Culture

  Oh, When I Think Back Oh, when I think back to those halcyon days, When I believed the possibility That truest love would manifest to me And highest hopes would set the heart ablaze, I looked...

  Taj Mahal Built to commemorate a love that died Four hundred years ago, how sad to say She never saw what we can see today. Serenely does its massive bulk preside Above a seeming swamp on every...

  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, by Joseph Lange (1783? / 1789?); as viewed by a Philistine Consider Lange’s well-known portrait Of his in-law, a composer: It’s good, we see, but it requires A scrutiny...

  Full Lives, Empty Souls after Ecclesiastes 6 There is an evil I have seen in those who live beneath the sun: A man to whom God gives both wealth and riches, and who knows respect among his...

by James A. Tweedie On my most recent visit to England in 2017, I paused to record a number of prominent grave monuments that included poetic tributes to the deceased. Here are the four I found most...

  Laocoön To prophesy is not a gift to those So gifted, who can see in subtle signs What is to pass; they bear the double woes Of speaking truth to unbelieving minds And knowing none can thwart the...

translated by Alan Steinle. Introduction and translation copyright ©2020 by Alan Steinle. Skip Introduction and go to poem.   Introduction Poetry is that which is worth translating. The poem dies...

  Rueing Tattoos When young she was drawn to that skin-art taboo of embellishing flesh with a tattoo or two. Now time’s marching on and gravity’s struck, her sweet chickadee is akin to a...

  On Consecrated Ground Moses on the Mount; Exodus 3-4 Moshe, a Hebrew truant from His resident Egyptian land Committed crimes with this outcome: His life was now in Pharaoh’s hand. Absconding...

  Tomoko When the Enola Gay dropped ‘Little Boy’, Tomoko---just a little girl herself--- Was robbed of any hope of earthly joy And sentenced to a life upon the shelf, Until, that is, she and...

"During the war, the Indian Army evicted Pakistani intruders and succeeded in recapturing Tiger Hill and other posts as a part of ‘Operation Vijay’. Indian soldiers had secured this victory after a...

Golden Gloves My father fought in Golden Gloves. Back then The ring was where you slugged your way to hopes. It was no place for fey, aesthetic men— There’s no nuance on canvas, or the ropes. I...

  A Proposal---July 28, 2020 Upon this date in 1794, The French Revolution concluded in gore, As Robespierre’s head hit the blood-stained floor Of Paris’s Place de la Concorde, Leaving poor...

  How Monkeys Came to Be adapted from a Palestinian folktale Monkeys and people once were one. For monkeys had from Adam come. As Adam's sons in every way, Those monkeys looked like us today. Yet...

  The Gardener at War Throughout our lives we hustle and we slave __To turn our gardens into magic places __Where beauty at its pinnacle erases Our darkest intimations of the grave; But what mundane...

  "One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes a revolution in order to establish a dictatorship." ---George Orwell We are the fearsome force for good who’ll...

  Vera A fine and sunny Summer’s day And now our Vera’s slipped away. Auf Wiedersehen, we’ll meet again; We don’t know where, we don’t know when. A proper looker in the day, A smile to...

  Alike a trusted hand that comes to rest On harried shoulders to relieve the stress, This allemande fulfills its basic quest: Bestowing thorough genial redress. When just too much encumbrance...

  No Epitaph The lies lie heavy on his chest, Striped red, striped white, now tattered vest And soon to draw his final breath--- Who’ll mourn this Son of Freedom’s death? I look around,...

  You had to act, because you heard the voices Within your head. Saint Michael came to you, Saints Catherine and Margaret. But what choices Did you have? You knew them to be true, Not demons or...

  With Sorrow Do I Leave It is with sadness that I write to tell you that I am resigning from The New York Times. ---Bari Weiss, opinion writer, 13 July 2020 With sorrow do I leave The New York...

  Enrobed in blue—enthroned and crowned—her Son, __With proffered blessing, safely in her hands— __The Queen of Heaven reigns on high as one __Who holds in love all those whom she...

  I Make My Way by Joe Tessitore These times, indeed, have tried my soul. With lightening speed, I’ve lost control Of all that mattered in the past--- It drifts, now scattered, in a...

  An old friend called on me today, past indiscretions to relive. Long decades passed since we had spoke; he hoped ill feelings I'd forgive. We had once been the best of friends but problems...

  Coming Home “Thank you for letting me come home,” she said To me the night she died, and I, tongue-tied, I could not answer her. I should have tried, I know, for tacitly her thoughts I...

  Lockdown Leisure with apologies to W.H. Davies In lockdown life, should I but dare To take more time to stand and stare?--- More time to stand six feet away And gaze upon our world...

Your Smart Device a rondeau Your smart device was strange and new; It learned your voice and habits too; It played the songs you liked to hear; It answered your requests with cheer, And spat out facts...

by Adam Sedia John Dryden In 1688, John Dryden, England’s first official poet laureate, was deprived of that title for remaining Catholic and replaced with the laughably inferior Thomas Shadwell....

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The Crowd by Christian J. Weaver The corpses of my former selves Are yawning in the waves. They bob and float like slimy logs; Their fish-expressions gaze With mute surprise at all the rest: It's...

The King Lying lips win praise and fame, And money, pow’r and wealth; They grant great glory for your name But cost the price of self. For once a man betrays his plans To be upright and true, That...

  Editor’s Note: This poem was originally found in The Pebbles and Shells: A Book of Verses ,1909, edited by Donald Fraser. Another version was published in The Good Humor Book, by Robert Rango,...

  Good François Villon, petty thief, Carouser, cutpurse, scholar, sot; Young chronicler of gallows-grief, Escapee from the hempen knot; Depicter of the dregs and lees Of drunken students,...

  Armageddon a tennos on the current socio-political situation by C.B. Anderson Some of my former friends are now definitively leftist; The most intelligent among them are the very deftest At...

  The Strength Within A tribute to Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Dr. Mike Stroud who, in 1993, became the first men to cross the continent of Antarctica unsupported. The crossing took 93 days. They stood...

  La Ville Lumière—City of Lights, of Dreams, __Of Love: La Ville d’Amour. Whose night is day— __Whose stars are mirrored in the sky which streams __Them back again—La Seine: the Milky...

  Caiaphas To the Bishop of Lafayette in Indiana in defense of Father Rothrock High Priest of Israel’s nameless God __You were, and though came to possess That charge upon the gentiles’...

A Case of Ghosts (Full Fathom Five parodied) In cradling case my fiddle lies, Waiting for the owner’s hand. Strings all slack, its music dies. Yet a not-quite-silent band There conspires to haunt my...

  Summer in Texas She sashays in on scorching licks of flame that singe the sticky fringes of the day. Her blaze, no brazen breeze can ease or tame; she sizzles as she splashes rays our way. Her...

Fallen Leaves You can't stop leaves from falling in the autumn of their lives, And you can't stop bees returning to the safety of their hives, And you cannot stop deception as it flows from your T.V., Or...