4.18: Palladium

Riven through my comfort, thou hast. It takes the form of two, no longer one. Thy words have sundered through my mast No longer do I stay, but turn and run. My hope clingeth no more to thee Or to the solid path I needed yet. It filled with new…

4.17: Paradiso

As I once told you Sitting there, avoiding moths On the patio, sipping coffee And wishing I were done, There is hope yet. From the outset We were given light And taught truth. If we get it right We don't have to Run Back into little holes Of…

4. 16: Hath No Fury

Unsatisfied, and left quite pale-- Hollow as the sound of highways Sleep encroaches on the mind And night outlasts my weary days. Marching on in outward peace The wearied soul is discontent And suffering beneath the blows Of less and less his first intent. Fury lasts in patient shapes; Is…

4.15: As Dante Warns

For all the written words which others see I here disclaim all solo voices read Into the work which craft has wrought in me And claim the muse which lives in me is dead. She has no art but that which was bestowed And cannot thus be lifted into heights…

4.14: Nascent

Retrospect reveals the sequence right; No man in youth knows yet his coming course, In old age which knows now what it did not, And could not know without those years, perforce. The young man calls his future down to answer; Ambitious hope fills full his veins and bones. His…

4.13: Mythopoeic

I neither deserve mercy nor Do I often want it. Lie to me At midnight or before And set my patience free. No small amount of grace Is cast on fires to quench them So throw fear into your pace And let a story stem From the friction in your…

4.12: Deracinated

Pulled up, messed up like a picture In crayon, outside the lines And without music Like a musician who Forgets his notes On his string bass. An about-face And a pink slip Politely. Quietly The side trip Into cold space Almost erased And anecdotes Put pieces back, all through The…

4.11: Caesura

But soft! What pause arrests my eyes While bringing worlds to reconcile My understanding of what lies Beneath the outward rank and file Of ordered earth and naked space? It causes time to stand aloof. It is unkind to rush the pace For wandering souls who search for truth. A…