Beauty

  Where are the leaves that branches bore? They’re falling fast on forest floor, A cornucopia outspread, Of orange, yellow, brown, and red: Reminders of a settled score. Ah this, my gloomy...

  Don’t place your limits on this grief of mine or try to cheer me out of feeling sorrow. I need to wear it for a longer time and won’t be ready to let go tomorrow. The ragged tears that burn...

  The Shisendō is a hideaway villa in the eastern hills of Kyoto, Japan, created by poet and calligrapher Jōzan Ishikawa (1583–1672) as a place where he could read and write classical Chinese poetry...

  Cricket The game of Cricket, I’ll relate, Goes back to fifteen fifty-eight, Upon a field in Guildford way, In Surrey, many miles away. The game was played by many more, Up to the English...

Mozart on His Kegelstatt Trio Quite recently I wrote a little trio While wasting time at skittles with some friends. We needed something for the clarinet, Something not dolorous, but not con brio— A...

All Divinity Is Love or Wonder* New Harbor October 2020 All Divinity is love or wonder. The moon pulls up the sea, while rocks plunge deeply underneath; ragged, cracked asunder, synclined metamorphic...

  On Romantic Longing* Was it when autumn filled the air With musty smells and chimney smoke, This feeling in me first awoke, Which hitherto, had not been there? Or was it on a summer's eve I...

  Pope Urban II Sonnet-Speech, Clermont, 1095 Oh Noblemen, I’m charged by God to warn that Christendom is threatened by the Turk. Torched churches and our pilgrim dead we mourn, whilst in...

Thank you to everyone who participated! This was a great effort for a meaningful purpose: the recent burning down of the Chateau Boswell winery in Napa Valley. Congratulations to the winners. Bravo!  ---Evan...

Introductory Note These paraphrased translations represent two short poems composed by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, a person so well-known that I will pass on offering a biography and only note that he lived...

A Wheelchair They kept their car-doors shut and windows closed, Nor left their house but stayed inside, disposed To hide if D were waiting wheelchair-bound Outside. Attendant crew, no siren sound, The...

  On Marriage I married a girl named Sue And alas! She married me too!     As Then, So Now When years ago and many ages since My flaming ardor flared (now fondness thrives For you,...

  On a Turtle of Broken Jade The tiny turtle made of milky jade Was smuggled by Jun’s parents from afar Evoking memories that flame and fade--- Confucian virtue rescued from the war. The treasured...

  Thoughts following a visit to the World War 2 National Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, France. Eugene Ovid Lambert was my name, U.S. Army Airborne casualty. Died on D-Day, that’s my...

  Remember, Remember… by Susan Jarvis Bryant No thankful foot falls on the London street In honour of our brave and voiceless dead. Remembrance Sunday’s rendered incomplete Without the...

Shooting Star Upon the early fall of night my eyes behold a shooting star, electric streak in twilight sea, now here alive, then gone you are. What beauty brings this lustrous light well driven by...

The complete new translation can found from Hackett Publishing here. My poem sings of one man forced from Troy by war. Fate harried him to find a home on Latium’s shore— On some Lavinian littoral. By...

originally published on November 2, 2020 on MacKenzie Lyric Poetry Where shall they hide now, the merchants of death, Who cloaked our eyes and robbed our throats of voice, Who muzzled minds and sought to...

  Perfectionist Inclined Maligned by self-encasing brine, defined By certainty's demise, self-image lies Within a shrine. Perfectionist inclined, I crouch transfixed in infinite surmise: Confined by...

  Yearning for Castles and Gargoyles Among the towers never made of ivory, protruding lewdly over walls of mottled stone, misshapen forms, insatiably unsavory look down on us. Who takes such agony to...

  Isaac They woke no earlier than usual, just dawn, as though it were another day of tending flocks. At once he saw the way was different, though, not toward the jagged wall of date palms, and...

  Retired I’ve lost the ship I banked upon to shield me from this stormy world. For I’ve since crossed the Rubicon and sails no longer loom unfurled that marked my navigating days. My schooner...

  Context Is Everything When you attempt to cut some string A hammer doesn’t do a thing— Jackknives matter. When life has gotten back to normal, And dining out means dressing formal, Black...

The American Revolution: An Epic Poem Chapter I Chapter II by Andrew Benson Brown   Chapter III: The New-World Mercury The historical source material for the below installment is Paul Revere’s...

  Autumn Ecstasy In ecstasy has autumn come With burning bush, chrysanthemum, And quaking aspens shaking fast While crackling oak leaves shiver past The pumpkined porches bright and brown, And...

  A family that I read about Lost everything acquired. Their house, collections, photographs, All vanished in a fire. Thank God no one was injured, But this fact can’t be erased--- Although...

  You’ve grown up in the public school system, and it shows. You are sensitive to the world around you, and in touch with your “feelings”—a perfect little guilt-ridden example of a...

  On voting day, we hope the nation’s __red---a bright vermilion. Let’s count the reasons to choose Trump. __There are a half a zillion! Trump speaks his mind, with filters down. __He’s...

  Vocations Always there are things we should be doing; Others, though, are better left unfinished. Also, there are ends well worth pursuing; Likewise, goals that leave a wight...

  The Immigrant As his ship now departs to cross over the sea, He looks back as he fondly remembers The dear family he leaves, the quaint house by the lea, And two eyes that once sparkled like...

  after Chesterton's "Lepanto" Note: Cahaba Run is a river in Alabama Dogs dash in black and tan through clouds of briar and bush, All sprinting, unrelenting, such no city man could hush. They cast a...

Ego Feci Hoc A man, I was, of flesh and blood and bone, Nine-hundred years ago, I lived and died; A Norman mason skilled at cutting stone, An honored trade in which I took great pride. Eleven-Hundred...

  The Reindeer The reindeer winter-cries in vain for his lost mate His cry turns brittle frosty-mist, ascends the clouds. His hooves make run, his antlers gouge the whited shrouds That veil the...

  On the PBS TV Series 'Bob Ross, the Joy of Painting' I float, as happy as the clouds, Upon a sea of liquid white. Whilst cherishing this time allowed, This interval of pure delight. He speaks...

Retired K-9 When I was young, you kept me in a cage. But as I got a little calmer, older, Sometimes you’d let me ride in the front seat Shotgun, with my paw upon your shoulder. It wasn’t just for...

What if I do compare you to a rose Or summer’s day or beauty like the night, Or drone of how I’d sit and drink a coke With you instead of viewing every sight This world can give?—the seven wonders...

  Brave, brave, Charlotte Corday, took upon herself to slay that man of revolutionary violence, Jean-Paul Marat. On July thirteenth in ninety-three, the convent girl from near the sea, stabbed...

  When springtime has come to the high mountain ranges The melting of snow bares the landscape to changes; And creatures awaken from seasonal slumber In valleys below, where snows never...

  While Sitting by Her While sitting by her sometimes I would eye Her dextrous fingers plying to and fro While unbeknown to her, as she would sew And crochet, knit and stitch and satisfy Her urge to...

  The harvest of an ancient past can waft to mind as we enjoy a measured taste of last year's blend. The darlings who were chased down vineyard lanes, who drew us to come after her with earthy...