Archive

Avarice—Quite a bit.Lust—Not so much these days.Envy—I’ve never saidMuch in a rival’s praise.Pride can be kept in line.Wrath leads to evil ends.But Gluttony and Sloth?Oh, welcome in, dear friends!...

Because an anchoress could have a cat,We may assume she had one.  That it satBeside her while the pilgrims came and went,Giving, like her, a lesson in content.That it...

Walking on water, i.e., in the streets of Venice,I read its history in churches—Gothic,Baroque and Neoclassical, one marbleglory after another, sometimes hearing the whisper of dead Catullusreminding me that...

Every love counts, the puppy you were givenAt six, the tadpoles that you tried to raise;Even your silly parents and the siblingsYou couldn’t stand were loved on certain days....

I hear my neighbor smashing his guitar against the wall. He’s done it once before when in a rage. This time he can’t afford to get another. They’re expensive things. And...

When data started to accumulate, we didn’t think the end would be so tragic. Facts were such fun, we could eliminate non-facts. And so we threw away the magic,...

A castle made of a single diamond Stands in a courtyard choked with thorns. In the house are seven rooms. In the seventh room is love. Cutting down the...

I can name so few flowers. This is why I’m not a better poet. Shakespeare knew oxlip and gillyvor and eglantine, while I, beyond camellia, violet, rose, and lily,...

Her parents tired of locking her up before she tired of running away. Love mocks the locksmith, and love drove her on till the convent walls closed around her...

I gave my class your “dark night” poem to read, not telling them who wrote it. They were quick to name adultery as the midnight deed the female speaker...

At first it’s like a painted teacup inverted, this gold-scalloped dome containing an apotheosis of saints triumphant heading home to God”a Beatific Vision made relevant to mortal eyes Then...

So much regulation and so few lives saved, So much loud music and so little melody, So many doctorates and none wiser made, Such license in the name of...