Culture

Apes or Angels Humans, some say, aren’t much more than an ape— A reasoning beast, quintessence of dust. Others believe we’re of angelic shape. Hungry for morsels, we scrabble and scrape, Leaving...

The Great The great are often shunned by their own age, While even the noble dead are sometimes mocked, And eras are damned when none who sees is shocked By scads of scorn spat on a sacred page. Today...

Ode to a Soldier’s Wife I can see your tears are streaming, in the lamp light they are gleaming; How I wish that I were dreaming, and that duty hadn’t called. Through the wretched bars we’re...

Counterfeit Martyrdom Evil terrorists 'round the world Reject God's law, "Thou shalt not kill." Minds indoctrinated, furled up in a cold and savage will! Real martyrs are the brave who die adhering to...

  Valentine The name of Spring is ever fresh and fair;     Her sound is ever gentle, ever true; The Spring is like the songbird of the air     Who sweetly...

Models for Configuring Friendship A knight for whom the Grail is wholly you; the one who greets you sans your power, might; who never counts the favors that accrue; adheres to you whatever is your...

  The lit brush burns oil on the canvas; Ancient word breathes stories of Atlantis; The silent stone speaks more than us all; Mortal mysteries that hold us in thrall. Throughout the ages, man has...

Xerxes My power does lie In hue of the sky In the refined folds of God’s estate My throne I have carved Of sapphire hard And I crowned it with God’s ark of Jade My hosts of legions Number in...

Sedona (A Rhupunt) Deep shadows fade Red rock cascade To purpled jade— Sun sparks ignite. Stone sentries stare Sightless through air At treadless stair Spanning the height. No mortals...

The Gathering Upon the 400th anniversary of the founding of the town of Virginia in Ireland Oh town of the Virgin Queen I hear you call me back To your ancient Way of Woods following Vikings track Your...

Father and Son I. The Modern Daedalus I want you to carry yourself with pride: Stand up straight, with your shoulders back; don’t slouch; and yet, also, don’t let hubris deride you. Be humble. Get...

Updated: April 26, 2024 10 Greatest Poems Ever Written An Ambitious "Best Poems" List Limited to Poems Originally Written in English and of 50 Lines or Less by Evan Mantyk What is poetry? What is great...

The band struck up for the comical clowns! They all sported wigs, red noses, and frowns And from painted mouths uttered sad cries. Then the fools threw water and custard pies In riotous ribaldry: mad, bad,...

Tender is the night shared in close caress With candied kiss and floral purr, no less. The pristine perfection of unclaimed time Drenches air with an ephemeral chime. Considering not money as pay off, The...

Hints from the Moon (Monday) Beginning with zero, hints from the moon Going through phases, ripe in the womb; Time out of nothing, pared in the night, Planet of sorrow tilting to light; Retrograde...

Free me from wars? Make my debut? Oh, Mr. Handsome G.I. Joe— your face and a blanket won’t do. Sift flour from Mama’s ashes, melt glue from Papa’s bones. Knead them into dough— free of wars,...

The rustic minuet's small step has since been swept away by all the modern pop and pep and fizzle of the day. One of the first to introduce it into music's lair was Frenchman Jean Baptiste Lully of Louis'...

This poem was inspired by Shen Yun Performing Arts.   Bleak and somber is the flavor du jour; Modernism pervades all spheres of art; Artists lacking virtue make it a bore, People wait for a...

The White Stag By Bard Eucewelis I saw it long ago; so long ago it seems as if it was a dream, a white stag in the wood. Reality is ever fading through time's seams. It's odd to say so; but its sighting was...

Game Over With my friend P. Modernity, We played a game of strategy. Sipping our hot cups of coffee, We spoke over a game of chess. Most of our chat was mere bs, But then the game turned...

Confucius Institutes, which advance the agenda of the Chinese Communist Party, are found at universities in the United States and around the world. In colleges and schools, and blocks of...

The Backwards Romantic “Most of those once common occasions for poetry seem embarrassingly old fashioned now that piped-in tunes and hand-held devices provide the background music for life’s journey.”...

Poetry, arguably the most powerful form of communication ever devised by mankind, has died. It was thousands of years old. Poetry died yesterday after a prolonged illness. Trapped in a meaningless,...

  Octave By Erisbawdle Cue There's always something going wrong the pessimistic person thinks. One moment one is going strong and then one's on the blink...and blinks. There's always something...

Why did lyric poetry die? ‘Cause caterpillars cannot fly And no longer morph to butterflies Pegasus now has lost his wings To logic, not to lyric, clings Concerned solely with words’ meanings Can...

The Tears of the Gods An ancient fable tells of how the gods rose from the main Of azure deep of Ocean and all Being they surveyed How Sun he warmed the stones, how the vibrant verdure swayed How tawny...

I. Again the darkling moon is new this night, and cold deserted seas in lunar sleep lay fasting and far from the waxing light; as bright Apollo* flails the unknown deep beyond the threshold of our...

Dharmachakra By Sri Wele Cebuda Around the Dharma Wheel spins, around and round it goes. It never pauses nor begins, it simply travels, o! Though millions fly off from its whirl, and thousands...

. . To a Brother in Paris Like Sun in the woods, or a cold Summer rain, Would trouble make goods, and loss create gain. Then bound to a Lady, and allied to Bro, With the grace of God found, wherever you...

  The captain on this night would have no rest A storm rages and moves in from the West And the heathen banshees screech and wail As the waves bring down the mast and sail On a ship that would lose...

Back  I am an atheist. I don’t believe in God ! Argue this with me or leave ! There is no evidence that ‘it’ exists though faith sects say they squeeze it in their fists. Divine Design is...

Upon seeing "Louis XV of France as a Child" painted by Hyacinthe Rigaud at the Metropolitan Museum of Art   O 'tis the beauty of the art of France To reflect regal majesty in paint, To show the...

Bound verse, ironically, is quite unbound, For writing it you have nothing to say, Since sense comes after you have sought a sound As line by line you pace your measured way. Perhaps a general notion of...

Your steps, unequal, hasten, departing from the race Where dust’s all that’s awarded, where just the fit survive, Pursuing trifles, anguished, forgetful of life’s grace. The farther from this...

Is it ISIS or ISIL? I think it is the latter It really doesn’t matter True, ISIS rhymes with crisis Let’s not lose our heads about this But ISIL rhymes with evil And also with the devil So if...

Creativity Requires a Cave (an Apology for Form and Rhyme) IMAGINE Gretzky “trapped” behind the crease; or Pelé, deking, swarmed before the net; Odysseus before he dons the fleece; or Jordan, bodied,...

Marseille, France In the year 1720, the last great occurrence of bubonic plague struck the port city of Marseille, France, killing half of its citizens in less than a year.   June 16, 1720 The...

The Inward Light Be proof against the eye and ear And every sense that stultifies The inward light, supreme, austere, The keenly sharp, the keenly clear, That by the lucent beam it darts Illuminates the...

Wow! The wind is blowin’, the rain is rainin’ slant across the windowpane – and in the yard whole oceans storm across the grass and make some parts too full of mud to pass. In hours this windblown...

  How Long the Night Anonymous Old English Lyric, circa early 13th century AD Loose translation by Michael R. Burch It is pleasant, indeed, while the summer lasts with the mild pheasants' song...