Have I wronged you, my former friends,
Or murdered a dear wife or child,
That bitter hatred goes so wild
Against the wretch it reprehends.
Your opened jaws are like a cowl
That fastens on my skull and gnaws.
You injure me more than cruel... – by David Plantinga | 1 View added 1 year ago
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A wretched soul, unclean in thought
And act, I could never dare
Demand forgiveness as what’s fair
Or mercy as a favor bought.
All of my filthy spirit poured
In smaller vessels must distill
Into a still more potent will,
One more... – by David Plantinga | 7 Views added 1 year ago
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Not everyone who suffers sins,
Yet blessed with a long life, I’ve strayed
An ingrate and a renegade,
And condign punishment begins.
Roots rotted in the earth can bud,
And from uncleanness a fresh shoot
Can sprout, and after winter, fruit... – by David Plantinga | 0 Views added 1 year ago
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You’re crying out against your sin
Because you’re standing on the shore
Aware your guilt is so much more
Than your acknowledged ramekin.
An ocean of iniquity
Extends to the horizon’s edge,
Farther than shamming can allege,
Deeper than... – by David Plantinga | 2 Views added 1 year ago
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Although that shadow’s tread was light
And its cold presence absence massed,
A darker darkness to contrast,
A hole in the black cloak of night,
Its stealthy passing did disturb
And woke a sleeper from his dreams.
Such plunging darkness... – by David Plantinga | 2 Views added 1 year ago
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A sinner cannot test his weight
By stepping on God’s awful scale.
However light, however frail,
His body can’t equilibrate
Against a void of empty air.
The pressure of his touch will yank,
The balance downward to condemn.
A clod of... – by David Plantinga | 4 Views added 1 year ago
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My heart is sinking down like lead
Within my chest, and recent grief
Is poisoning my past belief,
Fading, if not discredited.
Perhaps my spirit’s just as heavy,
Weighed down by my iniquity.
Sins I will neither hear nor see,
And these... – by David Plantinga | 3 Views added 1 year ago
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By reputation, you are wise,
And you have counseled those oppressed
By sorrow and the bitterest
Of losses by which heaven tries
The hearts of the beloved of God,
But now misfortune’s touched your house,
You slander providence, and grouse ... – by David Plantinga | 5 Views added 1 year ago
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According to astrology,
The stars arrange themselves to bind
The destinies of humankind
Born under their hegemony.
What malice made those twinkling lights
Murder my children, and yet spare
A father to forever bear
Grief that embitters,... – by David Plantinga | 1 View added 1 year ago
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King Agamemnon raised a wind
When the whole fleet had lain becalmed.
He’d sacrificed, and hadn’t qualmed.
From horror he could not rescind.
His wife has taken the loss badly.
Not even kings can lessen grief,
Or render the bereft... – by David Plantinga | 4 Views added 1 year ago
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The ancients put tremendous matters
On oracles and auguries.
When godhood speaks, the priest agrees.
Glib cunning fails when trouble batters.
Calculations have a thousand ways
To err, while chance can cut the odds
To one in ten, or more... – by David Plantinga | 4 Views added 1 year ago
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The scaup is searching for a shore
To build her nest, a lonely beach,
Or rocky cliff no fox can reach.
Egg-gobblers and roosting mothers war.
There is no land, just churn and spray,
The billows heave and wave-crests foam,
Nowhere for... – by David Plantinga | 7 Views added 1 year ago
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The Wit is nimble, and can skip
The longest distances with ease.
It flits on an extended trip,
One day, and back from overseas.
The Wisdom hasn’t cleared the dock,
A wide, and long, and sluggish ship,
Her cargo a tremendous stock,
And... – by David Plantinga | 6 Views added 1 year ago
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Our senses fashion effigies
Of a dead past, useless as guides
Where strict finality resides.
Mute phantoms drowned in icy seas.
But halved funereal diptychs show
Reflections of the things to be.
The not yet displayed in symmetry,
A... – by David Plantinga | 3 Views added 1 year ago
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The strongest passions, joy and sorrow
Contract the feelings like a vice,
A solid block no word can slice,
As lead today, and lead tomorrow.
The thicker humors have congealed.
Water alone can spurt and run,
Too light to join that unison
... – by David Plantinga | 4 Views added 1 year ago
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The boy-king wanted to incinerate
A fell and meretricious thryrus.
His grandfather would venerate
The same staff, terrified of curses.
His mother’d slandered the drunk god,
But regretting feckless blasphemy
She counseled them to spare the... – by David Plantinga | 4 Views added 1 year ago
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Our undercroft had housed our dead
Unseen, in gloomy sepulture.
But pagan chieftains much prefer
Barrows, where height can show instead.
And the busier departments need
Those lowest levels for their work.
Glib passers-by avoid that murk,
And... – by David Plantinga | 6 Views added 1 year ago
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In mainland meadows, flowers tempt,
Yet spurn those animals they tease,
Except caprificating bees.
Here, whatever’s edible’s... – by David Plantinga | 3 Views added 2 years ago
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Clacking belongs to hollow shells,
And echoes stilled, and tongueless bells.
Toys are made flimsier than tools,
And sloth is banished from the schools.
When clacking’s ceased, adults relax.
Childhood is hardship and... – by David Plantinga | 4 Views added 2 years ago
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A hungry alphabet will flock
One word to several things.
Taut meanings have diverged
From verbal... – by David Plantinga | 7 Views added 2 years ago
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One of their neighbors is afflicted
With a fell spirit, lost, and doomed
To roam alone among the tombs,
The spirit’s fierce, but some have tricked it.
Citizens have bound the madman tight,
Caught him in fetters or in chains,
But strength... – by David Plantinga | 4 Views added 2 years ago
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This sleep has sunk to catacombs
Where dreams are dreaming of themselves,
And where they slump to deeper shelves
A dim and voiceless banshee roams.
Interlopers jostle memory,
And pressing on his signet ring,
Take on the seal of realer things.... – by David Plantinga | 4 Views added 2 years ago
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Some planets flatten at their rumps,
Some have grown a paunch, and not quite round,
They wander from their orbital bounds.
Ellipses bulge because of... – by David Plantinga | 4 Views added 2 years ago
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For balls to bounce is very rude,
Unless they dropped. Ascendancy
Is boldness we don’t like to see.
And roundness really is quite lewd.
For spheres, directions are the same,
And favoring the vertical
Is impudent in a mere ball.
A proper... – by David Plantinga | 4 Views added 2 years ago
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Desiccated youth has bones like cork,
So porous strong in cells.
Lost time perfuses emptiness.
And heavy dolor... – by David Plantinga | 4 Views added 2 years ago
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Supine, roads sprawl so lazily
That they collapse to planes,
Not aiding stumbling travelers
As knotted sinews... – by David Plantinga | 5 Views added 2 years ago
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The trouble started on the day
After the day before.
Youth and hope and love decay,
And regret won’t... – by David Plantinga | 5 Views added 2 years ago
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Badinage and Persiflage
Make such a merry pair,
Chatting and bantering all day.
No spiteful gossip... – by David Plantinga | 3 Views added 2 years ago
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Some thieves have burgled every house;
The rich are sorrowing
At sacrilege and heirlooms lost,
Spoons, silks and sapphire... – by David Plantinga | 6 Views added 2 years ago
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A drunkard’s guzzled several days,
And staggering outside,
Dull and disoriented, seeks,
But cannot find, a guide.
The hour proclaimed is even six,
Twice daily otium.
The arrow hangs at bottom rim
Like a dead... – by David Plantinga | 3 Views added 2 years ago
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Black shadows are all sycophants
That mimic every shape.
White shadows seal their bearers up,
And bury what they... – by David Plantinga | 6 Views added 2 years ago
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The crystals groan, whenever crushed
Under a melting tread.
Snow faithfully fulfilled its oath,
And did just what it... – by David Plantinga | 4 Views added 2 years ago
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The elevator’s sealed its lips.
It keeps its secrets well.
Inside might hunch a nameless face,
I really cannot tell.
To stand, a pair, so silently,
Bound in an unvoiced pact,
Is sore and heavy awkwardness
Light coughing can’t... – by David Plantinga | 4 Views added 2 years ago
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King David was a righteous king,
A shepherd loved by God,
And Joab did the ugly work
Without a single nod.
A principal can stroll the halls,
Grandfatherly and kind.
His number two’s the children’s bane,
Reviled in student... – by David Plantinga | 4 Views added 2 years ago
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An hour-glass stands up nice and straight
On a flat, polished end,
While bells suspend like carrion
On rods that never... – by David Plantinga | 8 Views added 2 years ago
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The moon is grim and sly, and keeps
Pale secrets from her twin.
She hides the darkest of her blushes
Behind a slivered... – by David Plantinga | 5 Views added 2 years ago
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The sheets and blankets are too big
For such a little bed.
They drape their fringes on the floor,
And dribble dreams with... – by David Plantinga | 4 Views added 2 years ago
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What tempted me to join the queue?
It must be some great treat.
Only delight could keep these souls
Shuffling on blistered feet.
I turned a corner hours ago,
Quite perpendicular,
But as I count the corners off
I’ve tallied five so... – by David Plantinga | 6 Views added 2 years ago
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The ocean waves are murmuring,
And some who walk the shore
May pause to hear some wisdom there,
And linger more and... – by David Plantinga | 6 Views added 2 years ago
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Dour duty may seem cruel
To novices, but rasped
To callouses by some hair shirt,
Skin glories in its... – by David Plantinga | 4 Views added 2 years ago
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Words can wriggle through the cracks
Where grosser largeness blocks,
And even with no aperture
Huskless speech can seep through... – by David Plantinga | 7 Views added 2 years ago
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The town shone cleanest in the mist.
The clerk rushed for his train,
And if he dallied on his course,
The mist would clot to... – by David Plantinga | 7 Views added 2 years ago
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Life’s a very busy thing
And rushes by so fast,
And since inertia rules this world
It cannot help but... – by David Plantinga | 29 Views added 2 years ago
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