-I- Did My Captain Pass This Way?
I seek no other captain; only he
Who holds the highest rank all captains hail---
Five crimsoned battle stars. He is the tale
Of peerless leadership and gallantry.
He led our advance and ordered "Follow me!"
"I am the way!" throughout this treacherous trail
Of moment to moment in-fighting. Our foes bewail
How he, though singlehanded, set us free.
For we were then entrapped on Calvary Hill
But he arose! and broke their age-old siege.
He earned the highest combat badge that day---
The Cross on a Bleeding Heart. He wears it still!
I should not, would not, but I lost my Liege.
Did my Captain of captains pass this way?
-II- The Broken Chords
I've seen all singers stumble down ere half
The melody. Their images lie strung
In shame; the broken chords, their epitaph.
Shall we then leave the song of life unsung
Or compromise its accent, time and pitch?
Renounce the highest perfection for vulgar dust,
Ignore instinctive quest for beauty, switch
To shallow duplicates of art; and rust?
Where lies the key that ends my soul's lament?
Why "singer or the song?" Yes, why not both?
The perfect melody. The true content.
Ah, fie upon it all! Upon my oath,
I heard! and hearing, only ask---how long
Before I meet the Singer Who's the Song?
-III- If I Could Banish Him
Go, tell it to the winds! I'm not divine.
Revenge is sweet! And sweeter still if brewed
Out of simmering unalloyed hate and hued
With crimson---the crimson of their blood---the swine!
I could be more than human, even benign.
Perhaps, forgive, and more, forget! Conclude
This feud and leave all vengeance unpursued.
Perhaps... were it but done to me, not mine.
I shall be paid in full! For every tear,
For every sigh mine own had sought to hide
From me. The measure of their debt shall be
The pain they caused the ones I hold most dear!
If I could banish Him, the Crucified,
Whose love keeps crowding out all hate from me.
*Phil. Free Press, April 10, 1971
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