On Patrol

time intensifies fear present danger
such moments magnify mentality
he    armed    potent    watchful    looking left

then right  then straight ahead   then higher

to riverbank   lower to shrubs    on patrol

with resolute if hesitant tread when

any moment now a mine might explode

bullets might fly     brave comrades fall dead

she patrols   glancing ahead    expectant

apprehensive   awake to all danger

walking from work    through familiar streets
through dusk’s dim light soldier spouse  
                                                         separate

he patrols with measured courageous tread

while she may soon learn she’s widowèd

                                                       © Dick Russell, 2014, 2018

 

Donal Goes Ahead

for intelligence

among factoids

fragments of humanity

real and digital

ahead will be monsters

classical contemporary 

learned from literature deep in archives

where Indo-European monsters were once described

thunder will roll and rain will slash tents

in the forests of Gaul

waiting at the meeting stone

it will be called hereafter

where humanity awaits Caesar’s approach

marching through Gaul

laying waste

to all

where humanity arms itself with javelins

has sharp pointed probes 

insufficient to slay cyber hounds

to slay cyber hounds

greater intelligence is needed

so Donal goes ahead

copyright © Dick Russell

                2018

 Daffodils In Ice

Frost, moon, snow - silent fall, soul musical

Christ's hand, outstretched to bless,

sheds silver over all.

His scars, his ring - his marriage band

are daffodils in ice.

Sister Mary Agnes, 1972

 

Turning Point

 

There’s a point where you set your course
   with a compass rose and turn a corner

reach for a long last leg of your journey

   hoping a favorable wind will blow

you’ll make it through winter into spring

   then succumb to sudden frost snow falling

on daffodil stems succulent still

   though chilled erect while drooping wet

you’ll come ashore in time for cherries

   strawberries blueberries beans

when winter’s done summer will come

   even though a blizzard blow and sudden snow

Dick Russell

copyright (C) 2019, 2022

Four Sonnets for the Price of None

Four Sonnets for the Price of None

When I’m too old to toil too young to die

I’ll write some lines while my brain’s still spry

Not say in English gone fishing but Greek

A private joke only scholars find wry

 

Sing to me muses in tongues I can’t speak

Tone poems in languages I can’t name

Crystallize images happy or bleak

So my words can attribute blame or fame

 

Translate your meaning so I get your drift

Let me hear your music framing your chords

Picture your meaning in words I can shift

into metrical patterns weaving your words

 

Sing to me muse with voice universal

Each time I recite without rehearsal

 

Tell me some tales you never told before

Tell what the future may take from its store

To challenge every species to find

a way forward preserving its own kind

 

From one day’s generation to the next

sunrise to sunset moonrise to moonset

high tide low tide morning and evening

never knowing what the future may bring

 

Some more sentient others much more dumb

some with levity cavalier hamstrung

by prejudice innate humor heartless

original sin anything worthless

 

Sing to me muse with voice universal

Each time I recite without rehearsal

 

Now make me bolder now make me stronger

Let me be ready to face a danger

No more will they swarm ashore from longboats

Swing axes instead cyber taunts they’ll boast

 

That some will heed and flock to their standard

While others will know they still attack hard

With bitter messages sweetened but deadly still

Crippling minds with hate for which there’s no pill

 

And all along coal trains keep going by

Are there contracts that say we must supply

Wyoming coal to our friends in China

Whose cyber spies bug our candelabra?

 

Sing to me muse with voice universal

Each time I recite without rehearsal

 

Let me project my voice through time

Never let me struggle to find a rhyme

Or fill a line with requisite meter

Choosing my own form from time to time

 

Trampling iambic feet with anapests

Spontaneously spiking a spondee

Into the dactyl hexameter drone

And making it squeak with dubbed track of glee

 

Canned laughter cued on demand by a script

Written in the latest language fashion

Launched to the cloud from nondescript notebooks

Noticed by no one except by the swarm

 

Sing to me muse with voice universal

Each time I recite without rehearsal

Richard M. (Dick) Russell 

© January 2022