William F Dougherty Poems

Straining to fulfill Adam's primal curse,
like liberating marble with his hands,
he polishes signs and sounds to rehearse
ranks of winking words the verse demands,
...

[The Crab Sonnets]

Out, damned spot! -Lady Macbeth
...

Yes, Leda, you may swim
the pond with just your name on:
hang your tunic on an olive limb
and toss a crust to that swan.
...

Visitors search my park like a memory,
Ransacking my old bushes for tropes,
Exegetes of themes, annoying the ferns,
Fluttering ducks from the complacent pond,
...

Candle Power in Intensive Care

The unction cools my brow; the candle shines
and forms a line of sacramental brede.
...

[In the form of traditional folk ballad.]

I
...

[Moodpoems]

In mastodon cold, the lichen clamps on stone
walls and the shins of trees picked to spine,
...

This blade once burnished, undefiled,
flashed in pine like a mirror,
whittling figures with dabbling zeal
and honest error.
...

Above the river
by a troupe of yew
a tower broods
in crumbling light.
...

The girl with waltz-blue eyes
bewilders my breath,
braces me mute:
...