Before the Forests Burn What happened to the animals after the eviction When man and woman, flesh and clay, were driven out from Eden, Would within, invisible, the beasts of Paradise Wander with a sense of vague and puzzled emptiness? Although the winds of evening cooled them in the shade Would they have sensed a […]
Climbing Home The trail I seldom trod, Keeps coming back to me. Though turning right or turning left, Its entrance still I see. I tried to take it once, In holy chivalry, Until my Guide was out of sight, Then felt I had to flee. They say it leads to home, That path of misery, […]
Before the Last Day Along the creek side Where the trail descends, before the riffles Seethe among the great round stones Gray knucklebones A brown Arabian Glowing in the sunlight Fifteen hands high The rider stops then slowly nears As one who steps up to a stranger Imparting confidential messages – It is the morning […]
Proud Plum In orchard of Peach and cherry Apple, pear and plum Children ran and Played so merry Picking fruit from some Apple, peach Cherry, pear Bade the children come But one tree Kept limbs up high She was the purpled plum Between her branches Green with leaves She was morose and glum From childrens’ […]
1927 Revolution virgin-pure Covered now in filthy sores, I wonder what he’d think of this: The paradox of class and war Between the lowly and the state – No servant of the Comintern Foretold which class the Party ate: I knew him at one hundred one Channeled Chinese generals For the International, Tangled with the […]
The Birch Tree Shale-gray morn Lace in purse Thin-paged Missal Scriptural verse. Rosary rattles Scooped from table Will pray ‘fore Mass If I am able. Quiet still Children sleeping One more coffee For my keeping. Back porch view Conscience-clear Trees stand guard There’s naught to fear. For like the tree With anchored root When […]
Saint Teresa of Jesus This present life we live, she said A darkness at a lousy inn – Have you no patience then? Bedbugs scuttle in the bed, God send us the morning sun – When is dawn? This night is long Just one night, a restless dream, It will be shorter than it seems […]
The Colorful Bottle and the Genie (A Parable) Some called it a lantern, When a candle was placed in it To set off its colors like errant rainbows Cut glass sapphire blues, ruby reds and emerald greens Once reflected A room’s lit chandeliers and flickering candles Others called it a vase When it held rare […]
Set Us Free Do you not know That we are seeds in the desert Seeds in the desert Small enough That only stars can see us, Those great eyes? In this dreadful desert In this desiccation Rain may come in decades And more decades While we lie within the soil But then in years In […]
Souls I wish I were a river birch Above a living river, Leaning from above to watch The flowing of forever Have you seen how delicate The branches and the bark? How patient must it be to wait By sunrise and by dark But all the trees in heaven As Solomon are wise, They grow […]
The Widow’s Might She sat in the pew Her head bowed down The basket coming She made no sound. Oh how she wished To give so much But alas she had No Midas touch. The basket came She shook with fear And into the basket She dropped a tear. Now tears can’t touch Like Midas […]
Quick to Live For Alys Thorpe Quick to live and quick to die, That’s how we live say you and I, But even mountains crumble fast Stone can flow and time is vast Look with some asperity: They are like rollers on a sea, They fall in eons of explosion, Shore-bound breakers in slow motion […]
Sandbridge Great sentries of the eastern shore Who hold their ground against a savage sea, And defend each vulnerable house on stilts From the rising tide’s fatal entry. Their age is shown by grassy tops That swing and sway in the salty air, While catching white dust-like granules And pulling them into their lofty lair. […]
A Hymn to the Sacrifice I saw the truth of it Of death’s imprisonment, A circle under circles In the darkness of the devils Round and round a sphere was cast In the future and the past, Unbreakable and thick Except by flame and candle wick God’s magnificence descending From a glory never-ending – Life […]
September Saturday September September How I remember… Apple-pie cobblers Candy-corn gobblers Chewing waxed lips Wax bottle sips Smouldering leaf piles Autumn smoke hazed miles Friday night pancakes Thick syrup Mom makes Skinned up knees falling hard Running in the grade school yard Nine at night give thanks and pray For tomorrow’s a September… Saturday! Hilary […]
The ancient idol on the island of Rhodes Stood grimly astride the strait. But here we suffer a colossus of toads, Our country to desecrate. Salvage my soiled nation – long …..uncleaned, Proudly in thrall to sin and war. Release her from the postmodern fiend. Let her radiance shine once more By Robert Struble, Jr.
The Stubborn, the Blind and the Dumb Take Stonewall and Jack by their halters And lead them out of the stable To graze in the bright green meadow, They will come without question behind you But if God takes a man by the shoulders And leads him out of his prison Of death to walk […]
The Nazareth Mines (Poem about the Immaculate Conception) When Rome was Of the world – And Master Moon Was free – And Mistress Midnight Bedizened – In show-star Finery. A tiny sparkle Caught Miss Mistress Midnight’s Eye – And captured Master Moon Who paled And gasped a sigh – But Rome still Of the world […]
Do not Forget A fig tree grows beneath my window Yes, it’s true, a fig tree grows, My wife has eaten of the fruit, Green and inside red as rose Red as blood, red as wine Red inside as April, ripe As red bud blossoms or the sky Of summer dawn’s uprisen night A fig […]
Wheat and Weeds Wheat and weeds within me grow, Carrying on like friend and foe. Always mixing, always climbing, Rising up wherever I sow. Sturdy stalks and thorny limbs, Clashing in the yearly winds. Always touching, always fighting, Spurring virtues and rebellious sins. Wheat that only God can provide, Weeds that only sprout to divide. […]
Prodigal No need of loaves to multiply, The wheat and oven I supply, Nor flesh compounded by My wish For many now the nets of fish But scarce as winds beneath the sea Master-perfect poetry, Rare as robins on the moon A singer who can sing in tune And so I will proliferate As loaves […]
The Perfect Storm St. Clare, The storm Is coming, St. Barbara, Keep them Well Yet Queen Of Angels Holy This is A taste Of hell. Tsunamis, Earthquakes Shatter, Unjust wars Man can Sell, But queen Of Angels, Holy Her Son Permits To quell If we could For His Glory All Charity Perform, Like Holy Mother […]
Citadel It wasn’t just a place to name the animals To guard the Tree of Life To know the good of life and not the evil It was the citadel impregnable, a refuge of the trees A rampart of the oaks and tamarisks Walls and towers made of limbs and leaves There was a peace […]
Rise! And Live Friend, In the dark night That time of thunder Overcome You were led from us Lives knit with yours, Like leaves On a windy November night Scattered Raise your chin Like a newly born flower You have broken through to rich atmosphere Rise! And live. Michele Marie
