Apr 20, 2012 | Gus Stevens, Sinner's Psalms vol. 2, Sonnet, Victorian Sonnet
All flowers lift their hands to praise the sun— raising their lauds at dawn, their sexts at noon and vespers when the dwindling day is done— but the sea bends her knees to the moon. Such is the worship of waves and the liturgy of leaves. But what of human kings,...
Feb 20, 2012 | Gus Stevens, Sonnet, Victorian Sonnet
God, our only witness, takes delight And whispers, “Lovers, drink deep your fill, For I made this both wholesome and right; The pleasures are mine which overspill Into your bed. Listen and grow wise: Married love is pleasing in my sight, And what I call good do not...
Dec 11, 2011 | Bible Story, Gus Stevens, Sonnet, The Unspeakable Name vol. 1, Victorian Sonnet
The mistreated Earth in her heartache sings love songs to Life but shares her bed with Grave. Hers is a marriage of our making; our hands pressed her to become another’s slave just as Michal, the daughter of King Saul, was given once by will and once by force,...
Dec 3, 2011 | Bible Story, Gus Stevens, Sonnet, The Unspeakable Name vol. 1, Victorian Sonnet
“But, my Lord, who will I say has sent me?” asked shoe-less Moses on his holy plot, expecting an answer from the burning tree. But the cloaking, indirect “I Am” is not a name but a refusal to be named— words that reveal as much as they...
Dec 2, 2011 | Sonnet, The Work of Greater Minds, Victorian Sonnet
Is lust in action; and till action, lust The expense of spirit in a waste of shame Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame, Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust; Enjoy’d no sooner but despised straight; Past reason hunted; and no sooner had, Past...
Nov 26, 2011 | Rhymed Couplets, Sonnet, The Work of Greater Minds, Victorian Sonnet
He whom I bow to only knows to whom I bow When I attempt the ineffable Name, murmuring Thou, And dream of Pheidian* fancies and embrace in heart Symbols (I Know) which cannot be the thing Thou art. Thus always, taken at their word, all prayers blaspheme Worshiping...
