Tag: history

Old World Relics

European countryside

Arches for aquifers
Become arches for railways;
Beside the stone cottage
All make obscure references.

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Athena

O’er the hill he rides his steed
To memory’s eternity
Years past the deed
The children still whisper of his face
The lance, the chariot, the fearsome mace
The mysterious knight
Against the fading light
The dragons slayed
And the grateful maids
Send shivers of pleasure when again told
Those bygone chivalric tales of old
Yet sunset spells a specious cast
It was her, not his name, that should last.

Red Wagon

Old Wooden Wheel

The rusted red wagon
Anchored by granddad on the porch
Once roamed the seas
With little boys battling Midway
And in royal gold filigree
Pulled Ms. Queen the border collie
On bumpy London cobblestones
It cradled the sod for mom’s petunias
And spilled with cloying sweetness —
A childhood Garden of Babylon.

Russian Fairy Tales by A.A.


Illustration by A. Alexeieff, Russian Fairy Tales, 1945

Etched drawings dabbed
yellow, blue, and red
Prose that speaks
jewel-toned and scarce
Treasure hoards faraway tales
For Pru, Kim, and Diana
On Christmas 1945

Notes: The photo above comes from an actual edition I bought as a gift. Continue reading “Russian Fairy Tales by A.A.”