…with apologies to Theo Roethke   Where first I strained: a fox against the trap And with that fervor pull: a mule with cart To prove myself by work, the mind apart From this dull world of mud and blood and sap Now silk the sinews seem. This is my lot By pleasure tethered like… Read More Anodyne

with apologies to Vincent Starrett There work together still those men of note Who founded Epiphyte (prime and refrain) First business-plans, then History they wrote Gone public, now their tale’s in that domain By Istari and stars they planned their route These glory-seeking, fortune-favored bold They saw the future. So they gave pursuit Until their… Read More The Most Cigarettes

1 I would compare thee to a summer’s day Blinding and dank and forming beads of sweat Except the perspiration you beget Is one of fear, or longing to turn gay A night in spring might serve to best describe Its rotted leaves to mirror your complexion Or autumn’s deathward-marching diatribe Or winter’s pale and… Read More Ugly Sonnets

This is a tale that I have told To Hampshire students young and old Who wish to know of days of yore What at their College came before And wanting to their minds inspire That such sweet things – for good or ill – Can still be done at sour Shire That their adventures too… Read More The Cold

I am lying on a bed and Life is there beside The bed is soft, the day is young, and Life her legs are wide She loves me deeply, mounts me meekly, lives only for me And I am bored, her charms abhorred, and think her best denied

There once was the dreadnought Graf Spee Who aimed to control the North Sea If you’re bored by this song And find it too long You probably have ADD

I once new a girl from Toronto Who claimed that she knew Esperanto I asked her to speak All she did was squeak And so I got off of her pronto

from the Polish of Cyprian Kamil Norwid What, Socrates, did you do to Athens? The people raised a statue to you After they poisoned you What, Dante, did you do to Italy? Now they give you marble and cast-bronze and tile Once they gave you exile What, Columbus, did you do to Christendom? Now you… Read More What, Socrates, did you do to Athens?

Where we once moved in London fog Now we stir not in the smoke For the gas comes rolling like a smog As rolled the dusty coke Where we once danced down London streets With our heads held high Now we crouch down, on knees and feet As tracers burn the sky Though we were… Read More The Last of the Baker Street Irregulars

MOAN AND DOVE – 09 09 09 What is this urge, to fill a simple place With memories and madness, words and wit As if a cave could ere retain its echoes As if the world could give a frothy shit No poem written neath a noble tree Will make it stand more noble, grow… Read More Lines Written in the Moan and Dove