The American Spirit (One Voice, 250 Years)   I Brave loving hearts have helped our nation stand, though history...

  The Ballad of Zebulon Pike In Colorado’s mountain range _There stands a peak named Pike’s. Named for our hero...

  We Are the Ones The first to circumnavigate the globe, To map the continents and island chains, To climb...

  My Pyjamas! My jamas have lemurs and llamas, A rude cockatoo and a yak, Cerulean shrews and iguanas All...

  A Snowy Egret While driving down the road one day, in the pouring rain, a snowy egret flew above...

  The Swearing-in of Calvin Coolidge ---Plymouth Notch, Vermont, 1923 Strange, the postman’s loud, insistent knock (The nearest phone, in...

  Ballad of the Sequoia _Six hundred years ago, My seed was planted in the ground, _A life so full...

  The 51st State "A republic, if you can keep it." — Benjamin Franklin, attributed answer after the Constitutional Convention,...

  La Uva I packed a bag of grapes into her lunch. My hands resembled his, though not as worn;...

  There’s Blood that Flows Within the Stripes There’s blood that flows within the stripes; _The stripes upon the flag,...

  Birdsong If I might for a moment go all soft And corny; hold in humble hands aloft A simple...

  The Melody That Lingers On “Any requests?” the leader asked from the Old Time Country Band. “Just tell us...

  American Dreams   I Dreams of new realms, refuge outside The scepter’s and the crozier’s reach: Dour, black-clad zealots...

  An American Fabius I shan’t soon forget that impactful day When my son marched with face weathered cloudy and...

  Vernal Clinic To regular observers, spring had never seemed So jarringly abnormal as it did this year. Its bright...

  Omaha Beach The ramp went down, and the brute din of war Was like a furnace. Some collective will...

  Music to Part the Veil ---on first hearing Mendelssohn’s 5th forty years ago. The winter sun had just begun...

  A Gentleman’s Guide to Losing a War I hold my spyglass to my face, _And straighten my cravat. A...

  Black Shuck There are curious marks on the north door of Holy Trinity, in Blythburgh, England. Tradition has it...

  When the Last World War II Veteran Passes Away _Lower the flag, men! The last great one has passed....

  A Fallow Year at Worthy Farm No Glastonbury Festival occurs at Worthy Farm in twenty twenty-six. the land, where...

  Outstanding in Afghanistan The man rose up at break of day, His feet like thunder on the ground, He...

  250 More My country, sweetest home I’ve come to know, Your wings have sheltered me, a foreigner. I came...

  Americans Cross the Rubicon   1. Preamble Be proud, be grateful that we’re here! We came In pain from...

  Two Fateful American Coin Flips   Asa Lovejoy, Francis Pettigrew & The Portland Penny We settled on the banks...

  Clarence Thomas, American Hero “The mob I now faced carried no ropes or guns. It s weapons were smooth-tongued...

  What America Was Meant to Be We often hear what they said back then, no crown should rule over...

  America: 250 Years Should we commit to celebrate our birth? We’ve run so many laps around the sun, Yet...

  The Second Rain A grandly booming, flashing shower Comes flying in and promptly starts To soak the neighborhood an...

  Archaic Torso of Apollo by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) translated from German by Mary Jane Myers We'll never know...

  The Council of Infinite Opinions A council met where certainty was banned, And every truth was shaped by shifting...

  The SCP Edition of Homer's Odyssey, translated by Michael Solot, is now being released as a historic audiobook---marking the...

  Not Small At All I’ve gained appreciation for the smaller things in life, The uneventful days when all is...

  The Roommate It’s early morning (morning prayer): I hear Her in her room as now and then she sighs...

  Pouting Polly Polly Esther finds her vesture positively snoring. Even worse, her purse looks like a tile of kitchen...

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning Has Second Thoughts How do I hate you? Let me count the flaws: I hate you...

  Then and Now The gallery faces return: I name their names, These powers invading dreams, who being dead Are...

  The Ministry of Twee The Ministry’s role is to banish the soul _In poems the poets send in--- To...

  Breath of Night A sullen breath pervades the night the rhythmic stillness I can hear where peaceful dreams grow...

Among the Redwoods by Edward Rowland Sill (1841-1887) FAREWELL to such a world! Too long I press The crowded pavement...