‘Street 3/4’: A Poem by Shamik Banerjee The Society July 8, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 10 Comments . Street 3/4 On both sides of this street, there are small stores Of groceries, canned food, medicine, and toys. Beside a Hindu shrine whose iron doors Are always fanned, an art school for teen boys Displays...
‘The Lord of His Castle’: A Poem by Brian Yapko The Society July 7, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 38 Comments . The Lord of His Castle Setting: King Stephen’s siege of Newbury Castle, England during the English civil war known as “The Anarchy.” The year is 1152 A.D. Strategic though this castle is to me I would...
‘A Console Table’: A Villanelle by Julia Griffin The Society July 6, 2024 Beauty, Poetry, Villanelle 12 Comments . A Console Table after a Google entry A console table in the entryway __Provides a focus for a guest Inside your home: a welcome, you might say. A strong impression’s vital to convey, __And for this...
‘Dandelion Dreams’: A Poem by Martin Rizley The Society July 5, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 21 Comments . Dandelion Dreams ---to Melody, on the occasion of her fifth birthday I see her, through the window, picking flowers. Adrift upon a sea of green, she towers Above the honeybees that hover over The rippling...
‘The Convert’: A Poem by Benjamin Cannicott Shavitz The Society July 5, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 8 Comments . The Convert “Uh, Professor, I don’t get it, Why do people choose to read that? Does it just not fit my taste?” She said, “If you really let it, This will sway you. You’ll concede that This has...
‘It Goes Without Saying’: A July 4th Poem by Warren Bonham The Society July 4, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 11 Comments . It Goes Without Saying "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and...
‘Battle Hymn of the Republic’: A Poem by Brian Yapko The Society July 4, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 38 Comments . . Battle Hymn of the Republic The Lord doth come; the grapes of wrath are crushed! Behold His fiery sword of Victory. He heartens those whose voices have been hushed To loudly shout our rage: “We shall be...
‘Militant Books’ and Other Poetry by Skye Campbell The Society July 2, 2024 Beauty, Poetry, Villanelle 6 Comments . . Militant Books Marshaled ranks of silent books Formed on shelves as in brigade, Fill the wooden dusty nooks Waiting for their next parade. Untamed spirits hide inside, Lurking out of watcher’s...
‘Three Views of Venus’: A Poem from Houghton Hall, by Margaret Coats The Society June 30, 2024 Beauty, Ekphrastic, Poetry 20 Comments . Three Views of Venus "When you’ve got a goddess, make good use of her. —local guide, Green Velvet Bedchamber at Houghton Hall, Norfolk “Ah, Mars, my dear, lay down that spear, and wage Love in the...
‘Soulmate’ and Other Poems by Russel Winick The Society June 29, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 11 Comments . Soulmate Your spouse ideally is your best friend,Providing love and laughter end to end,Supporting and enhancing all day through,But still at times your soulmate must be you. . . Ultimate Question Some...
‘To the Full Moon’: A Poem by Adam Sedia The Society June 29, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 18 Comments . To the Full Moon Heavenly voyager, you course Across the skies’ infinity--- The calm, serene celestial sea, Which yields before your silent force--- Traversing the shoreless expanse Of unplumbed...
‘The Pink of Gentle Hermione and White of John Paul II’: A Poem by Phillip Whidden The Society June 28, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 13 Comments . The Pink of Gentle Hermione and White of John Paul II The lodger pauses, as he leaves, to gaze At blossoms in the border at the front— The blooms of roses, saintlike pink—appraise Them as a Monday man...
‘Savannah Blossoms’: A Poem by Margaret Brinton The Society June 27, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 7 Comments . Savannah Blossoms Blossoms dress the trees __On Southern parkways Where petals glow like silk __If skies are fair, And a busy stir of bees __Within the nectar Allows the hummingbirds __A rightful share. The...
‘The Lazarus Effect’: A Poem by Jeffrey Essmann The Society June 26, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 10 Comments . The Lazarus Effect Until you’re raised, you’ve no idea how dead You were, how long you’d been beyond the scope Of human give and take; how poorly read You were in all the texts of simple hope. And yet...
‘Spanish Moss’ and Other Florida Poetry by Brian Yapko The Society June 25, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 32 Comments . Spanish Moss A thicket hides the remnants of a grange, An antebellum place of ghosts and rue--- A gothic ruin---tropical and strange Which even egrets shun. The faintest clue Of why is whispered when the...
‘Memento Belli’: A Poem by Alison Jennings The Society June 24, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 6 Comments . Memento Belli _My father had mementoes of the war; _he kept them in a box above his clothes, _where also hung a uniform he wore _when he was someone in that time ago _till trauma came, caused by the weight...
‘Flamingo’: A Poem by Jeremiah Johnson The Society June 23, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 23 Comments . Flamingo The S-curve of that sinuous neck,The stern black tip of that great bill,The blue eye with which we must reck-on like a gaudy monarch’s will. Not Disney’s giddy croquet bird,The one which lolls...
‘Ora Pro Nobis’: A Poem by Jeff Minick The Society June 21, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 12 Comments . Ora Pro Nobis pray for us The dead die when we living let them die; We breathing clasp to hearts our breathless dead; We pack them fresh-embalmed on icy beds. In silent rooms they speak our names. They...
‘The Snare Drummer’s Plight’ and Other Poetry by Martin Elster The Society June 20, 2024 Beauty, Music, Poetry 2 Comments . The Snare Drummer’s Plight The highlight of the evening is Bolero. The snare drummer begins the famous beat, the marrow of the land of the torero. The players, who have sprayed themselves with...
‘A Precious Wife Is Like Fine Wine’ and Other Poetry by Martin Rizley The Society June 19, 2024 Beauty, Love Poems, Poetry 14 Comments . A Precious Wife Is Like Fine Wine A precious wife is like fine wine, made mellow with the years, Aged in a barrel made of smiles and laughter, sighs and tears. Though time may etch its lines upon her once...
Five Rose Poems by Rainer Maria Rilke, Translated by Alan Orsborn The Society June 18, 2024 Beauty, Music, Poetry, Translation 9 Comments . . Five Rose Poems by Rainer Maria Rilke translated by Alan Orsborn . The Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), writing in both German and French, penned 24 French poems about roses that were...
‘A Sonnet for My Son on Father’s Day’ by Susan Jarvis Bryant The Society June 16, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 25 Comments . A Sonnet for My Son on Father’s Day You coo her name in buoyant notes of joy Then watch her toddle, tickled by her grin. She spies the bug-eyed crab---her leggy toy In Daddy’s hands all set to twirl and...
A Father’s Day Sonnet by Evan Mantyk The Society June 16, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 16 Comments . A Sonnet ---for my father, an avid gardener and feeder of wildlife, who recently underwent hip surgery No one shall intervene this afternoon. The well fed squirrel squats upon his branch; The chipmunk chills...
‘The Doctor’: A Father’s Day Poem by Shamik Banerjee The Society June 16, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 22 Comments . The Doctor An expert in each area, this man's The doctor for all things in disrepair— Tea kettles, doorknobs, hafts, electric fans... His fingers soothe their maladies and wear. No institute or training...
‘Distant Thunder’ and Other Poetry by Adam Sedia The Society June 15, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 23 Comments . Distant Thunder Oppressive heat in heavy air; Oppressive light from summer skies; White clouds glow with a garish glare, __Menacing as they rise; Oppressive stillness reigns: no breeze Rustles the leafy,...
Poetry from and about Xu Zhimo, by Margaret Coats The Society June 13, 2024 Beauty, Poetry, Translation 30 Comments . Meeting Xu Zhimo by Margaret Coats Three Chinese girls behind me in the line Escape King’s College Chapel evensong; They show a phone, ask where, at once decline Sought-after seats, to rush away...
‘Cape Canaveral’s Pioneers Asleep’ and Other Poetry by Phillip Whidden The Society June 10, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 7 Comments . Cape Canaveral’s Pioneers Asleep I wonder if the lights across lagoon Waves, little though they are, the lights and waves, Portend some goodness underneath the moon Like new moon light on marble...
Two Strange Poems by Joseph S. Salemi (with a Note) The Society June 9, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Essays, Poetry 18 Comments . The Universal Horoscope and Zodiac Twelve figures in the blazoned zodiac Set by the gods in their unchanging track Spin in a regulated, yearly round Until an infant’s primal, wailing sound Puts an end to...
‘Winter into Spring Sonnet’ by Jedediah Smith The Society June 8, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 2 Comments . Winter into Spring Sonnet The garbage dump outside the town is white as winter’s snowfall claims the castoff chair from autumn’s cluttered leavings, hid from sight in drifts, the broken dinette set left...
‘Admonition’: A Poem by Edward Stansell The Society June 7, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 23 Comments . Admonition It is a form of madness To long for days of yore. And bitter is the sadness O'er those who've gone before. Now we, ourselves, must wander The dark Stygian shore And cross the river yonder, But...
‘Poetry Is Warfare’: A Poem by Gigi Ryan The Society June 6, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 20 Comments . Poetry Is Warfare A poem is the writer’s battle pleaAgainst asceticism’s barren call.Truth and beauty (air that poets breathe)Needn’t acquiesce to Adam’s fall.A poem with its structure,...
‘Today My Brown Sedan Is Two’ and Other Poetry by Shamik Banerjee The Society June 6, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 10 Comments . Today My Brown Sedan Is Two Today, my brown sedan is two, But I behave as if it's twenty, So freezing by a showroom's door, I scan the models—new; aplenty. And busy with an old dollop Of mud, there goes...
‘To a Cicada’ and Other Poetry by Martin Rizley The Society June 5, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 23 Comments . To a Cicada So, welcome back, you ancient thing! Some time ago, your tribe took wing; But here you are again, my friend, These summer nights with me to spend. Some may have thought you'd left for good, But...
‘The Harmonies of Holst’: A Poem by Mary Jane Myers The Society June 4, 2024 Beauty, Blank Verse, Music, Poetry 10 Comments . The Harmonies of Holst While doing errands, driving roundabout, I listen to the classic music station. An orchestra plays a courtly lyric song. What can it be? I know it well, but how? Perhaps a ballad...
‘They Say Somebody Said This; It Must Be True!’ and Other Poems by Janice Canerdy The Society June 4, 2024 Beauty, Poetry, Satire 8 Comments . . They Say Somebody Said This; It Must Be True! Some people love to share with you news they’ve been told, but may not know all juicy details. They’ll ask, “Do you know more stuff? What have you...
‘The Figure Skater’ and Other Poems by Daniel Kemper The Society June 3, 2024 Beauty, Music, Poetry 14 Comments . The Figure Skater Across the frozen way, stamping, sprinting, faster as hurried steps display something that she'll master her body starts to sway faster, ever faster. Wind and its turbulence eddying over...
‘Before Checkmate’: A Poem by Peter Venable The Society June 3, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 5 Comments . Before Checkmate “Tis all a Checker board of nights and days Where Destiny with men for Pieces plays: Hither and thither moves, and mates, and slays, And one by one back in the closet lays.” ― Omar...
‘At Dorr Point’: A Poem by Kevin Farnham The Society June 2, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 6 Comments . At Dorr Point Our far too brief excursion about to cease,We walked the woods to Dorr Point—one last partingImmersion in resuscitating peace.But what we witnessed at trail’s end was startling:Jangling...
‘Selling Short’ and Other Poems by C.B. Anderson The Society June 1, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Villanelle 14 Comments . Selling Short The winter wind’s a shot across your brow, An addend to the sense of deficit You wrestle with inside the here and now. You’re happy only in the preterit Or future tense—because you hate...
‘Out Walking’: A Poem by Margaret Coats The Society May 30, 2024 Beauty, Poetry 33 Comments . Out Walking I hear the heath alive to free A heart from hearthside reverie, _And with my rambling feet __Start out in stealth, Intent on sunnyside-up health _And daybreak flurry fleet. Let’s shake...