• Submit Poetry
  • Support SCP
  • About Us
  • Members
  • Join
Sunday, November 8, 2026
Society of Classical Poets
  • Poems
    • Beauty
    • Culture
    • Satire
    • Humor
    • Children’s
    • Art
    • Ekphrastic
    • Epic
    • Epigrams and Proverbs
    • Human Rights in China
    • Music
    • Performing Arts
    • Riddles
    • Science
    • Song Lyrics
    • The Environment
    • The Raven
    • Found Poems
    • High School Poets
    • Terrorism
    • Covid-19
  • Poetry Forms
    • Sonnet
    • Haiku
    • Limerick
    • Villanelle
    • Rondeau
    • Pantoum
    • Sestina
    • Triolet
    • Acrostic
    • Alexandroid
    • Alliterative
    • Blank Verse
    • Chant Royal
    • Clerihew
    • Rhupunt
    • Rondeau Redoublé
    • Rondel
    • Rubaiyat
    • Sapphic Verse
    • Shape Poems
    • Terza Rima
  • Great Poets
    • Geoffrey Chaucer
    • Emily Dickinson
    • Homer
    • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
    • Dante Alighieri
    • John Keats
    • John Milton
    • Edgar Allan Poe
    • William Shakespeare
    • William Wordsworth
    • William Blake
    • Robert Frost
  • Love Poems
  • Contests
  • SCP Academy
    • Educational
    • Teaching Classical Poetry—A Guide for Educators
    • Poetry Forms
    • The SCP Journal
    • Books
No Result
View All Result
Society of Classical Poets
  • Poems
    • Beauty
    • Culture
    • Satire
    • Humor
    • Children’s
    • Art
    • Ekphrastic
    • Epic
    • Epigrams and Proverbs
    • Human Rights in China
    • Music
    • Performing Arts
    • Riddles
    • Science
    • Song Lyrics
    • The Environment
    • The Raven
    • Found Poems
    • High School Poets
    • Terrorism
    • Covid-19
  • Poetry Forms
    • Sonnet
    • Haiku
    • Limerick
    • Villanelle
    • Rondeau
    • Pantoum
    • Sestina
    • Triolet
    • Acrostic
    • Alexandroid
    • Alliterative
    • Blank Verse
    • Chant Royal
    • Clerihew
    • Rhupunt
    • Rondeau Redoublé
    • Rondel
    • Rubaiyat
    • Sapphic Verse
    • Shape Poems
    • Terza Rima
  • Great Poets
    • Geoffrey Chaucer
    • Emily Dickinson
    • Homer
    • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
    • Dante Alighieri
    • John Keats
    • John Milton
    • Edgar Allan Poe
    • William Shakespeare
    • William Wordsworth
    • William Blake
    • Robert Frost
  • Love Poems
  • Contests
  • SCP Academy
    • Educational
    • Teaching Classical Poetry—A Guide for Educators
    • Poetry Forms
    • The SCP Journal
    • Books
No Result
View All Result
Society of Classical Poets
No Result
View All Result
Home Poetry Beauty

‘Research Guideline’ and Other Poetry by James Ph. Kotsybar

February 5, 2014
in Beauty, Poetry
A A
0
poems 'Research Guideline' and Other Poetry by James Ph. Kotsybar

 

Research Guideline

Throughout investigative history,
a basic principle has long held sway:
When we unravel Nature’s mystery,
complexity’s the first to fall away.

Upon one underpinning postulate,
succinctly balanced, we’ve come to expect
all facts that we’ve observed should always fit,
with math that’s both appealing and correct.

Proposing supposed significance,
unless our models of the world can stun
with simple, beautiful magnificence,
rejections come before explanation.

If cumbersome, try a new avenue.
Prevailingly, it’s elegance that’s true.

 

Morphed

The blissful butterfly seems unconcerned,
while sipping nectar, flitting with its mate,
but it remembers everything it learned
when caterpillar seemed its only fate.

When it could only inch along and feed
to saturate its flesh with pungency
of bitter leaves – a deft defense, indeed,
from predators from whom it could not flee –
it literally was embittered by
its appetite and all that it consumed.
It never dreamt that one day it would fly.
While lacking wings, how could it have presumed?

Recalling its state before pupation,
its pulsing wings signal celebration.

 

James Ph. Kotsybar is a poet and owner of Chaotic Exotics orchid nursery, in California.

Featured Image: Photo from NASA

ShareTweetPin
The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary.
Read Our Comments Policy Here

RandomPoems

‘Vintage Love’: A Poem by Gigi Ryan
Poetry

‘La Uva’ (The Grape): A Poem by Michael Pietrack

July 12, 2026

  La Uva I packed a bag of grapes into her lunch. My hands resembled his, though not as worn;...

‘Staving off Omega’ by Dylan Price
Beauty

‘Staving off Omega’ by Dylan Price

June 22, 2019

  The ambit is the noblest cause, A last vestige of Apollo's love, A pursuit freed from any flaws, As...

Next Post
The Sculptor to His Apprentice: A Five-Sonnet Cycle by Michael Curtis

The Sculptor to His Apprentice: A Five-Sonnet Cycle by Michael Curtis

‘The Better Life’ by Tyler Horn

'The Better Life' by Tyler Horn

‘Made (by Imprisoned Falun Gong) in China’ and Other Poetry by Khalid Mukhtar

'Made (by Imprisoned Falun Gong) in China' and Other Poetry by Khalid Mukhtar

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


  1. Jeff Kemper on ‘To Actias Luna (The Luna Moth)’: A Poem by Jeff KemperNovember 8, 2026

    Thanks, Gerard, for your observation, and thanks for your kind comments. You might gather that I'm an insect lover.

  2. Jeff Kemper on ‘To Actias Luna (The Luna Moth)’: A Poem by Jeff KemperNovember 8, 2026

    Really? I thought you have (or had) spent much time in PA, where lunas are rather common. While cecropias are…

  3. Jeff Kemper on ‘To Actias Luna (The Luna Moth)’: A Poem by Jeff KemperNovember 8, 2026

    The luna moth is both large (for North American moth species) and to me rather mystical in appearance. Every one…

  4. Jeff Kemper on ‘To Actias Luna (The Luna Moth)’: A Poem by Jeff KemperNovember 8, 2026

    I'm glad you enjoyed my tribute, Cynthia. This species stands out among many insects in my hall of fame of…

  5. Jeff Kemper on ‘To Actias Luna (The Luna Moth)’: A Poem by Jeff KemperNovember 8, 2026

    As an insect enthusiast since I was in eighth grade, I have nevertheless never sighted one without a sense of…

Subscribe to Daily Poems

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 1,660 other subscribers
No Result
View All Result

Resources

       1. A Guide to Writing Poetry

      2. The Best Poems of 2020      

      3. Poetry and Writing Contests

      4. Journals Accepting Formal Verse

Recent Poems

  • ‘Ambient Political Precarity’ and Other Poetry by Alec Ream
  • ‘To Actias Luna (The Luna Moth)’: A Poem by Jeff Kemper
  • ‘Portals’ and Other Poetry by Janice Thompson
  • ‘Purple Reign’: A Poem by Susan Jarvis Bryant
  • ‘Grand-Guignol de Paris’: A Poem by Brian Yapko
  • ‘Intrepid Travelers’: A Poem by Paulette Calasibetta
  • ‘The Future of Society’: A Poem by Roy E. Peterson
  • ‘On Earth As It Is in Heaven’ and Other Poems by C.B. Anderson
  • ‘Michelangelo’: A Poem by Margaret Brinton
  • ‘Election Issue’: A Poem by Stephen DiLauro
  • ‘Saturday’s Child’: A Poem by Mary Cecelia Bowman
  • ‘San Juan Capistrano’: A Poem by Margaret Coats
  • ‘The Siege of Manor Castle’: A Poem by Paul A. Freeman
  • ‘Woodstock’ and Other Poems by Gerard Maritato
  • ‘Herodias on John the Baptist’: A Poem by Joseph S. Salemi
  • ‘If You’ve Ever Drowned’: A Poem by Katie Devine
  • ‘Picture This’ and Other Poetry by James A. Tweedie
  • ‘Heavenly Father’: A Poem by Jeffrey Essmann
  • ‘Tactical Molting’: An Election Poem by Mark F. Stone
  • ‘Dialogue Discernment’ and Other Poetry by Russel Winick
  • ‘Let the Music Play’: A Poem by Kathryn Jacobs
  • ‘Living Psalm’ and Other Poetry by Anna J. Arredondo
  • ‘Summer’s End’: A Poem by Lauren V. Leon
  • ‘What No Tyrant May Command’: A Poem by Dusty Grein
  • ‘Life Lessons from Aunt Ingeborg’ and Other Poetry by Brian Yapko
  • ‘Foam’: A Poem by Josh Mitteldorf
  • ‘Again Autumnal’: A Poem by K.J. Salzmann
  • ‘Life Is Conflictual’: A Poem by Roy E. Peterson
  • ‘The Siege on Castle Hill’: A Poem by Apollo Clark Co
  • ‘Every New Pantheon’: A Poem by C.B. Anderson

Categories

  • Acrostic
  • Alexandroid
  • Alliterative
  • Art
  • Best Poems
  • Blank Verse
  • Chant Royal
  • Classical Poets Live
  • Clerihew
  • Covid-19
  • Deconstructing Communism
  • Educational
  • Epic
  • Epigrams and Proverbs
  • Essays
    • Interviews with Poets
    • Poetry Reviews
  • Featured
  • From the Society
  • Great Poets
    • Dante Alighieri
    • Edgar Allan Poe
    • Emily Dickinson
    • Geoffrey Chaucer
    • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
    • Homer
    • John Keats
    • John Milton
    • Robert Frost
    • William Blake
    • William Shakespeare
    • William Wordsworth
  • Human Rights in China
  • Limerick
  • Love Poems
  • Music
  • Pantoum
  • Performing Arts
  • Poetry
    • Beauty
    • Children's Poems
    • Culture
    • Ekphrastic
    • Found Poems
    • High School Poets
    • Humor
    • Riddles
  • Poetry Challenge
  • Poetry Contests
  • Poetry Forms
    • Curtal Sonnet
    • Haiku
  • Poetry Readings
  • Rhupunt
  • Rondeau
  • Rondeau Redoublé
  • Rondel
  • Rubaiyat
  • Sapphic Verse
  • Satire
  • Science
  • Sestina
  • Shape Poems
  • Short Stories
  • Song Lyrics
  • Sonnet
  • Symposium
  • Terrorism
  • Terza Rima
  • The Environment
  • Translation
  • Triolet
  • Video
  • Villanelle

Quick Links

  • About Us
  • Submit Poetry
  • Become a Member
  • Members List
  • Support the Society
  • Advertisement Placement
  • Comments Policy
  • Terms of Use

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Poems
    • Beauty
    • Culture
    • Satire
    • Humor
    • Children’s
    • Art
    • Ekphrastic
    • Epic
    • Epigrams and Proverbs
    • Human Rights in China
    • Music
    • Performing Arts
    • Riddles
    • Science
    • Song Lyrics
    • The Environment
    • The Raven
    • Found Poems
    • High School Poets
    • Terrorism
    • Covid-19
  • Poetry Forms
    • Sonnet
    • Haiku
    • Limerick
    • Villanelle
    • Rondeau
    • Pantoum
    • Sestina
    • Triolet
    • Acrostic
    • Alexandroid
    • Alliterative
    • Blank Verse
    • Chant Royal
    • Clerihew
    • Rhupunt
    • Rondeau Redoublé
    • Rondel
    • Rubaiyat
    • Sapphic Verse
    • Shape Poems
    • Terza Rima
  • Great Poets
    • Geoffrey Chaucer
    • Emily Dickinson
    • Homer
    • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
    • Dante Alighieri
    • John Keats
    • John Milton
    • Edgar Allan Poe
    • William Shakespeare
    • William Wordsworth
    • William Blake
    • Robert Frost
  • Love Poems
  • Contests
  • SCP Academy
    • Educational
    • Teaching Classical Poetry—A Guide for Educators
    • Poetry Forms
    • The SCP Journal
    • Books

© 2025 SCP. WebDesign by CODEC Prime.