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Poetry

POEM: The Desert Sun

The Desert Sun

1.

blinded by the desert sun
the Hebrew prophets
divined in darkness
a beauty deeper
than had been known

2.

an old retainer
of Charles The First
asked to defect
to Cromwell’s side
replied as follows
I have eaten
the king’s bread
for thirty years
I will not desert him
in his hour of need

3.

the beauty of the moral act

 

 101 Great American Poems (Dover Thrift Editions)

POEM: Aesthete

Aesthete

adrift on the couch
I spot a ship
my Chinese hat
a peasant’s handiwork
upon a ledge

the crown is a prow
breasting the waves
the brim a curve
curving seawards

Oh  a ship
is a beautiful thing
even when at rest
dreaming of the open sea

POEM: The Sport of Kings (with apologies to Hemingway)

The Sport Of Kings
(with apologies to Hemingway)

I was fucking
a good-looking kid
from Baltimore
whose uncle owned
a great horse
(Spectacular Bid)

feeling like family
I rooted him home
to win the Derby
two weeks later
it was the Preakness
when he lost the Belmont
I felt like shit
then the kid
takes off for Maryland
when she gets back
it’s not the same

I don’t know
sometimes   it seems
they don’t leave
a guy   nothin’

 

 

101 Great American Poems (Dover Thrift Editions)

POEM: Metaphysical Marv

Metaphysical Marv

do not be angry
I still pursue
the noblest man
is mainly water
and like that stream
by whose side
we lipped away
a lazy summer
my course is set
we both must follow
the lay of the land

POEM: Waugh

Waugh

Evelyn Waugh
wrote the following

to know and love
another person
is the beginning
of all wisdom

if this is true
my darling Nan
my English girl
you have made me
the wisest fool
in all the world

POEM: Conversation

   

    the other night

over coffee

Laura and I

talked of poetry

I said   the women

who hurt us most

are most valuable

to any writer

sceptical Laura

smiled   and said

and what of those

who gave their hearts

I returned her smile

and threw the ace

they are the same

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