October. Here in this dank, unfamiliar kitchen
I study my father’s embarrassed young man’s face.
Sheepish grin, he holds in one hand a string
of spiny yellow perch, in the other
a bottle of Carlsbad Beer.
In jeans and denim shirt, he leans
against the front fender of a 1934 Ford.
He would like to pose bluff and hearty for his posterity,
Wear [...]

My mother was fortune, my father generosity and bounty; I
am joy, son of joy, son of joy, son of joy.
Behold, the Marquis of Glee has attainted felicity; this city and
plain are filled with soldiers and drums and flags.
If I encounter a wolf, he becomes moonfaced Joseph; if I go
down into a well, it converts into [...]

It was in His tears, the tears
of the loving father
that he was saved,
in the pain he caused the father
that he was forever changed.
Moving forever from his former life
to a different existence
a new being
because of the father’s love
Never the same again.
October 19, 2007
Walk to Emmaus
story of a boy who never stole again
because of the pain it [...]

He is the creator, the eternal father
the one there at the beginning, before the beginning
the one there who stilled the chaos,
who conjured the world and all that are in it
who saved the people, over and over again
who made the rainbow and the covenant
who is there, the Godhead,
the king of all kings,
lord of all, for all [...]

A parable of brothers
a story of our father
a love maintained, given
even when we act like he is dead to us
holding hope, open arms,
for the one who was lost
so precious in the finding
the returning home,
repenting, calling him father
once more,
with open arms
He is ready
waiting for each and every one
each precious in his sight
a loved child
to hold
This poem [...]

Fifteen year and more
After he is gone,
A regular reminder of my father
Goes around my waist, through the loops
Holding me together, at least a bit
His belt, wide, leather, with holes
We each stretched
Weathered brown leather
A subtle connection to him
Each day, not always consciously
But a reminder of him
When I pause and remember
This poem was written/submitted by Raymond A. [...]

I was schooled well before he died, able at least
to feel what others felt when their fathers
were deceased. Able but not willing
and not without despair to glimpse the man
who’d hide the truth of just how much he cared.
My argent truth was fulsome gloom,
moribund and drear, my face a patent emptiness
occluding every tear; I’d gone to [...]

An ideal father:
doesn’t smoke
doesn’t scold
doesn’t fuss
doesn’t test
doesn’t punish
doesn’t upset
doesn’t bore
doesn’t forbid
doesn’t spoil
doesn’t mind
doesn’t compare
doesn’t label
doesn’t doubt
doesn’t neglect
doesn’t exist.
This poem was written/submitted by Sukasah Syahdan.

“Bequeath us to no earthly shore until
Is answered in the vortex of our grave
The seal’s wide spindrift gaze towards paradise.”
—Hart Crane, “Voyages”
“If a lion could talk, we couldn’t understand it”
—Ludwig Wittgenstein
Under the ocean that stretches out wordlessly
past the long edge of the last human shore,
there are deep windows the waves haven’t opened,
where night is reflected [...]

I had a father once, the records say.
He has gone away down the long avenue
Of death, on the hand-held minor no mist
Of his breath, his firm signature no more.
No more holding down his hat in the wind,
Running to catch the last post, he has gone
Beyond the wind-shaped stones on the high wall.
His breath in that [...]