On Gov. Cuomo: ‘Governor Mussolini’ and Other Poetry by Joe Tessitore The Society February 28, 2021 Covid-19, Culture, Haiku and Senryu, Humor, Poetry 32 Comments . Governor Mussolini Fifteen thousand souls,Killed by the stroke of his pen,For whom no bell tolls. . . Covid Chronicles I saw a naked face today---It nearly took my breath away!I knew the girl and so I asked...
‘Free Verse: Recondite Done Right!’ by Tonia Kalouria The Society February 28, 2021 Humor, Poetry, Poetry Forms 13 Comments . In Astrophysics, I’m ranked “One,” and Greek and Latin I find fun. All serve me well at Crossword “Times,” with each day’s matrix solved by nine. Most free verse, though? Puzzles...
‘Eyes on the Prize’ and Other Poetry by C.B. Anderson The Society February 27, 2021 Beauty, Poetry 33 Comments . Eyes on the Prize __What time it is Can be determined only by the Sun. __The choice is his, By whom all duties have been duly done, __To set the pace Whereby all useful progress shall be measured. __In such...
‘A Song of Saint Francis’ and Other Poetry by Brian Yapko The Society February 26, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 16 Comments . A Song of Saint Francis Good friends, I wander vale and hill The Master’s words upon my lip; My only thought: to do His will And sing such Love as makes hearts skip! Rejecting wealth, prestige and sword...
‘Three Experiments in Poetic Form’ by James A. Tweedie The Society February 25, 2021 Beauty, Poetry, Poetry Forms 30 Comments . Midday Dreaming The raindrops fall like teardrops from a sad and sodden cloud; Their spattering the sound of some a- doring, cheerful crowd. I touch the cloud with outstretched fingers Lifted to the...
A Poem for Gina Carano: ‘Forced Out’ by Bethany Mootsey The Society February 25, 2021 Culture, Poetry 13 Comments . It feels like a galaxy far, far away,__But it’s just the US of AWhere a woman is canned, her prospective gigs banned,__For refusing to mutely obey. Speech marshals have spoken, patrollers of space;__Even...
‘A Lenten Prayer’ by Joe Tessitore The Society February 24, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 23 Comments . Of all Creation, who am I Who sins against Thee, Lord Most High? Of all that crawl, of those who creep, No one has ever sunk so deep. Of those who swim and those who fly, Least of them all, this sinner,...
‘Chasing Dryads’ by Julie Desmond The Society February 24, 2021 Beauty, Poetry 15 Comments . As a child, they could not keep me from trees And craggy, tangled limbs and aching arms. I loved the camouflage, the filtered breeze, Nose-smacked tang of moss and far-off farms. Grandma's had a crook just...
‘Owl Ensconced on Oaken Branch’ by Corey Elizabeth Jackson The Society February 23, 2021 Beauty, Poetry 21 Comments . Owl ensconced on oaken branch, A wingèd spirit rare, His gaze is wisdom: calm, intent, Bewitching and aware. Soulful and implacable, His feathered stillness bright Is outlined by cerulean sky, A beacon...
‘Grauballe Man’ and Other Poetry by Peter Hartley The Society February 21, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 46 Comments .. Grauballe Man He lies exposed to view in this glass case Exactly as he lay three hundred years Before our Christ was born, between his ears Torn open with a savage force: his face, All blackened by the peat...
‘Remembering Sandy Hook, Ct 12/14/12’ by Ed Gutt The Society February 20, 2021 Culture, Poetry 10 Comments . Remembering Sandy Hook, Ct 12/14/12 Over 8 Years Later That day God's Angels' tears were shed,When first grade books and blackboards bledPure blood that stained a beige room red.Sad parents tuck ghosts into...
‘Obit: English Pronouns’ by Jan Darling The Society February 19, 2021 Culture, Humor, Poetry 31 Comments . Dear friends we gather here to say goodbye To words once used to speak both truth and lie. The HE and SHE and HIS and HERS and MINE By ZIE interred forever at ZIR shrine. No more can we know ZIM or VER by...
A Poem on the Death of Rush Limbaugh (1951-2021), by Joe Tessitore The Society February 18, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 12 Comments . Rush He was larger than life And it cut like a knife When his wife let us know That he died. From this kind of grief There can be no relief. Such a powerful blow Meant I cried. 12:06 comes around, I’m...
A Monosyllabic Poem: ‘To West’ by Adam Sedia The Society February 18, 2021 Beauty, Love Poems, Poetry, Poetry Forms 8 Comments . Too long, too long, my love, Have we lain out here. Too long, too long, my love, Have our ease, our cheer Fixed us fast, sprawled in cool shade, With our arms and breasts clasped near, Too pleased to note...
The Power of One: Monosyllables in Classical Poetry The Society February 18, 2021 Essays, Poetry, Poetry Forms 17 Comments by Adam Sedia The origin of poetry is inextricably tied to music. The earliest poems---the Homeric epics, the Chinese Book of Songs---were all lyrics to be sung. Because vowels allow the open voice to sing...
‘Ashless Wednesday’ by Joe Tessitore The Society February 17, 2021 Culture, Poetry 12 Comments . The Great Reset has rocked the world--- What untold evil has unfurled! Unshakable foundations crumble. Through the rubble, nations stumble. Who is not shaken to the core By all that was and is no...
‘An Apple a day’ by Jeff Eardley The Society February 17, 2021 Humor, Poetry 16 Comments . The Internet’s a work of art, Now everybody’s phone is smart. They’re very compact, very small, And so, begins a tale so tall. For once upon a time, a gent, A load of cash one day he spent. Delighted...
‘Texas Freeze (surely an oxymoron)’ by Susan Jarvis Bryant The Society February 16, 2021 Humor, Poetry 35 Comments . For others it may be a breeze. Those hardy Arctic folk would wheeze With laughter as we Texans sneeze __And shiver. This slick of ice and lick of snow; This frightful bite as ill winds blow Nips our...
‘Stones’ by Daniel R. Leach The Society February 16, 2021 Beauty, Poetry 7 Comments . These stones that like huge sculpted figures lie __Amid the trunks of moss and fern-clad trees, Eons of creatures have seen born and die __And the land’s face carved by the shifting seas. ____All of...
‘God Save Poetry’ by Don Shook The Society February 15, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Humor, Poetry 6 Comments There is a scourge that permeates our midstWhich we cannot so easily dismiss.Elitists strive to elevate this curse;A type of art most poets call free verse. True poetry once rhymed and had some form,A...
‘Though Worlds May Die and Silent Be’ by Roy E. Peterson The Society February 14, 2021 Beauty, Love Poems, Poetry 11 Comments . . Till rolling seas cease heaving high, The starry nights stop passing by, The universe is wrapped in flame, And there is no one left to blame. __Until then? ... You’re my loved one. Till sun no longer...
‘The Wife’s Lament’ by Joseph S. Salemi The Society February 14, 2021 Humor, Love Poems, Poetry 11 Comments . For my friend Rose R., with sincere condolences. Good Lord, imagine my bad luck: I’m married to a hockey puck. I don’t know how it came about— A lover morphed into a lout! You’re a widow, not a...
‘L O V E…’: and Other St. Valentine’s Day Poems by Susan Jarvis Bryant The Society February 14, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Humor, Love Poems, Poetry 22 Comments . L O V E... It’s not a dozen scentless hothouse roses. __It’s not a chocolate-box of sweet cliché. It’s not the scorching kiss that lust imposes __To lead the fired and fevered flesh astray. It’s not...
‘Blossom Brief’ by Michael Curtis The Society February 14, 2021 Beauty, Love Poems, Poetry 2 Comments . Among the many flowers in the vase, ‘Tis I—the flower with the pretty face, Full humor, sound stamen, and skill in fun— Who is to say to you, Michele, “Well done.” As so the master charged. Yet...
‘A Damsel in Distress’ and Other Valentine’s Day Poetry by Damian Robin The Society February 13, 2021 Poetry 8 Comments . A Damsel in Distress A hot, courting Knightin blithering armourVowed on his horse he would never-ever harm herThen he revved up his stallion and bamboozled off hard,Heavy metaled to the damsel across the...
‘Waiting for “I Do”’ by C.B. Anderson The Society February 13, 2021 Humor, Love Poems, Poetry 17 Comments C.B. Anderson was the longtime gardener for the PBS television series, The Victory Garden. Hundreds of his poems have appeared in scores of print and electronic journals out of North America, Great Britain, Ireland, Austria, Australia and India.
For Valentine’s Day: ‘The Tale of the Rose’ by Christine de Pisan (1364–1431), translated by Margaret Coats The Society February 13, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Love Poems, Poetry, Translation 22 Comments . . The Tale of the Rose (Excerpt) by Christine de Pisan (1364-1431), translated by Margaret Coats . This Tale comes from the Paris home of the Duke of Orleans, brother of the King of France, where on Saint...
‘Fool’s Wisdom’ and Other Sonnets by Theresa Rodriguez The Society February 12, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 27 Comments . Fool’s Wisdom “I am fearfully and wonderfully made” ---Psalm 139:14 I am amazed at what some fools believe Who say I am a fool to have belief In a creative force. To preconceive Against this...
‘Cyclothymia’ by Rachel Thomas The Society February 11, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 9 Comments . All fruit is sweet as marzipan, and seraphs carol just for me, Each brook sings like a silver lyre, and finches trill in every tree. Life is a cloth embossed with gold, and even through the blackest...
‘If Robinhood (Investment Trader) Ran Major League Baseball’ by James A. Tweedie The Society February 10, 2021 Culture, Humor, Poetry 13 Comments . All Major League Baseball teams share revenues, We treat them as if they were brothers. But sometimes self-interest means we refuse To treat each the same as the others. Some teams like the Yankees are...
‘Reality Check’ and Other Poetry by David D. Nolta The Society February 10, 2021 Humor, Poetry 11 Comments . Reality Check A ladybug landed on my arm On Saturday. I felt the charm The chosen feel. It brought with it Good luck—or so I thought—then bit Deep into me, paused for air, Spread its spots beside a...
On Trump’s Second Impeachment Trial: ‘Kangaroo Déjà Vu’ by Susan Jarvis Bryant The Society February 9, 2021 Culture, Humor, Poetry 25 Comments . They’re impeaching Number 45 today--- Like toddlers born to moan, Like bulldogs with a bone, Like warlords with a drone, Like tyrants on a throne, Although they know The Don left yesterday--- They’re...
Two Poems on Old Age, Adapted by Terry L. Norton The Society February 9, 2021 Children's, Culture, Poetry, Translation 13 Comments . Half a Blanket adapted from “Das Vierte Gebot,” or “The Fourth Commandment,” a folktale from medieval Germany There was an old king once in France Who grew in time too weak to reign. So, he...
‘ Reality Check’ by Susan Jarvis Bryant The Society February 8, 2021 Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Poetry 45 Comments . The New York Times has just published a piece detailing a range of recommendations for the Biden administration to solve the “reality crisis” and to “de-radicalize” wrong-thinking citizens, including...
Five Sonnets from ‘The Gift of Life’ by Amanda Hall The Society February 8, 2021 Art, Beauty, Culture, Epic, Poetry 7 Comments . “The Gift of Life” is a formal epic poem of 600 original Shakespearean sonnets, a tale about a love that existed in life and art with equal force. The heroine of the tale goes to the great war of words...
A Poem on the ‘Borderless Regime,’ by Christopher Flint The Society February 7, 2021 Culture, Poetry 13 Comments . I, Satan, Now Will Have Your Dream You'll be no longer citizens, by my decrees declared. Get used to being residents (assuming you are spared by forces of invasion massed already here and more in numbers...
‘Slow Verse’ and Other Poetry by Lionel Willis The Society February 7, 2021 Beauty, Poetry 9 Comments .. . Slow Verse No need to rush: These lines have lots of time. They never face a hanging at first light. They can take pains to whittle a neat rhyme And years to get each subtle cadence right, But they can...
‘Chairman Xho’ (Pronounced ‘Joe’) by Joe Tessitore The Society February 6, 2021 Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Humor, Poetry 13 Comments . They’ll be coming for you soon, Chairman Xho. It’s an old, familiar tune that we all know. You’ve been howlin’ at the moon And they’ll say that you’re a loon And you’ll bring us all to...
‘Eight and a Half (Going on Twenty)’ by Frank De Canio The Society February 6, 2021 Culture, Humor, Poetry 7 Comments . “Ha ha,” is all she gives her Dad when he makes fun of what she said. No more parental Galahad who nightly carried her to bed. He’s just a jaded humorist who doesn’t even merit laughs from her which...
‘Reality Check’ by James A. Tweedie The Society February 5, 2021 Culture, Humor, Poetry 15 Comments . We can “Build Back Better” if we choose “Truth Over Lies.” What these slogans promise lead us to a big surprise. When the new administration’s promises come true, This is what we’ll get when...