Thyme and Time Again

POETRY

Rat Race

We have to pay the mortgage soon 
 One third of that is tax
 We have to pay the day care, too
 We never can relax

POETRY

Wearing the Pants

When I was growing up, I went to church — 
 A church that preached that women should wear skirts
 Or dresses only — look the woman’s part — 
 Wear blouses only, never pants and shirts.

POETRY

Typhoon

A spot of warmth, tight twisting, rising air
Atop an ocean, sun-warmed. Rising air

Pulls water, molecule by molecule,
 Reforming droplets in the rising air

POETRY

The Tired Defender

In nothingness the universe began — 
 Asymmetried some 14 billion years
 Ago into cascades of galaxies.

POETRY

Our Vampire Lord

The vampire living on top of the hill
 Has ruled our town with terror centuries.
 He tells us that he keeps us safe and will
 As long as he exists — and we must please
 Him, feed his thirst or, we’ve learned, he will spill
 More blood than we have given him. The…

POETRY

Cowards and Tragic Heroes

The coward destroys, despises, and hates — 
 Denies all virtue, knowledge, charity — 
 Empowers only hooded hangmen, debates
 Nobody, certain he is right — he’ll flee
 From love and risk and pain at any cost,
 And will not suffer any suffering
 To…

POETRY

The Orchis Enthusiast

At last, she had it all — a maid to clean 
 And cook, a nanny who could watch the kids,
 And cash enough for her to at last ween
 Herself from any kind of work. Her bids

POETRY

Finding Oneself at Home

A lyric on the radio and I
 Am reconciled to my fate to live
 In Dallas and to find it home. Yes, why
 Not find my happiness, my want to give
 In these, my neighbors. Why should I deny
 These buildings, people, streets, and theaters
 Who are and can…

POETRY

Myth Is History

A querulous old man with followers
 Who ruled as tyrants found the poison cup
 Pressed to his lips to silence all the burrs
 That tripped off of his tongue. He was served up

POETRY

The Flirt

Can he impress with Beowulf
 And C.S. Lewis, fairy tales?
 Her glasses, large, close-matches his — 
 But does that mean there’s balanced scales?

POETRY

The Door

You stand before the door of rotting wood,
 All lichen-mottled gray and green, the stone
 Wall matching. You knock. Do you know the words?
 The door stands silent, then it gives a moan
 That sounds like clippers rotting in their docks,
 Then silence from the door, the…

POETRY

A Poem for Our First Anniversary

I love you an infinity
 In time, in space, in depth — 
 Your heart is a divinity
 Of soul, of flesh, of breath.

POETRY

Elizabeth and Campos

Oh, Muses! come to me and sing
 Of Campos, a Trojan man, an Earl,
 The last young Trojan left on earth
 Except for his Elizabeth, the love
 He had to leave a while
 In his travels into Greece.
 Sing, dear Muses, of his return
 Back home to his Elizabeth…

POETRY

Premiere, For My Fiancee (Now My Wife)

A world has opened up for me, a love
 No other ever brought me, a life
 No one could bring me, only you — a glove,
 A ring, a set of spoons, a future wife.

POETRY

Fighting the World

I stepped out of the piney wood and stood
 Upon a river bank. The river roared
 In turbulent and white-capped green. A good
 Eye could not see across, though deep it bored.

POETRY

Shaman, Jester, Ironist

I won’t apologize for how I speak,
 The way we Camplins always do — 
 With…

POETRY

Universe

What is this unity I feel? With man
 And woman, plant and animal, and down
 to molecules and to the waves that fan
 From big bang up to every verb and noun?

POETRY

Through the Gate

The fullness of my circle is complete — 
 I’m human, all too human, now, in full
 Diversity — I love, do not defeat,
 All that I am. I’ve learned I should not cull

POETRY

Liberté, égalité, fraternité

The End of Man, the End of History
 Is here. We deconstructed daffodils
 And made them sunflowers to share for free.
 We’ll make the world according to our wills,

POETRY

Summa

My brothers, sisters, don’t you know that love
 Is ground for all that’s true and beautiful — 
 Religion and philosophy, the dove
 That represents us all? You feel the pull

Discoverers

I strike out and I bring the world with me,
 Discovering new worlds and ways to live — 
 I fight against those who won’t let me be
 To prosper and to have enough to give.

POETRY

When I Was Thirty-Three

Far back when I was thirty-three
 And certain I would be alone
 I never thought I’d be in love,
 I thought I’d live just like a stone.

POETRY

Rebel

Achilles comes alive in most of us — 
 We’d fight a river just to get our way
 And arrogantly yell and scream and cuss
 And threaten to tear down the very day.

POEM

Animism

The river is a spirit, flowers grow
 Along her banks and house their fairies in
 The folds of leaves and petals — yet we know
 These things are primitive supersition.