A Glass Bubble

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...

Weird

                         Weird Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  How strange these bright orbs seem beneath the snow Of Florida.  The rarity should be The flakes heaped up on an orange van Gogh Might...

Fingering and Throat

     Fingering and Throat Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  Wooden flutes pacify the air. ~ Lorca, “Ode to Salvador Dalí” (Oda a Salvador Dalí) A flute alone can bring the best of peace To air and...

Levitation above the Arbor’s Lawn

    Levitation above the Arbor’s Lawn Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  Some petals send no scent that human nose Can sense.  These flowers have no fragrance for The person passing by.  Smells dispose...

Temples, Temple Oranges

      Temples, Temple Oranges Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  “Take the orange petals, Take the olive leaves” ~ Lorca, “Baladilla de los tres ríos” Some poet somewhere ought to write about The orange...

Brown Not So Boring When Splashed with Blood

Brown Not So Boring When Splashed with Blood Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  Brown Not So Boring When Splashed with Blood Dead calm the town, the nearly coastal town, Lagoon its shore, that brackish...

Palestine Protesters in Perspective

   Palestine Protesters in Perspective Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  In Michigan an X-er in one town Is all upset because an Xmas band Is drowned out by a protest.  One cold frown Is sent across The...

Nursing Nutrition on Your Knees

   Nursing Nutrition on Your Knees Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem  When humans scold you, turn to flowers and vines. Combine them.  Morning glories are ideal As therapy or zazen.  Blooms are mines For...

Incapable Beauty

            Incapable Beauty The best thing that the poet pointed out Is that wise roses never know that all Are shriveling, young.  The flowers never pout In sympathy with us.  They never brawl With gods for us, to spare us from some fate We do not know awaits us. ...

Sacred and Profane Buddhas

        Sacred and Profane Buddhas   The meaning of the Buddha is in all Things, not just sacred lotuses or trees Saints sit beneath.  Secular flies let fall Their droppings on the painted frieze Brushed onto white rice paper on a screen, Or watercolor painted on...

Marmalade Scent is Missing

       Marmalade Scent is Missing The orange sunset seen through orange trees Shows Florida as orange, orange, green. The gloss of evergreen these orange tints tease With glints so slight of orange that the scene Defies the eyes to see the orange hints Upon the dark...

The Heavenly Choir after It Fell on Florida

The Heavenly Choir after It Fell on Florida   The spider web comes Hot against his face; August In damp Kulaqua. In Florida humidity comes full On like a curse.  A thunderstorm comes down In swashing curtains made of wet warm wool. A coolness follows but then comes...

A 1950s Florida Day and July 20 and 21, 1969

A 1950s Florida Day and July 20 and 21, 1969 Winged ants fly From a small house At the foot of Mount Fuji.   ~ Buson   The clapboard house shines white in afternoon Brevard in sunlight.  There in front are green And orange from the flame vine.  There’s no moon Above...

Enamel Trees Longing Ago

         Enamel Trees Longing Ago The orange blossoms fill my native place. They fill it every year with white perfume. The scent has piquant yellow at heart’s space, The hearts held out bouquet-like, as a plume On green wing branches where the mockingbird Might...

Condemned

                    Condemned Mosquito heat envelopes everyone In Titusville and then come clouds pumped out From funnels on the trucks, poison to stun The stings before they reach with pointed snout Their victims.  White men and the black ones search Out dark brown...

Flowers and Flamingos

Flowers and Flamingos Modern poetry  modern verse  contemporary poetry  contemporary verse  modern poem  contemporary poem It suffers violence but it does not know What violence is.  Is blossom pink less real Because it does not know a cruel blow Might be delivered to...

Bloody Queen Mary

           Bloody Queen Mary Modern poetry  modern verse  contemporary poetry  contemporary verse  modern poem  contemporary poem When fed from underneath, a flame is hard To quench.  The fire burns from the deepest down Domains.  The hottest flame cuts like a shard...

International Geographic

      International Geographic The tawny boys run through the woods and streets Wherever they are raised, in rural realms Of citrus Florida, where sunshine meets Them under orange grove trees or under elms In England—everywhere.  They build their dykes Or dams, their...

Escape from Recurring Pain

Escape from Recurring Pain The water comes before, then comes the flow Of water after.  Now, forever, these First lead then follow.  Floods or trickles go Wherever they insist.  Priests can’t appease Them.  Always they repeat their sequence, force, Retreat, return. ...

  Epiphany not Abruptness

        Epiphany not Abruptness A mamba crosses paths with you.  A shark Fin heaves to view in nearby waves.  A plague Ramps out across the world.  A winging lark Explodes from cover at your feet.  No vague, Uncertain certainty like fate explains The threat, the...

Stomps to Completion

      Stomps to Completion “dragging my arms upward and into a circle” ~ Jaime Mathis, It Rises and Falls The resonating hole he wants is down Below, guitar hole waiting for his touch Above it.  It is never like a frown Except he tortures it.  It wants to clutch Him...

The Cape

               The Cape Consider what the cape desires.  It wants to see The clouds of birds that used to fly above It in their immemorial paths, sea And sea and sea beneath their search for love And nestlings.  Cape  Canaveral wants the white And white and white...

That Supreme Nazi, Plato,  Sounded Off about Orpheus

That Supreme Nazi, Plato,  Sounded Off about Orpheus Modern poetry  modern verse  contemporary poetry  contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem He takes the poison of his courage and His love.  He does not try to dazzle death With poetry:   Romeo is not bland...

Deer-tongue

            Deer-tongue   The smell of deer-tongue came to me today From decades past.  I mean the fragrance of The dried out leaves, as dried out as the splay Of decades since my father taught us love, His sons, beneath the Florida sun, leaves That called up beauty...

Talleyrand & Gouveneur Morris Crippled Twinning

Talleyrand & Gouveneur Morris Crippled Twinning “Your character is such that you destroy Unhappiness much faster than can fate Create its sadnesses,” said Monstesquiou To Adelaïde, who had the lovely trait Of being charming Countess de Flahaut— Which meant that...

The Purpose of the Cosmos

The Purpose of the Cosmos Modern poetry  modern verse  contemporary poetry  contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Dawns come and go. The twilights blaze and fade. The phases of the moon go round and round In slivers and in spheres. Sea days are made...

Fletchers Make the Feathers on God’s Shining Arrows

Fletchers Make the Feathers     on God’s Shining Arrows   Genesis 1:3 “Love is life’s end (an end, but never ending), All joys, all sweets, all happiness, awarding; Love is life’s wealth (ne’er spent, but ever spending)….”          ...

Quintet of Sonnets about Jeanette

Quintet of Sonnets about Jeanette                                         Black and White Her eyes cast down as if ashamed of style And beauty, she is captured. She is held Forever in the falseness.  All the while This image has existed, it’s compelled Jeanette...

Erde und Himmel: a Sonnet

                              Erde und  Himmel:  a Sonnet The picture on the page (this photo in the ad) was not of you.  It looked like you, though.  Can it be that something quite so thin and boring as casually leafing through an in-flight magazine might bring this...

Daytona Paradiso

   Daytona Paradiso The neon signs of Florida are matched By empty sunlight in her days.  The worst, Perhaps, is how the local roads have hatched Those crummy little businesses accursed With would be clever, come on names that churn Your sunburned gut.  Or maybe even...