Two Poems from The Lyric (Fall 2020)

Here are two more of my poems published in Lyric poetry magazine. These are from the fall 2020 issue.

SOUL OF ART

By Robert Crisell

Wherein resides the soul of art–

The head or hands or restless heart?

Is it Chopin, Flaubert, Magritte?

Is it graffiti on a street?

A verse or picture that instills

Our mind with awe, our flesh with chills,

Might be the work of journeymen,

But does it matter in the end?

No matter craft or messy muddle,

No matter blunt or super-subtle,

Our endless longing to create

Is spirit-sent, immaculate.

DESERT SOULS

By Robert Crisell

The vacant plains of arctic poles

Are nothing to our desert souls

When inward springs that nourish us

Dissolve to dust. 

The dust entwines us, blinds our vision, 

Abandons us without provision,

Confounds our spirit, till at last

Our hearts are ash.

But in the end, our mortal sting

Is cured by sempiternal spring,

That stirs the blood and melts the frost,

Redeeming cost.

Be grateful for your days of mirth,

But gather grain in case of dearth

And water for a time of drought,

And bear it out. 

Author: admin

Rob Crisell is an author, actor, teacher, and Shakespearean in Temecula, CA. He teaches poetry and Shakespeare with the Murrieta Valley Union School District as part of its Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA) program. He is a Shakespeare lecturer with Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. He has acted in The Merchant of Venice, Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged), Baskerville, Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, The Tempest (Prospero), Macbeth, Othello (Iago), and others. Over the quarantine, he has acted in Much Ado About Nothing and Merry Wives of Windsor (with Nathan Agin’s “A Working Actor’s Journey production) and King Lear (Quarantine Players). He has written and performed several one-man plays featuring Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Shakespeare in America. He’s the author of Shakespeare’s Book of Wisdom: Advice on Living a Wiser, Happier Life from William Shakespeare & Friends (DePortola Press 2018). His 2016 TED Talk is “How NOT to Hate Shakespeare.” His verse adaptation of Sophocles’ Electra will be produced by Full Circle Players in Riverside, California in October 2020. He is a graduate of Yale University and George Mason University Law School. For details, visit www.robcrisell.com or www.facebook/robcrisellactor/.