Jan 16, 2012 | Grief, Gus Stevens, Quatrains, Songs for the Dead
Goodnight my friend. Goodnight sweet Carines. When I heard, I did not want to believe; if it were true, the earth would be made less, made ugly, cruel; a pain without reprieve. But the mourning world wages quiet war; against death, our ever-enemy, we crusade as the...
Dec 30, 2011 | Erotic, Gus Stevens, Quatrains, Regret, Sinner's Psalms vol. 1
We agonize like enemies, like spies, before the King’s abundant table spread; we’d consume each other, but only chew instead. The glimmering creatures are full of lies. We tongue the scraps and bones but cannot feed and though we do not drink, our lips are...
Dec 21, 2011 | Quatrains, The Work of Greater Minds
I leant upon a coppice gate When Frost was spectre-grey, And Winter’s dregs made desolate The weakening eye of day. The tangled bine-stems scored the sky Like strings of broken lyres, And all mankind that haunted nigh Had sought their...
Nov 7, 2011 | Bible Story, Gus Stevens, Quatrains, The Unspeakable Name vol. 2
Amnon held his desired to the bed and, famished, smiled as he ravished the prey. Then he sickened like a man overfed; the flesh he sought, consumed, stank of decay. Absalom smiled too as he avenged the rape. But even the pleasures of revenge take flight; once the trap...
