“The Death of a Toad”
In which the cause of death is an American lawnmower and the toad is utilized as a symbol of the mortality of everything…and everyone.
“The Beautiful Changes”
A lyrical meditation upon the transformative aspects of beauty which is capable of being transformed by what surrounds it as well as having the capacity to be the agent that transforms its surroundings.
“The Terrace”
A poetic storm warning against the danger of falling into the murky waters of solipsism.
“A World Without Objects Is a Sensible Emptiness”
A metaphorical desert of the mind is the location on which the poet once again warns against living in the imagination rather than experiencing the real world.
“The Undead”
A twist on the Gothic romanticism of vampires that subverts the mythos to reveal them as pathetic creatures whose identity has been subsumed by the unending pursuit of blood, thus turning them into little more than predators totally alienated from the life they ravenously seek to keep eternal.
“Love Calls us to the Things of the World”
Within a dreamlike conflict between the body and the soul over the value of real world versus the value of pure abstraction. Ultimately, the conflict resolution comes to asking the imagination to accept recognition of the value of that which exists outside in another call to live not in an abstracted reality, but real world where imagination is given rein.
“The Writer”
The sound of the typewriter clicking away as his daughter struggles to type out a story creates a conflicted metaphor: first he compares the act of writing to mariners setting sail for a voyage of discovery. The prolonged silences existing between the furious bouts of intense address of the keys changes his mind as now the metaphor becomes that of an injured bird trapped inside a room banging against each closed window until he finally finds the open window allowing escape to freedom.
“Year’s End”
A series of images of diverse objects caught frozen either literally or figurative in time becomes a metaphor for death’s sudden end and how consciousness of that possibility stimulates a universal hope and desire to be given enough time to find a way to make their life have meaning.
“The Mind Reader”
The cynical title figure consider his ability to remember without forgetting a curse, is tired of people begging him for answers they don’t even realize are fictions and is utterly scornful of clients who paid for the privilege of asking for his help on the most insane and insipid of concerns.
“The Agent”
A narrative poem set during World War II detailing the adventures of an American dropped behind lines with a mission involving an entire town’s destruction.
“Sleepless at Crown Point”
The misery of insomnia whittled down to the length of a haiku.
“Merlin Enthralled”
The death of the sorcerer of Camelot is used to reveal the fundamental and underlying truth that magic is really just the art of deluding people. The comparison is then made to the poet who uses language to keep readers in a murky borderland between reality and fiction.
“Beowulf”
The ancient saga of heroism is transformed into heavy toll that duty and responsibility has on the hero, essentially creating the ironic paradox of making the most beloved and revered also the most isolated and lonely.
“For Dudley”
An ode to Dudley Fitts, an admired translator of poetic works.
