Blue Moon

“Blue Moon”
Painting by Leonid Afremov
From afremov.com

incomplete of its mission
it returns to the sky
giving lovers and dreamers
a rare second chance
to raise up and submit
their most close-held desires
for inspection and judgment
by the light of the night

Sicilian Sulfur

Poesy plus Polemics

Luigi Pirandello 1867-1936
Italian Author, Playwright, Poet
Caricature from lavanguardia.com

(Regarding Luigi Pirandello)

light of absurdist literature
psychological dramas
novellas enough to churn time
tragicomedies pitting
the mind against moments
confused by existence
he celebrates virtues of
stark unreality undermines
classical fiction with heroes
who tear at traditions of
family and faith giving
skeleton characters freedom
to range across aspects of rage
in their search for an author
who craves their completion
a moralist seething with
pessimist passion arranging
the madness of men upon
page after page of nobel
winning prose at a time when
depression engulfed western
circumstance setting his stage
with foul props of despair
bringing forth the Sicilian
sulfur that quickened his blood
to cerebral conclusions that
daze his inquisitive readers

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Utterances

“Out of the Woods at Walden Pond”
Painting by Rita Brown
From pixels.com

was a time
when I thrived
among men
and machines
of free enterprise
traveling continents
backing development
building new industries
giving to laboring poor
paths to middle class stature

I did my job well
with great pride of success
until time and debility
turned me for home
and the tools of my trade
knack for numbers
a nose for the telltale of risk
became specimens
artifact memories
sconced in museums of mind

now I write in seclusion
removed from the fight
for the wheel and the deal
I create with new tradecraft
arrangements of words
molding metaphors
fabricate stanzas erect
upon pages of commerce
exchanging new coin of this
notional literate realm

“My life has been the poem I would have writ
But I could not both live and utter it”
– Henry David Thoreau

Bindlestiff

Poesy plus Polemics

“Hobo Jack”
Drawing by p0tluck
From deviantart.com

take pause of due rest
at this far advanced
milepost shaded by
century sycamores
unravel the bindle
lay out those dear
meager possessions
life garnered in
less careworn years
what to make of
desultory heirloom
collections of stanzas
disjointed forgotten
insensibly purposed
how useless the words
scribbled too long ago
yellowed wrinkled
their prettiness
spoiled by hardship
of half-hearted effort
who would possibly
want them recite
them perhaps best
to leave them behind
here among these old
shadows that whisper
the end awaits nigh
let the elements
hasten their molder
and lighten the load
for what journey
remains the last leg
the short road that
leads close ahead into
mists sighing blissful
with quiet obscurity

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Travails of Democracy

“Allegory of Good and Bad Government”
Painting by Ambrogio Lorenzetti
From khanacademy.org

courage is needed
to close the divide
stand into the future
relinquish the past
reunite around
purposes common
to hearts and minds
famished by discord

what separates men
are misguided beliefs
errant judgments
that evil inheres to
positions opposing
of prevalent policies

what brings men
together is leadership
willing to acknowledge
able to conciliate
values and viewpoints
competing for esteem

whence do leaders
emerge from the jungle
of politics practiced
with feral intensity
savaging systems of
law-driven government
favoring cults of glib
sound-bite celebrity

Ivy

Poesy plus Polemics

Ivy League Banners
Image from newenglandflagandbanner.com

scions of privilege
share in the secret syllabus
freshman oligarchs

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Portofino

“Portofino Harbor”
Painting by Judith Barath
From fineartamerica.com

gulls glide on patrol
water slaps the ancient quay
dining alfresco

Horizon’s Voice

“Blue Horizon”
Painting by Karon Melillo DeVega
From fineartamerica.com

I am horizon
celestial seam
where convene
men and angels
in purpose
more noble
than flesh
more human
than holy

I am horizon
a meeting place
realms of creation
convergent
enabling exchange
of learned wisdom
in mutual aid
of abiding
respect

I am horizon
edged joinery
piecing the land
sea and sky
treelines drawn
from the hemlines
of heaven the end
and beginning
of everything

Moriarty

Poesy plus Polemics

Moriarty & Holmes
Image from baritsu.org

underworld overlord
keen as an executioner’s blade
misrespected tweed don
with a calculant mind
pursued by deduction
through valleys of fear
across moors and deep
shadowy switchbacks
of criminal enterprise
fevered professor the
mastermind Mesmer of thieves
seeking final solution to
problems of houndstooth
tenacious for justice in
protagonist deerstalker grasp
these intractable nemeses
carry the chase up steep
ridgelines of glorious alpine
neutrality reaching the
Reichenbach cataract aching
to dance on its precipice
knowing full well that
to fall is to fly and to fly
in that rarefied air would
propel their grave legend
to prominent place in
the canon of mysteries

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Windbreak

Thuja Green Giant Arborvitae
Photo from waysidegardens.com

evergreen soldiers
rebuff sound and fury

calm temperament
quiets the storm

preserves peace
at the gathering hearth

forbears contention
between generations

relegates wrath
to emotional orphan

stand in to the weather
staunch of purpose

let relationships
flourish in the lee