Culture

. Learning Curves In classrooms smeared with monkey poop__Where questions meet deceit,She heard she came from soupy gloop---__A slab of soulless meat.Her teachers preached from thrones of bones---__They...

. Boomerang In the chronicles of hist’ry There we see a vast array Of malicious, scheming tricksters Who themselves became the prey, Thus, confirming what the Psalmist In his wisdom once had said Of the...

. The Unknown God ---Paul’s Address at the Areopagus (Acts 17:22-31) My dear Athenians, this I surveilled While passing by: you’re quite religious men! I scanned what you are worshiping, and then I stopped...

. How Many Homes? ---January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires Twelve thousand lost, from stricken memories more Schools, churches, meeting places, shops and homes Of residents and others moved away, Bereaved of...

. Another Old Myth The Ancient One warned Noah's doom was near. Since men possessed with greed kept spilling blood, That cataclysmic rain would soon appear. So Noah built an ark before the flood. No matter now...

. Vernal Equinox Germans call this season “frühling.” Spaniards name it “primavera.” Welshmen say the term is “gwanwyn.” Shetland trawlers go with “voar,” so Let’s resolve this with a...

. My Backyard  . The Campfire Elisha loves to build a fire; His dog is near, she loves to watch For birds that she will try to catch. They each pursue their own desire--- One by her leaps, one with a...

. I Failed I failed so dramatically most early days I failed horribly in most critical ways I failed to use schooling at each different age I failed in the waste of my talents each stage I failed with some...

. Reflections on a Visit to Saint Augustine With each step up the old Castillo wall I pray The hurricane will detour east past Grand Bahama. If windborne flooding comes, it can’t be held at bay--- St....

. St. Patrick’s Day, 2025 While swathed in swirls of green, some raise a glass Of dark elixir topped with sheeny cream. Some twirl through Derry streets and Kerry grass In dreams ablaze with leprechauns that...

. Simple Simon Responds to Sayings of Captain Obvious English literature tends to be wordy. Many tricks are exceedingly dirty. On a bright sunny day the whole sky appears bluish. All the teachers that pray in...

. A Summer Evening The sky begins to cloak its face, Removing every streak of red. Above, two weary flyers trace The way back to their bough-held bed. A boy, awash with joy, returns Soil-vested from a...

. Mussolini's Minions ---Segesta, 2012 Entranced, we wander round the temple site.The hot Sicilian sun beats down. I’m frayed,now seek the parking lot's uncertain shade.My brother John’s nearby, though not...

. Cherry Tree One summer day not long ago a man planted a tree, With tender love and patience he invested energy. He poured his hope and faith into the little budding leaves, For by this time next year he...

. The Core of War a pantoum The trickster charms and arms both sides--- He funds the ally and the foe. His hype unites and it divides. He’s oh so anti… also pro. He funds the ally and the foe. His crimson...

. Of Elizabeth Bishop Ms. Bishop is one able–eyed observer;her vision is acute, that’s plain to see.Staring at her, I doubt I could unnerve her,though from the page she sometimes unnerves me.The variations...

. An Ode to a Hymn “Like aught that for its grace may be Dear, and yet dearer for its mystery” ---Percy Shelley in “Hymn to Intellectual Beauty” Cathedral with its prayer sings homily _About an ancient...

. Nishijin Weaving In the tranquil heartThere is no scattering ofBlossoms once gathered. ―Satomura Jōha, master of linked verse The shining fabrics of nobilityDemand the planning of a pattern first.The...

. Craft ---a conversation between Beauty and Productivity "You don't have time for this, you know." "Says who?" "That daily checklist down there in your tool bar, that's who says!" "Calm down. You need to...

. A Token of Espousal Sister Elisabetta Dardinelli Speaks Concerning the Token of Espousalof Saint Catherine de’ Ricci (1522-1590) Dixit mihi Dominus meus: Ne timeas, filia: Non rapiet tequisquam de manu...

. Ashes Before the Lenten ashes fade and thin, I might remind myself of those regrets More earnest than a taste for sweets Or bad TV and that my conscience meets With frightening ease at times far greater...

. The Greatest Time of Fatherhood I know that I’m supposed to say The finest time is now—today. And with all their accomplishments, That would indeed make lots of sense. And yet the greatest time of...

. We Already May Be in Purgatory The Peterson Postulate "What if this life is just a test so we can become better people?" ---The White Lotus HBO TV series What if God has sent us all to Purgatory? It’s our...

. Zelensky Gets a Hard Lesson Zelensky comes strutting, in hope of a payout— Trump and young J.D. are trusting that he’ll Accept their diplomacy’s well-crafted layout Of how the Ukraine needs a...

. The Vice Worse than the addiction of a smoker, And harder to get over than cocaine, More drawing than to gamblers their poker Is a vice that never ends the game. It’s worse than the attraction of a...

. If I Could but Touch His Hem ---Mark 5:25-34 Forgive me, Lord, you know it’s true That I have prayed twelve years to you, To stop the bleeding and the shame To live a normal life again. And now there is...

. Trumped by Reason Our elitists loved extolling all their virtues while controlling each dimension of all nations through new laws and regulations. The more burdensome the better, and they held us to each...

. As Hamas Celebrates Dead Babies The Bibas deaths... how do I tell this news? A mother and her sons---all blameless Jews--- Killed senselessly. My words seem desecration... For I have not one word of...

. Chasing COLAs in a Hard World COLA: cost-of-living adjustment We learned, each time we tried to file a claim, _That dealing with the Demiurge Adjustor _Takes all the fortitude that we can muster, And that...

. Scarlet Pimpernel Amassing clouds—the air still warm; But you, my scarlet pimpernel, You sense that there's a coming storm, Compress your petals, and transform To brave the current's rising swell. . The...

. Made from Scratch! An ever-growing-number of our adolescent children are suckled by the biased breasts of prejudice and greed--- born to persons steeped in hatred, keen to fashion soldiers built to fit in...

. Fifties Country Living Sit down with me my children, come! __I'll spin a tale or two About when I was just a kid __in nineteen fifty-two. No cell phones, televisions, laptops, __email, or...

. Evensong The embers dimmed on the Pacific; _The sky a scarlet hue. One might conclude the fire seraphic--- _A seascape brushed by the muse. Some mares’ tails smudged the vista with soot _While gulls...

. The Clown I went inside my mind today. I hoped my thoughts would want to play. But all they did was get me down. I saw a large imposing clown. She had some tears upon her face, and tried to lock me in...

. Reflections on Still Waters . Isaiah 55:12 You shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace, And a song will break forth from the lands. While the echoes of praise in the hills never cease, And the...

. Piazza della Signoria, Florence: February 7, 1497 Savonarola gets up off his knees (much contact with the ground has formed a welt) and lights the bonfire of the vanities. His purpose is to purge the...

. Lament to the Passing of Paper I learned to write my A-B-Cs and form my shapely 1-2-3s on paper, when I was a lad; but now, since I’ve become a dad, the era of the written word is passing like the dodo...

. Our National Precipice The time has come for all good men To recognize our nation’s end. We have been silent much too long, Just caught up in a siren’s song. That song, that beckons our demise, Brought...

. . Sonnet 1 I felt like trying something new today, And so I put my pen upon a page To mimic Shakespeare's famous olden way— A style which, I hear, was all the rage. So here I am committing fourteen...

. The FBI---Then and Now So respected when I was a kid, For the things we all read that they did, It’s substantially altered today--- Now we hardly trust one word they say. . . The Modern Mainstream...