Sunday, June 21, 2020

Inspired by Syon House and the research of Vinzenz Brinkmann


Don the new self, created by God, 
in truth’s righteousness and holiness 
Ephesians 4:24 

True Colors

The Great Hall relished these moments to itself 
No more guides roting through Neoclassical exemplars 
No more tourists freezing the perfect memories in frames 
Nothing apparent but the Duke’s beloved blacks and whites
From the Dying Gaul hunched in Southern shadow 
To Apollo pedestaled in Northern bright
An empty checkerboard stretching between them
Until the sun rays slanting through the clerestory
Set fireworks exploding 
Green malachite 
Blue azurite
Red cinnabar 
Yellow and ocher from arsenic
Black of burned bone and vine
Reminders of the Greek aesthetic exposed 
To those willing to witness the gaudy truth

Sunday, June 14, 2020

Little

"Oranges" by Gabbie Herzberg

My poem "Little" was published in the 2020 edition of Cedar Valley Divide.  The painting above is my favorite image from the journal, and it's hyperlinked to the journal's online version.

Sunday, June 7, 2020

Learned about the Moonlight Towers on Power Trip, a PBS series


Ben Sklar for The New York Times

This is the judgment-
that the light has come into the cosmos
and the people loved the darkness 
more than the light
because their works were evil
     John 3: 19
The Moonlight Tower Accuses

Some Austinites 
say it was the buzzing
like hundreds of murder hornets in assembly
each mandible moving at once
reporting on the success of that day’s slaughter

Other Austonians 
say it was the burning
carbon ash floating beyond a circle 
with a radius of fifteen hundred feet
never sure where on what or who it would catch

Bu I know the truth was
the blinding
light of a thousand candles arcing over the streets
revealing every definite detail
they wished to obfuscate