Homepage
Open in app
Sign inGet started

Thyme and Time Again

The Poetry of Troy Camplin

Go to the profile of Troy Camplin
Troy Camplin
Mar 26, 2023

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

Read more…
1 response
Go to the profile of Troy Camplin
Troy Camplin
Jan 28, 2023

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.

Read more…
Go to the profile of Troy Camplin
Troy Camplin
Jan 23, 2023

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

Read more…
Go to the profile of Troy Camplin
Troy Camplin
Jan 17, 2023

POETRY

The Tired Defender

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

Read more…
Go to the profile of Troy Camplin
Troy Camplin
Dec 26, 2022

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…

Read more…
Go to the profile of Troy Camplin
Troy Camplin
Dec 23, 2022

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…

Read more…
Go to the profile of Troy Camplin
Troy Camplin
Oct 26, 2022

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

Read more…
1 response
Go to the profile of Troy Camplin
Troy Camplin
Oct 25, 2022

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…

Read more…
1 response
Go to the profile of Troy Camplin
Troy Camplin
Oct 20, 2022

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

Read more…
Go to the profile of Troy Camplin
Troy Camplin
Sep 21, 2022

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?

Read more…
Go to the profile of Troy Camplin
Troy Camplin
Sep 14, 2022

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…

Read more…
1 response
Go to the profile of Troy Camplin
Troy Camplin
Sep 9, 2022

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.

Read more…
Go to the profile of Troy Camplin
Troy Camplin
Sep 8, 2022

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…

Read more…
Go to the profile of Troy Camplin
Troy Camplin
Sep 7, 2022

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.

Read more…
Go to the profile of Troy Camplin
Troy Camplin
Sep 4, 2022

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.

Read more…
Go to the profile of Troy Camplin
Troy Camplin
Aug 28, 2022

POETRY

Shaman, Jester, Ironist

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

Read more…
Go to the profile of Troy Camplin
Troy Camplin
Aug 26, 2022

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?

Read more…
Go to the profile of Troy Camplin
Troy Camplin
Aug 24, 2022

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

Read more…
Go to the profile of Troy Camplin
Troy Camplin
Aug 23, 2022

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,

Read more…
Go to the profile of Troy Camplin
Troy Camplin
Aug 21, 2022

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

Read more…
Go to the profile of Troy Camplin
Troy Camplin
Aug 16, 2022

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.

Read more…
Go to the profile of Troy Camplin
Troy Camplin
Aug 15, 2022

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.

Read more…
1 response
Go to the profile of Troy Camplin
Troy Camplin
Jul 23, 2022

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.

Read more…
Go to the profile of Troy Camplin
Troy Camplin
Jul 4, 2022

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.

Read more…
Go to the profile of Troy Camplin
Troy Camplin
Jul 1, 2022

POETRY

Creating Value

If value’s made by laboring, the tree
 Is valueless until I chop it down — 
 And with each chop I put myself, not free
 But bound by labor to this leafy crown.

Read more…
1 response
About Thyme and Time AgainLatest StoriesArchiveAbout MediumTermsPrivacyTeams