“Ruby Throated Hummingbird”
Painting by Nancy Terrill
From nancyterrill.com
hummingbirds hover
sip at colorful nectars
co-evolved gardens
slip into summertime wane
signaling time for torpor
Archives
All posts for the month August, 2014
“Delirium”
Painting by Alan Derwin
From saatchiart.com
underneath bone
lurk the shadowmen
thrusting their lancets
at clusters of nerves
neuropaths in extremis
declaim to the brain
of unbearable pain
mortal wounded they
die by micrometers
slowly too slowly
torn axon from axon
unbundling themselves
naked raw and exposed
retrograde destiny
plagues perpetuity
brainwaves defend
themselves conjuring
any distraction but
pay psychic price
living nightmares
dredging dark
channels hallucinate
operas of terror
twist spasms of mind
in irrational shapes
of a misery no one
could plan to endure
dual torments of
body and mind make
a man become fiend
“Sotto Voce”
Painting by Duncan Regehr
From duncanregehr.com
whispered hatreds
rise in the steam
born of dreams
recondense into tears
that drop stains
upon conscience
softly burning small
holes that in time
reveal truth in the
shape of the heart
where all wordless
emotions congeal
into congeries good
men would rather
disown and deny them
their audible voice
“Humility”
Painting by C. Kelly Lohr
From ckellylohr.com
reversals of fortune
that convert hubris
to humility become
fortunes of reversal
Photo from
blog.dzone.lk
it’s been a hot century
mummies have melted
their binding dry
gauze catching fire
igniting rebellion
informed by dead
dynasties burning in
scalded sand agony
waiting for signal
that cruel Amun-Ra
has been vanquished
the curse of the sun
lifted giving to cool
cosmopolitan minds
a new future of
ambient liberty
Big Sky Country
Montana
Photo from bigsky.com
night falls like a guillotine
drop-slicing home
in a groove of horizon
beheading the sun
landscape stings
from the seeping
hot blood of the day
but a blood that gives
nourishing cycle
to all that’s alive
wild stallions
flare nostrils suffused
with the blood-scent
of panic at dangers
attending assailable
hours of dreams
till the herd finds
its memory calming
and cooling its flanks
gray wolves and
antelope halt from
their rippling sequence
of chase and escape
to await as the
towering massive
black blade
resolves itself into
a beacon of moonlight
and pattern of stars
nocturnal instincts
revoke the diurnal
raw pageant of wilderness
slowing the heartbeats
of predators prey and
we uninvolved bystander
creatures who settle
to gentler pursuits
until dawn once again
reveals glorious life
in its pathos and bliss
under endless blue sky
“The Return of the Flame”
Painting by Rene Magritte
From rene-magritte.net
What fame is there
In tawdry scenes
Reality not drama
Famous figures
Behaving badly
Naked of inhibition
In the public eye
Fallow morality
Captured crudely
By the public lens
What shame is there
When character
Of lazy virtue
Shows transparent
No makeup masks
No costume cloaks
Conceal the truth
Iconic clay
Too limp to stand
Folds in on itself
What blame is there
For undeserved
Celebrity
Which part is ours
In sordid plays
Enjoying fools
Felled by folly
Miscast lives
Deluded by
Self-importance
Or is the headline
All that matters
Illustration from
drglover.com
not the self image
nor the face worn in public
but the you God knows
“Ophelia”
Painting by Alexandre Cabanel
From wikipedia.org
who would drink
chokecherry wine
among brambles
astringent black
fruit of a vine
scratched by time
she would rather
sip memories
straight from the
cups belladonna
sets out under
shade of the night
deadly smooth
henbane nectar
without taste of
spiteful goodbyes
1928 Ford
Model A Roadster
From Wikipedia.com
storied hotrodder grail
built for linear speed
when simple mechanics
were self-teaching province
of boys with their dad’s
common handtools and
two or three ounces
of oil in their veins
before interstates
back country two-laners
opened their curves to
industrious lads with
fast appetites engines
testosterone fueled
roared with jury-rigged
gleanings of junkyards
an era when life could
race right on the edge of
adventure the dangers
mere added inducement
no seatbelts or speed
limits stifled the spirit
no nanny state thwarted
the free-hearted soul
Poesy plus Polemics 