Shackled to Veins - POEM of the WEEK! 12/27

Shackled to Veins

I am bound to the gravity
Of each situation I pass
From the fall of an hourglass
Met in restrained antiquity
Which limits creativity
By the links in my chains
As I am shackled to veins.

Also published (in moderately different form),
in the 2007 Ina Coolbrith Circle Anthology.

Deed [a pantoum] - POEM of the WEEK! 11/30

Deed (a pantoum)


If love is supposedly the song of the modern age,
why are there battle-cries filled with hate?
Few practice the Golden Rule offstage
while others treat it like a mandate.

Why are there battle-cries filled with hate?
Many deny or gasp at this trampling thought,
while others treat it like a mandate
in a power-for-peace onslaught.

Many deny or gasp at this trampling thought:
we are giving, but within a border,
in a power-for-peace onslaught
until chaos crumbles to order.

We are giving, but within a border
built on a forgotten cornerstone
until chaos crumbles to order.
Then why is it carved on our tombstone?

Built on a forgotten cornerstone,
few practice the Golden Rule offstage.
Then why is it carved on our tombstone
if love is supposedly the song of the modern age?

~


"Many claim to have unfailing love, but a faithful person who can find?" -- Proverbs 20:6


2008 Ina Coolbrith Circle, 3rd place in the "War and Peace" category.