Poetry

  The Ministry of Twee The Ministry’s role is to banish the soul _In poems the poets send in--- To snuff out the spark at the core of the stark, Extinguish the sear of a kiss in the dark, To vaporize tears in the lilt of the lark _And toss...

  Breath of Night A sullen breath pervades the night the rhythmic stillness I can hear where peaceful dreams grow wings in flight; the thrum of drumming in my ear the rhythmic stillness I can hear, it thumps within my hollow chest; the thrum of drumming in my ear the...

Among the Redwoods by Edward Rowland Sill (1841-1887) FAREWELL to such a world! Too long I press The crowded pavement with unwilling feet. Pity makes pride, and hate breeds hatefulness, And both are poisons. In the forest, sweet The shade, the peace! Immensity, that seems To drown the human life...

  Kaddish for My Father Yitgadal v’yitkadash sh’mai rabah… I’ve said the mourner’s kaddish now a thousand times To mark the 30 years since I last held your hand And hoped that you could hear me through the tubes and drone Of the machines that kept your weak lungs pumping...

  Canceled I reckon the outcome is just So cancel away if you must. It speaks to the fear That all Marxists adhere: "In our victimization we trust!"     Your Foundation Your foundation is timeless and true. Generations seek comfort in you. The Goodness you house, God's word you...

  The Diamond When Earth was young and life was new An alien forest clothed a land Where dreadful monsters crept and flew, All meant for my beloved’s hand. They went the way of all life, fell To earth, beneath earth to withstand A lightless, crushing, white-hot hell--- All this...

  The Dancer The dancer turns elegantly: her pivot light and feathery, her eyes as brilliant as a wren’s, her lithe form swanlike as she spins in ceremonial artistry. The dance is life, felicity, and also deep despondency. Away from falls, time and again, __the dancer turns. The nimble dancer...

  Chastity ‘My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, And come away.’ ---The Song of Songs, The Bible   1. Arise, O Sleeper, wake, when did you last Perceive the brushing breeze against your skin, A burning heat, the winter's icy blast, Another’s...

  Ode I.11 by Horace (circa 84-54 BC) translated from Latin by Mary Jane Myers Locónoé, the gods decree the destined lives of you and me. Toss out Chaldean horoscopes, we're not to know, though we have hopes. It's better patiently to bear the firm diktats of Jupiter. We might...

  The Bird with the Ugly Voice I kept a bird whose song was harsh and coarse, A jarring cry, a rasping, croaking force. I shut him in his cage beside the door, And hoped in time his voice might charm me more. I longed for melodies of sweet delight,...

  The Dryads The day we found the hoof-prints in the soil And felt the breath of dark, indolic heat, We dropped our implements of rustic toil And took the path marked by the cloven feet. The fields were newly garlanded in green, Swathed in the uncorrupted redolence Of Springtime,...

  Stories of Saint Anthony   Preaching to the Fish “Proud men have turned away, for they refuse To listen to you, Master Anthony.” “I’ll turn instead to shoreline avenues, And at the seaside preach to Rimini.” There gathered gobies, dentex, eel, sardines, Anchovies, mullet, mackerel, tuna, plaice, Piada and...

  An Englishman to World Cups Past That 1966 World Cup _is but a memory, awarded, so the Scotsmen claim, _to England, quite unfairly. Since then, our World Cup wilderness _has had its ups and downs. A dwarfish Argentinian _denied us further crowns as did the wily Croats of _the...

  Faux Pas after Don Paterson When I decanted red, not white, and she called me a fool I bit my tongue, remembering that bird from Liverpool who kept her infant near the cooker while a cauldron boiled for sanitising nappies that the darling child had soiled and how the...

Trip to Italy A Poetry Travel Journal by James A. Tweedie The trip begins on April 8 with a two-week trans-Atlantic cruise from Miami, Florida to Civitavecchia, Italy, with stops in the British Virgin Islands (Tortula), the Canary Islands (Tenerife), Barcelona, Spain, and Cannes, France.   Virgin Islands, Photo by...

  Spring Song Spring sings through the woods, her own special song Sometimes short ’n’ sweet and sometimes too long. It wafts through the branches, it hums in the trees It starts up the dancing of flowers and leaves. With dandelion choirs in yellow and gold The buttercups join in,...

  The Eagle He flies... so quickly, cutting the air’s depth with tawny wings, the messenger of Zeus—the eagle—bold, his thunderings, relying on his mighty strength, the wide lord covering the sky, beyond where other birds refuse such hovering. The great Earth’s mountain peaks do not hold him, in his...

  Good Night When you brushed and flossed and rinsed your teeth, _You gave nary a thought To a gap you almost never reach.    I am that spot. Those brilliant words you never said _Now rattling inside your head; But when you needed them, you froze. _I am those....

  Mothiavelli I’m thirsty for the fever of her kiss--- The neon sear---the lethal lick she brings. I burn to surf the heat of her abyss. I’ll skirt her scorch to shield my flimsy wings. I’ve heard the zap and breathed the sooty singe Of smitten kin who skimmed the...

  Poetic Justices: The Poetry of United States Supreme Court Justices by Adam Sedia In 1979, Justice John Paul Stevens of the United States Supreme Court remarked in an interview that “the best preparation for the study of law was the study of poetry, especially lyric poetry.” The relationship between...

  Blur The seconds tick, the minutes race, __The hours fly, __The days flash by, The weeks go at a breakneck pace--- __I wonder why __I even try; The months, the years, the decades pass, __All I’ve pursued __Becomes worm food; I strive to do it all---alas--- __I’m left to...

  The Cottage on the Ridge The gray mist lingers in the wooded vale And drifts across the piney hills at dawn, Infused with light, as daybreak sheds its pale First rays upon a lonely ridge, whereon A cottage sits in quiet solitude, Amidst the ancient landscape lush and green....

  Poem 5 by Catullus (circa 84-54 BC) translated from Latin by Mary Jane Myers Ah, Lesbia, lust’s our sweet pastime. Old codgers censure us en bloc. Their gossip’s worth not one thin dime. Dawn always breaks in each epoch, but our span’s brief. Life’s suns soon set, we slumber...

  Undeclared College Major Discussing broader options that young women have today, One of my female classmates had a startling thing to say, About how in our time some college women’s foremost plan--- Encouraged by their mothers---was to find themselves a man.     Kitchen Comfort He asked her if...

  The Sowers by Gabriele D’Annunzio (1863-1938) translated from Italian by Joseph S. Salemi Strong lads drive the docile oxen through The field. Behind them open furrows steam As plowshares tear the ground in preparation For the sowers’ casting of the grain. Then with a sweeping gesture of their arms...

  Three Kittens Went to Kitten-Garten Three kittens in kitten-garten. Whose teacher was a dog. They had to write their answers In their daily log. The dog would ask the kittens, “Are you ready now?” Each kitten had to answer, “Meow, meow, meow.” They boned up on their math, Then...

  The Number 217: A Glimpse of Armageddon "And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes" ---Chaucer, Canterbury Tales  It happened on the number 217 While on his way one day to Turnpike Lane That Palmer had a glimpse of Armageddon And never rode a London bus again. While sitting on...

  The Heart of the Wood At the edge of the wood it is green, With the leaves all aglow in the light, And the forest appears so serene, That my eyes could do naught but delight. In the midst of the wood it is dim, And the sun is...

  Twelve Labors More Part II. The Music of the Spheres Read Part I here. I. My life continued quiet till one morning When—“knock, knock, knock”—upon my porch I found Great Socrates, Achilles, and Falstaff. I craned my neck: no cop cars were around. “Come on, you ready?” Socrates inquired....

  Today Awake, and do not fade away into your gloom—and stay within your room. Instead, without delay, compel yourself to a wide grin, and slowly some joy will sink in, as you’ll allow yourself to think of how much worse it could have been— the tumble downward from the...

  Chaucer's Medieval Hangover Advice and Cure If you should quaff nocturnally too much, and waking, find your mouth’s a rabbit hutch in fragrance, while you’ve copiously been sick, raw eels and bitter almonds do the trick. Those eels and almonds cancel out what brew doth loiter in your guts,...

  April Flowers Bring May Showers You festive blossoms---whose ephemeral lives are poured Ecstatically into youthful grass as you dance toward Your death---your petals ornament the air, drift down From winter branches that appeared bare aging bone Before your lavish gift of flesh and color.  Dense- ly robed with Easter’s...

  O Come, Holy Ghost "The Fear of the Lord Is the Beginning of Wisdom..." ---Proverbs 9:10 O Come, Holy Ghost, and send us Thy gifts, Confirm Thou our souls, give cause to their lift. Offer us counsel through life’s destination; Make us more wise: illume preparation. Ever bestow Thy...

Cato of Utica: Canto I of Purgatory by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) translated from Italian by Stephen Binns Dante and Virgil emerge from the Inferno, having followed the course of the Lethe, the  river of forgetfulness. Here they are once again under sky and stars, though unfamiliar  stars: this is an...

  Cherry Blossom Cherry blossom, cherry blossom, Dancing, lilting in the breeze, Hither speak of pretty whispers, Told to you by buzzing beez. Cherry blossom, cherry blossom, Petals, soft, and sweet, and fair, Sing to me the dryads' musings, Floating, bobbing through the air. No one else can hear us...

  Home I wandered lonely, not so much a cloud As more a type of fog, as something cool And indistinct, ephemeral, endowed With little of that which an older school Would call of moment: willful, silly, proud. But things then shift somehow, by sudden grace Or simply desperation. Old...

  Tempus Fugit, Carpe Diem, Memento Mori Sed fugit interea, fugit irreparabile tempus.—Virgil, Georgics There comes a time in every errant life When pleasures of the flesh are not enough, And vivid dreams about a neighbor’s wife Seem pale compared to all the other stuff Imagined. Learning ancient Greek is...

Competition Judge and Classical Poets Live creator Andrew Benson Brown discusses the competition requirements and gives some background on odes, ballads, satire, and more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kauu2iUyifo     Andrew Benson Brown‘s epic-in-progress, Legends of Liberty, chronicles the major events of the American Revolution. He writes history articles for American Essence magazine and...

  Epitaph for a Lost Civilisation "Mine honour is my life; both grow in one: Take honour from me, and my life is done." ---Richard II, Act I, Scene 1, 188-9 O what is left, our armies lying defeated, Surveying now the ruins of our world, When not from foe,...

Advice for Tokyo Rose February, 1943---Tokyo, Japanese Empire. Iva D’Aquino---an expatriate American national---is hired by Kenchiki Oki, on behalf of the Japanese Ministry of Propaganda, to serve as the radio figure “Tokyo Rose.” Forgive me, please. Remind me of your name? Ah, Iva. Yes, of course. Konichiwa. I am Mr....