In the far and soundless distance Fine as the aether, thin as a veil We mark a heavy, noticed absence The sound of no sound, without fail No face to find in the shadowed clouds No voice speaks in the starry crowds Not to sing, to scream or to wail No such pattern in their photonic shrouds; Fermi asked why such a thing may be And a paradox was made in fear The endless singing of a mindless sea And we alone to speak and hear? What lies beyond, in half-sleep trance Or is man barred galactic entrance Or is […]

His finger is on the button instead But what could he be thinking Is he nodding or is he blinking What thoughts could still be in his head Gesturing as he is wont to do To that thing that he will never do Does he live in just a world of thought Does he dwell inside his drooping head With his finger on the button instead Of marking more than ideal ought Within a memory of a fading dream Where strength may be what it may seem Thus they wait for us to make our move A thing which wise […]

To at once again become whole As we once were whole, but perhaps It is not as I have said it, the lapse Between the now and then-soul Is too much even for my pretense To make a show of present tense; But dear ones, do consider this In your quite air-conditioned mind Did you at least once escape find Hurtling into an all-present bliss Of terror, love, grief and rage If only by falling into a page? But we are more than what we are And so buffered in our padded cell Do indeed find each other hell A […]

I wrote this down to forget it But it was that which could not be forgot Did this book cause me to admit it To admit that which I could not? A father is known by his children And his children by him just as well For whoever just might behold them Could then this parable tell; If our father was Wisdom And his children were the Virtues of all How is it that we have missed them That they do not come if we call? Perhaps we are just in our sentence And maybe are true in our lies […]

“The Morning is a Promise” The morning is a promise of difficulties Old age is mostly this knowledge What they call ‘a real man’s college’ A school not known for its ease But what rage is there left to spend There is always another failure to mend Work on then, Sisyphus! This pleased The court, that man be thus condemned Not to drift away without a body to dwell Say with me, it is sooth, it is meet, it is well But to face fear, to face hell or be contemned Intemperate, coward, fool, unjust — of these Pushing on […]

The late liberty of man is lost Spent as so many thousand t-bills As generously lent as oil spills To a world– that needs not the cost Nor the benefit? and what will make them clean What happens when the loss is unforeseen Has misfortune been among the great uncaused Will the birds and bankers will to forget? So strike iron! that unmistakable sound And bury them deep in the ground, ground, ground Let some age else then bear that debt In a world yet more unstarcrossed For the late liberty of man is lost.