Like Aeschylus

Shakespeare was clever, his
Language precise, but cheeky.
He was not a muse, he was a
Legend, an icon, one to envy,
One to emulate. To dream of
Emulating, a beacon and the
Star in a firmament of English
Poets, Marlowe, Jonson, Dunne
I am done and undone but I,
Like you, try, and want or wish
Or hope, to bend my English to
My thoughts, to trail in the vein
Of the Masters who have so
O'ermastered their English that
My trials are vain, and in vain,
Vainglorious, the Poet might
Say, but not to mock me as I
Try to follow a path that I am
Doomed to find harder than
The Bard's whose prose was
Poetry and poetry unerringly
Human and complete. I aspire
Where inspiration will not go

Cliché

I need a cliché to anchor
My poetry to a real world
To bounce off of what is
Real and what is not, or
Just to add verisimilitude
To what I say, or maybe to
Add significance to mere
Words, we know that they,
The mere words are not as
Substantial as we expect
Them to be, as we need
Them to be. Mere words

Poem of peace

Peace is a big goal. The
Kind of thing that calls
For all the New Age stuff
I can muster but find it
Wearying. It's a letting be
I look for, have looked for
And sometimes found
Floating in the bubbles
In my glass of soda or
Under the soles of my
Footfalls