The more I died, the more I came to life. In quicklime quickened, I returned as breath the way a cut releases from a knife. My blood had...

The thunder departs. Its withdrawing boom Calls to a beam of angling light That strikes the titan towers through the gloom And sets them...

You have to pass through the distressing part of this mostly golden town to get there. You continue—pressing past Jericho and on through...

A rose is lying in the summer mud— The dew still fresh from when it fell last night. A phoenix sinks into a sea of sands— See how the...

from a Photograph Flesh longed, at last, to be so impregnated and so inseminated, like a flower is pollinated by the breeze … (Or bees)....

They met me coming up the concession to our lane after the bus’s flag stop. They were waiting in the bursts of asters, in milkweed pods...

In 5/8 time, we row toward our demise. Rachmaninoff supplies the oars, the boat the waves, the craggy cliffs, the leaden skies. All we...

Mediterranean Fortunes A cold, dry Mistral gallops down the Rhone, reminding of what Dumas wrote: a count, falsely accused, rotting...

I saw a young bard, A prince sitting on An ancient divan, Plucking the strings Of his Dorian lyre. His dainty fingers Strummed the gentle...

The Gate It’s not so hard to turn into a gate. To do so, just assume this shape: from kneeling, stretch one leg out to the side, place...

The fields stretch out, bare, icy: __Wide, blank, yet-unetched slates, Tabulae rasae, waiting __The chisel of the Fates, But deep beneath...

Like ghosts, the buildings Watch the changing earth and sky— Nothing is empty. Though in dark shadow, Gnarled and bent, it seems to rise...

Forget your Christmas cards and little crèche the cutesy donkey, sheep and shepherd boys. Put away the twinkle lights and all that trash;...

Last night, while dawn was far away and rain streaked gray, tumescent skies, as thunder boomed and lightning railed, I conjured words,...

A hundred tongues of smoke— Translucent wisps, lithe specters— Rise, snaking languidly, Curling, grasping like tendrils At the light they...

In March, when the shadows are long, I am walking Down the streets of the city I knew long ago, And see as in dreams empty windows there...

When the nukes start flying, when we see the mushroom cloud growing on the horizon, when reality comes crashing down in the most overt...

Here in a bright alchemy, history collides and combines with eternal things. The mundane is infused with mystery, and the dust and mud...

Go out now, children, while you can and play. The time to romp and frolic will not last. Drink Kool-Aid under shade trees while you may....

The man who never cries is like the ship That never sailed or left the sleepy shores, Who’s never felt the waves of peril whip Against...