Beauty

. Canzone to the Virgin by Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374) Translated by Margaret Coats Virgin beautiful, vested with the sun And crowned with stars, who pleased the Sun supreme So much that within you He hid his light, Love spurs me to speak words in your esteem, But only with your...

. Nature at Peace The feeder for our hummingbird. Was torn down by a bear today. She didn’t growl a single word She just reached up and had her way. And then, as if they owned the place, Two deer sashayed across our lawn. But when, through glass, they saw...

. And Turn Thanks for the twenty seconds of Your crisp, medicinal perspective, Encapsulated in a laugh That shook like a bragging monkey’s ass. Call it a joke, a gentle nudge— It pushed me over some good edge, Literally enlightening: This cobweb world looks bright again. . . Jack Granath's...

. From Heathrow to Houston I heard my words would never change a thing From those who had a nose for senseless stuff. They warned me that my odes would never bring Me joy. They cursed my verse as puffs of fluff— Wisps of worthless whispers in hot air That...

. Habakkuk’s Prayer after Habakkuk 3:2, 16-19; excerpts of the prophet’s prayer as he awaited certain destruction of his nation, Judah, by the Babylonian armies (6th century BC). My Yahweh God, I raise my prayer to you I’ve heard of your renown, your fame. I stand in awe of all...

. More than My Queen My Queen has always been a noble force--- A force for good on chilly English days. Her friendly face, her air of grace---my source Of joy in more than crown-and-sceptre ways. I saw her wave her white-gloved, regal hand When I was nine and knotted...

. Memories of Memorial Day Sad son standing all alone Staring at the marker stone. Father died he never knew--- Died for him and died for you. Widow’s tears upon her cheek. Trembling body feeling weak, Kneeling at her husband’s grave, Knowing that his all he gave. Family planting on...

. Liberty If skies were ever-blue each lustrous day, If moons were in bold bloom each raven night, If life was never fouled by disarray And all beneath the Milky Way was right, __Would we require a tempest’s ire unfurled __To understand the wonder of our world? Do we know...

. Simplicity I’m aching for a vague simplicity: Sophistication’s dainties have grown cold And tepid on the plate and suddenly My tastes lean toward a warm sobriety That feels quite new yet somehow very old. I crave the simpleness of early June: Of bridal wreath still on the branch and...

. Karl Barth Platz 1999 Perhaps we walked the same worn cobblestones, Between the same sheer walls, shops clean and trim, Down the same pathways, past the same old homes, And were startled alike by graffiti sneaking in; And gazed, from heights, at Alps presiding higher Than the tallest smokestack,...

. Press On, Regardless Conduct a full internal audit, Then throw all caution to the wind. Expect a decent measured plaudit No hypercritic can rescind. And if you think you can’t do better It’s time that you should think again. Follow the rulebook to the letter, And pay no heed...

. Sibylline Sonnets for Eastertide See an explanation on what Sibyls are here. The Phrygian Sibyl Speaks portrayed with the resurrection banner or the words “Velum templi scindetur” Jesus, again crying out with a loud voice, yielded up his spirit. The veil of the temple was rent in two from top...

. Where Your Treasure Is “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:...

. Nil Carborundum Illegitimi  On dismal days enswathe yourself in rays, Then flash your splash of sunrise with panache. Such zesty citrus, saffron spun displays Will smash malaise with sassy solar dash--- A glowing grin that lifts your lows sky high… __Nil carborundum illegitimi. Brush off the bleak and bask...

. Free-Fall My life has been in free-fall since the day that I was born. __Through clouds and sunshine, I have flown and soared. The trip has been exhilarating since that birth-day morn. __There hasn’t been a day that I’ve been bored. The longer I keep falling all the more...

. May God Excuse Us If life’s a falling knife then catch the handle... Your every move makes enemies and friends. If life’s a fading flare, a dimming candle, Then slice it up and light up all the ends. And when the sovereign sword swings up above us Like that...

. Formal Poetry Against Free Verse "Modern poetry  modern verse  contemporary poetry  contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Plato in “inventing some extraordinarily powerful images of his own” came up with “notably the poet as Corybant.”  ---Penelope Murray, Plato on Poetry, 9 If poets are like Corybantes inEcstatic dance, then...

. Now Once Again How many years ago, I’ve lost the count, we lay beneath these trees at summer’s end; the orchard left to tend itself for then the children came and seasons tumbled all together, mad delightful swirling years. The days, like fallen leaves, soon swept away to leave...

. Culloden, April 16, 1746 In the Winter of 1745, the Jacobite army of Bonnie Prince Charlie passed through my town of Leek on the way to Derby. This was as far as they got before retreating back to the highlands, chased by the Duke of Cumberland, all the way...

. All Are Numbered Moving along the narrow grassy rows Under a sherbet sky, time seems to be The only place where nothing ever grows Or dies, and grass remains, eternally Quite clipped and orderly. It truly shows That someone, somewhere, sometime gave it care. Each blade of landscape preens...

. The Devoted Angler The river follows on its winding way, And in the angler’s camp above the bank Lilt murmurings arise to greet the day, Appearing now between the rushes rank As rays backlighting flower spikes to grey, And silver flecks in ripples making play Wherever waters lap and...

. https://youtu.be/6gDs63kyLhc . CREDITS Poetry: Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) Voice-Over: S.A. Todd Photos/Footage: Photo of Pharaoh by ArchaiOptix, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License Music: “Elysium ” by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com) Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License . .

. Some Days in the Life of a Bride of Christ “But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.” —Paul, 1 Corinthians 6:17 Some days my Lord and I rejoice __Like honeymooners gay; Some days our joy is still and small, __Like two old heads turned gray....

. Resist Arrest Instead of Arresting Resistance In Denmark, something now is very rotten, As fetid as the food-scraps in the trash That we have, somehow, carelessly forgotten To take outside.  Our mood begins to crash As we reluctantly, ashamed, take heed Of our inured abject incompetence. Some reinvigoration’s what...

. Moments in Marble from Michelangelo’s sculptures; above from left are depicted Dusk, Dawn, Night, and Day Day hustles up, impelled to humanize His world of work by wary energy, To make hours grow, outstripping blowzy noon, With muscles rippling out of royal rest Unneeded, once it ripens reasoned thought,...

. "Tomorrow, at Dawn" Sung in English . "Tomorrow, at Dawn" Sung in French . Tomorrow, at Dawn by Victor Hugo (1802-1885) Translation by James A. Tweedie Tomorrow, when the countryside is kissed by dawn, I’ll leave. For you are waiting there for me I know. Through forests, over mountains...

. Euryalus Describes His Mother In Vergil’s Aeneid, the youthful Euryalus volunteers for a dangerous nighttime raid, asking that his mother not be told of it before he leaves, but that she be cared for, should he not return. He is killed when he attracts enemy attention by making a...

. A Mother’s Worth A mother’s worth, it glows and gleams in eyes. It beams in grins and giggles sent her way. It echoes at the core of coos and cries. It greets a burst of cheers and fears each day. __It battles through the bawl of sleepless zones __Worn weary...

. The Canterbury Tales---General Prologue, Lines 1-18 by Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400) Translated by Evan Mantyk When April’s sweetest showers downward shoot, The drought of March is pierced right to the root Through every vein with liquid of such power And virtue that it generates the flower; When Zephyrus too exhales...

. Mind Games---Three Cerebral Triolets  Propaganda  It wants your mind. It wants you blind. It warps and washes wayward brains. It gains control of humankind. It wants you blind. It wants your mind To cave, to close, no cogs to grind Till not one stain of you remains. It wants...

. The First Spring Rain a rhupunt The first spring rain ends winter's pain; new growth again, the earth revived. Soft melting snow will quickly go, small brooks will flow; life has survived. Frost leaves the ground, joy does abound, feelings profound from hope derived. Grass turning green so fresh...

. This, Too, Will Pass This, too, will pass--- They like to say. This pain now here Will fly away. This, too, will pass--- This broken heart, This dear, sweet loss--- Tears me apart. This, too, will pass--- A mindset, sure, To meet life’s trials And thus endure. This, too,...

. Incense I cast my words aloft this way and that, Imagining they’re incense offered sweet And fragrant, curling in their brief conceit, Their wisps as agile as an acrobat; And think of priests the Covenant begat, Who when they did their solemn God entreat, The incense was a carrier...

. Guardians of the Sunset III. The years go down like liquor.  Drink and pour and drink again, and laugh or sigh, and look behind you at the dark streets of the past, the rows of street lamp dandelions.  You take so long to cross a portion of the vast...

. A Sonnet for My Nephew Your mother held you first, and then your dad, And after that, the nurse. But then: your aunt. You curled inside my arms—such a small lad— My heart was yours right then. You did enchant Me so, and I knew then that you and...

. May Day Note: Maypoles were a feature of ancient Roman festivals to mark the renewal of Spring. The feast days of Saints Philip and James were celebrated by the Church of England in May.   Having hewed a length of pine, __They drove it in the ground; Then word was...

. Apollo’s Lament He pounds his naked chest and looks for bones Suspecting that the bay tree is a sham. At last he falls upon his knees and moans “My little doe, my tender dove, my lamb!” He scans the forest but he knows the truth: His longed-for Daphne has...

. Apocrypha Two orbs in hand—one large, one small— He climbed the tower to the top. He let them go and watched them fall, And those below who saw them drop Were dumbstruck when they hit the ground With a loud thud at the same time. The clerics in the...

. Seasons of Change Our fervour was apricity’s embrace. As neon streaks awash a Nordic night, it flared unfettered through the carapace of clotted clouds to cast its fluid light. Accrescent cravings bloomed in brumal air. We whispered vows in springtime’s silver moon. As fireflies, we sparked a summer flare,...

. Photo of Uluru / Ayers Rock by the Poet Uluru / Ayers Rock The winter outback chill of mid-Julys Cuts to the bone as waning suns conspire To send their sparks through darkening cobalt skies That set the Dreamtime Uluru on fire. The silent, preternatural display Is backlit by...