Culture

. Christmas Medley performed by Jeff Eardley . . Absent Friends The Christmas lights are twinkling on the houses all around. All we need’s a frosting and some snow upon the ground. But as this old year...

. The Evening The Times Newspaper Turned Into Jane Eyre My life had become like a broadsheet,__The Telegraph, maybe The Times:The financial section---prose sober and neat;__Inflation---the yen falls and...

. I Know Them Well Don't preach to me of heaven and of hell expecting me to tremble and to cower. They're here on Earth, and yes, I know them well. I do not need to hear your church bell knell from high atop...

. Christmas Hallelujah sung to the melody of “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen When I hear a song of destiny, Of peace and love and harmony, From deep within I feel an Hallelujah. When I can feel a tingling...

. The Ancient Christmas Tree A Dream Memory . The ridge out the window was blanketed white With snow that had fallen that long winter’s night. A lad of eleven, I woke to the noise Of far-away shouts from...

. The Ultimate Christmas Gift “Maybe Christmas, the Grinch thought, doesn’t come from a store.” ---Dr. Seuss This gift winks in the sparkle of the star That tops the twinkling tree with spangled joy __In...

. Author/Composer’s Note: The noël, Il est Né le Divin Enfant (“He is Born, the Divine Christ Child”) is one of the most beloved and beautiful French carols to have crossed into the English-speaking...

. . “Even now, in sordid particulars, the eternal design may appear.” ---T.S. Eliot, Murder in the Cathedral . Among the moan of kine and smell of sheep, The plaintive whine of fowls half-asleep, A woman...

. Sleigh Rides Do Not a Christmas Make While folks down under get to ride their bicycles __And dine alfresco at a Christmas picnic, We blokes up over are avoiding icicles __And making every effort not to...

. The Wisemen and the Shepherds after Eileen Duggan The camels’ footfalls over and around Baked dunes, through pebbled streams, on forest floors; The sages straddling humps without a sound Who’ve long...

. Christmas by Force The jostling beast increases the distress Of Mary whose first labor has progressed. Joseph of the donkey’s reins keeps hold; The night is clear and calm, the desert cold. In town each...

. Christmas I don’t recall the tree or what we ate With sentiment Dickensian and sweet. The tree was in a Midwest way ornate; The food: potatoes certainly; some meat. The past for me gives off more light...

. Midwinter “O blesséd day we now enjoy, from heaven it is granted.  He brings us bliss, He shows Himself for all our joy and worship!  O may our Lord each one today defend us from all evil!” ---from W....

. A Christmas Carol Complete text here: https://classicalpoets.org/2021/12/24/a-christmas-carol-after-charles-dickens-by-talbot-hook/ . . . Andrew Benson Brown has had poems and reviews published in a few...

. Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin in reference to the recent storm in Maine In Maine the Governor had to delay A hearing where the government had planned To air, promote, consider and to weigh A law where...

. Curse of the Desert Ill-tempered droughts strip lands of foliage sheath. Its barren womb still yields a wilted crust that liberates, from layers underneath, a swell of ruffled soil and choking...

. Whence Come You, Shepherdess? . Translator's Note: “D’où Viens-tu, Bergère” was one of a number of old songs and carols from the French region of Périgord collected by Emmanuel Casse and Eugène...

. December Oak Leaves Puis çà, puis là, comme le vent varie, A son plaisir sans cesser nous charrie, (The wind, gleefully, pushing us, changing its mind, Forwards and backwards, all of the...

. Miles Fidelis (The Faithful Soldier)  for Joseph Salemi, whose essay introduced me to the soldier of this poem. The city shakes! Vesuvius spouts fire As Vulcan grins through Jupiter’s hot breath. Brute...

. Are you looking for a good poem to read at your Christmas party or gathering? Is it a more serious or light-hearted event? Christmas poems come in a great variety of shapes and sizes. They can be short or...

. A Travelogue of Wonders My friends, I’m here to speak of wondrous sights. The first, at Alexandria’s port, was built By Sostratus. Of all the harbor lights, This brilliant beam, when lit, outshines the...

. Here We Go Again… by Joseph S. Salemi Oh dear… it looks like the hillbilly software salesman is having another moral fit. Michael R. Burch of Nashville Tennessee has posted more venomous comments about...

. Evening, Washington Metro Entrained, en masse, an ebb as from a beach: the tide drawn by the Capitol (the dome our moon) subsides. We move as one, yet each toward some divisibility called home. The trope...

. What’s Left to Say? a rhupunt  When women’s plans Are like a man’s, So they act trans, What’s left to say? When folks believe That to conceive Is cause to grieve, What’s left to say? When...

. Moon Before Yule The ashen lantern leavening the skyBegins in languor to proclaim sublimeFestivity to winter’s weather eye. The dome of heaven echoes back the chimeOf peals ethereal arising heardIn...

. To My Daughter A woman’s life is hard, they say---and true, Though now not as our mothers understood: They battled nature’s facts and custom’s due; Your battle will be for true womanhood. Though all...

. It Was Only a Winter’s Tale based on David Essex's classic 1982 Christmas song The nights are ever short and growing cold; the front door lies ajar from when you left one evening, though your reasons were...

. Unsocial Addictions Why do some people lie, brag, or act mean?It must pump them up, like a jolt of caffeine.But soon they come down, right to where they have been,And can’t get back up, till they do it...

. There Is a Way? Is there a way for beauty to be painted with a word? Is there a way to write in ways so music can be heard? Is there a way to make a point that others can’t ignore? Is there a way to say...

. Abraham and the Binding of Isaac after Genesis 22 I cannot sleep although the moon is high. I’m numb. Before me looms the sacred hill. My son snores softly. I look to the sky Submissive to God’s wish but...

. Lee in the Furnace "He who thinks of Lee Must think of Washington. . ." ---Herman Melville So Oleh, Chief, my other grandfather, Mine on the distaff, on the losing side. The furnace burnishes your graven...

. Voyage to Scotland Constantius II, son of Constantine and emperor from 337 to 361, hoped to glorify Constantinople by collecting relics of all twelve Apostles. He took Saint Andrew’s remains by force from...

. Killing Common Sense The savagery of leftist rage __is getting more intense. There’s no rest from the war they wage __upon our common sense. The brave who voice their doubts out loud __are always shouted...

. What Sort of Freedom? What sort of freedom is it that proclaims Its export to the savage and demands Oceans of youthful blood to back its claims And wrests the first fruits from hard-toiling hands; That...

. 2 Peter 3 “Consider that our Lord’s patience is directed toward salvation.” ---2 Peter 3:15 For once in church (before, I think, the Sacrament) In silence deep and cast adrift in prayer, I folded in...

. To Whom It May Concern a common spelling error: “Isreal.” "Woe to those who say of the evil that it is good and of the good that it is evil; who present darkness as light and light as darkness,...

. . The Eve of Thanksgiving ‘Tis the eve of Thanksgiving, and all through the class, The students are wishing the time would soon pass. Though it’s nodes, modes, and frequencies they’re told to...

. World View Beyond the line where sea and sky collideLie distant lands beyond myopic sightWhere men and women live and love besideThe self-same sea beneath the same sun’s light. Where East meets West...

. . Reversing Babel . I. Babel “Now the whole earth had one language and one speech.” ---Genesis 11:1 . An ill wind blows through Babel, where all speech Is one, so that it’s possible to plan--- Then...

. Perpetual Emotion “And everybody hates the Jews.” ---Tom Lehrer, National Brotherhood Week Not many people like the Jews; __By many they are hated. The people whom God chose to choose __At best are...