Ashley's Poetry Page II

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"Compositions" by C.J. Randall


Man 3/12/03
What is the composition of a man?
Is it blood and bone and vein,
Muscle, marrow, brain?
His stomach and his lungs,
His feet and legs and tongue?

Is it in his many wants?
His appetite, his greed,
Gluttony for meat and mead,
His lusts and his desires
That consume til he expires?

Is it listed in his works?
A man does many deeds
Out of virtue and his greed,
Good things he gave to earth
For his gain or from his worth.

Is it the monuments of time?
The memories that remain
To leave in heart and mind their stain,
The towers and fortunes left
When all his kinsmen stand bereft?

Is it found inside his soul?
Eternal imprint of his breath,
His spirit in its timeless depth
Recorded all the truth of life,
All its love and all its strife.

Or does it lie in all of these?
In matter and in mind,
And all the things he leaves behind?

3/12/03
These things I want as my name:
Spirit and Breath and Life,
Light and Truth,
Matter and Mind.
I want to be called by it all,
Because I am it all,
And other things as well.
As yet, they are not pure,
But they will be,
They will be,
And then in goodness,
I am to be infinite,
I am to be infinite.



"And a Neglected Looking Glass" by the Hon. Eleanor Vere Boyle


Mirror 3/13/03 (After reading Sylvia Plath's poem of the same name)
A mirror contains no truth,
No mroe truth than is contained in our eyes.
It is unprejudiced,
But it is still only sight.
In this first dream-world,
Matter is as fluid as mind.

3/13/03
We were given fire first,
Then the numbers.
Mathematics are the second gift.

3/13/03
Some words
Simply have a splendor of their own--
Like "light"
Or "truth".
"Nadie", "pájaro".
My tongue delights in
"Chambered Nautilus",
and the name "Anja".
There is joy contained
In that dip of the tongue.

Political Opinion 3/13/03
I am tired of snow.
The Pennsylvania State Government
Should buy a giant hairdryer
And melt it all into the Susquehanna.



"Stomping Faery" by C.J. Randall


A Thought to Keep Me Going 3/13/03
I once spent
The most glorious afternoon
In barking at cows
And staring at green places,
Seeing deer and a blue heron,
Its ridiculous legs trailing behind
As it flew.
We paddled over six-foot pools
And got out and pushed in four inches
Of water.
I do not believe I shall ever forget
Pushing a canoe down the Conodoguinet.



"Panda Pair" by S. Hodge


Waiting 3/13/03
Someday leaves will appear,
Fallen from heaven, rather than snow.
That day will be spring.

Grow 3/14/03 (Inspired by e. e. cummings' "old age sticks")
Don't want keeping
to become different
growing to be same

if every same be
frightening and
creativity

to downfloat in

a mindincrease that lost the mind

an ageincrease that lost this age.

Dawnstar 3/14/03 (an experiment in bilingual poetry)
Si yo no quiero
My mind become narrow
y nunca buscar
for the lost light of stars,
Entonces miro
at the sun on the snow,
entonces miro
at the sun on the snow.

Voy a buscar
for the light of the star
que abre con luz
and brings up the news
que la mañana empieza.

No miro a la noche
when the dark holds the touch
del sol en el día
or the dream overmuch,

Pero en ambas linguas
I look in the sky
Para la estrella del día--
And the darkness to die.



"Day and the Dawnstar" by Herbert Draper

Warriors All 3/14/03 (from something my English teacher said)
What toil and hardship I have had
Is none but what is common to man.
Life is a toil, and a battle,
And the veteran must know
That it is permissible and not dishonorable
     To drop the sword when the battle is done.

3/14/03
Las posibilidades
son sin
el fin.

English Class: 3/11/03
Here, there is a pattern of wine and mixed nuts.
I have chocolate chip cookies and jelly beans
And new thoughts flying through my mind.
There is beauty packed intot he words
And the books we read are realms of delight.
They all taste
Like wine and mixed nuts.

"Music" 3/16/03,
An acrostic Elizabethan sonnet in iambic pentameter
Let beauty flow down all the hills and come,
As sweet as dew upon the morning's face,
Up through the shining air. They sing from home!
Refrain of heav'nly song will flow and chase
A soul upon its course. Let trumpets blow
Great glee unto our ears, a praiseful hymn,
A summ'ning call to chase the morning glow
Yet beck'ning us to that sweet, holy sign:
Low light that grows upon the wing of day
E'er God's sweet lamb will take us all away.


"Ice Castle" by Jean Avisse

Early March
The snow stings my skin
Like icy hornets,
Smug, proud, overbearing,
It lays stagnant on the ground,
Festering over the grass.
I wish for healing rain,
To glaze over the snow,
To melt it,
And wash the acid back into the void.

March 27, '03
The mist of day has settled down,
The light of dawn has shone.
But for the man upon the ridge,
The light is but his own.
The birdsong trips from every branch,
The dew blinks limpid eyes--
The song, a heartbeat of the strong,
The drops, the iris of the wise.
The mountain yawns and stretches full,
The valley smiles and sighs.
His heart expands out to the sky,
The joy is in his eyes.
Blessed is he who does these things,
Blessed is he who sees,
And Blessed is he, who seeing it,
Still falls upon his knees.

3/28/03
I have my own Narnia.
If you never get to know me,
Ignore me as if I'm Jill Pole,
Or act like Eustace in a tantrum,
You will never get to see
The lamppost in the wood!


"Meadow Magic" by Jeffrey Beddrick

3/30/03 Walk in the Woods Before a Shower
The wind blows
The dry leaves on the ground
Blow up the hill,
Contrary to gravity.
They seem to spray out
From one place,
As if an invisible deity
Walked there—
A windman.
Now he walks the path
(leaves scatter from his steps)
Now he descends the bank
(leaves blow past as the wind
pulls the hair back from his eyes.)
Now he stands at the creek’s edge
And looks across
Through the gray monkey vines
At me.

3/30/03 Haiku
The snow perches white
On my head like pearls on the
Hair of a mermaid.