Short Poems

Mountain's misted peak
up and down railway dreamers
passing through the clouds


(Previously published in Borders and Time, March 2000)

Full oft doth Matt. with Topaz dine,
Eateth baked meats, drinketh Greek wine:
But Topas his own worke rehearseth,
And Matt. mote praise what Topaz verseth.
Now shure as priest did e'er shrive sinner,
Full hardly earneth Matt. his dinner.

Fry beans with bean stalks as fuel.
Beans wept sadly in the wok.
From the same root we both grew.
What's the big hurry in the grill?

A house in which all the hearts are united
In misery and joy all of them beat as one
If one is elated all the rest are delighted
If one is in sorrow, all others are saddened
That humblest of dwellings is surely more blessed
Than that royal castle where one soul is depressed.

From time to time
The clouds give rest
To the moon beholders..

Twenty years go by on noiseless feet,
He returns, and once again they meet,
She exclaims, 'Good heavens! and is that he?'
He mutters, 'My God! and that is she!'

If I, dearest Lily, did not love thee,

How this prospect would enchant my sight!
And yet if I, Lily, did not love thee,

Could I find, or here, or there, delight?

ONCE for thy brow a wreath I wished to wind,
And, seeking long, I could no flowers find.
Now golden flowers are blooming far and near,
But, ah! dear love, thou art no longer here.

ÆGLE, beauty and poet, has two little crimes;
She makes her own face, and does not make her rhymes.

A flower, or the ghost of a flower!
Mist, or the soul of it, felt
In the secret night's mid hour,
Lost on the morning air!
Who shall recover it,--beauty born to melt
As the apparition of blossom brief and shy,
As the cloud in the sky that vanishes, who knows where?