Poetry

  An Open Book I pray that I may be an open book, A simple person on a simple path, Where all my words flow seamless as a brook, To find a sea of love unswayed by wrath. For to pursue You is the path that’s pure, The honest way...

Poet and painter Paul Erlandson reads his work at the Society of Classical Poets' in-person Poetry Symposium held in Naperville, Illinois on September 5-6, 2025: https://youtu.be/BzMxUMKXKyE Video created by Andrew Benson Brown.

  Otto and Octavius at Christmas Mother and Father Octopus, And Otto and Octavius, A cephalopodic family, Live in the Sargasso Sea. It’s an ordinary place With a routine, steady pace. Dad said, when came winter break, “A vacation we should take! It would be a doldrum-cure. I looked into...

  Darkness and Dawn   I. Christmas Whispers A brood of vipers slithers in the sun With darkest hearts and airs of starkest white. These snakes of robe and ring and tricky tongue Bedazzle with a bright, misguiding light. They swirl a smoky trail---a spicy spell That leads the lured...

  Nativity In midnight fields we eating, bleating sheep (and some asleep) pursued our ovine way as shepherds rudely passed the time till day its shining rays above the hills should peep. When of a sudden in the sky so steep a thing with wings all shiny silver-grey so frightened...

  Still, Still, Still A Translation and Musical Arrangement of a German Carol   "Still, Still, Still" is a German-language Austrian Christmas carol and lullaby. The melody is a folk tune from the district of Salzburg. The tune appeared in print for the first time in 1865 in a folksong...

  Ishtoka There’s a lake on the way to Ishtoka Bay whose name I won’t recite. It’s the kind of mere where things disappear in the middle of the night at a time in your life when some wretched strife that you scarcely can explain has you pulling oars between...

  Krampus Traces, Tracks and Rounds ’em up   The Prologue St. Nicholas compiles a list each year Of children who’ve been good and who appear Deserving of the presents on his sleigh, Who treat their fellows nicely, come what may. But what of youths who roam about the streets...

  The Final Cricket The August cricket-choir’s crescendo, In percussive stereo, Extends its forte clamor, frantic For its final chance to show The speed and skill of such tympanic, Constantly increasing tempo--- Energetic and incessant, All through summer omnipresent In its rhythmic virtuoso. Mid-September’s incremental Ritard is hardly heard; its...

  Emotional Ocean We sail or putt a tiny skiff, When tidal waves force us adrift _Over white caps of fear, Or love or strife, or grief or hate... When storms of life do saturate _And waves swell dark and drear. Emotions surge and drench our lives— Gasping for air,...

  Virgo Too late, too late, the summertime has gone. Alone, I wander in the bleakening That creeps across the fields before the dawn And beg my heart to not feel anything. The leaves come down in rusting drifts of gold, Set free by winds flown south on silver wings....

  Arga’il’s Epistle to the Priests of Moloch Hail, Brethren of the Sacrificial Rite, Ye priests of Moloch, pride of Rabbath-Amon! Accept this humble missive which is sent From your most abject servant, Arga’il, Who details visions borne of second sight. I write of priest-craft (partly gleaned from Mammon) On...

  Fog of Confusion I claim these rolling hills _Of age-old granite, And the shadow of their bulk _Upon my wall. With sunlight on these hills, _I sense a Wonder, But more I feel when fog _Creates the pall. O' swaths of drifting fog _Will lift and lower, Expose the...

    https://youtu.be/lt_M2Lf99mE The book is available on Amazon here.     Leslie Lippincott Hidley is retired from the safety business and lives in a small town in southern California. She has published poetry in Sparks of Calliope and other writing in the Ojai Quarterly and Ojai Monthly. She has...

  Christmas Stockings   I Nigh ev’ry sock I’ve ever worn Was gift to me on Christmas morn– A fact the mind should quick embrace Since stockings hang from fireplace __On Christmas morn.   II A naked sole in summer’s heat Gives easing breeze to fevered feet. But, in the...

  Dirty White Dwight’s Plight Finally, the rains return, And Dwight the snowman’s taciturn Sad features are yet sadder still, For him it seems it’s all downhill. And as we watch his slow demise, To our dismay we realise, That though we cursed him day and night, We think we’ll...

  Safer? My photos were safer in boxes My words were secure in my books. They say that the cloud’s the solution For worry o’er fire and crooks. But woe! I’ve forgotten my password. My storage is now on the brink. Marked safe from the physical hazards, My stuff is...

  Up-up-up with a Fish A scowl crossed the face of the Cat in the Hat, on hearing the Fish in the Bowl was a rat. The goldfish had threatened to snitch on his scheme, to thwart fun, fun, fun, or so it did seem. He suggested a game called:...

  PTSD in Ilium Come, Lethe, draw me down into your dreamy deep, That I might clear my mind before I go to sleep. And bear me to the cave of Hypnos, where, it’s said, Nepenthe can be purchased from the thriving dead. You are the fairest daughter of your...

Poet Adam Sedia reads his work at the Society of Classical Poets' in-person Poetry Symposium held in Naperville, Illinois on September 5-6, 2025: https://youtu.be/xlJsc5jKN_g Video created by Andrew Benson Brown.

  Advice to a Cigar Aficionado If you smoke a cheap cigar You may get severe catarrh, For a poor grade of tobacco Can drive your bronchial system wacko. Stick to stogies from Havana Which are like angelic manna. Even though they are illicit (Yes, the law is quite explicit)...

  Summer’s End ---an Alfred Dorn sonnet It must have been a dream: the nodding boughs Of loveliness, midsummer nights of calm, The days festooned in floral spray finespunned; But seasons change, and now the plaintive soughs Of sadness rustle through the trees. What balm Is there for coming days...

  The Society of Classical Poets is proud to announce the publication of Homer's civilization-defining classic The Odyssey, translated by Michael Solot, edited by Andrew Benson Brown, and spectacularly illuminated with hand-drawn illustrations by Aedan Kennedy. Mr. Solot's enchanting metered and often alliterative translation and his dedication to effective storytelling...

  Grave New Globe   I. Lair ---a pantoum You said that owning nothing was a blessing. You whipped our worldly wealth and worth away. You told us that regressing meant progressing To greener grass where sunbeams saved the day. You whipped our worldly wealth and worth away. You locked...

  Sunrise The world is blue at its beginning. Birth is what we wait for, at the edge of earth. __The vague waves lap the shore, __swelled by an unseen oar from where the sea and sky are blurred one blue, a periwinkle, hazy stretch of hue, __a bar of...

  No Doubt Someone Was Very Busy The shopping cart was in a parking space, And not the store’s close-by cart storage place, Though every other cart had been put in it, But that would take an extra half a minute.     Disregarded Dumb things we did back in...

  Canzone at Evening by Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374) translated from Italian by Margaret Coats At the hour when heaven rapidly recedes To greet the West, and our day flies away To those who are perhaps expecting it, Alone and far from where she used to stay, A pilgrim, old and...

  Firefly Behold it glimmer through the trees— A lantern drifting soft and low— It weaves along the evening breeze, A thread of light with gentle glow. It floats, a flick of fairy flame On wings too fine for eyes to trace— A moment's spark—yet not the same As stars...

  Blooming Early or Late? This tyro of six years reads hardly a word. The idea of language displayed on a screen or printed on paper strikes him as absurd— no matter for minds like his, agile and keen. It’s stuff—string and tape, stacks of cardboard and paper— he much...

  Ancestors Forlorn From elderly to youngest child, Methinks our forebears never smiled! It seems that every picture shows Each person with a solemn pose! When shutters snapped and powder flashed, All faces froze! All smiles were trashed! No cheery smile was ever gleaned. Was each upon a lemon weaned?...

  Magic Show, North Country The puddling snowbank spills a silver trace, its melt a mirror shattered on the earth. A clutch of clouds wings, birdlike, through blue space above a garden in the throes of birth. First come snowdrops, then the bumptious crocus. Pickets of narcissus will fence tulips’...

  Grandbaby Oh little child, you bring the mysteries of rainbows, storybooks, and pixie dust to life with tiny smiles. Your mama fussed with pink and perky bows and gowns, to please her special angel, pausing once to tease with cooing whispers, even as she shushed the puppy (though without...

  Rhyme Crimes How strange that rhymes for “wife” abound While rhymes for “husband” don’t exist. An “errant” “parent” might be found, But “children?” Rhymes aren’t on the list! And even worse, when poets seek A rhyme for the word “family” There’s only two, they’re up a creek With “hammily”...

  Winter Looms Jack Frost has brushed the mountains’ crests And highland nymphs are shivering, The blackened mauve below the snow Has set my heart to quivering To be among the old growth firs, And tasting icy alpine air--- This flatland life’s no life for me, I’d rather pass my...

  Poor Minnesota Normal people have an issue recreating Mogadishu, while destroying each iota of what once was Minnesota. Minnesota paid out millions to a small group of civilians with Somali shared traditions, and with fraudulent ambitions. When Tim Walz first heard about it, he did more than merely doubt...

The classical Chinese original has been versified in English by poet Evan Mantyk and is read by him at the Society of Classical Poets' in-person Poetry Symposium held in Naperville, Illinois on September 5-6, 2025. The translation and original Chinese can be read here: https://www.classicalpoets.org/preface-to-the-poems-composed-at-the-orchid-pavilion-a-rhyming-poetry-translation/  https://youtu.be/AT7K7Fe813o Video created by Andrew Benson...

  Burnham Beeches A weary pilgrim rests ‘neath ageless trees, Enraptured by a blackbird’s ancient rhyme; The tones of his soft voice upon the breeze Invoke the metered poetry of Time. Each phrase is like a faded memory Of many lives our pilgrim led before; Each life, since passed, transformed...

    Milton’s Heavenly Muse words by John Milton (Dec. 9, 1608 - Nov. 8, 1674) musical interpretation for Milton's birthday by Gunny Markefka Of Man's first disobedience And the fruit Of that forbidden tree Whose mortal taste Brought death into the World And all our woe With loss of...

  The SCP has just learned of the recent passing of poet and artist Sally Cook. She had been contributing her work since 2019 and recently her husband Robert Fisk passed away.  The SCP sends its condolences to any surviving family and her many friends and fans. Read about Sally's...

  Civilized Let’s be honest: the world has changed little since it was common knowledge that Jews are humanity’s enemy. Hitler was just somewhat extreme. Fast and loose. Some think he was all right, but that's faulty. Our approaches are more civilized. Killing Jews is sometimes too revolting. Some may...