Ten Percent (1997 - 2001)

The best poems to come out of my high school career.

Wonder

Did you know that ants can talk?

I didn't.

I was about to mash this poor fellow between my fingers

When I heard this weird noise.

I thought it was amazing,

So I let the little guy go.

It's wonderful that everything makes at least

A little stir in the world.

Fire Song

Fire is my name

I am the highest of my order.

My place is past the stars,

I belong beyond the moon,

I must not be bound.

Earth cannot smother me

Water cannot drown me

Air cannot stifle me

Fire is my name

I burn brightly and well.

Mine is that highest place,

That zenith of existence

None other can achieve.

Earth cannot smother me

Water cannot drown me

Air cannot stifle me

Fire is my name

Nothing surpasses me.

Nothing equals me.

I am exalted

But--I am alone.

Beginning and End

approved by Frank Smyth

I saw the sun rise in the morning

I saw its bright whiteness at noon

I saw it hang low in the evening

And I saw it set 'neath the moon.

I saw a child born in the morning

I saw lovers kiss in the noon

I saw age's wisdom at evening

And I saw a grave 'neath the moon.

Life rises, glorious, at sunrise

And reaches its zenith at noon

And mellows with beauty at sunset

But its wonder fades 'neath the moon.

For though there is glory at sunrise

And brilliance blinding at noon

The sweet sunset bridges the wonder

That pales 'neath the light of the moon.

For Death has the pale shine of moonglow

That dispels fear of dark, lonely doom

And the brilliance achieved in a lifetime

Is dim in the light of the moon.

But Heaven, with glory of sunrise

And brilliant beauty of noon

And sweet golden wonder of sunset

O'ershadows the light of the moon.

And all will be rose in the morning

And whiteness run rampant at noon

And when golden yields to pale moonlight

Then all will be one, sun and moon.

Pedestal

You read their books, you listened to their music;

You saw their plays, you knew their theories;

You learned their culture and their consciousness:

You grasped their world.

You felt the hopelessness of their everything;

You mastered the futility of their gains;

You conquered the vacuum of their losses:

You withstood their nothingness.

You absorbed their denial and their praise;

You transcended their want and their pettiness;

You surpassed their doubt and their expectation:

You braved their emptiness.

You questioned their skepticisms and their reservations;

You challenged their motives and their actions;

You disputed their comforts and their anxieties:

You defied their helplessness.

I could not understand your passions;

I would not approach the shrine;

I dared not provoke your essence;

But I have loved your fearlessness.

Gabriel

In Memoriam

In a moment, in a flash of light,

His light was gone:

Brief candle snuffed by circumstance

And regret.

How simple life seems;

How innocent the world until a storm.

How inconsequential they are--

The storms that come--

Until the wind whips too close

To ignore.

Then blackness rolls in

And the world cries for an ending.

So weeping endureth for a night--

Long, lonely night--but

Joy cometh with the morning's

Golden light--

Though the light seems to hold

Something that it never held before.

Light from light, dark from dark--

End triumphant.

Though pain is not forgotten,

Darkness ends,

And dawn brings hope to each--

And day, it is said, is eternal.