Can Freedom Be a Creed?

Thorny, Growing Things

         Thorny, Growing Things Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  A sonnet wants to go somewhere, not just Within itself.  It travels in its thought And themes.  It wants a wider wanderlust Perhaps of...

Olympus and Mount Helicon Inside Us Always

Olympus and Mount Helicon Inside Us Always Our singing starts when mind and heart awake A pen or tongue.  The singing might be notes Or words, composer or the poet.  Blake Or Brahms begins inside us.  Singing floats Out from our fingers or our mouths.  The lips Then...

Grasping Your Soil

              Grasping Your Soil Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  The acrid root of love has gilding on It.  Wrinkles on it are not hidden by The gold.  They look like shrivels that are drawn By greed. ...

Though ’Twere 10,000 Waves

 Though ’Twere 10,000 Waves Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  If you were near a distant loch, away The miles from England where I dream of you, Dream daydreams of the hair on you, Strathspey Between us,...

Olympus and Mount Helicon Inside Us Always

Olympus and Mount Helicon Inside Us Always Our singing starts when mind and heart awake A pen or tongue.  The singing might be notes Or words, composer or the poet.  Blake Or Brahms begins inside us.  Singing floats Out from our fingers or our mouths.  The lips Then...

Behaving

                    Behaving Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  If I could be my Prospero, some hours Perhaps, perceive the cosmos through his eyes While hiding underneath a shrub from showers Of English...

Brown and Pink

           Brown and Pink Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem    Bracken.  Public domain. The bracken, just like life, turns back to rust. They make their way up through it, rustling through The brown.  They...

Nosebleeds in a Coffeehouse Might Help

Nosebleeds in a Coffeehouse Might Help “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked” Howlers annoy.  The “poets” speak their lines In limping prose and then expect the rest Of us to call it verse.  There should be...

Spitting Cobras

              Spitting Cobras Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  Spitting Cobra | The Toxic Sprayer The darkest planets are the ones you taught Me I should fear.  Pink holes of blackness are Their realms. ...

Interior Forever Regrettably

     Interior Forever Regrettably Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Remembering her nakedness with black Triangle patch there at her center, he Recoils these decades later, patch myth black Now, more like...

Missed Less than Non-existent Mist

Missed Less than Non-existent Mist Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  Though raised in 1950s fear of war, Atomic war, and 1960s threat Of it, I almost never think of it, no more Than thinking of an early...

Planets for Poets

             Planets for Poets In days, millennia, in centuries, nights To come, will poets think of you beside The widened oceans?  In rock coves and bights Will writers sing of your inflowing tide? Will poets sing in depths, in time Much deeper yet because in coasts...

Blue and Lavender Might

    Blue and Lavender Might   If rain were lavender or blue, our ways Might take us back or forward in our space/ Time.  I might learn to dance sand merengues MERENGUE DANCE BASI Y DEISY Along a Caribbean blue-fringed grace Of waves.  If lavender, the rain might make...

Maine Morning Message

     Maine Morning Message Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  We think of Maine, New England and the snow, The snow that comes so soon in winter or Fall, even, locked as hard as Allah’s No Until the power...

Cute Kitten in a Dream

          Cute Kitten in a Dream Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  You know how dreams are.  Hallmark isn’t what They aim for.  Roses and perfume?  Forget That stuff.    Their nightmare purpose is to glut...

The Salvation of Royal Coffee

         The Salvation of Royal Coffee Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  There’s nothing wrong with coffee that you can’t Improve by changing it completely in Its taste and lusciousness and smell.  Decant...

Elijah Translated in a Blazing Chariot Becomes Undying

Elijah Translated in a Blazing Chariot Becomes Undying Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem                     We spend our days translating English from Trash phrases into tongues of fire and flame. We save...

The Loss of the Louvre

          The Loss of the Louvre Imagine that the world of pictures died And words alone were left.  The Instagram And TikTok types would all want suicide. Then poetry would rule; this oriflamme Of language would replace nought one, nought one Of photographs and...

Bluegrass Reverie in the Spirit of the Ages

Bluegrass Reverie in the Spirit of the Ages Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  I want the hurricane to quit its hate And turn to Caribbean breeze in palm And orchid blooms.  I dream a winter’s skate On ice...

Transfusion not Transmigration

Transfusion not Transmigration I need transfusion of your blood from you, Inserted needle in my veins, the flow Of red and white cells from your heart and through My person and my spirit.   Help love grow Throughout my body, giving what you can Inside my being, giving...

“Take the Current When It Serves”

  “Take the Current When It Serves” It’s not my business to confirm or not Existence of some worlds to come, or world Forbidden from creation, or the dot We call right now, or fates to be unfurled. It’s not my business to affirm the soul, Its...

Unkindly Stopped

        Unkindly Stopped Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  A hearse draws up. Though it is black, its team Of horses is electric lavender. I know therefore that it has come to scheme Against me.  I must be...

Margaret Redux

                  Margaret Redux Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  The dreams of her are coming fast and thin. She fills my bed with foreign images Quite unrelated to her, more a twin Of monstrousness. ...

Wrecknology

             Wrecknology Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  When practicality as focus of Our education trounces fictive things Like symphonies, we just may turn to love Of poetry and painting, what has...

Physics Trounced by 24-carat Gold

Physics Trounced by 24-carat Gold For Donald who is dead these many nights and days    I see that in this photo I am blond But I have never noticed until now That Donald, too, is yellow-haired beyond The age of others who went brown.  The wow In this is that while...

Two

                      Two For A. Y. Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem We always knew, or felt we knew, that love Is not just heart, that it was mind as well, Some kind of mind at least, perhaps above The...

Combination Subterranean Fates

  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Reflecting_cavern_lake.jpg     Combination Subterranean Fates Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  Your blood cells taste of tight infinities When swallowed by my...

Breastbone and Thigh with Color of a Manly Love

Breastbone and Thigh with Color of a Manly Love The ivory letters I would set in bones Of love would nearly be invisible Since ivory is too close in paler tones To thigh and breast bone.  Indivisible Those colors are in love from me to you. The ivory would be deep,...

Giacomo da Lentini Mentioned in the Purgatory of Dante

Giacomo da Lentini Mentioned in the Purgatory of Dante Conductor and Alighieri slight The soul of Giacomo.  One notes that he Like others had not seen the change to might That Dante started, offering the key To wider, deeper understanding of The realm of passion for a...

No Conversion Therapy

     No Conversion Therapy His eyes hold blacks that Jesus wished to be When he loomed next to Lucifer, the blacks That oceans hold beneath each night-time sea, Not surfaces but depths that only lax Hearts know.  His eyes hold feelings blacker than Unfallen angels...

Lush Blackness Outside and Inside

Lush Blackness Outside and Inside “with false compare” ~ Shakespeare, Sonnet 130 The eyes wait black, the eyebrows, too.  The hair On top waves black, thick black.  These blacks all teach That black is lovelier than yellow.  Swear By black since it is...

Roberto

                   Roberto Far, far in Costa Rica, far away My friend reads sonnets/villanelles by me. He reads so closely what these poems say That, apprehending, he reveals that he Reads deeply like a CT scan, or like An X-ray — or electron microscopes. If lines...

A Realm of Hollow Wraith-like Stars as Bells

Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  the music of the spheres (160) ‘The Last Transit of Venus’ for Glass Armonica – YouTube If I could fall forever through a space We can’t imagine,...

A Wombless Vacuum Lacuna

 A Wombless Vacuum Lacuna Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  It seems I yell out nothings, nothings, not One thing the universe desires.  My clouds Are chocked with ambiguities, more clot Than what most...

Cat Lustre

                     Cat Lustre How long does glow upon a black cat’s fur Last once his steps are gone?  He disappears In night without a moon.  Does gloss turn blur, Or worse?  If fur goes where there are no spheres, Does it then sublimate to nothing through...

All-embracing

                    All-embracing Ideas that come from wombs which give them ears Because these thoughts have listened well before They speak, these hear the screaming in your tears Before you feel them.  If ideas have more Than auricle and cartilage, the nerves...

Claire Austin

                      Claire Austin Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  Some snow is sifting down, white snow, not quite As white as winter snow, an orangey pink Where snowflakes joined their stems.  The...

Look at His Eyes First

         Look at His Eyes First Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  Try looking at the brother on the right, Far right.  What wisdom do you see in eyes Above his winsome smile?  A photo’s blight Is that it...

Haumaea, Hawai’ian Goddess of Fertility

Haumaea, Hawai’ian Goddess of Fertility Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  File:Haumea Rotation.gif – Wikimedia Commons If you were making worlds, the spheroid ones, Those almost perfect spheres like...

The People Who Are Too Easily Bored

The People Who Are Too Easily Bored Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The people who too easily are bored Have boring minds, my brother Ivan says. When brains were given out, too many scored At low IQs. ...

Dark Lead or Scarlet Glass

      Dark Lead or Scarlet Glass Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  The others go around as mopes since stress, Depression, or gray weather makes them think about Gun trigger, feeling they might even press...

The Featherless Singing Phoenix

       The Featherless Singing Phoenix Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  If he were tall and baritone, perhaps Your heart would grow the ears to hear his soul, But as things are he hears your interest...

Big Eyes, Bigger Insight

     Big Eyes, Bigger Insight Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  I dare you all to tell me what you see In eyes the farthest to the photo’s right. Clairvoyants alone might hold the key To fathom out...

Encoded Uncertainty

               Encoded Uncertainty Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem     The tiny poet sits up on the lap Of Mama, neither clueing what the years Ahead will hold.  A family never has a map Of futures, no...

The Tidy Family Composition

              The Tidy Family Composition Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  We see him in his 1950s suit. Beside him sits the alien he wed; Her hairstyle would turn E.T. dumb and mute. Of course, this...

Advice from the Cavern at Delphi

 Advice from the Cavern at Delphi Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  Let feathers of God’s silence lift your ears Above the blare, the skirl near you, the sound Of Thursday prose.  Await the...

Ever Sere Depression:  Blank Eyes, Lips, Ears

Ever Sere Depression:  Blank Eyes, Lips, Ears Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  The place is dark.  Its tenses, all, are stark. Its tense today is black as ebony As God imagined it before His spark...

Fire Inside His Will

                 Fire Inside His Will His eyes have Titan clouds inside them, clouds (Prometheus in color) long before He met the beak.  His pupils have white shrouds Like cataracts to hide from him the war Between all gods and men.  This means his hope Lacks clarity...

Absolute Whole

          Absolute Whole Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  Illusion and Enlightenment are one. Illusion and Enlightenment are two. Both dream and firefly fluttering each shun Full grasp, but floating,...

Visibly Loud Emotion Recollected in Hostility

Visibly Loud Emotion Recollected in Hostility Your thoughts (on seeing me) expand so proud Inside your skull that I can nearly see Their force despite the bone encasement, loud Enough for irises to file.  Your spree Of ploys about me now revealed include A purple...

Dam Sluice

                       Dam Sluice Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  Acts 9: 18 Some people, many maybe, think it hard To cause a poem (or a painting just As much).  They think the challenge is a sard Too...

Apprehension

               Apprehension Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  You think that you are seeing him because You see his face and hair.  Of course you know That other parts are hidden like the laws Of physics...

Antelope Canyon, Valentine Cavern

     Antelope Canyon, Valentine Cavern Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The caves of love, romantic love, each old Like stone they carve through, wait inside the chests Of boys and men.  Each curving...

Adolescent Philosophy Is Wet

     Adolescent Philosophy Is Wet Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  When hair on chest is not quite new or old Long after armpits make announcements, too, Young males are dragged along in being bold In...

The Purpose of Preying Plumes

The Purpose of Preying Plumes Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  Do fledging on your heart and feathers on Your mind.  Your eyes might need some feathers, too. The point is flight beyond yourself, a swan...

Whoever Heard of Surging Love in Holland?

Whoever Heard of Surging Love in Holland? Can deep romance occur in boring, flat Terrain?   Not even in Italian fields With cypress trees, tight shapes, can hearts combat The boredom of a sort that never yields The passion that romance requires.  No notes Of music can...

A Glass Bubble

               A Glass Bubble Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  His childhood, calm, unlike a corrida Entirely, (much more like a mountain lake), Was like lagoon waves lapping Florida Marina shores.  The...

Venus by Botticelli, Diadoumenos, Johann Sebastian Bach

Venus by Botticelli, Diadoumenos, Johann Sebastian Bach Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  Perfection has its drawbacks.  It destroys Descendants in their hopes to make an art That breathes new beauty. ...

Similar Sense Twin Sonnets: Paired Poems

Similar Sense Twin Sonnets:  Paired Sonnets                  A Fair Lot with Bucephalus “How fair a lot to fill           Is left to each man still.”                                                                        ~ Matthew Arnold “Sohrab and...

Sunrise and Evening Star and Clearest Calls

Sunrise and Evening Star and Clearest Calls The Virgin Birth, Divinity of Christ, Existence or the non-existence of One God or more, no matter how spliced, sliced Are symbols we should nurture, even love Them if they prove as fruitful as the tree That Jesus cursed was...

Joy in Sameness, Difference, Acetyline Smokelessness

Joy in Sameness, Difference, Acetyline Smokelessness Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  The poetries of life, the poetries In life (if such things do exist) remain Forever, even, much the same.  Degrees Of...

Absolute Whole

             Absolute Whole Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  Illusion and Enlightenment are one. Illusion and Enlightenment are two. Both dream and firefly fluttering each shun Full grasp, but floating...

Gold and Copper Living Gaul

   Gold and Copper Living Gaul Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  Here armored, gilt and copper, copper breast And gilt of knee with shin guard shaped in gold, He rests with dots upon his hairless chest....

Apotheosis

~ Phillip Whidden        Apotheosis We want incisors on the skull of hate To bite it till it gives up music, art And epic thoughts, yes, all of loving’s freight Desired.  We want those teeth to gnaw the heart Until it yields the mathematics of Our highest beauties,...

Farther Than an Undetected Star, but . . .

Farther Than an Undetected Star, but . . . Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  We know that nothing can be further from Us, further than the past.  The past is gone Much farther than orations from the dumb....

Truer than True

                Truer than True Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  Those things inside our throats are waiting for Their meaning.  Music sung begins as notes Which once inside the mouth might want to soar...

Universalist Units

                          Universalist Units Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  If grains of sands     hold universes, then The cosmoses are grains of sand.  The sense Is clear, the logic locked, and so the...

God’s in This World, All’s Pyrite in Heaven

God’s in This World, All’s Pyrite in Heaven “God’s in His heaven– All’s right with the world!” ~ Robert Browning When poets enter other people’s brains, Especially the made up ones, the threat Is like paradisal tree that...

Over Millennia

                Over Millennia The autumn, with tall steppings like giraffes, Brings colors taller, taller than the rest Of seasons.  Graceful, slim months come like laughs Of palettes, legs and necks in step and blessed Like warmer spots, a million autumn leaves Upon...

Pinioned Prescriptions:  Two Sonnets

Pinioned Prescriptions:  Two Sonnets Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem              Ornithological Therapy If birds obliged, they might resolve to aid Us in disorders of the heart and mind. The robin might...

Recessional Marche Triumphale ~ Sigfrid Karg-Elert

Recessional Marche Triumphale ~ Sigfrid Karg-Elert Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  Throughout the chancel and the nave fall flowers In colors edged the space with petals, form And shape.  Despite the...

“while unending ages run”. . . and the Obscure Poet

“while unending ages run”. . . and the Obscure Poet Joshua 10:12-14 The printed program had those words within It from a hymn.  An irony was caused. The service was about as long as sin Has ruled the Church.  Apparently time paused. The service stretched and...

Retort to an Unthinking Funeral Ceremony

Retort to an Unthinking Funeral Ceremony “Daur ye say Mass in my lug? ~ Jenny Geddes Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  The priestess said that God loves everything He made.  I kept my seat.  I did...

“Nor the moon by night” ~ Psalm 121

“Nor the moon by night” ~ Psalm 121 Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  Please never interfere at night, God.  Let The moon strike any time it wants. I need It.  Keep the sun away, but, please, God get The...

The Interpretation of a Cherry Tree

  The Interpretation of a Cherry Tree Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  If I were like a tree limb, I would sleep As if in blossom like a cherry tree, Not just a branch.  My secrets I would keep Inside me...

Mockingbird’s Song as Colors

   Mockingbird’s Song as Colors Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  Northern Mockingbird singing. (yNorthern Mockingbird singing. (youtube.c The mockingbird sings lavishly, and less Like mist of rainbows,...

Loveliest of Trees — an Antidote to Autumn Foliage

Loveliest of Trees — an Antidote to Autumn Foliage Imagine drinking saké underneath The cherry blossoms.  Saké and the food Are not about our deaths and joys — a wreath Of loss and life.  This day is for the brewed Sak-ura-flavored drinks, the pink of blooms, The...

No Matter Where You Bathed

   No Matter Where You Bathed Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  No matter where you bathed, the water would Have turned to gold, a liquid gold that gods Would know.  Your black dream hair was like a hood,...

All Muddled Up as if a Nightmare, Us

All Muddled Up as if a Nightmare, Us Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  In dreamland you returned to me from death. Because our dreams are strange, strange, strange without Compassion, colorless as Arctic...

Things Fall Apart When We Fail to See

Things Fall Apart When We Fail to See Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  Some poets aren’t the prophets of the world. At times these poets come too small.  When Yeats Pronounced a dissolution deeply swirled...

God

  Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  The purity escapes, is hard to grasp Unless you do it with your handless soul. The purity escapes.  No latch or hasp Can hold it since you know the unseen whole Is...

Silence is Only Silence

              Silence is Only Silence Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  The moon has never made a pond grow dark Or deep, or punched a hole in it, nor made A poem underneath the wet, or shark To lunge.  If...

Out of Joint with Petty Time

     Out of Joint with Petty Time Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  If you are filled with contradictions, you Have hope and not despair alone.  You may Not be a Hamlet with a prince’s view Of kings and...

November Calm Forgets Them

November Calm Forgets Them Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  We want to sleep as pears and apples lined Up in the autumn thinking not of graves. Our cemeteries are too much refined. New England’s basements...

Cosmic Regurgitation

            Cosmic Regurgitation Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Black holes are darker than the darkest spheres Of planets.  You might fear them if you saw Them.  Even more the darkest holes cause smears...

Ghost Sharks

                         Ghost Sharks Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  Ghost sharks are sharks and not.  These sharks, these fish Pre-dated sharks and rays for eons.  Ghosts In their appearance they look...

Brevity as Gasps

             Brevity as Gasps Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  Too seldom women feel themselves like dew And men less seldom even.  Life cut short Like lightning is a thought we seldom view Though close...

“And Man Became a Living Soul”

 “And Man Became a Living Soul” Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  ~ Genesis 2:7 Consider what your soul wants most of all, The bhumisparsha not required.  The palm Holds fingers pointing out to...

Back Garden Universal

 Back Garden Universal Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  The dew upon the petal of the rose Remains undyed, a purity of red, A purity of crimson drops transpose To brightness held up in a flowerbed Like...

Heaven and Earth

      Heaven and Earth “Eternity is in love with the productions of time.” ~ William Blake When gods get bored, they leave eternity And step through gauze-like curtains into time. While being trapped in their supernity, They yearn for thrills on earth and...

My Hermitage Where I Sit in Isolation

My Hermitage Where I Sit in Isolation Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  Perhaps I’ll build a hut just off a trail In Appalachian mountains far away From everyone and everything, derail The rush, block out...

Words Do Not Have to be Gilded on Ivory

Words Do Not Have to be Gilded on Ivory Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem        The tatters down below the lines he writes Take on a meaning.  There the smudgy stains Incurred inside his shopping bag are...

Transcendent Escape from Silliness

     Transcendent Escape from Silliness Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Why are people called Buddhas After they die? Because they don’t grumble anymore, Because they don’t make a nuisance Of themselves...

The Western Pure Land

      The Western Pure Land Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  Amida made a vow to save us all, All creatures in their incarnations.  Love And mercy lift us.  Other saviors fall Far short of such...