The Power of the Word

The academy is gathered

Suited, ageing men going grey

Growing into texts, so bending

And swaying like overbearing trees

And those listening, lost in the forest

The frost settling on the ground

The cold biting, the dark deepening

The care only for ideas

Those of self and others who have threaded

Thought-waves of a similar ilk

Through the silver-surfaced mirror that reflects only

The image of Manifold Unafraid Man's Folly

Singular Wisdom waited a while in the hall and then turned to go
Weeping, as she locked the door to protect those on the outside

(written June 2011, after an academic poetry conference)

Ode to ....

O how tortured was
this man
How few could
understand - even now
it is still the case
[But how more acutely so]
The dying in his voice
Asking what it is
That so unites their 
prejudice
161 years on
And - who know?
...
The voice, full worded
[like a living orb]
Pierces Time's artery
...
'Truth comes wholly together, and waits'
'Language needs no shield or sword
But masterpieces'
'The plaster crucifix came of its hook,
Fell like a handful of snow'
'Life is the price of a seat'
'From the top
of my own ruins I say only this'
...
'The spiritual has touch
that which is paved'
...