• Submit Poetry
  • Support SCP
  • About Us
  • Members
  • Join
Monday, October 27, 2025
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

 

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
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. Paul A. Freeman on ‘Lotus’: A Poem by Margaret CoatsOctober 27, 2025

    From 'primeval' beginnings to 'immortality' (almost biblical!), you have weaved a spiritual thread through this piece, Margaret, incorporating longer vocabulary…

  2. Laura Deagon on ‘Lotus’: A Poem by Margaret CoatsOctober 27, 2025

    Margaret, your Lotus poem is so sweet. I always imagine that lotus flowers are accompanied by invisible faeries. I enjoyed…

  3. Susan Jarvis Bryant on ‘Earth to Earthlings’ and Other Poetry
    by Susan Jarvis Bryant
    October 26, 2025

    Adam, thank you very much indeed! I'm glad to hear you find the dodo humorous. I think Lewis Carroll may…

  4. Susan Jarvis Bryant on ‘Earth to Earthlings’ and Other Poetry
    by Susan Jarvis Bryant
    October 26, 2025

    Scott, thank you very much for your kind and appreciative comments. I am glad so many of us on this…

  5. Susan Jarvis Bryant on ‘Earth to Earthlings’ and Other Poetry
    by Susan Jarvis Bryant
    October 26, 2025

    Martin, what a generous and inspirational comment. My Muse is dancing with delight and telling me to fetch my pen…

Receive Poems in Your Email

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

Join 1,619 other subscribers
Facebook Twitter Youtube

Archive

Categories

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.

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.