Poem - New Love in the Evening

Here's a draft of a new poem I'm working on and hope to submit to a journal eventually.

New Love in the Evening

The sky, a scrim of damask;
The bay a pulsing sheet of satinet.
We lay among the whispering sea oats
Sharing smiles and tentative touches
In sunset's sudden brilliance.

No tsunami of salty passions
No urgent struggle and tangle of limbs,
No shuddering of the earth beneath us -
Just a gentle convergence of warm awareness,
Like an imperceptible shifting of sands before the breeze,
A stirring and swelling of innocent desire
Sweetly buoyed by a slowly rising tide of nascent love.

I bent to kiss your lovely hands,
Surprised by your tears as you leaned into my arms,
While the new moon sailed above,
Stately as a swan,
Attended by a skein of twinkling stars.

[Update: submitted to Poetry Magazine on 1/13/2010]

Milk of Human Kindness - Poem

The milk of human kindness

Is poured out on the floor.
The angels of compassion
Have all bolted out the door.
The fear of unbelievers
Glides blithely down the stairs
And fouls each verdant Eden
In this world of earthly cares.
Eve has jilted Adam
Abel is slain by Cain -
The serpent in the garden
Walks amongst us all, again.

Poem Written During a Staff Meeting

Parchments and palimpsests
Hiding in dark cloisters:
Dust and knowledge gathered,
Past and present sleeping.

Who will stir these dry leaves,
Feel the faded velum?
Trace these timeless stories,
Tell these tales of ages?