Roman Ruins
I stood atop the forum’s steps, where words once were spoken of truths eternal—love for wise and good existence. I walked between the stones and pillars, that…
Hope’s Wisdom
Wisdom…Discernment… Traits difficult to embody Sort between fact & fiction Allowing hope to set us free Hope does not tolerate lies Hope never calls virtue vice Hope…
I Saw An Old Man Smile, Enjoying a Book
I saw an old man smile, enjoying a book, And leaves died lovely deaths in autumn; A skipped rock trickled to the creek’s bottom, And a poor…
Address to Psychoanalysis
For Zoe Unorthodox healing art, akin more to Joseph the Egyptian’s craft of insight than to the Greek lexicon of medical wisdom, a match to archeologists’ hand-digging,…
Poetry of the late Tang: Jueju Quatrains of Du Mu and Li Zhong
Jueju (絕句), or ‘cut-off verses’, are the shortest form of Chinese poem. Though precursors can be found in earlier poetry, they were developed during the Tang dynasty,…
From The Seat Behind
Yes – look - all these people - I made them, animals Too, plants, insects --all You can see. It rankles How they waste their lives -…
At the Revolutionary Graveyard
(On Death, and the desecration and desertion of the once-living by the future-dead) I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he…
The English Department
In 1969, in the Fall semester, darkly painted leaves, broken from their stems by a season dying and grasping, danced across winding university walkways. The English department,…
Now What’s the Matter?
Now what’s the matter? I thought, in the still-dark kitchen with my water glass hearing a recurring noise like a creak in my seventy-year-old house. But after…
Returning on a Summer Day
It’s June again and the tide’s rising as a pod of silvered monodon flash like a remnant on the Atlantic. Pen in hand, I contemplate the photo…
Rural Requiem
For Margaret Eddowes Now’s the time to set sorrow to a song, While all the days of summer start, And renew the duties that belong To feeling,…
An Aspiring Architect Goes to Washington
After Dana Gioia He pondered the architecture when he visited Washington, pondered its form and its meaning. He had grown tired of the ugly post offices and…
Looking for the Perfect Present
In a bookstore, searching for a gift, the book that will never be forgotten— but everything can be forgotten. In a forest, therefore, looking for the confusion…