The Agony of Words

Since many things never change, the present collection of poems works on themes that endure in literature, among them the pain of loss and the thrill of love as captured in the agony of words, those slippery vehicles that humans must rely on for capturing thought. The title poem wonders: "What can I say to sing to you that's sensible to anyone but me?" Some of the poems here are humorous, like the musings in a musician's brains as he plays: "Pork chops fly off his bridge with oyster stuffing, candied yams." And other poems are dead serious, fascinated with the wonder of death: "So I'll be buried there in maple leaves rich for frost." Since a fascination with the sonnet form has never left the history of poetry, in this new collection of poems, the author includes three sonnet sequences, attempting to chronicle at three different points in his life what Renaissance poets attempted in an earlier time.