What No Tyrant May Command   I — An Oracular Sign In the palace of King Minos there was...

  Life Lessons from Aunt Ingeborg ---inspired by anecdotes related by Joseph Salemi Mein kleiner nephew, sit. No, I insist!...

  Foam We come into this world awash in tears, Mourning our incipient separation— Too soon we age and leave...

  Again Autumnal Today, the garden plants need plucking So as to preclude the cold — And surely yesterday was...

  Life Is Conflictual Life is conflictual. The good and bad unplanned. We absorb opposites To fully understand. To feel...

The Siege on Castle Hill   from the peasants While the fabled fearsome Knight Duke guards the walls of Castle...

  Every New Pantheon I gazed upon some cauliflower clouds Where many morphing faces looked around, And barring the descent...

  Biblical? Emblematic? Seems much of the population Have this fascination With that handheld device; Which is all well and...

  The Valley _Why are there valleys? They’re really not my thing. _Mainly it’s because Of all the pain they...

  The Blobfish---‘Mr Blobby’ Pink-skinned and floppy-nosed and from the deep, with downturned mouth and frown he seems depressed –...

  Nature's Family ---after Francis of Assisi To glance at Brother Sun’s resplendent gaze, To feel he signifies omnipotence, To...

  The River & The Sea She’s silver down a mountain side Moonlight or sunlight, she’s the bride. A River,...

The Nightingale in a Dream by Gavrila Derzhavin (1743 – 1816) translated from Russian by Kevin Rainbow As I slept...

  After-Action Report “Bolivians do wet-work well,” Lieutenant-Colonel Shenton said. “They shot that campsite all to hell, And every single...

  The Walking Wounded The bulk of them are on their phones, of course, Their eyes amused at times, at...

  Their Words, My Fault Folks rage at me and vent, For having in my head, Instead of what they...

  Lazarus I ---for Jason Peter Smith (1963 - 2025) I closed my eyes and you were gone. I wasn’t...

  Poetry Challenge: Dictionary Delights Look through a good dictionary and pick 5 to 10 words based purely on the...

  In Defense of Rhyme by Euphrates Moss In May of 2022 the Sydney Morning Herald published a critic's verdict...

  Gun Control ---after Longfellow’s “The Arrow and the Song” I shot a bullet Into the air. It fell to...

  Power of a Pen Really not much of a treasure, You can find them anywhere. They are cheap and...

. The Best Haiku of 2026 The Winner and Runners-Up of the Society of Classical Poets 2026 Haiku Competition Judged...

  One Night in Bangkok   6:00 p.m. One night in Bangkok---and this searching man From Georgia must explore its...

  Invocation Lift up these leaden eyes that slumber still, Cocooned within undreaming restless dark. Celestial Sun, burn through the...

  Enjoy the Peace, Prepare for War “Why can’t we all just get along?” _I see most every day. And...

  Faust Part Two, Act One: 'A Pleasant Landscape' by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) translated from German by Josh...

  The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost (1874-1963) Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could...

  Reappraisals of Mortality "After the first death, there is no other." — Dylan Thomas The hill is steep That...

  What Is the Measure of My Days? —after Psalm 39:4 When I was young, I saw the old: _The...

  Polar Coordinates Take an angle labeled theta and a radius called r: They teach not only trigonometry. (I know,...

  It Never Lies! The camera tells a candid tale--- _they say it never lies; it makes your crows’ feet...

  The Mahjong Flowers   Orchid Lone in the cold of working solitude, The scholar and the orchid strain to...

  The Martyrdom of Saint Cassian St. Cassian of Imola (Forum Cornelii) was a schoolteacher killed by his own pupils...

  Mind versus Beauty by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) translated from German by Eric v.d. Luft Now Mister Mind,...

  Summer Sails Floating through an azure sky, Rhinos, rabbits and dragons fly. Lofty sails puff out like pillows, Catching...

  Aquarius A black cross in my memory, Upon a tangled silver chain, Against his skin of ivory, Glows fire-branded...

  No Body Here on Earth Her cancer broke through chemo’s flame at last. Her lungs held on for months,...

  A Reading of Homer's Odyssey Book 1 (Translated by Michael Solot) https://youtu.be/1knI2sT_g28     Starring: Andrew Benson Brown as...

  Now? How can I keep this now as Now? Past and Future take a bow, Then crunch each Now...

  From California to Louisiana No more the mountains rising blue and gray, nor oceans crashing near to shore on...