Mountain Envy [Free Verse]

Ah, the mountain!
Old enough to know
When to stay quiet,
And disciplined enough
To stick to it.

“The Voice of the Ancient Bard” by William Blake [w/ Audio]

Youth of delight, come hither,
And see the opening morn,
Image of truth new born.
Doubt is fled, & clouds of reason,
Dark disputes & artful teazing.
Folly is an endless maze,
Tangled roots perplex her ways.
How many have fallen there!
They stumble all night over bones
of the dead,
And feel they know not what
but care,
And wish to lead others,
when they should be led.

Canopy [Haiku]

rain tree canopy
contains city’s secrets
‘til the leaf drop.

“The Dawn” by William Butler Yeats [w/ Audio]

I WOULD be as ignorant as the dawn,
That has looked down
On that old queen measuring a town
With the pin of a brooch,
Or on the withered men that saw
From their pedantic Babylon
The careless planets in their courses,
The stars fade out where the moon comes,
And took their tablets and made sums--
Yet did but look, rocking the glittering coach
Above the cloudy shoulders of the horses.
I would be -- for no knowledge is worth a straw --
Ignorant and wanton as the dawn.

Still Life [Haiku]

country road view:
nothing bigger than a mouse
is in motion.

“To Helen” by Edgar Allan Poe [w/ Audio]

Helen, thy beauty is to me
Like those Nicéan barks of yore,
That gently, o'er a perfumed sea,
The weary, way-worn wanderer bore
To his own native shore.

On desperate seas long wont to roam,
Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face,
Thy Naiad airs have brought me home
To the glory that was Greece,
And the grandeur that was Rome.

Lo! in yon brilliant window-niche
How statue-like I see thee stand,
The agate lamp within thy hand!
Ah, Psyche, from the regions which
Are Holy-Land!

Spillage [Free Verse]

What spills from the brush?
What shapes are made
on the page?

What curves? What lines?
What crosses? What binds?

Who will chase after the sparks
of meaning in those wild marks?

The Dance [Free Verse]

What force dances one 
into this lovely state?

Light & ecstatic,
Blissful but calm.

Each breath a drug
that sends delicate
shimmers rippling
through the universe.

What force, indeed?

“Soft Snow” by William Blake [w/ Audio]

I walked abroad in a snowy day:
I ask'd the soft snow with me to play:
She play'd & she melted in all her prime,
And the winter call'd it a dreadful crime.

Moth Flight [Haiku]

moth falls off wall,
pulls up erratically, &
struggles for altitude.