Monthly Archives July 11, 2023

. SCP Poet Cynthia Erlandson of Michigan has won the 2023 Maria W. Faust Sonnet Competition.  Her sonnet, "Fire and Ice," is a Top Four prize winner, which is the highest designation in the contest.  A Zoom...

. Better with Love I thought I was a pleasant sort __When we first met. Not perfect but near sweet and kind __As one could get. ____I knew I had rough edges ____And for fixes I made pledges ____But there...

. Peace For Our Time "I believe it is peace for our time... Go home and get a nice quiet sleep." ---Neville Chamberlain “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile hoping it will eat him last.” ---Winston...

. The Billboard a pantoum It’s propped along the route I roll— A squatting square against the sky, Atop a sturdy metal pole, To tell me what new thing to buy. A squatting square against the sky, It blocks...

. Don't Mess with Texas Gals On My Late Life Wife . Don't mess with my hot Texan. She's Texas born and bred. She does not fool with strangers. She'd rather see them dead. They said when she was born She had...

. The Misologist “There is no greater evil one can suffer  than to hate reasonable discourse.” ---Socrates He reads the notion on the page. __It isn’t to his taste. It blazes fire that stokes his...

. A Poet's Plight I’ll think of a theme for my next little verse, intriguing and witty, though still must be terse. Not road kill, dead flowers, nor weeding the lawn, it can’t wax poetic nor bring a big...

. My Resignation Be still, my Heart, be stiller than the grave. When consciousness dissolves into the sea, This desperate taste will fade with memory Of nothing, undisturbed by bitter wave. Be still, my Heart,...

. Forever Nine My bare feet merge with weathered, knotty pineAs dripping swimsuit water cools the pier.The day belongs to me, for I am nine,With end of endless summer drawing near. My tanned and sunburnt...

. The Great Legitimizer by Euphrates Moss Up from the barbaric yawp of Beowulf and routing through Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375), an Italian poet of great distinction, Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1340s-1400) created...

. Putin That’s, I’m sure, a vampire: Gnaws on bones, bloody-lipped. —A. S. Pushkin. “Vurdalak,” Songs of Western Slavs (Это, верно, кости гложет Красногубый...

. Graves “Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and have you rise from them.” ---Ezekiel 37:13 There was a time indeed when I was dead: Oh: breathing yes, and witty, so I’m...

. Snowfall: Via Negativa “Less is more.” ---Literary Dictum Out on the highway, snow settles in place Covering the tracks the traffic has traced Blotting out edges, disguising the rough Burying the world...

. Independence Day? a rondeau Some dared. Some died. With pluck and pride And guts and grit the brave defied Despotic rule. They stripped the foe Of dominance below a glow Of stars...

. To All Great Eagles Up on High To all great eagles up on high I hope you hear my battle cry! I have some plans I know you’ll love While you are circling above. There is a retailer to maul That has a...

. Fourth of July Limerick Top left, there’s an oblong that’s blue; add in fifty stars, white in hue. To offset the stars are parallel bars, six white, seven red, straight and true. . . Paul A....

. America Is Not the Same America is not the same. __I do not recognize it. We all know who should bear the blame, __But still we analyze it. The teachers’ unions and the press _  All share part of the...

. Evra Our grandma Evra was a trifle difficult. If ever sound advice was needed she’d be there, But quiet, not a word until a person asked, And then she’d give it and you’d better listen ‘cause She...

. Adams Mountain I gather in from this high place, my shadow sprawled on shivered stone: Dusk drifts down: autumnal shroud upon the rusk-brown earth below, fall colors fading; chimneys trailing smoke,...

. First Steps in a New World for Toribio Moras, age 14, Vera Cruz, Mexico, 1908 The young Castilian boy set sail, alone, and sought to build a life across the sea. Adrift, so far away, you had no throne, and...

. . This Silence. Foremost among my woes: _This silence as it grows, __My mind fatigued from listening for your voice; Amid the constant buzz, The thought of what once was--- __Your gaping absence overwhelms...

. Virgil Recalls Meeting Beatrice: Canto II of Inferno by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) translated by Stephen Binns . The light was failing and the air embrowned, __relieving every creature of the...