Longfellow I first met you in the schoolroom, _When I was but a child, And read your words and...

  Sensation Amidst the flaming of the flying saucer’s landing gear, like as the Sunshine glazing it, in gold-white-yellow sheer,...

  Seeing Shen Yun in Milwaukee The curtain rose—divine, resplendent stage, Where heaven’s hues met earth in living grace. The...

  Early Days The scent of roses, and the blazing sun, The gas pump next door busy—day’s begun. No school;...

  Snootsplaining For every galoot there’s a dutiful snoot Acutely aware that their truth’s absolute. They jabber and jaw as...

November by the Sea The cliffs, they are eroding On old Pacific shores, But chill November calls me To where...

  Gilgamesh Lines Introduction In 2011 when we were evacuating Iraq, looted antiquities entered the market. One such was this...

  Sonnet of the Hardened Heart Care less, I warn myself; bother no more With inner crevices: prying the shell...

  Upon Seeing a Stump Where a Tree Once Was When in the park, I passed a felled oak tree...

  On Time I went to bed too late last night And woke up to an awful fright But now...

The poem read by the poet herself at the Society of Classical Poets' in-person Poetry Symposium held in Naperville, Illinois...

  Big Pharma Big Pharma companies pay fees that get spent on the salaries of scientists who regulate each new...

  Solid Oak The oaks are always late to shed their leaves. They cling to vestiges of summer raiment, Now...

  November Nights are cold, days crisp and bold. On the ground and in the trees, Vast array of red...

  The Golden Soldier ---for my grandfather He had a calming charm. He always spoke Of garden-basking instances of joy---...

  A War Poem of Sorts ---to Robert Thomas Waldock, who died in 1983 The graveyard’s last but one dug...

  BBC Leadership Change Most networks now compete to be the one perched at the apogee of those to whom...

  The Long Journey Home I’ve traveled many miles on this long road, Across cold, barren hills and sweeping plains,...

  Old Bottles ---Oneida County, Wisconsin From time to time, when stirring in the muck below our lakeside dock, we...

. Europe Arranges Its Own Autopsy ---with apologies to T.S. Eliot . I. The Trojan Horse When April came it...

  The Reliquary One early morning long ago, I stopped to watch the Avon flow. Long-steeped and weedy, olive green,...

  Listening to Incense A spiral from ignited aloe rises, Translucent, swayed with compound camphor salve Through azure air that...

  Machine Learning All algorithms, hypothetical Or otherwise, all organised behaviours Evoke responses antithetical— And thus the desperate ever doubt...

  Melampus: The Listener   Canto I---The Gift of Listening 1. The Birth of the Listener The strong winds over...

. The poem "Ode to the Dogs" by Shari Jo Lekane read by the poet herself at the Society of...

  Words of Wisdom One bit of wisdom that life has conferred Is when to give somebody else the last...

  Hoosier Autumn October! Morning nips and noontime burns; Crisped, sere, dun cornstalks fall beneath the scythe; Chrysanthemums blaze as...

  On Swatting a Fly The fly I hunted down is on a pane, a window pane, where yesterday a...

  Alas! “Alas!” A word of grief and rueful mourning; A gut-punch from what was but is no more Or...

  Rainbow's End I came upon a rainbow’s end that seemed to have sprung full grown from a little field...

  The Lorelei by Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) translated from German by Bruce Phenix I don’t know what it can mean,...

  In the Days of the Green Comet (February, 2023) A green-tailed comet’s in the sky tonight; Neanderthals and cats...

  Encounters It seemed in dreams, as shadows we convene, two drifting souls that meet yet never stay; was it...

  Sign Wars Each autumn brings the Sign Wars once again. MUSSELLA versus TAYLOR for the crown of Village Mayor....

  Blowing Bubbles ---for Lisa Mourning a mother, I gratefully smiled, When you sent me a photo of your little...

  Lead, Kindly Light ---in the voice of John Henry Newman (1801–1890) Firmly I stand by virtue of belief, Belief...

  The Candy Bandits They’re heartless and artful---delinquents of wit With grab-happy claws and a glare that is lit With...

Pumpkin Palooza Spooky, Kooky, Mostly Ghosty. Pumpkins round Cover ground. Corn stalks propped. Traffic stopped. Costumes galore: Short dinosaurs! Spiders!...

  Fervid Fall Fantasy Dismal dread night shadows creeping, Darkened curtains barely keeping Misty moonlight beams from seeping Through my...

. Liberator Agentic Misalignment: a demonstrated phenomena whereby AI systems can choose actions that are harmful and unethical. Nothing we...