‘Mailied’ by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Translated and Read by David B. Gosselin The Society October 31, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Readings, Translation 6 Comments Mailied by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) How brightly nature Shines this morning! What radiant sun! How the fields sing! The buds burst forth From each green frond! A thousand...
‘Sonnet For All Who Follow Me’ by Leo Yankevich The Society October 30, 2019 Beauty, Poetry 12 Comments Leo Yankevich passed away in December 2018. This poem was submitted by Sally Cook. Crows and leaves beyond the windowpane, a cup of steaming coffee on the stool, my lines reflected in your eyes,...
‘Divorce – Brexit Style’ by Susan Jarvis Bryant The Society October 29, 2019 Culture, Humor, Poetry 10 Comments My husband posed his need to leave; a family vote was cast. The outcome brought me to my knees and left my heart aghast. Now, I’m a tad controlling – of that I will admit; “LEAVE” just...
‘The Constant Truth’ by Tod Benjamin The Society October 28, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Short Stories 10 Comments The Constant Truth A Reflection on the Times of My Life I. The Old Days A sheep filled meadow lay adjacent to our street Where from March throughout spring one could hear the lambs...
A Poem by Michelangelo, ‘The Woman Who Passed Me’ by Charles Baudelaire: Translations by Michael Coy The Society October 27, 2019 Beauty, Poetry, Translation 39 Comments He Wishes to Immortalise His Mistress by Michelangelo Buonarroti How is it, ma mignonne, (as we all know) that figures carved in mountain marble stay exquisite, pristine, everlasting, though the hand...
Sonnets on the Four Seasons and Other Poetry by Peter Hartley The Society October 26, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 17 Comments Spring In spring the crocuses broke out as bold As brass from refuge in their barren clay. They speared the air in colourful array And blazoned they their petals proudly told Of azure and of purpure and...
‘Destiny in Blue’ by David Watt The Society October 25, 2019 Beauty, Poetry 14 Comments In a town by the sea, where the salt air’s free, Lived a widower and his daughter. She was known as Claire-Kate; or by title First Mate On those days when their boat sailed the water. And it...
‘Campaign of 1940-1952’ and Other Poetry by Christopher Fried The Society October 24, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 11 Comments Campaign of 1940-1952 True Cincinnati spirit is the love of hearth, the principles of isolation, a life in works of service to the nation. Could he reverse the course and release the doves of peace,...
‘In Memory of the Lake’ by James Christy The Society October 24, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, The Environment 4 Comments I hear Boeung Kak has now been filled with gritty sand, turned mud, now earth. The lake’s become a dusty field, yet memory preserves a berth for fishermen in long canoes, just toothpicks...
Ecclesiastes 1, Recast in Classical Poetry, by T.M. Moore The Society October 23, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Terza Rima 16 Comments Wind and Vanity after Ecclesiastes 1 My name is Solomon, and you may know me as the king of Israel, David’s son, a man of wisdom unsurpassed. And so I was. And yet I write to you as one emerging...
‘Life’s Woes’ by Michael Maibach The Society October 22, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 2 Comments In every life Woe presses down, We falter then— Face to the ground. This woe in me— Am I alone? Without high ground, Can’t see my home! I reach for earth— Find only sand. No foothold...
‘Let Me Go Gentle into That Dark Night’ by Rohini Sunderam The Society October 21, 2019 Beauty, Poetry 22 Comments after Dylan Thomas Let me go gentle into that dark night Let me not rage against the dying light There is another light that beckons me That from this garish light will set me free It softly glows...
‘Time’ and Other Poetry by Paul Oratofsky The Society October 21, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Humor, Poetry 34 Comments Time Time to time to time—from tock to tick, to wall to window topple, stop, then stop: a tower, wrist, a rest, a clerk, a click— around around the sound (a drip) (a drop)— and tripping,...
Four Garden Poems by Anna J. Arredondo The Society October 20, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Humor, Poetry 33 Comments Ultimatum To My Friendly Neighbor Regarding His Overly-friendly Pet* Dear neighbor, do you love your cat? (I'm sure you must, they're such enchanters) I've got a bag of poo (for you) It left in all my...
Lord Byron’s Darkest Secrets and Greatest Poetry The Society October 19, 2019 Beauty, Best Poems, Culture, Essays, Humor, Poetry 12 Comments This piece is sponsored by KidSecured by Evan Mantyk and Kathy Brellan Lord Byron was born George Gordon Byron in London on January 22, 1788 and died just 36 years later in 1824. Yet, despite his short...
‘Daguerreotype’ and Other Poetry by James A. Tweedie The Society October 18, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 28 Comments Daguerreotype An old once-treasured memory engraved On glass to keep the dying past alive. A fractal blink of time preserved and saved So that the tableau-ed moment would survive. Three men,...
‘The Three Graces in the Trinket Shop’ by Joseph S. Salemi The Society October 17, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 17 Comments Aglaia, Euphrosyne, Thalia I find them there, no longer young, Though neatly dressed and well preserved: Three sisters in the trinket shop— Polite and helpful, but reserved. They guide me...
‘Doublespeak Denial’ by Susan Jarvis Bryant The Society October 16, 2019 Culture, Humor, Poetry, Rondeau, Villanelle 20 Comments Doublespeak Denial Rondeau Redoublé “Gender mattered a whole lot less to Shakespeare than it seems to matter to us.” —John Irving If I don’t care for words you have to share (a pitch which...
Essay: Richard Wilbur, C.S. Lewis, and the Imaginative Power of Poetry The Society October 15, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Essays, Poetry 7 Comments by T.M. Moore Our Image-hungry Age Increasingly, our postmodern generation prefers its communications to be in as few words and as many images as possible. Hence, the curious success of...
‘Harvest Sonnet’ and Other Poetry by Landon Porter The Society October 14, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 18 Comments Harvest Sonnet If, in June, clouds crack and seeping, Leak their cache upon beast and field, Surety no longer keeping, This payment, late, defaults the yield; Lest the rain delay the reaping Another...
‘Fleas’ after Kilmer, ‘The Toad Not Taken’ after Frost, by Rob Crisell The Society October 13, 2019 Poetry 10 Comments Fleas with apologies to Joyce Kilmer I think that I shall never see A creature horrid as a flea. A flea who makes a little nest Inside the fur of doggy’s chest; That treats us like a free...
How NOT to Hate Shakespeare: TED Talk by Rob Crisell The Society October 13, 2019 Culture, Education, Poetry, Shakespeare, Video 2 Comments ...
‘Why Pterodactyls Make Great Pets’ by Mark F. Stone The Society October 12, 2019 Children's, Culture, Humor, Poetry 38 Comments Choosing a pet can be vexing and yet it’s important to vet all the choices you’ve got. If you’re in search of a pet who will perch on your silver white birch, it’s the best of the...
A Reading of Petrarch’s Sonnet No. 7, in Italian The Society October 11, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Readings, Translation 25 Comments This recording was made by M. P. Lauretta for the Southend Poetry Group in August 2019. Sonetto n. 7 dal Canzoniere di Francesco Petrarca La gola e ’l sonno e l’oziose piume hanno...
‘Snapshot’ by David Paul Behrens The Society October 10, 2019 Beauty, Poetry 11 Comments The wind and balmy breeze Blow softly through the trees. All the darkness of the night, Disappears in morning light. The shadows on the ground, They do not make a sound. Birds awakened, singing...
‘Dodgeball’ and Other Poetry by T.M. Moore The Society October 9, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Humor, Poetry, Villanelle 28 Comments Dodgeball "But we have the mind of Christ." 1 Corinthians 2.16 Sometimes my thought-life is a dodgeball game— except that I’m the only one on my side of the line—and when at length I try to launch...
‘The Last Evening in Eden’ by Martin Rizley The Society October 8, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Short Stories 18 Comments This is an abridged version of the original. A reading of the original can be found here. A chilling breeze blew through the trees, which filtered beams of light That danced in play as dying day gave...
‘Autumn Sonnet’ by David Whippman The Society October 7, 2019 Beauty, Poetry 11 Comments This season’s colours will be brown and gold Fading to sepia, like a photograph. The leaves, still splendid, are already old, Their richness is a kind of aftermath. This, like all seasons, is...
‘A Treble’s Song’ and Other Poetry by Leo Zoutewelle The Society October 6, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 24 Comments A Treble's Song Is there a thing to match a treble’s song? The joy perhaps of spring-time larks in flight, Or how the migrant birds so deftly throng? What of the mane that speaks the lion’s...
‘The Human Skylight’ by Satyananda Sarangi The Society October 5, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 31 Comments The skylight lets the nascent streak Of gold inside this darkened room; Some wisp of scent invades therein, A perfumed faith to counter gloom. Those orbs of light cast patterns old, Of...
A Translation from Goethe’s Roman Elegies V The Society October 4, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Translation 8 Comments Here stand I happ’ly on classical grounds, inspired; the voices speak distinctly in enchanted tone from worlds of today and former times expired. Taking counsel, I leaf through beloved elders’...
A Cento from the Political Poetry of Presidents Lincoln, Taylor, and Taft by Beverly Stock The Society October 3, 2019 Culture, Poetry 2 Comments Political Voice (A Cento) A cento or collage poem takes bits of poetry from past poets and puts them together in a new order. The below poem draws on the poems written for the political campaigns of U.S....
‘Irrelevant’ and Other Poetry by Joe Tessitore The Society October 2, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Humor, Poetry 10 Comments Irrelevant If the room is the tomb then the elephant is irrelevant. Haiku From my heart was shown how very much I loved her— could she not have known? I have found my...
A Poem on Violinist Fiona Zheng and Other Poetry, by Evan Mantyk The Society October 1, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Human Rights in China, Music, Poetry, Shakespeare 12 Comments . Sonnet VI. Fiona Zheng Violinist Fiona Zheng and her father spent part of their lives fleeing communist authorities in China after her mother and grandmother were killed for refusing to renounce their...