Uploaded December 2008 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago

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A Spadecaller poem,"The Ghost of My Brother Lost," is featured in this video of Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax in their splendid performance of Rachmaninoff's Cello Sonata Op.19-3. Included are paintings by J.M.W. Turner and Ivan Aivazovsky with artwork by Spadecaller.

The Ghost of My Brother Lost
By
Spadecaller



From the tree the last apple
Fell to earth alone
Spoiled by summers touch
Yellow-scarred, burned with rust.

Wasting in the barley grass
In the froth of golden hops
Hides a bitter soul,
The ghost of my brother lost.

How loved he was! Will he ever know?
For envy casts fond memories off
Into stormy seas green with greed
Like old whiskey bottles bobbing blind.

In the shadows of his fathers tomb
He pillaged his brothers birthright share
And now upon stiffened knees he stands aloft
A barren tree in a field of forgotten love.






"Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing."

Abraham Lincoln