Uncouth Observation

I think most normal men
balance private inner lives
of desperate immorality
with gracious public lives
of shamefaced cowardice.

Maybe it's why we all admire
evil men, who have achieved
what most of us are too weak
to truly contemplate.

(And to the dear feminist:
Thank God we are not strong
like women. Lord, save us all
from girls.)

Doxology

I think what I learned, friend
is that I must forfeit, sitting
with my feet flat on the floor:
kind and clever, gently puzzled
but never angry--that I must
while being used, never once lose
my cheer, must have patience
with enemies, demons, & mockers;
in sacred gullibility and holy naivety,
allowing quick and angry evil men
to overcome, must
at the very moment of their triumph,
with no malice, disappear
having won nothing, taken nothing,
with invincible forgiveness and grace:
must simply slip their shackles and rise
indifferent as a child, to find
something that matters. All
our youthful lusts and pride ached
for this one forbidden frontier,
this carefree undoing--
and are banished to its dusky fog
once found. So by surrender and defeat,
I walk beside the furies and the waves
silent, broken, enslaved, and whole.




aug 2017

Things New

Have we written 

any new thing?  

This year, or last, 

or maybe the past 

five years or ten?  

How long has it been?  

What was it?

Who has written

the last new thing?

aug 2017

Hesitate

My silence absolute

-ly deafens me. Your storms

imperially rage, whipping you

around in madness; I know,

dimly. But my leafy stillness

stirs only with a quiet love

and aches for peace. Afterwards, 

a child might see my rings

and count stiff summer winds long past, 

fossils of forgotten passion. Or

my roots might rise from Earth

in profane proof of weakness.

Who knows? Our times are broken

all apart. By then you'll be

only a pleasant memory, to

sweeten Autumn for an ailing tree.

august 2017