The Chained Muse

Southern Icarus
 

Windborne, lover of heights,
unspooled from the truck’s wildly lurching embrace,
you climb, skittish kite . . .

What do you know of the world’s despair,
gliding in vast solitariness there,
so that all that remains is to

fall?

Only a little longer the wind...

O life-affirming season, mild and fair

  Yet bursting with life, rousing long-dulled sense,

Whose spark of youth electrifies the air

  Heavy with mists and mossy, flowered scents;

That decks high boughs caressing gentle rains

  In clustered blooms of purple, pink, and white...

Wings

Oh, to catch the winds of flight,

And soar where eagles go,

To leave the woes of troubled souls         

Behind me far below.

I'd listen to the song of birds

And sail in endless flight,

Then chase the sun through cloudy paths

And play with stars at ni...

A master and his student stood

In the midst of a foggy trail,

Thinking about their lives and all

Those things so little understood.

“I long to make discoveries,

I long to know the truth of things;

To possess wisdom of my own—

And all the joy such treasure brings.”

These were t...

From the beginning of mankind’s existence, as a truly human culture, Man has struggled to express the seemingly inexpressible—the idea which lies beyond the realm of the senses, yet is nevertheless real and palpable—in language. In fact, language is the very product, t...

                           I

Sometimes I imagine that I am still young,

   Like an old sleeping dog in his dreams;

His legs move, and he pants...

The one who is given
Great gifts may thus fall;
The thief attained to heaven
In the last interval.
Love makes all even,
Truth, not time, has all.

When life’s come and gone,
Our best is passed on,
Then goes down the Sun,
     We shall no more.
Souls rest i...

Immortal Aphrodite, throned in splendor!
Wile-weaving daughter of Zeus, enchantress, and beguiler!
I implore you, dread mistress, discipline me no longer
with love's anguish!

But come to me once again in kindness,
heeding my prayers as you did before;
O, come Divine O...