NEVER KNOWING WHAT HIT (Based on the painting [above] by Danell Millsap of the Scotch Cap Tsunami at Unimak Island, Alaska, on the night of April 1, 1946, where all five Coast Guardsmen manning the lighthouse were killed [see www.semparpac.org/tsunami.jpg]) I ponder the Scotch Cap Tsunami And wonder just how it felt When impact dismembered your body From […]
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THE HORSE’S TALE (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_Horse) The story of the Trojan Horse Owes little to Homeric source. Its mention in the Odyssey’s About as brief as brief can be. It took a Roman to explain (Descendence from the Trojans claim) The tale of Grecian subterfuge, Epitome of classic ruse. For Virgil in Aeneid’sverse Records events of equine curse, Although […]
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AFTER THE FACT The mystery of history Reduces all to sophistry If fecklessly, not skeptically, Accept we its validity. Did Kennedy form strategy Preventing Cuban tragedy When quarantined Fidel at sea? Or was it serendipity? Did atom bomb need dropping on To-be-defeated-soon Nippon, Because Japan, to its last man, Would fight invasion hand-to-hand? Was Civil […]
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LIFE AFTER DEATH (One Day in Pompeii) We walk the stones of Pompeii Where grooves from chariots live And try to fathom that day When Mt. Vesuvius heaved. The mountain belched now and then Whenever Vulcan saw fit To blow his bellows again And clean his forges of grit. Some smoke and ashes the norm. The […]
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THE MYTH-ING LINK? (Based on Genesis of the Grail Kings, by Laurence Gardner, 82001) Are we the progeny of a race Who weren’t terrestrial, but from space, Who intermarried with Homo clan And so created Cro-Magnon Man? Are tales Sumerian more than myths (Perhaps 2001’s monoliths)? Were Anunnaki of whom they tell The Greeks’ Atlantean parallel? […]
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AVERSION No rhythm, rhyme? That’s such a crime! Just passing prose Does not compose A poem. For such Needs structured touch For it to be Called poetry. To me, free verse Is just a curse Of laziness That’s patternless. For all it takes Is random breaks To be dispensed ‘Mid sentences. About Ray Gallucci: I am a Professional […]
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HERO OR ZERO? To die on the battlefield leading a charge, Your body upon a shield, burned in a barge – An image heroic of Viking portrayal Approvingly stoic, quite worthy of hail. The fireman rushing pall-mall into blaze As on 9-11, the last of his days. No body recovered from building’s collapse. Just wife, children, mother to […]
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ANCESTOR WORSHIP The Gothic doors beckon me in. I enter. The nave is dim Though from the vaults the lights suspend And through the glass the colors blend. I forward step into the past Where medieval shadows cast. Distracted. What’s that I hear? The chant of monks praying near? Where columns rise, the open sky Appears […]
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STILL HAUNTED (DALLAS ‘99) The cheering crowd three dozen years Ago’s no longer there, But, as I watch, their ghosts appear And toward the limo stare. A sunny noon in late November Nineteen sixty-three; A lady dressed in pink remembered Waving happily. The honoree next to his wife, The Man whom crowd adores. Except for One […]
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SMALL BEFORE THE SEA We have only pictures, A journal and rubble From what was a fixture To keep ships from trouble. A lighthouse, built sturdy, On Unimak island Around 1940, With Coast Guard as client. Five Guardsmen were manning The station that morning, Both horn and beam spanning The sea with their warning. At […]
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