George Chadderdon's Collected Poetry (Abridged)
Browse poems...
Commentary (updated February 17, 2005)
For returning friends and acquaintenances of this site... You
might notice a few improvements. I've entered most of the poems I said I would
withhold until revision into the site. (A few are still on the way.) A number
of them probably aren't in their final forms, but I figure it's better to get
them up now in case I never return to them. (For some, it would have been a
true pity to have left them unrecorded, despite whatever flaws they might have
yet.) I will feel free to revise these as time and inspiration allow, though
with Ph.D. research going on, it's a lesser priority.
Navigation to the poems should be improved much since the
navigation hyper-links are at the top, and—most importantly!—I've added a
section of links to the works I regard as my best. (My best may not be your
(choice of) best, but hopefully there's a high correlation.) I haven't been
updating the Poetry Gallery part of the site and many
of my best poems are therefore not in the gallery. It recently dawned on me
that I've got a lot of stuff here, and, as I've long realized, not all
of it is worth wading through to get to the good stuff. Hence, a
self-proclaimed best list.
What follows is an anthology of the vast majority of my poems
written over many years. It is a mirror of the entire collection in my Poetry Gallery site, but here it is organized in such a
way to allow quick navigation of the text. Absent is the spawning of new
browser windows which often annoys Web-surfers, but absent also are any of the
pictures I included with some of the poems in the Poetry Gallery site.
Nevertheless, if the poems are in a "room" in the gallery, I mention
which.
Note that when I say the collection is abridged, I mean
slightly. Some poems of a more personal nature or those that I think might
offend too many people I decline to include. That still leaves most of my
verse, however, and I'm sure there's enough that remains to make some people
turn a different shade.
Many not-so-charitable people might say the collection I have
here is far too inclusive, and may complain that there are a number of very bad
poems within: bad both from a technical and from a psychological perspective.
Well met, critic! There are indeed, I will cheerfully admit. Perhaps you will
be more forgiving and patient, however, if you think of it as a kind of
chronicle in my development: both as a poet and as a person. The years between
high school and now have been marked by many improvements both in my poetic
craft and in my own personal psychology. Knowing what's worth saying and how to
say it are things that require much experimentation, life-experience, and
exposure to the works of others. The tone and mood of my works is, in the
earliest stages despairing, cynical, bitter, and angry, on the whole. The years
have done much for my spirit, though the thread of melancholy that yet runs
through much of my work suggests that there remains much that is unresolved.
Who can say what my perspective will be in years hence?
Best Contents by Chronology
Undergraduate (UIUC) Years (1989-1993)
Graduate (UCSD) Years (1993-1995)
ORINCON Years (1995-1999)
Sony and Magic Lantern Years (1999-2001)
IU Bloomington Years (2002-2008)
Ph.D. Adrift Years (2009-recent)
Complete Contents by Chronology
High School (1985-1989)
Undergraduate (UIUC) Years (1989-1993)
Graduate (UCSD) Years (1993-1995)
ORINCON Years (1995-1999)
Sony and Magic Lantern Years (1999-2001)
IU Bloomington Years (2002-2008)
Ph.D. Adrift Years (2009-recent)
Complete Contents by Alphabetical Order
- Alcaics on
Solitude
- Alienation
- All That
Glitters
- Alphabet
Soup
- America
- An Age of
Iron
- An Ale Song in
Praise of Livia
- An Ancient
Proverb
- Anarchy
- And So
Descended Eternal Night...
- Angel
- Anonymous
Architecture
- The
Answer
- Apotheosis
- Ashes of a
Day
- Astral
Incubus
- The
Autumn
- Awaiting the
Release
- Ballad of the
Self
- Ballad of a
Stranger
- Bar
Talk
- Bard's
Invocation
- Beacon in the
Shadows
- Beauty
Betrayed
- Bedtime
Sorrows
- Beer
- Beerevelations
- Beloved Avatar of Night Unclothed
- Berry
Charming
- Birth of the
Beast
- Bitching at the
Muse
- Black
River
- The Black
Rose (located in the Relic Room)
- Bloodless
Shaving
- Blue
Evening
- Boris Christov Sings
Mussorgsky
- Bosons On a Saturday
Morning
- Bourgeois
Ballad
- Breaking the
Silence
- Brethren,
Brethren
- A Brief Discourse
On Metaphysics
- Bringin' Home the
Bacon
- Bullcrap
Verses(located in the Polka Dot Room)
- Burger
Bailey
- Calculus
Inc.
- California
Beauties
- Campus
Scene
- Captive of the
Now
- Carpe
Diem!
- The Cat and
the Hermit
- A Celestial Allegory for Love Among Extraverts and Introverts
- The
Changeling
- The
Chrysalis
- Cinderella's
Inferno
- Confession
- Coronation
Day
- The Cosmic
Legacy
- The Cursed
Horizon
- Crystal
Vase
- The Cynic
Poet
- The Dark
Rider
- Dear Thief
- Death in the
Wings
- Deceiver
- Demons
- Departure
- Desert Flowers
- Desire(located in the Great
Hall)
- Despair is Her
Stage
- Destiny
- The Devil's
Mirror
- A Discourse on
Modern Music
- Dominance
- Don't Ask
Me
- Doubt
- Dream
Haiku
- Dreaming and
Dust
- Duty
- The Earth is My
Friend
- Eleanor
- Elegy (1991)
- Elegy (1998)
- Elemental
Prophecies
- Elixir
- Emperor for a
Day
- The Empty
Heart
- Endgame
- The Epic of
Billgamesh (Unfinished)
- Epigram On
Vanity
- Epigrams
and Lunacisms
- Epitaphs
- Epitaph of the
Conqueror Worm
- Erotic
Serenades
- Eve
- An Evening on the
Battlements
- Expectations
- The
Eye
- Eyes
- Fair
Exchange?
- Fall of the
Black Knight
- Far
Away
- A Father to a
Prodigal Daughter
- The Field I
Know
- The Final
Answer
- The Final
Movement of Mahler's Ninth
- The First
Lesson
- Flamenco
Players
- Flowers
- The
Flyer
- Fog
Travels
- The Fool's
Wisdom
- Forest
Exile
- Frost
- Future
Whine
- Gamers
- The Garden(located in the
Chamber of Epics)
- Give Me
Love(located in the Sunrise Steeple)
- God is
Great!
- A Gothic
Rebellion
- Grace in
Decline
- Grace of
Action
- Green
Grapes
- Hades Unto
Hecate
- Hagen
- Haiku Color
Studies
- Haikus
Written While Visiting San Diego
- The Happy
Cannibal
- Happy
Halloween
- Have Done With
Guilt
- He Drew His
Sword
- A Headsman's
Tale
- Hellbound
Hyundai(located in the Polka Dot Room)
- Hemorrhoids
- Her
Pain
- Heroes
- Hibernation
- Higher
Grace?
- Homeward
- Hope
- Horoscope
- Horse
Longings
- The
Hostess
- How Dare You Be So
Goddamned Happy!
- How Do I Love
Thee?(located in the Polka Dot Room)
- How Shall I
Smile?
- How to Run the
Kingdom
- Hypnos and
Eos
- I Am
- I,
Beast
- I Could
Be Beautiful
- I Sing of a
Murdered Queen
- Ice
Castles
- Idle
Fragments
- If I Am
Selfish
- If I Could End
All Sorrows
- If I Had Known
Thee
- In Five Years
- Infernal
Alchemy
- Intimations
- Intimations to
Vanera
- Irish
Windsong(located in the Great Hall)
- It
Rained
- The
Itch
- Kittens For
Carl
- Lament
- The
Lamia(located in the Polka Dot Room)
- Larger Than
Life
- Late
Shorts
- Learning to
Waltz
- Leda and the
Swan
- Liebestod
- Life is
Cheap
- Life is Gay,
Comrades
- Life On the
Hill
- Living By the
Wind
- A Lone Evening With
Debussy
- A Lone Evening
With Debussy (Old Version)
- Lord of
Entropy
- The
Lost
- Lucifer's
Cry
- The Mad
Poet
- Major
Depression
- A Man and His
Well
- Man in the
Rain
- Man is Not Mind
Alone
- Mantra
- Many
Men
- March of the
Damned
- Maryam
- The
Mask
- Maybe I Should
Reread the Tao Te Ching
- Meditation
on a Timex Digital Quartz Lithium Watch
- Mephisto's
Turds
- The Merry
Roofer
- MHT (My Happy
Tracker)
- Mirada
Nocturne
- A Modern Poet's
Lament
- The Moon and
I
- Moonbeam
- Moonfog
- Moonlight
Suite
- Moon, Moon!
- Moral
Absolutes
- More!
- The Mountain
King
- Moving
Pictures
- Mr. Grabbie's
Retort
- My Fair
Campus
- My Foot
Hurts
- My Jailer,
Myself
- My
Medea
- My Sad
Companion (Music)
- Mysterium
- A Natural
Hunger
- Needs
- Nietzsche On a Park
Bench
- Night
- Night at
ORINCON
- Night of
Arachne
- Night
Scenes
- Nocturne
- Nocturno Sancto
#1
- Nocturno Sancto
#2
- Noon
Visitor
- Nostalgia
- Not Our
Way
- The
Noumenostishan
- O Ardent
Pain!
- O Fangéd
Fate
- Ode
- Ode to the Brown
Bunker
- Ode to
Camille
- Ode to
Discontent
- Ode to Her
Mind
- Ode to
Morning
- Ode to a Shy,
Intellectual Lady
- Of Men and
Oxen
- On Becoming
Your Desires
- On
Bosnia
- On a Clear, Moonless
Night
- On Fads and
Fashion
- On Hearing of O.J.
Simpson's Acquittal
- On Leaving
Bub's
- On Metered
Verse
- On the Futility
of Status Romance
- On the
Margins
- On the Virtues
of Diagram
- One
Hope
- One Long
Winter(located in the Atrium Gallery
East)
- The Order of
Things
- The
Organ-Grinder (Translation of Der Leiermann)
- Paint Me My
World
- A Parable of
Failure
- Paragon of
Nature
- The
Parting
- Parting
Embrace
- Passing of the
Season
- Passover in
Sarajevo
- Pastorale On Hearing
a Rachmaninoff Concerto
- Patience
- Patrick Henry's
Invective
- Peace
- A Penny for the
Muse
- Per
Verse
- Perilous
Ventures
- Petty
Trials
- The
Pillar
- Pissed Off With
Nothing to Lose
- A Place For
Sorrow?
- Playing With the
Bird
- A Plea to
Beauty
- Poem and
Poet
- Poet-Tree
- Poetic
Rhythm
- A Poet's
Lament
- The Poet's Muse
Prayer
- A Poet's
Suicide
- Pondering the
Will
- Poor Wayfaring Stranger
- Portrait of the
Lady-Faust
- Portrait of Las
Vegas
- Prayer
- Prayer to
Aphrodite
- Prelude and
Fugue
- The
Preludes
- The Price of
Civilization
- Private
Lessons
- Prologue: Geoffrey's
Introduction
- The
Protocols of Vengeance
- A
Question
- Rage for
Order
- The Real
Question
- Reflection On
Solitude
- Reminders
- Requiem
- Respite
from Doubt
- Revelation
- Revelation on
I-5
- Revelations of
Icarus
- A Rhyme On
Rhyme
- Riding With
Eddie
- Riding With the
Valkyries
- Rollerblading
at Night
- The Sad
Lover
- The Sage's
Stand
- The Samba
Police
- Scriabin's
Ghost
- Sea-Dogs
- Seaside
Drama
- See To It That You
Keep Your Head
- Seeking the
Stage
- September
11th
- She
Comes
- She Speaks With
Shadows(located in the Relic Room)
- The Sheltered
Poet
- A Short
Poem
- Short
Poems
- Shyness
- Silence
- The
Sirens
- Sleep
- So Mr. Manson, Tell
Me More About Angelica
- So
Small
- Some Fine American
Verse for Japanese-Accented Speakers
- Some
Quatrains
- Some Random
Thoughts for Wives
- Some
Truths(located in the Great Hall)
- Something Special
- Song of the
Garden(located in the Great Hall)
- Sonnets
Chromatic
- The Sorceror and the
Knight
- The Sorrows of Young
Wordster
- Speaking to a
Friend
- Spider
Woman
- Spiritual
People
- Standing On a
Road at Dusk
- Star-crossed
- Starship
Navigator
- Storm
Scene
- Stupid and
Smart Evil
- Strive
Ceaselessly
- Strive, Poor
Scribbler
- Summer
- The
Summons
- Sun and
Moon
- Sunday
Interloper
- Sundry
Scenes
- Tears, My
Tears
- Techno-crap
- The Temple and
the Dove
- Terror
Dactyls
- These
Winds
- A Thing About
Water
- Threefold
Discovery
- Through Grey
Eyes
- Tiger
Dance
- Truly
Alone
- Thy Will Be
Done!(located in the Great Hall)
- Time
Puppets(located in the Relic Room)
- To All
Sorrow
- To Any Arrogant
Asshole Who May Piss You Off
- To a Coy, Ethereal
Mistress (Sleep)
- To-do or Not
To-do
- To One Who Has Been
Loved
- To See the
Future
- Too
Late
- Too Much
Prose
- Totenlied(located in the Great
Hall)
- Tunnel of
Love
- Tyranny and
Martyrdom(located in the Atrium Gallery South)
- The Ultimate
Betrayal
- Untitled
#1
- Vain
Hope
- Vanera and
the Violin(located in the Relic Room)
- The
Victor
- Vin is the
Law
- Virtual
Reality
- The
Viking
- Visiting
San Diego
- Vodka
Dreams
- Waiting in El
Paso Airport
- A Walk in the
Rain
- Walking
Dreams
- Walking With
Richard
- Waltz
- Wanderer
- Weariness
- The Weaving
Spider
- A Well-Known Song
By Rank Sin Otta
- What I
Want
- What is
Love?
- What "the Man"
Said
- Wheel of the
Great
- When
Foundations Give Way
- When I Open My
Eyes
- When Santa Comes
Home
- When Sarah
(Vaughan) Sings
- When a Swan is
Wounded
- While Abaddon
Waits
- White Walls,
Black Despair
- Who Invented
Why?
- Why Blame the
Day?
- Why Do We Hate
You?
- A
Widower's Pact
- A Woman Could Do
Much
- Woman's Wounds
- The World is What It
Is
- Worldly
Bliss
- The Wounded
Bard
- Writing is
Hard
- The Yearning for Old Ghosts
- Your Apple
Tree