A Tribute

A gunshot tears the greetings of the crowd,
The Press assistant buckles to the street,
A human shield drops, bleeding on the ground,
The secret servant hustles in the heat.
A hostile breeze whips round the limosine, 
The livid driver speeds, with horses' whips,
The agent turns to check- the wound is clean,
But redness bubbles from his master's lips.
One small gigantic step, and Rawhide falls,
The nurses rush to carry him aloft,
And as they bustle through the sterile halls,
His heartbeat falters, and his breath is soft.
His voice, with frothy blood, begins to dance,
I hope, he says, you're all Republicans.
- Tyler William O'Neil
- July 29, 2011

The Sun proclaims a love so marvelous

The Sun proclaims a love so marvelous
That when the murky shroud of Earth conspires
To blot its light to darkness, quench its fires,
Its brilliant warmth blasts through, so glorious,
That every foe adorns it like a flower,
The clouds that threaten freezing, drenching rain,
Transform into a halo for its fame,
A multicolored vestment, beauty’s bower.
That light by brilliance rendered colorless
Takes on the yellow of a maiden’s hair,
Then purple as a monarch’s stately chair,
And orange as the ember’s flaming dress.
These hues revive a bluish, graying sky,
As nature laughs and tears anoint the eye.
-Tyler William O’Neil
-July 13, 2010

A Mighty Mountain

A purple spire rises to the sky,
With sylvan stripes embedded in its robe,
It leers, a massive monster from on high,
It guards, a faithful sentry on patrol.
Its verdant with its purple rows entwine,
A garment shining, as with baited breath,
The silent grays with waking greens combine,
A tapestry displaying life and death.
It grapples with a hidden parasite,
A poison haunts its awful majesty,
It withers from the living all their life,
Eroding every facet’s unity.
While awesome beauty steals the stranger’s breath,
Each trembling spirit strives with life or death.
-Tyler William O’Neil
-June 19, 2010

A Snowy Adventure

Bold plastic carves a serpent in the snow,
Which hisses with the cadence of a dance,
As Teddy, Joan and Alex, head to toe,
Bulk up in armor from the cold romance.
With twists and turns they cross the solid seas,
With sharpened blades they slice the frozen foe,
These arms and heroes beat the mountain breeze,
Through woods bereft of roads but all aglow.
They taste the fruits of centuries of toil,
The seed of innovation sprouts the tree,
As industry plows through the fertile soil,
Thus men serve others, so that they can ski.
Such glory girds the noble bourgeoisie,
Pursuing future cups, they taste the sea.
-Tyler William O'Neil
-March 31, 2010

In Praise of Christ

Which man or hero does the goddess praise,
To whom, harsh Clio, do your trumpets rise?
No god, for empty soar the royal skies.
Upon whose mortal image shall we gaze?

Our poets clash each universe in words
A symphony of noise transports the heart.
Yet silent lies that harmonizing art,
Which animates the mountains and the birds.

The sun whose chariot anoints the sky,
The cloak of winter melting into spring,
The rosebuds and the roaring rivers sing,
The lyric Cosmos revels to reply.

Whom first to praise but Progress who appoints
The human will to govern all the earth,
Who, from the very moment of his birth,
Evolves to dignity his bones and joints.

Who grew from ash and dust a universe,
And stirred a soup, the birthing womb of life,
With Chance, his mistress, nay perhaps his wife,
He spins an epic poem, time the verse.

With them shall we sing Liberty and Love,
For any joy we know that it takes two,
The human will, unfettered, sets the true,
With rockets we have cowed the skies above.

I sing of Darwin and of Galilei,
Who loosed the bonds of magic on the mind,
And sought the laws of nature, it to bind.
The superstitious past has passed away.

Their minds released the prisoned will of man,
The flow of human greatness burst the dikes,
No flash of Jove the shrewd inventor strikes,
As ships ply oceans, wings the heavens span.

Now Washington and Jefferson I praise,
The Founder and the peaceful first reform,
Grand Lincoln and Frank Roosevelt adorn,
New Deals and unity from honest Abe.

And with Columbus shall I chant the deeds
Of Carnegie and Custer, brave in heart,
Rags rise to riches, valiant when the dart
Of natives scalped the passion that he bleeds.

We sing of Davy Crockett in the wood,
And Eisenhower, leader of the troops,
The unknown man whose wife’s head ever droops,
And William James, who preached pragmatic good.

Yet fame of pastors blossoms as a tree,
A star from Bethlehem proclaims good news,
A humble God, himself with man to fuse,
To loosen pride and evil’s tyranny.

Oh Son and Savior of all humankind,
Conceived of God, you shall receive the crown,
For on a cross you bled, without renown,
To heal the sick, give vision to the blind.

That man, when he will conquer all the earth
Which threatens Heaven, with a triumph just,
And batter down her hubris to the crust
With penitence and mercy, second birth,

The Cosmos with right order will he judge.
You shake its vast foundations to the core,
You banish those who challenge you in war,
Forgiving penitents, without a grudge.
-Tyler William O’Neil
-February 19, 2010

The Love of Valentines

A violet cascade of rich perfume
Pervades a little letter full of love,
Red hearts and lips upon the flowers bloom,
Exotic chocolates melt the skies above!
Oh, love, to taste another’s beating heart,
Caress a body supple, warm and smooth,
To burn with Venus, struck by Cupid’s dart,
To have another, soothing and to soothe.
No- Love long suffers, lacking want and pride,
It follows virtue, and seeks not its own,
Embracing Truth it banishes the lie,
Bears, trusting and enduring all, alone.
Gold shines as trials purge the muddy dross,
Love burns, a fire, and it bleeds, a cross.
-Tyler William O’Neil
-February 14, 2010

The Riddle

The musket shrapnel severs limb from limb,
The blunt explosion darkens day to night,
The bleeding gashes tear his life from him,
Extinguishing his home, his love, his life.
Some live for glory, straining in the race,
Their muscle carves the prize of ash and dust,
Some scheme for riches and the pride of place,
Yet gold and favor both corrode to rust,
Some seek the thrill of pleasure’s biting taste,
Enflamed they revel, and they soon combust,
Some plow papyrus, for Truth’s lettered face,
To find opinion, falsehood, and mistrust.
Yet I pursue the riddle’s end of life,
The cross of love dissolves the pain of strife.
-Tyler William O’Neil
-February 14, 2010

Lord, Melt This Rebel Heart

Lord, melt this rebel heart with strings of steel,
May fire soothe the prison bars of ice,
May falsehood-fattened lips consume the real,
The sight of faith replace the groping dice.
For You embrace me, You who know my words
Before I form their image in my mind,
Before I take the wings of flighty birds,
Ahead you know my path, and it behind.
Where can I run with many hundred horse,
To gallop from Your all-embracing love?
If Heav’n anoints the finish of my course,
If Hell consumes the horrid end thereof,
Run from Thee fast, my soul will to turn to find,
You are my love, in heart and soul and mind.
-Tyler William O’Neil
-February 6, 2010

Bright Star

Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art-
A light adorning one whom you adore,
Close watching o’er the treasure of your heart,
To guard, protect and love forevermore.
I flit and flutter to and fro, it seems,
As falls the morning dew to dissipate,
As splits the Nile into tiny streams,
As turns the lustful to another mate.
No- yet still steadfast, rooted in this love,
Upon my knees I offer and confess,
I fix my body to the cross above,
To eat and drink His passionate caress.
Oh Star of Bethlehem, thou herald bright,
My salt your salt, my fainting love your light.
-Tyler William O’Neil
-December 26, 2009

The Truth

All men are freckled with unspoken urge,
One crafts a city and one sings a dirge,
Though Wisdom cries, ‘tis vanity in all,
They falter not, nor hasten, large or small.

The budding leaves amaze the youthful eye,
The sun delights to canopy the sky,
Yet writhing, do they wither soon away,
As sunlight ages to the death of day.

So wisdom chants to them a silent lie,
Born in an instant, so they live and die,
Yet still they toil on for ceaseless years,
To shoulder boulders at their ceaseless fears.

Tell lawyers that they quibble at the law,
Forgetting justice, thieving with the jaw.
Tell priests they speak what once our savior said,
While all their love and passion’s grown stone dead.

Tell politicians that they steal the bread,
For which the hand of heavy labor bled,
They serve the few, neglecting humankind,
That their contrived injustice isn’t blind.

Tell rich men that they stole it from the poor,
That robber barons bite them to the core.
Tell poor men that they haven’t worked enough,
They lack devotion, energy and love.

Tell soldiers that their glory wastes away,
That battle does not fall their family’s way,
‘Tis wicked to defend your home by war,
And “service” wrecks a thousand to the core.

Tell lovers that they want mere copulation,
That odes and sonnets are but mere frustration,
Tell noble love it seeks a baser end,
That selfishness inspires every friend.

Tell wisdom that, in thinking, it is folly,
Tell prudence that it loses all that’s jolly,
Tell justice that it cannot be authentic,
Tell fortitude its actions are pedantic.

Tell faith it has no object of devotion,
Tell hope it looks for chance and random motion,
Tell love it costs far more than it is worth,
Tell virtue that it has no place on Earth.

Yet still they persevere, what noble hearts!
To brave and conquer all despairing darts,
It takes one passion, one, that cannot die,
This longing wields the truth against the lie.
-Tyler William O’Neil
-December 25, 2009