Claptrap

“Composition with Three Male Figures” by Egon Schiele

party faithful
automatons
steal our
good faith
mugging trust
sleight of hand
misdirection
in each retail
handshake
each devious
pose struck
for lens of
the camera
sly insincere lips
drip with stale
dusty words
pious claptrap
when anxiously
clamoring ears
demand answers
when outraged
grieved eyes
demand actions
the commonweal
heart needs real
heroes not hacks
needs their pledge
to real truths
and this agonized
era of murder must
once and for all
be seized kicking
and screaming
by hands of
uncompromised
moral authority
brought to a
final and firm
denouement

Admonition

“Night Sky Over Desert Dunes” by Kathryn Beals

 

teach the dream
to the night
lest it perish
when you waken

 

 

From my book Range of Motion

Doors

“Steps and Doors” by Beverly Menke

 

too many doors
unaccustomed to thresholds
he hesitates
too young to learn from the past
too smart to trust the future

Frost Heaves

“Road to Giverny in Winter” by Claude Monet

 

ice forms in slim wombs

subterranean

temporal passages

crystal with seasons

swell yesterday’s thaw

pushing upthrusting

seriate ripples

embellishing pavements

men laid with a matrix

of dreamstuff

an undulant shapely

cascade leading

either away from

or back to a time and

a place that have

finished themselves

bygone eras completed

now covered by distance

with ribbons of roads

ever lengthening

reaching to span

two opposing horizons

conflicting emotions

of sunrise and sunset

the alpha omega points

true destinations

for traffic compelled

by alternative passions

indifferent to time

 

 

From my books Ephemera and Legacies (vol. 2)

Trivia

“Stonehenge” by Tom Tiedeman

 

mortise and tenon

sacrosanct joinery

mystic of power

conveyed by a secret

artisanal oath upon

female and male

conjugation that

beautiful passion

of natural biology

lending its form

to the function of

structure who wants

of a durable union

a coupling contrived

for the useable ages

fine fitted precision of

desert-set pyramids

sarsen stone henges

Homeric sleek galleys

the chair and the desk

where this gray-bearded

stiff-fingered poet

declaims all and sundry

his odd bits of trivial

knowledge that seem

best recorded if only

in doggerel verses

before they’re forgotten

Incommunicado

“Solitary Dreamer” by Gordon Meggison

 

prose is a conversation
whereas poetry is prayer
tongue-tied masses left
mute in the cold

 

 

From my book Pieces of Wine

Moments

Image by Alex Stoddard

 

nimble fingers
hold sure to
the future
a pillow of light
softly glowing
emitting a hum
cosmic music
from souls
yet unborn
fetal yearning
heard only by
hands of the
self-aware heart
all the waves
of descendants
conceived in one
uterine moment
the beginning
before any
notion of ends
before in those
capable palms
all that radiant
promise too hot
and too dear
spins at speed
burns the skin
of a sudden it
bursts into flame
turning every last
would have been
could have been
should have been
might have been
into a smokerise
of dissipate
ends in one
final combustible
moment no
lingering trace
of beginnings

 

 

From my book Ephemera

Flurries

“Snow Flurries 1” by Joan McGivney

 

downy winter
flutters onto my tongue
forest unfazed

 

 

From my books Ephemera and Riverthink

Bridge of Sighs

“Bridge of Sighs” by John Singer Sargent

 

stones suspended in air

final passage for

secular sinners

in quail of departing

from all that is beautiful

sounding their last sobbing

breaths of contrition

their last rueful look at

pained visions of lives

barely dreamed

never lived

too late for a rectitude

leaving vain squander

en route to an airless

and deathless ignominy

bleak are the endings

imagined while crossing

from palace to prison

indifference expressed

by the masonry sentinels

mascaron faces who

watch life and love

pass beneath the despair

upon waters the doge

has commanded to flow

serene lifeblood in

day to day course of

enlightened republic

ingenious canalways

that temper the tides

wash the unsettling sound

of these sighs

out to sea

Book Review: Time Before Time

Published October 2017 by Stonewood Press

 

I am excited and highly pleased to announce that my recently published chapbook “Time Before Time” has received an enthusiastic positive review from the prestigious Online Book Club, who gave it their top 4 star rating.

Here is an excerpt of their review:

“I cannot help but give this packed volume 4 out of 4 stars. This book is meant to be savored slowly, bit by precious bit. The wealth of knowledge that I gained is priceless. The emotional highs (and lows) I experienced are memorable. There is lively humor in there, too. I was challenged, I was touched, and I had a great time. I will count this book among my favorites.”      – Miriam Molina

You can read the entire review here.

You can find my book here.

 

• Paul