Stonehenge
Stonehenge (After Arbar Low by Doris Corti) Pictured, the Stones seem hugely redolent Of some portentous, cosmic consciousness. First met, their insignificance appals A mind anticipating grandeur’s awe. Grouped, age-runed, in the shallow open bowl Of their […]
G. M. Hopkins
G. M. Hopkins. (1844 – 1889) Ah!. Secret singer in your self-wrought cage Of mystical constraints, who only sang When nobody could hear your instressed song. Your heart broke young to know of beauty moiled, Soiled […]
Agony and Ecstasy
Agony and Ecstasy Each poem that I write Is forced from me By agony or ecstasy!. Not day nor night Makes any difference To tortured sense; For, when compulsion comes to me, I cannot fight The agony, the ecstasy!. Who’s no true poet may Not pay this fee […]
Golden Age
Golden Age On Summer lands the golden sun Its golden warmth distributes; Whilst golden children’s golden fun, (With golden laughter, golden games And golden innocence), acclaims That golden season’s tributes. Golden gardens, and golden fields Of golden grain or forage, Their golden harvest […]
Ode for John Keats
Ode for John Keats i. I heard your Nightingale today, broadcast Over the radio, and felt again That sympathy With your romantic mood Of melancholic loss That always floods my senses through The exquisite emotions roused […]
Cosmic Reflection
Cosmic Reflection (Adapted from a 1986 speech given by Charles, Prince of Wales). I feel that, deep within each human soul, There is a deep, subconscious Reflection – As from the surface of a sunlit lake In unspoilt countryside – Of the natural harmony and […]
Dreams?
Dreams? (Adapted from The Warrant) Are we mere shadows of imagined dreams, (As unsubstantial as our thoughts), Who fade with them Into the darkness which surrounds Each life with vague forgetfulness, With thoughtless disregard, Apparent randomness, purposelessness, Frustrated hopes, ambitions unfulfilled And insignificance?. So many withered dreams, like Autumn leaves, […]
Abplanalpine Songs
Abplanalpine Songs (For Heidi) Let the rare rainbow of your singing arc Above ambition’s turbulent cascades, As from Lochmatt’s green Abplanalpine slopes Of forested seclusion your songs flow To fill lush valleys with […]
Incubus
Incubus Upon my back all day, all night, he clings Immovable as fabled Sindbad’s Old Man of the Sea; arms strangle-gripped around My neck, legs locked about my loins. He goads Me on to write whether I wish or no; Torments […]
Solitude's Demands
Solitude’s Demands Those who would stretch their minds with weighty thought Seek solitude, that they may concentrate Upon the subjects of their choice, without Distraction. Interruptions militate Against coherence and often frustrate Successful culmination of intense Research and contemplation, (so […]