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    • Two Poems for Christmastide by Sally Cook

      The Society
      January 1, 2022
      Beauty, Culture, Poetry
      21 Comments
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    • poem/arredondo/niobe tears/crying

      ‘Disemboguement’ by Anna J. Arredondo

      The Society
      January 31, 2023
      6
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      ‘So Close By’ by Warren Bonham

      The Society
      January 31, 2023
      10
    • poem/freeman/love and loss

      ‘Love and Loss: Poems for Viktoria Sokoli’ by Paul Freeman

      The Society
      January 30, 2023
      11
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      ‘Comfort’ and Other Poetry of the Sea by Catherine Lee

      The Society
      January 30, 2023
      18
    • ‘Media’ and Other Poetry by Norma Pain

      The Society
      January 29, 2023
      9
    • poem/covid/James Sale/church closed

      StairWell Canto 8: ‘Covid-Priest’ by James Sale

      The Society
      January 28, 2023
      26
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    • Friends of Falun Gong Poetry Contest Winners Announced

      The Society
      May 13, 2019
      Culture, Human Rights in China, Poetry, Poetry Contests
      2 Comments
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    • 2022 FIFA World Cup Poetry Challenge

      The Society
      December 9, 2022
      21
    • Prose-That’s-Really-a-Sonnet Poetry Challenge

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      November 22, 2022
      47
    • Metrical Clerihew Poetry Challenge

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      October 9, 2022
      72
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      The Society
      September 23, 2022
      19
    • The 2022 Society of Classical Poets International Poetry Competition

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      September 1, 2022
      8
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      The 2022 SCP International High School Poetry Competition

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      September 1, 2022
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    • Essay: 'Poetry Matters' by Bruce Wren LC

      The Society
      October 22, 2017
      Beauty, Culture, Essays, Poetry
      3 Comments
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    • poetry/essay/Salemi/transgressive

      Transgression, Fake and Genuine: An Essay by Joseph S. Salemi

      The Society
      January 23, 2023
      35
    • ‘I Met a Shepherdess’ by Guido Cavalcanti, Translated by Joseph S. Salemi

      The Society
      January 8, 2023
      20
    • ‘Calendar Poems’: An Essay by Margaret Coats

      The Society
      January 1, 2023
      37
    • Henny and Sal: An Essay by Joseph S. Salemi

      The Society
      November 14, 2022
      12
    • An Essay on John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, by Joseph S. Salemi

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      October 20, 2022
      24
    • ‘Obedience’ by Giuseppe Gioachino Belli, Translated by Joseph S. Salemi (with a Long Note)

      The Society
      September 13, 2022
      16
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The Society

The Society of Classical Poets was founded in New York in July, 2012.

poem/medical assistance in dying/MAID

Poems on Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID), by Susan Jarvis Bryant

The Society
January 13, 2023
Culture, Poetry, Satire
27 Comments
. Out, out, brief candle! ---Macbeth I am black-dog blue and blinded by the glitzy gaze of stars. Lucent moons will never light __my skyless eye. I am frequently reminded of my fear __of future scars--- when...
poem/imagination/eternity/death/still life

‘This Side of Eternity’ by Anna J. Arredondo

The Society
January 13, 2023
Beauty, Poetry
21 Comments
. This Side of Eternity I. Imagination, you’re a two-edged sword, The universe your oyster, opened wide; Conceiving all the boon life might afford In dazzling display: what may be tried, Perpetual...

‘For Sophie Pakaluk Barrows’ and Other Poetry by Joshua C. Frank

The Society
January 13, 2023
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
18 Comments
. For Sophie Pakaluk Barrows based on The Appalling Strangeness of the Mercy of God by Michael Pakaluk in pie quebrado meter Before God made her soul and mind, Before her parents’ genes entwined __To start...

A Poem On the Banning of the Word ‘Field’ by the University of Southern California, by Paul A. Freeman

The Society
January 12, 2023
Culture, Poetry, Satire
22 Comments
. On the Banning of the Word 'Field' by the University of Southern California’s School of Social Work See the related news story here. In Southern California they’ve declared that field’s a word to...
poem/French revolution/high school

‘For the French Revolution’ by Claire He

The Society
January 12, 2023
Culture, High School Submissions, Poetry
5 Comments
. For the French Revolution Oh, this shall tell the tale of France’s past: the revolution brought in ‘eighty nine, when Frenchmen took a stand and rose, amassed, against the king from ocean to the...

Poems on the Agony of Teenage Girls, by Jeff Kemper

The Society
January 12, 2023
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
17 Comments
. Be Gone an angry teenage daughter to her absconded mother What irritant incited you to leave And not come back while I was left to grieve? Was it the man you wed, the girl you bore, Your dispositions? Tell...

‘The Fluctuations of Modernity and Antiquity’ by Laurel Aronian

The Society
January 11, 2023
Beauty, High School Submissions, Pantoum, Poetry
9 Comments
. The Fluctuations of Modernity and Antiquity a pantoum __Something is ahead, A solemn note on open sky, __It rises from the dead, A whizzing plane of time gone by. A solemn note on open sky, Reminds me of...

‘Putting Settings in Their Place’ and Other Frivolous Poems by James A. Tweedie

The Society
January 11, 2023
Humor, Poetry
19 Comments
. Putting Settings in Their Place For dilettantes the world’s bereft When table settings aren’t precise. For if the forks aren’t on the left They’ll give their host some stern advice: “The fork goes...

A Poem for January 6 Prisoners: ‘Letter from a DC Prison’ by Adam Wasem

The Society
January 10, 2023
Culture, Poetry
36 Comments
. Letter from a DC Prison We’d seen the evidence, the ballots dropped In loads of boxes trundled in late-night With ballot counting claimed to have been stopped; The windows blocked to hide observers’...
poem/poetry/civil war/antietam

‘Antietam’ and Other Poetry by Vicki Roberts

The Society
January 10, 2023
Culture, Love Poems, Poetry
6 Comments
. Antietam It was the bloodbath battle of the Civil War; Scores of men died, by musket, the gore; Was this brave dead soldier from north or from south, Left on the field, blood gushed from his mouth; He had a...

‘Queen of Jubilees’ by Paul A. Freeman

The Society
January 10, 2023
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
15 Comments
. Queen of Jubilees A Queen there was, revered, of global fame--- Elizabeth the Second was her name. For three-score-years-and-ten she ruled the roost and gave us Brits a self-assuring boost through walkabouts...
poetry poem beauty culture death funeral

‘Elegy for an Unremarkable Man’ by Shaun C. Duncan

The Society
January 9, 2023
Beauty, Poetry
28 Comments
. Elegy for an Unremarkable Man Poor Niel is dead. He’d been off sick since May. Cancer, they said, as if we couldn’t guess, And, since we didn’t know what words to say, We stayed away. If pressed, we...

‘Thorns Grow with Song’ by Maura H. Harrison

The Society
January 9, 2023
Beauty, Poetry, Villanelle
6 Comments
. Thorns Grow with Song It’s time to rend our hearts and look inside The chambered will, into the voices in The vein: thorns grow with song. A hope applied With mercy calls the tuner of the tidal Pull of...

‘I Met a Shepherdess’ by Guido Cavalcanti, Translated by Joseph S. Salemi

The Society
January 8, 2023
Essays, Love Poems, Poetry, Translation
20 Comments
. I Met a Shepherdess  by Guido Cavalcanti (c. 1250-1300) translated by Joseph S. Salemi I met a shepherdess in a small copse. More beautiful than starlight, the girl seemed. Her hair was blonde-ish, with a...

‘Mourning Louis XVI’ by Brian Yapko

The Society
January 8, 2023
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
25 Comments
. Mourning Louis XVI We must not say in public that we mourn--- Sit still, Brigitte, and listen to your père! If we disclose our grief we court the hate Of France’s revolutionary swarm. These days are bleak...
poem/poetry/new year/time

‘The Departing Year’ by Satyananda Sarangi

The Society
January 7, 2023
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
24 Comments
. The Departing Year This night shall stand and stare with wintry rage Through half-closed windows stained in loss and gain; To measure all astounding feats and fame Against those bitter tears in blinding...

‘I Will Mock When Your Calamity Cometh’ by Alexander King Ream

The Society
January 7, 2023
Culture, Poetry
5 Comments
. "I Will Mock When Your Calamity Cometh"  "...but ye have set at nought my counsel, and would hear none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh..." ...

‘Xi’ and Other Poetry by Morrison Handley-Schachler

The Society
January 7, 2023
Culture, Love Poems, Poetry
8 Comments
. Xi When Xerxes saw his bridge of boats which spanned The Hellespont destroyed, forthwith he laid Fetters of iron on the waves and flayed With whips the surf which had him dared withstand. So Gaius, too,...

‘Cambridge Dictionary Women, 2040’ and Other Poetry by Russel Winick

The Society
January 6, 2023
Culture, Poetry, Satire
10 Comments
. Cambridge Dictionary Women, 2040 In 2040 leftist sports fans Realized their greatest joys, With legendary women’s records Smashed by athletes born as boys. Serena Williams’, Brittney Griner’s Records...

A Poem Commemorating January 6th and Ashli Babbitt, by Monika Cooper

The Society
January 6, 2023
Blank Verse, Culture, Poetry
18 Comments
. La Bandera “ never begins an attack, nor, when once engaged, ever surrenders” —Benjamin Franklin It was the feast of the Epiphany. The mall was full, the air alive with flags And musical with...

‘The Babylonian Exile’ and Other Poetry by Jeffrey Essmann

The Society
January 5, 2023
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
5 Comments
. The Babylonian Exile At first it cut much quicker to the bone: The loss of all, our world brought to the brink. But by and by you slowly start to think That maybe your concerns were overblown. Their gods are...
Poetry Catholic priest abortion

A Poem for Defrocked Priest Frank Pavone: ‘Unholy Orders’ by Joshua C. Frank

The Society
January 4, 2023
Culture, Poetry
67 Comments
. Unholy Orders for defrocked priest Frank Pavone I heard disturbing news: Pope Francis fired a priest For preaching pro-life views To save some of the least, Against unholy orders From bishops from on...

‘The Sky with Birds Just Lately Born’ by Peg Glynn

The Society
January 4, 2023
Beauty, Poetry
8 Comments
. The Sky with Birds Just Lately Born Sometimes there’s a sadness in my heart. A stone, a thought, a fearful start. Yet I rise and see the morn, The sky with birds just lately born. So brave they try their...

‘Shams’ and Other Poetry by C.B. Anderson

The Society
January 3, 2023
Culture, Humor, Poetry, Satire
18 Comments
. Shams Shams-i Tabrizi was Rumi’s intimate friend and spiritual mentor. I stayed awake those short midsummer nights When naked druids danced beneath the moon’s Hypnotic glow performing pagan rites And...

‘A Broadside’ by Peter Lillios

The Society
January 3, 2023
Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Readings
17 Comments
. . A Broadside Drawn up before us, proud and sure, Costumed in their haute couture, And sporting all the best coiffures, With colours purple and azure, Loom the powers of disarray, Armed with bromide and...

‘A Holy Picnic’ and Other Poetry by Sally Cook

The Society
January 2, 2023
Beauty, Poetry
31 Comments
. A Holy Picnic A small child had a vision in the light Of day, while sitting square upon the rug. It seemed as if she rose to a great height, And there, her senses gave a mighty tug As if to warn her there...

Two Winter Poems by Phil S. Rogers

The Society
January 2, 2023
Culture, Humor, Poetry
9 Comments
. The Winter Cold I so despise the winter cold; I admit it makes me utter all kinds of truly nasty words, disposition in the gutter. The snow, the ice, this arctic clime do not set my heart aflutter, and...

‘Dark Sky’ by Joseph Stuart

The Society
January 1, 2023
Beauty, Poetry
6 Comments
. Dark Sky Back home, the dark is overborne By a billion busy diodes Emitting artificial light, Thence seeping out into the night. But, up here, there are auroras, Constellations, and nebulae--- Or so the...

‘Calendar Poems’: An Essay by Margaret Coats

The Society
January 1, 2023
Beauty, Culture, Essays, Found Poem, Poetry
37 Comments
. Calendar Poems by Margaret Coats January loves what goblets hold, And February complains of cold. March plows the fields with furrows new, And April nurtures each flower’s hue. Dew on the grass, and leaves...

Two Different Views on New Year’s Resolutions: Poems by David Whippman and Evan Mantyk

The Society
December 31, 2022
Culture, Poetry, Villanelle
16 Comments
. New Year’s Resolution a villanelle by David Whippman And what have you resolved for the new year? I guarantee your vows will be in vain. Oh, I don’t doubt that right now you’re sincere. But soon,...

Two New Year’s Eve Poems by Susan Jarvis Bryant

The Society
December 31, 2022
Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Satire
30 Comments
. Same Old New Year   I bid adieu. You shuffle out. A new you shimmies in--- A you without the frown and pout, A happy you of zip and clout, And once again I’ve little doubt You’ll make me rich and...

A Poem for Isabel Vaughan-Spruce: ‘Her Silent Prayer’ by Susan Jarvis Bryant 

The Society
December 30, 2022
Culture, Poetry
29 Comments
. Her Silent Prayer  for Isabel Vaughan-Spruce  Beneath the whisper of suburban trees One sombre, sunless, British afternoon, A hushed and humble lady stood at ease In...

Poems Against Birth Control, from Joshua C. Frank

The Society
December 30, 2022
Beauty, Blank Verse, Culture, Found Poem, Poetry, Rondeau
21 Comments
. Two Empty Chairs “We did the NFP bit for awhile ... and have felt revulsion over it ever since. During that time we might have had at least two more children.”  ---Letter to the Editor, Seattle...

‘Where Ever-present Joy Knows Naught of Time’ and Other Poetry by Cynthia Erlandson

The Society
December 29, 2022
Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Rondeau Redoublé
24 Comments
. “Where Ever-present Joy Knows Naught of Time” ---Dante, Paradiso, Canto X, D.L. Sayers translation a rondeau redouble Where ever-present joy knows naught of time, The music of infinity is sung In...

‘Crimes Against My Sanity’ and Other Poems on Parenting by Anna J. Arredondo

The Society
December 29, 2022
Culture, Humor, Poetry, Villanelle
22 Comments
. Crimes Against My Sanity At any-given-time o’clock While tidying my house, I find--- Oh look---is that another sock? It really isn’t such a shock; My kids for chaos were designed At any-given-time...

‘Addiction’ by Paul Buchheit

The Society
December 28, 2022
Culture, Poetry
14 Comments
. Addiction A ripple imperceptible, like hints of amber in the tiring balsams, swells to waves of apprehension, then imprints a vision on my mind, with carousels of pirouetting bronze bouquets that plead for...

‘Freedom in Forgiveness’: A Villanelle by Dan Tuton

The Society
December 28, 2022
Beauty, Poetry, Villanelle
17 Comments
. Villanelle for Timothy When chains of cold resentment in the end Entangle souls and circle ‘round to bind, There’s freedom in forgiveness, my dear friend. When grievance woos the wounded to offend And...

‘On Attending a Holiday Ensemble with My Wife’ by Jeremiah Johnson

The Society
December 27, 2022
Beauty, Music, Poetry
8 Comments
. On Attending a Holiday Ensemble with My Wife We’re gathered in a colleague’s home, Invited to this performance; Watching musicians’ fingers roam, I’m taken to when providence Crossed mine with Dr....

‘The Fall of Babylon’ and Other Poetry by William Harrison

The Society
December 27, 2022
Culture, Poetry
10 Comments
. The Fall of Babylon Come hear the footsteps march at warlike pace, Come see the merchants weep and craftsmen flee. The vengeful grin on every stranger's face; The angel's cast the millstone in the...

‘Wisdom’ and Other Poetry by Russel Winick

The Society
December 26, 2022
Beauty, Humor, Poetry
24 Comments
. Wisdom When young I dreamed of someday being wise, And pictured brilliant input holding sway. But via jolts of life now realize, There’s wisdom also in what you don’t say. . . No One Fully Measures...
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