Did Yeats Regret

                 his former loves

the many muses of his past?

his Eileens his Virginias
his Pamelas his Pams

did Pound muse on

Olga when with Dot

on Shakespeare when with Rudge?

do painters pine for models

they painted once

incompletely?

do subjects

never cease to spring

loves never die

once laid gently

in memory?

aye 

Copyright © Dick Russell

                2018, 2023

                     A Letter from Virgil

suddenly spring is over   summer has begun

passing clouds don’t drop rain   streams from the hill don’t run 

when conversation stops   there's thoughts of long hoses 

for blueberries  raspberries   sugar snaps   cardoons

there’s a good growing moon   iris scents and large roses

columbines have come on now hyacinths are gone 

this year good peonies after much needed rain

battered early blossoms   there’s fresh cut bamboo still green

long stalks for fast climbing pea vines vibrant purple 

climbing tripods of tall slender bamboo

silhouetted against red sky above darkness

like Indian tepee poles   once on the prairie

soon acanthus spears will unfurl crowns of flowers

on orchard trees those fruits that set will soon be culled

by crows taking cherries by farmers thinning crops

for rhubarb a second picking   sorrel has bolted

fresh lettuce is on the way and beans will soon be planted

is this time of year timely for a short visit?

copyright © Dick Russell

              2018

A Letter 

suddenly spring is over

summer has begun

clouds pass over without dropping rain

there's talk of putting out hoses 

for blueberries  raspberries   peas   cardoons

there’s a good growing moon

soon acanthus will flower

those fruits that have set will go on

to greater glory as apples

plums

for rhubarb

there’ll be a second picking

the sorrel is past its best

fresh lettuce is on the way

already crows are inspecting trees

last year they stripped our cherries

we’ve sent off for nets

today we weeded wood hyacinths

hoping to hinder procreation

next will be horse tails 

a constant battle

they compete with strawberries

usually by far our biggest crop

we still have some from last year 

now columbines stand tall

copyright © Dick Russell

              2018

From A Family Saga

if those fragments were put together

O’Donnell’s story might be told

would it catch his anguish

would it catch his pain

would it straighten his back

give him spine again

to relive those moments

relive those days

when warrior equipped

he marched 

when word of war came

to widow a mother 

of five sons one daughter 

when a German bullet

killed Henry Friend

out of his trench

his side lost anyway

flex at knee

shoulders back

chest out

bayonet at ready

a statue guarding 

a cemetery

and another fragment goes on to say

O'Donnell's daughter by bigamy
Rebecca

married Henry Friend's son
James

who also was maimed in a war

copyright © Dick Russell

                2018