Each one a tiny world
Of monumental troubles
And how they all unfurled:
"The desert - Cairo - jaunty -
A blue room and a whore -
And so I said to Monty -
And so we won the war!"
Published online: Snakeskin, UK, August 2008
August 25, 2008
OLD SOLDIERS
Sitting blowing bubbles,
Each one a tiny world
Of monumental troubles
And how they all unfurled:
"The desert - Cairo - jaunty -
A blue room and a whore -
And so I said to Monty -
And so we won the war!"
Each one a tiny world
Of monumental troubles
And how they all unfurled:
"The desert - Cairo - jaunty -
A blue room and a whore -
And so I said to Monty -
And so we won the war!"
August 8, 2008
The Score So Far - 45
One of the joys of getting my poetry published has been to realize a) how diverse it is, b) how careful I have to be in sending the right stuff to the right place:
Bleak, sarcastic: Ambit
Flippant, silly: Snakeskin
Landscapes as expressions of personalities or moods: Candelabrum
Religious, Christian: Penwood Review
Religious, non-specific: Rubies in the Darkness
Anti-religious: Ambit
So my stuff is totally contradictory? So what? They're just expressions of different moods or ideas.
Fun, isn't it?
Bleak, sarcastic: Ambit
Flippant, silly: Snakeskin
Landscapes as expressions of personalities or moods: Candelabrum
Religious, Christian: Penwood Review
Religious, non-specific: Rubies in the Darkness
Anti-religious: Ambit
So my stuff is totally contradictory? So what? They're just expressions of different moods or ideas.
Fun, isn't it?
WHY VINES?
Why vines on desolate winter hills? we ask;
The chill bird seeks—a fruitless, wormless task;
But still, with faith from deeper knowledge grown,
The calm vine-grower renovates his cask.
As vines in winter store, and bloom in spring,
Our hearts, though dull, absorb, later to sing;
Grapes ripen, and are picked, ferment to wine;
Our sweet-grown works, inspired, true knowledge bring.
Our wheat-yield’s up, and Science we exalt,
And say life’s pointlessness is not its fault;
And wonder why our bread’s so tasteless now—
Forgetting that we are ourselves the salt!
So we learn Triad, Twelveness, Mystic Seven,
In seeking knowledge for a rise to Heaven;
As with the best in West we didn’t rise,
The dough we are with Eastern yeast we leaven.
As wine aspires to grape, water to wine,
The guided mass aspires to the Divine;
We only ask the guidance of the Mass
To further our intention to refine.
As Calyx turns the petals to sun-glance
Chalice turns flower of Chivalry to Lance;
The purple grape foretold impassioned Christ,
The shared Cup turns and feeds us in the Dance.
Choose faith as you would choose a favourite star:
The one that’s brightest to you where you are;
Search for your key right here where it was lost,
With light of Tao, or Christ, or Inch’allah.
Only: exemplify by work your love—
Clear the blocked way for those too weak to shove,
Light up life’s scene for eyes to weak to see,
And help transform Below into Above.
The chill bird seeks—a fruitless, wormless task;
But still, with faith from deeper knowledge grown,
The calm vine-grower renovates his cask.
As vines in winter store, and bloom in spring,
Our hearts, though dull, absorb, later to sing;
Grapes ripen, and are picked, ferment to wine;
Our sweet-grown works, inspired, true knowledge bring.
Our wheat-yield’s up, and Science we exalt,
And say life’s pointlessness is not its fault;
And wonder why our bread’s so tasteless now—
Forgetting that we are ourselves the salt!
So we learn Triad, Twelveness, Mystic Seven,
In seeking knowledge for a rise to Heaven;
As with the best in West we didn’t rise,
The dough we are with Eastern yeast we leaven.
As wine aspires to grape, water to wine,
The guided mass aspires to the Divine;
We only ask the guidance of the Mass
To further our intention to refine.
As Calyx turns the petals to sun-glance
Chalice turns flower of Chivalry to Lance;
The purple grape foretold impassioned Christ,
The shared Cup turns and feeds us in the Dance.
Choose faith as you would choose a favourite star:
The one that’s brightest to you where you are;
Search for your key right here where it was lost,
With light of Tao, or Christ, or Inch’allah.
Only: exemplify by work your love—
Clear the blocked way for those too weak to shove,
Light up life’s scene for eyes to weak to see,
And help transform Below into Above.
Published: Rubies In The Darkness, UK, Winter 2005
FOR ELIOT
I guess
Success
Not elation
Or creation
Alone may men not mock;
God bless
T.S.,
Spared the temptation
Of our generation —
Writing rhymes for rock.
Success
Not elation
Or creation
Alone may men not mock;
God bless
T.S.,
Spared the temptation
Of our generation —
Writing rhymes for rock.
Published: Metverse Muse, India, March 2008
August 4, 2008
GOD IS TWO BROTHERS
God is two brothers, one dark and one light,
Riding out Time in a tiny ship;
Half day and half night gives little room;
God knows that a rose, red rose or white,
Is a rose is a rose is a bud is a bloom
Is brown blown petals and a drying hip;
And the length of Time’s budding, blowing park
Walk the arm-linked arguers, Light and Dark.
Riding out Time in a tiny ship;
Half day and half night gives little room;
God knows that a rose, red rose or white,
Is a rose is a rose is a bud is a bloom
Is brown blown petals and a drying hip;
And the length of Time’s budding, blowing park
Walk the arm-linked arguers, Light and Dark.
Published: Ryerson Free Press, Canada, April 2008
August 3, 2008
OLD SAILORS
Two tars talked of sealing and sailing; one said with a sigh
“Remember gulls wheeling and wailing, we wondering why,
“And noting bells pealing, sun paling — it vanished like pie!
“And then the boat heeling, sky hailing, the wind getting high,
“And that drunken Yank reeling to railing and retching his rye,
“John missing his Darjeeling jailing, and calling for chai?
“While we battened, all kneeling and nailing, the hurricane nigh,
“And me longing for Ealing, and ailing?” His mate said “Aye-aye;
“I could stand the odd stealing, food staling, not fit for a sty,
“And forget any feeling of failing, too vast to defy –
“Home-leaving your paint-peeling paling too far to espy –
“All because of the healing friend-hailing, the hello! and hi!
“And, with the gulls squealing, quick-scaling the mast to the sky.”
“Remember gulls wheeling and wailing, we wondering why,
“And noting bells pealing, sun paling — it vanished like pie!
“And then the boat heeling, sky hailing, the wind getting high,
“And that drunken Yank reeling to railing and retching his rye,
“John missing his Darjeeling jailing, and calling for chai?
“While we battened, all kneeling and nailing, the hurricane nigh,
“And me longing for Ealing, and ailing?” His mate said “Aye-aye;
“I could stand the odd stealing, food staling, not fit for a sty,
“And forget any feeling of failing, too vast to defy –
“Home-leaving your paint-peeling paling too far to espy –
“All because of the healing friend-hailing, the hello! and hi!
“And, with the gulls squealing, quick-scaling the mast to the sky.”
Published online: Snakeskin, UK, August 2008
No No Nse Nse
No
No
Nse
Nse
And things like that
May look like nonsense
But there is
No
No
Nse
Nse
No
Nse
Nse
And things like that
May look like nonsense
But there is
No
No
Nse
Nse
Published online: Snakeskin, UK, August 2008
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