Three Poems

Royal Rhodes

The Landscaper’s Last Garden

Have you stood silently
surrounded by the crescent
sweep of planted daffodils
and abundant lilies-of-the-valley
with an angel at the gate
guardian of the garden
keeping out despair?

Or seen hydrangea globes
let direct sunlight change
their palette of pastels?

Walk beside the chosen rocks
that are a threshold
from grass to flower beds
and the stones scooped out
with water pockets
that draw the thirsty birds.
This is a sight to slake
my own deep thirst.

Beside a day-lighted
stream and granite steps
moisture-loving plants abound
and there, look quickly,
is a peacock in the shade
displaying a hundred eyes
watching over our steps.

- - -

Early Sleep

The poet, everyman and woman, felt

depressed to find the joking Fates decreed
a bit more life, when from a wrinkled pelt
he would at last in weariness be freed.

Age was not the point, but thickened walls
around the heart that kept the blood and breath
apart, the reason that this flowing stalls --
that liquid eloquence -- and plays with death.

It is not easy being taken for a Sage
whom others think can wisely manifest
the meaning of it all, when blinding rage

and fear are dancing deep inside the breast.

Instead, my dreams restore a wind-locked beach

on which I walked for miles and smiled at you,

eternity that now is far from reach,

a nowhere now, without a hint of you..

As winter warms and circling-back returns

to cold, I spend the light composing rhyme

someone else will read, as darkness burns

with stars, and thinks of me from time to time.

- - -

Roma Aeterna

The stones still showed the footprints of the past

on a circuit of these seven hills.

The pines of Rome and shadows that they cast

lead to fountains where clean water spills.

In each piazza stood an obelisk,

upon an elephant or tortoise base,

while darting lizards keep a pace quite brisk,

and use the ruins for their zig-zag race.

The abandoned baths and monuments

with inscriptions chiseled into stone

bear a grandeur history invents,

so this eternal city stands alone,

an ancient site of law and intellect.

God alone must be the architect.

- - -

Royal Rhodes is a retired educator. His work has appeared in various literary journals, including: Last Stanza, Allegro, Quaci Press, and The Montreal Review. He lives now in a small village near a nature conservancy, green cemetery, and Amish farms.

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Three Poems Royal Rhodes

Three Poems

Royal Rhodes