USA

"The Robin Who Is Bolder"

The pods of April manifest
Themselves upon the branches,
And out across the ranches,
The mares begin to foal. The best

Are up and running within minutes.
You can tell which ones have got
The speed -- knock-kneed at first
But then a burst of speed. In its

Ancestral need, it keeps up with
The mother, traveling farther
In a day than the young of other
Species. The only reason life

Is dull is the fault of the beholder.
We don't perceive the brightness;
We cannot hear the rightness
Of the Robin who is bolder.

"The Most Beautiful Word"

"Cuspidor," James Joyce averred,
Is English's most beautiful word.
Eschewing the romantic, "Mary,"
"Crystalline," "pristine" and "aerie,"
"Amaranthine," "alpenglow,"
Whippoorwill" and "mistletoe,"
The maestro used his ear and wit
And said it's a can where people spit.

Nothing, Now (After Stephen Crane)

A rich man who had been born poor
Died and stood at the River Styx
In the Land of the Lost.
Squinting across, he asked Charon,
"How much will this cost?"
With oar groaning across the prow,
The boatman answered, "Nothing, now."

© All Copyright, James Robert Campbell.
All Rights Reserved. Printed By Permission.