It Could Be Verse

Places

  • Memories and Vietnam

    I started writing a poem about my trip to Vietnam but could not come up with anything true to my feelings. Having grown up in the ’60s, I found visiting the country an emotionally charged experience. Then last week, I… Continue reading

    Memories and Vietnam

  • Hong Kong

    Here’s 2024 travel poem number three. Hong Kong is a fascinating, liminal place: It’s now but also then. It’s neither here nor there. It’s shark fins and sharp suits And sampans and shrines to The spiritual and flavorful, The physical… Continue reading

    Hong Kong

  • New Zealand: Milford Sound

    Here’s my second 2024 travel poem. Milford Sound in New Zealand is high among the most beautiful places I’ve ever visited. The morning rains have given way To shrouding mists and sheathing falls. Birds burst the silence, dive for prey… Continue reading

    New Zealand: Milford Sound

  • Australia: Uluru

    This is the first in a series of short poems inspired by places I’ve visited this year: Under a singeing sunset, crouched among the grasses Like some desert rodent sheltered from the Unremitting heat, I conjure shades of Red my… Continue reading

    Australia: Uluru

  • Sketches of Cuba: The Salsa Lesson

    Around me loose hips sink dips I’m Chipper and game but nearly lame Excuse me as the beat outfleets my feet. . Frame me in your Canon fire Preserve my cherry cheeks and sweaty Streaks before I go for a… Continue reading

    Sketches of Cuba: The Salsa Lesson

  • Sketches of Cuba: Havana

    Iron scrollwork, ironed schoolkids, Holey roads, holy robes Of white on acolytes. . Young pioneers plant verdant crowns on stately shells, Shade older ones who stack their fates on savory plates Of ropa vieja served with seasoned grace. . Jazzed-up… Continue reading

    Sketches of Cuba: Havana

  • The Tourist’s Tale

    [I wrote this poem in 2019 after a day touring Leeds Castle and Canterbury. It’s VERY loosely modeled on Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales] A gleaming ship at Dover docked ‘neath cliff Of white round sev’n o’clock, anon the throng’d Pilgrims burst… Continue reading

    The Tourist’s Tale

  • A Mixed-Up World

    In Libya’s capital of Tripoli, It’s difficult to locate a Bialy. *** Albania’s writers have formed a cabal That finds all works of AI banal. *** In Colombia, people love poetry so, That some poets may go iamb loco –… Continue reading

    A Mixed-Up World

  • My Cousin’s Hand

    Thirty thousand years ago, give or take a few, Leaving handprints on the wall was quite the thing to do. (Nowadays of course, like so much else, it’s just taboo.) We don’t know why and never will, but sometimes when… Continue reading

    My Cousin’s Hand

  • I Stand in Silence/Did You Know?

    I stand in silence Shuddering with sounds from the past. Shouts and mortars, shots and curses, Screams.             When you woke for the last time, did you know? I stand in silence Sagging under sounds of the present. Sighs and… Continue reading

    I Stand in Silence/Did You Know?