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Winter Ode

O’ hardened hearts,
Do you despair as if gone fore’er
Is your spring, and as if
Your fate is to eternally
Hang flash-frozen in drips
Attached to this winter field’s
Meanderings?
O’ hardened hearts,
Nothing stays frozen fore’er,
E’en if it be on a
Branch which someone
Happened by, reminding them
Of what they want not
To remember.

Leo Carroll
February 24, 2023
Westford, Massachusetts



Photo by Lisa Shattuck

The Tree of Life

It shone in gold, but
Not just typical gold, but rather
Otherworldly, ornamental,
Finest gold, relocated
From the Garden of
Eden, an earthly
Tree of Life set free
From the consequences
Of the bondage
Of Original Sin, and
Now able to renounce
Night and to proclaim
Daybreak – and to
Promise each weary soul
That hope lives and
Its green shoot glistens.

Leo Carroll
February 24, 2023
Westford, Massachusetts



Photo by Lisa Shattuck

In Thanksgiving

And so this rose
Is offered thee at the behest of
The night’s mood.
It has arrived from a
Distant winter’s clime, where
Despite frost and tundra,
It has at the touch of
Truth bloomed.

Leo Carroll
January 15, 2023
Westford, Massachusetts



Photo by Seyedeh Hamideh Kazemi (via Unsplash.com)

Ode to the Bearer of the Holy Spirit

The candle you
Hold is faithful, its light immune
To being dimmed.
Awash I am
This desert night,
But from afar appears
Your face,
Carrying in your
Caress the eternal
Antidote to
My flesh’s whims.

Leo Carroll
November 24, 2022
Westford, Massachusetts



Photo by Jarl Schmidt (via Unsplash.com)