Is grace a thing revealed in a child? For there’s the effortless beauty of her hands, the dimpled knuckles—kisses, one to ten— her hand in mine for safety in the wild and graceless grown-up world. A tender favor from above, this life entrusted me with grace that knows no price—mine for free, to be… Continue reading A Grandchild’s Grace
Month: June 2018
No Worries for Sale in the Hardware Store
(A Villanelle) Let us know what you need, I just heard the man say. Thanks, I reply, as I push through the door. No worries, he says, mam, and have a nice day. No worries—really? Let's dream big today: maybe in tools we can find cancer's cure. Let us know what you need, I just… Continue reading No Worries for Sale in the Hardware Store
Begin Again to Rig the Mast
In my memory it was more than mother’s ash we delivered to the harbor by the bay, on a warm August eve. It was father who that time needed help to be born, to let go silent cries of grief into the forgiving wind. To breathe deep the scent of pine into his remaining lung.… Continue reading Begin Again to Rig the Mast
The Conch Shell
The coarsened name belies this silken treasure, with iridescent dome and spiral apse. Imagination slips inside with pleasure, to behold the opus of blown glass. Perhaps a queen lived here (not homely pauper), within these walls of vaulted pedigree, with sheets of silk moiré and pearl-lined coffer, and deep in strains of Handel symphony.… Continue reading The Conch Shell
To the Muse of Tragedy
Unhappy is the Muse, Melpomene … so I must stoop, her graces to implore. In dream she wears the face of tragedy, and moans to me to Raise the pen once more and write, and try to write, and writing write, ere your grasp of poetry should flee. She assigns such burden through the… Continue reading To the Muse of Tragedy
Summer Night Refrain
(After Wallace Stevens) The falcon cries and mourns the daylight gone, and cats gone, and the sullen sun— the sun sinking into flashing green of envy, ‘neath the newly minted moon. The falcon to its nest, I know not where, or name of falcon, or name of nameless air. I have often—I may always… Continue reading Summer Night Refrain
Death of a Member of the Organization
Her passing is mentioned. We murmur and whisper— but who here among us remembers her face? Scarcely we knew her, but somehow we miss her. Someone says: Tuesday, I'm certain I saw her— one of the elders, the first at this place. A brief intermission, and everyone whispers and searches his memory, dimmed by a… Continue reading Death of a Member of the Organization
Ode to the Conquering Sea
Grain by grain, you shape the shores, embezzling the past. The sovereignty of earth is yours … your power fathomless. You, with thunderous walls of wave and tempest: infamy. You commandeer the elements, and spare no misery. Kings and captains quaver when they see your phantom face, and lovers lured by your charms drown in… Continue reading Ode to the Conquering Sea