Sunday, March 27, 2022

 

           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

Sunday, March 13, 2022

 

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

Tuesday, March 8, 2022

 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

Saturday, February 19, 2022

 


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

Sunday, January 9, 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


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