Sonnet

Though disbelieving visions, Newton sleeps And dreams dark matter does his stars coerce. Too unequivocal is reason’s curse, When stars no spirit stir within the deeps. Thus missing mass into Omega creeps, While Ptolemaic epicycles nurse A woe-torn hopelorn empty universe, And God within his mausoleum weeps. Unworthy empty space must meaning be? Perhaps unveiled …

A Sonnet Called Sonnet

I tried to write a sonnet answering thee, And yet no matter how the lines were set, The verse turned turgid and Italianate, Beneath my black-thumb hammer poetry. A disquisition on astronomy And souls paid four-sevenths of the debt But my rhymes could only counterfeit Bereft, betrayed, extinct sincerity. Neither would my volta vault, nor …

The Marvelous Mundane

Taking a break from reading Chaucer, and from investigating the sources for The Nun’s Priest’s Tale (notably, of course, the story of Reynard and Chaunticleer), as well as briefly dipping into George Lyman Kittredge’s analysis of how Chaucer tells his tales, I found myself reading two completely unrelated poems: “Sea Fever” by John Masefield, and …

My Confession

Thinking of the Ligurian Sea Where the romantics go to drown, Somber as the Tuscan sun sets Speaking the ineffable noun My heart a hopeless wanderer Fleeing pregnant ghosts Seeking in parti-colored silks To evade accusing hosts. The fear a promise unrealized, The events trivial and benign, Oppressed beneath the clearest skies, The punishment condign. …