Deer Tracks - A Sonnet, a Pistol, and a Savior

A Sonnet, a Pistol, and a Savior

04/13/20 • 15 min

A sonnet, a pistol, and a Savior:
Three weapons to rewrite history's course.
The darkest of days, the sure and swift force:
One pen, one cross, and one in the chamber.
Heard in every native tongue and word-lore;
Announced in guttural groans of remorse.
Read aloud from its cover to its dorse
With each turn to drip with bitter flavor.
Better angels of our nature take flight,
And shine ethereal beauty above.
Cast out the shadows of nescient delight;
Carefully render your souls fit to move.
Men, in their songs, may recall the refrain.
Time once stood still and can do so again.~James Robert Kibby~
Poems for this episode are:
- Holy Sonnets: If poisonous minerals, and if that tree by John Donne
- Just Another Friday by James Robert Kibby
- O Captain! My Captain! by Walt Whitman
- "Everything Is Okay" by Evan Anstey (Song)
If you would like to have one of your poems heard during a future episode, you can email them to [email protected]

Previous Episode

In Rhythm and in Time

The poetic voice can be heard
In the echoes of ages past
In the rise and fall of musical cadence
In the first crack of the bud blooming
In the silent circuit of the sun
Which has its beginning and end in magenta hues
This voice is in whispering trees
It thunders from the sacred mountains
It stirs the tumult and dances in the desert
Great men learned to harness its energy
Even greater men knew enough to set it free
And it speaks to us all in rhythm and in time
The bird with its song
The prophet with his pen
Speak in words and sounds
And in the silent spaces between them
First to be heard so as to be known
To be understood only after the heart has drunk its fill
Be inspired to seek the good, the true, and the beautiful. It's all around. Thank you for listening and if you would like to share your poems (or even songs (listen to know more)) with me, please send them to [email protected]
Poems spoken (or sung) in this episode:
Backs to the Sun
Party in Babylon
The Tide
The Bells of Lynn, Heard at Nahant by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Click here to read that poem

Next Episode

All Things Carved in Wood and Stone

All things carved in wood and stone
Are words engraved to stand alone
Until the earth and heav'n are worn
And truer words in hearts are born
And flesh cleaves once again to bone
The human soul no more a drone
No more in sin to be forlorn
But welcomed as the veil is torn
And separated now to hone
The life within that did atone
That at the end there to adorn
The truer sons in love reborn
~James Kibby~
Thank you to Jon Hotaling of Different Woods for sharing with me (via my friend Evan) the beautiful wood carving that his friend Paul did (see the image for this episode). Nicely done!
Thank you to my friend Jen Buczynski for sharing her haiku that she wrote as part of the haiku challenge I have going on right now.
To submit your poem to be heard on a future episode, please send it to: [email protected]