IN DER KUNST,
DAS BESTE IST GUT GENUG
“In art, only the best is good enough.”

In a superb work of art
the muse has smiled upon
an artist of high skill and deep soul.
 

ES WIRD NICHTS SO SCHOEN GEMACHT ES KOMMT EINER DER’S VERACHT
“Nothing, no matter how beautiful,
Escapes contempt by someone.”

The greatest works of art
May be regarded as trash
By humanoids, humbuggers,
And those full of hubris.
 

INGENIUM MALA SAEPE MOVENT

“Bad luck often stirs genius”
But so does good luck: genius
Reflects the fruitful obsessions
Of scientists, artists, writers.
 

PLEASURE
Pleasure
runs along a nerve.
Short-lived, it strives
to perpetuate itself.
It flares and pulses
like butterfly wings.
It looks toward duos
and the timely flowering
of bachelors, bachelorettes,
the separated, divorced,
widowed.
Pleasure
must be pursued
to be found, whether
in overstocked stomach,
overloaded bladder,
other superengorgements—
or in the humanness
of volunteer work,
arts and crafts,
gardening,  meditation,
prayer.
 

CARL ORFF’S
CARMINA BURANA
We
live this
epic of
our bittersweet
years.
 

A CAPELLA
In this lovely chapel,
free of instruments,
our song of praise
reaches the heavens.
 

QUIETUDE
Speed by, you jaunty
years of our jammed lives, while I
embrace this moment.
 

CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE FAITHFUL
Breath stops
and each human’s
dim flickering candle
becomes a brilliant beam that shines for aye.
 

Literary Arts Works