A Sonnet for the 100th Anniversary of the Leopold and Loeb Case, by Adam Sedia The Society May 31, 2024 Culture, Poetry 22 Comments . Leopold and Loeb Or, the Consequences of Ideas A Frenchman’s thought-experiments Argued by Englishmen until A German stripped pure thought from sense; A second then conceived the will; And last, a third...
‘The Devotee’ by Jeffrey Essmann The Society May 29, 2024 Culture, Poetry 7 Comments . The Devotee She moves from one devotion to the next, From this beloved statue to the text Of some obscure or justly famous saint Who’s good at whatsoever her complaint Parochial or personal may be That...
‘Surviving Caligula’: A Poem on the Roman Emperor, by Brian Yapko The Society May 28, 2024 Culture, Poetry 31 Comments . Surviving Caligula Setting: Caligula’s Palace, the Palatine Hill, Rome Date: 23 January 794 Ab urbe condita (41 A.D.) The Matter: A Praetorian Guard contemplates Rome’s future under the Emperor...
A Sonnet for Harrison Butker, by Adam Sedia The Society May 27, 2024 Culture, Poetry 22 Comments . Love and Vipers for Harrison Butker, the football player criticized for supporting traditional views of women in a commencement address How hated you are for proclaiming love---Not just your own, but love...
A Poem for an Orwellian Memorial Day, by Susan Jarvis Bryant The Society May 27, 2024 Culture, Poetry 44 Comments . Memorial Day, 1984 2024 “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.” ---George Orwell Today we honor those who gave their all In monstrous conflicts in the name of peace; Those who...
‘The First and Usually Unspoken Rule of Great Writing’: A Poem by Phillip Whidden The Society May 27, 2024 Culture, Poetry 12 Comments . The First and Usually Unspoken Rule of Great Writing The greatest rule of writing is to tell A truth, the truth if possible, within The scope of lines set out, to sound the knell Of honeyed feelings, not...
‘Betrayal’ and Other Poems by Susan Jarvis Bryant The Society May 25, 2024 Culture, Pantoum, Poetry, Rondeau, Villanelle 21 Comments . Betrayal a villanelle Today she spied the shadow of a snake Slither through the spreading family tree--- A curse her startled heart finds hard to take. She heard this serpent hiss. Though wide...
‘Eulogy to the First Ms. Brown’ and Other Poetry by Betsy K. Brown The Society May 24, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Terza Rima 5 Comments . Eulogy to the First Ms. Brown or a Divine Comedy of Educators . To my aunt—the second daughter of three, And first to leave us just two years ago: I picture you once sitting on Grandpa's knee And asking...
‘Newman, Alone’: A Poem by Adam Wasem The Society May 23, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 15 Comments . Newman, Alone Newman, thirty, alone, asleep in bed, Groans, yearning for his mother, years now, dead--- Alive, her vivid female acts above Had served as lodestar for his childish love. The women he’d...
‘Two Times Two Is Four’: A Poem by T.M.A. Day The Society May 23, 2024 Culture, Poetry 14 Comments . Two Times Two Is Four Now Kierkegaard once wrote a book, __Entitled Either/Or, But for myself, I only know, __That two times two is four. For though the oceans brim with blood, __Foretold in ancient...
Three Love-Crossed Sonnets by James A. Tweedie The Society May 22, 2024 Culture, Love Poems, Poetry 21 Comments . Unopened Letters Unopened letters strewn across the floor Addressed to me with your name on the back. Left where they fell inside my slotted door. A postal service-aided sneak attack. I step on them with...
‘The Cleft’ and Other Poetry by Gigi Ryan The Society May 22, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 10 Comments . The Cleft There’s danger for the harmless dove; she swoops Into the cleft of the great mountainside. Her heartbeat calms as she keeps still and mute Surrounded by the rock where she abides. If from her...
A Poem Based on Joshua Harris’s I Kissed Dating Goodbye, by Joshua C. Frank The Society May 21, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 23 Comments . Chelsea a true story from I Kissed Dating Goodbye by Joshua Harris “Behold not everybody's beauty: and tarry not among women.” ---Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) 42:12 That long-skirt, apple-pie brunette from...
‘AI’s Promise’ and Other Poetry by Daniel Kemper The Society May 20, 2024 Culture, Poetry 24 Comments . AI's Promise What is the latest ingenious ability makers have made out as mental agility? Smoothly unveiling the newest utility, __though it effusively services whims, it reveals our fragility __more than...
‘He Lied About His Age’: A Poem by Joyce E. Rogers The Society May 18, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 9 Comments . He Lied About His Age 'Twas May of nineteen seventeen, our country now at war. Will had decided to enlist, this great world to explore. His lifetime numbered sixteen years, he'd lie about his age, His build...
‘Saturn’: A Poem by Alan Orsborn The Society May 17, 2024 Culture, Poetry, Villanelle 14 Comments . Saturn "When we have shuffled off this mortal coil" —Shakespeare "According to medieval thought, the worst planet was Saturn, sponsor of death, destruction, darkness, and disaster." —Michael Ward When...
A Poem for the 30th Anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide, by Paul A. Freeman The Society May 17, 2024 Culture, Poetry 27 Comments . Rwanda, April 1994 Inside Nyamata Church the pews are piledwith clothes, the blood that drenched them dull and dry.What demon turned sane men and women wildwith bloodlust that ten thousand here would die? A...
‘Herman the Cripple’: A Poem by Margaret Coats The Society May 16, 2024 Culture, Music, Poetry 44 Comments . Herman the Cripple A body helpless in deformity Was mine, though loving parents carried me Full seven years in sick infirmity, Then placed me in the monks’ academy. Their island abbey Reichenau became My...
‘The Dead’: A Poem by Jeffrey Essmann The Society May 15, 2024 Culture, Poetry 12 Comments . The Dead They’re pretty but the dopamine Has hollowed out their pale blue eyes. They sit there, staring, silent, numb, (They only need to move their thumb…) Intent upon the tiny screen. There’s no...
‘And Yet We Wash Our Hands’: A Poem by Roy E. Peterson The Society May 14, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 25 Comments . And Yet We Wash Our Hands When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, butthat instead an uproar was starting, he took waterand washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I aminnocent of this man’s...
‘Look Homeward, Sweet Afton’: Poem by Brian Yapko, Set to Music by Jeff Eardley The Society May 14, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Music, Poetry, Song Lyrics 32 Comments . Music by Jeff Eardley . Look Homeward, Sweet Afton after Robert Burns Look homeward, Sweet Afton, back to thy green braes, Recalling with pride Britain’s glorious days. Then forward flow strongly, I pray...
A Poem on D.C.’s S.W.A.M.P., by Warren Bonham The Society May 11, 2024 Culture, Poetry 13 Comments . S.W.A.M.P. Soulless, Warped, And Monstrous People look at us as smelly “sheeple.” Easily manipulated. Otherwise, we’re mocked and hated. Those revolting, loathsome creatures, all have normal-looking...
‘Hookerville School’: A Poem on the One-Room Schoolhouse by Phil S. Rogers The Society May 11, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 13 Comments . Hookerville School Built just before the Civil War, employed till twenty-nine, This one-room school that stands today withstood the test of time. Turn back the clocks to times long passed, so many years...
‘Orpheus’: A Poem by James Sale The Society May 10, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 29 Comments . Orpheus We want the heroes back so we can learn: Herakles smashed his way to hell and stormed By violence the ferryman and three-faced dog; Even yanked Theseus from his deep-rooted seat Without a...
’10/7/2023′: A Poem on the Attack on Israel, by Michael Vanyukov The Society May 10, 2024 Culture, Poetry 24 Comments . 10/7/2023 More than one has risen up against us to destroy us. Rather, in every generation they rise against us to annihilate us. —The Passover Haggadah The world is killing Jews, again. There are too...
A Poem on Scotland’s New Hate Crime Law, by Cheryl Corey The Society May 8, 2024 Culture, Poetry 47 Comments . On Scotland Police were inundated with over 7,000 calls in the first week following the passage of Scotland’s Hate Crime and Public Order Act last month. Where tartan, tweed, and Highland Games began: The...
‘Truth Is Not Beauty’ and Other Poetry by Joshua C. Frank The Society May 5, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Villanelle 31 Comments . Truth Is Not Beauty “What is the worst mistake you ever made in bed?” Reply: “My son.” (Actual dialogue on social media) I learn the truth; I’m more and more aggrieved. There’s nothing left, no...
‘Bridgerton’s DEI vs. Historicity’: A Poem by Drilon Bajrami The Society May 3, 2024 Culture, Poetry, Reviews 20 Comments . Bridgerton’s DEI vs. Historicity They sacrifice true historicity, So DEI trumps authenticity. But Bridgerton and Netflix, they don’t care, Because those ethopaths with neon hair Give fat cats in their...
‘Reservoir’: A Poem by Stephen M. Dickey The Society May 2, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 18 Comments . Reservoir Those who can still see through accreting years Are getting scarce, those who can lift such veil To remember when the Corps of Engineers Dammed a minor river to end its tale Of flood and misery...
‘Carmen’: A Poem by Théophile Gautier, Translated by Bruce Phenix The Society May 2, 2024 Culture, Poetry, Translation 13 Comments . Carmen by Théophile Gautier (1811-1872) translated by Bruce Phenix Carmen is thin—a dark-brown line Of bistre rings her gipsy eye. Her black hair bodes a dark design, The Devil gave her skin its...
‘Easter Evening Appearance’ and Other Poetry by Jeffrey Essmann The Society May 1, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Ekphrastic, Poetry 8 Comments . Easter Evening Appearance Luke 24 Sealed up within my upper room, Absorbed by morbid discontent And fear, I questioned everything I’ve done and wondered what it meant. Though slim perspective chided me And...
May Songs from Miracle Plays, Translated by Margaret Coats The Society May 1, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Song Lyrics, Translation 19 Comments . May Songs . I. Where does loyalty take its rest? Where is charity’s portraiture, Except in you, sweet virgin pure? Where has virginity possessed The honor due its high allure? Where does loyalty take its...
‘Throughout American Academies’: A Poem by Bruce Dale Wise The Society April 29, 2024 Culture, Poetry 9 Comments . Throughout American Academies One hears throughout American academies a strainthat is at once belligerent, intolerant, and strange.It drips with antisemitism all across the land.What new “Mein Kampf” is...
A Poem on Being Openly Jewish in London: ‘Lie Low, Jew!’ by Susan Jarvis Bryant The Society April 29, 2024 Culture, Poetry 41 Comments . Lie Low, Jew! Echoes and Irony The Hamas flags are raised on London streets By swarms that seethe with scorn and blaze with hate. This nasty nod to History’s evil greets A Londoner reminded of the...
‘How Many Wrongs Make a Right?’ and Other Poetry by Warren Bonham The Society April 28, 2024 Culture, Poetry 19 Comments . How Many Wrongs Make a Right? The left rights wrongs by doing wrong, but wrongs so fixed don’t stay fixed long. When things re-break, they wrong once more, and hope thereby they can restore things back to...
A Poem on Anti-Israel Encampments at U.S. Universities, by Cheryl Corey The Society April 28, 2024 Culture, Poetry 23 Comments . On Student Protestations They protest on behalf of Gaza from afar— Why won’t they do the same regarding Myanmar? To speak of Falun Gong and China’s Muslim Uyghur Will get you vacant stares—the...
‘Jerzy and Cyla’ and Other Holocaust Poetry by Peter Austin The Society April 27, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 10 Comments . Jerzy and Cyla Jerzy, a Polish teen in World War Two, Arrested for suspected membership Of the resistance, faced a one-way trip To Auschwitz. There, where womenfolk were few, Labouring in a storehouse used...
‘The Knight of Monticello’: A Poem on Thomas Jefferson by Mary Jane Myers The Society April 25, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 16 Comments . The Knight of Monticello Everywhere and always, Jefferson read. His library stocked a sage’s daily bread. Four volumes, leather-bound, well-thumbed, perused: Don Quixote, his most peculiar muse. He...
‘Theópneustos’: A Poem by Peter Venable The Society April 25, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 7 Comments . . Theópneustos Greek, “God breathed” . The Word of God is absolute— __Or else, some claim, it’s obsolete. Many hold it in disrepute, __Dismiss it as myth and deceit. . I say it’s for the...
A Poem on China’s Belt and Road Initiative, by Paul A. Freeman The Society April 24, 2024 Culture, Human Rights in China, Poetry 16 Comments . When the Dragon Spreads Its Wings Millennia, the Dragon stayed at home, Consumed its own, kept dissidence at bay, Until it felt a gnawing urge to roam, To make its global domination play. With Belt and...