At Your Word, O God, the mountains smoke, And at Your Word, the oceans boil in their basins. You speak, and all the earth is silent. You speak, and regiments of tornadoes leap into battle. Quietly, You cause the grasses of the field to bend back and forth on the way to withering brown as …
Vintage 3
Blended, rich, mingled smooth like sanded oak. Light, not frivolous. Her taste is fruit with weight, textured chocolate. Wood-aged in the barrel, For all these years with me. She is my tawny port.
Autumn
Laughing rain, a glorious train, Mercy comes in showers. Falling leaves and dripping eaves, Autumn’s fading hours. Noisy reds take to their beds, Yellows start their fading. The pale sun arcs and golden sparks Dim in joyful shading.
Pale Madness
Wisdom forsaken and folly embraced, Folly conceives and bears idiot children, Stubborn in creed and in mulish confession, They cling to the death of their civilization. Staggering, falling and groping through dark, Her poets and sages and pundits declare Freedom as glory and freedom as nothing, Freedom as goodness, whatever that is. Wombs are a …
Descent
Descending out of heaven Into Minneapolis, I saw outside the plane A hard, bright autumn. Far below, a parking lot, Crammed with automobiles, Flared with momentary glory Like Hopkins’ shook foil.
Reconciliation
Something glittered in the sandy bank. Gull circled noisily, but no one else was there. More than a breeze was off the bay, But the clouds were motionless, Unaware of the bite below. Scattered reeds bent back toward the cottages, The early sunlight was bitter still. Sand behind me, forgotten miles, The sand in front …