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    • poem/pain/education

      'Learnin’ Letters' and Other Poetry by Norma Pain

      The Society
      March 20, 2023
      Education, Humor, Poetry
      28 Comments
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    • ‘I Would Say Yes’ and Other Poetry by Gigi Ryan

      The Society
      June 20, 2025
      4
    • ‘The Comings and Goings of Heaven and Earth’: A Poem by David L. Williams

      The Society
      June 20, 2025
      4
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      ‘Tilted Tales’: Three Poems by Susan Jarvis Bryant

      The Society
      June 19, 2025
      6
    • poem/anderson/beauty

      ‘Enigma’: A Poem by Steve Cooper

      The Society
      June 19, 2025
      4
    • ‘Periwinkle’: A Poem by Jeffrey Essmann

      The Society
      June 18, 2025
      9
    • ‘A Winter’s Tale’ by Jeff Eardley

      The Society
      June 18, 2025
      15
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    • National Poetry Month Challenge: What Is Poetry?

      The Society
      April 16, 2021
      Culture, Poetry, Poetry Challenge, Poetry Contests
      78 Comments
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    • Winners of Friends of Falun Gong 2025 Poetry Competition Announced

      The Society
      May 13, 2025
      1
    • 2025 Friends of Falun Gong Poetry Competition

      The Society
      March 31, 2025
    • The Best Poems of 2024: Winners of SCP International Poetry Competition

      The Society
      February 1, 2025
      28
    • Winners of 2024 SCP International High School Poetry Competition Announced

      The Society
      February 1, 2025
      2
    • The Best Haiku of 2024: Winners of the 2024 SCP Haiku Competition

      The Society
      September 29, 2024
      14
    • The 2024 Society of Classical Poets International Poetry Competition

      The Society
      August 31, 2024
      16
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The Society of Classical Poets was founded in New York in July, 2012.

‘Funny How a Day Can Go So Slow’ by David D. Irby

The Society
August 25, 2021
Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Rondel
18 Comments
. a rondel It's funny how a day can go so slow, and yet a year just simply seems to fly. We blink, and then another one goes by. Those winds of change don't ever cease to blow. Time's raging river has an...

‘At the Temple of Yue Fei’ and Other Poetry by Talbot Hook

The Society
August 24, 2021
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
13 Comments
. At the Temple of Yue Fei Behind, a lake unstirring sleeps; Ahead, grey fog and budding leaves. A jade-green pool commands the heart, Beneath the clouds and sweeping eaves. A statue beckons; I respond, And...

‘Lost and Found’ and Other Poetry by Lucia Haase

The Society
August 23, 2021
Beauty, Poetry
10 Comments
. Lost and Found I’ve lost myself but in the course, I’ve found a sanctuary glowing, aspen golden. To me, I am the stream to woodland bound upon the forest floor midst boulders olden. My water flows as...

‘The Secret Garden’ and Other Poetry by Brian Yapko

The Society
August 22, 2021
Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Rondeau
29 Comments
. The Secret Garden Beyond these ivied walls grows naught but heather Gorse and broom, the moors engulfed by blows Of bitter, wuthering wind and gloomy weather. This haunted land is barren, bleak and old. But...

‘The Night Hank Williams Died’ by Jeff Eardley

The Society
August 21, 2021
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
36 Comments
. There never was a night so long When time went crawling by. The Arctic wind came howling in Across the Nashville sky. The planes had all been grounded With no tickets left to ride. It was wheels out on the...

A Brief Poem on Joe Biden and Afghanistan, by British Poet James Sale

The Society
August 20, 2021
Culture, Humor, Poetry
19 Comments
. The Commander-in-Chief How Biden sucks---I mean the man, Who being wholly characterless Will criticize Afghanistan "Cowards"---when he can’t face the Press! . . James Sale is a worldwide thought...

Poems on the English Moors, by Peter Hartley

The Society
August 20, 2021
Beauty, Poetry
30 Comments
. Geese on the Moor On Laddow Moss the April air is cold And still. A single pair of wayward geese We find beside a tarn, their nest of fleece And feather sprigs of springy heather hold Together. Once we found...

The SCP Late Summer 2021 Poetry Reading, Online

The Society
August 19, 2021
From the Society, Poetry, Readings
8 Comments
. You are invited to a reading of exquisite poetry and conversations with the poets. This reading is part of a quarterly series of online poetry readings planned for 2021-2022. . Date & Time Sunday...

‘Internal Combustion—Vision for a New Dark Age’ by Paul Erlandson

The Society
August 19, 2021
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
28 Comments
. “Come with me, child, past all this camouflage.” “Is there a secret garden there, Grandpa?” “Not quite. It’s just a small, padlocked garage, To keep out the enforcers of the law.” I keyed the...

‘The Devil in the Pulpit’ by Susan Jarvis Bryant

The Society
August 18, 2021
Culture, Poetry
36 Comments
. Cheap Sauvignon’s chilled and then swilled just to stave off the pain, While TVs drone on as cons ponder on who is to blame. We lumber along with each task And no one will ever dare ask--- Zip lips for...

Review: Legends of Liberty Volume 1 by Andrew Benson Brown

The Society
August 18, 2021
Culture, Epic, Essays, Humor, Poetry, Reviews
3 Comments
Reviewed Book: Legends of Liberty Volume 1, by Andrew Benson Brown, T A J Classics, 2021 by James Sale Legends of Liberty is an important new poem from the American poet, Andrew Benson Brown. The nearest...

‘Pierrepoint on Capital Punishment’ by Joseph S. Salemi

The Society
August 17, 2021
Blank Verse, Culture, Poetry
19 Comments
. Albert Pierrrepoint (1905-1992) served as one of GreatBritain’s chief executioners from 1931 to 1956, duringwhich time he hanged over 500 persons. All the namesand events mentioned here are real. My father...

Poetry on Afghanistan’s Fall to the Taliban, by James A. Tweedie

The Society
August 16, 2021
Culture, Poetry
24 Comments
. Debacle in Kabul We all make mistakes and we all have regrets. The mess in Kabul is as bad as it gets. We messed up before when we left Vietnam, Not to mention, Qaddafi, Iraq and Saddam. We messed up in...

‘The Return of Chaos’ by Phil S. Rogers

The Society
August 16, 2021
Culture, Poetry
4 Comments
. The gods of ancient Greece return to cast their blight upon our nation. Throughout the eons come and gone, now social strife is their creation. Chaos, the god of disarray, of lawlessness and vast...

‘Spectral Child’ by Beverly Stock

The Society
August 15, 2021
Beauty, Poetry
7 Comments
. after “Ballade of the Unborn Child” by Ella Wheeler Wilcox I wrote by hand my lines of verse, __Just lit by reading light; I made no sound, no sign or curse, __And suddenly was fixed with...

A Poem for the Chinese Communist Party: ‘WARNING’ by Damian Robin

The Society
August 14, 2021
Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Human Rights in China, Poetry
5 Comments
. W A R N I N G : __You won’t be forgivenfor the belt road you are livingfor flat miles that you have drivenover roadkill stacked and strivenon your blood red ride to hell. __You, the swollen high-ups,laced...

‘The Worst of Rhymes’ and Other Poetry by Joe Tessitore

The Society
August 13, 2021
Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Humor, Poetry
9 Comments
. The Worst of Rhymes No matter where we choose to sit, A fool, alone, would not admit, We’re living in a world of shit And I have more than done my bit. Here by the guillotine I knit Caps for the heads...

‘A Bagatelle for Brokenness’ by Daniel Kemper

The Society
August 12, 2021
Beauty, Poetry
24 Comments
. A burst of laughter slips into an echo past the tinny bells and rattling glass of Joe's, my corner liquor store, the last and first of every day. Arroyo streets are dry of human traffic now, are dry of...

What Rhymes with Orange? Poetry Challenge

The Society
August 11, 2021
Humor, Poetry, Poetry Challenge, Poetry Contests
109 Comments
. Write a poem rhyming the word "orange" with something else. Post it in the comments below. This challenge comes from Cheryl Corey, who provided the below poem as inspiration: . Nothing Rhymes With...

‘Tales of Tales of Tales’ by Luca D’Anselmi

The Society
August 11, 2021
Culture, Humor, Poetry
9 Comments
. We can’t remember. After years of war that thing once known as “poetry” was lost. We know there was a Greek named Robert Frost; we don’t know what “pentameters” were for. In rotting libraries...

‘Take Heart’ by T.M.A. Day

The Society
August 10, 2021
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
2 Comments
. Running round ruins of things long forgot, These tried, tiring times---who can make an end? Can read the scroll or seven seals rend? The limpid air is still and full of rot. The sorry dreams of fragile...

Two Poems on Propaganda, by Susan Jarvis Bryant

The Society
August 9, 2021
Culture, Poetry
53 Comments
. Inklings The clues are there. They skulk between the lines. They lurk in spin and smirk in murky spiel. The clues are there. They leer in subtle signs. They lounge in lies and lace the dicey...
poem/rainbolt/culture

‘If We Knew It All . . .’ and Other Poetry by James A. Tweedie

The Society
August 9, 2021
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
29 Comments
. If We Knew It All . . . Where do dreams go when we wake up? Where does time go as we age? Why did William Shakespeare make up Plays we still perform on stage? Sometimes questions beg an answer— Questions...

‘Hagi at My Study Window’ and Other Late Summer Poems, by Margaret Coats

The Society
August 8, 2021
Beauty, Culture, Haiku and Senryu, Poetry, Shape Poems, Translation
24 Comments
. Hagi at My Study Window hagi or bush clover, a symbol of poetry, blooms as summer turns to autumn. Paper shapes the future’s surface, Paperweights the present state. Inkstones hold a scholar’s...

‘When the Eagle Flies’ by David Watt

The Society
August 7, 2021
Beauty, Poetry
12 Comments
. Far from the city’s ceaseless bustle— __That’s where the eagle flies! Borne by the means of plume and muscle— __That’s how the eagle flies! There she is one with updrafts rising; There she knows...

‘The English Cantos: Volume 2: StairWell. Canto 3 Ex-Wife’ by James Sale

The Society
August 6, 2021
Beauty, Culture, Dante, Epic, Poetry
20 Comments
. The Argument: The Poet, with Dante and Virgil, has arrived on the third step of the StairWell, or Purgatory. Dante at the start of Canto 3 has been at pains to explain to the shocked Poet what just has...

A Short Poem for Gov. Andrew Cuomo, by Joe Tessitore

The Society
August 5, 2021
Culture, Humor, Poetry
21 Comments
. I’m Andrew Cuomo---I get a pass. If you don’t like it, kiss my ass! I’m Andrew Cuomo---I don’t resign. I’m governor---this state is mine! . . Joe Tessitore is a retired New York City resident...

‘The Bridge of Sighs’ by David D. Irby

The Society
August 5, 2021
Beauty, Love Poems, Poetry
10 Comments
. I stand upon the Bridge of Sighs as teardrops fill my weary eyes and think of life that used to be when she was still in love with me. I watch the river down below. My woes don't interrupt the flow. It...

‘Farmer,’ and Other Poetry by C.B. Anderson

The Society
August 4, 2021
Beauty, Culture, Humor, Poetry
34 Comments
. Farmer, Unpack the dormant forces quiet days Have put aside and stoke the smothered fire Whose soot fanned out in lifeless carbon rays Upon the hearth of winter’s mild repose, But bear the fire...

‘China’s Twisted Gymnastics’ by Bethany Mootsey

The Society
August 3, 2021
Culture, Human Rights in China, Poetry
6 Comments
. inspired by this video from communist China: https://youtu.be/b4DmTPtAEbg . All their flipping has flopped, So their stance has flip-flopped __To a more relaxed focus on fun. “It’s a balanced...

‘Three by Heraclitus’ and Other Poetry by E.M. Schorb

The Society
August 3, 2021
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
6 Comments
. Three by Heraclitus I Offend yourself with mirrored knowledge (where’s that face you wore at college?) and your sense of life’s no-stasis, thinking of various times and places, recalling the endless...

‘Incense’ by Adam Sedia

The Society
August 2, 2021
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
13 Comments
. A hundred tongues of smoke--- Translucent wisps, lithe specters--- __Rise, snaking languidly, Curling, grasping like tendrils At the light they invoke; Then billow into clouds That hang, a haze, an...

‘The Bivocational Burden’ by Guy Warner

The Society
August 1, 2021
Beauty, Poetry
10 Comments
. an excerpt When battle rages hot, the charge will sound. An army must not let itself break ranks, Although they see the cannon all around. To my Commander humbly I give thanks, For I see not the field as He,...

‘Silence Is Not Golden’ by Roy E. Peterson

The Society
July 31, 2021
Culture, Poetry
15 Comments
. Silence is not golden. I’ll differ with you here. __Silence is an awful trap Lined with sharpest fear. Silence plays a part Only after we __Use our words of wisdom on Things that should not be. Silence...

‘On the Traditional Latin Mass’ by Sasha A. Palmer

The Society
July 30, 2021
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
20 Comments
. in response to Traditionis custodes (“Guardians of the tradition”)---the new motu proprio issued by Pope Francis on July 16, 2021. She has been scarred before. She knows the sting Of scorn and ostracism....

Petrarch’s Canzone on a Dream of Laura, Translated by Margaret Coats

The Society
July 30, 2021
Beauty, Love Poems, Poetry, Translation
21 Comments
. When softly my sustaining comfort stirs Herself to offer solace coveted, Advancing toward the left side of my bed With that sweet courtly reasoning of hers, In fearful homage all my being murmurs, “O...
poem/peterson/beauty

‘Rondeau’ and Other Poetry by Rita Moe

The Society
July 29, 2021
Beauty, Humor, Poetry, Rondeau
4 Comments
. Rondeau The rondeau echoes its refrain in a subtle way, just as rain at times will fall, not in torrents, but in a fine mist, the wood fence, weathered gray, resisting the stain of water. So, the reader’s...

Haiku Competition 2021

The Society
July 28, 2021
Beauty, Culture, Haiku and Senryu, Poetry, Poetry Contests
807 Comments
. Winners announced here. Write a haiku and post it in the comments section below. The haiku must adhere to the traditional parameters of a haiku to qualify and may be deleted if it does not. See...

‘Big Shots’ by Mike Bryant

The Society
July 28, 2021
Covid-19, Culture, Humor, Poetry
31 Comments
. You’re glad you’ve nabbed The Covid jab That’s newly fabbed In some large lab Created by The jaundiced eye, The sneaky, sly, Big corporate guy. The slimy thug, Our taxes sent To make the bug More...

A Garrison Keillor Satire and Other Poetry by Julian Woodruff

The Society
July 28, 2021
Culture, Humor, Poetry
6 Comments
. Guilty, Guilty, Guilty! That most sagacious Mr. K*Told listeners: “Back in the day—‘The Enlightenment,’ they call it; haw,No way! ‘Twas filled with moral flawBeside which our few failings pale.Yes,...
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