Beauty

. . Theópneustos Greek, “God breathed” . The Word of God is absolute— __Or else, some claim, it’s obsolete. Many hold it in disrepute, __Dismiss it as myth and deceit. . I say it’s for the destitute, __For those below life’s balance sheet. Emmanuel is resolute: __He beckons to His...

. A Shakespeare Garden Stroll Of all the blooms, I like the lily best. Might you prefer a deep vermilion rose? Well, each to earth some special good can give; Let’s glean what naturally in season grows. At dawn the tree tops whisk the milky moon, And winking Mary-buds ope...

. Shakespeare's Women for Susan Jarvis Bryant, who has a spiritual home in Stratford-on-Avon It’s April 23rd. The rain is pouring And from the Gulf the Poet can hear thunder. She sips Earl Grey. Her regal cat is snoring. The Folger in her hand fills her with wonder. She gazes...

. On an Otter He slinks beneath, but not for long; surprise! he sprouts atop the pool to stare: his leather nostrils round, his prickled whiskers clean and cruel, with juggled bounce above the wave, a subtle charmer’s circus seal, he cranes his nimble neck to spy the inklings of...

. Rolling the Roads The Days Before Snow Plows . A major storm throughout the night __Of heavy, wet, spring snow. Nor'easter off the coast of Maine __Hence wicked winds did blow. When finally the storm was over, __A six-horse team stood hitched To a double drum snow roller; __Teams...

. The Moment I’m sure of what will happen when The tide resumes its rise again And drowns the beach: Erasing signs that we were here, The water will be sure to clear What’s in its reach. The wind will whisk, as surely, too, Our words away, both false and...

. Carpe Diem Carpe diem quam minimum credula postero. (“Seize the day, trust as little as possible in tomorrow.”) Horace, Odes I:11 We live our lives, we make our plans, and then Both time and circumstances intervene To bring us back to making plans, again. Tomorrow can be only guessed,...

. The Sound of Dirt   in memory of my granddaughter, Valerie (March 30, 2020 - April 20, 2020) Above uneven chairs a canopy Protects the mourners from the blazing heat. It does not shield from view the pile of dirt That yesterday was six feet in the earth. The canopy...

. If Need Be If lawfare prosecutors aren’t proficient, And Biden family crimes can’t be denied, The ballots that they harvest aren’t sufficient, Their policies’ gross failures they can’t hide, If truth leaks from behind the censor’s curtain, Fake news is obvious despite the show, Don’t worry Democrats---and know for...

. Snowy Egret Here where sunlight sparkle rinses Cypresses whose balding branches Shoulder epiphytic orchids (Cowhorn, spider, ghost, or scented), Tangled mangrove swamp condenses Fortress walls against surf breakage; Leggy roots and finger shoots pry Into algal mats fermented. Spanish moss like pearl-grey hair flows Over knobby knees of pond...

. The Woods Have Waited Anxiously The woods have waited anxiously for me to reappear. I left them when the snow piled high in fall of late last year. The tree trunks have another ring while branches reach for air. What changes have transpired since last fall when I trod...

. To the Evening Breeze When I unbolt the terrace door, He enters quickly, greeting me With kisses on my cheeks and hair As if a friend who'd longed to see My face for countless centuries. As night begins to blacken more And, ray by ray, the moonlight flees, I...

. Lone Musketeer "To be a poet in a destitute time means: to attend, singing, to the trace of the fugitive gods. This is why the poet in the time of the world’s night utters the holy … Poetry is a place marker for the gods in times of great...

. Poem I of the three Quiet and Peaceful Melody Poems by Li Bai The clouds like swirling clothes, the flowers like a face, The Spring breeze brushes railings, dewdrops condensate. If you don’t see her at the mountaintop displayed, Meet there beneath the moon at the terrace known as...

. A Reverie Some days in August there’s a summer hum Of distant outboard motors, or a plane Relentlessly pursuing a puffed cloud, Echoes of past revelers, and then some More silent moments, full of what’s to come. Waves I will see crash shores, cold driving rain, Fast traffic on...

. Old New England Logging Camps My father-in-law oft told me tales __Recalling logging camp— Tough men who cut gigantic trees __In winters cold and damp. Nearly all were bonded Frenchmen, __Who hailed from old Quebec. And pledged that when the winter passed __Back homeward they would trek. Formal schooling...

. Poetry in the Image of God Conjure and weave a calligraphic spell Within the wells of mystic words and themes, And bring to life a voice with tales to tell Of life and death, of laughter, love, and dreams. Conceive, command, contrive, connive, cajole From sweet romance or willful,...

. A Fitful Veil A wanton wave of pallid hail descends from ashen skies. Its drifts are carried through to every nook and peak by lofty winds; abundant, jutted, powdered sheets imbue terrains with bright white hues, as structured flakes display arrays of lustrous reveries. This frigid reign persists. A...

. The Light Under the Door for GGG, in lieu of roses On school days, dark on winter mornings, my mother rose Before us all and in her quiet way imposed Rough order on our little world. I’d lie listening To kitchen sounds—the kettle filled, the openings And closings, porridge...

. Rudolf Hess Deputy Führer found strangled at Spandau Prison, August 17, 1987 Odd winter whirlwinds occupy my brain With telepathic messages I cherish. Dynamic years! Mein Führer cannot perish When august frenzy storms my mind’s terrain, But fever may mean poisoned food. I sensed it. These Allies once starved...

. Sapphire Space and Eden Green "...and they saw the God of Israel; and under His feet there appeared to be a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself." ---Exodus 24 "I saw a new heaven and a new earth" __---Revelation 21 O Son of God, this ground...

. Glimmers Alone in rumination, distant dawn Eludes the desperate aching of my eyes, My senses blunted by a cheerless pall, Upon a cratered landscape, dazed hope lies. . Unbridled chaos there for all to see In unrelenting waves from every side, Strong breakers pound the ever-shifting shore And leave...

. The Emmaus Highway Each day we wake up and we walk to Emmaus, escaping what has, and what may yet dismay us. Returning each evening downcast and defeated. Arising again as this loop gets repeated. We start every journey with thoughts that are clouded, and inch down the highway...

. He Knows Our Hearts The Sunday flocks who sing as glory pours Through fancy glass as lusty organs play, The loner bowed in prayer behind closed doors, The lonely who have lost their will and way--- __He knows our hearts    ____He hears our call   ______He loves us...

. Who Believes in Easter Anymore? "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God . . . For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God...

. Peter’s Story a villanelle I’m standing by the Sea of Galilee And Jesus calls for me to come along With James and John, the sons of Zebedee. I’m with Him as He sets the prisoners free, Feeds the hungry, and instructs the throngs. I’m standing by the Sea of...

. Once Once he was finally dead; once just a piece Of meat nailed to the planks of scabrous wood; Once suffering had done all that it could To him before it ceded him release; And once it seemed that evil no surcease Or reasonable limit understood And thereby the...

. Stations of the Cross . I. Pilate Why, Pentheus, Cambyses, why, Why, Antony, in days gone by, Did you the sons of gods defy? __Well, I your madness share. __Barabbas I shall spare __And must the dread abide __Of Jesus crucified. . II. Disciple  Hence leads the long and...

. The Lilacs on Good Friday Tumult of noontide long ago dismissed— The rent veil unremembered, and the sun Relit, though shrouded in a new eclipse Of rainswept sky. The garden seems to shun That spectral agony of blood and bone; Consigns itself instead to placid sleep Untroubled as the...

. The Lamb “And suddenly there was with the angel a heavenly host saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.” ---Luke 2:14 The lamb looks up and sees a light, a star Or something heavenly, a highness like A lamb’s best dreams.  He...

. Distress Signals an extended villanelle Distressing times are coming round again, And all the talking heads now flap their jaws To say it isn’t if, but rather when.— There is a dearth of good upstanding men, And far too many convoluted laws; Distressing times are coming round again, As...

. Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus I think this velvet dinosaur is fine. Please wrap it up. Does this store still take cash? On Tuesday when my daughter’s son turns nine, This T-Rex really ought to make a splash! Young Jack will throw his arms around my shoulders And then he’ll holler...

. Imagine Mountains For the Sesquicentennial of Robert Frost's birth (March 26, 1874 – March 26, 2024) "Let chaos storm! Let cloud shapes swarm! I wait for form."  ---Robert Frost, "Pertinax" Imagine a mountain’s patient peaks revert to wave-rinsed shoals of sand, that limestone’s undulating streaks or slate stairs crumbling...

. The Line For Ashes Line is long and moving slowly: Step by step, the high and lowly, Halt and limber, shorter, taller, Young and elder, greater, smaller, Plainer, fairer, pallor, color, Father, daughter, mother, brother Creeping toward the mark of dead then Signed across an offered head, an Ember...

. You Do You God’s willing to let you do you despite the fact it pains Him to since you’ll go where you should not go, and do much worse than stub your toe then, when you do, you’ll curse His name although it’s you who you should blame. You’ll ask how...

. The Whiskey Priest based on The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene I stand condemned because I am a priest, Condemned to die by law here in Tabasco, The last eight years of memories I’ve pieced Together show my life’s one big fiasco, For, stupidly, when all priests...

. Queen Esther's Lot for the Jewish holiday of Purim (“Lots”) Oh, to be taken from home’s holy ways, Delivered to a king uncircumcized, And after one grand night, spend endless days With harem women and men feminized— My living God, let this not be my lot. They say cosmetics...

. Change Scrub the rock with glacial ice until the granite’s smooth and bare. Let the river cut through earth until it leaves a canyon there. Let volcanic lava flows raise islands from the trackless sea. Let the wind carve window rocks through which the world’s eyes can see. Earthquakes,...

. March 21st, Saints Cranmer and Bach Archbishop Thomas Cranmer,  burned at the stake March 21, 1556 . Johann Sebastian Bach, born March 21, 1685 . “Upon them hath the light shined.”  ---Isaiah 9: 2 . The shadows of two saints come to my mind As smoke from two extinguished...

. St. Perpetua Eyewitnesses of the atrocity Report that on that Carthage afternoon, Already scourged and gored repeatedly By savage bulls, she fell into a swoon (Of Spirit, so they said), then rose immune To further horror and quite calmly lent Her hand to guide the bloodied sword that soon...