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      Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Human Rights in China, Poetry, Poetry Contests, Readings, Video
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Monthly Archives September 30, 2019

Poems on Helen Keller, the Wright Brothers, and Others, by Martin Elster

The Society
September 30, 2019
Beauty, Culture, Humor, Poetry
13 Comments
Helen Keller (1880-1968) Your eyesight and hearing were gone, yet you felt just as blithe as a fawn ___when you learned that a word ___could stand for a bird or the flowers that bloomed in your...

Essay: ‘A Breeze Came Out of the North…’

The Society
September 29, 2019
Beauty, Culture, Essays, Poetry
6 Comments
A breeze came out of the North one day, and cried, "September's begun!" A breeze came out of the North one day, declared, "The Summer is done!" by Jack Ahlers You know the fall air—it is somehow...

‘Writer’s Block’ and Other Poetry by Theresa Rodriguez

The Society
September 29, 2019
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
15 Comments
Writer's Block I feel like I am plodding through cement; My mind is full of cotton batting. Dull, And dense, and empty-headed, thinking spent On trying to find clarity. To mull About within and come up...

‘Don’t Flog Yourself When Playing Golf’ by Raymond Gallucci

The Society
September 28, 2019
Culture, Humor, Poetry
23 Comments
A ball that’s lost should never cost ____A one-stroke penalty. Where now it dwells finds someone else— ____It’s stolen property! When perfect putt lips ‘round the cup, ____No stroke need added...

Mourning Verse by Michael Curtis

The Society
September 27, 2019
Beauty, Love Poems, Poetry
8 Comments
Sandprints Yes: Life is pleasure, life is grand, __Life is sweet and fleeting; Alike a stroll upon the sand, __Alike a heart that’s beating In measured pace, step after step, __In meter through our...

‘The Pain of Foreign Occupation’ and Other Poetry by Leo Zoutewelle

The Society
September 26, 2019
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
16 Comments
The Pain of Foreign Occupation The land lay naked under hobnailed boots Of German occupiers in The Hague. The Blitzkrieg had commenced with parachutes And covered sedate Holland like a...

‘Spoke the Mansion’ and Other Poetry by Alexander King Ream

The Society
September 25, 2019
Beauty, Poetry
5 Comments
Spoke the Mansion All around be the space of a halcyon day, Some salon where discussion meets wine and croquet; There are salads of crab, on the sun-mottled court For my gracious old neighbor, the...

‘Knowledge as a Mixed Blessing,’ Three Sonnets by Philip Keefe

The Society
September 24, 2019
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
17 Comments
  I. Is curiosity the bane of man As seeking knowledge often leads to woe? Do only fools pass their allotted span Disclosing some things better not to know? Or is pursuit of truth its own...

‘Romantic Triangle, With An Ice-Pick’ by Joseph S. Salemi

The Society
September 23, 2019
Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Humor, Poetry, Short Stories
16 Comments
In 1937, the renegade Communist Leon Trotsky (real name: Lev Bronstein) came to Mexico with his family and took up residence with the painter Diego Rivera and his wife Frida Kahlo. An affair developed between...

‘A Man for Two Seasons’ by T.M. Moore and a Response by C.B. Anderson

The Society
September 22, 2019
Culture, Humor, Poetry
11 Comments
A Man for Two Seasons by T.M. Moore I’m in a constant state of readiness for fall. For me, the perfect climate goes from winter straight to autumn, sans the stress of spring and allergies, and all...

‘Subversive Modernism in Art’ by Sarban Bhattacharya

The Society
September 22, 2019
Beauty, Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Poetry
22 Comments
  "Progressive" mind accompanies the art Of writing poetry at present time. Great intellectuals from forms depart, And love free verse that spurns meter and rhyme. If poems be composed in such a...

‘Keeping the Door’ and Other Poetry by James Sale

The Society
September 21, 2019
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
25 Comments
Keeping the Door Ant hordes scurried in purposeful files; Angry, alert, full to demonic marching: They came in batteries to batter: _____But I kept the door. Worms twisted achingly upwards into...

‘Song of the Crab Nebula’ and Other Poetry by Daniel R. Leach

The Society
September 20, 2019
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
3 Comments
Song of the Crab Nebula in celebration of 50 years after Apollo 11 Long before the first eyes ever saw me __Floating like a ghost upon the night, Long before human minds even feebly __Pierced beyond their...

‘Of All God’s Living Creatures’ and Other Poetry by Peter Hartley

The Society
September 19, 2019
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
15 Comments
Of All God’s Living Creatures Of all God’s living creatures only we With subtle artifice create our style Of dress and image, and with painted smile Construct the me we want the world to see. Though...

A Pair of Punny Poems by James A. Tweedie

The Society
September 18, 2019
Culture, Humor, Poetry
16 Comments
  Fright and Flight The sleeping farm was bathed in soft moonlight. A quiet evening, peaceful and subdued; When suddenly a single bovine mooed And then a second answered from her right. The pastured...

Homophonic Poetry Challenge

The Society
September 16, 2019
Culture, Humor, Poetry, Poetry Contests
88 Comments
by Joe Tessitore and James A. Tweedie We are issuing a challenge to all poets to create poems that incorporate word homophones. Call it what you like, but we are calling it a Homophonic Poetry Challenge....

‘Let Flow’ by Sathya Narayana

The Society
September 16, 2019
Beauty, Poetry, Villanelle
4 Comments
a villanelle Ye let it flow, the bitter brine, let flow! How long you hold it back, those snowy streams! Don't stop their course, until they touch your toe! Your past congealed as solid misery and...

‘The Miller’s Daughter’ by Bob McAfee

The Society
September 15, 2019
Beauty, Poetry, Short Stories
3 Comments
inspired by “The Lady of Shalott” by Tennyson Part I The forests loom at Nottinghamshire. The river oaks still aiming higher, Surround the field where from the byre The cattle trample through the...

‘Soaplessly in Love’ and Other Poetry by Daniel Galef

The Society
September 14, 2019
Culture, Humor, Poetry
6 Comments
Faust Money ___________________________I sold my soul for silver. ___________________________In blood I signed my name. I soon enjoyed the benefits of wealth, success, and...

Three Poems for Hong Kong Protesters, Moon Festival, 2019, by Damian Robin

The Society
September 13, 2019
Beauty, Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Human Rights in China, Poetry
2 Comments
The Moon Festival, also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival, is a traditional holiday that celebrates the Harvest Moon (the full moon nearest the Fall Equinox).    Through Mists of Tears The moon shines...

Translations of ‘Quiet Night Pondering’ by Li Bai and a Nostradamus Quatrain, Dedicated to Hong Kong Protesters

The Society
September 13, 2019
Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Translation
2 Comments
. Quiet Night Pondering by Li Bai (701-762) A bed before the bright moonlight. Does frost below lie on these halls? I lift my head: the moon is bright. I lower it—my homeland calls! . Original...

‘Leveled Outcomes’ by Charlie Bauer

The Society
September 12, 2019
Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Poetry
22 Comments
  Philosophers of Marxist ilk designed For leveled outcomes, then they slew en masse. It pleased the Nazi socialists to grind Up twenty million lives—hence, Zyklon gas. The Russian cognoscenti...

Essay: On Yeats’ ‘Second Coming’ and the Power of Poetry

The Society
September 11, 2019
Beauty, Culture, Education, Essays, Poetry
45 Comments
by T.M. Moore I had just finished teaching one of the adult classes at our church on the meaning of Christmas, using John Milton’s Ode on the Morning of Christ’s Nativity as my text. We examined many...
poem/sea/ocean

‘Timeless’ by Rod Walford

The Society
September 10, 2019
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
6 Comments
  Today I strolled upon the shore Where Grandad walked in days of yore; Along its sandy, glossy sheen Where once his imprint would have been. And thereupon I did behold ‘Twas here, when I was...

Joseph Charles MacKenzie’s Sonnet 5 Inspires the World of Pop (Video)

The Society
September 9, 2019
Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Readings, Video
Originally published here. ALBUQUERQUE, NM — July 27, 2019 — Sonnet 5, a marriage poem from MacKenzie’s Sonnets for Christ the King, has inspired award-winning producer, composer, and vocalist D.G. Hall...

Haiku by Bruce Dale Wise

The Society
September 8, 2019
Culture, Haiku and Senryu, Humor, Poetry
9 Comments
(All poetry by Bruce Dale Wise) Haiku by W. "Cured Eel" Sabi I came to the sea. I saw mountains of water. I conquered nothing. *** The fisherman drops his line with bated breath down to a...

‘Cape Horn’ and Other Poetry by Adam Sedia

The Society
September 7, 2019
Beauty, Culture, Poetry, The Environment
9 Comments
Cape Horn They lifted anchor, spread the sails, __Quit shores where they were born, Bound for spice isles from doubtful tales __By way of far Cape Horn— Rough seamen, fortune-bound, to trade __In...

A Poem on America’s Trade War with China, by James A. Tweedie

The Society
September 6, 2019
Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Human Rights in China, Poetry
3 Comments
Calling China to Task  The PRC has ways to make a foreign capitalist rich With plenty of cheap labor featured in their tempting sales pitch. And as for natural resources, they have plenty of them,...

‘Three Riddles’ by Rupert Palmer

The Society
September 6, 2019
Culture, Poetry, Riddles
11 Comments
I. Half-man half-beast I seem to be A thousand years is naught to me For I watch kings and kingdoms die Who once were gods, beneath me lie In plundered graves they rest no more Yet still I stand, through...

A Poem on Chinese Diagnostic Dolls, by Beverly Stock

The Society
September 5, 2019
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
2 Comments
Anonymous Diagnosis In ancient China, a sense of propriety did not allow women of high social status, and women in general, to expose any part of their bodies to a male physician. A woman suffering an...

Bryant Park Poetry Reading: Two Poems by Theresa Rodriguez (Video)

The Society
September 4, 2019
Beauty, Culture, Deconstructing Communism, From the Society, Poetry, Readings, Video
9 Comments
...

‘For Elba’ by Clinton Van Inman

The Society
September 4, 2019
Beauty, Love Poems, Poetry
5 Comments
  Pale would be the water ____Reflecting only skies, Gracing not the splendor ____Of your enchanting eyes. Pale would be the moon ____That only marks its pace And fails to see the boon ____Of...

‘Slim Pickings’ by David Whippman

The Society
September 4, 2019
Culture, Humor, Poetry
5 Comments
  His frame was gaunt, his income was erratic: The crowd ignored the writer high above Who wrote and brooded in his lonely attic, Starving for beauty, poetry and love. These days, although his...

‘Guidelines for the Pastoral Care of the Road’ by Stephen D. Hagerman

The Society
September 3, 2019
Culture, Humor, Poetry
2 Comments
(Anapestic trimeter, in the vein of Edward Lear) On June 19, 2007, an official presentation took place of the document "Guidelines for the Pastoral Care of the Road," published by the Pontifical Council...

‘An Open Letter to a Fellow Poet’ and Other Poetry by Denise Sobilo

The Society
September 2, 2019
Beauty, Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Poetry
5 Comments
An Open Letter to a Fellow Poet for Adam Sedia But why against one poor poet, a hundred men? —Cyrano de Bergerac (Edmond Rostand) What dreams do come to distress needful sleep, to cause me wakeful to...

The Society of Classical Poets 2020 Poetry Competition

The Society
September 1, 2019
High School Submissions, Poetry, Poetry Contests
9 Comments
Winners of the competition can be found here. "But with the true poet every thing is terse, touching, or brilliant. He gives the choicest thoughts in the choicest language. He illustrates them by...

2020 Poetry Translation Competition

The Society
September 1, 2019
From the Society, Poetry, Poetry Contests, Translation
3 Comments
"But with the true poet every thing is terse, touching, or brilliant. He gives the choicest thoughts in the choicest language. He illustrates them by everything that he sees most striking in nature and art."...

2020 High School Poetry Competition

The Society
September 1, 2019
From the Society, High School Submissions, Poetry, Poetry Contests
5 Comments
  Note: Winners of this contest can be found here. We have begun a new high school poetry contest here. "But with the true poet every thing is terse, touching, or brilliant. He gives the choicest...




  1. Joseph S. Salemi on A Poem on Gaslighting and Other Poetry by Brian YapkoMay 30, 2023

    The technique of gaslighting has become so common today that it is now standard procedure when left-liberals argue with anyone.…

  2. Mark Stellinga on A Poem on Gaslighting and Other Poetry by Brian YapkoMay 30, 2023

    Brian, even without knowing who some of the characters are, the point you brilliantly make in "Gaslighted" is both nostalgic…

  3. KH on ‘Translation of Marcabru’s L’autrier Just’una Sebissa’ by Joseph S. SalemiMay 30, 2023

    Thanks Joseph for your kind reply. In that case, how should I contact Evan Mantyk about this?

  4. Joseph S. Salemi on ‘Translation of Marcabru’s L’autrier Just’una Sebissa’ by Joseph S. SalemiMay 30, 2023

    I'm sorry, but I don't know. Mr. Mantyk chooses all illustrations for the SCP, so perhaps he could tell you.…

  5. Susan Jarvis Bryant on A Poem on Gaslighting and Other Poetry by Brian YapkoMay 30, 2023

    Brian, these two magnificent poems are a linguistic tonic for the weary soul worn down by today’s relentless barrage of…

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