#318
Germs
How many millions perish
When I wash my face and nose?
How many millions perish
When I scrub between my toes?
The number's exponential
When the water freely flows;
The number's exponential
When I scrub between my toes.
An October Driveway Adventure...
#317
Sightings
Gray as the tree bark,
Thin as a string,
Faster than whiplash,
This small autumn thing,
Alongside the driveway,
Just disappearing,
Into the leaves,
Some serpent's offspring.
True or False...?
#316
Ruminations
Logic says, if there's a plot
The plot had better thicken.
Logic says, if there's an egg
There must have been a chicken.
In a similar vein with apples and oranges and peaches and pears...
#315
I Wonder
Are there kumquats in Heaven?
Are there trees with luscious fruit?
Will our bodies be transparent?
Will we even give a hoot
When God is all in all of us
And Love has taken root?
On our deck a bug I saw...
#314
Laughter
I saw a bug of curious design,
Odd proportions, and alien mind:
Back legs like twigs, front legs like thread,
On top of it all, a triangular head;
As if God playing with matter for fun,
Said, "Be, little bug, for laughter you're done."
Biscuit and Buster and Pookie and Fritz...
#313
Simon
Are there dachshunds in Heaven?
I'm sure that I don't know;
But if God is a good God,
Where else would dachshunds go?
Loosey Goosey....
#312
Friends
I have an invisible visible pet
Whom I have never seen just yet.
It lives in a visible invisible space
Just to the right of my usual place.
It's easy to care for which I never do
Cause visible poo is invisible too.
A Mythical Creature...?
#311
Eyes of Fire
Staring out of dancing flames
The Salamander's eyes glow red,
His head is flat and serpentine;
Stare back at him you're dead.
Sometimes you don't...
#310
I Swore
Last night I found a little tick
Stuck to Simon's belly;
I lost it when I turned to see
What was on the telly.
Rats!
Sometimes you just go with the flow...
#309
I Swear
I never said a true thing,
Though I'm not a liar;
It's just that truth is painful
When you're knee-deep in hellfire.
The Butcher in the Green Room
#308
Murder Most Foul
A Triple Homicide is bad,
A Double's not good either,
Especially when there's lots of blood,
Since someone used a cleaver.
But Grandma...
#307
The Queen of Hearts
"What!" yelled the Queen,
"Doesn't like cheese?
Off with his head,
Quick as a sneeze!
We can't have a subject
Who doesn't like cheese!"
Greeting card thoughts...
#306
Rachel:15
I see in their daughter
The next 60 years,
The joys and the sorrows,
The hopes and the fears.
Little does she know
Of time's quick flight,
How swiftly it passes,
In the glare of hindsight.
(75)
Simon in an Old English Manner:
#305
Simon the Dachshund
He's rug-shaker mischief-maker
Mole whiffer butt sniffer
Squirrel hater cat baiter
Thunder barker tree marker
Tail wagger biscuit nagger
Chair taker sleep faker
Walk stopper stair hopper
Door scratcher plot hatcher
Turtle biter dog fighter
Lap sitter arm fitter
My dog sleeps-like-a-log
The hibernating frog
Simon
Andy Panda Time and so soon too...
#304
Andy Panda (#31)
Andy Panda went to Mass:
His soul was deftly shaken:
For Christ he saw in bread and wine
That may be readily taken.
Andy Panda!
Met a Green Snake While Walking My Dog
#303
On the Road
How could it be
So thin and green,
Three blades of grass
With a rough-hewn sheen;
Two black eyes
On its narrow head,
Raised above
The blacktop bed;
A lovely creature
Though a snake,
Long and still
And clearly awake.
A Resurrection Image
#302
The New Phoenix
The Phoenix springs from sullen ash,
The embers still protesting;
The terrible fire that took its life,
Now a blaze caressing.
Thunderstorm over Berea.
#301
Terror
The storm was fiercely raging,
The lightning bright and near;
The consequence for all of us
Was paralyzing fear:
Frollie shook and trembled,
Dexter did the same,
Simon crawled into my lap
While I forgot my name.
Who?
An image has three qualities...
See verse #224. I am forgetful.
#1. An image has identity.
#2. An image points to a reality beyond itself.
#3. An image participates in the reality to which it points.
See the first chapter of Charles Williams' book, The Figure of Beatrice and Dorothy Sayers' notes to her translation of the Divine Comedy, especially the Purgatorio.
Beatrice was a real Florentine woman (her identity), an image of beauty.
#300
Beatrice is beautiful,
A woman fair of face.
In Dante's poem, an image
Of beauty, faith, and grace.
Beatrice is thus an image of at least 3 qualities: beauty, faith, grace. More women than Beatrice are beautiful; more people than Beatrice have faith; more people than Beatrice reveal the meaning of grace (she leaves Heaven, in the poem, to come down into Limbo to alert Virgil and ask him to go awaken Dante who is in danger of eternal damnation). Virgil the Roman poet (his identity) is also an image of human reason, thus his place in Limbo; he is the best the human self can do on its own, as are all the other people in Limbo images of that aspect of the human self: reason, morality, goodness, virtue. In Dante's world and in orthodox Christian theology, only God, who came down from Heaven, can save the human self. Grace is God's gift of faith to the human soul, faith grounded in the one who came down from Heaven. Reason and virtue are real goods and necessary to the human self, but the best they can do in the end is make you proud and not humble.
The meaning of image requires a supernatural view of the cosmos, finally.
Andy Panda at the Race Track...
#299
Andy Panda (30)
Andy Panda placed a bet
On a horse named Fighter Jet.
Fighter Jet lost by a nose,
Shot down by Tokeo Rose.
Andy Panda!