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      Deconstructing Communism, News of Note, Poetry
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      May 13, 2017
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Culture

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Poetry
Culture

‘In the Midst of Life We Are in Death,’ a Poem by Cynthia Erlandson

The Society
September 22, 2020
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
14 Comments
  “In the Midst of Life We are in Death.” --Book of Common Prayer, The Burial of the Dead In sure and certain hope, we toss The soil in, and bless the dead. The final sentences; that pause Of...

‘At the Supper Table of a Progressive’ and Other Poetry by Alexander King Ream

The Society
September 21, 2020
Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Humor, Poetry
1 Comment
  At the Supper Table of a Progressive They understood riots and death and what's more, "Adore them all really," and down to the core, So dropping my napkin to grant them the same, I upset their...

‘Feeding Time’ and Other Poetry by James A. Tweedie

The Society
September 19, 2020
Coronavirus, Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Humor, Poetry
23 Comments
  Feeding Time Chickens feed on chicken feed. Birds on birdseed, yes-indeed! Cattle feed on cattle feed, Twitters feed on Twitter feed. People feed on many things, Avocados, onion rings, Water...

A Poem On Nancy’s Visit to a Salon, Violating Covid Restrictions, by Sarban Bhattacharya

The Society
September 18, 2020
Coronavirus, Culture, Humor, Poetry
5 Comments
  There’s no age bar on titivating hair, Apart from putting rouge on wrinkled cheek. A Speaker has the right to looking fair, And prune her brunette hair once in a week. Pandemics come and go,...

‘The Church is Locked on Easter Day’ and Other Poetry by Benjamin Thomas Cepican

The Society
September 18, 2020
Beauty, Coronavirus, Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Humor, Poetry
7 Comments
  The Church is Locked on Easter Day a rondeau The Church is locked on Easter Day Despite the stone being rolled away. The Christ awakes to greet the poor But they cannot get through the door To go...

A Poem on the Laundering of Drug Money, and Other Poetry by Rod Walford

The Society
September 17, 2020
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
10 Comments
  Lucrative On the Laundering of Drug Money As commodities go, you are harmless enough Whether tendered in coin or in crinkly stuff. But without you it seems that the world will not turn Men consort...

‘To Those Who Condemn Coleridge for Using Opium’ by Joseph S. Salemi

The Society
September 16, 2020
Beauty, Culture, Humor, Poetry
26 Comments
Weave a circle round him thrice, __And close your eyes with holy dread, __For he on honey-dew hath fed, And drunk the milk of Paradise. —Coleridge, “Kubla Khan” Sam Coleridge smoked opium. Ho...

‘Logos, Rising’ by Michael Witcoff

The Society
September 15, 2020
Beauty, Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Poetry
3 Comments
  When Logos lived within the heart of man, Then beauty bloomed and flowered forth at will--- And every house was built upon a plan; Order’s essence, captured and distilled. Then Lucifer, in...

Three Summer Senryu by Matt O’Hays

The Society
September 14, 2020
Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Haiku and Senryu, Humor, Poetry
3 Comments
  July 4, 2020 A monument falls Rioters have no remorse What happened this fourth?     Summer 2020 Sunny days are here! The beach is ideal and near. It’s Fall...

‘London’s Docklands, Pre-Gentrification’ and Other Poetry by Peter Austin

The Society
September 13, 2020
Culture, Humor, Poetry
15 Comments
  London’s Docklands, Pre-Gentrification from a sonnet by Wordsworth Earth has not anything to show more foul Unless it be the same neath fog and rain; But no, for like Rasputin’s reechy...

‘Losing It’ and Other Poetry by Jeff Eardley

The Society
September 12, 2020
Beauty, Coronavirus, Culture, Humor, Poetry
13 Comments
  Losing It He staggered round his living room in stunning disbelief As for the very umpteenth time, he’d gone and lost his teeth. He cried, “They’re in here somewhere, I must search and...

‘Remember 9/11’: A Rondeau by Susan Jarvis Bryant

The Society
September 11, 2020
Culture, Poetry, Terrorism
29 Comments
  They tried and failed. They’re trying still To steal our freedom; break our will--- The terrorists who torment days With ire and fire and Hades’ blaze. Our bones burn with their evil...

A Poem on the Real Definition of Fascism: ‘Misdirection’ by Russel Winick

The Society
September 11, 2020
Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Poetry
28 Comments
  Misdirection Some dictionaries and encyclopedias still define “fascism” as a far-right system of rule. They need to look again. The Party of self-righteousness, Imbued with far-left...

A Poem for Nantes Cathedral, by Margaret Coats

The Society
September 10, 2020
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
23 Comments
For Nantes Cathedral Ravaged by Arson in July 2020, a Tribute  This holy place, where the enthusiasm of builders was succeeded by doubt following catastrophe, then hope expressed in restoration, is it not...

A Poem on the Earliest Known English Poet: Caedmon

The Society
September 9, 2020
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
4 Comments
Poet's Note: The Venerable Bede tells us that in the 7th century Caedmon, “having lived in a secular habit till he was well advanced in years, had never learned anything of versifying.” Leaving a...

Poetry on the Passing of the Poet’s Wife, Part II, by Peter Hartley

The Society
September 8, 2020
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
26 Comments
  No Longer There I wonder if a change has come about. No longer do I feel that she is there As physical a being in her chair To me as I to her. My words ring out And they receive no answer but they...

‘To a Prisoner of Conscience’ by Martin Rizley

The Society
September 7, 2020
Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Human Rights in China, Poetry
8 Comments
In Response to an Article on the Persecution of Falun Gong Practitioners in China I read the other day about the pain That you endure in some nightmarish place, Removed from sight, where sadists made...

‘Before the Plague’ by Daniel Kemper

The Society
September 5, 2020
Beauty, Coronavirus, Culture, Poetry
17 Comments
  Before the plague I never knew my hands. The need to purify the human touch has turned my vision inward, but though much is taken; much remains---in human hands, the same, yet not the same. The...

‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game, 2020’ by Joe Tessitore

The Society
September 4, 2020
Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Humor, Poetry
27 Comments
  I am a cardboard cutout. I sit here in the stands. I do not think. I do not blink. I do not clap my hands. You are a cardboard cutout. You sit there next to me. You do not cheer. You have...

A Cat Monologue by E.V. Wyler

The Society
September 3, 2020
Children's, Culture, Humor, Poetry
27 Comments
  'I Shall A Mighty Hunter Be!' “I shall a mighty hunter be, The King of Kills, by God’s decree! Savannahs always guarantee a vantage camouflaging me. I’ll lie in wait with sharpened...

‘We Siblings Three’ and Other Poetry by Randal A. Burd, Jr.

The Society
September 2, 2020
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
17 Comments
  We Siblings Three Attempt to add the hours we have shared: One hundred thousand, maybe thousands more? Our paths conjoined for several years before We struck out on our own and even dared Imagine...

‘My Sickness Is a Mistress’ by Kevin Blankinship

The Society
August 31, 2020
Coronavirus, Culture, Poetry
5 Comments
  I made her a bed with cushions and throws but she refused and slept in my bones. My skin, too tight for both my sighs and hers so she filled it with rot, making it home. ---Al-Mutanabbi, d. 965...

Three Poems on Drinking, by C.B. Anderson

The Society
August 30, 2020
Beauty, Culture, Humor, Poetry
13 Comments
  The Angels’ Share Oh many a peer of England brews Livelier liquor than the Muse, And malt does more than Milton can To justify God’s ways to man. — A.E. Housman When whisky’s aged in...

‘Barnes’ Owl in the Snow’ by William Glyn-Jones

The Society
August 29, 2020
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
5 Comments
rhymes written after reading Simon Barnes’ blog post "Barn Owl in the Snow" Across the marsh, white passing over white, The silent hunter flies then loses height Descending to a favoured perch to...

‘The Wolves and the Sheep’ by Terry L. Norton

The Society
August 28, 2020
Children's, Culture, Poetry
32 Comments
adapted from Babrius, first century A.D., and Jean de La Fontaine, 1621-1695 __At least twelve thousand years (though likely more) Between the wolves and sheep had raged a war, Until the lupine clan...

A Poem on the Oxford English Dictionary, by Maurice J. O’Sullivan

The Society
August 27, 2020
Culture, Humor, Poetry
9 Comments
  Editing with the OED for Rita Bornstein __Like a mental abattoir, the OED, With brumous exactitude, looms over me As my blue pen prunes my cachaemic prose, Decorticating glut in orderly...

Rhyme and Reason: Four Poems by James A. Tweedie

The Society
August 26, 2020
Culture, Humor, Poetry
36 Comments
  Abracadabra The written word is magical And not just something clerical. You scratch some marks into the sand; I see the marks and understand What you are thinking in your head Without a single...

‘Corofin Dreaming’ by David Watt

The Society
August 25, 2020
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
11 Comments
  The potato blight and resultant Great Famine struck Ireland from 1845 to 1851. Potato crops didn’t recover until 1852, by which time at least one million people had emigrated to escape poverty and...

‘The Falcon’: A Poem After Blake’s ‘Tyger,’ by Cynthia Erlandson

The Society
August 24, 2020
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
9 Comments
  The Falcon “In what distant deeps or skies Burnt the fire of thine eyes? On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand dare sieze the fire?” ---William Blake, The Tyger Falcon, falcon, flying...

The Rebirth of Epic: A Review of James Sale’s HellWard

The Society
August 22, 2020
Beauty, Culture, Epic, Essays, Poetry, Reviews
31 Comments
by Andrew Benson Brown James Sale’s HellWard is the first volume of a planned trilogy entitled The English Cantos. If the quality of the current volume is any indication of the two forthcoming ones, then...

‘Those Unknown’ by Camille Cechini

The Society
August 21, 2020
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
15 Comments
  a villanelle My heart goes out to those unknown, Whose life by Time’s cruel hand erased, Their ravaged, riven, nameless stone. Shattered, lost, grass o’ergrown, No date to tell when coffin...

A Poem on Judgment Day and Other Poetry by Leo Zoutewelle

The Society
August 20, 2020
Beauty, Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Poetry
16 Comments
  Ab Initio Mundi* *ever since the beginning of the world At first the darkness reigned o’er all that was, Until a little point of light emerged. That grew and grew regardless, as it surged Ahead...

‘The Bell Now Tolls’ by Martin Rizley

The Society
August 19, 2020
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
24 Comments
  in memory of my father-in-law, Pietro Lorefice (1938-2020) The bell now tolls, dear Pietro, for this hour When we must bid your faithful soul adieu, And lay to rest that mortal frame we knew, Now...
Poem Rhet Butler

‘Hollywood Interview’ by David Whippman

The Society
August 18, 2020
Beauty, Culture, Humor, Poetry
20 Comments
  My marriage failed (they always do.) Emotionally unequipped To work things out without a script, We didn’t try to talk it through. What do I pay that therapist for? You can’t see what...

‘Uncle Joe and the Virtual Convention’ by Jeff Kemper

The Society
August 17, 2020
Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Humor, Poetry
13 Comments
  When the wokest of folk virtually convoke In a year of elections and riots and fear, Uncle Joe from the basement the Nanny will stoke. He’ll invoke Ms. Kamala as newscasts evoke, “She’s a...
Fishing in boat on ocean

‘Upon a Boat, by Ocean Bound’ by Alexander King Ream

The Society
August 17, 2020
Beauty, Culture, Ekphrastic, Poetry
3 Comments
  Upon a boat, by ocean bound, Below the sun, upon the sound, The bait, a line, a reel, a fish: Bound for butter, herbs and dish.     Alec Ream is a writer living in the Northern...

A Satire on Joe Biden Picking Kamala Harris, by Susan Jarvis Bryant

The Society
August 16, 2020
Culture, Humor, Poetry
24 Comments
  Madcapfesto We’ll unlock prison gates and let the inmates saunter out. We’ll tear down wall and rule; we’ll sponsor every lug and lout. We’ll overlook drug smuggling and the trafficking of...

Understanding Bad Poetry: The Verse of William Topaz McGonagall

The Society
August 16, 2020
Culture, Essays, Humor, Poetry
20 Comments
by Joseph S. Salemi The poetic effusions of some people are so incompetent that they cross the line into unexpected humor, and thereby become valuable. Such is the case with the work of William Topaz...

The 17 Best Haiku of 2020

The Society
August 15, 2020
Beauty, Culture, From the Society, Haiku and Senryu, Poetry, Poetry Contests
8 Comments
Winner and Runners-up of The Society of Classical Poets 2020 Haiku Competition Judged by Mike Bryant and Susan Jarvis Bryant See all entrants here.   Thunder-bellied clouds Move slow over heathered...

‘A Ditty’ and Other Poetry by Joe Tessitore

The Society
August 14, 2020
Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Poetry
18 Comments
  A Ditty What happened to the human race? It vanished, friend, without a trace. And what, pray tell, of humankind? You may well seek, but will not find. And finally, humanity? It slipped into...
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Resources

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