‘Holy Saturday’: A Poem by Margaret Coats The Society April 19, 2025 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 28 Comments . Holy Saturday "Call the Sabbath a delight." —Isaiah 58:13 His weary, soulless body needed rest, Not only pierced and physically exhausted, But...
‘Divine Complaint’: A Poem by Eustache Deschamps, Translated by Margaret Coats The Society April 5, 2025 Poetry, Translation 32 Comments . Divine Complaint Chant royal by Eustache Deschamps (1346-1406), translated and adapted by Margaret Coats In all the world there is one creature...
Disaster Sonnets by Margaret Coats The Society March 22, 2025 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 37 Comments . How Many Homes? ---January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires Twelve thousand lost, from stricken memories more Schools, churches, meeting places, shops...
‘Nishijin Weaving’: A Poem by Margaret Coats The Society March 8, 2025 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 28 Comments . Nishijin Weaving In the tranquil heartThere is no scattering ofBlossoms once gathered. ―Satomura Jōha, master of linked verse The shining...
‘Enamoured’: A Love Poem by Margaret Coats The Society February 22, 2025 Love Poems, Poetry 25 Comments . Enamoured String me a strand of pure white pearls supernal, Warming my throat as quivering fingers do, Roughened but figuring tenderness...
‘On the Porch’: A Poem by Margaret Coats The Society February 8, 2025 Beauty, Poetry 30 Comments . On the Porch The roof and eaves, low walls or none, slim railings, Contrive a sense of shelter customary. Worn floor between front steps and door...
‘Whoever Am I?’: Poetry by Prudentius, Translated from Latin by Margaret Coats The Society January 19, 2025 Beauty, Poetry, Translation 26 Comments . Whoever Am I? Preface to His Poetry .by Prudentius (c. 4th century AD)translated by Margaret Coats If I see clear, through fifty yearsI’ve lived....
‘Caleb in Canaan’: A Poem by Margaret Coats The Society January 5, 2025 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 21 Comments . Caleb in Canaan Green fields, walled towns, strong foes, but we are fit To overcome. Forward, I say. It’s ours. These forty days of foraging...
‘Stars Voluble’: A Christmas Poem by Margaret Coats The Society December 25, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 32 Comments . Stars Voluble Profound and lightless silent night _Lay still with curtains closed. Into unspeaking dark the Word Descended from his regal...
A Poem for American Women with Five or More Children, by Margaret Coats The Society December 11, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 25 Comments . Motherly Motives ---of the 5% of American women with 5 or more children The greater good is motherhood. Let wealth be vast and health ideal, These...
A Poem for Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral’s Reopening, by Margaret Coats The Society December 7, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 28 Comments . Notre Dame Re-Opens To touch this holiness we have no right, Nor did we earn the privilege to restore Its grandeur. Bringing anguished hearts to...
‘Beryl Spring’: A Poem by Margaret Coats The Society November 13, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 28 Comments . Beryl Spring ---Yellowstone National Park Towering torrents of steam and mist Rise next to the side of the road, Beckoning drivers to park and...
‘Healthy Relics’: Three Sonnets by Margaret Coats The Society October 30, 2024 Culture, Poetry 34 Comments . Elisha's Bones II Kings 4:32–37, 13:20–21 Elisha died, the prophet doubly strong In spirit, and his sepulcher was grand, For he had caused a...
‘Old Chestnut’: A Poem by Margaret Coats The Society October 16, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 16 Comments Old Chestnut I’m the spirited girl with the chestnut hair, Common countenance pale, smile occasionally stressed, High forehead and wide, sculpted...
A Rosh Hashanah Poem on the Blowing of the Shofar, by Margaret Coats The Society October 2, 2024 Culture, Music, Poetry 24 Comments . The Ram's Horn "A great horn shall be blown, and they that were lost shall come from the land of Assyria, and they that were outcasts from the land...
‘Plowing’: A Poem by Margaret Coats The Society September 30, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 34 Comments . Plowing Plain plowing cultivates delight Of partnership with animals: Two horses and a man unite To draw behind them crows and gulls Feeding on...
A Poem for Helen Vendler (1933-2024): ‘Valediction for a Critic’ by Margaret Coats The Society September 16, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 34 Comments . Valediction for a Critic "She can second-guess the sixth sense of a poem." —Seamus Heaney "I thought—and still think—that all people would...
A Poem for Labor Day and Others by Christine de Pisan, Translated by Margaret Coats The Society September 2, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Translation 25 Comments . For All Who Labor by Christine de Pisan (1364-c. 1430) Lady, fair branch where God’s grace blooms,Our labors, Saint Bernard assumes,Are benefited...
‘August Foraging’: A Poem by Margaret Coats The Society August 26, 2024 Culture, Poetry 28 Comments . August Foraging “It’s hot, it’s dry. No fun outdoors; No fungi, flowers, foliage, fruit For us to eat where Nature stores Wild food. The...
‘Sicilian Samurai’: A Poem on Giovanni Battista Sidotti, by Margaret Coats The Society August 10, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 36 Comments . Sicilian Samurai circa 1700 He made a startling, militant request To journey to Japan—strange land long closed To foreign influence. The Pope’s...
‘Festal Flourish’: Translation of a Poem by Tibullus, by Margaret Coats The Society July 27, 2024 Beauty, Poetry, Translation 24 Comments . Festal Flourish ---on a country festival, by Roman poet Tibullus (55-19 BC), translated by Margaret Coats All here may help to cleanse these fruits...
‘Fire Lurks’: A Poem by Margaret Coats The Society July 15, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 30 Comments . Fire Lurks I recognize, while watching ghastly nightEncircle statesmanship revoltingly,Bright bursts of a spangled pyrotechnic star.America! No...
‘Storming the Bastille’: A Poem by Margaret Coats The Society July 13, 2024 Culture, Poetry 25 Comments . Storming the Bastille from eyewitness accounts July the twelfth, the City of Light was filled With brigands bought by dimes and dismal speech; How...
‘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,...
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,...
On the Meeting of Poets James A. Tweedie, Jeff Eardley, Peter Hartley, and Margaret Coats in the UK: Poems and Other Writings The Society June 8, 2024 Culture, Essays, Poetry 19 Comments . In Spring 2024, UK poets Jeff Eardley and Peter Hartley crossed paths with American poets James A. Tweedie and Margaret coats in...
‘Out Walking’: A Poem by Margaret Coats The Society May 30, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 32 Comments . Out Walking I hear the heath alive to free A heart from hearthside reverie, _And with my rambling feet __Start out in stealth, Intent on...
‘Herman the Cripple’: A Poem by Margaret Coats The Society May 16, 2024 Culture, Music, Poetry 44 Comments . Herman the Cripple A body helpless in deformity Was mine, though loving parents carried me Full seven years in sick infirmity, Then placed me in...
May Songs from Miracle Plays, Translated by Margaret Coats The Society May 1, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Song Lyrics, Translation 19 Comments . May Songs . I. Where does loyalty take its rest? Where is charity’s portraiture, Except in you, sweet virgin pure? Where has virginity...
‘A Shakespeare Garden Stroll’: A Poem by Margaret Coats The Society April 23, 2024 Beauty, Poetry, Shakespeare 22 Comments . A Shakespeare Garden Stroll Of all the blooms, I like the lily best. Might you prefer a deep vermilion rose? Well, each to earth some special good...
‘Snowy Egret’ and ‘Dusky Seaside Sparrow’: Two Bird Poems by Margaret Coats The Society April 17, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 37 Comments . Snowy Egret Here where sunlight sparkle rinses Cypresses whose balding branches Shoulder epiphytic orchids (Cowhorn, spider, ghost, or...
Nazi Death Songs: Poems on Rudolf Hess and Rudolf Höss by Margaret Coats The Society April 3, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 34 Comments . Rudolf Hess Deputy Führer found strangled at Spandau Prison, August 17, 1987 Odd winter whirlwinds occupy my brain With telepathic messages I...
‘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...
‘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...
On Black History Hero ‘Captain Francisco Menendez’: A Poem by Margaret Coats The Society February 22, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 17 Comments . Captain Francisco Menendez Born a Mandinga, on Africa’s west coast, Where farm and hunting toil supported most, But tribal spats and small jihads...
‘Ash Wednesday Valentines’: Poems by Charles d’Orléans, Translated by Margaret Coats The Society February 13, 2024 Culture, Love Poems, Poetry, Translation 27 Comments . Ash Wednesday Valentines by Charles d’Orléans (1394-1465), translated by Margaret Coats . I. Who’s there? Who comes so early, who? “It’s I...
A Poem on Paisley, and Other Poetry by Margaret Coats The Society January 26, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 39 Comments . Windjam Dry leaves abruptly fell that day— Whirled weathervane communiqué Proposing a quick stroll away Along a narrow inlaid path To venture...
‘Puffins’: A Poem by Margaret Coats The Society January 8, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 45 Comments . Puffins The puffin’s beak is bright: Quince yellow stripes contrast With chests of fluffy white And wings of satin black, But suit dense orange...
‘Anniversary Pastoral for Benedict XVI’ by Margaret Coats The Society December 30, 2023 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 21 Comments . Anniversary Pastoral for Benedict XVI Trustworthy Shepherd of all shepherds, hear Today’s renewed appeal in concord made For Benedict, departed...
‘Moon Before Yule’: A Poem by Margaret Coats The Society December 12, 2023 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 37 Comments . Moon Before Yule The ashen lantern leavening the skyBegins in languor to proclaim sublimeFestivity to winter’s weather eye. The dome of heaven...
