Click on the Play Button to hear a reading of these poems:
Sabbatical
A question germane and grammatical:
On the Sabbath,
Does God sometimes take a sabbatical?
Some would affirm this idea,
And most emphatical,
But I, for one, would reject it
As very problematical.
And with Blake would suggest how
Zest and exuberance is rest enow.
Than-Bauk
Master John Locke
Admired Bach, and
Jean Cocteau too.
Ach! Time’s askew.
In my continuing saga of the varieties of antic poetic forms, this is an example of a Burmese verse called than-bauk. The form consists of three lines of four syllables each with the fourth syllable of line 1, rhyming with the third syllable of line 2, and the second syllable of line 3. To make for a more satisfying symmetry, I’ve added a fourth line with the first syllable completing the rhyme scheme.
On My Escutcheon . . .
On my escutcheon I will emboss,
Not a rood—but a feather cross,
Made of wings of an albatross.