PARADISE (for Dr. Madison U. Sowell)

“There is no music yet on earth
That can compare with ours” –
The Children of the Spirit World
Still sing with Morning Stars –

The Sons of God still shout for joy –
Ten thousand Daughters dance –
Saint Carolyn still laughs about
Their innocent romance –

While Sister Shauna leads the Choir
In hymns of solemn prayer –
With one hand on piano keys
And one hand in the air!

Saint Jeanny orders Manna Flakes
And Nectarines for all –
Which Madison and Debra share
With angels great and small –

Then Brother Dante reads the Poem
He wrote for Beatrice –
And E. B. Browning dedicates
Songs “from the Portuguese” –

Now Honored Students celebrate
And colleagues say “Bravo!”
To one whose tune has changed our lives:
We bid you fond “Addio!”

(7 August 2009, Pleasant Grove and Provo, Utah)

(JoLynn Bennett mentioned Madison Sowell to me when we passed a new professor on campus in 1979. Madison was one of the people who helped JoLynn win a full-ride scholarship to Yale. When I returned to BYU as a new professor in the early 1990's, he kindly cited my Dickinson research, attended my RMMLA conference presentation, and wrote a letter for my Third Year Review. He invited me to submit a proposal for an Honors seminar on Emily Dickinson and later for an Honors Advanced Writing course. What a kind friend, mentor, and associate!)

EXPRESS

I’m looking at a distant star
Whose light just greeted me –
Its journey does not seem that far –
Just past eternity.

I don’t know why it winked at me –
I didn’t seek its face –
But somehow through the universe
A spark of joy crossed space.

I thought I had to wait a life
Or sacrifice my breath –
But it arrived before I blinked –
Without requiring death.

Its promises are messengers –
Its particles are wise –
It found a line between the blinds
And shutters of my eyes.

(2 February 2009, Pleasant Grove, Utah)

HERE’S MY HEART

If not yet pure, more purified –
Refined, if not yet fine –
If not yet sure, more confident –
Less mine – if not yet Thine.

If not yet true, more trustworthy –
Enlightened, if not light –
If not yet clean, less small and mean –
More righteous, if not right.

If not yet psalms, more poetry –
More whole, if not complete –
If not yet firm, confirmed by hope –
Less brine, if not yet sweet.

(24 December 2008, Pleasant Grove, Utah )