030 - January 30 2024 - Little Elegy to our Ship

Thus on we go, our small ship drifting slowly
I cannot know what dangers lie before us
yet she’s secure, and we rest in her surely
as we approach the heat of Dido’s furnace

out at the fold, where diamonds come up coldly,
to the sea sphere, where the ground has no respite
to Delia, the orb of art and story
To Cynthia, where the Founder lost his life

This ship of ours is running out here darkly
toward a plot so curious and bizarre
that they would trust it more if we spoke falsely
these strange reasons that we’re in amongst the stars

023 - January 23 2024 - axtric

Axtric, the brother I left behind me,
though only slightly later would he be
when we were born, on the same day, and in
the same bed, such as all lives must begin,
we lived different, and I had to wander
and he, poor lad, was made to surrender
to the concerns of dying parents, and
and their growing dementia, while I, grand
and stately in my offices of court
place myself among the noblest sort.

Long did I think that this brother of mine,
who once was my mirror, although some time
has passed, and I hear that he is still thin,
was in every respect the lesser twin,
but now I doubt, for here among the best
I trust no one, and each day is a test
of diplomacy and safety, equal,
where no misstep will deserve a sequel
yet Axtric has none he lives in fear of
the simple seek only friendship and love.

022 - January 22 2024 - the barons of geyst

the barons of Geyst draped in furs
rose in the days of the old king
and sired a child of such allure
that of her grace the bards would sing
from one orb to the next

misfortune alas was her fate
she fell into a founder’s hex
for broken vows and love misplaced
and all the anguish war effects
were sadly to be hers

the vicedauphin of her own world
a promised groom since she was young
with shifting politics conferred
although her helpless heart was stung
unto another bride

no sustenance would she partake
and never would her tears subside
from sorrows that no words could slake
as to her chambers locked inside
in silken sheets she curled

018 - January 18 2024 - to the founder

On the left eye; a fierce and roiling sea,
a lonesome figure set against the waves
no other soul to mark that he would be
the first of many, cursed to early graves.

And whether it was monsters, or the gale,
or some capricious fortune quick foreclosed
the measure of his courage, no avail
against the judgement Cynthia imposed.

Thus on these waters, when I guide my ship,
my eyes surveying cross this fearsome stretch
that punishes the blithe in her cold grip,
I pray for life, but never discount death.

015 - January 15 2024 - On the Poet's Wanderlust

I never feel quite so good as I do
as when I am outbound, into the sky
and none of the draw of my hearth and home,
nor comforts quiet life supply,
seem quite as radiant and true
as my desire to roam.

Of my wanderlust some can not construe
what makes me to endlessly turn my eye
to faraway hardships I’ll face alone;
to which I can give no reply.

Such are the pleasures I pursue,
and my life is my own.

001 - January 1 2024 - Goats and Monkeys

This is a speck of dust I keep in a small corner
It’s so small that the entire universe can see it
and entire galaxies and clusters of drifting gasses
a billion years wide can rub it between their fingertips
and the grease of the universe can accrue on its surface
and turn it gradually into a pearl of infinite roundness

This is a universe I blow off my palm like a speck of dust
It rolls about gathering with dander and crumbs
to form civilizations and aspirations and notions of the sacred
jammed in behind the back leg of my writing desk