Thou drowsy god of slumber, Dost
Enslave
my laden lids?
Wouldst bend my lofty brow, to make
Obeisance
at your feet?
You draw me down, unwilling; Un-
Resisting your allure
To dulge in banned deed and lie
In bittersweet respite.
Now falling, falling, drear'ly down
'Twixt cloud on cotton cloud --
Around is still, soft, blackness, close.
I prostrate at your shrine.
— Yes, written under mind-trying circumstances. [April 7, 2001] |
The valiant brow has sunken low,
The fiery eye is dim;
The arm that rose and felled a horde
Now slumps aside astill.
What brawn withstood a thousand swords
Defying stone and steel,
To feathers, cushions, soft and light,
As meek as dead succumbed.
— In Vigilant Effort [January 13, 2003] |
My heart of Thine
Thy sparkling eye, thy cheery laugh
Took of
my heart one half.
The gentleness within thy breast
Won for itself
the rest.
— Undedicated [1995] |
Mock not apples,
Till you taste the scent of its soft white blossom,
Drawn by the sweet allure, ever distant, ever faint;
Till you lift your eyes to its rounding greenness,
Fresh as dawn and bright as morn;
Till you watch it blush in bloom, blazing crimson in the azure sky,
Eternity twixt th' coupled colors hind'ring not their union;
Till at last you see that beauty, like love, fades with avail —
For what more often pours its juice
To sweet our mouths when ere they thirst?
And who our mind and shape did nourish
While from bud to bloom we grew?
And Whose the blood that wet the wood
And watered th' soil whence sprung our souls?
And we but scorn them for the constance of their giving —
For when this you know, may the apple's red more redder seem,
Its sweetness all the sweeter be,
And its lovely abundance abundantly loved,
For then will you
Mock not apples.
— After a conversation involving apples [June 19-21, 2002] |
Gath’ring himself
From distant and deep
He curls in rows
And hurls his foam
Against that
ancient foe.
— On rock and sea [September 14-15, 2004] |
Roaring silence, you dim deafening din,
Sound in my head unuttered speech.
Cataracts of waterdrops, each drowning each,
Thoughts on thoughts all brought to naught.
Where fewer words would wanton wander
Sweeps this bittersweet waterfall.
Watch and smile the watery while
My speechless sounds roar in silence.
— More than an awkward
moment [February 18, 2005] |
Two like-minds meet and mate
And breeding make
A marvelous more than
One mind doubled.
— Math of procreation [2005] |
marble eyes set in stone
long they look but they don’t see
they see and see but don’t see me
I know you think of me
what do you know of me?
I search your eyes for me
what do I see?
unspeaking eyes, a silent stare,
twin pits of pitiless emptiness,
hid from the shade of a sunless day
their lids agape, the eyes stay closed
behind their glassy gates
unblinking blank, they stare
the silent gaze of one dead to me
(close those lids to prove you live.)
how like a frosted pane
hung like a soul in doubt
mirroring the cloud
the handsbreadth to you gapes for ages, stretches
like the tail of a train from the memory of its echo
(look away from me, I know you not.)
— unspeaking eyes (no, it's not about you) [May, 2006]
|
Vouchsafe to me one smile, one word;
'Tis all I need to know —
That though you'll never love again,
At least you did not hate.
— [August 5, 1998] |
Spire of fire -- my rising soul
in the smoke and spark ascending O receive!
On this alt consume me whole!
Breathe my fragrant soul and heave
me, that in thee moving I in thee believe.
— [March, 2007]
|
unloose your garb, your flag, your guise
the body bared yet clothes the soul
the naked soul
by lips concealed, those lips reveal
and riddles of the eye
oh, when shameless souls entwine!
oh, the flame of coupled minds!
why do we hide?
who knows what brutes or bores may lie inside
the foldings of our layered selves?
so speak, not all
let veils be
a mystery stowed, a misery spared
or do you dare uncover /me/?
— [April 24, 2008]
|
