Waste

 

“Le Village” by Chaim Soutine

 

dicing time

nibbling life

busy building

false towers

on leasehold

of somebody

else’s estate

fallow shadows

of kernelstones

germinate waste

stillborn seeds

render naught

from what might

have been save

for misguided

priorities lost

to untended

potential self

sadly subsumed

in malpractice

of pride only

realized too late

one more man

none will care

to remember

 

 

From my book Bohemian Scents

Tenterhooks

 

Painting by Sir Anthony Hopkins

 

stretched between maybes

tremble tissues of batwings

extended suspended from

overhead recesses dark and

theatrically cavernous damp

taut and fraught with the

flopsweat of uncertain endings

anxiety shudders with cold

possibilities membranes

divide when from then hanging

curtains of skin in proscenium

attitude blinding the actor

to obvious outcomes no sense

of the audience all of his choices

of speech caught on tenterhooks

black iron forgings catch drop

of the drapes veined in turn

with their coursings of pulsing

soliloquy colloquy obloquy

no loss for words among thespian

creatures the trick is to draw

down the right form of rhetoric

this is no time for embarrassing

truths from some too-honest

leadership life and blood loyalties

hang in stark balance and

consequence augurs for quick

stepping out to the footlights

performing whatever deceits

keep concealed the real nature

of sharp-toothed insectivores

 

 

From my book Ephemera

Power

 

“The Ancient of Days” by William Blake

 

if I think it
it is
if I write it
it lives

keep your coins
you may pay me in wishbones
the wealth may be yours
but the power is mine

 

 

From my book Bohemian Scents

Poète Maudit

 

“Death of Chatterton” by Henry Wallis

 

consumed by the feather-pen fire

antithetical phoenix

destroyed in his very creations

accursed immolation by libertine ethos

deranged in a beautiful suicide

posthumous poetry

sewn with audacity

sparking the timidly well-mannered

hearts of the book-in-hand world

 

 

From my book Bohemian Scents

Summer Decor

 

“Dance of Wildflowers” by Erin Hanson

 

blue damask skies
leafy green upholstery
bright flowered carpets

nature’s handiwork
a seasonal aesthetic
divinely designed

Evensong

 

“Autumn Evening” by Letitia Smith-Burnett

 

dovecotes emit oblique octaves

as corn-yellow sun settles down

among lavender raiment of sky

plaintive lyrics of homing at close

of the wearying day carried high

inside soughs of domestic retreat

over pole-barns and stables where

livestock relax into reverence and

farmhouse beds settle in prayers

every day is a blessing of labors to

gratify yearnings of body and soul

what the minor key birdsong of

psalms understands even better

than voices of husbands and wives

caught up worrying work yet undone

 

 

From my books Bohemian Scents and Legacies (vol. 1)

Coming to Terms

 

“Decision” by Sharon Sieben

 

decisions to make

despite his reluctance

a man gives his word

his only possession

that has any worth

a man makes his mark

to certify change

monumental momentous

one thin sheet of paper

four corners of contract

delimit the sum of the pain

hard elements stoically

formed into cold resignation

a coming to terms

with the fiends of necessity

one hand to heart

with the other to heaven

a man gives his word

to commence with the

shatter of yesterday

gather the pieces of

life as he knew it

deliver them unto

the mercy of fate

with a prayer

she will make of them

some new tomorrow

with aspects at least

of a honeyed contentment

to sweeten the

swallowed regrets

Speaking Autumn

 

“Autumn Trees” by Jinfeng Shi

 

throaty whispers convey

subtle intimacies

of the October forest

dry rustling voices

history calling on destiny

begging remembrance

imploring the mercies

of wisdom attend the next

burgeon of greening

by laying down lessons

the echoes of speeches

in soft worded beds

of experience tender

with time blessed with

patience in face of the

imminent silence of snow

bringing sound through

sublime months of

mute intermission

preparing the voices

indulgent of nature

for raising new music

new spoken-word songs

buds and blossoms of verse

set to sounds of spring rains

 

 

From my book Ephemera

My Mother’s Father

 

“Barber Shop” by Robert Cottingham

(Regarding Niccolò DeTore)

bay rum barber poet
stropped razors and verse
white handlebar mustache
handsomely lifted his smile
Neapolitan gold in his eyes
bootstrap pride in his step
classic rhetoric served at
each meal from his dapper
silk tie and trim waistcoat
surveying his long kitchen
table where thirteen young
minds learned their everlast
lessons of life in America
steeped in his practicum
lovingly eagerly wrapped
in his keen gentle wisdom

 

 

From my book Bohemian Scents

Restless

 

“Shadows in the Trees” by Wendy Wade

 

a pasture serene

light with rain

rich and redolent

soil sustained by

sweet springs

born of snowmelt

and memories

wondering where

are the sheep

generations of goats

where the cow herds

who thrived in this

forest-bound space

in this nature-made

mountainside

theater of seasons

now green and gold

grasses grow tall

swaying fitfully

tousled by drafts of

fleet shadows abroad

flitting aimlessly

caught between

here and hereafter

aware change has come

something busy

and bountiful

brought to its end

without knowing the why

or what shapeshifting wind

will prefigure tomorrow