‘Ba’al’: A Poem on Abortion by Michael Vanyukov The Society June 30, 2024 Culture, Poetry 6 Comments . Ba’al "And they built the high places of Ba'al to burn their children with fire as burnt offerings to Ba'al, which I did not command, neither did I speak nor did it enter My mind." — Yirmiyahu (Jeremiah)...
‘Three Views of Venus’: A Poem from Houghton Hall, by Margaret Coats The Society June 30, 2024 Beauty, Ekphrastic, Poetry 20 Comments . Three Views of Venus "When you’ve got a goddess, make good use of her. —local guide, Green Velvet Bedchamber at Houghton Hall, Norfolk “Ah, Mars, my dear, lay down that spear, and wage Love in the...
‘Elder Abuse’: A Poem Written Upon Watching the Presidential Debate, by Brian Yapko The Society June 29, 2024 Culture, Poetry 44 Comments . Elder Abuse What’s left to us to say? There’ll be no more debates. We know the truth now. Biden is not there--- The president of the United States: A man lost in a blank and vacant stare. They hid this...
‘Soulmate’ and Other Poems by Russel Winick The Society June 29, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 11 Comments . Soulmate Your spouse ideally is your best friend,Providing love and laughter end to end,Supporting and enhancing all day through,But still at times your soulmate must be you. . . Ultimate Question Some...
‘To the Full Moon’: A Poem by Adam Sedia The Society June 29, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 18 Comments . To the Full Moon Heavenly voyager, you course Across the skies’ infinity--- The calm, serene celestial sea, Which yields before your silent force--- Traversing the shoreless expanse Of unplumbed...
Three Epigrams by Stephen M. Dickey The Society June 28, 2024 Epigrams and Proverbs, Poetry, Satire 5 Comments .. 1. Generative artificial intelligence As for-profit tech makes some obverse sense: It markets to itself, its own monopoly Secured on genuine stupidity. . 2. The chattering class, of which society is...
‘The Pink of Gentle Hermione and White of John Paul II’: A Poem by Phillip Whidden The Society June 28, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 13 Comments . The Pink of Gentle Hermione and White of John Paul II The lodger pauses, as he leaves, to gaze At blossoms in the border at the front— The blooms of roses, saintlike pink—appraise Them as a Monday man...
A Poem on a Performance of Beethoven’s ‘Appassionata’ Sonata, by Julian Woodruff The Society June 27, 2024 Culture, Music, Poetry 13 Comments . Again Sir Charles Hallé plays Beethoven’s “Appassionata” Sonata for Henri–Montan Berton and Luigi Cherubini, Paris, ca. 1835 The two composers sat at rapt attention,listening to Beethoven’s...
‘Savannah Blossoms’: A Poem by Margaret Brinton The Society June 27, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 7 Comments . Savannah Blossoms Blossoms dress the trees __On Southern parkways Where petals glow like silk __If skies are fair, And a busy stir of bees __Within the nectar Allows the hummingbirds __A rightful share. The...
‘The Lazarus Effect’: A Poem by Jeffrey Essmann The Society June 26, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 10 Comments . The Lazarus Effect Until you’re raised, you’ve no idea how dead You were, how long you’d been beyond the scope Of human give and take; how poorly read You were in all the texts of simple hope. And yet...
‘Rending the Night’: A Vietnam War Poem by Roy E. Peterson The Society June 26, 2024 Culture, Poetry 33 Comments . Rending the Night Remembering My Army Service in Vietnam . Flying bullets rend the night, Sleeping birds in instant flight. See the darkness glowing bright. Sleeping soldiers wake in fright. Targets outlined...
‘Were She to Ask, and I Affirm’: A Poem by Sohaib Aboona The Society June 25, 2024 Humor, Love Poems, Poetry 10 Comments . Were She to Ask, and I Affirm Were she to ask, and I affirm That I'd still love her as a worm, I'd make it clear (because my dear Has Northern Cardinals to fear) The Robins and the Starlings Would die before...
‘Spanish Moss’ and Other Florida Poetry by Brian Yapko The Society June 25, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 32 Comments . Spanish Moss A thicket hides the remnants of a grange, An antebellum place of ghosts and rue--- A gothic ruin---tropical and strange Which even egrets shun. The faintest clue Of why is whispered when the...
‘Memento Belli’: A Poem by Alison Jennings The Society June 24, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 6 Comments . Memento Belli My father had mementoes of the war; he kept them in a box above his clothes, where also hung a uniform he wore when he was someone in that time ago ‘til trauma came, caused by the weight he...
‘The Plagiarising Poet’: A Poem by Drilon Bajrami The Society June 24, 2024 Culture, Education, Poetry 11 Comments . The Plagiarising Poet A young lad sat in class—geography— Bored and in a peaceful reverie. The school bell blared, the teach showed indignation, “The bell does not free you!” she yelled in...
‘On the Dine-and-Dash Phenomenon’: A Poem by Paul Freeman The Society June 23, 2024 Poetry, Satire 26 Comments . On the Dine-and-Dash Phenomenon In restaurants, we dined but didn’t pay; we gourmandised, then upped and ran away. An appetiser, main course and dessert, we wolfed them down until our bellies hurt. The...
‘Flamingo’: A Poem by Jeremiah Johnson The Society June 23, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 23 Comments . Flamingo The S-curve of that sinuous neck,The stern black tip of that great bill,The blue eye with which we must reck-on like a gaudy monarch’s will. Not Disney’s giddy croquet bird,The one which lolls...
‘Just Like That’: A Poem by Anna J. Arredondo The Society June 22, 2024 Love Poems, Poetry 23 Comments . Just Like That No special words, no passionate embrace; No gazing, full of meanings, soul to soul. Just casual talk, not even face to face; Just mundane filling each of them their role. Perhaps they did...
‘Four Letter Words’: A Poem by Gigi Ryan The Society June 22, 2024 Humor, Poetry 27 Comments . Four Letter Words My dad was smart, my dad was wise; He crossed his t’s and dotted i’s. His grammar skills were without taint. And he did not say y’all or ain’t. He taught an English class to...
‘Ora Pro Nobis’: A Poem by Jeff Minick The Society June 21, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 12 Comments . Ora Pro Nobis pray for us The dead die when we living let them die; We breathing clasp to hearts our breathless dead; We pack them fresh-embalmed on icy beds. In silent rooms they speak our names. They...
‘Reward for How You Live’: A Poem by D.A. Cooper The Society June 21, 2024 Culture, Humor, Poetry 5 Comments . Reward for How You Live from Italo Calvino’s Italian folktale “Gesù e San Pietro in Friuli” One night, while traveling on a mountain road, two wanderers came upon a small abode. The vagrants, Jesus...
‘The Ghost Girl’: A Poem by Joshua C. Frank The Society June 20, 2024 Love Poems, Poetry 16 Comments . The Ghost Girl One sunny May, I ran to play, __When I was twelve years old, Upon the hill. I miss her still— __A girl with curls of gold In ribbon ties, big sky-blue eyes, __And waving, dark-red...
‘The Snare Drummer’s Plight’ and Other Poetry by Martin Elster The Society June 20, 2024 Beauty, Music, Poetry 2 Comments . The Snare Drummer’s Plight The highlight of the evening is Bolero. The snare drummer begins the famous beat, the marrow of the land of the torero. The players, who have sprayed themselves with...
‘Some Words to Catholics about Bergoglio’: A Poem by Joseph S. Salemi The Society June 19, 2024 Culture, Poetry 29 Comments . Some Words to Catholics about Bergoglio God only knows what’s left to say— Most Catholics drift from day to day, Like refugees in war or flood, Half-starved, or weltering in blood From wounds that fester...
‘The Day the Roofers Came’ and Other Poems by Susan Jarvis Bryant The Society June 19, 2024 Humor, Poetry 26 Comments . The Day the Roofers Came He fled the day the roofers came. His fur was fluffed and frizzy. He whizzed across the busy lawn so quick it made me dizzy. The slam and clang and hammer bang had left him in a...
‘A Precious Wife Is Like Fine Wine’ and Other Poetry by Martin Rizley The Society June 19, 2024 Beauty, Love Poems, Poetry 14 Comments . A Precious Wife Is Like Fine Wine A precious wife is like fine wine, made mellow with the years, Aged in a barrel made of smiles and laughter, sighs and tears. Though time may etch its lines upon her once...
A Poem on ‘Cicada Fever’ in Springfield, Illinois, by Mary Jane Myers The Society June 18, 2024 Culture, Poetry 12 Comments . Periodicity Springfield, Illinois, May-June 2024 All our town has caught cicada fever. Seven broods emerge, the selfsame time. This fluke converts me to an awed believer in nature's odd propensity to...
Five Rose Poems by Rainer Maria Rilke, Translated by Alan Orsborn The Society June 18, 2024 Beauty, Music, Poetry, Translation 8 Comments . . Five Rose Poems by Rainer Maria Rilke translated by Alan Orsborn . The Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), writing in both German and French, penned 24 French poems about roses that were...
‘Sidetracked’ and Other Poetry by C.B. Anderson The Society June 17, 2024 Culture, Poetry, Satire 19 Comments . Sidetracked Life’s troubles come in all varieties,From nagging aches that barely raise a frown,To fearsome packs of deep anxietiesThat, given half a chance, will drag us down. Much worse is when assaults...
A Formalist Poet at the Open Mic Part III: Something in the Rafters, by Daniel Kemper The Society June 17, 2024 Essays, Poetry 23 Comments . A Formalist Poet at the Open Mic Part III: Something in the Rafters by Daniel Kemper I wander into the incandescent glow of the poetry center and Patrick is muttering as I walk in the door. He’s wiping...
‘A Sonnet for My Son on Father’s Day’ by Susan Jarvis Bryant The Society June 16, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 25 Comments . A Sonnet for My Son on Father’s Day You coo her name in buoyant notes of joy Then watch her toddle, tickled by her grin. She spies the bug-eyed crab---her leggy toy In Daddy’s hands all set to twirl and...
A Father’s Day Sonnet by Evan Mantyk The Society June 16, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 16 Comments . A Sonnet ---for my father, an avid gardener and feeder of wildlife, who recently underwent hip surgery No one shall intervene this afternoon. The well fed squirrel squats upon his branch; The chipmunk chills...
‘The Doctor’: A Father’s Day Poem by Shamik Banerjee The Society June 16, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 22 Comments . The Doctor An expert in each area, this man's The doctor for all things in disrepair— Tea kettles, doorknobs, hafts, electric fans... His fingers soothe their maladies and wear. No institute or training...
‘Mates of the Greats’: A Poem by Sally Cook The Society June 15, 2024 Art, Poetry, Satire 25 Comments . Mates of the Greats Gauguin the banker thought Painting while married was Quite a nice hobby And so did his wife. But then in Tahiti Paul met with a sweetie And lived on papaya The rest of his life. Pity...
‘Distant Thunder’ and Other Poetry by Adam Sedia The Society June 15, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 23 Comments . Distant Thunder Oppressive heat in heavy air; Oppressive light from summer skies; White clouds glow with a garish glare, __Menacing as they rise; Oppressive stillness reigns: no breeze Rustles the leafy,...
‘Home Run’: A Poem by Mike Bryant The Society June 14, 2024 Culture, Poetry 18 Comments . Home Run Oh my God the play we made, And, really quite efficiently. We had two billion pawns we’d played, Lost sixty million… two or three. It’s almost none, percentage wise. Well worth the...
‘Ozymandias’: A Poem by Dave Blanchard The Society June 14, 2024 Culture, Poetry 3 Comments . Ozymandias after Percy Bysshe Shelley More solitary than an orphan’s reachThat vigil, that the shifting peaks repel,A site of none left even to beseech---Less ruthless now, where only fragments dwellNor...
Poetry from and about Xu Zhimo, by Margaret Coats The Society June 13, 2024 Beauty, Poetry, Translation 30 Comments . Meeting Xu Zhimo by Margaret Coats Three Chinese girls behind me in the line Escape King’s College Chapel evensong; They show a phone, ask where, at once decline Sought-after seats, to rush away...
‘Longfellow’s Bridge’: A Song from Longfellow’s Poem by Gunny Markefka The Society June 13, 2024 Music, Poetry, Song Lyrics 2 Comments . . Download "Longfellow's Bridge" on your favorite music app HERE. . Longfellow’s Bridge (Lyrics) lyrics by Gunny Markefka, inspired by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem (after lyrics) I stood on the...
‘I Hear the Distant Thunder’: A Poem by Roy E. Peterson The Society June 12, 2024 Culture, Poetry 18 Comments . I Hear the Distant Thunder I hear the distant thunder rolling__Across the nighttime sky.Incendiary lightning strikes__Of fire are drawing nigh.If I can keep on writing, it__May be by candlelight.I must...