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Best Poems Written by Michael Grugan

Below are the all-time best Michael Grugan poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

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Sword of Roses

What, then, is Love but a sword of roses
Which cleaves poor waiting hearts
And thusly drunk with the blood of saints
Exults in its own dissipation?

And mine, a soul it so jagged gashed,
A scarred and wilted husk
Which once had songs to Heaven sung
Yet now but gasps with the fetid breath of dying things...

Oh soft Night's tapestry:meadows, fields, 
The courtyards of the Moon!
Now but brittle corpses endraped in silken mask,
Their board and banquet but sullen Death
Mocking of Light, fair Hope, and fond Embrace...

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Believe Not Tomorrow

Believe not tomorrow, the Dawn's fragrant lies,
Nor Love's fickle promise which heavenward flies
On gilded wings soon fallen to death
As songs which hearts sung gasp piteous breath.

O, sweetest poems my ear did assail
From lutes plied by angels 'pon shimmering vale
Which nebulous, floated nowhere save in Dream,
As my soul kisses gallows in wretched scream/

Now I walk midst the graves and envy the peace
Of slumber well-gained, and long for release
From the heart's empty exile, long laden with chains,
To sleep! Repose! beneath midnight rains...

Details | Michael Grugan Poem

Seppuku

Stately pines in Night's crimson Deep
Whisper a rustling song...
Gleaming steel, and warriors two
Beneath the weeping moon
With eyes a'dew and locked, embrace
The poetry of Death...

Alas the final shuddering as flesh
Gives home to sword,
"Tis done, 'tis done! Love's wage is paid-
The body's struggling dignity...
Upright no more, in blood awash,
Yet even then that silent reaching-
Grasping for his "Other,"
With heart a'twain and sorely cleaved,
He gasps that name which was his soul,
Beloved! See my troth!

The forest bows to reverence,
But nay, the thing's not done...
As flashing drops a pristine blade
In firmest grip of youth-strong hands,
And honor's deed's discharged...

Silence now, in clouded clamour,
As nary a sound escapes,
Save the gentle meeting of a 
Fallen tear upon a leaf at the "Other's" feet...

Details | Michael Grugan Poem

Apart, Apart, In Ever-Dream

I come from Dawn to Night's long mile
Whose boyhood heard the songs of brooks
And mourned the sparrow's falling,
And Hope, those days did lift my wings
As lone I strode the gardened fields 
Of honied labyrinth...
Apart, apart! In Ever-Dream,
My bliss found full at giants feet-
Enthralled, bewitched at Sky's orations
Or what forests deep did tell...
And now the Day's long-bearded trek
But to endless shade proceeds...

Details | Michael Grugan Poem

Shadows

Shadows of the night...
The forest sleeps.
An April breeze bestirs me:
It is you.

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To a Young Man At Life's Portal-Ded.B.D.

May you grace the shores of Eternity
And upon Life's waiting seas 
Cast a dreadnought...

May sunstruck vistas embrace you
As their son and brother
As the beautiful doings of your soul
Surpass that glorious portraiture...

For in your deep and brooding eyes
Is the promise of Tomorrow,
And all the dreams and hopes
Of a thosand generations
Dance within them.

I believe in that...I believe in you.

Details | Michael Grugan Poem

What Fathoms Boast

Splen'drous verse in silent tongue-
The arias of the night,
Their strains a'sail 'pon saddened seas
In dulcet tones of yearning
To this lonely dance some comfort bring...
For what fathoms boasts the myst'ried Deep
That Love has not the greater?
What fragrance speaks Spring's choicest bloom
That Longing's not the more?

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For Alcibiades

Once when of this dark world wearied
And I had all its passions queried
Upon the sound of the Reeper's cry
I wished there'd been a "you and I..."

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Danny's Song Upon the Death of His Grandfather

When crashed to earth that mightful Oak
O'er that long. a'frighted night,
His tears did so high homage speak
As to slumber passed his Light...

Shoulders small, no more host to hands
Whose tender firmness helmed
Their little lad, and life, and joy
In eternal love enrealmed.

Trudged he stoic, that deserts waste
With heart beset and stormed,
His soul a stone-turned edifice
Then from parched dreams was formed

A kind but spectral silohette
Up from the nighted sands,
As boyish eyes enlivened gazed
Once more upon old hands...

They held a heart which yet did beat,
"For you, my bonnie Dan!
I'll love you from Forever, boy,
And in Love, live as a man..."

Ah, but dream, for now he wakes-
But so curious a thing!
For in his grasp there rests some sand
Which waking did not bring!

Details | Michael Grugan Poem

'pon Sailing Clouds a Throne

Sailing clouds ply Nights azure seas
Like brooding wraiths.
By one alone is my heart engloved.
The Beautiful Dawn.