‘Exodus’: A Poem for Passover by Michael Vanyukov The Society April 22, 2024 Culture, Poetry 28 Comments . Exodus "The entire community of the children of Israel complained against Moses and against Aaron in the desert. The children of Israel said to them, If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land...
Are Epic Heroes Toxic?—Classical Poets Live with Andrew Benson Brown The Society April 21, 2024 Classical Poets Live, Culture, Essays, Poetry, Reviews 11 Comments . https://youtu.be/ICEvMGx4WnY . . Andrew Benson Brown has had poems and reviews published in a few journals. His epic-in-progress, Legends of Liberty, will chronicle the major events of the American...
‘Rolling the Roads—The Days Before Snow Plows’: A Poem by Phil S. Rogers The Society April 20, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 13 Comments . Rolling the Roads The Days Before Snow Plows . A major storm throughout the night __Of heavy, wet, spring snow. Nor'easter off the coast of Maine __Hence wicked winds did blow. When finally the storm was...
Carpe Diem: A Poem by James A. Tweedie The Society April 19, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 15 Comments . Carpe Diem Carpe diem quam minimum credula postero. (“Seize the day, trust as little as possible in tomorrow.”) Horace, Odes I:11 We live our lives, we make our plans, and then Both time and...
‘The Sound of Dirt’: A Poem by Gigi Ryan The Society April 18, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 26 Comments . The Sound of Dirt in memory of my granddaughter, Valerie (March 30, 2020 - April 20, 2020) Above uneven chairs a canopy Protects the mourners from the blazing heat. It does not shield from view the pile...
‘Snowy Egret’ and ‘Dusky Seaside Sparrow’: Two Bird Poems by Margaret Coats The Society April 17, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 39 Comments . Snowy Egret Here where sunlight sparkle rinses Cypresses whose balding branches Shoulder epiphytic orchids (Cowhorn, spider, ghost, or scented), Tangled mangrove swamp condenses Fortress walls against surf...
A Poem on the Persecution of Donald J. Trump, by Brian Yapko The Society April 16, 2024 Culture, Poetry 43 Comments . . On the Altar of Our Nation I must confess it took a long, long time For Donald Trump to grow on me. He’s gruff, Undiplomatic, calls opponents slime And scum. Of course the man is right, but...
‘Gallows Lane’ and Other Poetry by Cheryl Corey The Society April 15, 2024 Culture, Poetry 16 Comments . Gallows Lane A lesser charge once meant the pillory, With head and wrists securely set in blocks; For just the legs and feet, a pair of stocks; Or stripped and strapped against the whipping tree, Then...
‘A Clock Describes People’: A Poem by David Whippman The Society April 13, 2024 Culture, Poetry 28 Comments . A Clock Describes People Their faces do not show the time of day But something called emotion: what that is, I've no idea; but I can tell you this: they worry as the hours slip away. “Time's a great...
‘Counsel from a Self-Help Guru’ and Other Poetry by C.B. Anderson The Society April 12, 2024 Culture, Poetry, Satire 21 Comments . Counsel from a Self-Help Guru I haven’t come here purposed with defendingYour excesses or manifold omissions,Or promise all of you a happy ending:I’m here to explicate a few conditions That bear on...
‘Lone Musketeer’: A Poem by James Sale The Society April 11, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 25 Comments . Lone Musketeer "To be a poet in a destitute time means: to attend, singing, to the trace of the fugitive gods. This is why the poet in the time of the world’s night utters the holy … Poetry is a place...
‘How to Build a Monster’ and Other Poetry by Brian Yapko The Society April 9, 2024 Culture, Poetry, Satire 34 Comments . How to Build a Monster Don’t bother digging corpses up to suture body parts; Don’t seek out full-moon werewolves or unstake vampiric hearts--- For monsters can be crafted much more easily of late: First,...
‘Old New England Logging Camps’: A Poem by Phil S. Rogers The Society April 7, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 11 Comments . Old New England Logging Camps My father-in-law oft told me tales __Recalling logging camp— Tough men who cut gigantic trees __In winters cold and damp. Nearly all were bonded Frenchmen, __Who hailed from...
‘Ovid in Tomis’ and Other Poetry by Mary Jane Myers The Society April 6, 2024 Culture, Love Poems, Poetry 17 Comments . Ovid in Tomis Relegated, scorned, I languish here in this drab town. Unwitting, I caught sight of what must not be seen; my wretched plight, harsh exile from my laureate lettered sphere. The ancients tell...
‘Thoughts Upon Hearing of the Taiwan Earthquake’: A Poem by James A. Tweedie The Society April 3, 2024 Culture, Poetry 11 Comments . Thoughts Upon Hearing of the Taiwan Earthquake Big earthquake in Taiwan. My first concern: “Will China take advantage and attack?” Why did that cross my mind? Where did I learn To think like that? My...
Nazi Death Songs: Poems on Rudolf Hess and Rudolf Höss by Margaret Coats The Society April 3, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 34 Comments . Rudolf Hess Deputy Führer found strangled at Spandau Prison, August 17, 1987 Odd winter whirlwinds occupy my brain With telepathic messages I cherish. Dynamic years! Mein Führer cannot perish When august...
Soviet Tactics I Witnessed and Still in Use Today by ‘Masters of Deception’: by LTC Roy E. Peterson The Society April 2, 2024 Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Poetry 38 Comments . Soviet Tactics I Witnessed and Still in Use Today by LTC Roy E. Peterson Outside of the Chinese Communist Party, which itself uses forms of capitalism to advance its economy, people today tend to think of...
A Poem for Israel: ‘Sapphire Space and Eden Green’ by Alec Ream The Society April 2, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 5 Comments . Sapphire Space and Eden Green "...and they saw the God of Israel; and under His feet there appeared to be a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself." ---Exodus 24 "I saw a new heaven and a new...
‘Glimmers’: A Poem by Daniel Tuton The Society April 1, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 13 Comments . Glimmers Alone in rumination, distant dawn Eludes the desperate aching of my eyes, My senses blunted by a cheerless pall, Upon a cratered landscape, dazed hope lies. . Unbridled chaos there for all to see In...
‘The Emmaus Highway’: A Poem on the First Easter by Warren Bonham The Society March 31, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 6 Comments . The Emmaus Highway Each day we wake up and we walk to Emmaus, escaping what has, and what may yet dismay us. Returning each evening downcast and defeated. Arising again as this loop gets repeated. We start...
‘He Knows Our Hearts’ and Other Poems for Easter by Susan Jarvis Bryant The Society March 31, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 38 Comments . He Knows Our Hearts The Sunday flocks who sing as glory pours Through fancy glass as lusty organs play, The loner bowed in prayer behind closed doors, The lonely who have lost their will and way--- __He...
‘Who Believes in Easter Anymore?’: A Poem by James A. Tweedie The Society March 30, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 9 Comments . Who Believes in Easter Anymore? "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God . . . For the foolishness of God is wiser than...
‘Peter’s Story’: and Other Poems for Easter by Gigi Ryan The Society March 30, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Villanelle 12 Comments . Peter’s Story a villanelle I’m standing by the Sea of Galilee And Jesus calls for me to come along With James and John, the sons of Zebedee. I’m with Him as He sets the prisoners free, Feeds the...
‘Once’: A Poem for Good Friday, by Jeffrey Essmann The Society March 29, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 7 Comments . Once Once he was finally dead; once just a piece Of meat nailed to the planks of scabrous wood; Once suffering had done all that it could To him before it ceded him release; And once it seemed that evil no...
‘Stations of the Cross’: A Poem for Good Friday by Morrison Handley Schachler The Society March 29, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 18 Comments . Stations of the Cross . I. Pilate Why, Pentheus, Cambyses, why, Why, Antony, in days gone by, Did you the sons of gods defy? __Well, I your madness share. __Barabbas I shall spare __And must the dread...
‘The Lilacs on Good Friday’: A Poem by Joseph S. Salemi The Society March 29, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 24 Comments . The Lilacs on Good Friday Tumult of noontide long ago dismissed— The rent veil unremembered, and the sun Relit, though shrouded in a new eclipse Of rainswept sky. The garden seems to shun That spectral...
‘The Lamb’: A Poem for Good Friday by Phillip Whidden The Society March 28, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 26 Comments . The Lamb “And suddenly there was with the angel a heavenly host saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.” ---Luke 2:14 The lamb looks up and sees a light, a star Or...
‘Distress Signals’: An Extended Villanelle and Other Poems by C.B. Anderson The Society March 27, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Epigrams and Proverbs, Humor, Poetry, Villanelle 20 Comments . Distress Signals an extended villanelle Distressing times are coming round again, And all the talking heads now flap their jaws To say it isn’t if, but rather when.— There is a dearth of good upstanding...
‘The Wisdom of Ric Edelman’: A Poem by Mark F. Stone, Read by Ric Edelman Himself The Society March 27, 2024 Culture, Poetry 11 Comments . Reading of Mark F. Stone's poem "The Wisdom of Ric Edelman" by Ric Edelman on his show available here: https://www.thetayf.com/blogs/this-weeks-stories/the-wisdom-of-ric-edelman . The Wisdom of Ric...
A Poem for the 150th Anniversary of Robert Frost’s Birth: ‘Imagine Mountains’ by Carey Jobe The Society March 26, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 22 Comments . Imagine Mountains For the Sesquicentennial of Robert Frost's birth (March 26, 1874 – March 26, 2024) "Let chaos storm! Let cloud shapes swarm! I wait for form." ---Robert Frost, "Pertinax" Imagine a...
‘The Line For Ashes’: An Ash Wednesday Poem by Joseph Stuart The Society March 25, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 5 Comments . The Line For Ashes Line is long and moving slowly: Step by step, the high and lowly, Halt and limber, shorter, taller, Young and elder, greater, smaller, Plainer, fairer, pallor, color, Father, daughter,...
‘Deep State Anonymity’: A Poem by Peter Venable The Society March 24, 2024 Culture, Poetry 5 Comments . Deep State Anonymity Ah, the devil. His motive? To deceive __And for us to deny, To dismiss him as simply make-believe. He loves attention. Like All Hallows’ Eve: __Witches and goblins fly As all his...
‘Shades of Vesuvius’: A Poem by Stephen M. Dickey The Society March 24, 2024 Culture, Poetry 14 Comments . Shades of Vesuvius Seldom does one see horror in a tranche De vie like that in Herculaneum And Pompeii, when a sudden avalanche Of heat and ash ruptured your cranium (After you met your death in frenzied...
A Limerick on New Hot Cross Buns with Tick (Check Mark), by Paul A. Freeman The Society March 23, 2024 Culture, Limerick, Poetry 15 Comments . Limerick Perhaps it’s a marketing trick, or else Iceland’s taking the mick; __for what kind of fun __is an Easter Day bun when the cross has been swapped for a tick? . taking the mick: making...
A Poem Based on Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory, by Joshua C. Frank The Society March 23, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 15 Comments . The Whiskey Priest based on The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene I stand condemned because I am a priest, Condemned to die by law here in Tabasco, The last eight years of memories I’ve pieced Together...
A Poem on Israel: ‘We Are Wrong’ by Michael Vanyukov The Society March 23, 2024 Culture, Poetry 70 Comments . We Are Wrong You shall remember what Amalek did to you on the way, when you went out of Egypt, how he happened upon you on the way and cut off all the stragglers at your rear, when you were faint and...
‘Queen Esther’s Lot’: A Poem for Purim, by Margaret Coats The Society March 22, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 20 Comments . Queen Esther's Lot for the Jewish holiday of Purim (“Lots”) Oh, to be taken from home’s holy ways, Delivered to a king uncircumcized, And after one grand night, spend endless days With harem women and...
‘March 21st, Saints Cranmer and Bach’: A Poem by Cynthia Erlandson The Society March 21, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 16 Comments . March 21st, Saints Cranmer and Bach Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, burned at the stake March 21, 1556 . Johann Sebastian Bach, born March 21, 1685 . “Upon them hath the light shined.” ---Isaiah 9:...
A Poem for Lent: ‘St. Perpetua’ by Jeffrey Essmann The Society March 20, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 6 Comments . St. Perpetua Eyewitnesses of the atrocity Report that on that Carthage afternoon, Already scourged and gored repeatedly By savage bulls, she fell into a swoon (Of Spirit, so they said), then rose immune To...
‘Words Matter’: A Poem by Susan Jarvis Bryant The Society March 20, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 65 Comments . Words Matter . I. Out of Context Cheats cherry-pick the words that suit their ploy To shame the names of those who disagree With all they say. If counter claims destroy Their idiotic ideology They’ll...