Biscuit City

Scenes from Easter Week

The press of crowds in the Holy City

For the Feast of the Passover

And One comes to claim a throne

Seated on a donkey

He is silent but

Speaks by his actions

Drawing acclamation and praise from those along the way. Then the silence of an upper room a ritual feast renewed feet washed bread broken a commandment given s trust betrayed a hymn sung prayer and loneliness in a garden a quick arrest

Then unspeakable violence and torture

Then a surrender of breath.

It is finished and then

A deposition

Three long days

And then

An empty tomb

And rejoicing.

Dan Verner

April 13, 2019

Wordsworth Had It Right

Beauty is Nature’s gift to herself.

She stands clad in

Myriad colors

Finding her vision in

Lake and echo of cave

But only for a time

And space

Making the spectacle

Even more to be

Treasured.

Dan Verner

April 12, 2019

Wordsworth Had It Right

Beauty is Nature’s gift to herself.

She stands clad in

Myriad colors

Finding her vision in

Lake and echo of cave

But only for a time

And space

Making the spectacle

Even more to be

Treasured.

Dan Verner

April 12, 2019

Portrait of a Black Hole

So researchers finally got a black hole

To sit for its picture.

The victim of too much science-fiction,

I imagined something like a dragon devouring universes

Or a whale scooping up solar systems

Or a quantum  vortex enabling time travel

But when I saw the picture

It looked like a very large

Ring of fire.

Johnny Cash, you were right.

Dan Verner

April 11, 2019

Chocolate

This year for Lent

I gave up chocolate.

That doesn’t seem like much

But understand that

For all practical purposes

I am addicted to chocolate.

But it hasn’t been that bad

And I have watched my cravings

Fade into insignificance

As the weeks have gone on

And I think no wonder

When I compare giving up chocolate

To giving up one’s

Life.

Dan Verner

April 10, 2019

Lies, All Lies

Here are a few:

One size fits all.

I’m here from the home office

And I’m here to help.

And only time can heal

A broken heart.

Dan Verner

April 9, 2019

Poetica Pragmatica*

Sometimes

I go to write a poem

And think that I

Have something ordinary lined up

To go with

Something extraordinary

And the ordinary is there

But the extraordinary

Is nowhere to be found.

I think

And look

And puzzle

But still it doesn’t come

And I don’t know what to do

So I stop trying to think of

The extraordinary

And find that after a while,

If I think of it long enough

The ordinary is extraordinary

After all.

*Roughly translated from an unknown tongue, “Sometimes poetry is nothing but practical.”

DanVerner

April 8, 2019

Potato

When potatoes first came to Europe

From the New World,

They were prized for their

Blossoms

Much like tulips.

I wonder who first looked at the sprouts

Poking from the earth and

Disregarding the blooms

Dug up the tuber

And took a bite.

It was a clear case of

Survival over aesthetics

Although I think

We need both.

Dan Verner

April 7, 2019

Auto-Complete

When I write one of these poems

And add my name at the bottom

I start to add the date and as soon as

I write the month

Word auto-completes to the right

Date and year.

It’s like a miracle

Saving me time, money and

Creative energy

(not much, but I’ll take

All I can get).

Auto-complete can turn rogue

As we all know

Completing “Ain’t Jenny” for

“Aunt Jenny,”

“Squirrelmeat” for

“Secrets (I don’t know how),

And “unicorn” for

“Uniform.”

In spite of all these,

I’d still rather have

Auto-complete.

Dan Verner

April 6, 2019

(For some reason, the date didn’t auto-complete this time. Writing about it jinxed it.)

Guide to Writing a Poem

First, consider something

Ordinary

Like a flight of stairs.

And now on those stairs

Place something

Extraordinary

Like the Queen of Sheeba

Descending the stairs

Et voila!

There is

Your poem.

Dan Verner

April 5, 2019