If you thought I only wrote a few short stories, you will likely not be surprised that I write fewer poems. I make no assertion of their quality, but I would like to share them. I have chosen to include them here.
“Silence” (2025)
Silence, how I long to hear you,
Yet every quiet chapel brings thoughts anew.
Every waking, soundless moment fills my mind
with bursts of song, guilt, and pride.
Have I ever known Silence?
Perhaps it is since
I have never known the quiet
that I desire it.
Silence is dark even on the brightest day,
and that darkness frightens my will away
from embracing the blissful darkness
that alone can banish my sickness.
Yes, I am ill.
Though, there is no cough or chill,
but there is something broken
from a time of which I’ve rarely spoken
Silence, and comfort in it, is my cure
For in happy, dark Silence I can embrace the Pure.
The holy essence of the Lord
who can restore my concord.
But I lack internal stillness,
robbed of the secret bliss
because I cannot hold the darkness,
the void of Silent sweetness.
Do I fear it?
Do I dread it?
Do I hate it?
Do I know it?
I find I fear, I believe,
that silence will reveal and leave
me in a state of broken sorrow
when I realize all the noise I borrow.
I fill my mind with quip and tune
as a way of avoiding the Soon,
the Soon that promises pain and reflection,
and healing, too, upon my genufleciton.
Silence, I do not know you,
but I pray, come, make me new.
Help me to persevere,
to face your darkness, my fear.
“Ad Mariam” (2024)
Hail, my blessed Mother,
I fly to thee for cover.
Ever my mind wanders,
I beg you, pull me closer
though I never find my rest
except in your blessed chest
I let my sins ever fest
and fail to be my best.
The ever flowing blood
of the side of the Lord,
overwhelming as a flood,
and gentle as a ford.
Only That can save me,
The Blood of Him born of Thee,
so to Thee, blessed Mary
I offer my loyalty.
Praise to God, our Father,
Praise His bloodied Son,
Praise the Spirit, intercessor,
Forever and wholly One.
“Hail, First Navigator” (2024)
Hail, O Star of the Ocean
the first Navigator
and ever-blessed Mother
guide us into Heaven.
When night and fear fall
lead us to the Light,
and help us in our fight
against the inner gall.
Shadows surround us always
But you,O Star, shine bright,
daughter and Mother of the Light
piercing through the darkest days
Your Light leads the sailor
of the dark and deadly seas,
you hear your children’s pleas
O ever faithful Navigator.
The humbe Light of your Star
points us always to the shore
of your son, Jesus, our core,
whether we are close or far.
Cast away overboard
all not worthy of thee
and give us calm sea
until we reach our Lord.
So Shining Star of the Sea,
Calm the quaking calamity
of my maligned misery;
bring me to Heaven with thee.
Praise the Holy Father,
Honor to your Blessed Son,
who born of Spirit, three in One
God that made thee my mother.
“Alicorn Flight” (2024)
Amidst the soaring sea of clouds I find
A land of endless potential! It’s white!
But to claim it as my own is folly.
The air has nothing to spare, it’s its own.
The white wings of my weary steed dare glide
Along the current of the soaring sea,
and do defy the laws of land below,
yet it is not arrogance, rather love.
For who can seek to master what’s not his?
And who would dare deny the home his own?
In love, then, we each reach for soaring seas,
and in that love we find only our peace.
Was it not just that we, mere dirt and dust,
be given the earth to be ours at birth?
The wind and sky are gifts from those who fly.
Happiness on the backs of wingéd steeds.
In the soaring seas, I consider Earth
to be the depths of the airborne country
and Mountains are woven by piles of clouds.
Alas, this country is rugged and smooth.
Its roughness from the billowing, rocky clouds,
its smoothness in the gentle rain within.
To touch the cloud is to abandon the ground.
So reach! But forget not lovely low land.
On the soft white back of my winged Alicorn
I fly high, I break above the low clouds,
I soar ever higher, beyond Mount’nous
peaks of the soaring sea and taste the air.
David J. Neumaier 