Backward Mutters

  • The Seed

    The Seed

    Here is a sonnet about what happens when one reads poetry. If it’s helpful, you may listen to me read the sonnet via the player below. Like seed broadcast by a sower’s throw Are the words which poets scatter around, And those words, now dormant, will only grow When received…

  • Our Strength

    Our Strength

    This is another poem based upon Psalm 126 which is a Song of Ascent. If it’s helpful, you may listen to me read the poem via the player below. Our strength is not in “being upbeat”. Is not our performance record It’s not our popularity, being greeted on the street…

  • Not Use

    Not Use

    A roundel regarding a rejection letter received from a journal for a recent poetry submission. If helpful, you may listen to me read the poem via the player below. “Not use”, your note, written back to me On my poem by which I deduce That your statement of merit, impartial…

  • What End?

    What End?

    Over the past several months I have been working through a collection of psalms in the Old Testament’s book of Psalms called the Songs of Ascent (Psalms 120-134). This collection of songs is believed to have been sung by pilgrims as they traveled to Jerusalem for the great Jewish festivals.…

  • Dear Heart

    Dear Heart

    This sonnet is a second based upon Psalm 131 and is a word of comfort or a moment of self-talk over and against all the words, phrases, and speaking which often rolls through one’s thought-life. In the South, “dear heart” can be spoken in a condescending fashion much like it’s…