Paper Trails and Providence

Paper Trails and Providence

True art is not aggrandized
and it scares monsters away
monsters make mad metaphors in
mystery I pray as grass grows

years are cut from the dirt
and grow again or a bird
makes a home from the
scraps rise calm and

Agape rose from Greece
to Rome curved and columned
marble and stone became Europe
with velvet and gold

paper trails and providence
bring perfumes to the taste
peace is power of chaste over
haste with yellow roses

a wall can be a path
and monsters are turned to
grains and salt and
carried away with the wind

So true, paper trails and
providence bring things to
life again blue and white
breakers will bring you safely in

stuck sails and lighthouses
paper trails and providence


-Jacob Michael 2008

Proffessor Daly, at University of Illinois Chicago writes:
"I guess also teaching western civ has forced me to think also about what poets are about: they are hypersensitive individuals who sense trends and moods in society that the rest of us can only vaguely experience. They also interpret and articulate for us what it's like to be human."

This is a treasure.


-JM