A Memory of Delta D.O.C.

I left the buildings for the brink-
For Delta’s wretched grounds below-
To interface with others jailed,
When to delight a sight did show:
The prison sky seemed calm to me
As orange tints embraced her blue;
Then Jesus spoke through every cloud
With love no mortal mouth can do.

-jwm

Of the Poem: True event ...

Sojourn

WHAT SAD departure must we know
When western sun with ebbing glow
Descends behind that mountain row
And ladens us with missing woe

We would that you should comprehend
That we indeed shall miss you, friend
Our thoughts of you shall never end
Whose hearts your way shall ever bend

Perhaps we’ll see you rising east
And meeting once again can feast
With wine and bread devoid of yeast
Where lambs lie safe with king of beasts

-jwm

Of the Poem:

Initially entitled ‘Three Quatrains’ only because an appropriate title eluded me. A friend suggested the above title- I liked it. It's original form was inspired by the departure of a friend.

Monarch

THESE LIFT me through the airy height-
These wings acquired through a night-
Into a foreign world above:
Of light and warmth and truth and love.

What seems a dream are days gone by
When I knew nothing of the sky-
Just toil on an earthly bed,
And thoughts of milkweed in my head.

But then I there within a husk
That dangled from an Aspen tusk
Began to form a different bent
That I knew not was Heaven meant.

And now I’m lifted through this air,
And though attaining beauty fair,
The only thing that moves me now
Is that I share this flight somehow.

-jwm

Ocean Sky

THE VAULTED blue above the girl,
Who hand in hand with father went,
Produced in her a happy twirl-
A dancing she knew not what meant.

This blue expanse she did adore,
Whose happy clouds did haply sore
To-ward higher place, and even more-
The Heaven where the cherubs tour.

She marveled at that ocean sky-
The blue her father did not see.
It begged in her the question why
It only caused in her a glee.

But then her father saw a bird,
And seen the sky beyond its view.
He nudged his girl with loving word:
That blue sky there to me is you.

-jwm


Of the Poem:

This poem is inspired by and dedicated to Chelle, my little girl and my favorite person in the whole wide world ...

Lethe (A Broken Sonnet)

HE EDGED carefully by foot Lethe’s deep
Where those who drank were oblivion fraught;
Unaware of the wake and far from sleep,
There inly arose this, his tempted thought:

What blissful state attends her solemn brook
Where with one single sip woes wash away-
And pain too, hidden pain, flushed from its nook-
If only by tasting I taste this day?
What harm could hither come to me by dream,
Or ill fate posit this slumbering night?

So he palmed lethal liquid from her stream
When just before the fatal sip, a sight!
There, etched into a whitened cypress tree,
Pale words: Before you drink, remember me.

-jwm


Of the Poem (A Note on Lethe):

Lethe (lee-thee) is the name of one of the Greek mythological rivers of the underworld. It is said that, after having passed on to that world, her waters were offered to those who wished to rid themselves of the memories of their former lives.

The obliteration of the memory of all past ills seems to have been the tempting factor of her waters; unfortunately, this obliteration included all good and joyful memories as well. Some seemed to have overlooked this crucial element.