Beauty and Truth

Beauty and Truth

                Beauty and Truth Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  “I have never seen a man who loved virtue as much as he loved beauty.” ~ Confucius Men love the truth . . . perhaps . . . if...

Black, Not Shining, Yet the Truth Strikes Through

Black, Not Shining, Yet the Truth Strikes Through Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  The tiny fly or wasp-like beast walks six Legs straight across my screens, computer’s, then My phone’s.  He pauses for a...

 A Sea of Floating Crystal Balls

    A Sea of Floating Crystal Balls Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  The reason poetry has always been Required is that most people lack the power To spell out utterness as perfect kin To Tuesday nights,...

Chalk Hill Blue and Duke of Burgundy

Chalk Hill Blue and Duke of Burgundy Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  Eyes need to let the butterflies go in And settle where they will inside the chest Or brain, in memory, or spread wings within The...

Undarked Revelation

                 Undarked Revelation Ottawa physicist challenges dark matter’s existence, doubles universe’s age (msn.com) No dark, dark matter can be found inside The universe though stars swell vast beyond Imagining.  The cosmos being wide Enough to...

Stones of Venice

            Stones of Venice Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  We call the blinds Venetian but of course If opened they don’t yield Venetian views. They block the sight of English boredom, force Much...

Amorino

                             Amorino   Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem   I loved to buy the things that she deserved, Venetian and Parisian in style, The Positano, surcoat-like coat served With jewellery...

All

                         All Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  “One touch of nature makes the whole world kin” ~ William Shakespeare, Ulysses in Troilus and Cressida Electron microscopes can...

A Day before the Great God’s Sabbath

A Day before the Great God’s Sabbath Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem                   “By meer playing go to Heaven” ~ Henry Vaughan (April 17, 1621 – April 23, 1695) My brothers, cousins  (I, too) went...

Stalking

                     Stalking My Prospero does not need Plato’s thought Or Jesus’s.  No Buddha is required. My cat ignores the mouse that he just caught, Walks past it where it, crumpled, lies expired, Ignores it since it isn’t any fun Once crushed.  It isn’t that he...

Secular Satori

             Secular Satori Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  “a chance to live in the eternal world now, in ‘Eternity’s glad sunrise.’ ”   R. H. Blyth, Zen in English Literature and Oriental Classics p....

Greyfriars’ Bobby Notwithstanding

  Greyfriars’ Bobby Notwithstanding Let others mourn when we have died, when I Have died, if that is what their inner selves Require.  Some humans may decide to cry Yet cool in sepulchres along the shelves Are jars that hold the final outcome to Such tears.  Black...

Prospero and Death

                          Prospero and Death Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  When Prospero with black and white fur, pink Of nose and subtle green his staring eye Greets God and Christ, he’ll meet them...

Compassing the Truth

      Compassing the Truth  Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  “Suffer the little children” ~ Jesus Christ   If you are tempted to fly up to truth, Consider bending down instead where you Might find a...

Magnolia x Soulangeana Floral Deposits

Magnolia x Soulangeana Floral Deposits   Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem          The buds that die before they blossom fall On asphalt and the common.  Even pinks, The whispered stripes of pinks  are...

Everest and Oceans

                Everest and Oceans   Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem    Because I have you, now I want to climb Among the mountains known as love, the peaks That glisten with romance and hear the chime Of...

Moon’s Climb

                   Moon’s Climb Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  The purpose of the moon is not to rise At twilight or to signal start of night, To mark the end the day or make more wise The half light of...

For Charles Randall Stanfield on 71st His Birthday

For Charles Randall Stanfield on 71st His Birthday Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  If suns were smog and smog were suns, if fog Were clean and bright yet suns’ corona’s dim Like haar, if deserts’ sun...

“Her voice was ever soft, Gentle and low”

“Her voice was ever soft, Gentle and low” Cordelia’s mistake was in her taut Mouth, silence, she refusing praise where praise Was needed, truth expressed as praise.  She ought To have found other methods, other ways To counter sisters’ flattery.  She gives Lear...

Foldable Blossom Doom

            Foldable Blossom Doom Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  Because his fancies were not quite the norm, The notion of hydrangeas being like A mad old lady, mind and heart in storm, Had never...

Blue

                           Blue Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  ‘But gang she east, or gang she west” ~ Robert Burns; “The Blue-eyed Lassie” as published in The Analectic Magazine September 1813 This...

Awe of the Heavenly Bodies

       Awe of the Heavenly Bodies Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  The moon would kill to have a face the shape And beauty that yours shows, the smoothness, force, The splendor of your dazzle with escape...

Annie Dillard’s Appetite

          Annie Dillard’s Appetite   Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  When God set up wide worlds, He did not know, Or, if He did, that makes things even worse. The splendor of the slaughter, black light...

Buckle

                      Buckle Sometimes the language sings much wiser than The mind.  The mind is left behind by lines That supersede the poet and the man. He knows as soon as they are written, signs From heaven or Nirvana nimbus-like, Unknown high astral bodies...

Unthinking Music of the Stars

Unthinking Music of the Stars “night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.” Psalm 19:2,3 Near infinite in number, stars, these spheres Both vast and small, are singing to the ranks Of angels and archangels, to...

Supposedly Mute Swans Sing Only When They Court

Supposedly Mute Swans Sing Only When They Court Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  In nature hymnal words are absent, no Necessity for them in wildebeests. No piety is needed.  Creatures know Their niches. ...

Ho Ho (Hum) Seven

        Ho Ho (Hum) Seven As boring as an alto’s pulsing throat (Or tenor’s) singing Schumann lieder, or “Four Seasons” on your phone, an anecdote Your uncle has retold ten times before, A James Yawned movie comes around again. They’re all the same, same...

Lunar Martyr

        Lunar Martyr Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  He thought of just this one, this one, this one — Again — Again — AGAIN — as if insane With love, or something, powerfully as a gun That blasts away...

Not Just Stars

  Not Just Stars Your eyes glow, not just stars , more moon and sun.        The stars and sun are more than fire, the moon Of water made.  Its frozen waves are one With ever meltingness and change too soon Yet they are overarched by solar heat And North Star fixity. ...

The name that can be named is not an eternal name.

The name that can be named is not an eternal name. ~ Laotse Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  A flower exists in some place far from men, Or far from where its colors and its smell Can be rejoiced in.  Far...

Continuum

                 Continuum Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  The lotus rises through the pond but first Through mud.  The stalk, the floating leaves, the flower Itself arise.  In silences they burst In...

Tuesday as Spiritual Breakthrough

     Tuesday as Spiritual Breakthrough Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  The master teacher of the Zen monks tells One monk to jump to foaming whirlpool waves. He jumps and finds himself in no deep wells...

Divine Silence

Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  Japan has gods.  They know their place.  Their place Lies set in leaves and flowers, in anger’s sea. These gods all know one law of Stoic face And steel, as rigid as those...

More Lovely than a Golden Spiral

  More Lovely than a Golden Spiral Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  The chambered nautilus propels his shell Through nighttime waves.  He sails much longer than His cousins, octopus and squid.  The swell...

Epics and Roads

               Epics and Roads The epics of the Greeks, then Roman roads — They go — and go, and last — and last — . The Appian Way’s length — and Olympic odes — Seem destined for forever.  Histories cast From ancient lyres and interlocking stones Now teach the...

Artificial Sintelligence

           Artificial Sintelligence Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  The world will hardly be the world at all In coming years and decades, never mind Millennia.  Reality will sprawl Away from humans. ...

Wide and Narrow in Their Fate

  Wide and Narrow in Their Fate Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  Aurora borealis touches dreams Of men and poets as they wander through The realm of loving, hopeful planetary streams Of matter from the...

Song-like Language

               Song-like Language Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  A song-like language unsurprisingly Has only partial overlap with tongues Of spoken dictions. Tantalizingly It comes from heart and not...

Stretching

                      Stretching The only beast which needs a sense of praise And prayer, the animal which wants to turn the sky To similes and metaphors, then raise The universe to something more than eye Can find, the one who wills out poetry And art decides he...

Argument at the Christmas Dinner Table

Argument at the Christmas Dinner Table “A group of hyenas can devour an entire zebra, leaving no leftovers—not even the bones— in under half an hour. However, this feeding frenzy comes at a cost; hyenas rip, claw, and fight with one another over the remains of their...

Hitler Wrote Mein Kampf in Prison… Achtung! 

Hitler Wrote Mein Kampf in Prison… Achtung!  The greatest wrong that nations can commit Is sucking up to politician crime And voting for a steaming piece of shit. They freely choose a human made of slime And put that dollop in the place where right Should be.  They...

Freedom and Love

                 Freedom and Love When Woman cannot hold her Man, she keeps His essence in her womb, held tight and then Extrudes it as his son.  The lover seeps Away as years go by—the way of men. The woman has her son she took as seed From him, though.  Years go by...

Fragments of a Golden Glimpse

    Fragments of a Golden Glimpse Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  Perhaps light glints (that run the eyelid’s rim Of midnight), blue in arc above the stare (Black circle perfect as a priestly hymn) Mean...

Scars

                          Scars Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  Hard scars called love express tectonic plates Beneath the surface of the heart that move In pain.  These scars well up between the straits...

Abhishek Awake and Dreaming

   Abhishek Awake and Dreaming Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  He rides along inside a sleeper car With wilder jungle greens of India in rain Inside his eye.  His home, his village far Away, still,...

Nibbling

                            Nibbling Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem     When ugliness and beauty meet in shape Of flesh, the one attempts to reach with charm, A smile of wishful lips, a touch like crepe...

E-scrapbooks of Holiness

     E-scrapbooks of Holiness Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  The images consulted most are those Of love, well, lovers.  Highest in the search Are photographs where we and lovers pose. Clichés count...

Ritual and Stylization

Ritual and Stylization   Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  “There is no God and Mary is His Mother.” ~ George Santayana   “Some keep the Sabbath going to church” ~ Emily Dickinson   It doesn’t...

Sublimation from Solid Straight to Neon

  Sublimation from Solid Straight to Neon If we could turn you into something pure, We might choose poetry, or paint, or stone. The words might cleanse out faults then scalpel cure. The words would take away all gasp and moan. The painting on the canvas would not...

In a World Weltered with Religions and Atheism

In a World Weltered with Religions and Atheism Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  How far can we still look with eyes of faiths In spite of doubt and science twined like chains Of platinum and gold among...

More Sacred than a Spiritual Crocus

More Sacred than a Spiritual Crocus   A blossom holds more steady than the flare Above a candle in the air of night. As steady as a young nun’s golden prayer Before the altar, yellow blossom’s height Is reaching up for God or higher to Agape love itself...

Holding In

                     Holding In She lies and looks at him, his now closed eyes, His slightly glossy eyelids with a glint Of brown and purple in their shine.  His thighs She does not look at.  They contain the hint Of forceful thrusting still, a hint of hair Involved,...

Haste Maketh Debased

     Haste Maketh Debased “Brevity is the soul of sh*t.” One thing I really loathe about the way Most people now communicate online With friends and family is that textings say As little as is possible, decline To say enough to make the meaning clear. Be...

Notre Dame’s Acoustics Taken Up with Enoch

Notre Dame’s Acoustics Taken Up with Enoch The polyphonic music of the time When lords and ladies and archbishops ruled, Rose made of notes and lines that as they climb Evaporate.  The melodies were cooled, It seems, to nothingness at last, though lower notes Would...

In an Ivory Attic

              In an Ivory Attic Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  My ivory attic sees me writing lines Alone both day and night.  (It isn’t like Young Chatterton’s.’  The flash of light that...

Surrounded by the Wasteland, in this Instance Sleep

Surrounded by the Wasteland, in this Instance Sleep   He sleeps alone.  We always sleep alone— All humans sleep inside their nightmares, dreams And souls.  Our separate spirits sleep and moan Like Caesar feeling Macedon’s regimes Extended far beyond this Roman’s tiny...

A White Magic Spell

               A White Magic Spell   If voiceless, herons Would be near non-existence In this morning’s snow. ~ Chiyo (Englished by Phillip Whidden) This morning on the snow of mountain, field And path, no creature stirs, no see-through breeze Moves here among...

Bree and Dawn

           Bree and Dawn The nine year old boy, Curving butterflies zig zag Before and behind.                                             ~ Phillip Whidden The only perfect human beings are . . . Our nine-year olds.  They’ve learned the sweetness we Had longed...

Can Freedom Be a Creed?

       Can Freedom Be a Creed? So…never mind twinned paradox (yet not Just two-word oxymoron).  “Freedom ruled,” Is what the English peasant poet taught. This writer did not need his knowledge schooled. John Clare, he should have been called Clear. ...

Defiance of the Elegance of Cosmic Laws

Defiance of the Elegance of Cosmic Laws   Snow almost hovers When wind and breezes die down Above settled white.                         ~ Phillip Whidden The snow is tempted towards belief its soul Has travelled near eternity when close To settling on a winter’s...

Ricocheting Tableaux

         Ricocheting Tableaux  The margins of the manuscripts are filled With wonders, painted rhapsodies of flowers And fictive leaves.  The vellum sheets are trilled With monks’ imaginings.  A Book of Hours Has farming in the Très Riches fields of France And yet our...

Higher Still and Higher

          Higher Still and Higher   Cold saw and breeze, birch Branch:  sawdust rises up on        Winter wind to limbs.                                ~ Phillip Whidden The birch tree is an innocent, its white Increased by splatches.  Maybe even black Is innocent the...

“Tarry,” is Spring’s Command

     “Tarry,” is Spring’s Command Yet if we grieve, the spring that blossoms will Not come as wishes quick or slow will leap. The grief of spring will hasten just the spill Of cherry blossoms.  Spring will only creep Back when its universe returns again. Our grieving...

Pulsating

                     Pulsating   Between the regions of the questions asked And answers given, or not given, lie The deeper thoughts.  True seers we have tasked Speak silently, unknown or known.  We ply Them like a medium who calls the dead. A shadow has no substance...

Arrogance Lurking in an Haute Bourgeois Reptile

      Arrogance Lurking in an Haute Bourgeois Reptile     ‘I am sure he will be a very good poet some day, and he is a very loveable creature’. Siegfried Sassoon writing to Robert Graves as quoted in Jean Moorcroft Wilson’s Siegfried Sassoon,  the Making of a War...

Wide-eyed Fur among the Roses

    Wide–eyed Fur among the Roses   A spoiled westerner decided he Would have a restaurant meal delivered to His home, a spicy Indian one with ghee Or maybe just a pizza baked with goo All over it.  A speeding senseless van Ate up the street and killed my Bene,...

We Break the Law Together

     We Break the Law Together We break the law together for the sake Of beauty.  Beauty turns our sin to love. The love is sacred and is full of ache And space, yes constellations far above Mere moons and decalogues.  We break the law Because the body and the soul...

Dayspring

                     Dayspring The morning moon is setting. It is still And not. The light is light and fading but Not fading. Dawn is hovering in the chill Of lunar death that is not death. Life is cut From death as if a sliver of a far Lost moon, though cryogenic in...

 Ravishing Poetry

                Ravishing Poetry True poetry is not just beauties, thoughts Or feelings.   It is something other, more. It listens more like complicated knots Awaiting Alexanders for its roar To be released.  The poem, once unloosed Inside the non-Platonic cavern of...

Immaculate Conception

  Immaculate Conception   Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry  contemporary verse  modern poem  contemporary poem Though nature hovers in our minds and spans The spaces far beyond the Hubble eye, Though poetry, a telescope that scans The universe,  can take...

Untroubled Gaultier Green

            Untroubled Gaultier Green The May-time trees put on their costumes, green, Green, green,  and greenish yellow, style.  A few Are copper beech in color.  All have sheen Of silk and satin, every one.  Their coup D’etat is total like a Paris show Composed by...

Someone Special

                         Someone Special Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry  contemporary verse  modern poem  contemporary poem Who has to be a special someone when He knows that he is loved?  Perhaps some sun God loves him.  Maybe he knows more than men...

“The Very Stones Will Cry Out”

“The Very Stones Will Cry Out” Modern poetry  modern verse contemporary poetry  contemporary verse  modern poem  contemporary poem       Contemplative are agates, geodes too, And also quartz within them.  All are filled With meditation colored with the blue Of...

Yet Poetry

                        Yet Poetry Yet poetry is after all just lines Of words, yes even when the words are sung By angel voices in a choir that shines. The words are words when coming from the tongue Of Gabriel or Abaddon, not more       [Gabriel and Abaddon] Than...

There’s Lucky and There’s Lucky

   There’s Lucky and There’s Lucky Modern poetry  modern verse contemporary poetry  contemporary verse  modern poem  contemporary poem A girl with eyes involved with awe, and stroll Of goddesses, and heart that angels knew Who sang with Gabriel, would have a soul To...

The War Poet

        The War Poet “a rich nature … fighting eagerly towards the truth.”   “I have a rendezvous with death At some disputed barricade” ~ Alan Seeger Alan Seeger Not all war poets are the same as Brooke. Not all are like a cabinet display Of Royal Worcester...

Empty Charms Replaced His Stunning Charm

Empty Charms Replaced His Stunning Charm — Two Sutured Sonnets The media in ignorance gets in The way of people’s understanding of The truth.  They put a glossy glamor spin On heroes and then shy away from love That falls outside the types that Christians would...

But What is Man’s Nature

     But What is Man’s Nature? Modern poetry  modern verse contemporary poetry  contemporary verse  modern poem  contemporary poem The poet’s lofty principle about The buggering of boys’ butts was plain. When physical with guys, his only shout Was, “Follow nature.” ...