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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...

Burden

Burden Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry  contemporary verse  modern poem  contemporary poem All the cherry blooms I saw today have become A pink load on me. ~ Sobaku [freely and unfreely paraphrased by Whidden] Sobaku’s postscript to his painitng...

Cherubim Etched in Gilding

    Cherubim Etched in Gilding   Modern poetry  modern verse contemporary poetry  contemporary verse  modern poem  contemporary poem Back then world was filled with gold, gold skies. The angels’ wings were tiny, but they flew. Two cherubim in gold attract our...

Trinity’s Anchorite in Gentle Agony

   Trinity’s Anchorite in Gentle Agony James Strachey, lacking goldsmiths’ stunning hair, Sat by his non-gold fire alone inside His Cambridge room and felt the flare Of shrined romance within his ribs.  It dyed His arteries and veins the color of A soul in...

Cool as a Thick-haired Cucumber

    Cool as a Thick-haired Cucumber “I have need to busy my heart with quietude.” ~  Rupert Brooke James suffered like a teenybopper lass In love with manufactured pop star guys. He hovered like an altar boy at mass Outside the poet’s rooms.  He hoped his eyes Would...

A Hovering Sexual Position

              A Hovering Sexual Position Modern poetry  modern verse contemporary poetry  contemporary verse  modern poem  contemporary poem The poet, Rupert Brooke, felt trouble with Deciding what his sex position was. He listened to his gay friends’ favorite myth...