THREE POEMS ABOUT ISLANDS

                      PROSPERA

     for April Ford on her 80th birthday

Beyond our tempest of dreams undone,
Our hopes confused and vaporal,
You reveal the island of Eighty-One
Where the season is continuous April.


                PROSPERO'S CIRCLE

           for Fonda Joyce's birthday

"I'll carve out a space where it's safe to grow.
And I know just how to start it:
Place a wildcat at the temple door
With a heart big enough to guard it."


                       ISLAND

                For Aldous Huxley

Islands bleed from every shore.
Every element that moves faster bites
At the leaky margins of what seems whole
And steady - the Mother Earth; the soul's
Intimacy; shared love, tremble in the light
Of Shiva Dancing, saying "Fear no more."

Joe Wrobel