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Culture

‘Goose Sense’ and Other Poetry by Thomas Schmidt

The Society
April 27, 2018
Culture, Humor, Poetry
8 Comments
  Goose Sense A burden and a bore I must have been; As handy as another leg, I'd slouch The farm in borrowed overalls, and when My chores were done I'd nap on grandpa's couch. I thought of books and...
poem/buchheit/poetry reading

Rhyming Poems for Poem in Your Pocket Day

The Society
April 22, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Education, From the Society, Poetry
5 Comments
April 26 is Poem in Your Pocket Day, part of National Poetry Month. On this day, people are encouraged to carry a poem in their pockets and share it with others. Below are recommended rhyming poems for this...

‘Fear’ and Other Poetry by Amy Foreman

The Society
April 20, 2018
Culture, Poetry, Short Stories
31 Comments
Fear A ballad I said to Fear, “Away from here!” And, softly, he withdrew. But, lost in thought, I plain forgot To bar the door anew. So Faith and I sat down to try And chat the night away. But...

‘Heroes, Victims, and Poseidon’ and Other Poetry by Phillip Whidden

The Society
April 13, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
5 Comments
  Heroes, Victims, and Poseidon The metre of ancient Greek poetry succeeds in “achieving a length and complexity that are unusual in the heroic verse of other literatures.” ~ Michael Grant, The Rise...

‘Obituary’ and Other Poetry by C.B. Anderson

The Society
April 12, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
13 Comments
Obituary Late summer, when the bumblebees begin to die, You’ll see them clinging to the petals of a flower For dear life—or at least it seems so to an eye Untrained in entomology. They’ve had their...

10 Greatest Shakespeare Sonnets: An Immortal Series

The Society
April 8, 2018
Beauty, Best Poems, Culture, Education, Essays, Poetry, Shakespeare
9 Comments
By David B. Gosselin William Shakespeare (baptized April 26, 1564 - died April 23, 1616) is arguably the greatest writer in any language. His poetry is not only one of the most exalted examples of what an...

‘The Children’s Crusade’ and Other Poetry by Bruce Dale Wise

The Society
April 5, 2018
Culture, Poetry, Terrorism
6 Comments
(All poetry by Bruce Dale Wise) The Children's Crusade Amendment II of the US Constitution: A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and...

‘Soldier’s Son’ by Robert Piazza

The Society
April 5, 2018
Culture, Poetry
20 Comments
Leatherneck, you’re still my childhood hero With tales of firing flack at Jap Zeroes— After training camp in San Diego, You rode the railway home on furlough To elope with Rita in the Poconos. The...

‘Socialism Kills’ by David Welch

The Society
April 4, 2018
Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Human Rights in China, Poetry
23 Comments
  Young people go marching, the boys and the girls, They’re thinking like once we did, they’ll change the world. They claim government is a cure for our ills, They seem to forget, in fact,...

‘April Fools Easter: April 1, 2018’ and Other Poetry by James A. Tweedie

The Society
April 1, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
6 Comments
April Fools Easter: April 1, 2018 In dark Gethsemane I was betrayed By Judas’ kiss. I was arrested, tried, Found guilty, beaten, thorn-crowned, mocked, and flayed. Then nailed to the cross on which I...

‘On Secretaries of State: Falling from Grace’ and Other Poetry by Bruce Dale Wise

The Society
March 31, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
6 Comments
(All poetry by Bruce Dale Wise)   On Secretaries of State: Falling from Grace by Brice U. Lawseed Across the World in India, while touring for her book, the former Secretary Clinton, trying to look...

‘Longinus, Spearman’ by Joseph S. Salemi

The Society
March 30, 2018
Beauty, Blank Verse, Culture, Poetry, Short Stories
18 Comments
Miles hastatus (spearman) of the Legio Decima Fretensis, stationed in Roman Judaea, A.D. 33 Vere, filius Dei erat iste. —Roman centurion at the crucifixion, noted in Matthew 27:54. They say he was the...

‘This Collar, Blue’ and Other Poetry by Zachary Dilks

The Society
March 29, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
28 Comments
This Collar, Blue My elbows leak with grease And all my toes are laid with steel I'm rough of neck My knuckles specked with cuts that never heal The world I mend The swirls on plastic lens paints...

‘The Ride of Godiva’ by David E. Müller

The Society
March 27, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Short Stories
7 Comments
About the Lady Godiva and her famed naked ride through Coventry Once in the town of Coventry, Leofric Earl had held decree; Too great the tax that he appealed, Greater than his folk could yield. They...

Essay: On George Herbert’s ‘Easter Wings’

The Society
March 25, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Essays, Poetry, Shape Poems
5 Comments
by Jane Blanchard George Herbert was born into a well-to-do and well-doing family of Montgomery, Wales, in 1593. When he was three years old, his father died, leaving a wife and ten children. Herbert...

‘The Maid of Orleans’ and Other Poetry by Nicky Hetherington

The Society
March 22, 2018
Culture, Poetry, Riddles, Villanelle
10 Comments
  The Maid of Orleans A villanelle on Joan of Arc As I gazed at the flames of the fire my heart, with all there that day, broke – such strength could not help but inspire. A young woman burnt as...

Seasonal Sonnets (Acrostic) by Mark A. Doherty

The Society
March 20, 2018
Acrostic, Beauty, Culture, Poetry
17 Comments
Winter’s Nocturn       When angles of the sun are shining low, Intuition tells us we must sleep. Nocturnal tracks appear now in the snow To mark the chilly vigil some must keep. Enlightened...

‘Statues’ and Other Poetry by Charles Bauer

The Society
March 19, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Villanelle
24 Comments
Statues A Villanelle Two Buddhas now a lost reality, A crowd chants loudly near a pile of stone; Across the South you won’t find General Lee. The temples fell despite UNESCO’s plea And ISIS’...

‘Ode to the Great Highland Pipes’ by Joseph Charles MacKenzie

The Society
March 17, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
29 Comments
For Bill Horn Send up on wings of blood our fathers’ cry, Though the unhearing dead brook not your sound, And flesh yet binds us to the groaning ground, Release your paeans to the boundless sky, And...

‘A Consolation’ by Christine Ann Cuccio

The Society
March 16, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
5 Comments
At night I hear Prokofiev and Liszt and dream of playing baby grands as sly Euterpe lures me towards the melodies of pianists. My fingers cannot meet the demands of Mendelssohn’s complicated...

‘Theological’ and Other Poetry by Andrew Miller

The Society
March 15, 2018
Culture, Poetry
15 Comments
Theological But there’s a God, white-knuckled, jealous, His heart an anvil, and his mind a bomb. Take the crew of The Indianapolis,* Torn limb from sculling limb inside a storm Of sharks. There is no...

‘Sonnet I: Liu Haixiao’ and Other Poetry by Evan Mantyk

The Society
March 14, 2018
Alexandroid, Beauty, Culture, Human Rights in China, Poetry
24 Comments
Sonnet I: Liu Haixiao Mr. Liu Haixiao (pronounced Leo High-shaow) is serving a 16-year prison sentence in Jilin Province, China, where he was arrested for tapping into the local TV network to broadcast...

‘Taiwan in Rough Words’ by Ana Varela

The Society
March 13, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Human Rights in China, Poetry, Rhupunt
A rhupunt A modern place that maintains grace a safer place for all who come The airplanes fly the city sky the mountains high you're never numb never alone away from home in temples roam to...

‘You Decide’ and Other Poetry by Lorna Davis

The Society
March 12, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Poetry, The Environment
8 Comments
  You Decide Some know me as Destiny, The weaver of the cloth of Time. Although my looms are never stilled, They say I choose how high you’ll climb, How fast you’ll fall, how great your name; I...

‘The Day the Poetry Died’ and Other Poetry by Steven Shaffer

The Society
March 7, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
11 Comments
The Day the Poetry Died Wonder why poetry is in decline, While not ever writing one lyric line? There is no experience more perverse, Than self-indulgent poems in free verse. Your pain, your angst, and...

‘Political Correctness’ by Margaret Coats

The Society
March 6, 2018
Culture, Humor, Poetry
4 Comments
After Joachim du Bellay’s "Les Regrets LXVIII" I hate the Florentines' foul avarice, I hate lewd Sienese profanity, I hate Geneva's glib duplicity, I hate malign Venetian artifice, I hate whate'er...

‘The Cymbal Player’ and Other Poetry by Martin Elster

The Society
March 4, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Humor, Poetry
24 Comments
The Cymbal Player As bows and fingers quiver strings, as lungs and lips whip up the air, as notes soar on great falcon wings, one player, seated in his chair like a finch hid in a maple tree, as if...

Thirty-one Sonnets: Renaissance to New Millennial

The Society
March 3, 2018
Culture, Education, Essays, Poetry, Poetry Forms
7 Comments
by Lew Icarus Bede "A sonnet is a coin: its face reveals The soul—its converse, to what Power 'tis due: Whether for tribute to the august appeals Of Life, or dower in Love's high retinue, It serve; or,...

‘Self-Love’ and Other Poetry by Ron L. Hodges

The Society
March 2, 2018
Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Poetry
6 Comments
  Self-Love Some tenderhearted people claim We’re deficient self-esteem; Yes, a collective sense of shame Made despondency mainstream. While gloom and sadness are the rage, I suggest the torment...

‘Wordsworth’s Lament’ and Other Poetry by James A. Tweedie

The Society
March 1, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Humor, Poetry
4 Comments
Wordsworth’s Lament I wandered lonely as a cloud—Oh dear! I watched the dance of daffodils—Oh my! When on my couch in vacant mood I lie I feel their wealthy fluttering draw near. I see them toss...

‘Made in China’ by Fr. Richard Libby

The Society
February 28, 2018
Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Human Rights in China, Poetry
8 Comments
  The toys we buy at Christmastime (The decorations, too), Don’t come from elves in Santa’s shop, As we’ve been told they do. The “Made in China” label can Be found upon these...

‘A Lively Hope: Sonnets on Sir Hubert Parry’s Youth’ by Phillip Whidden

The Society
February 27, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Music, Poetry
19 Comments
On the occasion of his birthday, 160 years ago, on February 27, 1848  At the Solitary Age of Twelve—Seven and Twelve Being Holy Numbers The first of seven early music books Reveals a boy methodical as...

‘Living with Omnibenevolence’ and Other Poetry by C.B. Anderson

The Society
February 25, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
8 Comments
  Living with Omnibenevolence Each one of us is furnished with an expiration date, And no one living has the power to elude his fate. There comes a time when every living creature has to die, But...

‘A Sonnet?’ by Carly Britt

The Society
February 23, 2018
Culture, Humor, Poetry
5 Comments
It’s a vicious process, sonnet writing. It seems as every time I near the goal a syllable or rhyme eludes me, rendering my poetry somewhat droll. I feel empathy for those who struggle and a growing...

‘A History Lesson’ by Joseph S. Salemi

The Society
February 22, 2018
Blank Verse, Culture, Humor, Poetry
14 Comments
He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. The misreporting of great Caesar’s death Errs by one gross omission. We’re not told That when conspirators bared blades to strike, Caesar’s well-practiced...

‘The Parkland, Florida, School Shooting’ by Bruce Dale Wise

The Society
February 20, 2018
Culture, Poetry, Terrorism
16 Comments
This life—O, how much more of it remains? The night is brief. Toward those short trees, we saw a bird, descending with our grief. Chris Hixon, Aaron Feis, Scott Beigel vanished in the day. Luke Hoyer,...

‘ Which Is the Grandest Name of All?’ and Other Poetry by Ted Hayes

The Society
February 20, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Human Rights in China, Humor, Poetry, Short Stories
7 Comments
Which Is the Grandest Name of All? Which is the grandest name of all? Churchill, Churchill, Churchill! Winter sere or crimson fall Churchill, Churchill, Churchill! Who held bold freedom’s flag so...

‘Ballade on the Man Who Could Have Killed George Washington’ by Ron L. Hodges

The Society
February 19, 2018
Culture, Poetry, Short Stories
8 Comments
“But it was not pleasant to fire at the back of an unoffending individual…so I let him alone.” —Major Patrick Ferguson, British Expeditionary Force What if it had been a different man Scouting along...

The Power of Poetry: A Traditional Chinese Story

The Society
February 15, 2018
Culture, Short Stories, Translation
6 Comments
Fenghan Gao was an outstanding artist of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912 AD). He had profound wisdom and was multi-talented; he was good at writing poems and good at painting, especially landscapes and flowers. He...

‘Swallows’ by Leo Yankevich (with Video)

The Society
February 13, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Readings, Video
8 Comments
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjc_6R0ang8&feature=youtu.be   It was once thought that swallows wintered on the moon, or morphed into field mice beneath the autumn swoon of clouds, or...
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  1. Judith McNeil on The Society of Classical Poets 2025 Haiku CompetitionJuly 6, 2025

    Pohutukawa Water like paint in relief Framed in a Landscape

  2. Diane Smither on The Society of Classical Poets 2025 Haiku CompetitionJuly 6, 2025

    On my window-sill a cycladic figurine. reveals existential knowledge with threads of connection. 5,000 years ago as i wash my…

  3. C.B. Anderson on ‘Every Square Inch’: A Poem by Frank RableJuly 6, 2025

    I don't despise the sentiments, but overall, as a coherent poem: yech! Did you ever give any thought to metricality?…

  4. John Savoie on The Society of Classical Poets 2025 Haiku CompetitionJuly 6, 2025

    nicely done, Carl well lineated, natural, uncluttered, spare

  5. Ashley Horton on The Society of Classical Poets 2025 Haiku CompetitionJuly 6, 2025

    Warning sirens blare Continuing to look down As birds fly away Earlier this time Branches against the window Calmness with…

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