Sonnets and Poems

By William T. Meany

William T. Meany (Billy)
7/10/1953 - 2/22/2013

These are the works of my brother Billy. In this book you will find his words.
His earlier writings, A Blind Man's Color, was published in the New York Times at the age of 13.A true man for all seasons, a man of motion!
He was born with a form of muscular dystrophy but he never let it affect him or hold him back. I would say he was the most complex and probably the most brilliant man I ever met. His lifelong dream was to be published.
I hope someone would enjoy his writings. I would tell him, "you have a vision and the rest of the world is wearing bifocals".
He graduated with honors and top of his calss at Saint Theresa of Avila, class of 67. He received a New york State regents scholarship from Brooklyn Prep, class of 71. He was a Magna cum Laude graduate of Brooklyn Collage, class of 75.

With all my love,
Your Little brother,
Phil

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 24, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664174399

Book preview

Copyright © 2021 by William T. Meany.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

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Rev. date: 05/12/2021

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Contents

Brandywine’s Apology

12th St. and 7th Ave.

Like Snowballs

The Holy City of Sunset

Flora in the Snow

Soldierly Spring

Two Acts in Six Lines on a Window Sill

Brandywine Will You Sing

Preparedness

Resolution

Vacancy

Whatever

Whitewood

Acts in The Comedy Buffo of Aunt Anna

An Autumn Night

The Snowflake

In a Chuckle

Of Time’s Own Infancy

In And Out The Window All Day

The Stoic Christian’s Charge

Three Truths in an Unclosed Box

An Apology Is Asked

All Regret in Unavoidable

In The Laboratory

This-Ness

The Sublime Acquisition

Just Catching The Strings

Little Linguistics

Seeking the Aurora

The Brightest Window Seat

Aggrandized

Of Rilke I

Of Rilke II

Three Acts in a Snowfall

Manner of Consolation

William Billy T. Meany, was born in Brooklyn, New York and was educated at Brooklyn College.

Beginning at an early age, he developed an unmatched passion for reading and could rarely be found without a book by his side. Soon, he amassed enough books to create something of a mini library in his own home, something that he took great pride in.He was so keen on his books, that, legend has it, he was able to find any book in his collection of thousands within a moment’s notice.

Naturally, with such enthusiasm for reading, he developed a similar passion for writing. Over the decades of Billy’s life, he composed several poems and sonnets which now fill the pages of this book.

I truly believe, if nothing else, that Billy would have taken great pride in knowing his literature can now be enjoyed by others just as he was able to enjoy the works of so many countless other authors.

This is for my Mom and Dad, Caroline and William Meany.

When gleeful time approaches

To take from thee thy beauty,

I warrant he will find you empty;

Save perhaps a knowing smile, a welcome

Left to soothe his disappointment.

For kindness has transformed those vagrant charms,

And patience plundered the treasure envisioned,

And generosity brought to my embrace

The horde of beauty he would expect;

Bettering time with a human love,

Beside which his appetite is amateurish.

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What charm is it that suffuses

You, form and gesture;

Casts in your eye,

Where it may not be retrieved

Nature’s loveliest and my own love;

That walks my attention along

Your lips and their unpurchasable smile,

As if all of me were a child

Led by a mother’s beautiful hand;

Though I am raw with learning,

And burdened with pride and perseverance,

And love insolence like a wing opening?

Explain this, your sphere.

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The shadow printed in the eyes of the dead

Settles, and equates, but violates reality

Like the broken, burgled nerve of light.

A word however still and brittle on the page

Has demanded more of life;

Demands to disappear