‘ Which Is the Grandest Name of All?’ and Other Poetry by Ted Hayes The Society February 20, 2018 Beauty, Culture, Human Rights in China, Humor, Poetry, Short Stories 7 Comments Which Is the Grandest Name of All? Which is the grandest name of all? Churchill, Churchill, Churchill! Winter sere or crimson fall Churchill, Churchill, Churchill! Who held bold freedom’s flag so...
‘Night Watch’ by Jordan Hege The Society February 18, 2018 Beauty, Poetry 19 Comments Tonight, I saw the moon Stalking me, watching me Hiding surreptitiously. She knows I know she's there She knows I do not care Reasons for and reasons why Curious, bold, or wee bit shy, A game, perhaps...
‘Insomnia’ and Other Poetry by Joe Tessitore The Society February 17, 2018 Beauty, Humor, Poetry 23 Comments Insomnia Many's the night I lie in bed with words to write that fill my head. They twist and turn and jump and shout. Oh how I yearn to get them out! So off I go into my den. With lights turned low I...
‘Lost in Thought’ by Marie Davids The Society February 16, 2018 Beauty, Poetry 4 Comments She sits in thoughtful silence, chin in hand, That old blue skirt hem covers her thin knees. Gazing west, the sunset’s silvery bands Lengthening shadows from the maple trees. The porch needs paint; its...
‘Sonnet for Elizabeth’ by Joseph Charles MacKenzie (with Audio) The Society February 14, 2018 Beauty, Poetry, Readings 23 Comments I fear no more the settling of the night Or mind its grey, evaporating shades; Mine ears are deaf to time’s lost serenades, Mine eyes content with thy soul’s loving light. Thy...
‘Swallows’ by Leo Yankevich (with Video) The Society February 13, 2018 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Readings, Video 8 Comments https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjc_6R0ang8&feature=youtu.be It was once thought that swallows wintered on the moon, or morphed into field mice beneath the autumn swoon of clouds, or...
‘Brother Be’ by Andrew Todd Ramirez The Society February 12, 2018 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 12 Comments Like feathered tip of swooping sparrow Our kinship cuts like that of arrows A brother’s love has weakened me I’ll take the slice, so brother be Shivered dreams of days that past Rivers...
‘William Blake’ by David Paul Behrens The Society February 11, 2018 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 3 Comments In another lifetime I was William Blake When I saw his work That was my take He wrote about love And the human heart I thought I was him Right from the start He wrote about London Tiger burning...
‘The Harvest’ by Teri Skultety The Society February 10, 2018 Beauty, Poetry 4 Comments The sparkle on the river, the lights from distant shore, the cold and bitter glitter, the beckoning of more, Is beautiful to look at, ‘tis a pleasing sight to see, like a woman dressed for dinner, in...
‘Between the Trees, Along the Path – Monon Trail, Carmel IN’ by Rosaleen Crowley The Society February 8, 2018 Beauty, Culture, Poetry Between the trees, along the path I hear the woodpecker tap tap tap. Beneath the bridge, cyclists roll through Pedaling and laughing two by two. Friends holding hands, walkers with dogs, A...
‘Flower of Choice’ and Other Poetry by David Watt The Society February 7, 2018 Beauty, Culture, Humor, Poetry, Short Stories 16 Comments Flower of Choice On native Australian flowers The wattle bears her gold in early spring As luminescent beads on woody strings, Spreading perfume ‘til the mild air brings Sweetness deep to every living...
Essay: Unmerited Neglect: A Look at Three Longfellow Poems The Society February 5, 2018 Beauty, Culture, Education, Essays, Poetry 5 Comments By Carter Davis Johnson In a period where American literature was considered peripheral and amateur, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) helped create a national literature to challenge European...
On ‘Hylas and the Nymphs’ Removal from a British Art Museum and Other Poetry by Bruce Dale Wise The Society February 3, 2018 Art, Beauty, Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Poetry 8 Comments (All poetry by Bruce Dale Wise) Hylas and the Nymphs by Beau Ecs Wilder John William Waterhouse's "Hylas and the Nymphs" must go; enchanting, pretty, water nymphs are far too much to show. Manchester...
‘The Deer Crossing’ by Ken Allan Dronsfield The Society February 2, 2018 Beauty, Poetry 6 Comments Sun slowly dipping in the western sky; the winds are light and the pine boughs tossing. From their warm, peaceful beds the meek and shy, walk to the river; time for the crossing. To the fields...
‘A Robin’s Song’ by Connie Phillips The Society February 1, 2018 Beauty, Poetry 6 Comments A robin should fly south before the snow, With others in the flocks of migrant birds, Quite safe amid this seas’nal ebb and flow— To miss the chance would surely be absurd! Yet some stay on...
‘The Last Time I Saw Paris’ and Other Poetry by David Whippman The Society January 30, 2018 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 10 Comments The Last Time I Saw Paris You have imagined how it was, I expect: Troy’s famous towers burning, the city wrecked, the lines of weeping captives marched away, the streets strewn with corpses, the...
‘At Lincoln’s Tomb’ and Other Poetry by Adam Sedia The Society January 28, 2018 Beauty, Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Poetry 11 Comments At Lincoln’s Tomb Springfield, Illinois, 2016 Be glad you cannot rise to life and stand Outside that tomb to die again from shame At Illinois, your home, your prairieland, Transformed, yet quick to...
Translation of Dante Canzoni ‘Amor che ne la mente mi ragiona’ The Society January 26, 2018 Beauty, Dante, Poetry, Translation 3 Comments By David B. Gosselin The nature of the subject matter discussed in Dante Alighieri’s lyric poetry, his canzoni, has been debated time after time, generation after generation. While the Dantisti as they...
Rediscovering Percy Shelley’s Greatest Work: ‘Prometheus Unbound, with Other Poems’ The Society January 25, 2018 Beauty, Best Poems, Culture, Essays, Poetry, Reviews 8 Comments By Brett Forester Writing but one fine, enduring poem is a remarkable achievement. Writing a book of great poems is an even rarer triumph. Yet in 1820, British Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (born...
‘Stone Walls Sometimes a Prison Make’ by C.B. Anderson The Society January 24, 2018 Beauty, Human Rights in China, Poetry 5 Comments Stone Walls Sometimes a Prison Make What might have happened once in Carolina To folks whose only wish was for some peace Is commonplace within the Wall of China, Where persons are abused without...
‘The Garden of the Gods’ and Other Poetry by Elizabeth Spencer Spragins The Society January 23, 2018 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 2 Comments The Garden of the Gods A Cywydd Llosgyrnog When storm clouds hid the Manitou*, They cloaked invaders from his view: Giants* who engendered fright With fearsome height and thundered tread. Their...
‘The Breaking Season’ by Annabelle Fuller The Society January 21, 2018 Beauty, High School Submissions, Poetry 9 Comments Lips, soft as velvet, primrose pink, Are rent the blue of bruising ink. They rive and crackle in the cold, Retract in tissue paper folds; Corroded strips as flayed as zinc Teased grey and gaunt,...
‘On Reading Ginsburg’s “Howl”’ and Other Poetry by Gregory Spicer The Society January 20, 2018 Beauty, Culture, Humor, Poetry 13 Comments On Reading Ginsburg’s “Howl” Once, I possessed an open mind, Which I assure you was my own. I used it to read Ginsberg’s “Howl” Well, I don’t wish to be unkind But those words seemed...
Review: What Is Shen Yun All About? The Society January 19, 2018 Beauty, Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Essays, Human Rights in China, Music, Performing Arts, Poetry, Reviews 42 Comments By Evan Mantyk Advertising for it is everywhere. If you haven’t seen it, you just haven’t been paying attention. A brilliantly colored image depicts a Chinese woman striking an airborne pose. But what is...
‘The Old Westerns’ and Other Poetry by Linda Imbler The Society January 18, 2018 Beauty, Culture, Poetry The Old Westerns No more heroes on horses named Trigger No more rugged, chapped, white hatted figures The bad guys today do not always wear masks At least not the exact kind they did in the...
‘The Oddity’ and Other Poetry by Mark Stevick The Society January 16, 2018 Beauty, Humor, Poetry 2 Comments The Oddity My pen and me set off to sea but washed up feeling useless; the cadent swell invoked a spell and story of Odysseus. While pen-wrecked there I would not hear those rhythmic words...
‘Dreams as a Child’ and Other Poetry by David Hollywood The Society January 15, 2018 Beauty, Poetry 8 Comments Dreams as a Child Remember our lives in dreams as a child, When tingled excitement tickled inside, Surging in giggles which shivered our nerves, As hands clasped in joining’s which laughs only...
Essay: The Wit of William Cowper The Society January 14, 2018 Beauty, Culture, Essays, Humor, Poetry 17 Comments By James A. Tweedie These days, William Cowper (November 26, 1731 - April 25, 1800) isn’t likely to be found on anyone’s list of “Top Twenty English Poets.” Fifty years after his death, however,...
‘Glacier’ and Other Poetry by Francis Flavin The Society January 13, 2018 Beauty, Culture, Humor, Poetry 6 Comments Glacier Sleeping mistress of the land, Whose long repose the ages span, We tread across your fissured gown Until we find in looking down, We can at last discern and trace The chiseled beauty of...
‘To Winter’ by David Gosselin The Society January 12, 2018 Beauty, Poetry 17 Comments When Horae's icy carpets sweep the dale And the heavy boughs shed their frozen tears, The earth is covered with her icy veil And mortals lashed with Time’s cold sneers. Yet let us not run from such...
‘A Great Divide’ and Other Poetry by Joe Tessitore The Society January 11, 2018 Beauty, Deconstructing Communism, Humor, Poetry 8 Comments A Great Divide "...to form a more perfect union" I walk to the edge of a great divide and I try to talk with the other side but they do not reciprocate they tell me that I'm filled with hate I...
‘The Night When Heaven Cried’ by Sam Gilliland The Society January 10, 2018 Beauty, Poetry 19 Comments I have been here before, when heaven cried, All my love and longing locked up inside, Where the green grass glowed in the falling rain, So why have I come to this place again? To the place where...
‘Jax Beach 1950s’ by Lucy Giardino Cortese The Society January 9, 2018 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 3 Comments Beauties sashay across the sand Norma Jean look-a-likes hand in hand Times before bikinis and thongs Transistor radios blaring songs Sunny shoreline lush and palmy Simpler times when thoughts...
‘Whenever Terror Strikes’ and Other Poetry by André Le Mont Wilson The Society January 8, 2018 Beauty, Poetry, Terrorism Whenever Terror Strikes Whenever terror strikes, wherever death enshrouds the land, its people live in fright of crowded places. Masses hold their breath. Perhaps another truck will crash tonight. We...
‘Where Have the Roses Gone’ by Leonard Dabydeen The Society January 7, 2018 Beauty, Poetry 5 Comments Where have the roses gone from my garden? Look how those left freeze in cold winter wind; Nothing I can do nor ask for pardon To save the lovely petals as they’re thinned. Here in the kitchen I gaze in...
A Sonnet for the Feast of the Three Kings (with Audio) by Joseph Charles MacKenzie The Society January 6, 2018 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Readings 16 Comments Sonnet XLI - Gifts of the Magi A grander throne than Solomon’s of old, Though wrought of rough-hewn wood and winter hay, Received the royal deference of gold From one who watched a star, by night and...
‘Winter Wore a Raiment White’ and Other Poetry by Neal Dachstadter The Society January 5, 2018 Beauty, Humor, Poetry 6 Comments Winter Wore a Raiment White Winter wore a raiment white, Checkered blue as snow in shade, As he worked, amid the leaves, In the Autumn golden sheaves, Soon my season’s time will come, Ever...
10 Greatest Poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The Society January 2, 2018 Beauty, Best Poems, Culture, Essays, Poetry 51 Comments Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (born February 27, 1807 - died March 24, 1882) was an American poet of the Romantic period. He served as a professor at Harvard University and was an adept linguist, traveling...
‘Lights’ and Other Poetry by Connie Phillips The Society January 1, 2018 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 4 Comments Lights The shining Santas smile in silver sleighs, With dazzling reindeer poised on roofs, midair; The phosphorescent elves stare in a daze, While shim’ring tinsel hangs from angels’ hair. The...
‘Bemused’ and Other Poetry by N. Ram The Society December 31, 2017 Beauty, Culture, Humor, Pantoum, Poetry 5 Comments Bemused “Polyhymnia would not lift her veil, All my attempts at sacred poetry failed, Calliope did not lend me her tablet, Epic poetry left me desolate, Terpsichore was sure, I could never...