‘What Is a Man?’: A Poem by Cynthia Erlandson The Society June 16, 2025 Culture, Poetry 15 Comments . What Is a Man? “Ask now, and see, whether a man is ever in labor with child?” ---Jeremiah 30: 6 The prophet’s statement clearly is...
‘Forsythia Fading’: A Poem by Cynthia Erlandson The Society May 27, 2025 Beauty, Poetry 16 Comments . Forsythia Fading ---after Robert Frost and A.E. Housman Green leaves push yellow blooms away. Bold colors leave, their lives an hour Compared with...
‘Strange Blindness: A Play in Two Acts’ by Cynthia Erlandson The Society April 12, 2025 Culture, Poetry 12 Comments . Strange Blindness: A Play in Two Acts . Prologue Joseph and Jesus knew that perfect timing---and not plain, unforeshadowed proclamation---would...
‘Autumn Twilight’: A Poem by Cynthia Erlandson The Society January 25, 2025 Beauty, Poetry 21 Comments . Autumn Twilight Full moon. Crickets singing. Scarlet sky.Long past summer solstice; now the sunDescends before the short day’s work is done.Last...
‘Three Cascading Endings on Fallen Civilizations’ and Other Poetry by Cynthia Erlandson The Society January 11, 2025 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 17 Comments . Three Cascading Endings on Fallen Civilizations I. Everywhere, the sands are endless. Look: A joke is made of all my glory. On Stone once sculpted...
‘Help! I Can’t Stop Speaking in Iambic!’: A Poem by Cynthia Erlandson The Society December 28, 2024 Humor, Poetry 33 Comments . Help! I Can’t Stop Speaking in Iambic! Help! I can’t stop speaking in iambic Pentameter! No matter what I say, Somehow it keeps on coming out...
‘For the Sake of Ten Thousand: A Supplication from New Sodom’: A Poem by Cynthia Erlandson The Society November 9, 2024 Culture, Poetry 9 Comments . For the Sake of Ten Thousand: A Supplication from New Sodom And Abraham came near and said, ‘Would You also destroy the righteous with the...
‘Fall Back: Central Standard Time’: A Daylight Savings Poem by Cynthia Erlandson The Society November 2, 2024 Culture, Poetry 19 Comments . Fall Back: Central Standard Time Already it is dark: the falling arc Of each advancing year, when the eager moon, To catch the setting sun, comes...
‘Senior Village’: A Poem by Cynthia Erlandson The Society October 25, 2024 Culture, Poetry 29 Comments . Senior Village The ambulances come and go. Last night it was the man across The hall, whom I’d begun to know. Another friend, another loss. __I...
‘Nehemiah Questions Robert Frost About Walls’: A Poem by Cynthia Erlandson The Society September 8, 2024 Culture, Poetry 12 Comments . Nehemiah Questions Robert Frost About Walls “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.” ---Robert Frost, “Mending Wall” “Jerusalem...
Poems from Foundations of the Cross by Cynthia Erlandson The Society August 10, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 18 Comments . But Who Am I? “But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?’”...
‘Dandelions’: A Poem by Cynthia Erlandson The Society May 21, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 34 Comments . Dandelions “...all the days of his vain life, which he passes like a shadow....” ---Ecclesiastes 6: 12 . ____As I stepped out one...
‘March 21st, Saints Cranmer and Bach’: A Poem by Cynthia Erlandson The Society March 21, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 16 Comments . March 21st, Saints Cranmer and Bach Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, burned at the stake March 21, 1556 . Johann Sebastian Bach, born March 21,...
‘February 14, 2024’: An Ash Wednesday-Valentine’s Day Poem by Cynthia Erlandson The Society February 13, 2024 Culture, Love Poems, Poetry 19 Comments . . February 14, 2024 A heart of burning love, an ashen cross Converge today: the marriage of two kinds Of love. The feast day is St....
Nocturnal Litanies I & II: Poems by Cynthia Erlandson The Society February 11, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 22 Comments . . Nocturnal Litany I “From all malevolence the night employs….” ---James Agee, “Epithalamium” . From all malevolence the night employs To...
‘The Eternal Design May Appear’ and Other Christmas Poetry by Cynthia Erlandson The Society December 24, 2023 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 22 Comments . . “Even now, in sordid particulars, the eternal design may appear.” ---T.S. Eliot, Murder in the Cathedral . Among the moan of kine and smell...
‘Reversing Babel’: A Poem by Cynthia Erlandson The Society November 21, 2023 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 26 Comments . . Reversing Babel . I. Babel “Now the whole earth had one language and one speech.” ---Genesis 11:1 . An ill wind blows through Babel, where...
‘The Moon Hung Low…’: A Poem by Cynthia Erlandson The Society November 8, 2023 Culture, Poetry 30 Comments . . “The moon hung low in the sky like a yellow skull.” ---Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray . The moon hung low in the sky like a yellow...
‘Late Bloomers’: A Late Summer Poem by Cynthia Erlandson The Society September 2, 2023 Beauty, Poetry 25 Comments . . Late Bloomers My last red rose-of-sharon __Is slowly curling closed, Each giant shell-shaped petal __Beginning to turn in, The five of them a...
‘August’ and Other Summer Poetry by Cynthia Erlandson The Society August 1, 2023 Beauty, Poetry 29 Comments . August. The rose-of-sharon blossoms float like stars Within my reach: I’m lying on the grass Observing sunset fade and twilight pass Between...
SCP Poet Cynthia Erlandson Wins the Maria W. Faust Sonnet Competition The Society July 11, 2023 Poetry, Poetry Contests, Readings 24 Comments . 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...
‘Job’s Rant’ and Other Poetry by Cynthia Erlandson The Society June 24, 2023 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 16 Comments . Job’s Rant Job 3: 3-10 . May darkness and death’s shadow claim the day When I was sent to bear the curse of earth. May clouds blot out the...
‘Worse Than Widowed’: A Poem by Cynthia Erlandson The Society April 15, 2023 Culture, Poetry 20 Comments . Worse Than Widowed They’ve made us widows while we’re still alive. I’m not allowed to see my wife, although She isn’t sick; the head nurse...
A Poem on a Lost Child: ‘Ruben’ and Other Poetry by Cynthia Erlandson The Society March 4, 2023 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 32 Comments . Ruben “We have words that speak of the ongoing presence of such privations: orphan, widow, widower. And perhaps the fact that we have no word for...
‘Where Ever-present Joy Knows Naught of Time’ and Other Poetry by Cynthia Erlandson The Society December 29, 2022 Beauty, Culture, Dante, Poetry, Rondeau Redoublé 25 Comments . “Where Ever-present Joy Knows Naught of Time” ---Dante, Paradiso, Canto X, D.L. Sayers translation a rondeau redouble Where ever-present joy...
‘1960s Soap Operas’ by Cynthia Erlandson The Society October 4, 2022 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 34 Comments . 1960s Soap Operas “Soap operas,” they called them. Housewives watched Them while they sewed or cooked or ironed clothes. At two o’clock each...
‘Byrd in Flight’ and ‘Summer Sunday Baroque’ by Cynthia Erlandson The Society August 10, 2022 Beauty, Culture, Music, Poetry 24 Comments . Byrd in Flight The surplice-vested, five-part choir, Like sparrows on a five-tiered wire, Gives flight to canticles of Byrd. The flocks of...
‘Upon These Boughs that Shake Against the Cold’ by Cynthia Erlandson The Society June 25, 2022 Beauty, Poetry 19 Comments . “Upon These Boughs that Shake Against the Cold” ---Shakespeare, Sonnet 73 Her script was always lovely and unique, And still unique when it...
‘Easter Monday’ by Cynthia Erlandson The Society April 18, 2022 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 6 Comments . Easter Monday Luke 24: 13 – 35 With hearts eclipsed by Friday’s three-day night And eyes still blinded to their master’s face, They hear his...
‘Meditations on Ecclesiastes’ by Cynthia Erlandson The Society January 3, 2022 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 12 Comments . Meditations on Ecclesiastes . Inquiry “What profit has a man for all his labor…?” ---Ecclesiastes 1: 3 None knows what all his work...
‘This Present Madness’ by Cynthia Erlandson The Society December 21, 2021 Culture, Poetry 17 Comments . This Present Madness “To sleep! Perchance to dream; aye, there’s the rub…..” ---Shakespeare, Hamlet I The daily nightmare hovers; and each...
‘Listening to Bach While the World Falls Apart’ by Cynthia Erlandson The Society December 1, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 16 Comments . Listening to Bach While the World Falls Apart for Adrianna, Paul, and Beth I Sight isn’t needed---the continuous cracking of all The pillars...
‘The Twilight’s Last Gleaming?’ and Other Poetry by Cynthia Erlandson The Society October 21, 2021 Culture, Poetry 20 Comments . The Twilight’s Last Gleaming? The waning moon is framed by crippled branches; One long white stripe of cloud-chalk intersects Another: an...
‘Sequoia Forests, Plexiglass, and Masks’ by Cynthia Erlandson The Society July 9, 2021 Beauty, Covid-19, Culture, Poetry 17 Comments . This poem is inspired by a column in The Epoch Times written by John Falce, entitled “The Experience of Freedom” The rugged beauty of our...
‘A Prayer from Babel’ by Cynthia Erlandson The Society June 27, 2021 Culture, Poetry 20 Comments . Set forth your true and lively word, O Lord, Amidst this false and deadly earthen tongue With which we are surrounded. For a horde Of men with...
‘Pilate’s Wife’ by Cynthia Erlandson The Society April 2, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 17 Comments . I’ve had a nightmare! Let that just man go! You’re right that he’s done nothing wrong. They’re wrong To want him dead. No, nothing you...
‘Advice from Dante’ on Mask Wearing and Other Poetry by Cynthia Erlandson The Society March 11, 2021 Covid-19, Culture, Dante, Deconstructing Communism, Humor, Poetry 20 Comments . Advice from Dante “If you hear nostrums* in the market cried, Behave like men, and not like witless sheep.” ---Dante, Paradiso, Canto V Behave...
‘Orchestra Tuning Up’ and Other Poetry by Cynthia Erlandson The Society January 16, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Music, Poetry 6 Comments _ Orchestra Tuning Up Is this the way the universe once sounded?A mass confusion of discordant trumpets,Flutes, horns, and violins like baffled...
‘My Father’s Cardinal’ by Cynthia Erlandson The Society January 11, 2021 Beauty, Poetry 16 Comments . I wonder where my father’s cardinal is--- The colored-pencil drawing that he made In art class---he was only in fourth grade, I’d been...
A Covid Halloween Poem: ‘Halloween, 2020’ by Cynthia Erlandson The Society October 31, 2020 Covid-19, Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Humor, Poetry 21 Comments Is this a werewolf’s trick, or witch’s treat? A devil’s joke? Humanity’s defeat? Who would have thought we’d live to see the day When...
