GENESIS

Light was born in the Temple –
Love was lit in the Sky –
Breath was stirred in the Body –
Words produced You – and I

Life came forth – and then Water –
Hills stood up – and then Trees –
Woods hid Deer – Brooks held Fishes –
Birds flew high – hummed the Bees

Day dawned after the Darkness –
Work ruled after the Fall –
Rest reigned after Creation –
He – looked after us All

(29 August 2008, Pleasant Grove, Utah)

NEW SEMESTER (Dickinson Fr260)

I’m here to learn! What about you?
Are you here to learn – too?
Then there’s a school of us!
Don’t stop! ’Twould paralyze you know!

How weary to be self-absorbed –
How puffed up – like a bore –
To close one’s heart. The lifelong quest
Is the thirst to learn more.

(29 August 2008, Pleasant Grove, Utah)

SUPERSCRIPT

Despite the spit of despising,
Beyond the bile of reviling,
The Lord’s lean torso bends forward –
The Lamb’s torn tendons stretch upward.

In spite of rabid rejection,
Above the shame of disrobing,
The King’s bruised breathing prays onward –
The Word’s wounded forgiveness pours outward.

(August 28, 2008, Pleasant Grove, Utah)

VIEWING (For Cooper Mardesich, 2004-2008)

Death’s Inn must be a lovely place
With such a perfect Guest.
For such prestigious innocence
God must reserve the Best.

He has to save the finest rooms
For angels’ Residence.
With such prodigious purity
There must be Precedence.

(August 27, 2008, Pleasant Grove, Utah)

THE MALACHI MEASURE

He’s not behind me on the path.
He is ahead of me.
He knows the ups and downs I pass.
He’ll meet me at the Tree.

His mind will be my diamond ring.
His heart will be my prize,
And nothing sweeter than his voice,
Except, perhaps, his eyes.

His smile will be my bridal veil.
His hand – my rose bouquet,
And nothing brighter than the lamp
He lifts to show the way.

(August 27, 2008, Pleasant Grove, Utah)

BOISE (to Mary Ellen Ryder)

April was in our singer’s word,
And Júly in her voice we heard.
Now in August, we remember,
And in our heart, blue September.

(August 27, 2008, Pleasant Grove, Utah)

WAITING SONNET

?Marido, mi angél, dónde estás?
?Estás en los cielos, o siglos atrás?
?En las montañas, o sobre el mar?
!Sí no puedo verte, voy a llorar!

?Esposo, mi novio, cuando vendrás?
Sintigo mi gozo es menos, no más.
Buscando tu cara en dondequier,
?Si no te escucho, qué puedo hacer?

I never thought I’d see home in this life.
I thought I’d never hear the call of “Wife!”
“Don’t cheat yourself,” Apostle said, “Prepare!”
No matter who, what, when, why, how, or where.

Live to let the Lord lead you to your love,
And trust His time for all of the above.

(August 16, 2008, Pleasant Grove, Utah)

LEAST AND GREATEST

I woke without a shadow’s dread
Before the dawn appeared –
No cymbals sounding in my head –
No pain – no shame – no fear.

To see a self in someone else –
To marvel at a mind –
To trust another as a friend –
To welcome human – kind –

This is the antidote to grief.
That is the remedy –
To set aside the darkly glass
And breathe in charity.

(August 21, 2008, Pleasant Grove, Utah)

QUEST

Am I redeemable, my Lord?
What hope is there for one like me:
Still lacking love, in thought, in word;
Still short of what a Saint should be?

(August 14, 2008, Pleasant Grove)

REUNION

Our DNA can recognize
The places it has been.
When we return it to the scenes,
A spirit rushes in.

We often sense a deja-vu.
We somehow feel at home.
Our ancestors extend a hand,
When to their lands we roam.

(August 15, 2008, Pleasant Grove, Utah)

CATCH AND RELEASE

At last my poetry has come.
At least my verse arrives.
Without compulsory restraint,
The language bobs and dives.

I have a river in my heart,
An ocean in my brain.
So, I go fishing with a line,
Releasing what I gain.

The lake of images is full.
The trout swim deep and fast.
The little minnows of the mind
Are in my hands at last.

(August 15, 2008, Pleasant Grove, Utah)

OLYMPIAD XXIX

The pageantry of dynasty –
A giant holds a boy –
Parades of nations, athletes, flags,
Bring patriotic joy.

Great governors, Prime ministers
Preside among the throngs.
Deft dancers scribe calligraphy.
Fresh children offer songs.

The drums made lights – the lights drew lines –
The lines spell out the date:
The Games begin on this eighth day,
August, Two Thousand Eight.

(9 August 2008, Pleasant Grove, Utah)

GOOD MORNING MUSE

Who calls my name before I wake?
Is it the Comforter
Who fans the embers in my brain
And sends me lines of verse?

What happens to the poetry
I don’t have time to write?
Is there an orphanage of truth
For unclaimed wisps of light?

Who whispers words to me again
When memory is tired?
Who is the gentle confidant
That second chance required?

Now I wake me up to music
Before I meet the day.
If I must hurry off to work,
Allow this page to pray.

(8 August 2008, Pleasant Grove, Utah)

GESTALT

There is so much to tell –
I cannot say it all,
But writing some imparts the whole,
So I’ll accept the call.

(4 August 2008, Myrifield, Heath, Massachusetts)

EMILY’S AMHERST

Are these the birds that you heard?
Are these the blooms you smelled?
Are these the bands of sunrise
That whispered in the dell?

Are these the skies that taught you?
Are these the stars you sought?
Are these the paths you wandered
In search of ought and naught?

Is this the way you flourished?
Is this the reverie?
Are these the days you numbered?
Is this the mystery?

(3 August 2008, Amherst, Massachusetts)

THE REST OF MY LIFE

My new job is to sleep enough,
To keep quiet for eight hours,
To shower my mind clean from grime,
To free my soul from useless stress,
To bless my brain and calm my heart,
To start afresh when morning shines,
To line my thoughts with books of dreams,
To stream my work and words anew.

(31 July 2008, Stone House Cottage, Amherst, Massachusetts)

RING OF TIME

Time is a lens through which we view both sides.
The lens is our life, before and ahead.
Our life is a ring for here and elsewhere.
The ring is a frame for vision and sight.
The frame is a form that moves and abides.
The form is a theme expressed but unsaid.
The theme is a pattern for praise and prayer.
The pattern – a figure for name and time.

(25 July 2008, Sheffield, England)

UNTOLD TALES

Everyone should be a poet –
Revise the Upper Case!
Let Lower Case bards and ballads
Have their season and place –

Democratize rhymes and rhythms –
Formulate ancient Themes –
Dash lines in stanzas – Write visions –
Stitch them in short, straight seams –

Switch syntax – Change morphemes – Drop sense
On a microscope slide –
Illustrate sound – Adjust the lens –
Let old and new collide.

Let music flow like Springs in dells.
Let songs wake us like birds.
Be elliptic – Make light – Ring bells –
Elect Philology – Love words –

Celebrate nature’s endless fame –
Define the infinite –
Give remembrance to the nameless –
Help robins to their nest.

(2 August 2008, Amherst, Massachusetts)