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

December 25

Amid the hustle bustle of our list,
Transcendent Glory echoes from the sky,
As Heaven meets the souls of you and I,
The Father sends the Sun into our midst.
The manger mocks this child born to die,
Majestic King of Heaven and of Earth,
Insulted at the moment of his birth,
He loved the world too much to let it die.
Each year we hail the moment of his birth,
By buying, selling, drinking wine and ale,
Our revelry turns wine to water stale,
Our spirits follow things of passing worth.
May Christ again join Heaven with the Earth,
And dwell within who dwells upon his birth.
-Tyler William O’Neil
-December 25, 2009

The Modern Exodus

The crack of whips, the mud and muck of shame,
The buffeting of hammers, stroke on stroke,
Fade out to see the whirling pillar-flame,
The blood of lambs as ransom from the yoke.
The galleys stink with famine, dirt and muck,
The negro bends with blisters on his back,
The shackles drop, he bleeds a stroke of luck,
As battle frees a nation from the rack.
Narcotics mute the screams of cheated whores,
As gunshots beat the children to despair,
Both Avarice and Lust have shut the doors,
Bold Justice shouts for blood and begs for prayer.
We sprinkle bloody lamb upon our door,
For Justice tarries now, but nevermore.
-Tyler William O’Neil
-November 21, 2009

The Leaves of Autumn

Red, green and yellow fall the autumn leaves,
Cascading to the avenues of men.
They beautify the paths between the trees,
Who guard the joy as earth grows cold again.
Then whoosh- the palms of autumn sweep away,
Surrendering to nails of winter’s frost.
The sun forsakes its child, a shorter day,
And man laments the light that he has lost.
That light himself once trod on autumn palms,
With men who laid “hosannas” at his feet.
Then echoing the winter of the psalms,
Blood asked the Father, “why forsake thou me?”
As trees proclaim hosanna now today,
The cross of winter whispers Calvary.
-Tyler William O’Neil
-October 24, 2009

Authority: Sin as Deconstructionism

A poem must not merely be, but mean.
No truth stands higher than authority,
For He who makes has made, whatever dream
Intrudes upon the hearer’s fantasy.
The pen of being writes the universe,
And readers cannot separate the two,
They strive in vain to spread their vile curse,
To cut from Truth the children of the True.
Hold fast, hold fast to He who speaks the Truth,
And do not question what his meanings mean,
For He has spoken not from fear of youth,
As Hamlet says, things are. They do not seem.
‘Tis sin that cuts the Maker from the made,
And Truth shall heal the Love that has decayed.
-Tyler William O’Neil
-October 16, 2009

The Squirrel

The canopy of yellow-greens surrounds
A fervent worker of the forest-wood,
He sits upon a branch, with husky sounds,
Scritch-scratching out the woodland’s greatest good.
With tawny fur he scratches at the nut,
With boisterous hands he claws his knotty prize,
With passioned teeth he bites and works to glut
His epic hunger under cloudy skies.
The frigid air pursues his industry,
Four dazzled humans wonder at his ways,
He gnaws on high, and struts majestically,
As life idyllic blesses all his days.
He needn’t worry, nor does he complain-
Man marvels at the beautiful mundane.
-Tyler William O’Neil
-October 14, 1009

The Youth of Heaven

The sun awakens roosters and the dawn,
His rays cascade upon the mountain peaks,
The moon sedates the lion and the fawn,
All nature sighs to see her mournful cheeks.
The sun wakes yet again upon the earth,
His radiance sparks joy in every soul,
The moon delights in giving day its birth,
They dance in harmony, a perfect whole.
All being revels in monotony,
His youth is vibrant, and His passion strong,
The cycles are a dance of revelry,
“Again, again!” He cries, forever long.
Men tire, losing joy in their machine,
While Heaven laughs and revels in routine.
-Tyler William O’Neil
-October 12, 2009

Unbelief

I stand upon the precipice of time,
To fall into the icy winter’s frost-
A molecule of doubt in hope sublime,
Shall break the soul in two- forever lost.
A flame about me dances in the wind,
The word of Heaven whispers in my heart,
Beatitude defiles ugly sin,
And joy has pierced my marrow like a dart.
Yet sorrows ere oppress my fellow men,
And tides of triviality engulf,
Disquietude invades my private den,
I rip apart my blessings like the wolf.
The virtues shout that joy belongs to them,
The vices whisper- evil is a gem.
-Tyler William O’Neil
-September 25, 2009

The Incarnation

Leaves crumple and are trampled under foot,
The ancient bones of ancestors decay,
Time bursts the core of being to its root,
For life is just a seven second play.
Yet something stands beyond this broken mess,
A thing unchanged, magnificent and pure,
The universe itself is just a guess,
While everything proceeds from Being’s core.
And what if Being entered our malaise,
And time affected everlasting Truth?
Each moment, aging, lucid as a haze,
Would sharpen, taking shape and form and youth.
A moment makes a grand eternity
As Fortitude becomes Infirmity.
-Tyler William O’Neil
-September 14, 2009

Two Fictions

Each moment we reject a thousand things,
By choosing we reject each other plan,
The fiancée rejects a thousand rings,
Yet it was meant to be, since life began.
Each person can describe an atom’s shape,
We know how stars begin, and planets end,
We learn a thousand truths, our mouths agape,
And yet we cannot fathom living’s end.
We cross the sky in ships of shining steel,
We build tremendous cities filled with light,
We travel to the moon- it seems unreal,
Until we age and fade into the night.
We’re born outdated, aging into youth,
It seems that paradox contains the Truth.
-Tyler William O’Neil
-September 9, 2009

The Grand Inquisitor: The Temptation of Christ

The Bolsheviks in triumph o’er the flames,
Ensuring that the common man is fed,
A stone among Israeli sands remains;
As Jesus offers heaven’s truer bread.
A pistol fired in the new revolt
To free the young for sex and gender roles;
The Savior leaves the angels, no new cult
Will force the men to give away their souls.
The swastika amid the dead debris,
To force all men to serve the Nazi ruse;
The ground unsullied by the Savior’s knee,
Allowing men the liberty to choose.
While Man attempts to solve a child’s need,
God elevates the sinners He has freed.
-Tyler William O’Neil
-August 24, 2009