How to Write a Kyrielle The Society June 26, 2018 Education, Poetry, Poetry Forms 7 Comments by Dusty Grein Like many of the old French refrain forms, the kyrielle originated in the 15th century with the traveling troubadours. It is a rhymed form, written in either 2 line couplets, or 4 line...
A Translation of André Chénier’s ‘Elegy XX’ by Douglas Thornton The Society June 25, 2018 Beauty, Poetry, Translation 3 Comments Born at Constantinople in 1762 of a French father and Greek mother, André Chénier grew up in pre-revolutionary France and studied at Paris. Well-read, and enamored with ancient Greece, he is considered one...
A Sonnet by Edward Hoke The Society June 24, 2018 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 14 Comments 03.27.18 A smattering of rain above a hall That holds her earthy fragments, broken, spent, A woman who, in life, out-did them all, And e’en in death defies the elements. O, what would she make now of...
‘The Beast Once Foretold’ by Evan Mantyk The Society June 23, 2018 Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Poetry 19 Comments Written upon reading the book How the Specter of Communism Is Ruling Our World. The beast once foretold for the end of days Crouched in a Karl Marx statue erected Last month in Germany, where it displays A...
‘Little Girl’ and Other Poetry by Martin John King The Society June 22, 2018 Poetry 15 Comments Little Girl She's fishing in a rock pool just abandoned by the sea She's too engrossed within her world to notice you and me. She sprawls to draw a picture open book upon the sand Great masters never...
‘SonnetVision 27’ (Video) by Joseph Charles MacKenzie The Society June 21, 2018 Beauty, Poetry, Readings, Video 9 Comments Note: Joseph Charles MacKenzie would like to offer a 25% discount on the first edition hardcover of Sonnets for Christ the King to his fellow poets and readers of the Society of Classical Poets, in gratitude...
Review: Three Poetry Books by Joseph S. Salemi The Society June 20, 2018 Culture, Essays, Poetry, Reviews 33 Comments by James Sale FORMAL COMPLAINTS by Joseph S. Salemi, Somer Rocks Press, 1997 MASQUERADE by Joseph S. Salemi, Somer Rocks Press, 2005 SKIRMISHES by Joseph S. Salemi, Pivot Press, 2010 I first encountered...
‘Confucius Institutes’ and Other Poetry by Bruce Dale Wise The Society June 19, 2018 Culture, Humor, Poetry 9 Comments (All poetry by Bruce Dale Wise) Confucius Institutes "Three things cannot be hidden long: the sun, the moon and truth." —paraphrase of a Buddhist quote by Lu "Reed ABCs" Wei The Chinese...
Shortest Poem Contest Winners Announced The Society June 18, 2018 Humor, Poetry, Poetry Contests 17 Comments Congratulations to the following winners! Thank you to judges Joseph S. Salemi, James Sale, and Damian Robin. First Place $100 Prize: Ben Foreman, Cascabel, Arizona Cheesemaking Find a...
Two Epigrams by Morgan Downs The Society June 18, 2018 Epigrams and Proverbs, Poetry 2 Comments To Make a Poet “A man can learn the art of poetry,” You say, “and many learn this art by me.” Poetry teacher, render something clear: Tell me, how do you teach a man to hear? The...
‘Father’s Day, 2018’ by Amy Foreman The Society June 17, 2018 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 72 Comments I may have borne them each, but it was you, Whose shoulders carried weight I never knew, You set the bar so high, so straight, so true, The surest, strongest Dad? Well, that was you. I may...
‘Form Sonnet’ and Other Poetry by Theresa Rodriguez The Society June 16, 2018 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 10 Comments Form Sonnet Turn the page and write again today Make something come out of an eager mind Make something in a new and different way In something both of earthy and refined For when I strive it seems that...
‘Olivia and Dorothy Shakespear: A Dialogue of Mother and Daughter’ by Joseph S. Salemi The Society June 15, 2018 Culture, Poetry 13 Comments See notes below for background and allusions. Olivia: Daughter, shall we sit and grieve together, And tie our two bêtes noires up with a tether? You had Ezra Pound and I had Yeats: Two poets now...
Video: A Reading of Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare The Society June 14, 2018 Beauty, Culture, Music, Poetry, Readings, Shakespeare, Video A short film by Gleb Zavlanov. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxnDmkKqaF4&feature=youtu.be Sonnet 18 Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds...
Three Whimsical Poems by James A. Tweedie The Society June 13, 2018 Culture, Humor, Poetry 16 Comments Everlasting Chesterton The author, G.K. Chesterton: A playful epigramist, A master of the terse bon mot, And witty dithyrambist. He loathed pomposity and claimed (And I believe quite...
‘I Love This Life’ and Other Poetry by Janice Canerdy The Society June 12, 2018 Beauty, Humor, Poetry, Rondeau 19 Comments I Love This Life a rondeau I love this life in spite of all the trying times and every wall I must tear down to find success, although sometimes my happiness is thwarted, slowing to a...
‘Curtain Up!’ and Other Poetry by Joe Tessitore The Society June 11, 2018 Beauty, Poetry 18 Comments Curtain Up! Sunset and the robins sing, nightingales reply song that summer evenings bring, weeping willows sigh from lawns and from thickets a chorus of crickets ____serenades but remains out of...
‘As Promised’ by Linda Imbler The Society June 10, 2018 Culture, Poetry 8 Comments The sky boiled, As the earth ruffled, Clouds blew past, And the soil buckled. The dead came forth, And stood in wait, Believers noticed, Heavens Gate. As they watched, It opened...
‘Hard To Believe’ and Other Poetry by Damian Robin The Society June 9, 2018 Culture, Human Rights in China, Poetry 9 Comments These three sonnets come from the newly released poetry book Organ Harvest, by Damian Robin, which exposes the murder of prisoners of conscience, particularly peaceful Falun Gong practitioners, for their...
Essay: ‘Frog-Marched Into the Prison of Poetry’ The Society June 8, 2018 Culture, Essays, Humor, Poetry 10 Comments by Con Chapman Nyla Matuk and I have a few things in common; we are both poets (or in my case, claim to be), and we both know what sumptuary laws are, she having written a book of poems using that term as...
‘Canto 2’ by James Sale The Society June 7, 2018 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Terza Rima 39 Comments Canto 2 is part of a sequence of 33 Cantos called The English Cantos that James Sale is attempting to write in the style – and using the terza rima – of Dante. His aim is to create a contemporary epic of...
‘Wild Strawberry’ and Other Poetry by John Grey The Society June 6, 2018 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 4 Comments Wild Strawberry On summer strolls, I often find. Wild strawberry flowering in the wood, White leaf, gold bud, my cheerless mood Is ruffled clear, as fragrant wind Blows equally through flower, through...
‘The Things I Have Not Done’ by Anthony Wang The Society June 5, 2018 Beauty, Culture, High School Submissions, Poetry 14 Comments I have not been to Medford, nor Milan; I have not seen a war, nor won the peace; I’ve risen to six thousand cloudy dawns that – not once – promised sun, and storms to cease. I have not stood to spurn...
‘Poems Unwritten’ by Daniel Leach The Society June 4, 2018 Beauty, Poetry 8 Comments Sometimes, when the light and the mists of the day _Settle holy and soft on the edge of the night, When the sights and the sounds of the world melt away, _And the vision that lives in the soul takes...
‘Philosopher’ by Leo Yankevich The Society June 3, 2018 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 15 Comments for Czesław Miłosz For a moment as brief and long as eternity he sees what the blind man sees in the blink of an eye: a sun that never sets, forms wrought from gold, purity before it falls or is restored...
‘The Cat in the Red MAGA Hat’ and Other Poetry by Bruce Dale Wise The Society June 2, 2018 Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Humor, Poetry 18 Comments (All poetry by Bruce Dale Wise) The Cat in the Red MAGA Hat by Carb Deliseuwe Eugenior Joseph took girlfriend and mom on Mother's Day to Cheesecake Factory, Miami, for a piece of cake. Though he was...
‘My Garden’ and Other Sonnets by Adam Sedia The Society June 1, 2018 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 10 Comments My Garden Lush, fresh-pruned verdure shades the cobbled path, It bursts with rich-hued blossoms strewn about Whence sweet aromas waft, blend, and enswathe, And droops with luscious, nectar-swollen...
‘The Book of Kells’ by Jane Blanchard The Society May 31, 2018 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 4 Comments The intricacies of script and figure are amazing. Kudos to the faithful who made contributions large or small. By far this volume is the greatest ever to present illuminated gospel. Ink was carefully...
‘The Seabirds’ and Other Poetry by David Paul Behrens The Society May 30, 2018 Beauty, Poetry 33 Comments The Seabirds Seagulls, on the air they glide, Over the waves to the land; Soaring across the sky, so wide, To softly land on the sand. Pelicans, floating in the sky, Upon the wind, so free; Across the...
A Translation of ‘Longing’ by Friedrich Schiller The Society May 29, 2018 Beauty, Poetry, Translation 13 Comments Translation by David B. Gosselin If I from this darkened valley Where the gloomy vapors creep Might by some wonder swiftly flee My soul could blessedly weep! Gazing upon this pure...
‘Boasted Viridian’ and Other Poetry by Alexander King Ream The Society May 28, 2018 Beauty, Poetry 12 Comments Boasted Viridian Said Viridian Green to Cerulean Blue, “The waves would be boring without me and you, The crashing unflashing, the sheen without glow, Silver unplugged: not luminous Bro.” Of...
‘Song of Us’ and Other Poetry by by Amy Foreman The Society May 27, 2018 Beauty, Culture, Humor, Poetry, Riddles 25 Comments Song of Us Face to face, polite and careful, Tentative we were, and prayerful, Neither one of us would dare pull More from this than met the eye. . . . Yet Side by side we worked together, Hands of...
‘Napoleon in New Orleans’ and Other Poetry by Robert McLean The Society May 26, 2018 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 8 Comments Napoleon in New Orleans So the sun of Austerlitz has set. I had many triumphs, but it’s the few defeats – Leipzig, Waterloo especially – I struggle to forget. I struggled to rearrange...
‘The Revving Roar of Rolling Thunder’ by E.V. Wyler The Society May 25, 2018 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 9 Comments Poet's Note: In this sonnet I'm paying tribute to the patriotic bikers who make their annual pilgrimage to Washington DC to participate in Rolling Thunder's First Amendment Demonstration Run every year on the...
10 Favorite Shakespeare Sonnets The Society May 24, 2018 Beauty, Culture, Education, Essays, Poetry, Shakespeare 16 Comments By James A. Tweedie Call me a snob but I am generally attracted to what is commonly referred to as “great art” or the “masterpieces.” Over the years I have looked at famous paintings and I have looked...
‘Heritage as Hope’ and Other Poetry by Phillip Whidden The Society May 23, 2018 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 30 Comments Heritage as Hope I saw the cricket scene in evening light, In Windsor light with calm men moving through The evening air and dressed in cricket white. Long centuries are contained beneath the blue Of...
Three Poems by Mikhail Yu. Lermontov, Translated by Don Mager The Society May 22, 2018 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Translation 8 Comments All poems translated from Russian. The Rock A gold cloud rested the whole night Upon the breast of a huge rock; And cheerfully at dawn it dashed Into the blue not to come back Wet traces in the...
‘Joy Comes’ and Other Poetry by Rachel Holbrook The Society May 21, 2018 Beauty, Poetry, Terrorism 9 Comments Joy Comes Softly silent; kindly kept, ___the haunted hours crept. Moonlit minutes—marked and mute, ___the lonely doubt takes root. The tendrils twine; the rootlets reach. ___Somehow the sun must...
‘Bridge of Memories’ and Other Poetry by Dusty Grein The Society May 20, 2018 Beauty, Pantoum, Poetry 16 Comments Bridge of Memories a symmetrelle in mixed syllabic meter A bridge built of memories spans the gap between future and past. Although life may speed by us too fast, from every experience, knowledge we...
‘Prince Harry to Meghan Markle on Their 20th Wedding Anniversary’ by Joe Tessitore The Society May 19, 2018 Culture, Poetry 8 Comments I remember our marriage the horses, the carriage the millions we spent on your gown we threw out the book the foundations we shook as traditions came tumbling down twas a modern affair each sex...