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Poetry by Carl Selph

Page 18

"They read in their books of prayer;
I read in my book of songs
I bought at the Sligo fair."
                           --  W.B.Yeats

 

 

 

If God

 
If God thought and the universe
is the result, why then it seems
to me that if God ever sleeps
we'd better pray he has sweet dreams.
      

© Carl Selph, 1999

 

 

News from the Cave

 
Descartes' cogito ergo sum,
dismayed, admits to standing room
an aperçu of Valéry:                                                                                                            
Quelque fois je pense, quelque fois je suis.
      
      

© Carl Selph, 1994 
    First published in The Lyric

The Apostate's Rhyme

       
Its other claims aside, Communion wine--
though rarely a grand cru--
is not exactly turpentine;
and with a blessèd  jug the two
of us can have a hearty snack,
nibbling God's body bearing gou-
da on its strong, unleavened back.
      

© Carl Selph, 1999

Warning

 
            after reading a letter of C.S Lewis
      
      
 
Beware young man young man beware
The idle wind ruffling your hair
      
 
Attention as you briefly pass
Lest naked foot press tender grass
      
 
And to avoid unending pain
Desist from bathing in the rain
      
Regard these acts young man with fear    
Small perils known to turn one queer
      

© Carl Selph, 1999

Tool Talk

                                                                                                                                           
Ask the romantic how the hammer hangs:
There's lots and lots of whimpering, no bangs.
      
      

© Carl Selph, 1999

 

Bovinity

 
          If there were no tomorrow, he asked, then why make an effort?  
          One might just as well vegetate or be like the pacific cow.
                                                                        -- Krishnamurti
      
      
      
      
My friends, let us consider now
The comely, the pacific cow,
Her liquid eye, her flank of silk,
Her soothing moo, her foaming milk.
      
 
She feeds on hay and grasses fine,
Consorts with other lady kine,
Reflecting, as she chews her cud,
The world is orderly and good.
      
 
Her life, though calm, is rarely dull:
Her husband is the lordly bull.
She listens fondly to his roar.
It's something she has heard before.
      
 
Her moral and productive life
(Creator, thinker, mother, wife)
To those whose times are out of joint
Will make, I hope, a gentle point:
      
 
Behold the cow, my pensive friends,
As o'er the lea her way she wends--
That ambulation each way free--
Example and epitome.
      

© Carl Selph, 1989  
    First published in the San Miguel Writer
                           

All text on this page is copyrighted by Carl Selph and appears here by permission. All rights reserved. It may not be archived beyond one personal electronic copy for offline reading; such a copy must include the entire text of the present notice and the author's name. It may not be printed, posted on a web-site, distributed publicly or privately, used or quoted in whole or in part, or published in any manner or form whatsoever without the author's explicit permission. E-mail Wordreign to contact Carl Selph and your request will be promptly forwarded.

 

 

 

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