Parallel Poems

Many of my poems are written using a two-column parallel architecture—each column being a vertical tercet reflecting a pervasive haiku influence. The columns are separated by blank space that can be regarded as if it is a reflecting surface whereby the second column may be viewed as a mirrored distortion of the first.

The vanishing point is the point at which receding parallel lines viewed in perspective appear to converge—my pathway to the unfamiliar at the vanishing point where the paths appeared to  converge at infinity.

Religion and art are parallel lines which intersect only at infinity, and meet in God
(Gerardus van der Leeuw)

For Ivan, the moral opposites of good and evil cannot be reconciled, just as two parallel lines can never meet.

For Zosima, the symbol of the crucifix represents a meeting of the parallel lines and the moral opposites.