Alice Remembers the White Knight
I would step through the mirror once again,” she said,
“As a sacrament
to unrequited faith.
And writing of you with compassion,
my words will spill on the pages
with all the might of snowflakes.
And when my pen is emptied,
I will walk into the sky to find my heart
for it is there you will be waiting.”
Jordan Draws
Ink flows and
an ebony line forms
a face, an eye, a mouth,
the artist's desire made
corporeal—a faint echo
of a Divine hand when
it sketched its heart
on the virgin soil
of Eden.
The Wizard and the Poet
Incantation muttered, the stars
Have gelled in positions ordained.
The candles lit, the words uttered,
Sacrifices made.
The adept pauses, but no
Reality bends to firm will.
With a curse, retorts are shattered
And symbols undone as are years of labor.
The poet pauses with pen in hand
Then writes worlds into existence.
Crafting reality with artful phrase
And creating universes with words.
No demon-haunted wizard can match this power
No mumbling incantation half as strong.
Impotent all before the writing poet
Who wields his words in majesty and awe.
Maiden With Horn
She walks among the roses, sunlight
Glittering off opal and pearl.
He sees through the blossoms
A delicate body of wreathed
Alabaster, distillation of sylph
And maiden.
“Alms!” he cries and the
Silhouetted vision pauses.
“Alms! Bless this poor man’s
Soul.”
A whisper returns, “Do you ask
Or give?
“May we not do both?” He weaves
His web of words, “Come and
Enrich my heart.”
Her retreat quickens his spirit.
He follows the shadowed vision
To a wooded glade.
Under an ancient oak, he sees
The body of a girl, the face of a myth.
Her spiral horn shines in the setting sun.
By wonder transformed, the
Novitiate lays his head, his
Life, his alms, in his
Mistress’s lap.
Where Unicorns Walked As Men
He sat at the bar with untouched drink
And babbled about lost lands of opal towers,
Perfumed air, and unicorns that walked as men.
We mocked this poet racked with fever-dream,
Lost in visions and rum. “And you returned to this?”
We asked.
