Open Plain

I peered into the sea’s abyss
And touched its heart (an act insane)
But far from pain there came a bliss
The sea transformed into a plain

-jwm

Ethic’s Stage

I pine, I do, for firmer ground
Where moral footing’s real though rare
Where reason’s light within abounds
And forms in me a soul that’s fair

For what is life where virtue’s lost
Where wisdom’s love to vice succumbs
O what, I say, but Winter’s frost
That leaves the inner creature numb

And so I stand on ethic’s stage
Where axioms do vice defy
And where those ill-made habits rage
I’ll all my principles apply

-jwm

Slumbers

My eyes they closed and fully slept
And as they did I heard them weep
If they would but embrace my dream
They wouldn’t sob at this my sleep

-jwm

The Clouds

What hung there in that evening air
Were clouds a-laced, O crimson gray,
And though the night did fast approach
I felt its mystic light of day

-jwm

Ethics

Perhaps it’s time to stand on ground
And shun this floating in the air
Imbibing ethics that are sound
And form within a soul that’s fair

So speak on it, O scholar-sage,
Disclose those axioms on high
My nose will sift through every page
And all their principles apply

-jwm

Untitled

I went down by the river Styx
To pluck an apple from a tree
But there I found its fruit was mixed
And found the river was a sea

-jwm

What am I, And Why

O thou Lord of azure sky
Tell me what I am, and why;
Life-long sought, yet gone from reach,
This the answer I beseech.

Hereunto I haven’t known
What my heart would wish be shown-
Things philosophers have sought
To no end, though wisdom fraught.

Even theologians too
Desp’rate want to know what’s true;
Though they’ve known the sacred side
Still this ‘what’ they’ve vaguely eyed.

Tis this ‘what’ I must needs see
Therefore Lord my solemn plea:
Tell me what I am, and why,
Tell me Lord of azure sky.

-jwm

The Highway’s Edge

On that highway’s edge
I toy’d with my fate-
Criss-crossing was Death
Who cast forth his bate …
But death in me came not fulfilled-
For I, crossing not, was not killed.

-jwm

Said the Crow

My curses gazed upon the foe
Who perched on wires by the tree:
“Just who is it you seek, Old Crow,
The neighbor boy, or is it me?”

Said the Crow:

“I seek for water and for bread,
And seek for murders in the sky-
But never for a neighbor dead,
Or that a neighbor’s neighbor die.”

-jwm

Once My Bliss

This crucial part that in me fell
To cruder principles of hate-
That spiteful deem these others hell-
Was once my bliss and lovely fate.
And now it lingers in the past
Like photos frozen black and white-
A state within which it may last
If for that piece I cease to fight.

-jwm

What Good I Have

What good I have is not my own
Tis Thine, tis Thine, and Thine alone
And any light that from me shone
Tis Thine I know, and not my own

-jwm

Thou Mortal Thread

O thou mortal thread of light-
Frail and flickering in the dark-
Fear not mortal winds that blow
And bend thy quaint and placid spark.
These may breathe a fatal air
And quit that quaking flame agleam;
They, however, cannot touch
Th’ eternal essence of thy beam.
Revel therefore in this time-
Though mortal and a borrowed thing-
Revel, O thou sacred flame,
For in thee dwells immortal being.

-jwm

Keep Me in Thee

Keep me in thee in this day
Grace me that I may not stray
Let what’s wrought be wrought by thee
That thy will be willed in me

-jwm

A Dark Fog Has Lifted

A dark fog has lifted from
Confused souls,
We have found ourselves
In a clearing.
Looking around we can
Recognise our family
Only arms reach away.
We each have our pain
To hold,
Despair preys so close upon
Us all.
But we are no longer blind,
We have the eyes to see
What is held most true.
In seeing it in each other
We recognise it in ourselves.
Though we face our histories
Alone,
We survive together
In truth, love, beauty and understanding
We live.

-by an anonomous friend

A Salutation

To this thy fete of birth
With joy and godly boast
Thy works and thee in mirth
We celebrate and toast

-jwm