So why not use a classic form but bend the rules from norm,like this, which borrows artistry of classic sonnetrybut switches ’round the flowing sound which sonnets will perform,whose shards came down from greater bards whose words had been set free? Should this be done? Would anyone of sanity agreetoContinue Reading

When I was a rather new student at the University where I first naively sought Enlightenment, a mere Idealist devoted to the pursuit of esoteric knowledge whose dimensions I could not remotely grasp, whose complexities I could only vaguely anticipate, whose truths I did not yet dare question, I devotedlyContinue Reading

A Sonnet on Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall” Two neighbors both bring bricks in burly hands,their gnarled knuckles ready for the taskof keeping neighbors friendly when demandsof conversation’s more than they would ask. They’ll share a calloused smile once they’ve returnedeach spring, to make sure neighbors will atonewith reparations for theContinue Reading

On November 22, 1963, Joan sat on the gym floor, dressed out for gym class when the news of President Kennedy’s assassination blared through the loud speakers, reverberating down the halls.Coach Mancini came out of the office to talk to her girls, tears streaming down her face. All stood asContinue Reading

There was an old woman. I was quite young and green to the ways of the world. She looked like she might be a homeless person wandering about the mall in her shabby topcoat and unkept, mop-like gray hair. But she wanted to read something serious, she said, and thisContinue Reading

“…She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,Forever wilt thou love, and she be fair!” John Keats, “Ode on a Grecian Urn” Don’t let him take those pictures when the water meltsluminous pearl around youand the last sunbathers ascend the pale ribbon trailleaving behindthe day’s opalescent heart when onlyContinue Reading

Mendacium1 Blavabarbae maximum erat quod fuit una atque unica regula2: uxorem novissimam aliquid quod cuperet3, dummodo illud solum libidinosumque — non figere4 pusillam clavem in pusillam seram — ne ea ageret5, agere posse. At vero hoc fuisse modo principium, modo probationem scimus. Uxor cecidit (atque ut fabulam narraret6 haec similisContinue Reading

Most of the fairgoers observed the comely womanrobed like a statue in layers of gossamer clothfair hair plaited and piled. She strode down the midway past lights that flashed and jangled, music tangledand tuneless. She paused to stare at the Ferris wheelarcing like a rainbow, tracked the buckets bobbing againstContinue Reading

An Evocation of the T’Ang Dynasty The leaves have fallen early this year.Butterflies are pale and move slowly now.The reeds reflect the water,a blue shade neither sea nor sky.The wind from the east brings rainin clouds covering the whole earth.At the water’s edge the willows lamentthe passing of the seasonsfromContinue Reading

“At last a deed worth doing. I say there is beauty in this….” Henrik Ibsen, Hedda Gabler Hedda, we misunderstood you,saw a monster embodyingthe Seven Deadlies,a remorseless disrupter,deceptive and cruel,eluding boredom, inflictingpain. But your handsome faceand warrior heart weren’tsensible gear for your day. Were you a goddess, we’d expectthe flirtingContinue Reading