The Devil at Woodstock
Listen to a recording of this piece here. I was a mere sixteen that Summer day We all piled in a beat-up car and drove To Woodstock, or...
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By Daniel Leach
- Jun 25
- 1 min
My Canary
I wake to hear the mockingbird’s sweet song, That floats through morning’s fresh, green, dappled light, Like all that for which mortal...
By Daniel Leach
- Apr 8
- 1 min
Easter
Here, where winter never really comes, How so, this vast profusion of wildflowers, These waves of jasmine sweet upon the wind, This hum...
By Daniel Leach
- Jan 16
- 1 min
Dog Dreams
Sometimes I imagine that I am still young, Like an old sleeping dog in his dreams; His legs move, and he pants at the air with his...
By Daniel Leach
- Nov 20, 2022
- 20 min
An Evening in the "Simultaneity of Eternity"—with Shakespeare, Keats, and William Warfield
The following is a workshop and dialogue on the art of classical poetic recitation. We at The Chained Muse believe that a revival of...
By Daniel Leach
- Oct 6, 2022
- 3 min
Reflections by an American Poet in Florence
Standing atop the Florence’s famous cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, looking out over the wide expanse of terracotta rooftops and...
By Daniel Leach
- Aug 21, 2022
- 1 min
Poems Unwritten
Sometimes, when the light and the mists of the day Settle holy and soft on the edge of the night, When the sights and the sounds of the...
By Daniel Leach
- Aug 11, 2022
- 1 min
Late Summer
Late summer, and the silvery undersides Of the leaves shimmer in the hazy air, And the cicadas’ song wells up in tides That wash over my...
By Daniel Leach
- Jul 6, 2022
- 20 min
P. B. Shelley and the Motivführung Principle in English Poetry
In honor of the 200th anniversary of Percy Bysshe Shelley's death, The Chained Muse is proud to present a month-long celebration of life...
By Daniel Leach
- Jun 23, 2022
- 1 min
Three Traditional Haikus by Daniel Leach
The branch seems to float In sky’s image in water— Both are reflections. The desolation, To one with a quiet soul, Is like a refuge. Like...
By Daniel Leach
- May 27, 2022
- 2 min
Ode: Spring Mourning
The first soft days of springtime greet my eyes Like a young girl’s face, smiling fresh and clean, The sunlight falls, like hope, from...
By Daniel Leach
- Mar 10, 2022
- 2 min
Devil's Hole*
They say that there are ghosts that haunt this place Of ones who long ago met their end here, But in the fern-cooled air that bathes my...
By Daniel Leach
- Dec 28, 2021
- 1 min
Three Traditional Haikus by Daniel Leach
Like ghosts, the buildings Watch the changing earth and sky— Nothing is empty. Though in dark shadow, Gnarled and bent, it seems to rise...
By Daniel Leach
- Dec 12, 2021
- 1 min
Windows
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...
By Daniel Leach
- Nov 3, 2021
- 1 min
In-Betweeness
As the trees and the sky wear a more somber hue, At once beautiful, sad, and yet strange, And the lowering rays of late autumn imbue...
By Daniel Leach
- May 31, 2021
- 1 min
The Leaves of Summer
The leaves of Summer never were so fair As now, by dying season’s light they’re kissed, September’s melancholy, golden mist Descends like...
By Daniel Leach
- Apr 26, 2021
- 2 min
Ghost Spring
The light falls softly on the sparkling lawn, And then awakens every tree and flower, All earth renews, as it has since the dawn Of life...
By Daniel Leach
- Mar 28, 2021
- 2 min
Dream Time
The clock is ticking in the pallid rays Of ghost-like morning hour’s waning moonlight, And though it orders all my waking days, It has no...
By Daniel Leach
- Jan 11, 2021
- 1 min
To a Girl in an Old Photograph
It was the eyes that first ensnared my sight, As if through the hazy, gray years were glowing, Like beacons in my soul’s long wandering...
By Daniel Leach
- Nov 8, 2020
- 1 min
Young and Old
Old as the eons that measure the galaxies, As to the unheard music they swirl, Young as the feeling that plays in the heart And the smile...
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