Our first poem was published on 10 April 1201, and we
have continued publishing, albeit at a slower pace, since
then. Below, find a few of the favorite poems that we have
published, to give a taste of the full
list.
SummaryLast week we had a somber
poem for Holy Week; this week we have a very
joyful and upbeat poem for Easter week. Reflecting on a
number of the great joys of the Resurrection, this poem
takes the unusual tack of rhyming all four lines of each
verse on the same sound. Although the analogy of the Son
to the sun is obvious, the fact that in American English
the words "son" and "sun" are pronounced identically (at
least, in all dialects with which I am familiar) does
benefit the symbolism here.
SummaryCups and oceans! Inspired by an old story of St.
Augustine contemplating the Trinity, this poem explores
the notion of knowledge by comparing what can be held in
the sea with what can be held in a cup. A dozzet.
SummaryBack to anapestic heptameter! This is my second poem
in anapestic heptameter (after The Woman in the Meadow),
and it's a delightful meter for English poetry. Somehow,
it manages to remain a light-hearted, natural rhythm
without excluding the gravity of more traditional iambic
meters. This poem has a great deal of internal rhyme
(universally on the third line of a verse, optionally
one other lines), and explores themes of the season of
winter and the death that accompanies it in a decidedly
hopeful way.
SummaryA longer poem, made up of three dozzets, on the
mystery of childbirth and child-raising and the immense
power of woman that is tied up therewith. Though only
the last dozzet ends in a couplet, this also contains
pretty clear echoes of St. Francis's Canticle of the Sun.
SummaryA heavily symbolic examination of a hero's voyage from
his natural, fallen state to the possession of virtue
and, eventually, truth. Written as a series of dozzets,
I'm very excited about it. It is lengthy,
basically a mini-epic; as a result, it was published in
parts. The first part was published ; the
last on , or nearly three months later.
SummaryObviously inspired by William Ross Wallace's "The Hand
that Rocks the Cradle Rules the World," this poem
explores the huge influence a mother has on her child,
and the deep relationship between them.
SummaryThis dozzet is a love poem, again focusing on the very
important distinction between love and feeling. Everyone
is joyful on their wedding day (“[w]hen two are
join'd to one”), but eventually that enthusiasm
will wear off, and something much deeper than
mere emotional or physical attraction will be required.
Only love can sustain the two then. Rather than wrapping
up the dozzet in twelve lines, an envoi couplet
sews the threads together.
SummaryThis poem, quite like The Raven in its meter
and rhyme scheme, provides some more thoughts on life and
death, and how we ought to face both; and further, it
reminds us that some have already done so, and that we
should look to them for example.
SummaryA shorter poem (two dozen lines) with a shorter
message, taking some symbolism from Dante in the last
stanza. Iambic tetrameter in lines 1-2 and 4-5, but
iambic hexadecameter in lines 3 and 6, of each sestet.
Interesting in its symbolism of the flame and the stars,
and also interesting in providing an iambic form of Poe's
trochaic meter in The Raven.
SummaryNot a sonnet! This poem, still relatively
short at 30 (thirty-six) lines, uses only two rhymes. A
meditation on the relationship between suffering and
love. Just as the tulip blooms in the spring, but loses
its bloom in summer and must endure tremendous hardship
in the fall and winter in order to bloom again, so love
is at first nothing but color and joy, but eventually
becomes difficult and hard. But without these hardships,
love just isn't love.
SummaryA longer poem (though still short, only 24 (that's
twenty-eight) lines), this piece is written in anapestic
heptameter, while nearly all my metered work is simple
iambic pentameter. A meditation on the limits of earthly
justice and deep in symbolism, I hope that the reader
will find it enlightening, or at least enjoyable.
William Cullen Bryant's
classic poem Thanatopsis ("view of death") is still
read in most American schools as an example of early
nineteenth-century American poetry, and it is a fine example
of that. Prior to Whitman, Bryant was likely the most
famous of American poets. However, Thanatopsis
provides what Christians would likely believe to be a very
simplistic and depressing view of death. This poem tries to
follow Bryant's lead while still giving a more enlightening
view of its topic.
