photo of juggling (Laurel L. Russwurm)‘The Juggler’ and Other Poetry by Brian Yapko The Society July 6, 2025 Culture, Poetry 10 Comments . The Juggler —with special kudos to George Clooney, Whoopi Goldberg, Taylor Swift, Susan Sarandon, Tom Hanks, Mark Hamill, Robert DeNiro and a cast of far too many If the Juggler has said it, it must needs be true For the Juggler sees deeper than I do. Or you. How he entertains crowds! Yea, his name is well known— A celebrity with a compassionate tone. We are fools if we choose not to listen and hark When his sterling pronouncements shine forth like a spark. So adept, this wise Juggler can toss (as is meet) His beliefs through thin air. There is none can compete With his knowledge or insight so sharply profound Of our current events and the facts to be found On the street, in the park, both in groups and alone. Lend your ear when he speaks of both thruppence and throne And the curses of Kings and their Fools, or the need For the powers that be in the realm to pay heed To his brilliant pronouncements on civil concerns, Or those things consequential to how the world turns. And the Juggler is aided in every surmise By two puppets of note: Punch and Judy—so wise Like the mimes and the acrobats offering views On how people should vote and react to the News. There’s the man with the monkey and organ that grinds Who is proud to elucidate Science’s finds. And of course when discussing the statecraft of towns There are none whose pronouncements are smarter than clowns And the tumblers and bumblers who puff themselves up As if shrewdness were theirs and they’d drunk from the cup Of keen wisdom and knowledge and all that is grand. For the depth they provide, let us give them a hand! And the roustabout actors, those players on stage— Are they right to pontificate? Are they so sage On the things they support? Should we all follow suit? Or ignore them, deplore them and throw rotten fruit? . Punch and Judy: a traditional puppet show of English origin, featuring the characters Mr. Punch, a mischievous, sometimes violent figure, and his wife, Judy. The show often features a series of slapstick scenes, violence, and comedic moments. . . You’re in the Wrong Rally Note: On October 17, 2024, Kamala Harris spoke at a campaign event in the battleground state of Wisconsin when two attendees shouted out the words “Jesus is Lord.” Unfazed, Harris stopped her remarks and countered. “Oh, you guys are at the wrong rally… I think you meant to go to the smaller one down the street.” The crowd of Democrats erupted into cheers as the protesters were forcibly removed. I still recall how Harris tried to shame those men— Those men of faith who shouted out the name of Christ. How sickly smug she was, yet deer-in-headlights baffled. She could have said, “All folks are welcome here. Amen!” But to her sneering base that would not have sufficed. They had to show contempt. Christ mocked. His death robe raffled. Why do so many on the Left think faith is dead Or else deserves to be? What is this smirking trust (Bizarre to thoughtful souls) that they have all the answers? They torture science and praise partisans instead; They cling to bad ideas until they fail and rust, Disdaining concrete facts and lauding necromancers. The world devolves around them yet they never doubt Their bedrock-deep commitment to those “settled” things They claim are proven—past all reconsideration. No self-reflection. No debate. It’s all worked out So thoroughly and patently; their snarky stings Are utterly divorced from good-faith contemplation. Conservatives? All bad. Most white men. Christians. Jews. And Trump. And Trump. And never fail to mention Trump. How blind the Left! They cannot see the world’s mishaps Are caused by ego-driven fantasies they choose. Convinced they’re faultlessly correct from pate to rump, They blithely burn things down as all their lies collapse. . . Brian Yapko is a retired lawyer whose poetry has appeared in over fifty journals. He is the winner of the 2023 SCP International Poetry Competition. Brian is also the author of several short stories, the science fiction novel El Nuevo Mundo and the gothic archaeological novel Bleeding Stone. He lives in Wimauma, Florida. NOTE TO READERS: If you enjoyed this poem or other content, please consider making a donation to the Society of Classical Poets. The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary. ***Read Our Comments Policy Here*** 10 Responses Roy Eugene Peterson July 6, 2025 Brian, how greatly I admire your scintillating poetry and done with a more difficult “abc” symmetry! Your profound messages come through loud and clear. For every poem of your’s I simply have to cheer. The “Juggler” and the “Rally” deserve unstinting praise for their trenchant message and questions that they raise! Reply Brian Yapko July 7, 2025 Thank you very much, Roy! Scintillating is, for me, about as good as it gets! Thank you for noticing the abc symmetry in “Rally.” The juggler, for anyone curious about the meter, is in anapestic tetrameter. Reply Russel Winick July 6, 2025 I’m with Roy on these, Brian. Great work! And The Juggler is a terrific concept! Reply Brian Yapko July 7, 2025 Thank you, Russel. As for concept, I was watching the news and they were discussing the women of The View who have made a career of appearing to know things that they don’t but nonetheless pontificate excessively on how we are supposed to feel about issues. (I have found Whoopi Goldberg to be particularly malign.) And then I wondered… why didn’t audiences care what the actors thought back in Elizabethan times? They were there to entertain. No one confused them for sages. Reply Mark Stellinga July 6, 2025 Brian, as these 2 excellent pieces thoroughly convey, as have several other similar pieces you’ve given us, you, as I am, are extremely concerned about the current ‘cultural’ circumstances we’re pretty much completely surrounded by. Reprehensible lemming-leaders abound that require relentless, focused effort to combat. I could never quite convince myself that DJT would win the 2025 presidential election, but he did! WE did! I thank The Big Guy for that. And now, under a massive umbrella of very conservative administrators, I’m confident that much, much better days lie ahead, and your ‘political poetry’ is the very sort of ‘literary artillery’ needed to help us get there – day by day. Great job, as always… Reply Brian Yapko July 7, 2025 Thank you very much indeed, Mark! Always happy to provide “literary artillery!’ My concern for current social and political issues runs very deeply indeed. I think, in part, because I have studied a great deal of history and I know the difference between a mob and a movement as well as the difference between consensus and coercion. I am supremely grateful that Kamala Harris did not win the election because her hapless brand of woke vagary could never have steered the country through the challenges we are facing now. Could you imagine her having the cojones to bunker bust Iran’s nuclear facilities? The best she seems to be able to come up with is offering slurring bromides while projecting rainbow colors on the White House. Her illegitimate candidacy was an embarrassment. Reply Joseph S. Salemi July 6, 2025 Both poems are excellent, and both deal essentially with the same subject: the utterly absolute and rock-solid certainty of left-liberals that they are CORRECT on every single issue, and that those who disagree with them are always mistaken, uneducated, misinformed, unperceptive, or malevolent. For me this is the most enraging and insulting aspect of left-liberalism. It betrays an arrogance and self-conceit so total and impenetrable that they might as well be of granite. One simply CANNOT TALK to these people! They are as unresponsive to logic as the noble gases in the periodic table are to chemical reaction. I have noticed how left-liberals are always congratulating themselves, endlessly. “Aren’t we smart? Aren’t we up-to-date? Aren’t we highly moral? Aren’t we deeply sensitive? Aren’t we sophisticated and cool? Aren’t we unlike the backward types who are our enemies?” These attitudes aren’t even conscious — they are second-nature to left-liberals. Reply Mark Stellinga July 6, 2025 Joe, I thought you’d get a kick out of this piece, which was inspired by the term, ‘folie à deux’, which I spotted and was intrigued by in one of ‘your’ recent comments to something Susan penned (I believe?). I’m really bad about piggy-backing and apologize to Brian if it helps – 🙂 On ‘Folie à deux Disorder’ ‘Folie à deux Disorder’ is a psychiatric syndrome where a person – telepathically – imbues A stranger’s mind – despite the fact the two have never met – with radical, but correlating views the DONER’s mind ‘Politically’ condones… And when some damn ‘Progressive’ with this ‘folie à deux disorder’ invades a naive youngsters’ fragile mind, I’m tellin’ you it’s really hard to ‘de-conscript’ a victim – once their shattered parents come to find Their kid has joined the ranks of – ‘Leftist’ clones! And once their child’s infected with this merciless affliction – the discombobulation of their brain – The chance that they’ll recover in advance of what it does to link them with the sort of friends they’ll gain, (Who’ll groom them as required to make them fit), Very quickly plummets as their skulls are plied with promises that – ‘common-sensers’ know to be a lie… And if you actually know someone who’s plagued with ‘folie à deux’, we need to cross our fingers that they die ‘Cause the ‘guarantees’ they pose are — full o’ shit! Reply Brian Yapko July 7, 2025 Mark, I don’t mind you “piggy-backing” in the least. I very much enjoyed your own trenchant poem on the subject of the corruption of childhood development and the attack on their reasoning skills suich that they lose any ability to differentiate common sense from indoctrination. I had to look up the definition of “folie a dieux” and it’s particularly insightful. Mr. AI defines it this way: “Folie à deux” is a French term meaning “madness of two”. It refers to a rare psychiatric syndrome where delusional beliefs are transmitted from one person to another, typically in a close relationship. It’s also known as shared psychosis or shared delusional disorder. The term can also be used more broadly to describe any shared delusion or mental illness between two people in close association.” Absolutely apt to transcribe the transmission of leftism and, in particular, transgender ideology and DEI. But I am also reminded of people driving alone in their cars wearing masks. Such vacant impressionability saddens me. Brian Yapko July 7, 2025 Joe, thank you for the kind words on the poems and thank you even more for telling it like it is. Yes, these poems are two different examinations of left liberal smugness. The Juggler explores the bizarre modern trend of leftist performers injecting their vapid opinions into public discourse — simply because social media now makes that a simple thing. It has become ubiquitous and it is gross to see people “inspired” by the ramblings of Mark Hamill or George Takei or going to our performers for political advice (whether it be Mark Hamill or George Takei or (heaven help us) Rosie O’Donnell.) In fact, the sudden emergence of celebrities as important political voices is as weird as it would be if ancient Romans breathlessly waited for a statement by their favorite gladiators concerning the import of bread from Egypt or the latest attack on the Germans across the Rhine. Why would any sane person care about Taylor Swift’s endorsement? As for “Rally,” you nailed that smug, condescending attitude of left-liberals who are so lacking in self-awareness that they will never dig deep enough to recognize that they have become so highly subjective and so deeply partisan that they can no longer be fair. Even now, having lost an election decisively and having it clear that 80,000,000 Americans are rejecting their credos, they refuse to take responsibility. As you point out, they come up with tortured, condescending theories to explore why anyone would vote for Trump — racism, sexism, conspiracy, ignorance, fascism. The left liberals (forgive the crudeness) never once apply Occam’s Razor and consider the possibility that it is their shit that stinks. Reply Leave a Reply Cancel ReplyYour email address will not be published.CommentName* Email* Website Notify me of followup comments via e-mail. You can also subscribe without commenting. Δ This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Roy Eugene Peterson July 6, 2025 Brian, how greatly I admire your scintillating poetry and done with a more difficult “abc” symmetry! Your profound messages come through loud and clear. For every poem of your’s I simply have to cheer. The “Juggler” and the “Rally” deserve unstinting praise for their trenchant message and questions that they raise! Reply
Brian Yapko July 7, 2025 Thank you very much, Roy! Scintillating is, for me, about as good as it gets! Thank you for noticing the abc symmetry in “Rally.” The juggler, for anyone curious about the meter, is in anapestic tetrameter. Reply
Russel Winick July 6, 2025 I’m with Roy on these, Brian. Great work! And The Juggler is a terrific concept! Reply
Brian Yapko July 7, 2025 Thank you, Russel. As for concept, I was watching the news and they were discussing the women of The View who have made a career of appearing to know things that they don’t but nonetheless pontificate excessively on how we are supposed to feel about issues. (I have found Whoopi Goldberg to be particularly malign.) And then I wondered… why didn’t audiences care what the actors thought back in Elizabethan times? They were there to entertain. No one confused them for sages. Reply
Mark Stellinga July 6, 2025 Brian, as these 2 excellent pieces thoroughly convey, as have several other similar pieces you’ve given us, you, as I am, are extremely concerned about the current ‘cultural’ circumstances we’re pretty much completely surrounded by. Reprehensible lemming-leaders abound that require relentless, focused effort to combat. I could never quite convince myself that DJT would win the 2025 presidential election, but he did! WE did! I thank The Big Guy for that. And now, under a massive umbrella of very conservative administrators, I’m confident that much, much better days lie ahead, and your ‘political poetry’ is the very sort of ‘literary artillery’ needed to help us get there – day by day. Great job, as always… Reply
Brian Yapko July 7, 2025 Thank you very much indeed, Mark! Always happy to provide “literary artillery!’ My concern for current social and political issues runs very deeply indeed. I think, in part, because I have studied a great deal of history and I know the difference between a mob and a movement as well as the difference between consensus and coercion. I am supremely grateful that Kamala Harris did not win the election because her hapless brand of woke vagary could never have steered the country through the challenges we are facing now. Could you imagine her having the cojones to bunker bust Iran’s nuclear facilities? The best she seems to be able to come up with is offering slurring bromides while projecting rainbow colors on the White House. Her illegitimate candidacy was an embarrassment. Reply
Joseph S. Salemi July 6, 2025 Both poems are excellent, and both deal essentially with the same subject: the utterly absolute and rock-solid certainty of left-liberals that they are CORRECT on every single issue, and that those who disagree with them are always mistaken, uneducated, misinformed, unperceptive, or malevolent. For me this is the most enraging and insulting aspect of left-liberalism. It betrays an arrogance and self-conceit so total and impenetrable that they might as well be of granite. One simply CANNOT TALK to these people! They are as unresponsive to logic as the noble gases in the periodic table are to chemical reaction. I have noticed how left-liberals are always congratulating themselves, endlessly. “Aren’t we smart? Aren’t we up-to-date? Aren’t we highly moral? Aren’t we deeply sensitive? Aren’t we sophisticated and cool? Aren’t we unlike the backward types who are our enemies?” These attitudes aren’t even conscious — they are second-nature to left-liberals. Reply
Mark Stellinga July 6, 2025 Joe, I thought you’d get a kick out of this piece, which was inspired by the term, ‘folie à deux’, which I spotted and was intrigued by in one of ‘your’ recent comments to something Susan penned (I believe?). I’m really bad about piggy-backing and apologize to Brian if it helps – 🙂 On ‘Folie à deux Disorder’ ‘Folie à deux Disorder’ is a psychiatric syndrome where a person – telepathically – imbues A stranger’s mind – despite the fact the two have never met – with radical, but correlating views the DONER’s mind ‘Politically’ condones… And when some damn ‘Progressive’ with this ‘folie à deux disorder’ invades a naive youngsters’ fragile mind, I’m tellin’ you it’s really hard to ‘de-conscript’ a victim – once their shattered parents come to find Their kid has joined the ranks of – ‘Leftist’ clones! And once their child’s infected with this merciless affliction – the discombobulation of their brain – The chance that they’ll recover in advance of what it does to link them with the sort of friends they’ll gain, (Who’ll groom them as required to make them fit), Very quickly plummets as their skulls are plied with promises that – ‘common-sensers’ know to be a lie… And if you actually know someone who’s plagued with ‘folie à deux’, we need to cross our fingers that they die ‘Cause the ‘guarantees’ they pose are — full o’ shit! Reply
Brian Yapko July 7, 2025 Mark, I don’t mind you “piggy-backing” in the least. I very much enjoyed your own trenchant poem on the subject of the corruption of childhood development and the attack on their reasoning skills suich that they lose any ability to differentiate common sense from indoctrination. I had to look up the definition of “folie a dieux” and it’s particularly insightful. Mr. AI defines it this way: “Folie à deux” is a French term meaning “madness of two”. It refers to a rare psychiatric syndrome where delusional beliefs are transmitted from one person to another, typically in a close relationship. It’s also known as shared psychosis or shared delusional disorder. The term can also be used more broadly to describe any shared delusion or mental illness between two people in close association.” Absolutely apt to transcribe the transmission of leftism and, in particular, transgender ideology and DEI. But I am also reminded of people driving alone in their cars wearing masks. Such vacant impressionability saddens me.
Brian Yapko July 7, 2025 Joe, thank you for the kind words on the poems and thank you even more for telling it like it is. Yes, these poems are two different examinations of left liberal smugness. The Juggler explores the bizarre modern trend of leftist performers injecting their vapid opinions into public discourse — simply because social media now makes that a simple thing. It has become ubiquitous and it is gross to see people “inspired” by the ramblings of Mark Hamill or George Takei or going to our performers for political advice (whether it be Mark Hamill or George Takei or (heaven help us) Rosie O’Donnell.) In fact, the sudden emergence of celebrities as important political voices is as weird as it would be if ancient Romans breathlessly waited for a statement by their favorite gladiators concerning the import of bread from Egypt or the latest attack on the Germans across the Rhine. Why would any sane person care about Taylor Swift’s endorsement? As for “Rally,” you nailed that smug, condescending attitude of left-liberals who are so lacking in self-awareness that they will never dig deep enough to recognize that they have become so highly subjective and so deeply partisan that they can no longer be fair. Even now, having lost an election decisively and having it clear that 80,000,000 Americans are rejecting their credos, they refuse to take responsibility. As you point out, they come up with tortured, condescending theories to explore why anyone would vote for Trump — racism, sexism, conspiracy, ignorance, fascism. The left liberals (forgive the crudeness) never once apply Occam’s Razor and consider the possibility that it is their shit that stinks. Reply
