More Bits and Pieces

As promised two posts ago, here are three more of my fairly recent poems that were waylaid in the publishing process.

Two are—to my mind, at least—rather outside my usual range, which inevitably leads to some hesitation in posting them. But perhaps that is all the more reason to publish them in this very small collection.

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Angels and Fairies

Each angel flies from Paradise,
Each fairy from the dell;
But all I’ve seen above the green
Is white clouds swell.

Each angel flies from Paradise,
Knights ride from Tintagel;
But all I know is from the snow
The blue night fell.

Behind our eyes sleeps Paradise,
Beneath our feet wakes hell;
But each new morn a day is born
From last night’s knell.

And glory lies in Paradise,
But here I seek the spell
For small things bright within the light
Where new dawns dwell.

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Sonnet of a Moment

Bring me brief breath of immortality,
One moment poised within the golden sun.
See where it flames and falls; no brevity
Can make it less (its rays so brightly spun
Across the snow); it holds entire worlds
Within a breath, just as I pause to glance.
The gold of sun lies brilliantly empearled
With gleam of ice on every drift, to dance 
The sun down from the noon; the rays fall through
The solemn trees just in this moment’s rest
And make a path between the shadows’ blue.
I follow with my heart to its far nest
This moment silent, winged, where sun has brought
One heartbeat’s brilliance flown beyond our thought.

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Look Up

I hope that when I die
It shall be as I lie
Beneath a lemon tree,
Sun looking down at me
Through scent of citrus flowers
Those last, few spacious hours,
As I look up at him.
Let’s fill life to the brim;
Drink off the golden cup;
Look up, look ever up.