Category: poetry

  • I am my Beloved’s

    DIGGING IN my journal, I found this poem from mid-2000. It was not what I was looking for. In fact, I was horrified at all the other crap I found. But in the middle was this reminder that, as my Mom said, “The Lord never let go of your hand, did he?” Even deep in…

  • In Downers, Hope

    In Downers, Hope

    BY WAY Of method: selected verses from Psalm 88 (BCP ’79 translation – a personal fave) interspersed with the refrain from Psalm 136. Language was ironed out to be in the third person to match the refrain. Not all the verses of Ps 88 are used, just the ones that match my current #mood. The…

  • A Song of Degrees

    SOMETIMESYou are like a child holding me by the handDaddy Look! Daddy Look! Daddy Look!As if you’re as amazed as Iat Birdsor tiny purple flowers on rosemaryOf the swirls of oilOpalescent on puddles in sunlightSometimesYou’re like a docent Showing me from one spectacle to the nextand sharing all that is happeningWatch how this clock turnsor…

  • To the Garden

    To the Garden

    MY BELOVED has gone to the gardensinging hymns sadnessin darkness weepingand he fallsand he cries outand I run from himBleeding sweat Another kisses him Taking him away My beloved has gone to the gardenSeeing him hangingbetween the treesand he gaspsand he cries outand I dare not go to himstrange fruit hangingAnother pierces himand goes away…

  • The Ring

    From my poetic imagination in 1988 or so… Introduction Just Fourteen Lines, but seven tens is allI get! How can I speak my mind in there?My heart of ever-singing joy is fullto overflowing. Why confine it thus? Doth put within a garden mountains tall?Within a sieve how can we hold the air?and if I tried,…

  • Psalm 7×7

    Psalm 7×7

    Sicut Patres Nostri– of Huw, A Lament sitting on the dock of the Bay AS OUR FATHERS before usSo we sit by the watersAs by Babylon of oldby the waters of the BayDo you remember us, Lord? The Saints have told usOf your faithfulness, your loveYour powerYou came with them to defeat their enemiesYou swept…

  • Danse Macabre 2021

    Danse Macabre 2021

    ALL HALLOWS EVE enchanted darkA stroll I took in chillTo see the children on their larkAnd thus a pipe to kill The sunset orange watching passAnd night on coming strongWhen deep from Mission hill and grassI heard a haunted song Then followed I this tunèd curseUntil I found the sourceAnd deep beneath Dolores firsI saw…

  • Sonnet XVI: Harrow

    Alone by Abraham he watching standsAnd turns to John the Cousin as they smileIsaiah grins at Moses laughing whileJudith and Esther wait in garland bands Now righteous pagans rise to hear the trialLao tzu has joined him and Gautama tooThe final stanzas of hells songs are throughAnd yawning gapes the maw of death most vile…

  • I’ve got thy love

    Temptations tempting and the wind is blowingBut I can weather the stormWhat do I care how much it may stormI’ve got Thy love to keep me warm I cannot remember a worst confessionJust list the mortal sins outbut I know I can list the mortal sins out!I’ve got thy love to keep me warm Off…

  • The Danse Macabre (2020)

    All hallows eve enchanted darkA stroll I took in chillTo see the children on their larkAnd thus a pipe to kill The sunset orange watching passAnd night on coming strongWhen deep from Mission hill and grassI heard a haunted song Then followed I this tunèd curseUntil i found the sourceAnd deep beneath Dolores firsI saw…

  • The Shortest Day

    by Susan Cooper So the shortest day came, and the year died,And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white worldCame people singing, dancing,To drive the dark away. They lighted candles in the winter trees;They hung their homes with evergreen;They burned beseeching fires all night longTo keep the year alive, And when the new year’s sunshine…

  • Do You Even Colitas, Bro?

    This is way better than Eagle’s Wings…

  • A Daily Process. A Life.

    +JMJ+ I have a sin I’ve oft confess’dThat drop’d I claim againand in that sin I’ve lost the bestof life’s abundant storeCan yet this I re-repentYou so often re-forgivetho like the waves I can’t relentthis gouging on the shoreThis sin I cast into the flamebut cannot say I’ve doneFor I arise but the sameI’ll struggle…

  • Stopping By Sonic After Church in the Evening

    WHAT town this is I do not knowIt’s exit one eleven thoughSo just one short of one oh threewhere driving I would homeward go My little car, this GMCwon’t need the gas: this stop’s for mebetween the stores and parking lotthis summer evening breezy, free The lights turned down I pick a slotin park the…

  • The Danse Macabre

    All hallows eve enchanted darkA stroll I took in chillTo see the children on their larkAnd thus a pipe to killThe sunset orange watching passAnd night on coming strongWhen deep from Mission hill and grassI heard a haunted songThen followed I this tunèd curseUntil i found the sourceAnd deep beneath Dolores firsI saw a morbid…