Sep 29, 2012 | Gus Stevens, Moss Kingdom, Sonnet, Victorian Sonnet
Who is the maker of these mighty hills; what hands could draw these from the deep? Are they the battle scars of contesting wills —a shield shattered ‘gainst a granite keep? On the ridge there lurks a murder of crows scavenging the flesh from Nike’s broken...
Sep 23, 2012 | Aging, Gus Stevens, Songs for the Dead, Villanelle
He turns five today; all is future, nothing past. All his days are yet to flower, yet to come. Wherever he goes, he runs—those shoes will not last. He grows and his slumber is not, as yet, harassed by twilight’s pestering flies, those furies born from...
Jun 17, 2012 | Rhymed Couplets, The Work of Greater Minds
No tree however deep the roots, However high and green the shoots, However strong the trunk has stood, Or firm the fibers of the wood, No tree was ever meant to be A never-ending shade for me Or you. Save one: where Jesus died With bleeding branches spread as wide And...
Jun 13, 2012 | Gus Stevens, Humor, Sonnet, Victorian Sonnet
After Andrew, Elizabeth Marie— second child, first daughter, I was to be, but the Canadian ultrasound failed and my parents’ baby-naming plans derailed. My name, Matthew, decided on a whim, somehow always seemed to fit me wrong and joined me to a wide and WASPy...
Apr 30, 2012 | Hymn, Rhymed Couplets, The Work of Greater Minds
Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee; Let the water and the blood, From Thy wounded side which flowed, Be of sin the double cure; Save from wrath and make me pure. Not the labor of my hands Can fulfill Thy law’s demands; Could my zeal no respite...
