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A lifetime’s work
A lifetime’s work reduced by lifetimes since To a pile of stones in a ferny wood, grown o’er With moss and vines, and gently hid to all But those who wish to see. A gift from him Who dwelt here once,...
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The interview did not go as planned
She rides ahead and would head off His maverick thoughts, guiding them to sensible Corrals — but stubbornly they canter, This one to its mother, that to the river’s cool Repose, each in a time and...
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Caeli errant
With apologies to the psalmist. Each day tells its tale unto the next: The sun in jaunty setting shouts its benediction to the sky Like a TV talk show host leaving the stage. One by one the sky...
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We walked for miles to see him
I read this poem, or rather story in the form of a poem, in lieu of preaching a sermon on John 6:1–15 at St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church on July 26. I had no great words of wisdom to offer about the...
View ArticleFebruary: A Cautionary Tale, and Desultory Philippic
‘Twas a grey day in February, and evening fell like a dead canary… Thus begins this year’s winning entry in the annual Upper Dongle Creek Literary Society Bad Poetry Contest. Penned by Mr. E. P. Merdle...
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The Sexton
After William Merritt Chase, In the Baptistry of St. Mark’s, Venice (1878) On Saturdays, at terce I polish the brass. One by one the candles from their unlit altar in my calloused hands I carry to a...
View ArticleCheap Sonnet No. (√5±1)/2. In Which the Poet Bemoans, Again, the Failure of...
These are the seeds that Christ forgot to mention, Guaranteed by faith and factory rearing, Sown not on rock nor thorn nor bitten path But in good scientific soil, and bathed With electrically timed...
View ArticleCheap Sonnet No. 1843½. In Which the Poet Espies a Yellow House
Sing what no neighbor dares confess Amid the squalid safety of the new (Constructed character of mismatched cubes, Rectilinear gardens, monochrome)— This cottage clothed in cheerful dereliction, The...
View ArticleCheap Sonnet No. eiπ+1. In Which the Poet Fails to Grasp His Meaning
The dry leaf crumbling in the toddler’s fist, The cloud-form wind-rent at the careless naming, The fluttering dream that flees the day’s periphery, The memory-scent long rotted from its root: The lover...
View ArticleCheap Sonnet No. 28F. In Which the Poet Observes a Child Behaving Disgustingly
Make y’all of winter what you will: The pine trees, tufted like old men’s ears, The disappearing footprints of a sparrow, Tire-tread slush translucent in the sun. Global warming? Honey, it’s the South....
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