‘Sarnia Bound’ and Other Poetry by Martin Rizley The Society November 3, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 11 Comments Sarnia Bound To the Sarnian shores, I´ll set my course when the sky at dawn turns pale, And the sea waves glow with sun-streaked foam and a chill wind fills the sail. Till the end of day, I'll...
Write a Poem on One of These Photographs The Society November 1, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Ekphrastic, Humor, Poetry, Poetry Contests 40 Comments The above photographs were taken and submitted by New York City poet Joe Tessitore. We invite readers to pick one of the images (or both) and write a poem. Post your poem in the comments section...
‘Mailied’ by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Translated and Read by David B. Gosselin The Society October 31, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Readings, Translation 6 Comments Mailied by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) How brightly nature Shines this morning! What radiant sun! How the fields sing! The buds burst forth From each green frond! A thousand...
‘Divorce – Brexit Style’ by Susan Jarvis Bryant The Society October 29, 2019 Culture, Humor, Poetry 10 Comments My husband posed his need to leave; a family vote was cast. The outcome brought me to my knees and left my heart aghast. Now, I’m a tad controlling – of that I will admit; “LEAVE” just...
‘The Constant Truth’ by Tod Benjamin The Society October 28, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Short Stories 10 Comments The Constant Truth A Reflection on the Times of My Life I. The Old Days A sheep filled meadow lay adjacent to our street Where from March throughout spring one could hear the lambs...
Sonnets on the Four Seasons and Other Poetry by Peter Hartley The Society October 26, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 17 Comments Spring In spring the crocuses broke out as bold As brass from refuge in their barren clay. They speared the air in colourful array And blazoned they their petals proudly told Of azure and of purpure and...
‘Campaign of 1940-1952’ and Other Poetry by Christopher Fried The Society October 24, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 11 Comments Campaign of 1940-1952 True Cincinnati spirit is the love of hearth, the principles of isolation, a life in works of service to the nation. Could he reverse the course and release the doves of peace,...
‘In Memory of the Lake’ by James Christy The Society October 24, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, The Environment 4 Comments I hear Boeung Kak has now been filled with gritty sand, turned mud, now earth. The lake’s become a dusty field, yet memory preserves a berth for fishermen in long canoes, just toothpicks...
Ecclesiastes 1, Recast in Classical Poetry, by T.M. Moore The Society October 23, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Terza Rima 16 Comments Wind and Vanity after Ecclesiastes 1 My name is Solomon, and you may know me as the king of Israel, David’s son, a man of wisdom unsurpassed. And so I was. And yet I write to you as one emerging...
‘Life’s Woes’ by Michael Maibach The Society October 22, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 2 Comments In every life Woe presses down, We falter then— Face to the ground. This woe in me— Am I alone? Without high ground, Can’t see my home! I reach for earth— Find only sand. No foothold...
‘Time’ and Other Poetry by Paul Oratofsky The Society October 21, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Humor, Poetry 34 Comments Time Time to time to time—from tock to tick, to wall to window topple, stop, then stop: a tower, wrist, a rest, a clerk, a click— around around the sound (a drip) (a drop)— and tripping,...
Four Garden Poems by Anna J. Arredondo The Society October 20, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Humor, Poetry 33 Comments Ultimatum To My Friendly Neighbor Regarding His Overly-friendly Pet* Dear neighbor, do you love your cat? (I'm sure you must, they're such enchanters) I've got a bag of poo (for you) It left in all my...
Lord Byron’s Darkest Secrets and Greatest Poetry The Society October 19, 2019 Beauty, Best Poems, Culture, Essays, Humor, Poetry 12 Comments This piece is sponsored by KidSecured by Evan Mantyk and Kathy Brellan Lord Byron was born George Gordon Byron in London on January 22, 1788 and died just 36 years later in 1824. Yet, despite his short...
‘Daguerreotype’ and Other Poetry by James A. Tweedie The Society October 18, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 28 Comments Daguerreotype An old once-treasured memory engraved On glass to keep the dying past alive. A fractal blink of time preserved and saved So that the tableau-ed moment would survive. Three men,...
‘The Three Graces in the Trinket Shop’ by Joseph S. Salemi The Society October 17, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 17 Comments Aglaia, Euphrosyne, Thalia I find them there, no longer young, Though neatly dressed and well preserved: Three sisters in the trinket shop— Polite and helpful, but reserved. They guide me...
‘Doublespeak Denial’ by Susan Jarvis Bryant The Society October 16, 2019 Culture, Humor, Poetry, Rondeau, Villanelle 20 Comments Doublespeak Denial Rondeau Redoublé “Gender mattered a whole lot less to Shakespeare than it seems to matter to us.” —John Irving If I don’t care for words you have to share (a pitch which...
Essay: Richard Wilbur, C.S. Lewis, and the Imaginative Power of Poetry The Society October 15, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Essays, Poetry 7 Comments by T.M. Moore Our Image-hungry Age Increasingly, our postmodern generation prefers its communications to be in as few words and as many images as possible. Hence, the curious success of...
‘Harvest Sonnet’ and Other Poetry by Landon Porter The Society October 14, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 18 Comments Harvest Sonnet If, in June, clouds crack and seeping, Leak their cache upon beast and field, Surety no longer keeping, This payment, late, defaults the yield; Lest the rain delay the reaping Another...
How NOT to Hate Shakespeare: TED Talk by Rob Crisell The Society October 13, 2019 Culture, Education, Poetry, Shakespeare, Video 2 Comments ...
‘Why Pterodactyls Make Great Pets’ by Mark F. Stone The Society October 12, 2019 Children's, Culture, Humor, Poetry 38 Comments Choosing a pet can be vexing and yet it’s important to vet all the choices you’ve got. If you’re in search of a pet who will perch on your silver white birch, it’s the best of the...
A Reading of Petrarch’s Sonnet No. 7, in Italian The Society October 11, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Readings, Translation 25 Comments This recording was made by M. P. Lauretta for the Southend Poetry Group in August 2019. Sonetto n. 7 dal Canzoniere di Francesco Petrarca La gola e ’l sonno e l’oziose piume hanno...
‘Dodgeball’ and Other Poetry by T.M. Moore The Society October 9, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Humor, Poetry, Villanelle 28 Comments Dodgeball "But we have the mind of Christ." 1 Corinthians 2.16 Sometimes my thought-life is a dodgeball game— except that I’m the only one on my side of the line—and when at length I try to launch...
‘The Last Evening in Eden’ by Martin Rizley The Society October 8, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Short Stories 18 Comments This is an abridged version of the original. A reading of the original can be found here. A chilling breeze blew through the trees, which filtered beams of light That danced in play as dying day gave...
‘A Treble’s Song’ and Other Poetry by Leo Zoutewelle The Society October 6, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 24 Comments A Treble's Song Is there a thing to match a treble’s song? The joy perhaps of spring-time larks in flight, Or how the migrant birds so deftly throng? What of the mane that speaks the lion’s...
‘The Human Skylight’ by Satyananda Sarangi The Society October 5, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 31 Comments The skylight lets the nascent streak Of gold inside this darkened room; Some wisp of scent invades therein, A perfumed faith to counter gloom. Those orbs of light cast patterns old, Of...
A Translation from Goethe’s Roman Elegies V The Society October 4, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Translation 8 Comments Here stand I happ’ly on classical grounds, inspired; the voices speak distinctly in enchanted tone from worlds of today and former times expired. Taking counsel, I leaf through beloved elders’...
A Cento from the Political Poetry of Presidents Lincoln, Taylor, and Taft by Beverly Stock The Society October 3, 2019 Culture, Poetry 2 Comments Political Voice (A Cento) A cento or collage poem takes bits of poetry from past poets and puts them together in a new order. The below poem draws on the poems written for the political campaigns of U.S....
‘Irrelevant’ and Other Poetry by Joe Tessitore The Society October 2, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Humor, Poetry 10 Comments Irrelevant If the room is the tomb then the elephant is irrelevant. Haiku From my heart was shown how very much I loved her— could she not have known? I have found my...
Poems on Helen Keller, the Wright Brothers, and Others, by Martin Elster The Society September 30, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Humor, Poetry 13 Comments Helen Keller (1880-1968) Your eyesight and hearing were gone, yet you felt just as blithe as a fawn ___when you learned that a word ___could stand for a bird or the flowers that bloomed in your...
Essay: ‘A Breeze Came Out of the North…’ The Society September 29, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Essays, Poetry 6 Comments A breeze came out of the North one day, and cried, "September's begun!" A breeze came out of the North one day, declared, "The Summer is done!" by Jack Ahlers You know the fall air—it is somehow...
‘Writer’s Block’ and Other Poetry by Theresa Rodriguez The Society September 29, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 15 Comments Writer's Block I feel like I am plodding through cement; My mind is full of cotton batting. Dull, And dense, and empty-headed, thinking spent On trying to find clarity. To mull About within and come up...
‘Don’t Flog Yourself When Playing Golf’ by Raymond Gallucci The Society September 28, 2019 Culture, Humor, Poetry 23 Comments A ball that’s lost should never cost ____A one-stroke penalty. Where now it dwells finds someone else— ____It’s stolen property! When perfect putt lips ‘round the cup, ____No stroke need added...
‘The Pain of Foreign Occupation’ and Other Poetry by Leo Zoutewelle The Society September 26, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 16 Comments The Pain of Foreign Occupation The land lay naked under hobnailed boots Of German occupiers in The Hague. The Blitzkrieg had commenced with parachutes And covered sedate Holland like a...
‘Knowledge as a Mixed Blessing,’ Three Sonnets by Philip Keefe The Society September 24, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 17 Comments I. Is curiosity the bane of man As seeking knowledge often leads to woe? Do only fools pass their allotted span Disclosing some things better not to know? Or is pursuit of truth its own...
‘Romantic Triangle, With An Ice-Pick’ by Joseph S. Salemi The Society September 23, 2019 Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Humor, Poetry, Short Stories 16 Comments In 1937, the renegade Communist Leon Trotsky (real name: Lev Bronstein) came to Mexico with his family and took up residence with the painter Diego Rivera and his wife Frida Kahlo. An affair developed between...
‘A Man for Two Seasons’ by T.M. Moore and a Response by C.B. Anderson The Society September 22, 2019 Culture, Humor, Poetry 11 Comments A Man for Two Seasons by T.M. Moore I’m in a constant state of readiness for fall. For me, the perfect climate goes from winter straight to autumn, sans the stress of spring and allergies, and all...
‘Subversive Modernism in Art’ by Sarban Bhattacharya The Society September 22, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Poetry 22 Comments "Progressive" mind accompanies the art Of writing poetry at present time. Great intellectuals from forms depart, And love free verse that spurns meter and rhyme. If poems be composed in such a...
‘Keeping the Door’ and Other Poetry by James Sale The Society September 21, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 25 Comments Keeping the Door Ant hordes scurried in purposeful files; Angry, alert, full to demonic marching: They came in batteries to batter: _____But I kept the door. Worms twisted achingly upwards into...
‘Song of the Crab Nebula’ and Other Poetry by Daniel R. Leach The Society September 20, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 3 Comments Song of the Crab Nebula in celebration of 50 years after Apollo 11 Long before the first eyes ever saw me __Floating like a ghost upon the night, Long before human minds even feebly __Pierced beyond their...
‘Of All God’s Living Creatures’ and Other Poetry by Peter Hartley The Society September 19, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 15 Comments Of All God’s Living Creatures Of all God’s living creatures only we With subtle artifice create our style Of dress and image, and with painted smile Construct the me we want the world to see. Though...