Some Verses

What Light

An outward sign
A presumption
A binding
An order
A way


Mock Morris

Suitably dull days
Mock the Spring
Mock new shoots
and plover's eggs
Mock guiless girls
and gummy men
Mock false hopes
and compass points
Mock all that is
and ever will be


To Be A Pilgrim

You need more than a badge or a staff
or a good stout pair of boots
or even the watery blessing
of Holy Mother Church.

You need the heart and lungs of a lion,
a couple of bracing thighs,
an ego the size of an armoured
train and a devil at your heels.

It takes more than prayer to follow
the Master on His way.
You’ll need quite as much iron in your
soul as devotion in your heart.

And a good dose of laughter will always
make the miles go whizzing
by. So, tell a few jokes and a tale or two
and keep your glasses full.

And when you get to the end of the march
and they stamp your passport up
don’t gawk like a bumpkin come to town
just rest; then get you Home

Characteristics of Pilgrims
Valiant – Constant – Funny – Hopeful


Umbra

When the Sun went out, my heart
fell out of my chest into my boots,
"Gone," I thought, "for good."
But the darkness wasn’t so bad.
Actually, it made me feel
rested, renewed;
is reborn too fanciful?
No; it’s just right!
"When is the next eclipse?"



Cross Over Jordan

Standing by a dark shore, a hot wind in my face
I asked, innocently enough, “What lights are those
Just there, right at the edge of this old sea?

“That’s Eden,” said my guide, “Remember Eden?”
And, while I gaped; added, “Where G-D walked”
“The Angel’s gone now, of course, and the Snake”

“And the Tree and the love, that’s altogether gone.”
“It’s all palms now and sand and soldiers, of course,
Who waste their lives waiting for Him or us or both


Magic and Music

Magikos (Greek)
The pretended Art of influencing the course of events by occult means

Mousike tekne (Greek)
The Art of combining sounds to create beauty of form

In the garden of the Almavivi
The Countess pretends
The Count pretends
And Figaro burns

In the garden of the Almavivi
The Countess hides
The Count rages
And Figaro laughs

In the garden of the Almavivi
The Countess forgives
The Count is humbled
And Figaro smiles

In the garden of the Almavivi
The good come to a
Good end, as do the bad
Comedy demands it

But

In the garden of the Almavivi
Hear the Countess sing:
“Piu docile io sono
E dico di si”*

And find

In the garden of the Almavivi
A subtle alchemy transforming
Through the power of love alone
Base nature into pure gold
A very unpretended magic

* I am kinder
I will say, yes!
Inspired by Act 1V of Le Nozze di Figaro


The Tuesday Angel

On the day before the stroke struck her,
A Tuesday, as it happens,
Helga met an
Angel.

On the day on which the stroke struck her,
She remembered the Angel
when she was
Unconscious,

On the day after which the stroke struck her,
She told me about the Angel
just as she fell
Asleep.

Der Dienstag Engel, she muttered
As she drifted away, a child again
Whispering to her Mutti or
Someone.

On the day after the day
After the day of that stroke,
Helga’s Angel vanished
As her memory
drained away
Entirely

We waited and wished him
Away, a spell that worked
For a deceiving while
But He waited too
and came
Again



Multi Purpose Compost

Multus
Purposer
Compositum
Latin
Old French
Latin
Many
Intended
Mixing

Mixed Intentions
Unintended
Consequences

Multiple purposes
Mixed
Compositions

Intentional mixes
Purposed
Multiplicity


Inspired by
Thalia (Thaleia) the "Flourishing"
The muse of comedy and of playful and idyllic poetry
Often seen with a comic mask and a crown of ivy and a crook.
By Apollo, Thalia had the Corybantes, priests who castrated themselves in identification with the goddess, Cybele
And a bag of Mole Valley garden compost