Fire and Snow (2009)

There’s irony in the cold and falling snow
Which comes by late December to the North.
It drives us up the path and through the door
To the fires we tend within our huddled homes.

Fire and snow, they balance in the end,
And press us into warm companionship,
Necessity in this four-month land of frost
Where ever and still we live as sojourners.

Yes, there is always comfort in a blaze
Of burning logs, in the fragrance of their smoke,
Which, prayer-like, rises up into the sky,
In familiar faces gathered for a time.

Here in this frozen land we find ourselves,
And here we are drawn by warmth which is our own;
Fire and snow, we balance in the end,
And find ourselves in the others that we know.

Sea Shells (2010)

Forever do they echo of the sea,
As if to mourn for what must pass away -
What never more can ever be.
Forever do they echo of the sea.

We too intone the spells of memory,
Like shells which briefly sing and then decay;
For ever do we echo of the sea
And mourn for what must ever pass away.

Grace (2009)

Pleasure is ever perishing, it fades
And winnows away as it is felt and used;
Though it comes in tempests, glorious cascades,
Its magic charms decline, become diffused
Like ever-weakening memories.  What eyes
Of azure light will never cease to please,
What nubile form forever hypnotize,
Soft skin not wilt, what lips delight with ease
If pleasure is ever bidding us goodbye?
But you shall still be beautiful when time
Has stolen the zealous lustre of your eye,
And he shall still love you, if God sublime
Anoints with Heaven’s light and perfumed dew
His breath of grace upon your love and you.

The Earth and the Wind (2012)

The wind will not be possessed by the lands
That it kisses; its spirit will always be free.
It wanders as far as its spirit expands,
For the wind will not be possessed by the lands;

But the earth never fears, and it makes no demands,
While the wind freely gives what it draws from the sea.
The wind will not be possessed by the lands,
Though it always returns, for its spirit is free.

The Right Path (2012)

How can a path be right before it’s walked?
Or a conversation judged before it’s talked?
The past is gone, the future is obscure;
Only the present is, so make it pure.