Hurrah for the snow day!
It snowed six feet or more!
So I’d say there’s no way
The school opens its doors.
Rules are rules, I follow them,
And there it says nice and plain:
“When it storms and snow comes
School doors shall remain chained.”
I look out through my window
And see the buried mountain top,
No matter that those winds blow
At a distance, school must stop!
No matter that here far below
It’s all too dry and scorching hot,
All matters that we follow those
Lovely rules without a thought.

There’s an icy rose
That blooms and grows
In the embers of a fire,
That’s burned for weeks
On the eastern peaks
That volcanos most admire,
For there the sun
Believes it’s won
The scorching crown of flame,
Till volcano throws
Off its clothes
And makes its molten claim.
This rose grabs hold
Of holy cold
As fire only dreams,
As like a team
One extreme
Quickly becomes extremes.
Pluck and place
With perfect grace
That comes from fearlessness,
A rose of ice
Grown to entice
The world’s most marvelous,
You’ll be pleased
To sweetly freeze
Until the simple turn,
When ice gives way
To plotted play
And circles back to burn.

Illustration by Dall-E in the style of Claude Monet.

Inspired by First Fig from A Few Figs from Thistles by Edna St. Vincent Millay.

My candle will not light it seems;
The dark must flicker on its own;
And dream its own wild, winding dreams –
Tonight I do not leave my bones!

Part I

No, never was a knight so kind
As Gumble Strilts McKree.
He sat with weeds as they pined
For fields all flowery,
Encouraged birds on their first flight,
Cheered them on their last,
Worried less about who was right
Since that was in the past,
And set his sights instead on what
He might help by heart or hand,
Neither of which he ever shut
To anyone in any land.

The beauty of the Cardinal Knight
Lies in who’s on guard.
If you feel kind Cardinal bite,
Join the Order of the Cards.

Part II

No, never was a knight so wise
As Shumble Guilts Marie.
She saw through even her own lies
When she was only three,
Passed the magpies’ moony test
In realms of nameless doubt,
The first to even know the quest
Was there to be found out,
Returning, yes, with gold and luck
But also something more –
A deal that had been quite well struck,
For us, an open door.

The beauty of the Cardinal Knight
Lies in who’s on guard.
If you feel wise Cardinal bite,
Join the Order of the Cards.

Part III

No, never was a knight so brave
As Trumble Wilts Daree.
They dove into a depthless cave
Without a light to see,
Opposed a savage hungry horde
Of toothy, gobbling maws
With nothing but their soul as sword
And the chewable their cause.
They spoke against the best loved king,
Were jailed and cruelly chained,
But their oldish, owlish judge winked
And freed them as too sane.

The beauty of the Cardinal Knight
Lies in who’s on guard.
If you feel brave Cardinal bite,
Join the Order of the Cards.

Part IV

No, never was a knight so strong
As Rumple Drilts Klaree.
She once pulled the night along
To meet the shining sea,
Held up the stone bird’s mountain wing
So its chicks could leave the nest,
While hilly chicks are no small thing
In youth was her toughest test –
She saw the things that troubled
Her troublemaking self,
And turned them all to wholesome rubble
Instead of turning on ourselves.

The beauty of the Cardinal Knight
Lies in who’s on guard.
If you feel strong Cardinal bite,
Join the Order of the Cards.

Part V

No, never was a knight so knight
As Gumble Strilts McKree.
He brought knighthood to its height
With an open-armed decree
That whosoever feathered up and flew
To helping others then became
A knighted blessing and could choose
Their order and their name.
A knight showed him a mighty kindness
When he was in a bind,
So he made his mission to invite us
To join the knightly kind.

The beauty of the Cardinal Knight
Lies in who’s on guard.
If you feel the Cardinal bite,
Join the Order of the Cards.

Illustration by Dall-E in the style of Raphael.

No, never was a knight so knight
As Gumble Strilts McKree.
He brought knighthood to its height
With an open-armed decree
That whosoever feathered up and flew
To helping others then became
A knighted blessing and could choose
Their order and their name.
A knight showed him a mighty kindness
When he was in a bind,
So he made his mission to invite us
To join the knightly kind.

The beauty of the Cardinal Knight
Lies in who’s on guard.
If you feel the Cardinal bite,
Join the Order of the Cards.

No, never was a knight so strong
As Rumple Drilts Klaree.
She once pulled the night along
To meet the shining sea,
Held up the stone bird’s mountain wing
So its chicks could leave the nest,
While hilly chicks are no small thing
In youth was her toughest test –
She saw the things that troubled
Her troublemaking self,
And turned them all to wholesome rubble
Instead of turning on ourselves.

The beauty of the Cardinal Knight
Lies in who’s on guard.
If you feel strong Cardinal bite,
Join the Order of the Cards.

No, never was a knight so brave
As Trumble Wilts Daree.
They dove into a depthless cave
Without a light to see,
Opposed a savage hungry horde
Of toothy, gobbling maws
With nothing but their soul as sword
And the chewable their cause.
They spoke against the best loved king,
Were jailed and cruelly chained,
But their oldish, owlish judge winked
And freed them as too sane.

The beauty of the Cardinal Knight
Lies in who’s on guard.
If you feel brave Cardinal bite,
Join the Order of the Cards.

No, never was a knight so wise
As Shumble Guilts Marie.
She saw through even her own lies
When she was only three,
Passed the magpies’ moony test
In realms of nameless doubt,
The first to even know the quest
Was there to be found out,
Returning, yes, with gold and luck
But also something more –
A deal that had been quite well struck,
For us, an open door.

The beauty of the Cardinal Knight
Lies in who’s on guard.
If you feel wise Cardinal bite,
Join the Order of the Cards.

No, never was a knight so kind
As Gumble Strilts McKree.
He sat with weeds as they pined
For fields all flowery,
Encouraged birds on their first flight,
Cheered them on their last,
Worried less about who was right
Since that was in the past,
And set his sights instead on what
He might help by heart or hand,
Neither of which he ever shut
To anyone in any land.

The beauty of the Cardinal Knight
Lies in who’s on guard.
If you feel kind Cardinal bite,
Join the Order of the Cards.

Illustration by DALL-E in the style of Raphael.

There’s the benefit of the doubt
And the drawback of the sure,
Both of which we need more out
In a world praising the pure,
When what is sold as such
Is rarely ever half so much
And we’ll be wrong just as long
As we’re sure that we aren’t wrong.
So I’ll take my Yes with a bit of No
And mix some No into my Yes,
And be better off with what I know
As an unsure mixture of the best.