On the Eve of Advent
On the eve of Advent Jupiter ascends / As is his custom at dusk this time of year / Then Mars and the company of Orion / And all the dutiful stars awake, arise
Read MoreTag: Poetry
A Great Thanksgiving
Start the day right by giving thanks to the Lord
And decorating with leaves, fruit, and gourds
Preparing the food as you sing
That’s part of what makes a great Thanksgiving
Autumn: Do I Turn the Thermostat Forward
The thermostat that I set for seventy / In the August heat was entirely too warm / And now in November it’s entirely too cold / Why can’t thermostats get the temperature right?
Read MoreAn Artless Meditation on the Joyful Mysteries
May we all hear the Angel’s silver voice
In spite of ourselves…
The Result was Silence
If you have stood your watch throughout the night / To guard a clothesline of national importance / Dug foxholes only to fill them up again / And then patrolled through long days in the heat
Read MoreThat Final Trip
A friend wanted to visit the bones of her people / And give their graves some weed-killer and tending / I was deputed to follow along: / Cemeteries are dangerous places
Read MoreCelebrate All Saints Day
Come on everyone, get up and dance / God has given us a wonderful chance / Sing and shout, hip hip hooray! / It’s time to celebrate All Saints Day!
Read MoreAutumn is Life Writing its Autobiography
Autumn is not the end of summer, nor yet / Is autumn the beginning of winter; it is / Itself. Autumn is not between anything / Autumn is the culmination of seasons
Read MoreUpon Reading
At least I think I read it, did I not? / The book exists and was read, but by whom? / I’m beginning to feel that I’m the trousered ape / Who feels that a slide rule is for scratching one’s back
Read MoreThe Road, The Tao, The Way
There is of course the Road, the Tao, the Way / And traveling it is more difficult with age / Or maybe now it travels more for us / But still the Road, the Tao, the Way leads on
Read MorePsalm 102:7
I lie awake; I am like a lonely sparrow on the housetop
awaiting the whisper of dawn to caress the vacant charcoal peaks, asleep.
Breakfast in Constantinople
The waitress greeted us in Saint Petersburg / We drank strong coffee in Alexandria / Our omelets were served in Cambridgeshire / As we gossiped in the narthex of Hagia Sophia
Read MoreEcology (Psalm 84)
Let my verses meander, woven around fields / of hallowed kindness, their hummed liturgies
Read MoreAn Active School Meeting in Progress
This morning I drove by my old school / A staff meeting was being committed inside / Perpetrating crimes against intelligence / “HELLO MY NAME IS” / 10,000 years of civilization?
Read MoreCurious Events
At the gas station I bought a Chinese rocket / And worried that a lottery might fall from the sky / I tucked away the ticket into my pocket / Or tucked my pocket into my ticket – but why?
Read MoreThe Passing of The Queen
Few constants obtain in our shifting world / And even those constants must leave us at last / Even as the mists of September obscure / The golden days of a summer now past
Read MoreThe Prince-Poet-Cat of Gatineau, Quebec
In an ice-cream summer in the long ago / I met a marvelous cat in Gatineau / Pushkin by name, a fastidious Russian / His shiny fur coat never needed brushin’…
Read MorePoetry in the Desert
A story told about Field Marshal Wavell is that while throwing some things into a bag for a field tour of soldiers defending India from invasion by the Japanese, he asked if anyone had seen his Browning. When someone pointed out that he was wearing it – his Browning 9mm – he said that he was looking for his copy of the poems of Robert Browning. In all his campaigns, Wavell always carried poetry with him.
Read MoreLight Raindrops Upon the Withered World
After months of dreary drought and heat / Light raindrops fall upon the withered world
Read MoreLike Candles When They Quietly Go Out
When we were young / A friend once showed me a passage in a book / In which the monks of a certain cloistered order / Were often blessed with wonderfully peaceful deaths / Like candles when they quietly go out
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