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Ballad Of The Army Carts

Wagons rattling and banging,
horses neighing and snorting,
conscripts marching, each with bow and arrows at his hip,
fathers and mothers, wives and children, running to see them off--
so much dust kicked up you can't see Xian-yang Bridge!
And the families pulling at their clothes, stamping feet in anger,
blocking the way and weeping--
ah, the sound of their wailing rises straight up to assault heaven.
And a passerby asks, 'What's going on?'
The soldier says simply, 'This happens all the time.
From age fifteen some are sent to guard the north,
and even at forty some work the army farms in the west.
When they leave home, the village headman has to wrap their turbans for them;
when they come back, white-haired, they're still guarding the frontier.
The frontier posts run with blood enough to fill an ocean,
and the war-loving Emperor's dreams of conquest have still not ended.
Hasn't he heard that in Han, east of the mountains,
there are two hundred prefectures, thousands and thousands of villages,
growing nothing but thorns?
And even where there is a sturdy wife to handle hoe and plough,

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poem by Du Fu
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Butterfly

Fly, O butterfly fly in the clear and sunny day
Fly about in freedom in your haphazard way.
Fly onto colourful flowers and plants giving sustenance away
Fly as only you know how and live to see and fly another day.

Such a creature that you are and so very delicately made
A marvel of creation clothed in colours which do persuade.
What a contrast there is while you're motionless to that when you're in flight
A splendid example of nature to which all the credit is due allowing this sight.

Although you have your own season and have much with which to display
You're only here for a short time and like to make the most of it each day.
With angelic-like wings of splendour it seems you fly around effortlessly
From one area to another wherever your discretionary whim takes thee.

You are a creature of metamorphosis or the product and result of transforming change
Could this be the reason why that beauteous form of yours covers such a broad range?
For in the life-span which has been allotted to you a rare beauty you've now become
An exemplar of harmonious existence with nature that is evidently a hobby for some.

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poem by George Krokos
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Island In A Sea Of Space

Night stroked the vision from the dream I became
While soothed to the pull from the door of the first page
The salt of ocean lingered in my nostrils that quivered
Confusion annulled existence rampant waves of haphazard rigor
Beneath opaque sapphire that crept on scarlet shores
Shimmering reminiscence particles between my velvet toes
As I kissed the look of horizon that rotated mechanically
On the soft romances of childhood kidnapped into Fantasy
I was spellbound in purgatory that was five miles round
Sheathed in Pacific imitation of Hawaii bold mounds
Forever encapsulated as the cynosure of pure anger
That was licensed to service by the Machiavellian Doctor

In an island in a sea of space

Old Satellites ascended in a cathedral of black mass
Whispering anxious luminescence in geodesic glass
Orion sat lackadaisically behind the nave of Ganymede
Vacillating the trajectory to escape his lovers band
As he encroached the heavens as I wondered as fractal

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poem by Kevin Patrick
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Post-Modern Culture-Nile Trial in Denial

Post-modern culture lessons few has learned
Years stretched to centuries times forty-eight
Raising structures daring Time's 'dew' date.
Alas tide heralds dust to dust returned,
Mocks mankind's self-pollution coda earned.
Ice cap melt-down Giza, called the Great,
Dares threaten now, its powers bow to Fate,
As boom to bust bricks blow away, wind churned,
Leaves man at sea, too many bridges burned.
Polar pressures crack tectonic plate.
Open options exercised too late
Will mourn lost time when one dawn meets flood stern
Extending over reads, reeds, fern stems drowned,
Returning fallen pride to sea-slush mound.

Post-modern culture, pushy, churns ahead,
Yet spurred by institutions that remain
Resistant to internal change, which train
Ambassadors who vested-interest dread.
Mutant paradox is progress, fed

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poem by Jonathan Robin
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The Deodand

What are these women up to? They’ve gone and strung
Drapes over the windows, cutting out light
And the slightest hope of a breeze here in mid-August.
Can this be simply to avoid being seen
By some prying femme-de-chambre across the boulevard
Who has stepped out on a balcony to disburse
Her dustmop gleanings on the summer air?
And what of these rugs and pillows, all haphazard,
Here in what might be someone’s living room
In the swank, high-toned sixteenth arrondissement?
What would their fathers, husbands, fiancés,
Those pillars of the old haute-bourgeoisie,
Think of the strange charade now in the making?
Swathed in exotic finery, in loose silks,
Gauzy organzas with metallic threads,
Intricate Arab vests, brass ornaments
At wrist and ankle, those small sexual fetters,
Tight little silver chains, and bangled gold
Suspended like a coarse barbarian treasure
From soft earlobes pierced through symbolically,

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poem by Anthony Evan Hecht
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A Familiar Letter

YES, write, if you want to, there's nothing like trying;
Who knows what a treasure your casket may hold?
I'll show you that rhyming's as easy as lying,
If you'll listen to me while the art I unfold.

Here's a book full of words; one can choose as he fancies,
As a painter his tint, as a workman his tool;
Just think! all the poems and plays and romances
Were drawn out of this, like the fish from a pool!

You can wander at will through its syllabled mazes,
And take all you want, not a copper they cost,--
What is there to hinder your picking out phrases
For an epic as clever as "Paradise Lost"?

Don't mind if the index of sense is at zero,
Use words that run smoothly, whatever they mean;
Leander and Lilian and Lillibullero
Are much the same thing in the rhyming machine.

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poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes
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The Debate

He was a Glug of simple charm;
He wished no living creature harm.
His kindly smile like sunlight fell
On all about, and wished them well.
Yet, 'spite the cheerful soul of Sym,
The great Sir Stodge detested him.

The stern Sir Stodge and all his Swanks -
Proud Glugs of divers grades and ranks,
With learning and attainments great
Had never learned to conquer hate.
And, failing in their A. B. C.,
Were whipt by Master Destiny.

'Twas thus that Gosh's famous schools
Turned out great hordes of learned fools:
Turned out the ship without a sail,
Turned out the kite with leaden tail,
Turned out the mind that could not soar
Because of foolish weights it bore.

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poem by Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis
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Old Pardon, the Son of Reprieve

You never heard tell of the story?
Well, now, I can hardly believe!
Never heard of the honour and glory
Of Pardon, the son of Reprieve?
But maybe you're only a Johnnie
And don't know a horse from a hoe?
Well, well, don't get angry, my sonny,
But, really, a young un should know.
They bred him out back on the "Never",
His mother was Mameluke breed.
To the front -- and then stay there - was ever
The root of the Mameluke creed.
He seemed to inherit their wiry
Strong frames -- and their pluck to receive --
As hard as a flint and as fiery
Was Pardon, the son of Reprieve.

We ran him at many a meeting
At crossing and gully and town,
And nothing could give him a beating --

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poem by Andrew Barton Paterson
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Hermann And Dorothea - VII. Erato

DOROTHEA.

As the man on a journey, who, just at the moment of sunset,
Fixes his gaze once more on the rapidly vanishing planet,
Then on the side of the rocks and in the dark thicket still sees he
Hov'ring its image; wherever he turns his looks, on in front still
Runs it, and glitters and wavers before him in colours all splendid,
So before Hermanns eyes did the beautiful form of the maiden
Softly move, and appear'd to follow the path through the cornfields.

But he roused himself up from his startling dream, and then slowly
Turn'd tow'rd the village his steps, and once more started,--for once more
Saw he the noble maiden's stately figure approaching.
Fixedly gazed he; it was no phantom in truth; she herself 'twas
In her hands by the handle she carried two pitchers,--one larger,
One of a smaller size, and nimbly walk'd to the fountain.
And he joyfully went to meet her; the sight of her gave him
Courage and strength, and so he address'd the surprised one as follows:--
'Do I find you again, brave maiden, engaged in assisting
Others so soon, and in giving refreshment to those who may need it?

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poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Bell's Palsy I Penned stroke on stroke penned - Optimistic In...Sight

Bell's Palsy I

December turns November's page.
Assumptions artificial,
priorities age must regauge
of ease so superficial
the tenets, try to disengage
from palsy interstitial,
periphery extend sans rage
ineptly hit-and-missile.
Paralysis as passing stage
perceived though prejudicial
as challenge met we trust will wage
war on clock lock official,
ensuring both for sot and sage
return to strength initial...

II

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poem by Jonathan Robin
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