Crimea

 

“Fiolent Mountains in Crimea” by Andriy Chebotaru

 

appalled by democracy’s murmur

heavily armed red-soled boots plant

their hammer-and-sickle beachheads

amidst Russian expatriate cheers

mindless of fragile unsettling sands

unmoved by the bluster and blather

that uselessly fogs western airwaves

will abrupt annexation ensue to commit

amputation of new Ukraine dreams

 

 

(originally written at the time of the invasion in 2014)

 

From my book Bullets from Bones

The Tyrol

“The Unfortunate Land of Tirol” by Franz Marc

 

majestic roofline
where Europe climbs to her dreams
cleansing alpine breaths
give respite from history
rancid with savage conflicts

this pristine cloudland
dissolves national borders
competing interests
discover common purpose
elevate humanity

 

 

From my books Pieces of Wine and Riverthink

Mount Washington

“Mt Washington from Pear Mountain” by Sharon E Allen

eastern prominence
tallest of presidents
winds of liberty roar
in the sub-zero ears
of a spirited history
chilling indifference
moving even a casual
patriot into a fierce
disposition to loyalty
flinty independent
enduring as granite
whose weatherproof
rise to the sky stands
majestic with motto
iconic and palpable
live free or die

 

 

From my book Ephemera

 

Gibraltar

“Gibraltar the Rock” by Ana Maria Edulescu

 

limestone sentinel

Europe’s own pillar

of Hercules guarding

the end of the world

with its African twin

Jebel Musa contained

ancient fears in their

wineskins of dark

superstitions where

drunken mythology

dampened discovery

limited reach of the

nautical senses to

emerald edges of

Mediterranean courage

with only mere wisps

of the grandeur that

once was Atlantis

retained by Homeric

Greek minds rich

imaginings fraught

with the legend that

all of existence had

drowned of an instant

instilling the notion

that no man or god

could prevent it from

happening over again

cataclysmic foreboding

imprinting itself on

a culture for whom

constant warfare for

realms of their hemmed

lands and seas held

no tempering terror

no moral inducement

to cultivate peace

after all it proved no

panacea for ancients

sublime in their

perfectly civilized state

 

 

From my books Ephemera and Legacies (vol. 2)

Cordillera

Painting by Thomas Moran

 

backbone of continents
bearing the consequent
burdens of staging all life
monumental with force
of emergent creation
thrust up through the
mineral soils and oxygen
skin of an agnostic planet
it renders support for the
roof of the world here
where spirits collect and
cavort above clouds in the
mists from which tumbling
headwater sources find
downpour in cataracts
rushing to feed mighty
rivers and watersheds
lofty divides between
cultures and characteristic
geographies heavy with
height of intrinsically
idiosyncratic composition
inorganic yet very much
alive having more than
once moved cataclysmically
marking the eons that men
would eventually learn
to call eras while naming
these mountains their first
solemn objects of worship
through countless millennia
minds trained so long on such
heights would inevitably
come to recognize God

 

 

From my book Ephemera

Romulus and Remus

“Romulus and Remus” by Roche Gardies

(Originally posted June 2013 – written years before)
 

Alba Longa the sun-washed place of their birth
Sons of Mars he abandoned as infants
Suffered cuckolded rage of Amulius
Who cast them in tumulted tides of the Tiber
Caught by the roots of a rescuing fig
Brought to safety by a suckling she-wolf
Tending them same as pups drawn from her womb
When discovered by kind shepherd Faustulus
He raised up the pair to their manhood

Strong and fearless they fought righteous battles
Made war on cruel kings and released slaves
From bondage acquiring their lifelong loyalty
Then they set off to build a new city
A virtuous state giving outcasts and runaways
Exiles and sundry manner of fugitives
Place for fresh start free from tyrants
But the twins fell to violent quarrel
Over who would lay down the first stones

Remus dreamt of his own Remoria
Carved from rocks upon Aventine hill
But Romulus held his own vision
For a Rome risen up from the Palatine
So they took up grave contest of omens
Counting eagles on wing overhead
Remus first spotted six and deemed triumph
But his brother saw twelve and declared
That ‘most’ confers moreso than ‘first’

The reaction of Remus was hostile
Rejecting that judgment even as
Romulus dug his foundations for Rome
Anger raged and convulsed Cain and Abel
Whose ghosts saw that Cain’s malevolent brand
Indeed marked the souls of his issue
And men would kill men with depravity
The fratricide dyeing the Tiber that day
Left the young Remus dead and Romulus king

Thus was civilization recentered
New vanishing point of the known western world
Where Legions would learn skills for conquest
And Caesars would learn to steal power
From Senates and citizen councils
To rule under burnished gold glory
That time would corrupt and tarnish with shame
In all, seven hills would be settled
By the corpus of decadent empire

The Palatine, center of centers,
Held the throne and patrician precincts
While plebeians moved up the Aventine
Building temples to lesser-made gods
Fortress stronghold surmounted Capitoline
And Quirinal hosted doomed Sabines
Caracalla would bathe on Caelian
While Esquiline saw the first suburbs
And small Viminal overlooked slums

Amid vying pagan panoply rituals
Soils drenched densely with sacrifice
As bloodlust made sport of men’s torture
Yet here did the Galilee fisherman Peter
Set down his new Christian church into rock
S-P-Q-R and I-N-R-I became
Emblems profane and sacred in turn
Preeminent signets competing for
Genuflection of mortal-bound souls

One wonders if Cain stayed his hand
Would men still have learned to love murder
If Remoria rose as envisioned by Remus
Would peace have been usher of progress
Might a bloodless Rome better have flourished
Less gold, more humane, steeped with virtue
But hypothesis bears no real edible fruit
When we hunger to understand nature of man
All we have is our deeply flawed history’s crumbs

Lake Como

Lake Como Villa – Image From hdwallpapers.com

confluent crystal blue rivers

emerge from pristine

glades of pre-alpine heights

infilling deep tracks of a

glacial retreat that left time

the slow usher of ambient

Mediterranean climate

clear water the purest and

plainest of elements

placidly courses beyond

thirsty reach of the peasantry

pooling itself in elongated

sunlit patrician geography

cypress aristocrats

gathered in groves

overseeing the lake

that gave beckon to caesars

impressed the nobility

down through the centuries

castles and villas serenely

seducing celebrity

into their present day cantons

chic outposts of luxury

fixing the daydreams of

those held by circumstance

lesser with fortune

Hudson

“Across the Hudson” by Max Kuehne

(Originally posted here June 2013)
 

wide with exploration
deep with bold discovery
falls from Adirondacks
into New York Bay
past Mohican gray mists where
beloved headless horsemen
chased leatherstocking ghosts
into our storybook canon

its cutting flow of forces
sheared bare palisades
where Hamilton took Burr
and Arnold slipped the noose
its undulant watershed
pristine green lit by gold
inspired art and invention
of many a clever hand

it sustained and empowered
muscles taut with ideas
from frontier through empire
depositing citadel
where its mouth speaks in
every last language of man
aesthetic and strategic this
lush liquid womb of liberty

Everland

Canyonlands National Park – Photo by Gary Baird

the American west

aeons on display

epochs marked by

divine hands of time

endless vistas

exhibit existence

its layered creation

gives grandeur to

powerful portraits

persistent with

water and wind

at their gradual work

of transforming

the earth framed

beneath the blue

glorious arch

of the firmament

here is forever

made tangible

granting to man

the humility born

of his relative

paltry significance

The Keys

“Florida Keys 2” by Kenneth John

sandy islets in aquamarine

curling west by southwest

curving under the sun

stitch the gulf to the ocean

with salty sweet laziness

needing no clock but the sky

to see time in its easy progression

from sunrise to sunset

ablaze with the colors of leisure

seductively free of pretensions

and pressures a cultural crucible

melting away stress and urgency

gifts of conquistadors calmed

by the balm of these breezes

and lulled by the metronome lap

of this surf to retire their armor

to slow down their heartbeats

and take up the barefoot pursuit

of an utterly tranquil tradition