Edoras

In Fangorn, Brego had the timbers felled
to build a fitting meadhall for his throne.
The golden roof of storied Meduseld
would gleam on wooden rafters, not Helm's stones.
Illiterate, his builders might have been
who coined no currency to spend in Dale.
They put their faith in equines, not machines
and celebrated life with lakes of ale.
Their architecture showed their good horse-sense
had not been dulled by urban fripperies.
They didn't trust in moat, or wall, or fence
to guard their brawny backs when at their ease.
Since Brego deemed one mustn't drink and ride,
Door-bars faced out, to pen his drunks inside.

Vayekhel

Obsessing on each ornament's details,
our energies are focused on the path.
Unchannelled, we'd run swiftly off the rails,
and thousands died to mollify God's wrath.
Each mortise, and each tenon must align
to build the frame the weavings hang upon.
The set, and setting perfectly divine
to sanctify our midst with the mishkan.
All eyes avert from Aaron's cultic gaffe.
He's designated; none can take his place.
The rings and things not smelted for the calf
repurposed now, to save his priestly face.
For Moses, one last sacerdotal role
before the cohanim assume control.

container for the thing contained

A seamless task, when masons laid the wall
no corner where a side abuts a side.
A single surface circumscribes the hall;
the Oval Office leaves no place to hide.
E pluribus, aspiring to be one
who build each other, rather than compete
but knowing the job's never wholly done
a metaphor in plaster, made concrete.
The staatsbund Kant had hoped would end all war
inspired a league of thirteen colonies
but we've lost sight of what this Union's for
our parties brook no higher loyalties.
Among the stuff Trump threatens to tear down
enlightenment's experimental crown

arriviste

The White House plans are something to behold
now Trump's determined to redecorate
mahogany all overlaid with gold
reflected in bright chrome and silverplate.
The bathtub that accommodated Taft
must stretch for Donald's ego, gut, and wig
to float  his rubber duckies, tug, and raft
Trump needs one that's superlatively big.
Acceptance that this parvenue long chased
recedes, however earnestly it's sought
three wives learned not to laugh at his poor taste
but settled for the stuff their virtue bought.
No gilt of glitz can substitute for class;
the face we show the world's this bloated ass

Terumah

sir Isaac Newton saw the Cosmic scheme
reflected in the tabernacle's plan
a microcosm subtler than it'd seem
as represented to a Bronze-Age man
the candelabrum, sure as Kepler's laws
must correspond to heavens moving spheres
and all of it point to a Primal Cause
as ineluctable as trains of gears
the last redactor deemed  Leviticus
should grace the center of our pentateuch
once revelation capped our exodus
chiasmic structure to our holy book
of all our gripping tales, these seem the least
methinks that last redactor was a priest

de re naturam

the Romans knew volcanic ash was key
to make cement that stands the test of time
that sets up hard on land, or under-sea
without the silicates, it's merely lime
that lore was lost for fifteen hundred years
cathedrals soar, but aren't weather-proof
staff masons keep up with the wear and tear
but it's a loss if you neglect the roof
petrology would catch up down the road
explaining how the crystal lattice binds
but brute empiricism bore the load
explaining aggregate in all its kinds
the best of Roman technology stands
the failures long since crumbled back to sands

sin city

a splendid ruin, half-sunk in the sand
LasVegas will amaze an age to come
who'll seek in vain a way to understand
where such outrageous monuments came from
a Mountain Village pitched to lower tastes
a narcissist's dream-vision in concrete
grand architecture optimized for waste
rots bleaching in the South Nevada heat
where nothing's made and only service jobs
lived off conventioneers, and johns, and marks
where justice was administered by mobs
no mere blindfold, but fully in the dark
a game in which the house must always win
sustained a house of cards all built on sin

wastelands

Las Vegas will astonish tourist hordes
who'll grasp for logic nowhere to be found
facilities for potentates and lords
half sunken in the sandy desert ground
corrupt incentives nurtured the cash-flow
sustaining the illusion of good jobs
the theft of water from far Mexico
diverted floods of green into the mob
let archaeologists sift through the bones
and ersatz gems and boats in disrepair
where now the desert sandstorm thrums and moans
that there should once have been a city here
a waste of money on comedic scale
will stand an age-long cautionary tale

unplanned

millenials embracing carlessness
drive up the price of urban housing stock
exaggerating San Francisco's mess
and forcing long-time tenants into hock
Old Europe knows you need high density
to maximize a city's urban joys
but Yanks want private cars to come for free
as if they didn't spew filth, smog and noise
without a plan, we pave farmland for sprawl
and piss away our lives on the commutes
instead of culture, there's the shopping mall
where teens are left to rove in packs like brutes
suburbia's last century's mirage
that dooms our kids to live in the garage

within you without you

why bar the doors of Meduseld at all
what perils do you fear that there reside
the beerhall's not protected by its wall
if bolt and bar are accessed from outside
a grand design before the age of flue
where heroes join to brag and drink and sup
embellishing their feats of derring-do
did Brego mean to keep the drunks pent up?
some drunks are prone to wrath, and some to mirth
and architects ignore this to their cost
what Tolkien's words evoke of MiddleEarth
must conjure a whole mind-set that's been lost
great books provoke us all to seek and find
erecting structures wholly in your mind