‘For Our Children’ and Other Poetry by Amy Foreman The Society April 27, 2017 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 19 Comments For Our Children “The sum is greater than its parts,” or so the saying goes. And now the two of us can see the proof as each one grows, Distinct but similar in code, the perfect mix and match Of you...
‘To a Red-Winged Black Bird on the Advent of Spring’ and Other Poetry by Reid McGrath The Society April 26, 2017 Beauty, Culture, Humor, Poetry 6 Comments To a Red-Winged Black Bird on the Advent of Spring For some a robin heralds in the Spring. Others: a crocus or a daffodil. My old man claims it’s when nightchirpers sing. The farmer cites the rain, the...
‘To Compassion’ by Daniel Magdalen The Society April 25, 2017 Beauty, Human Rights in China, Poetry 2 Comments Compassion, with your sun that shines unseen, You lead the river of man’s thoughts to flow Where Saving Grace’s golden breezes blow, To universal mercy’s sea pristine. With selflessness imbued,...
Review: In Hubble’s Shadow by Carol Smallwood, Shanti Arts Publishing, 2017 The Society April 24, 2017 Essays, Poetry, Reviews By Alex Phuong The night sky has served as the inspiration for many poets and writers, from Longfellow’s “The Light of Stars” to “Stars” by Robert Frost, and still does. Profoundly and...
‘Riddling Away’ and Other Poetry by Nicholas Froumis The Society April 23, 2017 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Riddles 2 Comments Riddling Away What slips and squanders, and has no matter? Leaves one to ponder, and rarely flatters? Is never enough to go all around, and often too rough when finally found? And where will...
‘Hope’ and Other Poetry by Neil Dachstadter The Society April 22, 2017 Beauty, Poetry 7 Comments Hope What task be done, you thought was not? What asked and sought, forgot, was wrought? What strain was set against a blow? As gain unfettered, bettered, lo, The frost was last before the...
A Timeline of English Poetry Part I: The Song of Amergin, Caedmon’s Hymn, Bede’s Death Song, Deor’s Lament The Society April 21, 2017 Culture, Education, Essays, Poetry 16 Comments By Sandeep Kumar Mishra and Evan Mantyk English poetry has a rich history dating back at least 1,400 years. Looking at poetry today, it is easy to get trapped into thinking that the flurry of poetic...
‘Molothrus Ater’ by Jane Blanchard The Society April 20, 2017 Culture, Poetry 4 Comments Note: The brown-headed cowbird, Molothrus ater, rather than raise its own young, lays its eggs in the nests of other birds, which may or may not accept them or the nestlings that emerge from...
‘Verification’ and Other Poetry by C.B. Anderson The Society April 19, 2017 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 7 Comments Verification What further evidence will now be needed to assure Us that behind the strictly physical there’s something more, And that the natural world is clearly ordered from above, Than seeing how the...
‘They’re Giants: On America and North Korea’ by James Sale The Society April 17, 2017 Culture, Poetry 13 Comments "For even in the beginning, when arrogant giants were perishing, the hope of the world took refuge on a raft … for blessed is the wood by which righteousness comes." – Wisdom of Solomon,...
‘Prelude to the Gettysburg Address’ by Arthur Mortensen The Society April 17, 2017 Blank Verse, Culture, Poetry, Short Stories 3 Comments Posting atop the hill beyond the field in rain so thick he barely saw the bodies, the General tilted back his hat and sat, shaking his head. His horse shifted a foot and whinnied, a grazing wound across...
‘Visiting the Ruins of Tintagel Castle’ and Other Poetry by Evan Mantyk The Society April 16, 2017 Beauty, Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Humor, Poetry 9 Comments . Visiting the Ruins of Tintagel Castle I wander through a forest deep __in Cornish countryside And think I see some elves asleep __And giants run to hide. The branches gnarled like magic wands, __Green...
“Sonnet 32” by Joseph Charles MacKenzie The Society April 15, 2017 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 3 Comments From the newly released audio of Sonnets for Christ the King XXXII CUIUS REGIO EIUS RELIGIO The self’s religion, bound by narrow ways, Behind joy’s mask disguises its despair, Adoreth...
‘Spring Was Near, Now Spring’s Here’ by Carolyn Clark The Society April 14, 2017 Beauty, Poetry Spring was near now Spring’s here, come to waken all the flowers and to welcome April showers. Spring was near now Spring’s here. The grass is green as green can be and the blossoms are...
An Alternative Ending to Romeo and Juliet by Reid McGrath The Society April 13, 2017 Culture, Education, Poetry 7 Comments If Romeo Had Received the Letter Part I Romeo (in the catacomb, lying down beside Juliet) The friar’s note said: “Romeo she will wake.” Thus here I am now with my life at stake. You’ll...
‘Blue Star’ and Other Poetry by Sally Cook The Society April 12, 2017 Beauty, Culture, Humor, Poetry 5 Comments Blue Star Mama painted calm and clouded landscapes Before she wed, blue-green and grassy shapes, But these went by the board just after she Jumped off into the matrimonial sea. Later, Bach rocked the...
‘I Watch the Sun’ and Other Poetry By J. Quintanilla The Society April 11, 2017 Beauty, Poetry I Watch the Sun I watch the sun, its trek, across the sky. The shadow too to see how it reacts. When light steps forth, the shadow it gets shy. Then shadow finds its strength when light contracts. A...
‘Boston Public Garden’ and Other Poetry by Mina Le The Society April 10, 2017 Beauty, Culture, Poetry Boston Public Garden On Boston Public Garden's willowed shorebank, two little girls are feeding ducks: they prance from beak to beak, arms arcing past their foreheads to farther thrust their...
‘Rhetorical Power’: An Interview with Joseph S. Salemi The Society April 8, 2017 Deconstructing Communism, Essays, Interviews, Poetry 8 Comments By Evan Mantyk In the sea of free verse, drifting downward into the bottomless whirlpool of aesthetic relativism, it is hard to not get lost; but poet, editor, and professor Joseph S. Salemi seems to have...
A Limited, but Serious, Response to Syria’s Sarin Use The Society April 7, 2017 Poetry 1 Comment By Cid Wa'eeb El Sur "The end is where we start from." —T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets, Little Gidding Upon the heels of an Idlib chemical attack, about five dozen Tomahawks were hurled back to back. Like...
‘Gaius Plinius Secundus’ by Bob McGinness The Society April 7, 2017 Culture, Poetry 4 Comments “Doing what deserves to be written, writing what deserves to be read, living to make the world a happier place.” That's what Pliny the Elder said. He quoted “In Vino Veritas,” from...
‘White Wolf, Black Wolf: A Cherokee Story’ and Other Poetry by Dusty Grein The Society April 6, 2017 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 3 Comments White Wolf, Black Wolf: A Cherokee Story A trijan refrain Inside you lives a wolf of white— of patience, peace and love. He is forgiveness, hope and light; a blessing from above. This wolf of white...
‘One Near-Death Experience at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital’ and Other Poetry by James Sale The Society April 5, 2017 Beauty, Poetry 15 Comments One Near-Death Experience at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital To be dazed out, phased out, near to dying In a hospital bed Somewhere in a street near you, Pain excessive, crying, Eyes blank at blank...
‘After E. T. A. Hoffman’ and Other Poetry by Bruce Dale Wise The Society April 4, 2017 Beauty, Culture, Humor, Music, Poetry 2 Comments After E. T. A. Hoffman "Only connect..." E. M. Forster, Howard's End By Ewald E. Eisbruc The inner structure of the movements, working joint by joint, the way they all are linked together, toward a...
‘We Forget’ and Other Poetry by Ron L. Hodges The Society April 3, 2017 Deconstructing Communism, Human Rights in China, Poetry 2 Comments We Forget How quickly we forget the people killed, Millions slaughtered to get a lie fulfilled. All those Russians in the frozen gulag, All those Chinese, dead, without epilogue, All those hearts, for...
2017 Journal Released The Society April 1, 2017 From the Society, Poetry 5 Comments Divided into easy to engage and topical categories such as Beauty, Humor, Anti-Communism, and The Environment, the 2017 Journal features selected poetry, essays, and translations from the Society’s last 12...
‘Valley Oak’ by Ruth Hill The Society March 31, 2017 Beauty, Poetry 3 Comments Oak tree like a gnarled arthritic hand jutting into the sky black and bent knobby knuckles, twisted swirls and burls appearing ancient, energy spent Dry leaves are sparse, barely hanging on and...
‘A Picnic with a View’ by J. Prescott The Society March 30, 2017 Poetry, The Environment 1 Comment Sleep, lying in dry river beds Sold rapidly, buy the shore banks Brains washed from corporate heads Dried and neatly styled on fuel tanks Rippled, ragged breaths of ashen air Smog saturated sludge and...
‘Rhyme to Me’ by Lee Nyary The Society March 28, 2017 Culture, Poetry 1 Comment To me, to rhyme— It is sublime To others But a waste of time To match the sounds Of words, they say Promotes an Aural truth-decay To them I say To rhyme’s the way! To make the...
‘The Theater of the Bush’ and Other Poetry by David Watt The Society March 27, 2017 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 9 Comments The Theater of the Bush To westward the sun seeks a comfort nocturnal, Her warmth slipping under the covers ahead; And daylight soon passes the threshold eternal, Turns on the night-light and settles in...
‘Approaching Spring’ and Other Poetry by Neal Dachstadter The Society March 26, 2017 Beauty, Culture, Ekphrastic, Poetry 2 Comments Approaching Spring Above the mountain, under the sky, Canadian Geese, you hear their cry, Over the mountain, hear them sing, Man and Wife, approaching Spring. Charge to Orion Gird thy blade...
‘Peace’ by Ruth Asch The Society March 25, 2017 Beauty, Poetry Are the dead at peace in the ground? wrapped in loam, slow dissolving to earth. Is the mother at peace in travail, wracked apart that a child might be born? Does a man find peace as he toils for...
‘Spring is Coming’ and Other Poetry by Uvin Ko The Society March 24, 2017 Beauty, High School Submissions, Poetry, Terrorism 5 Comments Spring is Coming From naked trees, droplets of dew, Drips like tears onto my upturned face. Everything is bleak, nothing new. No creation feels like outer space. Hear ye, hear ye, everyone...
On Westminster Bridge, March 22, 2017 The Society March 23, 2017 Poetry, Terrorism 6 Comments By Basil Drew Eceu At least four people have been killed and forty injured in a terrorist attack in London in the afternoon. Here near the cradle of great Parliament'ry government, a cruel terrorist went...
How to Write a Rhupunt (with Example) The Society March 23, 2017 Education, Poetry, Poetry Forms, Rhupunt 9 Comments By Elizabeth Spencer Spragins Poetry has been an integral component of Welsh culture for centuries. Indeed, the Welsh word “bardd” (poet) has been traced back to 100 B.C. Depending on their skills,...
‘Michigan Dune’ by Rebekah Hoeft The Society March 22, 2017 Beauty, Poetry 3 Comments A Pantoum The wind, it sings through trees of pine The breeze, it sweeps my senses clear This day shines bright, this day shines fine These dunes are bringing heaven near. The breeze, it sweeps my...
‘How Much Wheat Can a Woodchuck Eat?’ by Connie Phillips The Society March 21, 2017 Children's, Culture, Humor, Poetry How much wheat can a woodchuck eat? Or cabbage, carrots, and peas, Spinach, parsley, peppers, and kale, Tomatoes, lettuce, n’ beans? What if he brings his family n’ friends? A party they will...
‘The Rocky Mountain Pines’ and Other Poetry by Blake Elliott The Society March 20, 2017 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, The Environment The Rocky Mountain Pines Written in Rhymed couplets of Anapestic Tetrameter. In the mountains or plains, with the pine in the air, I’ll awake to the sun with a chill to compare. When I hike up a hill,...
Review: Apocalypse by Frederick Turner, Ilium Press, 2016 The Society March 19, 2017 Epic, Essays, Poetry, Reviews 30 Comments By James Sale There are nine Muses of poetry, daughters of Zeus or some say Apollo, and the Titaness, Mnenosyne, goddess of memory, past and future. And of these nine the most important is Kalliope, she of...
‘Dancer’ and Other Poetry by Ayame Whitfield The Society March 18, 2017 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, The Environment 3 Comments Dancer the arch of her collarbone a bridge, her legs a throne, the clean and simple lines of her body free of confines. she dances, arms akimbo, hair flowing, and I know that she belongs to the...