Culture

  Theseus Amazed Around corners through archway and gate Sensing forever the enemy’s mind Poised to avenge the innocents’ fate But a mirror was all I did find.   The Adept A handful of pollen flung into the light A time and a space and sun and night ... An...

  inspired by John Masefield’s “Sea-Fever” (1902) I will go down to the bush again, where the days hang crisp and clear, And cicadas hum their sonorous song from places far and near; Where cockatoos flash across the sky, screeching all the while, And the creek below makes a silver...

  The Woke Man’s Person’s Burden "Virtually no idea is too ridiculous to be accepted, even by very intelligent and highly educated people, if it provides a way for them to feel special and important. Some confuse that feeling with idealism." —Thomas Sowell Take up the Woke Man’s Person’s burden—...

Króliki (Rabbits) dedicated to Tommy Robinson, who was recently sentenced to more time in prison Króliki they called us (Polish having no word for guinea pig)* and so we were: scared, little white rabbits, huddling in fear, dreading our inevitable turn; sure that no guardian angel was coming to save...

Believe It True That you have made my world a wondrous garden Fair with your lips, and glad with your eyes of blue That you have wakened life’s song of gladness Believe it true, dear, believe it true. That I have found within that wondrous garden All passing hours made...

Pablo Neruda on the Passing of Joseph Stalin by Wibele Escudar We must be men. That is the law that Joseph Stalin left. Sincere intensity and concrete clarity are best. He was the noon of man. Let us from this not be bereft. Let's bear these words with pride, all...

  As fiddle lilts its rhymed refrain it harkens an angelic past. If only we could now regain that sweet voice that was ne'er surpassed. Med'eval times, when hearts were chaste and men of honor walked this earth, the words they waxed poetic faced no chiding for such simple dearth....

She Walked in Beauty a tribute to Gao Rongrong* after Lord Byron’s “She Walks in Beauty” She walked in Beauty, pure as light— Like sun and moon and starlit skies Illuminate the darkest night… Such was the brightness of her eyes And shining smile of sheer delight That all would...

Sonnet IV. Cleve Backster whose work on plant perception gained wide exposure in the 1973 publication The Secret Life of Plants. While people claim the fetus has no being Worth enough to trump a mother’s rights, There’s something more our human eyes aren’t seeing: Life’s more, not less, when we...

  The taxi driver took us down From great Mohonk, New Paltz and such; And every mile we got to touch We felt the pull of New York town. And chatting in our easy way— He black, me white, what difference then? Only as humans, two grown men, We both...

—from A Gallery of Ethopaths The bookshops that we used to see Were citadels of literacy. Classics of grace and wit and style Greeted your glance in every aisle. Today, those humane texts are fewer— A bookstore is a backed-up sewer Clogged with the bilge the public guzzles: Health-food cookbooks,...

Natura Naturans “Off with their heads,” the Red Queen said. But she was mostly talk. A true decapitator is The little sharp-shin hawk. I saw one once, a blue-bolt shot, To seize a thrush in flight, Then with steel talons pluck the head And calmly take a bite.    ...

The Thoughts of a Dog What really does go on inside the mind Of the domestic dog? To simply say They think of very little else all day But eating what they’re given, what they find To feed on would be callous and unkind. Unique among all species is the...

Good Captains From daring to despair runs common man. A vane to changing winds is his own mind. One hour he may so boldly think, “I can!” The next, poor fool to nagging doubt’s inclined, His confidence, which feathers to his thought, Is faltering as courage ebbs away. The previous...

Her Love for Him My true love laughs, and angel choirs sing; The mountains echo back his tuneful mirth While Nature dances, heav’n in step with earth. ‘Tis music to mine ear; mine heart takes wing! Into my love’s embrace I fly secure, And tenderly he holds me in his...

These Twins These twins came forth in one amniotic sac. They sensed the danger they had come upon And both held hands to keep that danger back: It truly was the best they could have done. Their need for holding hands kept them in place Until the water broke at...

A reading of the below poems by the poet:   The Loan a villanelle This life we hold so dear is but a loan. For good or ill, its balance must be spent, For life is not a thing that we can own. The wasting of our fragile flesh and...

One Love In all the world there’s but one Love, just one. A single substance—like the billow lit From overhead by flashes from the sun And tears that rain upon a pillow—it Is all the same, no matter state or form. And even when, like ice, it lies there cold...

  I lift my eyes and pray to God above, deliver me, dear Lord, from Satan's Hell. I come to You with heart brimful of Love, content to drink life's water from Your well. And if, by chance, I do not measure up, perhaps a drop of mercy from Your...

  The sausage on my plate is rubbery and inoffensive A clever likeness made of turkey meat Not your tastiest breakfast fare yet not complete- Ly unsuitable for consumption by the hypertensive. My research on this topic hasn’t been extensive But age and blood pressure require a retreat From foods...

May Old Glory Always Wave by Roy E. Peterson May Old Glory always wave Above the tumult and the fray. Honor heroes who were brave Until the final Judgment Day. Drape the caskets of the dead, For fallen soldiers everywhere. Symbol of the prayers we said, And of the battles...

Translator's Note: "Adiutor Laborantium" is an Irish poem attributed to Colum Cille (521-597), founder of the monastic community on Iona. It is an ABC poem, with the exception of two C-beginning lines in the middle, and a changed triplet at the end, where the rhyme also changes. In the Latin,...

  Side by side, like toy soldiers under the sky, these seedlings all stand in a row. And on this day of independence, the Fourth of July, I stand here and I whisper, “Please grow!” Down the roadway, the rockets burst all about, and the sparklers all spiral and flare....

Judges: Michael Curtis, Amy Foreman, Reid McGrath, Adam Sedia A few words from Judge Michael Curtis: In apology: If you, fair writer, did not win, take heart, This juror read for craft more than for art, And we both know that art can be subjective, So, tend your craft, in...

  It comes as no surprise that “golf” When backward spelled is “flog.” For it’s a sport so hard to solve Leaves many in a fog. On surface it so simple seems – Just hit a little ball. Unhindered by opposing teams, It doesn’t move at all. But if when...

Dead Poet Of what I was, not much remains, but that which does, indeed still strains to craft and pen a poem sweet, as I did when my heart did beat. I’m cold and stiff, yet still I yearn! (It seems as if I’ll never learn!) My best refrains, fraught...

Kingfishers and Kites Each mortal thing does one thing and the same: Deals out that being indoors each one dwells; Selves—goes itself; myself it speaks and spells Crying Whát I dó is me: for that I came. —Gerard Manley Hopkins, "As Kingfishers Catch Fire" Were said bird to burst spontaneously...

Doomsday… or Not? The Green New Deal is out there, and Bernie says it’s true— there’s only twelve more years left for the likes of me and you to curtail carbon footprints and cure the ailing earth by living lives of paucity, deficiency and dearth; shunning all air travel to...

G-Mafia "Let us now praise freedom's twilight..." —Osip Mandelstam by Esca Webuilder We live without the feeling of the country under us. We cannot hear ourselves; nobody listens to our pulse. But when there is a chance for words, the talk turns to High Tech. Immense G-Mafia is mentioned merely...

Disappointment The waiting's not the hardest part: Much worse is when you finally know That what you craved with all your heart ____Will not arrive. Infatuations come and go, Bad luck upsets your apple cart, The gentle rains no boon bestow, ____But you survive.   Soul Mate an alexandroid My...

  The ambit is the noblest cause, A last vestige of Apollo's love, A pursuit freed from any flaws, As peace aloft borne by a dove. In all we have is finitude, So best that we attempt To bask in lyrical pulchritude Of joy and gaiety sans contempt. Our candle...

  The human body is perpetually pregnant with Trillions of microorganisms that hath colonized Its intestinal lair, and like the gravid woman's pith Heart eats not only for herself, but for her fertilized Womb as well, each man must not only eateth for his health, But for the probiotics of...

The Hong Kong Protest Hymn by Lu "Reed ABCs" Wei The Christian hymn "Sing Hallelujah to the Lord" emerged as anthem of the Hong Kong protests. It's not yet expurged. The hymn is heard almost nonstop at the main protest site, in front of Hong Kong's Legislative Council day and...

Planned Parenthood's a Euphemism upon reading March for Life's annual report by Roy E. Peterson Planned Parenthood’s a euphemism __Covering up the murder Of babies by abortion-ism— __We must react with fervor. What they call “planning” are abortions, __And not for parenthood. They harvest baby parts and portions __To sell...

  I Spent My Youth with Byron and the Bard I spent my youth with Byron and the Bard, With Tennyson, the Brownings, and dear Keats— And full of passions, eager, trying hard To imitate their lofty, noble feats, I found it true: the human heart does pump In echo...

Note: Formal Ballroom Dance competition involves five specific dance forms. This sonnet cycle attempts to introduce and describe them. I have also composed and attached audio recordings of a Waltz and Tango as accompaniment. Foxtrot The Foxtrot is an easy dance to learn. __Just hold your partner in a close...

Cicadas There is, I know, some benefit in this, this cycle of emerging, breeding, dying- so brief a time for knowing any bliss, or making friends, or new endeavors trying - only to bring forth offspring which will know a dark, damp, subterranean home for years, preserving life that one...

The Limerick I’d Love to Write by Joe Tessitore There once was a President Trump And many thought he was a chump. ____But none was more shrewd ____Than this big-city dude, Now back over his wall they must jump! Joe Tessitore is a retired New York City resident and poet....

  A song’s composer’s music might reveal A question or idea in such a way That black notes penned on paper weigh what’s real; But if unheard his work subsides to gray. That gray divides back into black and white When trained musicians take the score and play. As themes...

  Birthday Greeting to a Doomed Child a song of lament decrying New York´s “birthday abortion” law, approved January 22, 2019 So, welcome to this world, little one, little one! Your first and only birthday has begun— You´ve grown within a warm and cozy place, and your face In darkness...