One Breath: A Poem
Somewhere in the antipodean blue The old salt sea rustles anonymously Darkened by nocturnal ink Busy and dark the currents, the old fingers Wedge themselves into sea…
The Tombs of Kha and Mirit: A Poem
(Egyptian, c. 1500 BCE, now in the Turin Museum) i Everything you would need and perhaps more: a game of senet, for two players, with its perfect…
Paris Nightlife: A Poem
Paris is romantic, everybody knows, And that may be, but I doubt It could be less so to me, trying To sleep – “Do you hear? Go…
Grief Limmericks: A Poem
My mother is lying there dead. Memories crumble like bread. After the strokes, no more chats, no more jokes. My mother is lying there dead. My mother…
Esprit d’escalier
The Poet stretches out his long legs, looks up from contemplating his elegant, old-fashioned brown shoes, addresses the creative writing class, his voice tuned to channel charm…
Under the Passionfruit
A length of spider’s web startles In thin, shooting brilliance up and Down its fine extent, appearing And disappearing, catching colour In the light, losing it, in…
A Weakness for Westerns: A Poem
Of course there’s almost everything wrong with Westerns: the term ‘Red Indian’ for a start and that, from Fenimore Cooper onwards, noble savages and/or a dying race…
The Oranges: A Poem
So many, mock me in their ripening, Their abundance – singly, in clusters Of twos and threes - bold as nothing Else to see, their globes of…
Seismology: A Poem
Beneath our feet - not so far below - Creaks a widening fissure in the earth, Grinding its way to sudden Shuddering outcome and release: A fundamental…
Resurrection
I am already a dead man: I have broken faith With the life entrusted to my treasuring, and Not once, but again and again, as if at…
Travel: A Poem
The birds that traverse the garden – Emerging to sight above the hedge, The silvery magnolia tree, the rose Branches splayed against the sky – From east…
What the Dragonfly Told Me
Bend down, arch down Down toward the glass surfaced pond Not a ripple disturbs your amorous gaze Lower now still to witness your birth anew And with…
The Next Generation
This strong foreigner’s strength Passed down through her father’s blood And before that from Yangban The honored class of scholars To this woman who is now The…