An Ocean without Sails Say the nomads, who should know Make no plans today, sometimes No one knows the way to go And in the guts there are no signs A long and distant line of sight No more than steppe as flat as pain, Cloud by day or flame by night Will not appear, […]
Sleep Well Yes, he shot himself in the chest At the age of 37 Success, to peer inside the world Above which hangs the yellow sun by day The other, smaller stars at night Great flowers plant their shadows She saw him at her father’s shop Thought him rude and ugly That red-haired Dutchman, that […]
In Company with Angels Hope in a small bee The immortal leaves of the holly The abdomen, gold and black Tapered and oval Shine in the April sun And the deep green unchanging leaves Stiffened, smooth Unfold and spread to the stream of light Everywhere around and in Death and immortality Dread in us and […]
April Weather The dogwood spreads an April skirt White as would be dyed by fullers, Transfiguration was the word Attended then by Simon Peter But Good Friday was not lucky Heaven’s voice that day was stilled, The belly of Gethsemane The dark of night the Father willed In brightness death, in death a brightness Difficult […]
Another Still On the hillside, tall and green, From a heart no longer clean I rotted softly toward the stream Softly rotted as I bent, Measuring my slow descent, Many seasons came and went Sheltered from the north and west Hungry beetles were my guests Who ate the heartwood from my chest Till my fibers […]
When Christ came in the Hidden Room… When Christ came in the hidden room He still had wounds to show, This world’s wounds are slow to heal As we the living know Even Christ who conquered death But had not yet ascended Showed the wounds in limbs and side, On Earth they had not mended […]
Dawn in Gentle Breathing How lovely are the rooftops of the city While turning sleepers rest beneath the sky, Dreams that rise to scattered night clouds journey, Fragments of the grasped eternal fly Endless trains and ships of sail and motor, Pilots of the wings of morning steer, Those on foot contend with heavy weather, […]
In Which the Dead are Met I saw the man last night Perspective new, resentment gone We decided to be friends He died ten years ago But quarrels end As Christ walked through a door Though it was closed So all go out again Through rooms we have not seen before We do not end […]
One I Knew… One I knew Cursed death As if it were a figure in a hood A skeleton and scythe A visitor, a revenant A walker in the night The death you curse is death in you It wears your face It breathes the sour breath of rage And at the banquet of rejoicing […]
If Not to Hell Suppose that God had let them stay In Paradise for one more day, No sword of fire at the wall For their betrayal and downfall To see one day and then the next Development of intellect, Plow and harrow and the seed, The pulling out of Eden’s weeds The felling of […]
Ancient Ones Blue and green their globes of eyes, The hunting of the dragonflies, Hulls of crystal swivel, catch The swarms arising from a hatch Summon now the ancient ones, The falcons of the Permian, Great with rowing their wing spread, They loop and stitch the sun with thread But now in falls of yellow […]
Come With Me Come with me to where the Milk House Ford Is paved with cobbles, now so long ignored, But once the wagons crossed and climbed a grade To Seventh Street, a country road in shade Blue-white milk that rocked inside the cans Carried up to where a Safeway stands, But then a store […]
The Dinosaur Encyclopedia It makes me calm to see such stupid beasts Who once alive, abundant in vitality, With brains that chickens easily exceed And yet could flourish tranquilly and breed Calming to behold the giant forms, Instinctive reptile brains that drove the limbs, The appetites with intellects so dim, But flatulence as loud as […]
Prester John Somewhere there’s a priest named Prester John The answer to our prayers, our champion, Though we know what heaven we require It isn’t found on Earth, but somewhat higher – He can pull it down and anchor it, A giant air balloon, and there it sits In a week or month it is […]
Luke 6: 1 – 5 As the Lord’s disciples Walked the wheat field Crushing the grain To feed their hunger As the farmer in Kansas Tasted his sorghum Crushing the grain And savoring sweetness So the Lord will crush the harvest grain Lord of the Sabbath Man of our sorrows Before He tastes the world’s […]
Ezekiel’s Vision The creatures of the vision of the wheels Adamant and powerful and real Turned not but to go they would proceed At some immeasurable, unhurried speed Then there were the eyes within the round Rims that rose and fell above the ground, Amber was the radiance they shed, Woke the life within the […]
Leave it Behind I saw the cells of purgatory When I was a child, The menaces of royalty In stiff brocaded gold Stiff with unforgiving pain They moved out from their cells Where prisoners of hate remain Inside their narrow hells Underground along an aisle They reached out for a touch, A neediness which might […]
You Tore a Page You tore a page from Job to roll a cigarette And as you tore the flesh of God from Him So from your dying body will be torn your limb You bragged of how you burned away The flesh of God from the body of His name So will those who […]
Morning Star The silver medal which I wear Weighs not more than dragonflies, Or less, perhaps, the wings, a hair, The azure facets of their eyes Heavy weight there is in loss, The Virgin Mary and the Cross, Easy and as light as love Saint Joseph and the Spirit Dove Heavy as the wooden bar, […]
Enduring One It can’t be called, but it must come As rain arrives when sleepers sleep And wake to hear the roaring of The river’s flood when it runs deep It can’t be named but it must speak The secret name, the unconfined Until itself reveals itself – The naming of it is not mine […]
Can Look at Me Jewel box with cover, Legs, a tail, an eye, Orange, black, discovered Too chilly to be shy Along the trail it blundered Within the darksome night, Gusts of wind and thunders Splendid in their might But turtle in her cabin Of sweet unconscious beauty Calm as any mountain Will never be […]
The River of Egypt They build a dam of sandstone blocks – Manganese washed from the rocks Turns the run a bloody brown So that the snakes and minnows drown Ferns, the pool where minnows swim A summer refuge cool and dim Red and sterile now until The engineers have flushed the fill But if […]
A Splendor For RS Lou is 98 He sits beside a table with a top that shines and reflects As you were standing there, he says, I saw a figure Tall, and in a robe, and with a hood But it was you, he laughs, in your reflection on the table top Only you and […]
Wakes the Dead War will come again No one has abolished war And you are fit for service At home or in the field In the city street Or in the office The sweet wine of the past Gives heavy sleep and vivid dreams But the bitter cup forthcoming Wakes the very dead Pavel November […]
