‘The Emmaus Highway’: A Poem on the First Easter by Warren Bonham The Society March 31, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 6 Comments . The Emmaus Highway Each day we wake up and we walk to Emmaus, escaping what has, and what may yet dismay us. Returning each evening downcast and defeated. Arising again as this loop gets repeated. We start...
‘He Knows Our Hearts’ and Other Poems for Easter by Susan Jarvis Bryant The Society March 31, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 38 Comments . He Knows Our Hearts The Sunday flocks who sing as glory pours Through fancy glass as lusty organs play, The loner bowed in prayer behind closed doors, The lonely who have lost their will and way--- __He...
‘Who Believes in Easter Anymore?’: A Poem by James A. Tweedie The Society March 30, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 9 Comments . Who Believes in Easter Anymore? "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God . . . For the foolishness of God is wiser than...
‘Peter’s Story’: and Other Poems for Easter by Gigi Ryan The Society March 30, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Villanelle 12 Comments . Peter’s Story a villanelle I’m standing by the Sea of Galilee And Jesus calls for me to come along With James and John, the sons of Zebedee. I’m with Him as He sets the prisoners free, Feeds the...
‘Once’: A Poem for Good Friday, by Jeffrey Essmann The Society March 29, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 7 Comments . Once Once he was finally dead; once just a piece Of meat nailed to the planks of scabrous wood; Once suffering had done all that it could To him before it ceded him release; And once it seemed that evil no...
‘Stations of the Cross’: A Poem for Good Friday by Morrison Handley Schachler The Society March 29, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 18 Comments . Stations of the Cross . I. Pilate Why, Pentheus, Cambyses, why, Why, Antony, in days gone by, Did you the sons of gods defy? __Well, I your madness share. __Barabbas I shall spare __And must the dread...
‘The Lilacs on Good Friday’: A Poem by Joseph S. Salemi The Society March 29, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 24 Comments . The Lilacs on Good Friday Tumult of noontide long ago dismissed— The rent veil unremembered, and the sun Relit, though shrouded in a new eclipse Of rainswept sky. The garden seems to shun That spectral...
‘The Lamb’: A Poem for Good Friday by Phillip Whidden The Society March 28, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 26 Comments . The Lamb “And suddenly there was with the angel a heavenly host saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.” ---Luke 2:14 The lamb looks up and sees a light, a star Or...
‘The Book on Lefty McBane’: A Major League Baseball Poem by Julian Woodruff The Society March 28, 2024 Humor, Poetry 10 Comments . The Book on Lefty McBane McBane could do no wrong—from his debut, late in his rookie season, right on through his grandfather’s retirement. Every pitch he threw gave batters a decided itch to hit ... the...
‘Distress Signals’: An Extended Villanelle and Other Poems by C.B. Anderson The Society March 27, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Epigrams and Proverbs, Humor, Poetry, Villanelle 20 Comments . Distress Signals an extended villanelle Distressing times are coming round again, And all the talking heads now flap their jaws To say it isn’t if, but rather when.— There is a dearth of good upstanding...
‘The Wisdom of Ric Edelman’: A Poem by Mark F. Stone, Read by Ric Edelman Himself The Society March 27, 2024 Culture, Poetry 11 Comments . Reading of Mark F. Stone's poem "The Wisdom of Ric Edelman" by Ric Edelman on his show available here: https://www.thetayf.com/blogs/this-weeks-stories/the-wisdom-of-ric-edelman . The Wisdom of Ric...
‘Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus’ and Other Poetry by Brian Yapko The Society March 26, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 39 Comments . Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus I think this velvet dinosaur is fine. Please wrap it up. Does this store still take cash? On Tuesday when my daughter’s son turns nine, This T-Rex really ought to make a...
A Poem for the 150th Anniversary of Robert Frost’s Birth: ‘Imagine Mountains’ by Carey Jobe The Society March 26, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 22 Comments . Imagine Mountains For the Sesquicentennial of Robert Frost's birth (March 26, 1874 – March 26, 2024) "Let chaos storm! Let cloud shapes swarm! I wait for form." ---Robert Frost, "Pertinax" Imagine a...
‘The Line For Ashes’: A Poem by Joseph Stuart The Society March 25, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 5 Comments . The Line For Ashes Line is long and moving slowly: Step by step, the high and lowly, Halt and limber, shorter, taller, Young and elder, greater, smaller, Fair and plainer, pallor, color, Father, sister,...
‘You Do You’: A Poem by Warren Bonham The Society March 25, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 10 Comments . You Do You God’s willing to let you do you despite the fact it pains Him to since you’ll go where you should not go, and do much worse than stub your toe then, when you do, you’ll curse His...
‘Deep State Anonymity’: A Poem by Peter Venable The Society March 24, 2024 Culture, Poetry 5 Comments . Deep State Anonymity Ah, the devil. His motive? To deceive __And for us to deny, To dismiss him as simply make-believe. He loves attention. Like All Hallows’ Eve: __Witches and goblins fly As all his...
‘Shades of Vesuvius’: A Poem by Stephen M. Dickey The Society March 24, 2024 Culture, Poetry 14 Comments . Shades of Vesuvius Seldom does one see horror in a tranche De vie like that in Herculaneum And Pompeii, when a sudden avalanche Of heat and ash ruptured your cranium (After you met your death in frenzied...
A Limerick on New Hot Cross Buns with Tick (Check Mark), by Paul A. Freeman The Society March 23, 2024 Culture, Limerick, Poetry 15 Comments . Limerick Perhaps it’s a marketing trick, or else Iceland’s taking the mick; __for what kind of fun __is an Easter Day bun when the cross has been swapped for a tick? . taking the mick: making...
A Poem Based on Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory, by Joshua C. Frank The Society March 23, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 15 Comments . The Whiskey Priest based on The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene I stand condemned because I am a priest, Condemned to die by law here in Tabasco, The last eight years of memories I’ve pieced Together...
A Poem on Israel: ‘We Are Wrong’ by Michael Vanyukov The Society March 23, 2024 Culture, Poetry 70 Comments . We Are Wrong You shall remember what Amalek did to you on the way, when you went out of Egypt, how he happened upon you on the way and cut off all the stragglers at your rear, when you were faint and...
Andrew Benson Brown Reads Poems by S.J. Bryant, Erlandson, Binns, Maibach, and Cooper The Society March 22, 2024 Classical Poets Live, Poetry, Readings 10 Comments ...
‘Queen Esther’s Lot’: A Poem for Purim, by Margaret Coats The Society March 22, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 20 Comments . Queen Esther's Lot for the Jewish holiday of Purim (“Lots”) Oh, to be taken from home’s holy ways, Delivered to a king uncircumcized, And after one grand night, spend endless days With harem women and...
A Poem on the George Stephanopoulos and Nancy Mace Interview, by Warren Bonham The Society March 21, 2024 Poetry, Satire 12 Comments . Victim Shaming Nancy Mace, a U.S. Congresswoman for South Carolina, was interviewed by George Stephanopoulos, former Communications Director for President Bill Clinton, on ABC News on March 10,...
A Poem on Climate Change: ‘Change’ by James A. Tweedie The Society March 21, 2024 Beauty, Poetry, The Environment 11 Comments . Change Scrub the rock with glacial ice until the granite’s smooth and bare. Let the river cut through earth until it leaves a canyon there. Let volcanic lava flows raise islands from the trackless sea. Let...
‘March 21st, Saints Cranmer and Bach’: A Poem by Cynthia Erlandson The Society March 21, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 15 Comments . March 21st, Saints Cranmer and Bach Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, burned at the stake March 21, 1556 . Johann Sebastian Bach, born March 21, 1685 . “Upon them hath the light shined.” ---Isaiah 9:...
A Poem for Lent: ‘St. Perpetua’ by Jeffrey Essmann The Society March 20, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 6 Comments . St. Perpetua Eyewitnesses of the atrocity Report that on that Carthage afternoon, Already scourged and gored repeatedly By savage bulls, she fell into a swoon (Of Spirit, so they said), then rose immune To...
‘Words Matter’: A Poem by Susan Jarvis Bryant The Society March 20, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 65 Comments . Words Matter . I. Out of Context Cheats cherry-pick the words that suit their ploy To shame the names of those who disagree With all they say. If counter claims destroy Their idiotic ideology They’ll...
‘Sanderling’: A Poem by Kensley Greene The Society March 19, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 21 Comments . Sanderling What saffron stylus could but trace the rusty scallop of the dancing wing, what sculptor’s chisel sharpened to the quick could cleave the charcoal pencil of the beak that stitches grievance in...
‘To the Passenger Pigeon’: A Poem by Paul A. Freeman The Society March 18, 2024 Culture, Poetry 22 Comments . To the Passenger Pigeon As once, upon the Great Plains, thundering herds of buffalo, innumerable, held sway, a genocide befell these dull-plumed birds whose flocks eclipsed the sunlight, day on day, Up from...
‘St. Patrick’s Day 2024’: A Poem by Susan Jarvis Bryant The Society March 17, 2024 Culture, Poetry 26 Comments . St. Patrick's Day 2024 for an Ireland suffering terribly under the weight of forced migration Where is the one who rid the Emerald Isle Of snakes? Nostalgia hears the hell-bent tread Of gallant feet that...
‘Coffee Limericks’ by Roy E. Peterson The Society March 17, 2024 Humor, Limerick, Poetry 45 Comments . Coffee Limericks . I love to have coffee each morning, Including the act of the pouring: __I smell the aroma, __Come out of my coma, And wonder why you still are snoring. . I start with a coffee each...
‘Watching’: A Poem by Jeffrey Essmann The Society March 17, 2024 Culture, Poetry 12 Comments . Watching It hardly matters what I’d read (Another plangent exposé Of something solid in the world That bit by horrid bit unfurled Into a source of pending dread), It brought to mind an image grey With...
‘The Tenpenny Bit’ and ‘Kesh Jig’: Tunes for St. Patrick’s Day Performed by Jeff Eardley The Society March 17, 2024 Music, Poetry 21 Comments . Musician and SCP poet Jeff Eardley performs the traditional Irish tunes "The Tenpenny Bit" and "Kesh Jig" in honor of St. Patrick's Day. Enjoy! . . Jeff Eardley lives in the heart of England near to...
‘Infernos on the Pages of Literary Journals’: A Poem by Phillip Whidden The Society March 16, 2024 Culture, Poetry 16 Comments . Infernos on the Pages of Literary Journals That one barbaric yawp might just have been All right, but then it ricocheted right down The later centuries. Literature’s new bin Was made for poetry because...
‘Choices’: A Poem by Shamik Banerjee The Society March 16, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 12 Comments . Choices Some lovers only give the rose, __Some only choose to take, Although the florist keeps a bunch __For every partner's sake. The sun has risen for our town __And also for your city. While you say it's...
‘Serenade’ and ‘Serenity’: Poems by Margaret Coats The Society March 15, 2024 Beauty, Epigrams and Proverbs, Poetry 30 Comments . Serenade Down dash the splashlets of rain to the ground; Streams from the eaves full and fluent resound. Guests gaily chatter, and clatter their chairs, Readying notes for melodious airs. Whistling hot...
A Poem on How Native Americans Were Swindled Out of Manhattan, by Mark Stellinga The Society March 15, 2024 Culture, Poetry 29 Comments . Native Americans Were Swindled Out of Manhattan in 1634 Knowing Eyes—an aging elder, born in Black Bear County Famed for being fearless and the wisest of his tribe— Met with “Diamond-Jim” Van Dyne in...
‘For Dorothy’ and Other Poems by Joseph S. Salemi The Society March 14, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 28 Comments . For Dorothy I have at times sat silent in this chair And furtively cast looks about the room Admiring, or to jot a mental note Of someone’s beauty—eyes or shape or hair. But you were silent also, and my...
Portrait of ‘Ivan, The Barber, 1882-1963’: A Poem by Phil S. Rogers The Society March 14, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 17 Comments . His Stories Were His Legacy Ivan, The Barber, 1882-1963 . Covered in a heavy blanket, __he sat and watched the rain; it had been more than thirty years, __damp weather made him lame. He turned his old pipe...
‘Homophonophobic’: A Poem by Michael Pietrack The Society March 13, 2024 Humor, Poetry, Readings 34 Comments . . Homophonophobic (This poem is so vain and humorous you’ll burst a vein or break your humerus) My editor returned my latest piece, but all my comrades lay in pools of red revisions. Storms of mourning...