‘Be Still and Know . . .’: A Poem by Peter Venable The Society December 21, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 4 Comments . Be Still and Know . . . Gulls brawl over a chip and squawk. __Waves wash shell shards on sand. On the sea shore, a morning walk. __I wade through tidal strands. Colossal clouds roll overhead. __A pelican...
‘Full Circle’: A Poem by Dennis McSweeney The Society December 21, 2024 Culture, Poetry, Science 7 Comments . Full Circle From age to age how long the fray’s been fought Tween those who seek the Truth on sacred ground And those who wish to harness mankind’s thought To what is measured, tested, proved, and...
‘Song of the Sophist’ and Other Poems by Susan Jarvis Bryant The Society December 20, 2024 Pantoum, Poetry, Rondeau, Satire 37 Comments . Song of the Sophist a pantoum I tiptoe past all that is true--- The facts never matter to me. My aim is to wheedle and woo. I peddle malarkey with glee. The facts never matter to me. I fib as I fox and...
‘The Most Impactful Hate’ and Other Poems by Russel Winick The Society December 20, 2024 Culture, Poetry 12 Comments . The Most Impactful Hate It’s fun now to listen to every Trump haterWho tries to explain how a racist dictatorWas able to win with a new coalitionOf Blacks and Hispanics defying traditionPlus middle and...
‘Aubade: Composure’: A Poem by Steven Frattali The Society December 19, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 8 Comments . Aubade: Composure The first light tints the eggshell walls From dimmest grey to violet, And light-spokes through the window’s shade Glance over eyes asleep as yet. But light is opening within The mind...
‘The Lonely Sailor’: A Poem by Thor Kangas The Society December 19, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 14 Comments . The Lonely Sailor No sailor is so lonely __As one who rows alone Across the vast and battered seas __Along the cliffs of stone. He has no one to read the chart __No one to man the oar No one to keep the...
A’sailin’: A Poem by Cynthia Bernard The Society December 18, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 20 Comments . A’sailin’ ‘Twould seem quite true I never was __the captain of this ship, though in my youth I did believe __in charting my own trip. But Master Time has made it clear __how lowly is my rank. I’ve...
‘Come, Spring’: A Poem by Janice Canerdy The Society December 18, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 9 Comments . Come, Spring When by the winter cold we’re most oppressed, mere thoughts of spring’s arrival make us smile. We dream of earth in vivid colors dressed, blue skies, sunshine, birds trilling tunes with...
‘The Wreath’ and Other Poetry by Cheryl Corey The Society December 17, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 15 Comments . The Wreath Circle of green— What does it mean? Never ending, Ever bending. It’s hope that’s vernal And faith that’s welling For God in-dwelling And life eternal. . Pruning Trees Now that all...
‘Intersubjective Bootstrap’: A Poem by Josh Mitteldorf The Society December 17, 2024 Culture, Poetry 10 Comments . Intersubjective Bootstrap If all life is a dream, is it your dream or mine? __And why should our two worlds agree? An answer avails if we’re both The Divine, __At our source, I am you and you’re...
‘Journalists Live in a Fantasy World’: A Poem by Roy E. Peterson The Society December 16, 2024 Poetry, Satire 14 Comments . Journalists Live in a Fantasy World If you like fiction, then turn on the news. You will hear journalists giving their views. Facts are conveniently pushed to the side; Truth becomes something that they may...
‘Let’s Just Say’: A Poem by Mark Stellinga The Society December 15, 2024 Culture, Poetry 18 Comments . Let’s Just Say A friend of ours was asked by some reporter how he viewed the war his only son had gone to fight in and had died. His face went limp, his breathing paused his eyes welled up with tears, and...
‘Imitating Shakespeare’s Sonnet 107’ by James Sale The Society December 15, 2024 Love Poems, Poetry, Shakespeare 18 Comments . Imitating Shakespeare’s Sonnet 107 . Sonnet 107 __by William Shakespeare Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul Of the wide world dreaming on things to come, Can yet the lease of my true love...
‘A House in Winter’ and Other Poems by Adam Sedia The Society December 15, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 17 Comments . A House in Winter Preternaturally silent, still.The omnipresent biting chill, And deepest, darkest night surround.The snow’s soft crunch, the only sound; Fierce, unrelenting wind gusts downFrom boreal...
‘A Simple Prayer’ and Other Poetry by Marc Gilbert The Society December 14, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 8 Comments . A Simple Prayer Crown my head in gray, dear Lord, __And bless my tangled tongue. Return to me the mystery __I knew when I was young. Before the echoed scorn of cynics, __Before the sophist’s...
‘Sharpton’: A Poem by James A. Tweedie The Society December 14, 2024 Poetry, Satire 10 Comments . Sharpton He talks his walk and walks his talk and then He walks his talk and talks his walk again. The walk he talks goes nowhere I can see. The talk he walks seems jabberwock to me. But everybody thinks...
‘I Saw An Angel Weeping’: A Poem by Michael Walker The Society December 13, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 6 Comments . I Saw An Angel Weeping I saw an angel weeping In the graveyard by the brook, Her silent vigil keeping, Yet when I turned to look, She spread her wings before me To shield me on my way, And thus, did she...
‘Homemade Halos—An Election Reflection’: A Poem by Warren Bonham The Society December 13, 2024 Poetry, Satire 21 Comments . Homemade Halos---An Election Reflection “Celebrity endorsements say a lot: they say you’re a liberal, an elitist, and a cultural progressive,” Mr. O’Reilly said. “An Oprah or Clooney endorsement is...
‘The Drift of Dark Days’ and Other Poetry by C.B. Anderson The Society December 12, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Humor, Poetry 25 Comments . The Drift of Dark Days November is a time for us to grieve About the dying of the warmth and light, About the passing of our joie de vivre, As we await the bitter arctic bite. Near-perfect vees of fleeing...
Six Great Dramatic Monologues by Robert Browning The Society December 12, 2024 Essays, Poetry 16 Comments . Six Great Dramatic Monologues by Robert Browning by Brian Yapko The dramatic monologue is a unique type of poem: the poet enters the mind of a specific character---usually historic or literary---and then...
‘In Advent Stillness’: A Poem by Jeffrey Essmann The Society December 11, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 11 Comments In Advent Stillness In Advent stillness and its purpled nightsWe turn within and with a solemn gazeConsider well our soul’s more reconditeAnd sundry impulses: the many waysBy which we hamper grace’s...
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 blessings are not understood To be too much. The dear...
‘Telepathy’ and Other Poems by Anna J. Arredondo The Society December 10, 2024 Culture, Love Poems, Poetry, Terza Rima 24 Comments . Telepathy Your reticence to speak is no deterrent To my delight to be in your vicinity--- Presence and chatter need not be concurrent; Lack of the latter won’t change my affinity For your dark liquid eyes:...
‘In a Twenty-minute Tuk-tuk Ride’: A Poem by Shamik Banerjee The Society December 10, 2024 Beauty, Love Poems, Poetry 19 Comments . In a Twenty-minute Tuk-tuk Ride That day, the river of our luck had dried. No taxis. Air-conditioned buses crammed with half the town. Just when I said, "We're dammed," a tuk-tuk by the roundabout defied my...
‘The Bar’: A Poem by Jeff Shakespeare The Society December 9, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 3 Comments . The Bar ---after Lord Alfred Tennyson's "Crossing the Bar" The sail is set, the breeze is strong. I pray the crossing won’t take long. My Pilot knows these waters well. But time and tide no man can...
‘Dragons Lost at Sea’: A Poem by Isabella Simmonds The Society December 9, 2024 Children's, Culture, Poetry 14 Comments . Dragons Lost at Sea In salty seas green dragons fly the waves, With plastic scales—a man-made guard from rot. Submerged to sleep in rocky water caves; Bereft of flames they blow and bubble not. A cargo...
‘I No Longer See It on Mulberry Street’ and Other Poetry by Dusty Grein The Society December 8, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 8 Comments . I No Longer See It on Mulberry Street I used to walk home from school each day, then report back to Pop, what I saw on my way. I'd imagine all sorts of things wondrous and neat, in my mind, with my brain, on...
‘Galileo Under Confinement’: A Poem by Brian Yapko The Society December 8, 2024 Beauty, Poetry, Science 22 Comments . Galileo Under Confinement Scene: Florence, 1636 AD. In the third year of his life imprisonment (as sentenced by the Holy Inquisition) Galileo Galilei---now 71---poses at his prison-home for the Flemish...
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 soar, We purge remembrance of one fiery night. No lives were...
‘Variation on a Poem by Blok’ by Stephen M. Dickey The Society December 7, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 7 Comments . Variation on a Poem by Blok How hard it is to walk among the living And make like you are not already dead, And speak up apropos of life’s misgiving To generations shrouded out ahead. And, looking...
‘Offerings of the Heart’: A Poem by Yoshikaze Kawakami The Society December 6, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 4 Comments . Offerings of the Heart A Symbolic Poem . The songs of Yamato From seeds of healing sprout As offerings of our hearts, And if ever hurt we feel, Swiftly songs arise; Heard by hearts, we heal. For one need...
‘Fake Sales’ and Other Poems by Russel Winick The Society December 6, 2024 Culture, Humor, Poetry 24 Comments . Fake Sales “Fifty Percent Off”The store signs all say,But I have to scoff---There is simply no wayThat the clothes I picked outFrom the “sale” in that store,Were---on this there’s no doubt---Ever...
Meditation on Herbert’s ‘Church Monuments’: A Poem by Joseph S. Salemi The Society December 5, 2024 Culture, Poetry 20 Comments . Meditation on Herbert’s “Church Monuments” "…Mark, here below, How tame these ashes are, how free from lust, That thou mayst fit thyself against thy fall." —George Herbert, “Church...
‘After the Snow’: A Poem by Steven Frattali The Society December 5, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 10 Comments . After the Snow The snow fell through the night, night-long, The deepest snowfall of the year. By dawn it covered everything, Pearl gray unfolding everywhere As light leaked inward from beyond Through...
‘On the Death of a Child’: A Poem by Paul A. Freeman The Society December 4, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 14 Comments . On the Death of a Child To lose a child is tragic, yet those winks to tenderness, to bonding, still exist as memories, creating lasting links twixt parent and the prematurely missed. The day of birth; the...
Three Meditations in Verse by T.M. Moore The Society December 4, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 5 Comments . Meditation 1 “Grace has drawn nigh to mouths, once blasphemous, and has made them harps; sounding praise.” ---Homily on Our Lord, (1) "Let your speech always be with grace." ---Colossians 4.6 Grace...
‘Roofless Church’: A Poem by Peter Venable The Society December 3, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 7 Comments . Roofless Church The stone-hewn walls, No window sash. No pews, no halls. Burnt logs, damp ash. The roof, vanished. No organ flues. Shaped block, granite, And endless view. Above, hawks soar. No bells to...
‘American Espionage and the Soviet Target’: A Poem on His Experiences, by Roy E. Peterson The Society December 2, 2024 Culture, Poetry 10 Comments . American Espionage and the Soviet Target I was assigned to Russia as an Army attaché— A legal spy who operated every single day. The era of the Soviets was run by KGB. Just one uncareful step and then...
“It Just So Happens”: A Poem by Oliver Grossman The Society December 1, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 14 Comments . "It Just So Happens" Dark creatures prowl the islands of the mind On silent paw, as panthers in the night; Two em'rald eyes, and shadow intertwine To weave a myst'ry with the curved moon's light. We sail our...
When Poems Are Lyrics and Vice Versa: Reflections by James A. Tweedie The Society December 1, 2024 Essays, Poetry, Song Lyrics 19 Comments . When Poems Are Lyrics and Vice Versa by James A. Tweedie Lyrics are poems written to join with music to form a unity in the hope that the two together will transcend what either the words or music can...