Ragnarok - XIV
Varr broke the silence first. "You saw him, then. Our lord is yet alive. I had not dared To think the question, lest I should answer. But the Old Man lives yet. So lives our strength." Shane muttered quietly "Not he alone." And when they looked at...
Ragnarok - XIII
Where once the yearly snowmelt flood had carved A narrow serpentine defile, that poured Itself onto the plains until there was No more snow left to melt, now were there walls And roof, rough hewn and roughly thrown into A rude, windowless,...
Ragnarok - XII
Somewhere it was sunset. On the hills The last refractions of the scarlet sun Licked at the upper edges, like a flame About to catch on paper, but below All now was more than darkness, as the bars Crossed cruciform around a lantern wick Grow...
Ragnarok - XI
Somewhere it was after midnight, when The long hours of the morning stretch ahead Sideways, so that they wider grow and can Contain more night and not take up more time. Somewhere a boxer wandered in his dreams Down streets abandoned, over bridges...
Ragnarok - X
Like a gazebo in an empty park-- Where silent is the playground, where the paths No longer feel the tread of shoes or hear The jangle of the collar and the leash, Where wild and weedy tend the lawns, and trees Grow forestlike and rough--where once...
Ragnarok - IX
Somewhere dusk was settling. The air Was stirring gently as one sleep deprived Whose body yearns so much to dream that it Rebels, and tries to slumber standing up Whenever and wherever mind and will Relax their vigilance. It moved the grass Upon...
Ragnarok - VIII
The dawn above the east was solid light From edge to edge. If all the sky were one Piece of soft paper, dipped into a cup Of melted luminescence, that light crept Up it by capillary tug, spread out Neon infection through the fiber sheet, Just so...
Sonnet 1
In night, such longing times once warmed with lust Those hours in which I once would wish you near This cold, it does betray my absent trust for in your public presence I know fear Your blade, so cruel, these wounds unseen inside So thus it is I...
Blank Verse Essay On the Treachery of Hope
You must learn how to live and not to hope For hope will be a luxury ere long. For hope can be both manacle and chain. For hope can keep you too spellbound to run Until the waters rise too high, and boil. You would not be the first. In ages...
Introduction to The Lone and Level Sands Stretch Far Away
We met two travelers to an antique land. Across the haunted stars they came in search-- While newly mated, newly hand in hand-- Of shattered remnant visage in the dirt. The one has eyes on knowledge and renown And seeks the truth whatever it may...
I Switch Off All The Lights
I switch off all the lights. Those that I love Are all abed, both in the other room And all across the city that I love. I see my way across the meagre room And to the too-tall curtains by the light Of thrift-store stained-glass lamp, by oven...
Eight Minutes and Forty Six Seconds on June Twelfth, Two Thousand Twenty
The rain continues. No thunder dares ring. No winds howl. All is silence, save the sound Of distant trucks down on the interstate. I tell myself, pretend it is the sea That all this rain, perhaps, will wash into. And I remain in silence. What must...