tells the lover’s tale becauseIt is the lover’s sonnet. Lovers loveTo...

. The Magic Trick Another dove spawns from the wizard's hat. A youngster, goggle-eyed, forgets to clap, enchanted by the spell. With every flap this spongy creature makes, he wonders at the skill required to...

. Cloth of Destiny From his jail cell, he preached civility— despite the agony centuries had brought. Proud Rosa occupied a seat; though fraught with risk, that act preserved her dignity. We dreamed of equal...

. Anticipating President Trump’s Golden Age Unburdened from that which has recently been. An era of progress about to begin. Mending the messes afflicting our nation. Ending the slow...

Free People In some sense, free people have no needOf poets to give their speech a better voice.But freedom wanes without great art and heedOf powers that will enslave us with rejoiceIf only given a chance....

. Stones for My Parents I didn’t want to come. How sad it sounded To kneel beneath a hazy sun surrounded By strangers’ graves---grim watchmen for the bones Of those who’ve crossed the Bridge. The ghosts...

. Whoever Am I? Preface to His Poetry .by Prudentius (c. 4th century AD)translated by Margaret Coats If I see clear, through fifty yearsI’ve lived. The seventh after them appears to wheelAround as we enjoy...

. The Hectic Life _Sometimes we get discouraged _With life and all its fuss, Its raucous moments speeding by _Like children on a bus. _It’s all the hectic worries, _The troubles and the stress, That pull us...

. Death Is But a Passing A death is but a passing from one world into another, A change of state, a change of place, a starting to discover, A test of fortitude perhaps for those I leave behind, A change of...

. Pearls or Swine? Pray show me how to tell a pearl from swine. I have a thirst for sanity to slake. I seek a clue---a firm not fluid sign To steer me from the sway of all that’s fake. While Einsteins whine...

. Best of the Windy City Nation’s hub and culture center, O’Hare Airport, millions enter. Stunning architecture sites, The awesomeness of Frank Lloyd Wright; Union Stockyards fed the nation; Second City...

. Elusive Illusive Art Where are the pure, illusive works of artthat bubble upward from the deep unknown?Where in this world are worlds Art sets apart? Duct tape? A banana fresh from the cart?Renoir would...

. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF6v6ES3FMU . This is song was originally a poem published by the Society of Classical Poets in March, 2018. . The Day the Poetry Died Wonder why poetry is in...

. Four Newsy Limericks . A pedophile, if you should see one, Must not be reported. The reason? __It could be your fate __That you’d be charged with “hate.” A crime worse by far than to be...

. A Pleased Jaques ---after a soliloquy in Shakespeare's As You Like It At first there is the infant, grinning widebecause he has escaped his nurse's armsand her chagrin, in short shirt takes his stridearound...

. My Soul Is at Home in the Depths of the Ocean My soul is at home in the depths of the ocean; My soul is at home in the cosmos above, Always adventuring, seeking to grow and Wreathing my body in infinite...

. O Delta Smelt O Delta Smelt of silver scale, O threatened gem of fin and tail, In brackish waters made just so By crimson hands as ill winds blow, Your saviors sing of Toad and Whale. As fires rage and...

. The Lemon Tree We leave the house, the nurtured lawn is gone; The garden still resembles lifeless works Of abstract art; at times banana leaves Seem painted by a brush. I look upon The fruiting lemon tree, a...

. Out in the Open The slanting rain comes on and on! The cold drops blear and blur the sun When they hang in my eyelashes. My heavy stomp in the mud mashes The leaves and twigs and mud together. I plough on...

. Payday Before the crash, the market looked so strong. I doled out cash and credit, buying in While others sold. But, sadly, I was wrong About this, confidence my greatest sin, And I have duly suffered, if...

. Magna Lex ---to the choirmaster, a Psalm (19) of David. . I The heavens herald God’s resplendency; The skies above display his artistry. By day the discourse spills like falling rain; Deep verities the...

. Let There Be Light From beyond, there came the Word—a cosmic “Om”That pierced the void with one colossal bang of sound,Releasing undulating waves of hallowed humThat thundered through the geodesic grid...

. Unnoticed and Unknown Unnoticed and unknown, she passes through The homeless strewn along the downtown street. Unnoticed and unknown by people who Drive past in cars where high-end Niked feet Press...

. Emergent Occasions “And even angels, whose home is heaven, and who are winged too, yet had a ladder to go to heaven by steps.” —John Donne, Meditation II, Emergent Occasions __Affliction is a sea, a...

. Three Cascading Endings on Fallen Civilizations I. Everywhere, the sands are endless. Look: A joke is made of all my glory. On Stone once sculpted in my image, my High authority, my grandest works’ Marks,...

. Winter Night A full moon fills the sky with lustrous light And gives the vault of heaven in the night A golden sheen that gilds the cloudy wisps That drift across the sky like phantom ships. The moon's glow...

. My Inner Attorney "Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord,...

. Two Idylls by Bion of Smyrnatranslated by Joseph S. Salemi . Idyll V Great Cypris stood before me in a dreamy hazeHolding by her fair hand the hand of baby DesireWhose head hung heavily downward, in an...

. . None for All Backbones wilt and waistlines grow; Brightness dims as diodes glow. It’s history’s course, a simple fact, Declared with pride—or else with tact. Vigor falters, wits regress; The...

. Healing Hands ---in appreciation of the care provided (free of charge) by the NHS, the National Health Service of the UK, while I was hospitalised as a pain patient. I thank the Lord for healing hands,...

. Happy ---for B.K. A ground to play, a set to swing, A slide to slide, a bell to ring: She walks the way of there and then. “Hap-py,” she says; “hap-py,” again. A ball for foot, a nut for...

. Watch Out! Now, “The Three Little Pigs” is a tale More for cautioning than for amusing: Learn its lessons and you may prevail; Heed them not, and you may end up losing. For we, none of us, live in a...

. A Hero in My Head Though never even in the war he loomed A hero there.  At least in my blond head, Our father braved it out where Jap planes zoomed And zapped his buddies.  All but him were doomed To bit...

. The Adoration of the Peacock ---on The Adoration of the Magi by Fra Angelico and Fra Filippo Lippi The world is a-gawk at a gaudy surprise, for kings walk on foot while the commoners ride, and I, though a...