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

‘The Watchskulls of Erringtide’ by Joe Spring

The Society
April 21, 2020
Beauty, Poetry
140 Comments
  Seven skulls sit side-by-side atop the wall of Erringtide. Their salted sockets watch the wide expanse of waves within which hide the devils Marax, sixes each who’d seek to storm the sandy...

‘Puzzle Box’ by Mathew Wenham

The Society
April 20, 2020
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
25 Comments
  The empty sonnet frame’s a puzzle box into whose elaborate maze ideas are dropped. They press its walls and work to plot a path through dark till final light appears. Escape demands ideas adapt...

‘Sonora: The Desert’ and Other Poetry by John Marmaro

The Society
April 19, 2020
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
8 Comments
  Sonora: The Desert Harsh sunlight beats upon the thirsty land And glares upon the limestone cliffs and sand, While waves of heat rise shimmering, above The parched loam where the great saguaros...

Three Poems on Spring, by Martin Rizley

The Society
April 18, 2020
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
9 Comments
The March of Spring O, hear the bold approach of spring, who marches, stamping, blowing! He startles all the birds that sing above the fast streams flowing. They take to wing and soar on high Where white...

Poetry from the 2020 Coronavirus Quarantine

The Society
April 17, 2020
Covid-19, Culture, Humor, Poetry, Villanelle
44 Comments
Mayor Rules Chocolatier "Essential Business" by Mark F. Stone Our craving for chocolate is serious. Deny us and we will be furious. Withholding confections could alter elections for mayors in ways...

‘Saint John Southworth’ by Peter Hartley

The Society
April 17, 2020
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
41 Comments
  So here he lies as he has lain in state These ninety years in this cathedral crypt At Westminster. We come to venerate The relics of a martyr: his heart, ripped Out of his chest at Tyburn for a...

‘Tongues Spin and Weave’ and Other Poetry by Susan Jarvis Bryant

The Society
April 16, 2020
Culture, Humor, Poetry
20 Comments
  Tongues Spin and Weave Tongues spin and weave their sophistry, a slick and silken tapestry, from golden throne and ivory tower and each elitist seat of power through labyrinths of history. Such...

‘What If My Time’ and Other Poetry by Theresa Rodriguez

The Society
April 15, 2020
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
21 Comments
  What If My Time What if my time is limited? if all That I have left is perhaps months, not years, All laden with the worries and the fears Surrounding what is death. Can I recall A time when all...

Life Under Quarantine: CCP Virus (COVID-19) Poetry

The Society
April 14, 2020
Covid-19, Culture, Humor, Poetry
15 Comments
Costume Parties by Fiat? by Julian Woodruff ‘Round nearly vacant lots The cars grow fewer still. No traffic tied in knots, No malls in which to mill. The numbers in the market Are smaller day by...

‘Alexander’ by Daniel Kemper

The Society
April 14, 2020
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
5 Comments
  As Alexander rose upon a hill, somewhere east of King Darius’s dust, at once a pure, serene and awful still undoes the man. For conquer all he must, but what is next? What if the field be...

‘Sonnet of the Silent Voice’ and Other Poetry by Gregory Ross

The Society
April 14, 2020
Beauty, Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Poetry
2 Comments
  Sonnet of the Silent Voice Unbounded power marks a tyrant’s choice: He chains the infants up to keep his throne, Refusing freedom to the silent voice. Thus, he neglects his seeds that were once...

New Sally Cook Art Exhibit Can Be Visited Virtually

The Society
April 13, 2020
Art, Beauty, Culture, Poetry
32 Comments
  The painter and poet Sally Cook has a new exhibition at UB Art Galleries. Because of the current coronavirus pandemic, UB Art Galleries has put the entire exhibition online so that you can actually...

A Verse Translation of Piers Plowman C, Passus XV, lines 62-105

The Society
April 13, 2020
Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Translation
6 Comments
  Translation by David O'Neil Translator’s note: Piers Plowman is a late medieval allegorical narrative poem, believed to be authored by William Langland, which describes several visions experienced...

Poems for Easter Sunday 2020

The Society
April 12, 2020
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
13 Comments
  Easter by Joe Tessitore Behind the stone of timeless wait He rose alone despite its weight and strode from darkness into light; Eternal Day dispelling night.   Like Christ and...

A Poem by an Emergency Physician and Other CCP Virus (COVID-19) Poetry

The Society
April 11, 2020
Beauty, Covid-19, Culture, Humor, Poetry
19 Comments
  Dulcius Ex Asperis by Andrew Ross Invisible and terrible A virus stalks the land. It floats across the atmosphere And moves from man to man. A tickle in the throat perhaps, A muted sneeze to...

Ecclesiastes 4, Recast in Classical Poetry, by T.M. Moore

The Society
April 11, 2020
Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Terza Rima
6 Comments
  No One to Comfort Them after Ecclesiastes 4 Just look around: Oppression everywhere exists beneath the sun, and the oppressed cry vainly for relief, but who will care? The slaves, the poor, all...

‘Good Friday’ by James A. Tweedie

The Society
April 10, 2020
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
7 Comments
  Sullen, somber skies— Heavy leaden tears are shed in sorrow. Heaven cries. Thunderous sobbing grief— Thrashing, crashing; Flashing, gnashing; Death defying belief. Salvic memories— Rise...

Translation of Pushkin on Cholera Quarantine and Poetry on the CCP Virus

The Society
April 9, 2020
Covid-19, Culture, Humor, Limerick, Poetry, Translation
16 Comments
  Time Is the Measure of Every Pleasure a coronavirus limerick by Mark F. Stone The State took a stand that we practice techniques to maintain our distance and clean till it squeaks. But can such...

Review: ‘The Stargazers,’ A First Book of Poems by James McKee

The Society
April 9, 2020
Essays, Poetry, Reviews
by T.M. Moore James McKee, The Stargazers (Atmosphere Press, 2020), $17.99 James McKee’s inaugural foray into verse publishing offers a panoply of poetic forms, themes, images, and delights. The Stargazers...

‘The Unknown Circle of Hell’ by Joseph S. Salemi

The Society
April 8, 2020
Beauty, Culture, Dante, Epic, Humor, Poetry
28 Comments
  Personae and scene: Vergil and Dante, somewhere in the mid-region of Hell. Dante: Honored Vergil, tell me where we’re going— It’s hard for me to take in what you’re showing Without some...

‘The Art Professor’ by Sheila Mulrooney

The Society
April 7, 2020
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
4 Comments
  Pygmalion knew these women all too well; his instincts told him he’d better sleep alone. He took to art. —Ovid, The Metamorphoses, Book X His wife will say no living soul should trust that...

Scots Translation and Poetry by George T. Watt for Tartan Day 2020

The Society
April 6, 2020
Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Readings, Translation
12 Comments
  The Last Bard o Scotland Translation by George T. Watt, frae the original by Joseph Charles MacKenzie Watters o Irvine an Annock, Ma saut tears mell wi the sautie ocean, Wast o Arran Isle...

A Poem Celebrating Tartan Day and 700th Anniversary of the Declaration of Arbroath

The Society
April 6, 2020
Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Readings, Translation
8 Comments
    Read by George T. Watt The Scrieve fae Arbroath Non enim propter gloriam, diuicias aut honores pugnamus set propter libertatem solummodo quam nemo bonus nisi simul cum vita amittit....

‘The American Revolution: An Epic Poem,’ Chapter I, by Andrew Benson Brown

The Society
April 5, 2020
Beauty, Culture, Epic, Humor, Poetry
12 Comments
  Chapter I Who sings of arms these days? Or even men? The seed of Adam’s tucked inside Eve’s apple, And sits not taking root—his defect’s been Apparent since equality’s long grapple. Poor...

An Arthurian Interlude in Alliterative Verse, by Rahul Gupta

The Society
April 4, 2020
Alliterative, Beauty, Culture, Poetry
15 Comments
    Rahul Gupta holds a PhD for a thesis on mediaeval Germanic and modern mediaevalist metre and poetics from the University of York. His poetry and translations have appeared hitherto in Agenda,...

Three Poems by Orthopaedic Cancer Surgeon Richard Lackman

The Society
April 3, 2020
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
23 Comments
  A Life I Could Not Save She did not feel her age though she was old, But still looked young as she was often told. And so she was a vibrant 95, Happy to be healthy and alive. And yet this cancer...

‘Battle of the Bib’ and Other Poetry by Peter Venable

The Society
April 3, 2020
Culture, Humor, Poetry
1 Comment
    Battle of the Bib Emma was wearing a new autumn dress. Papa snapped on her bib, to prevent a mess— oatmeal was planned at her special request But a tranquil breakfast was not to...

Poetry on Dr. Ai Fen and the CCP Virus (Coronavirus)

The Society
April 2, 2020
Covid-19, Deconstructing Communism, Human Rights in China, Humor, Limerick, Poetry
12 Comments
  The Last Words from Her Phone The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) has done everything within their power to expunge Dr. Ai Fen's interview off the Internet, and now she herself is gone, the last message...

‘Foolosophy’ and Other Poetry by Susan Jarvis Bryant

The Society
April 2, 2020
Culture, Humor, Poetry, Rondeau, Rondeau Redoublé
18 Comments
Foolosophy I know that I know nothing more than you, for neither of us know a single thing of relevance; I opt not to accrue vast knowledge as the price is danger’s sting. All blissful days are built on...

‘Don’t Get Caught’ and Other Poetry by C.B. Anderson

The Society
April 1, 2020
Beauty, Culture, Humor, Poetry
28 Comments
  Don’t Get Caught The catfish and the trout hum different tunes, But both agree they love hot afternoons When no one wants to fish, when ponds and streams And rivers generate aquatic dreams That...

Pestilence and Quarantine: Poetry on the CCP Virus (Coronavirus)

The Society
March 31, 2020
Covid-19, Culture, Humor, Poetry
48 Comments
  Pestilence Killed Them by James Sale The Pestilence killed them So the Proverb said, And with that happy thought They laid down in their bed. The Pestilence killed them--- Who else could it...

‘The Valley’ by Martin Hill Ortiz

The Society
March 31, 2020
Humor, Poetry, The Raven
10 Comments
  Cruising down an LA freeway, hustling for a little leeway Passing many a rusted relic from Detroit's Plutonian shore. Hoping all would turn to see me, knowing all would want to be me Driving in my...

‘Harbinger’s Gift’ by Tony L. Damigo

The Society
March 30, 2020
Culture, Poetry
4 Comments
  My waning days give way as dark besieges all my light. My tree, its branches sway in frigid Winter winds that bite! So too, the chill consumes me as my crackling hearth yet burns. The flicker of...

The Dark and the Light: Poetry on the CCP Virus (Novel Coronavirus)

The Society
March 29, 2020
Beauty, Covid-19, Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Human Rights in China, Limerick, Poetry
7 Comments
As the Lights Go Out - the Last Limerick "The night cometh, when no man can work." John, 9:4 by Joe Tessitore I can tell there will be no escape From this hellishly chilling landscape Born of hatred...

‘Song of the Elk’ by Alec Ream

The Society
March 29, 2020
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
9 Comments
. From hoof and hide, to flank and horn, Amid the wood, was noble born, Upon the field I walked at length, Swift in motion, high in strength, And scarcely did I need to boast, Rare of speech, unheard by...

‘Whisper of Thunder’ by T.M. Moore

The Society
March 28, 2020
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
4 Comments
  Job 26.8-14 The flash and crash were simultaneous. The whole house shuddered, like it was about to come apart, and all the lights went out. The dogs erupted in a frenzied fuss of frightened...

‘The Once-Lost Land’ and Other Poetry by Joseph Charles MacKenzie

The Society
March 27, 2020
Beauty, Love Poems, Poetry
42 Comments
The Once-Lost Land The arm that threw the disc of day __Across the sky we know must dim, The hand that strewed the Milky Way __Where angels swim, From far beyond the farthest star Composed the darkness...

Humorous Poetry for the CCP Virus (COVID-19) Quarantine

The Society
March 26, 2020
Clerihew, Covid-19, Culture, Humor, Poetry
108 Comments
Note: The Society of Classical Poets refers to the COVID-19 coronavirus as the CCP virus because the Chinese Communist Party’s coverup and mismanagement allowed the virus to spread throughout China and...

‘Im Fruhling’ (‘In Spring’) by Ernst Schulze, and Other Translations by David B. Gosselin

The Society
March 26, 2020
Beauty, Culture, Music, Poetry, Translation
5 Comments
  Im Fruhling (In Spring) by Ernst Schulze (1789-1817) I sit here lonely on a hill Where skies are clear and blue; The sunset casts a glowing veil Over the deep and tranquil dale— I used to love...

‘Mist in the Forest’ by Leo Zoutewelle

The Society
March 25, 2020
Beauty, Poetry
10 Comments
. A very finely scattered sigh Of bashful mist would nigh attend My view and try---one wonders why--- To dare with utmost care to blend The reigning stateliness of trees on high. And yes, my half-closed eyes...
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