Some Poems published in 2013

OUT OF THE SILENCE IN A QUAKER MEETING

On First Day a man stood up and said
“Our task, Friends, is to be worthy
of what we were spared for!” That’s all

the man said, and failed to explain what
he had in mind or provide any context.
I have heard lines like that in the street

or in bars, and assumed they were uttered
by those who were half insane, perhaps
some bearded fool muttering to himself.

But then again, there might be a context
one does not speak of, for it’s odd how
life and light waver, how one is spared

or is not – the diagnosis outlived or war
survived or the dread nuclear nightmare
delayed far beyond probabilities although

there’s nothing on earth not hostage still.
The man rose to his feet on First Day –
a morning that had somehow arrived

as promised, grace enough. But another
war was in progress and each day’s evil
more than sufficient to balance its blessings.
_____________________________
Copyright 2013 by David Ray
[from GATHERED: Contemporary Quaker Poets,
edited by Nick McRae, Sundress Publications]
_____________________________

SKELETONS FOUND NEAR RAVENNA
“All then is full, possessing, and possess’d,
No craving void left aking in the breast…”
—Alexander Pope

They’ll exchange no hearts
as Elizabethans did,

but bones are now and then
so devoted to embrace

that they are near eternal,
reliques of love long lost.

Or could it be that these two
locked in each other’s arms

so lusted for infinity
that they could not take less

than this five thousand years?
Perhaps they were inspiration

for Romeo and Juliet
or Tristan and Isolde

or Abélard and Héloïse
escaped from all restraints,

who knows? Not you, nor I,
who each night cling.

But if in five thousand years
we still embrace, we will be

aglow, since atoms leak
from both bones and bombs.

___________________________
Copyright 2013 by David Ray
[from I-70 REVIEW]