Charles Jenkins Poems

Do old men have a country anywhere?
A place where passing years have no effect,
And, free from thoughts of aging and despair,
Souls can rejoice in timeless intellect?
...

It looks like rain and so I step inside.
Another bookshop: rows of shelves and stacks,
At least a dozen rooms where I can hide
Among the faded Penguin paperbacks.
...

Devotion is much deeper than desire.
It has a certain steadiness. Its flame
Burns with a constant, all-consuming fire.
...

Listen to me. The poets laureate
Move in a world of plants with arcane names
Boxwoods and privets, and acanthuses
But as for me, I like the little lanes
...