Best Fourths Poems

There whirls a world about a star
Gathering motes of dust from Far-A-Far
Upon the shining silvered seas' bright skin
That cloaks the place three-fourths within.

Upon the multicolored shards of stone
Reflecting from her fragile face
Some billions of small beings wander,
Ask themselves if they alone
Exist within the boundless dark
The...

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Musicianship 
(3 May 2014;  For my son Steven, an ACCOMPLISHED guitarist)

Real musicianship can truly drive you nuts—
There really are no “ifs”, “ands”, or “buts”.
Practice, study, memorize, then more practice--
Is this just an obsession or complete madness?

Learning chord inversions, arpeggios, and scales
Is like reaching Heaven...

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Three-fourths of a century old is mom.
While more than half a century am I.
How quickly I have aged gives me a qualm,
but I think glad thoughts. I can't multiply!
Though right behind my mom I'm following
with white hairs now appearing and with dread
of that sad day...

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Villanelle: Wander not into a land where the indigene’s indolent

Wander not into a land where the indigene’s indolent
Likely as not the country will be run by interlopers
Open-heartedness is often a cover for self-bemusement

The first signs crop up when lax morals make him relent
Shuts an eye...

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By the barrage of flies, bald John can tell how
Safe his meal is for feasting. The spotted
fawn yet battered breathes. 
Clean blood is poison, he knows,
So before he drinks, he waits for the devil
To pee in the stream. 
Then he shovels tissue down to the...

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My long time friend Bill enlisted in 1962
Back then he said, "It's the right thing to do!"
He served his country with vigor and pride 
Fought in the jungle and watched his friend die
 

A machine gun severed three fourths of Bill's leg
He cut off the...

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An arrow
nocked by a god
and loosed
beam-straight . . .

Tick.
Tock.
The old clock
would cut it into
fifths,
fourths,
halves,
whole seconds even, and . . .
Tick.
Tock.
The old clock
told us we were part of it.

A clock marks time still,
but . . .
. . .		. . .
in silence now;
time’s become insidious
and sly
and moves...

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I've a father who's known for ascending a clock,
a magnificent ticking antique.
In between twelve and one,
he began and was done,
not a scratching was heard nor a creak.

He was nimble that night, as he is everyday
when he teaches me all that he knows:
"Be attentive my son,
it...

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the square
   was packed
& the high street full
meat&veg seemed plentiful

market barkers
  drew the queues
with jokes
         impromptu

shoppers filed
     neat& formal
in sainsburys greggs
  & home colonial

the bacon slicer
  shuttled back&...

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I come to you hands open wide no fears of past just an invitation inside. Do you see me? Around the trees of space and time i giggle and laugh as i look into your eyes. Waiting for you to see inside. We hesitate in...

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A Lily is one of nature’s most special gifts
I’d pick them in ones, twos, thirds, fourths, and fifths
The exotic scent, arousing my nerves
Such a figure with the most desired curves

A Lily is mysterious
The colors drive me delirious
A mark of uncontrolled psychic power
No doubt this girl...

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It's morning now . . .
     the sun has brought the day

The night has pushed away
. . .no longer your touches
     drape across my vestige

     flutters of fortitude
     only a memory
     in the shaft of old

My smile lingers . . .
     as the dew glistens
    ...

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movement of each echo     
  pummels  ^  til outside     
    the confines of self     
    
slits in sacred hallows     
sustain...

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Which key should I put this song in?
I sing in G Ionian/major comfortably,
Likewise the relative E Aeolian/minor scale.
Plus those guitar chords are easy as sin.

I could choose a scale that’s more exotic -
D Mixolydian has the same notes and chords.
Hungarian or Roumanian minor, Spanish Gypsy.
Or...

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The South That Never Was
.
By Elton Camp   

A plantation, hundreds of slaves and a mansion so fine
Is the usual image of the Old South that comes to mind

But a situation like that picture was actually quite rare
With no slave holding for three-fourths of...

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