‘Uninspired’ by Siri Espy The Society January 24, 2021 Culture, Humor, Poetry 13 Comments . I fear my motivation’s dead; there’s no one home inside my head. I’ve looked for it from dusk to dawn; I tell you, it is really gone! The situation is quite dire; my neurons will no longer fire. I...
‘Bread and Circuses, Checks and Netflix’ by Susan Jarvis Bryant The Society January 23, 2021 Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Poetry 24 Comments . Tyrants would distribute largesse, a bushel of wheat, a gallon of wine, and a sesterce: and then everybody would shamelessly cry, “Long live the King!” ---Juvenal Keep a mind that’s blind to widened...
‘Lament for Henderson’s’: A poem for Burns’ Night 2021, by Margaret Coats The Society January 23, 2021 Culture, Humor, Poetry 16 Comments . January 25 is the birthday of Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759–1796). On or near this day, Scots worldwide gather for a supper of haggis (traditionally made of sheep innards), whisky, and poetry....
‘Coats’ by Stephen Ramsek The Society January 22, 2021 Beauty, Culture, High School Submissions, Poetry 4 Comments . A coat of luminescent snow Descended on my patch of grass, And for a moment all its glow Inflamed my eyes like burnished brass. And in a moment it had gone, But not withdrawn; it nimbly turned Into a...
‘Long View Cottage’ and Other Poetry by Gregory Ross The Society January 22, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 4 Comments . Long View Cottage The view is long and dark atop the mountain where I roam. Birds sing a little sweeter in a high and softer tone. The people gave it many names; I only call it home. The fog hangs thick...
‘Earth Song’ and Other Poetry by Lawrence Fray The Society January 21, 2021 Beauty, Poetry 11 Comments . Earth Song We longed to see Norway's Northern Lights,That great, magnetic, celestial balletOf colour, one of nature's majestic sights:'Not to be missed at any cost'. The clicheWas ironic; we'd...
On Rembrandt’s ‘Return of the Prodigal Son’ and Other Poetry by Brian Yapko The Society January 21, 2021 Art, Beauty, Culture, Poetry 17 Comments . On Rembrandt's "Return of the Prodigal Son" Three centuries have passed since it was wrought--- A work of art transcendent yet humane. The tender play of feelings Rembrandt caught: A wastrel son disgraced,...
Poetry on Piero della Francesca’s ‘History of the True Cross,’ by Michael Coy The Society January 20, 2021 Art, Beauty, Culture, Ekphrastic, Poetry 1 Comment . The Death of Adam Excerpted from Musings on Piero della Francesca’s “History of the True Cross,” in the Church of San Francesco, Arezzo, Italy There’s always both: the sacred and profane. The right...
‘Priam, King of Troy, Addresses Cassandra’s Concerns about the Horse’ by Michael Vanyukov The Society January 20, 2021 Culture, Poetry 4 Comments . Even then Cassandra, who, by the god’s decree, is never to be believed by Trojans, reveals our future fate with her lips. —Virgil, The Aeneid (Kline translation) Surcease, Cassandra, stop that...
‘Stream’ and Other Poetry by Leland James The Society January 19, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Villanelle 4 Comments . Stream Above the bend, the water deep and clear, the current strong; seen from the Buckman Bridge, ten minutes walk for me, my cabin near, through pines down from a timeworn granite ridge —a lofty...
‘Childhood, 1919’ by David Whippman The Society January 19, 2021 Culture, Poetry 34 Comments . Daddy came home from “the war to end all war” And seemed, at first, one of the lucky ones. He looked exactly as he had before, His flesh untouched by bullets, gas, or bombs. But not his memories…soon...
‘Virtual Propitiation: Sacrifice of the Quarantined Caregiver’ by Bethany Mootsey The Society January 18, 2021 Culture, Humor, Poetry 8 Comments Seven inches, simple dark design My modern mind disdains the notion That the measure of devotion Is the size or splendor of the shrine. Spilling supplications, meat and wine My ancestors with deep...
‘Meditation’ by Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867), Translated by Joshua Mincio The Society January 18, 2021 Beauty, Poetry, Translation 6 Comments . Be good, my Sorrow. You may rest assured; The Evening whom you called descends; Behold; The fall of dusk leaves some in towns obscured With newfound peace, yet some with cares untold. Through gauntlet...
‘Every Little Thing’ and Other Poetry by Daniel Kemper The Society January 18, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Love Poems, Poetry, Poetry Forms 61 Comments X Every Little Thing I. His Version She treasured every little thing that you gave her: the sparrow necklace (hazel blueto match her eyes) the bracelet slipped insidethe box of...
‘For Martin Luther King Jr. Day, 2021’ by Susan Jarvis Bryant The Society January 18, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 30 Comments “I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” ---Martin Luther King, Jr. “I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically...
‘Rosarium’: A Sestina and Other Poetry by Benjamin Thomas Cepican The Society January 17, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Poetry Forms, Sestina 7 Comments . Rosarium a sestina A rose arises red from its green sheath Adorned with swords that prick and pierce: the thorn, Whose vigil kept ensures its life's not brief. Unmatched in charm though fresh from garden...
‘A Poet’s Strife’ by Sterling Osborne The Society January 17, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 11 Comments . My word will not survive a fire: the dust, the ash of paper singed by matches struck by fingers bent on silence. And it must rot here in summer heat in humid muck where mold will gnaw away at every page. My...
‘Malingerer’ by Ted Quarterman The Society January 16, 2021 Culture, Humor, Poetry 6 Comments . My inconsistent pharmacist, Administer that certain cure That can relax my hardened fist In doses sweet with taste impure. O give me something for the pain, My head thumps fast, my heart beats slow, Or...
‘Orchestra Tuning Up’ and Other Poetry by Cynthia Erlandson The Society January 16, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Music, Poetry 6 Comments _ Orchestra Tuning Up Is this the way the universe once sounded?A mass confusion of discordant trumpets,Flutes, horns, and violins like baffled cometsWithout a geometric course, confounded? Can this be how the...
‘The Victory of Donald J. Trump in the 2020 U.S. Election’ and Other Poetry by Bruce Dale Wise The Society January 15, 2021 Culture, Exposing Election Fraud, Humor, Poetry 17 Comments (All poems by Bruce Dale Wise) The Victory of Donald J. Trump in the 2020 U.S. Election by Erisbawdle Cue You can’t make something be so, if the numbers are all wrong. You can’t hide Waldo in a place...
‘Speak with Kind Gentleness’ by Mark Stone The Society January 15, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 22 Comments . Stress can envelop, encircle, entangle. Strictures can pressure from every angle. Tripping and slipping to ways that are errant happen to all who endeavor to parent. What should you do when in need of a...
‘Portrait of God’ by Chateaubriand, and Other Translations by Adam Sedia The Society January 15, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Translation 7 Comments . Portrait of God drawn from Scripture by François-René de Chateaubriand (1768-1848), translated by Adam Sedia Know you the jealous God, who dare engage In sin, whose impious deeds ignite his rage? His...
Two Poems of the Sea, by Susan Jarvis Bryant The Society January 14, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 33 Comments . Rapt “I must go down to the sea again, to the lonely sea and the sky…” ---John Masefield Today I felt the roil of sky and sea Merge to form a swathe of seamless blue, Where surge of...
‘Hearts and Clouds’ by Roy E. Peterson The Society January 14, 2021 Beauty, Poetry 22 Comments You can’t imagine what I saw,Some clouds that only God can drawWith pinks and reds and violet blue.He painted with a heavenly hue. Then from my mountainside retreatI had a special viewing seat.The distant...
‘Night’ by John Freeborn The Society January 13, 2021 Beauty, High School Submissions, Poetry 23 Comments . Spacious spans the starlit sky; Silver shines its light; Vast the veil, Pearly-pale, Drawn o’er the dusky night; Silently the star-strewn brooks Through flow’ry meadows flow; Glitt’ring gleams On...
Two Poems on Benvenuto Cellini, by Joseph S. Salemi The Society January 13, 2021 Art, Beauty, Culture, Ekphrastic, Humor, Poetry 17 Comments . Benvenuto Cellini’s Salt-Cellar A woman sitting back, just mildly curious To hear a man’s contrived, seductive patter, Waiting to see what fabrications spurious He’s dreamt up now. It doesn’t really...
‘Washington’s Grief’ by Alex Rubstein The Society January 12, 2021 Beauty, Culture, High School Submissions, Poetry 10 Comments . Behold the father of this infant land, Conductor of our daunting foe’s defeat, Now warmly laureled for his noble stand Through which our liberty was made complete. Yet Washington the praise did humbly...
The Singing Lines of Theresa Rodriguez: A Review of Sonnets The Society January 12, 2021 Essays, Poetry, Reviews 13 Comments by Andrew Benson Brown Theresa Rodriguez, Sonnets. 2nd edition. Shanti Arts, 193 Hillside Road, Brunswick, ME, 04011, 2020. 75 pp. $12.95. In his literary criticism, William Empson showed a subtle...
‘Humility’ and Other Poetry and Translation by Alexandra Guo The Society January 11, 2021 Beauty, Culture, High School Submissions, Humor, Poetry, Translation 12 Comments . Humility Lo, I have seen the Muses plain. What need Have I to go on living?—’Twas in Rome: I touched the flesh (it was a holy deed) That Michelangelo shaped out of stone. O what a great and glorious...
‘My Father’s Cardinal’ by Cynthia Erlandson The Society January 11, 2021 Beauty, Poetry 16 Comments . I wonder where my father’s cardinal is--- The colored-pencil drawing that he made In art class---he was only in fourth grade, I’d been impressed to learn. _____________________It was not his Idea to...
‘Amen and Awoman’ and Other Poetry on the State of the U.S. The Society January 11, 2021 Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Humor, Poetry 5 Comments . Wokeness by Russel Winick “Amen and Awoman” the Congressman said, The Leftists all thought it was great. What more woke insanity now lies ahead? That young females...
‘With Goals in Tow’ by Janice Canerdy The Society January 10, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 12 Comments . With Goals in Tow I’ve fewer days ahead of me than those I have been blessed to see. Though time moves on so rapidly, my hopes sustain. God still has plans for me, I know. He’s guiding me as to and...
‘Flodden’ and Other Poetry by James A. Tweedie The Society January 10, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Performing Arts, Poetry 15 Comments . Flodden Historical Note: The Battle of Flodden took place between English and Scottish armies on September 9, 1513. The battle proved a tragic disaster for the Scots who lost an estimated 12,000-17,000 men...
Two Poems Making Use of ‘Conceits,’ by Joseph S. Salemi The Society January 9, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Essays, Poetry 26 Comments . The Death of Today’s Sequoia Flecte ramos, arbor alta, tensa laxa viscera: Et rigor lentescat ille, quem dedit nativitas, Ut superni membra regis miti tendas stipite. —Venantius Fortunatus (c. 530-609...
‘In Nature’s Loving Show’ by Donald McCrory The Society January 9, 2021 Beauty, Poetry 18 Comments . In nature’s loving show of all things fair the fruits of youth seem sweetest to the eye, the world applauds youth’s beauty as most rare and pours sweet praise on looks that sadly die. Light limbs,...
‘The Inca Kings’ and Other Poetry by Siham Karami The Society January 8, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Villanelle 2 Comments . The Inca Kings Who stole the kings? Even Pachacutec's mummy now is gone from Lima's hospital display of Inca royalty—the T-Rex of them all, ferocity turned brittle bones and shrunken body in a...
‘An Ode To Letters’ and Other Poetry by Russel Winick The Society January 8, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Humor, Poetry 21 Comments . An Ode to Letters We cannot be sure what the future will hold, But I doubt this prediction will fail. That no one will ever unearth in an attic An old treasure trove of email. . . Outvoted In my marriage I...
Petrarch’s Canzone 129, translated by Steven Monte The Society January 7, 2021 Beauty, Love Poems, Poetry, Translation 5 Comments . “Di pensier in pensier, di monte in monte” by Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374) __From thought to thought, from mountain to mountain, Love guides me, and every path in which I’ve strayed is hostile to a...
A Poem on Sir Edward John Poynter’s ‘Faithful unto Death,’ by Peter Hartley The Society January 7, 2021 Art, Beauty, Culture, Ekphrastic, Poetry 14 Comments . From Parthenope’s coast each to his post, Beseeching eyes upraised with steady gaze. That night would nature’s cruelty erase A city from the broiling earth and roast The dying with the lying dead....
‘Uncivil War’ by James A. Tweedie The Society January 6, 2021 Culture, Exposing Election Fraud, Poetry 10 Comments . with reference to Macbeth V,5 . So bleak and dreary, like a stormy day, The world a whirl of whorls of endless rain And wind, with crash and flash from out the fray As cannonades exchange defiance and...
