Quatrains

CORRESPONDENCE

Pain rises from the earth and hurts the stars.

Their faces pale, listening to earth's anguished cries;

while men below stare up at those cool fires,

comforted by the vast and tranquil skies.

THE OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAINS

The stone man stares out of eyes of stone,

one century to every beating of his heart,

but what he sees is truly seen and known--

time, as the world crumbles and falls apart.


SEXUAL CONGRESS

Conjunctions of angels, winged meetings in the air--

the crouched-down, brutal couplings of beasts--

love-making, rage, hate, tenderness, pure lust--

all human passions blent, made one, laid bare.


THE WEB

Watching our grown-up children lead their lives,

their joys, their griefs still ours to meditate,

how anxiously we watch as each choice weaves,

strand upon strand, the gathering web of fate.


THE TRUTH SEEKERS

Endless the search for truth--our minds too small

to grasp the huge distinctions of the real.

But on we blunder. What but the impossible

is worth this life-long quest we're born to fail?


THE DISJUNCTION OF THE TWAIN

Passion conjoins the yin, the yang--

the male, the female universe.

O Yin, where has our yin-yang gone

now all our fires have turned to verse?


WINTER LIGHT

An ice-cold moon, afloat in a coal-black sea

carves faint blue, cut-out shadows from the trees;

and through the woods orange-windowed houses glow,

shedding memories, long-lost memories on the snow.

ENJAMBMENT (or THE POET'S END)

A life of words, now wandering off the page

into the vast, still lexicon of night--

where each word shines with a fine ecstatic rage,

and every meanings clear, gilt-edged with light.


STAR TREK

This is the final voyage, the last frontier--

beyond warp-speed of light, past space, past time,

where all must venture, stripped of their bodies, bare

of memories, every loved thing left behind.

Copyright 2010-2012 Paul Petrie