Monthly Archives December 31, 2012

. Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti        Morning and eveningMaids heard the goblins cry:'Come buy our orchard fruits,Come buy, come buy:Apples and quinces,Lemons and oranges,Plump unpecked...

The horrific elementary school shootings on Dec. 14 in Newtown, Conn. have set off a divisive debate about gun control in America. Would more gun control laws have helped? Or, as National Rifle Association...

This poem shows three Achaean perspectives on three characters from Homer's Iliad, each from an individual point of view.  That individuality is one of most important bequests of classical...

Burn the want out of every moment, Live the life of every chorus line, Run the race of countless ancient athletes, In them, fortitude breeds counter decline. Stream the smoke throughout every...

To the Caged Barn Owl, II I had thought you clean and blameless, Blindly cast you as the shameless Victim of baseless derision, Gaped at in your iron prison, Left unromantic and nameless. I assumed...

Oh Beautiful glorious day, Let your sunlight shine on me! Let your many clouds of gray Fade above the lovely sea. Let the mountains in the distance Shine such vibrant purple glows. Let all beauty show...

  I This is the month, and this the happy morn, Wherein the Son of Heaven’s eternal King, Of wedded maid and Virgin Mother born, Our great redemption from above did bring; For so the holy...

The seasons go a'marching by In all their different ways. I never do appreciate The way they change my days. The Spring goes dancing by this year With life and beauty grand. But off she goes away from...

The plaintive wail of a child through the night Is a beastly howl, proclaiming its plight. The song of the wind through fractured grasses Echoes my tread on edge of disasters. This may be one fine way of...

Rituals of Shade Drowsy hang the blooms of light, descending slowly to a night That wanders in and out of me, the shadowed truths of what will be Forever painted in its shade, each velvet promise that...

This poem is meant to raise awareness about the atrocity of organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners in China today. Please click here to sign a petition to the White House. (Featured image above is...

Current Events 2012   I.  The Dark Knight Rises in Colorado A silhouette is forming in the door. From reel to real, the armor comes alive! As bullets rain, we cower on the floor. How can we...

NEW YORK—A planned monument to President Dwight Eisenhower in Washington, DC funded largely by taxpayer dollars has been put off until next year amid controversy over the design. Now, while one modern...

To Be a Bird To foil the grab of gravity, To sail across the spaces Engendered by the cavity Between the mountain faces. To laugh at man’s ineptitude, His crawling, earthbound gait. To wing in...

Adrift I spy your pain vast as the briny blue. I smell the creosote that seals your hold, but don’t let enmity be what you rue in logging a life’s voyage when you’re old. S.S. Resentment is a...

My Grandfather-mining it made him blind and mystery of music almost gave him sight he would play by candle light and demand rapture as eloquent as an owl in flight from himself and the flame survives the...

Learning to Flourish for Dan DeNicola Are we humans half empty or half full? A race of oxymorons, we’re wise fools Or doltish sages, subject to the pull Of appetite and passion, flouting rules Of...

Imagine a childhood as tragic premiere. Unwashed, bruised, soiled clothing, still she’s a star. The cops and the guy passed out in the chair, minor roles; mom’s off-stage, but won’t be far. The...

American oil painter Susan Fox has traveled the world on wildlife expeditions, photographing and painting her way through the pristine wilds of Kenya and all over North America. But a 2005 trip to Mongolia...

The village school is cold and still. Its entrance gate is rusted shut, the playground overwhelmed by sounds of loaded lorries, hissing past, no noise but theirs to fill a school where only shadows come...

The Painter Transfixed, I bow before art’s magic splendour, enraptured by the glory of such hues, enchanted, charmed beyond all human measure, possessed by master’s clarity of muse - transported to...

There are so many different ways to behave And yet we often behave in just one. There are so many different types of “depraved” but the most dangerous is simply just “fun”. People uphold certain...

A Squinting gaze through the fog and the haze A glimpse at a shimmer while in a daze Brief yet bright, its beauty light is luring Something has gotten the spirit stirring Awaken you, my forgotten real...

Mycenae Passing through the lion-headed gate, years fall from her shoulders like heaps of old rags. Even in the innocent daylight, she clearly hears gory echoes reflected in time's murky mirrors and,...

Relatively young artist Erik Koeppel walks in the footsteps of giants from the Hudson River School. The below is from his latest blog entry on his current exhibition: "Those who know my work know that I...

NEW YORK—Shen Yun Performing Arts will begin its 2013 seasons in Buenos Aires, Agentina, on Dec. 13, bringing with it the true beauty engendered by Chinese classical dance. Shen Yun’s dance companies,...