Culture

  Three Hundred Spartans In twilight’s ash three hundred stars await As blue-black thunder roars with battle drums, Three hundred voices murmuring of fate, As odds and armour stack in fearful...

One Last Candle The angry storm approaches in the night, Its curdling howl is heard for miles around. The trees all flinch in fear of nature's smite, Then cast their sobbing leaves upon the ground. No...

A play in one act based on the true story of Li Zhenjun. Play by Evan Mantyk. Characters Narrator / Voice of Tradition (note: appears only at beginning, could be played by the actor playing George or any of...

Palimpsest ...written in their hearts... Romans 2.15 We try, but cannot fully scrape away those ancient words engraved upon the soul. We would instead compose upon the scroll of our morality that which...

  It is rare that a bill can succeed on The Hill based on only the skill of a hobbyist. If you suffer the lack of a plan of attack, what you need is the knack of a lobbyist. Since their fee must...

  Christmas has been canceled—it’s naughty Santa’s fault. His haughty carbon footprint has been a grave assault on melting polar ice caps; they’re now a muddy puddle, where sweaty elves and...

Come to Bethlehem / Silent Night   Song and Poem by James A. Tweedie Come to Bethlehem, come and see God stripped bare of majesty. Fragile as a flower; Emptied of might and power; Come to...

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sA_UsvwgdQ8 Our nakedness was swaddled by the night, With Eden’s worn-out dust our feet were shod, When heaven opened and a being of light Announced that earth...

The Feast of the Nativity ‘Twas the night before a brilliant star They roam the desert near and far, When they happen upon the city of light The City of David in all her might. Greeted, they are, from...

Carol They come slowly—loiter, you might say, Some with olive oil splashed on their bums, Others with enormous crooked thumbs, All full of holes like sculptures on display. Broads… up to their elbows...

by James Sale Alessio Zanelli is a fascinating poet, and probably a fascinating man as well. This is his sixth collection of poems and part of his well-publicised and unique charm is that he is an Italian...

  For many, the gifts are the be-all and end-all: the big screen, the tablet, the Barbie and Ken doll. For me, gifts I get are like ice in the sun. I cannot recall them. No, not even one. How did...

  Recalling Christmas in the past: the time I mixed my drink— a cocktail, “Everything we have”… I puked at lunch. I think you ate your meal, despite the stink! Another time, our puppy...

Sara's Prayer* Take me beyond all thought and word, where only beauty can be heard. Then silently, before Your throne, I'll dance, Dear Lord, for You alone.   Claire* She dances like a flowing...

  Cradled in my country’s corn-rich plains, North of the river, good and fertile land, There is a certain wood, that, when it rains, Exhales a breath of life not meant for man. That wood has...

Childhood Conjugation Our mother tongue’s a mile-long smorgasbord where children eat for free. With giggling ease they wolf down words that grown-ups can’t afford and guzzle grammar like soft strings...

The Lonely Ghost Speaks Each night, upon the creaking stairs My footfalls make no sound As, sad and slow, I climb with no Connection to the ground. Each day, I walk incessantly through every room and...

  Each poem below describes a phobia. Guess what the person is scared of in each. For extra credit try to name the phobia’s official name. Post your answers in the comments section...

  The Winter of Our Contentment Without the winter there would be no spring, No snowdrops, crocus, scilla, daffodils, Or any other bulbs that need deep chills To send up flowers. Almost...

Intruders Beware If you but knew what weakness lies concealed Within this adamantine outer shell— What woes, what worries I'm too proud to tell; If you but once should tiptoe past this...

  Manichaeus, the 3rd century B.C. founder of the heretical religion Manichaeism, addresses the Zoroastrian god Ahura-Mazda Tremble, Ahura-Mazda! Be thou dumb Upon thine altars ash’d of ancient...

An Aussie Christmas That joyous time has come to pass When summer’s heat warms man and beast, And wheaten fields burnt burnished brass Cannot compare, not in the least, With star of gold upon the...

Hating Life after Ecclesiastes 2 Within my heart I said, “Come now, and I will test your soul with mirth.” For surely, so I thought, the man who would be wise must try out every pleasure, so that...

  In Canto 8 the poet and Dante, accompanying him, encounter the next-door neighbour, Peter, who brutally murdered his wife for money. Escaping from there, they enter a lower hell where they are about to...

Grimm Reckonings Summary Thoughts on Five Fairy Tales: A Sonnet Cycle   Rapunzel I wish Rapunzel could have saved the day __By climbing down her own unfurled hair, __Escaping from her prison-tower...

’Twas the Night Before Christmas ’Twas the night before Christmas and all through the malls there was widespread confusion and hot, frenzied brawls. Many shoppers were wanting the same bloomin’...

Rosemary, Cypress, Cedar, and Pine Rosemary and Cypress, and Cedar and Pine, Green waxen needles and skin of like kind, Deciduous Cypress asleep in the cold, Like Cedar, a hardwood to build a...

Morning in England Morning in England: web and dew. The county matters not in name, nor distant city hid from view, for this is Albion in her fame; Who—whether solitary lane, or verge astride the...

  Rain, lapping at the windows fast, falls cold and ceaseless, painting lines of marble on the silvered glass while clouds cast dark and thunder whines; but these walls will not let it pass and...

  My Adventskalender in Germany made Of paper and glitter has Heaven displayed Through twenty-four windows. Come open with me Each miniature vision of things heavenly. Behind the first window are...

  Perhaps the color of your world was dun, And you sank in your couch when work was done, To calculate injustice, add the sum, Saw all was brown, but rays of silver light Which sent you out to...

  From cradle to the grave, From womb to musty tomb, The sanity I crave Is in a dining room With family gathered there: Thanksgiving, on a chill November day—no tare Subtracted, if good...

  There Is a River There is a river that I know that flows through quiet meadowland Nearby a row of cottages which by a levee quaintly stand. I saw that river long ago, when one day, to amuse...

The Plight of Animals The plight of animals, how must it be Ordained thus, either by a just God or A merciful? By nature meek and poor, They have no hopes, no future can they see And all they own their...

  dedicated to my wife, who was mobbed and defamed for political gains They've come before with pitchforks high, With torches beaming off their knives. This time they come instead with phones To kill...

  by Caud Sewer Bile A deep state run by rulers lacking thought, a young, unschooled, and mad mob living low, corruption's muddy rivers running hot, a lapdog mainstream media in tow, a land...

Reflections on a Dead Whale The sound of surf; the scratch of sand on feet; The sight of distant ships; the taste of salt; And on the gentle springtime ocean breeze The putrid, pungent, rotting stench of...

  Palermo’s great basilica is still— All prayers are tongueless for a lonely hour. Here high and holy silence can be breathed Like incense from the smoking thuribles Swung by acolytes at solemn...

  What might, what gold does Ithaca hold to vex us; Enthralled ‘till when, by whom, for what, and where? Do not the mermaids sing the song that wakes us to pleasured, pampered mornings in their...

Translations by Terry L. Norton. Original Latin by Phaedrus follows each. The Red Kite and the Doves When doves had from a certain kite fled And by the swiftness of their wings escaped, The wily bird of...