Sonnet 27: Love At First Sight

Dayspring scans the sable mantled
Starry night by amber light kissed with tea
Rose hues—spies the comely face whose chandelled
Lids doth stall oped, in ken, to gaze on me.
Limpid lapis lazulis flashing fire—
Jet-flecked portals beguile with guerdons paid
In ogles winking on enflamed desire:
Visual wonders bade my looks be stayed.
Winsome stares and frisson beams, penetrates
Both ways, makes cynosures of prizing eyes—
Lambent coups d’oeil to rouse impassioned mates:
Ovational smiles witness noontide skies.
Enchanté dear image queued in mirror—
Each day my peer reflects coupe de foudre!

Sonnet 26: Paterfamilias

Happy wedding with our children present,
Her boy my girl ere twain babes born did come—
The count tallies two boys charmed and pleasant,
Two girls fair and lovely—each a good plum.
My wife kept house as ‘twere our gilt Versailles—
Beset clock-round my firm career enthralled.
Tree-lined locus with rills and lochs nearby,
Customs treasured, though velvet dreams forestalled.
Fledglings on-high stooped low and durst defy,
Edict powers I claimed but feigned whilst reigned—
Blessings bibbed with precepts bore no reply,
Save for mean acts, cold shuns, brass spites entrained.
My covert cares buffered unseen troubles—
Their overt snubs spat from carefree bubbles.

Sonnet 20: Five Years On

By Jesuit Treason I sappered ‘neath
The Lord’s House to trumpet-down the nacred
Gate: pray my sire canst redeem his bequeath—
With reaped condignity vaulted sacred.
Armed beyond the lamentable Kraken,
With monstrous warrant I nobly pursued
The arrest—twain fugitives—forsaken—
Five years on—Macedonian Calls wooed!
Grasped I the loosed ends of the silver cord,
Forget-Him-not, by my élan vital—
I shan’t release his shade by Acts or Word:
A gilded conceit ruled my rationale.
Recalled! Father racked the lees from my youth—
Kairos! Relent! Freed up and down in sooth!

Sonnet 18: Musica Universalis

From nothing God’s music resonated
Existence into being and beings
Into existence—oh intonated
Harmony dost beautify His pealings!
The music of the spheres, inaudible
To fallen ears—though its divinity
Moves the spirit to create laudable
Measures of classical humanity.
The music of the worldly propagates
Rhythms, melodies and chord progressions:
Moves the body—carnal initiates—
Deaf to choral hymns choired for the heavens.
Supreme Composer fine-tuned order’s score—
Son to conduct requiem come encore.

Sonnet 17: Flowers of Love

Heyday reveries of Cherry Blossom
Dalliances fly; streaming thoughts drift charmed,
Of my quondam Bird of Paradise Palm—
Pierced deep our Bleeding Hearts, so Love adjourned.
Spellbound by my relished melancholy
I recalled true Lily and pure Lotus—
Lifters of spirits, two loves both folly:
Out of my depth each a troth poetess.
Burgeoning remembrances of Passion,
Magnolia, Tulip and Orchid: all
Cut flowers—planted—withered wanned ashen:
Graved blooms live Amaranth in me withal.
Bedded in my garden a Rose to wed—
Adulteress bush pricked her guilt till dead.

 

Sonnet 16: Immortal Mortals

Love extends the fixed compass of the soul,
Measured in generations—eyes the Sphinx,
Quickens itself with esprit to extol
Life that begets ere death to live past brinks.
Life lived, once past, dost sunder and perdure:
Clay grounds mortal, the soul skies immortal
To the narrow gate, lest the wide gate lure—
Until doomsday seraph-proof’s the portal.
Parents grant their bairns a mite preferment—
Wisdom trades ‘twixt destiny and free will:
Filials mass the laddered firmament
To be judged known or unknown at love’s fill.
Descents cross when meet to His benison—
Blessed immortal mortals meed their foison.

Sonnet 13: Arch Umbrage

Rapt by shades of psyche! My moiety
Of good wanes meet to my waxing shadow:
My pride’s conceit—void of reality.
Bedeviled! How ought I to undergo?
The fiendish shadow jags to bleed-out fair
Reason ere sponges my wits from my brain—
Depleted esse, dearth of pith—Oh nightmare!
Grey eminence tries to rule sane insane.
Till myself-absorbs-myself to waken—
I refuse refuge in Elysium
To do time in dwale ‘twixt Lord and Satan:
Love mine arch umbrage from Delirium‽
Adjure and jubilate! Lest I project
Shadows of Guernica—life painted wrecked.

Sonnet 11: Gold Aiguillette

Heads, invocations canst rouse the muses
To endow devotees gifts of fine arts—
Tails, prized offerings made to goddesses
Gains good fortune for those with pious hearts.
Daughters nine, spawned of Sky and Memory—
Poets trine: epic, love and unprofane—
Six lines: music, tragedy, history,
Comedy, dance, astronomy—ought fain.
Divines wax chary their affinity:
Grey-eyed didst confer wisdom-cum-courage,
The huntress marriage with nativity,
And the ruler of hearth and home furnished.
Winning traits claimed of both—odds-on merit:
‘Twas my sis, laureled with gold aiguillette.

Sonnet 10: Love Thy Fate

Oh Daughter, my errant renaissance lass,
Oracular master of the tarot,
Asks: Why doth my tempered mettle tilt pas
D’armes? Mercurial stars limned your tableau.
Reeled by destiny you intrigued to raze
Down your divided homes, parting estranged—
Time-worn grudge sunsets to bid us all raise
Your rising sons betimes: change to be changed.
I lament your woes with profound regret,
Bury them dead in this apology—
As parents we love dear whom we beget:
The holy grail of our astrology.
Love the absurd, life’s joyful happy state—
Hail wandering planets and love thy fate.

Sonnet 9: My Brother’s Keeper

Fallen Man—God’s theodic instrument,
Beguiled, cursed and exiled by primeval
Determinants—raised to be immanent:
Good fates its telos by willing evil.
Oh actuated paradox! transcends
Causality that veils the astral planes:
Volition to pick and choose means and ends.
Crossed-out Scripture’s cross-outed siblings’ banes:
Jealous and unfavored rose up and slayed—
Grabbed the heel then rooked the birthright blessing—
Color-coated dreamer waylaid and slaved—
Prodigal son unsung by son pressing.
Naught to naught, ever my brother’s keeper—
Whose squared writ runs kept to keep me deeper.