The cumuli reach to the noontime moon.Nuthatch and warbler, starling and cowbird,Fall like the famished on seed and suet.Off their heads today, they trill and drone. When I was a young man, how I would curseThe dullness inhabiting this place.Now I hold my breath so it will not break.I have the . . . . Continue Reading »
I’d chosen English lit with the intentOf studying the writings of the Bard;But I was told he wasn’t relevant,And it was not to be—I took it hard.Intriguing tales he told of kings and queensWere so alive, so perfectly expressed.Appropriation though vents many spleens—These tales must . . . . Continue Reading »
Sleep, baby, sleep, at long last bornIn Bethlehem as once foretold,To parents recently forlorn,To all who yet may be consoled. Sleep, baby, sleep, and do not cryWhen shepherds from the fields appear,Just after angels in the skyHave sung that Christ the Lord is near. Sleep, baby, sleep, you need not . . . . Continue Reading »
The internet may be a gift from God,As the Pope says, a utilityWe can manipulate but not see,Neither tangible nor abstract, an oddReality we can demonstrateBut not touch, invisible as spaceBut informing all around us. Like grace?Something we use but never really understand.At meetings now, before . . . . Continue Reading »
Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts: Twelve Journeys into the Medieval World by christopher de hamel penguin, 640 pages, $45 Illuminated manuscripts remain cultural touchstones of the Middle Ages, symbols of forgotten learning, mystery, and beauty. Unfortunately, they are often locked away in . . . . Continue Reading »
In truth, I was not born to royalty;My power came from pleasure and my smile.I used my supple body to beguileA bookish, awkward prince who spoiled meAnd I became “Great Lady.” Other wivesAnd concubines he kept convenientlyCould never breach the deep affinityBetween us, or the love that bound our . . . . Continue Reading »
The Best American Poetry 2018 edited by dana gioia scribner, 240 pages, $18.99 American poetry lost three greats last year: John Ashbery, Richard Wilbur, and Donald Hall. But it also welcomed A. R. Ammons’s “Finishing Up,” A. E. Stallings’s “Pencil,” and Anne . . . . Continue Reading »
You’d think that after New Year’s boozy kisses,Back-slapping, and effusions in confetti,The last hors-d’oeuvres and passes at the Mrs.Beneath the hanging cardboard amoretti, Time would relax, agree to stay a while,Hang up his sandals, lay aside his shift,And sleep it off until the . . . . Continue Reading »
Storm clouds move in and darken all the house, The morning paper on the kitchen table dim,Where I’ve been reading some reporter’s grouse At things already bad, now growing grim. Most of the prodigies agree with him. I rise to light a lamp, and hear the . . . . Continue Reading »
A shadow of sensation lies therein.The hungered truth is stumbling on the stairs.All pleasure which is measured is a sinand faith misplaced is made of wishful dares.We end up in the sea like all shipwrecks,all bounty in our broken holds are drowned,as memories prolific, fond of sexand drink and . . . . Continue Reading »
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