Various Ways of Gauging
Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem
The stars and planets and the moon mislead
Us. Lunar influences tend to be worst,
Irrational at best. The comets speed
And glitter, each a long-tailed ghostly burst
Past proper parts of constellation thought.
These tortured strung-out wraiths of coldness fail
To send us messages except those fraught
With ambiguity. Their forked tails flail
Away, diaphanous with solar force
