AUTUMN POND

On a green autumn pond

a little frog smiling

among fallen leaves.

05.10.2026

PASTICHE

The lone bird

that sings

in chill morning

sings

with a voice

half-remembered

from undated days

when such

mornings

evoked something

more than weight

of years.

05.10.2026

BEGINNING

Day dawns slowly,

devoid of sunbeams

pale gray in dim

October light

to misted horizon

in space and mind.

05.10.2026

AT 20:34 ON OCTOBER 4TH MMXXVI

Two hours ago

bright,

     almost cloudless

dark blue sky,

            mist

hanging

      on the fields

and orange

         leaves

on the birch

trees

    still waiting

for the wind

to cast 

them

in the clear

          air,

and now,

all

   sunk

into

    darkness.

04.10.2026

LESBIA HARFORD ARRIVES IN HEAVEN

Surprised

to be there,

as religious

as she had been

once,

before giving

up heavenly

Paradise

for a goal

of an Earthly

one,

there she stands,

on land

as it was

before the ships

at Botany Bay.

04.10.2026

HALF PAST FOUR ON OCTOBER THIRD MMXXVI

Just half past four

on a dark day,

not a sunbeam

through its gloom,

and already

the day feels over,

the darkness

perching

on a dark branch

untouched by the Sun,

waiting to throw

itself into the air

becoming

starless night.

03.10.2026

GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS ARRIVES IN HELL

It was not the place

he had expected

or wished,

for he had thought

he had been here

while alive,

and now

he realized

alive he had had no understanding

of what kind of place

and what torments

the Hell posssessed.

And what sin

had brought him here?

Perhaps no greater than that.

03.10.2026