Three Poems
Barbara Lydecker Crane

Pointed Remarks

You say you’re looking on the bright side: “The point
is just to have a little fun.” You do provide the point

that your digs and jabs can take listeners by surprise.
Their eyes widen and they chuckle, but hide the point

that they shudder a little or a lot for the one you mock.
Perhaps those listeners’ laughs blindside the point.

A snide bon mot is a hook that’s baited with a dazzling
dragonfly. Eager fish swim up, bug-eyed at the point.

Your bait will lure an unwary person or two for a bit,
but such words put most people off, outside the point

of admiring your humor. Are you feeling so insecure
that barbs guard your pride? I think I spied the point.

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Barb’s notes: “I’ve worked on this ghazal on and off for a few years, going back and forth between first- and second-person voices—finally deciding on the latter, to make it more universal.”

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Painting Henry

Henry VIII, 1540, by Hans Holbein the Younger
(Germany, circa 1497–1543); Hampton Court, England

To feed my family, I paint his girth again
(such privilege at court I can’t evade).
King Henry’s doublet could enfold three men
inside its mink and glinting gold brocade.
I draped a band of jewels around his chest;
together with the slope of his plumed hat,
it makes a hint of halo—my private jest
and public gibe at this colossal rat.
Although I’ve made his royal raiment glow,
I’ve not adorned the plunder of his face:
his tiny mouth, his cheeks like risen dough,
his weasel eyes. And though I know my place
and bow to most caprices and commands,
I won’t enlarge his most unmanly hands.

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Barb’s notes: “Speaking of snide remarks, there are a few in this poem, and I think readers will guess whom I am alluding to. This sonnet in the imagined voice of Holbein was first published in Ekphrastic Review, and was also included in my book You Will Remember Me (Able Muse Press, 2023).”

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

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Meeting Saint Malo

Saint Malo, 13th c. limestone sculpture
by an unnamed artist of Caen, France

Ennui and I had wandered every wing
before I ambled into one room more,
Medieval Reliquaries, where now I creak
in desultory solitude. I groan
at the sound of children in encroaching roar,

and turn to leave. But then a statue brings
my second look and longer gaze. For sure,
it’s no Adonis, and yet the visage speaks
with an impish little grin carved in stone,
this Saint Malo, small fisherman on shore.

I picture how he’d cast a net of string
beyond his bobbing wooden boat’s oars.
I’m guessing he would chuckle when a sleek
mackerel leapt his grasp. In baritone,
I hear him sing for all that he adored.

The statue’s signage tells a startling thing:
It’s said that Malo walked on water. What lore—
this simple soul, transcendent and unique!
In my transcending dreams, I skate alone
on the moonlit mirror of a pond, or soar

over it with whistling swans in spring.
But who can walk on water? What could afford
this power to him of human, slight physique?
Perhaps a buoyant spirit all his own.
I’m whistling now, and flying out the door.

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Barb’s notes: “Every time I pass this statue at the museum, I smile—imagining I really am flying out the door. The poem was first published in the online journal Angle (now defunct), and also included in my newest book, Art & Soul (Kelsay Books, 2025).”

Photo credit: William Francis Warren Fund, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Please note, if you are reading this on your mobile device, the photo appears at the foot of the page.

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Barbara Lydecker Crane has won the Kim Bridgford Memorial Sonnet Crown Contest, the Helen Schaible Sonnet Contest, and has twice been a Finalist for the Rattle Poetry Prize, among other honors and awards. She has published five collections, including You Will Remember Me (Able Muse Press) and Art & Soul (Kelsay Books). She lives with her husband near Boston.

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Three Poems Barbara Lydecker Crane

Three Poems
Barbara Lydecker Crane