‘May Day’ by Cheryl Corey The Society May 1, 2022 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 11 Comments . May Day Note: Maypoles were a feature of ancient Roman festivals to mark the renewal of Spring. The feast days of Saints Philip and James were celebrated by the Church of England in May. Having hewed a...
‘Apollo’s Lament’ by Brian Yapko The Society April 30, 2022 Beauty, Culture, Ekphrastic, Poetry 31 Comments . Apollo’s Lament He pounds his naked chest and looks for bones Suspecting that the bay tree is a sham. At last he falls upon his knees and moans “My little doe, my tender dove, my lamb!” He scans the...
‘Apocrypha’ and Other Poetry by C.B. Anderson The Society April 29, 2022 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 21 Comments . Apocrypha Two orbs in hand—one large, one small— He climbed the tower to the top. He let them go and watched them fall, And those below who saw them drop Were dumbstruck when they hit the ground With a...
‘Douglas MacArthur, Et al.’ by Cheryl Corey The Society April 25, 2022 Culture, Humor, Poetry 4 Comments . Douglas MacArthur, Et Al. Douglas MacArthur waded through the surf, Unafraid to lead his men in battle. Today, they’d rather write a book, tattle On their bosses, and walk on Astroturf. Just sayin’:...
A Tale from the April 25, 1999 Zhongnanhai Falun Gong Appeal, by Damian Robin The Society April 24, 2022 Culture, Human Rights in China, Poetry 9 Comments . A Tale of April 25, 1999 I’d practiced Falun Gong for seven years. It stopped my spine disease’s jabbing spears And repositioned bone and smoothed skin pores. Such cures were far beyond mere earthly...
‘Uluru / Ayers Rock’ and Other Australia Poetry by James A. Tweedie The Society April 24, 2022 Beauty, Culture, Ekphrastic, Poetry 6 Comments . Photo of Uluru / Ayers Rock by the Poet Uluru / Ayers Rock The winter outback chill of mid-Julys Cuts to the bone as waning suns conspire To send their sparks through darkening cobalt skies That set the...
‘St. George Updated’ by Susan Jarvis Bryant The Society April 23, 2022 Culture, Humor, Poetry 26 Comments . St. George Updated Our age old bold defender __Now an up to date transgender Is consorting with the witless and the woke. He has quit his knight malarkey __Now he hates the patriarchy And our green and...
A Poem for St. George’s Day: ‘By George!’ by Paul A. Freeman The Society April 23, 2022 Culture, Humor, Poetry 16 Comments . By George! By George, St. George! You really are a slouch. Arise, pick up your lance, eschew the couch. Like Patrick, Andrew, David, fill our breasts with pride and we shall wear upon our chests your...
Four Poems for Shakespeare’s Birthday, by Susan Jarvis Bryant The Society April 22, 2022 Culture, Humor, Poetry, Shakespeare, Villanelle 15 Comments . Remembering Ophelia His scathing tongue had thrust her to the edge. It nudged her through the willow’s sunless fringe. She teetered on that petal-littered ledge Where Hades howls and bluest moons...
A Call for Secession: An Essay on Poetry and the Arts by Adam Sedia The Society April 22, 2022 Culture, Essays, Poetry 60 Comments . A Call for Secession by Adam Sedia The fine arts currently lie atrophied in utter decline and degradation. Poetry is no exception. Ever since the advent of modernism in the decades leading up to the First...
‘With Boots On’ and Other Poetry by Lionel Willis The Society April 21, 2022 Beauty, Culture, Humor, Poetry 3 Comments . With Boots On Soon after break of day an old man comes Trudging along the thawing roads of Cottage Country (the common land of day and hope) Considering the analects of Spring. At every unploughed drive...
‘The Chained Oak’ by Jeff Eardley The Society April 20, 2022 Culture, Poetry 14 Comments . The Chained Oak This tale concerns the fifteenth Earl of Shrewsbury, A member of the English aristocracy. With mighty Halls and Castle where he’d often go, Perched high above the river running down...
A Poem on the Shanghai Lockdown: ‘Shhh…’ by Susan Jarvis Bryant The Society April 19, 2022 Culture, Human Rights in China, Poetry, Readings, Science 15 Comments . . Shhh… Shanghai trembles at the edge of hell As horror wafts and weaves its way through streets. The moon melts in the flare of terror’s yell--- Hot howls of raw despair till morning...
‘One Afternoon’ by Paul A. Freeman The Society April 19, 2022 Culture, Poetry, Terrorism 8 Comments . One Afternoon One hot Arabian afternoon a boom reverberated through my flat and woke my napping wife and children; in each room the windows shook, but not so much they broke. Two cars with insurrectionists...
‘Easter Monday’ by Cynthia Erlandson The Society April 18, 2022 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 6 Comments . Easter Monday Luke 24: 13 – 35 With hearts eclipsed by Friday’s three-day night And eyes still blinded to their master’s face, They hear his sermon, senseless that his light Has thrown the flames of...
‘The Prince of Peace’ by Susan Jarvis Bryant The Society April 17, 2022 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 14 Comments . The Prince of Peace He braved each gouging lash and bruising blow Till scourged and bludgeoned flesh was raw and torn--- Paraded in a crown of thorns to show This phony King of Jews was ripe for...
‘Easter 2022’ by James A. Tweedie The Society April 17, 2022 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 11 Comments . Easter 2022 In silence, night retires with a yawn— Its starlit labor blessed by God’s, “Well done.” And as the weary world awakes to dawn, The auric radiance of the risen sun Illumes a garden where...
‘Sunrise at the Hollywood Bowl’ by Brian Yapko The Society April 17, 2022 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 14 Comments . Sunrise at the Hollywood Bowl A sleepy son, a father who mourned still. Their first time greeting Easter since she died. When illness came, Anne said her fondest will Was that their boy know God. John set...
A Poem for Good Friday: ‘Support the Current Thing’ by Susan Jarvis Bryant The Society April 15, 2022 Culture, Humor, Poetry 39 Comments . Support the Current Thing Don’t ponder on the horrors of our age. Don’t thumb through all those dusty history tomes. Don’t dally in the dazzle of a sage. Don’t chew on clues and muse like Sherlock...
A Poem for Those Who Have Suffered Abuse: ‘Via Dolorosa’ by James A. Tweedie The Society April 15, 2022 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 10 Comments . Via Dolorosa for those who have suffered abuse. Where does one go to forget? Where does one go to erase Memories filled with regret? Nightmares of shame and disgrace? What does one do with the pain Abusers...
‘Sepulcher’ by Brian Yapko The Society April 15, 2022 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 14 Comments . Sepulcher Jerusalem is built of prayer and quarried stone, From yearning, heartache, sacred scrolls and ancient bone--- The shuls, the mosques, the churches, every ancient room. And as a bride prepares with...
‘Annunciation’ by Jeffrey Essmann The Society April 14, 2022 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 2 Comments . Annunciation It’s not really an angel but a voice, Less heard than sensed, an urgent undertone That murmurs in the place where I’m alone And all my fears with longing there alloys. It whispers that I...
A Reading of ‘The New Colossus’ by Emma Lazarus The Society April 10, 2022 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Readings, Video 7 Comments . https://youtu.be/PguXX2PRzvI . CREDITS Poetry: Emma Lazarus (1849-1887) Voice-Over: Katy Mantyk Photos/Footage: “Unveiling the Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World” by Edward Moran, 1886...
The Flowers’ Easter Debate: A Translation by Margaret Coats The Society April 10, 2022 Beauty, Culture, Humor, Poetry, Translation 28 Comments . The Flowers' Easter Debate Palm Sunday is the Flowers’ Easter, the day when they honored Jesus Christ entering Jerusalem. As they did not need Good Friday’s bloody atonement for sin, the flowers were...
Three Poems on Thinking, by Susan Jarvis Bryant The Society April 4, 2022 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Villanelle 36 Comments . Birdbrains a villanelle “When you control a man’s thinking you do not have to worry about his actions.” ---Carter G. Woodson If we just parrot newspeak without blinking And push...
Sibylline Sonnets for Passiontide, by Margaret Coats The Society April 3, 2022 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 36 Comments . (See an explanation on what Sibyls are here.) . The Tyburtine Sibyl The Tyburtine sibyl has the iconographic attribute of a hand, indicating her foreknowledge of insults suffered by Jesus. Not from my...
‘Uncle Sam’s Tomb’ by Phil S. Rogers, after Coleridge’s ‘The Knight’s Tomb’ The Society April 2, 2022 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 5 Comments . Uncle Sam's Tomb after Samuel Coleridge's "The Knight's Tomb" (see below) Where will the grave of that great figurehead be, That leader of free men and symbol of might, That vision of justice in our country...
‘Woman’ by Susan Jarvis Bryant The Society April 1, 2022 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 25 Comments . Woman For years I’ve known exactly what it means To own the weight and wonder of my sex--- The crimson flow of knowledge in my teens, The curve and swell---my spell---the heady hex That lures love...
‘The Short-Lived Triumph of the Junior School’s Health & Safety Officer’ by Shaun C. Duncan The Society April 1, 2022 Culture, Humor, Poetry 22 Comments . The Short-Lived Triumph of the Junior School's Health & Safety Officer The children wait in line to sanitize Their grubby hands before their morning class. The teacher guards the door, and none may...
Russo-Ukrainian War Poetry: Share Yours Here The Society March 29, 2022 Culture, Poetry 35 Comments . Share your poetry on currently unfolding Russo-Ukrainian war in the comments section below. We received a large response on our first post of poetry on Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February, and poets...
On Climate Change: ‘The End Is Near’ and Other Poetry by James A. Tweedie The Society March 29, 2022 Culture, Humor, Poetry, The Environment 49 Comments . The Simplest Way to Save the Earth The simplest way for us to save the earth Would be for women to stop giving birth. For when there are no longer any mothers We’ll solve the problem of too many...
Three Poems on Language by Joseph S. Salemi The Society March 28, 2022 Beauty, Blank Verse, Culture, Poetry 20 Comments . The Hypodermic For a poet, the pen is merely part Of the apparatus of addiction. He emulates the frozen fly in amber Watching eons come, roll by, and pass. As motionless as veined quartz in a stone, He seeks...
A Poem on Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Inability to Define a Woman, by Susan Jarvis Bryant The Society March 25, 2022 Culture, Humor, Poetry 147 Comments . https://rumble.com/embed/vvm2wt/?pub=4 . Identity Crisis I used to think my body was all woman, My fruitful womb refused to be dismissed. But now I’m not so sure I’m even human--- I’m not a fully...
Respected Irish Poetry Journal Publishes Ridiculously Faked Woke Poetry The Society March 25, 2022 Culture, Essays, Humor, Poetry 9 Comments . From The Burkean: Icarus magazine currently holds the reputation of being Trinity College’s — if not Ireland’s — premier poetry journal… with contributions from Seamus Heaney and John...
Two Poems on Cosmetics, by Susan Jarvis Bryant The Society March 25, 2022 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 14 Comments . Sold I. Summer Honey Crush Soft, silken lips shone from her screen last night. She saw them, plump and ripe, as smooth and lush As velvet peaches kissed by Sol’s delight. If her smile blushed in Summer...
Henry Olunga Reads Susan Jarvis Bryant’s Poem on Toxic Masculinity The Society March 24, 2022 Culture, Poetry, Readings 20 Comments . https://youtu.be/LRxFaGgdazE Our Worthy Sons dedicated to Samuel by Susan Jarvis Bryant Our worthy sons should never be ashamedOf who they are and who they’re meant to be.For far too long men’s gender...
A Poem in Honor of Bishop Athanasius Schneider, by Karen Darantière The Society March 24, 2022 Culture, Poetry 3 Comments . Ode to Salmon, the Episcopal Fish a poem in honor of Bishop Athanasius Schneider No birdsong greets the chilly damp of dawn In dreary gray autumnal cloud-filled skies, As rosy salmon swim upstream to...
‘Dispiration’ and Other Poetry by James A. Tweedie The Society March 22, 2022 Culture, Humor, Poetry 19 Comments . Dispiration I have nothing to say, Not a thought in my head. If I needed to pray There would be nothing said. Just a large empty space And no functioning brain, With the mouth on my face Filled with nothing...
‘The Street Cop’s Choice’ and Other Poetry on the Police, by Brian Yapko The Society March 20, 2022 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Triolet 32 Comments . The Street Cop's Choice Thanks for coming home to help me choose. I know my kids will always have my back. Today was rough. By now you’ve seen the News--- Such blatant lies! They’ve tied me to the...
‘Dueling Violins’ by Tamara Beryl Latham The Society March 18, 2022 Beauty, Culture, Music, Poetry 11 Comments . Dueling Violins Yanni, Karen Briggs and Shardad Rohani live at the Acropolis in 1993 Anticipating each half-note he brings to life, her fingers stretch to find the grooves. Perfection springs, as sound is...