Obituary Instructions
Do not call me an angel, when I'm gone. Mourn me, revere me--or not, as you choose-- But as the human person that I was. An angel is a pure celestial thing Too absolute and too ethereal For earthly things like woe or weariness, For home and...
The Heart Lies Only Once
I trust no more a promise made of words. Not for the many vows long-proven false, Not for the monkey's paw, its fingers crossed, Not for the apathies of old lang syne. There's not a one of us has had no need Of some dishonesties, just to...
Autumn Is A Pagan
Autumn, he is wandering down in the market square Where they are selling scarlet fruit and golden-tassled sheaves Heaped on the fitted cobbles that are cloaked in drifting leaves, And any citizen who likes can see him walking there. He talks of...
A Far Green Country
How often have I dreamed of such a place? How often have I seen those emerald fields, And in that dream, forgotten that I dreamed, That I would wake, had woken, and my life Dissolved into a peaceful deja vu That cannot be remembered? I can...
Ghost of the Western Cretaceous Sea
You look around you and you see the peaks. You see the pine heights and the softer trees That flower on the lower, lesser steeps. You see the little rivers, shire-wise, That gently carve the foothills. And the sweep At last of desert floor....
Ragnarok - III
"These ruins have been empty for too long. They ring no more with scarlet laughing flags. They echo not the peal of sparring arms, Nor cries of joyful brotherhood of war. They were not always silent. Once they shone Undusty, undecrepit,...
Ragnarok - II
The sun was gone. The only light that shone Was a reflection off the fading sky, Yet faded not the gold out of the roof, For, at the touch of darkness, fireflies, Lit crisp like Christmas candles, Appeared and turned the leaves to paper...
Ragnarok - XV
The short pithy statements and interruptions still fitting into the iambic pentameter is profoundly satisfying.
Introduction to The Lone and Level Sands Stretch Far Away
We met two travelers to an antique land. Across the haunted stars they came in search-- While newly mated, newly hand in hand-- Of shattered remnant visage in the dirt. The one has eyes on knowledge and renown And seeks the truth whatever it may...
I Switch Off All The Lights
I switch off all the lights. Those that I love Are all abed, both in the other room And all across the city that I love. I see my way across the meagre room And to the too-tall curtains by the light Of thrift-store stained-glass lamp, by oven...
Ragnarok - XXVII
Somewhere it was autumn. On the shore Wind-kissed and smelling of soft salt there stood But three alone. The sighing pines atop The dunes were the last trees to wear their leaves. Somewhere it was evening. Heavy clouds Were crimson painted...
Ragnarok - V
"Before the sun had crossed the pinnacle Of hours upon the sky's superior side And any nightward momentum had gained, The hall was emptying. The Old Man's words Reverberated still between hard stone Reproachful more the longer that we stayed. Our...