Beauty

  Today I may dream of stubbled fields shriveled     foretelling of future prospects grim. If tomorrow’s dreams are green, is it a given     I’ll have...

By Carol Smallwood The pantoum is a poetry form that originated in 15th century Malaysia and drifted West in the 19th century with French writer Victor Hugo, among others. While it never quite took off like...

Unexpiring Ekphrastic on the above photo Unexpiring constant Sun, Earth untired responding spun, Surging fire, maternal birth, Urgent sire of vernal mirth. Père Sol, of ruth and blaze, Mère Earth...

  The eyes emerge from slumber’s lake of lead, Awakened by the zephyr flying past, In wonderment to witness, overhead, An otherworldly sky expanding fast. Revolving stars in efflorescence...

On the shores of Lake Erie, most weak & most weary, a soldier sat sunning, returned from the wars,     And though it were bleary, he still could see clearly when a bonny lass...

By Anonymous Sometimes I sit alone for a while, Watching life go by, Sitting high on a mountain top, Wondering just why Those ant-sized lives don’t pause and wonder “What’s this busyness...

Will Power When God asked Solomon one day     What his heart did most desire, The man said if he had his way     Unmatched wisdom he’d acquire. Now some might...

  And then we remembered that cruelest spring, when we awoke to find ourselves hollow. Where once we mocked, “O Death where is thy sting?” now we lie in the mire and wallow. In the sting of...

  The Poet’s Purpose A poet praises all of nature’s treasures, He seeks to find the pathway to her core, To laud the rarest beauty in spring’s pleasures And marvel at the waves that kiss the...

Such Was My Prayer Such was my prayer. And she, so far away, Or so it seemed, looked down at me and smiled; Then to Eternal Light she turned once more. -Paradiso 31.91-93, Dante Such was my prayer – she...

  Phantom skaters in the park turn, and glide, and never fall, faces clouded, figures dark. They are phantoms, after all. Turn and glide with awful grace, leave no measure, make no sound, out...

The Garden Guest Gaia has entered my garden today, She moves with a rustling of leaves. I can see her pass where the branches sway, I can feel her breath on the breeze. She laughs in the splashing of...

  Capturing all that isn’t blue, The sky, extending out of view, Pitches over the gathered green, Its grassy sheen Draped, reflected, along the hills, While quietly its wideness spills Wider,...

Blaschka Glass By Beau Ecs Wilder So beautiful they are, the lovely Blaschka glass displays, exquisite floral blossoms and marine invertibrates; such fragile, magical designs, and educational, as if...

  If I were to have been conceived Beneath a greater star, My sorrows would have been reprieved By powers great and far. Were I to have been born as strong As storm and fire and sea, Your royal...

Inside the desire for revenge is a painful vulnerability, a reminder of damage that won’t leave, and you wish for satisfaction, or just acknowledgment of the wrong. Instead, frustration grows with...

To Beauty (Tribute to Sarah Lane, American Ballet Theater Ballerina) Who see you move across the stage Themselves are moved by easeful gifts That vivify as they assuage The day's reflux. Your grace...

  Against the Light Watermarks are visible when held against light whispering quality, distinction, louder than a shout— are also used in banknotes ensuring they’re alright: some marks are more...

If You're a Beggar, Be a Chooser Too (Villanelle) If you're a beggar, be a chooser too, For less is more and more can be a curse. The world will offer anything to you. You must discern the useful from...

Petals in the Winter Three petals on a lily like the snow were held aloft And though the wind through window whipped it so just one fell off Two petals on that lily blue lamented on the sill But through...

This eve set as elegant exhibit of skin deep beauty for old yearning stares, is time’s harsh labor’s brief retreat. The hands, henna-designed, serpentine snares to trap young wild and restless...

Marv’lous Melody I read the words all leaping from the page And hear the joyful rhythm in my head But stop for you, an even-tonéd sage And listen to the words as they are said I could grow old to...

  In Defense of the Aesthetic Sense When lovely melodies arouse and wake My dormant bliss, or true words do the same, Dark, dour-visaged men intrude to claim My bliss is false, awakened by...

Dedicated to Falun Gong practitioners who have peacefully resisted persecution by the communist regime in China for 17 years, since July 20, 1999.   When the world’s despondent spirit sets in...

The waking’s spun with webs of urgent lure And sleep is shriveled dreaming marred by fear. The life allows the walker nothing sure Or level path to others once held dear. But many grasp at getting days...

  C0d0s0 By Leweca Derusbi The Chinese hackers who are known as the Codoso group are infiltrating sites across the Internetic loop. They're breaching banks, law firms, and varied...

Lost The angel’s cry, the devil’s kiss: How did you let it come to this? You claimed the darkness too: How when the world was screaming, You thought you’d best be dreaming; You thought the lies...

  When the wind blows true through the land Rustled leaves hold trees that withstand Tempered gusts with vicious intent. So long lives the day when air’s spent Upon the ridge: that jagged...

Jaded I Lay Jaded I lay prostrate in bands Constructed of my self-frustration: The morning waned; so too my elation, Jade-hued, whose kite flew out my hands. All joy is rocks, soon turned loose...

Anasazi Mesa castles in the sky Where paintbrush blooms and eagles fly. A people's passage marked in stone; Artifacts of flint and bone. Cliffy cities - vanished host, Sanctum haunt of hawk and...

Cribbed Agency (After a grating entrée) No matter how I madly strove to make sense of the garlic clove the waitress gave me with my plate, it simply made me more irate. And thus, like a rambunctious...

  Lone Cypress, Pebble Beach Crack of stone for rest and bed, Wrack of storm unpressed I tread, Sun and proud and bright and gold; Dun and shroud of night, I hold.   Fraternal I have some...

So turn whereto it dies, Pulse of a draining sun: The face of daylight’s guise The yield that night has won. See on the far-west front, Goes trotting godly fame: The bull called occident. His white...

Near rugged shores and inky lochs, Schiehallion prevails. As stronghold of the faeries, she’s the guardian of their tales. And at her foot there is a strath with water through its heart— An...

April in Washington Around the basin there’s a ring Of cherry trees now blossoming. Showing off the city’s best, They give its residents a rest From all the darker doings there That constitute the...

  Spirit Where once a spirit, pure and bright, Would sail on gossamer wings of light And pass through realms of endless night Amid the stars in blissful flight, Now life resides in flesh and...

  Our paths vanish; our footsteps fade From forest glades, from wave-damp sands From sunlight’s dazzle and twilight’s shade. Babes and toddlers, not yet afraid, We reach and roll and often...

  Though I’m eighty and have survived I’m the oldest man that never lived My life flew by too fast for that Each mountain climbed now seems so flat Always a mountain yet to climb, Even now,...

2016 Primaries This season, Mr. Trump’s a raging wildfire, a storm ignited by reality TV, fodder for anyone who likes good satire. He’s poised to win as far as I can see. The exit polls are making me...

Gaunt fades the twilight, nearly gone, a weary world wearing thin Since last the unremembered sun smiled upon the land below, And sluggish sinks the eventide, smothering all warmth and light, Until, at...