He shall eat flowers,
chew honey and spit out gall.
they shall all smile
and love and pity him.
– Karl Jay Shapiro

Caught upon a thousand thorns, I sing,
Like a rag in the wind…
Trying to pry from the vest of poetry
The Golden heart of mankind’s despair…
I sing,
Afraid of nothing and afraid of everything,
Curtailing joy, withholding irony,
Pleased to condemn contemporaneity
Seeking the reality, skirting
The dangerous absolutes of fear and hope..

– Richard Eberhart