Circus pictograph
Short and sweet wind
The House Carpenter
“Well met, well met, well met, my own true love!
Well met, my love” cried he.
“I’ve just come back from the salt, salt sea,
And all for the love of thee.”
“I could have married with a great lady,
For her heart was set on me,
But I forgave her golden crowns,
And all for the love of thee.”
“If you could marry with a king’s daughter,
I’m sure you are to blame,
For I am married with a house carpenter,
Sweet Willy is his name.”
“Forsake, forsake, forsake your carpenter,
And come go ‘long with me,
And I will take you where the grass grows green,
Hard by the sweet lily.”
“If I forsake my fine house carpenter
And go to sea with thee,
Oh how, oh how will you keep me then
From shame and slavery?”
“I have six ships a-sail upon the sea,
“I have six ships more on the land,
And all those bright jolly sailor-men
Will be at your command.”
She picked up her own, her sweet baby,
And she gave him kisses three,
Said, “Stay at home with your daddy, my love,
And give him company.”
She dressed herself in silk and satin red,
She dressed in green and gold,
And she walked through her rooms once more,
The last she would e’re behold.
She had not sailed the sea more than two weeks,
And I’m sure it was not three,
When she sat down and she did weep,
And mourn most bitterly.
“Alas, alas, my love, why do you weep?
Or is it for gold and store?
Or is it for your house carpenter
That you will never see no more?”
“I do not weep for silver or for gold,
Nor do I weep for store,
But I do weep for my darling sweet babe,
The one I ne’er shall see no more.”
They had not been to sea but three short weeks,
And I’m sure it was not four,
When they did spring a longwise seam,
And sank to rise no more.
“What banks, what banks of land is that, my love?”
What banks so dark and so low?”
“It is the land of hell you see,
Where you and I shall go.”
“What banks, what banks of land is that, my love?”
What banks as white as snow?”
“It is the land of the Heavenly God
Where your sweet baby will go.”
Retreat without a sound
Lycanthrope (returns)
Lycanthrope
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Darting furtively through the mist,
Cursed under lunar brightness,
The valiancy of my heart,
Slashed by razor teeth,
Became my darkest side.
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Evil enclosing,
My nocturnal lair,
Mud tracked prints,
Find me sprawled,
In the dawn of twisted sheets,
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Like tormented trees,
Gnarled from remembering,
What blackened life,
Is forever gone.
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But only the music,
Of wind and owls,
And the crackling rain,
Had abided my incessant howls,
Until yet another night,
When gliding clouds,
Reveal another full newness of moon.
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-Poem by Sanford Ross Bender
Visiting wind
Tiger Lilies
Spinning Islands
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I am going down to the Florida Keys,
Where hurricanes abound,
Spinning islands like a string of pearls,
Wind sweeping waves into the sound.
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Mangroves and hardwood hammocks,
Encircling the reef periphery,
Moonshine turning turquoise tides,
A wind quartet in lunar synchrony.
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I am not searching for sunken treasure,
In the deep blue depths, divers plumb.
I am looking for seashells that sparkle,
Along the shifting beaches, I comb,
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We could share a pail of whelks and cowries,
That drift in with the evening tide,
Gaze into conches and mother of pearl mollusks,
Discovering the sea, side by side.
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Lyrics and music – Sandy Ross Bender, June 14, 2026
My lawnmower stopped working
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My lawnmower stopped working,
So, I let the grass grow high.
My neighbors are complaining,
That it would soon touch the sky.
I always wanted a forest,
And the birds that it would bring.
The minstrels will follow,
The troubadours will sing.
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The lawnmower was the pushing kind.
Like the mower that my father had.
He liked the clinking of the blades,
Without the fumes and noise that was so bad.
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Never had I thought of ghosts before.
But now I am in belief.
My father appeared to mow the lawn,
And now, I can sigh in relief.
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Lyrics and music by Sanford Ross Bender
Sunnier days
