Poetry

In the Shadow of a Mountain In the shadow of a mountain lies a valley, lies my home swaddled by the earth’s embrace in sweet repose – a state of grace in the shadow of a mountain in a valley,...

  Shadow of the Laogai In the Laogai’s shadow, the ghosts of China stir, Unseen by dreaming eyes as golden currents blow Across the sea. Our compassion seems to falter In the Laogai’s...

Shakespeare Wrote Shakespeare Some say that Shakespeare didn’t write The many works that bear his name; But surely if that were the case, A rival would have blown his game...   Inner Beauty...

  The Day the Persecution Began "The year is 1999, July, A king of terror would come from the sky,” The Frenchman Nostradamus prophesized Indeed, the red dragon in China flies. It covers all...

He Kept On By Erisbawdle Cue He kept on striving to attain an ideality connected to the good, but grounded in reality. He kept on working to achieve perfection in the act, pragmatism on the run with...

Just a Dream I. You vowed to descend to the world below, In an agreement that was made. To the mortal world others dared not go, Yet what would happen if you stayed? A promise to save sentient...

Tares in the Wheat "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God,” Luke 9:62 “The sun will burn; the heat will cause you sweat; Dust will choke before the sun...

Youths' Sonnet They view the world through filmy innocence, these youngsters who now hear the future call. Into that forest bountiful and dense, some travel slowly, wary of the fall. With nurturance and...

I've had some poems I could submit but now I've got behind a bit, they're packed inside the silent hive of a sev’ral-year-old, old hard drive tho’ un-backed-up, their form survives in sev’ral...

The British are coming! The whole fourth estate Must wear what is smart For William and Kate. The British are coming! Men, watch how you dress: A jacket and tie Should lead to success. The British...

To incarnate legally─ No reincarnates can be found In Beijing’s atheist compound─ In this city where dead is dead─ A reincarnate could lose his head! No passports may be issued now To souls...

Our Day in the Sun We, each of us, every one Have had our day in the sun Came a time that day was done Let us then no longer dwell On what we consider we did well Time moves on –so must we...

"...that best portion of a good man's life;     His little, nameless, unremembered acts     Of kindness and of love."         —William Wordsworth, Lines Composed...Above Tintern Abbey At any...

Life Ravaged forests again take root Life nestling within the sturdy acorn Cannot be throttled Ashes reborn yield bitter fruit Fragrance scattered upon the winds Cannot be bottled   The Old...

Dandelions She touched their gray-haired afros tenderly: an urban six year old with kinky hair who pounced on dandelions (bud-vases were full of yellow stubby). Telling me: “This is the way that...

Canadian reservist Corporal Cirillo was killed this day at the War Memorial in Ottawa, while standing in his ceremonial and Scottish dress, Glengarry bonnet, kilt, red garter flashes, and the rest. He was...

The tip jar was snatched at O Cafe. O! “Somebody just picked it up,” mused the guy at the register. I’d stopped in to buy six ounces of beans, fresh sweet espresso, number two grind. The young...

Fall Haiku New England college towns: Pumpkins, apples, breakfast in a warm café. Swamp-maples afire! Rusty colored barns, silos draped in bittersweet… In their black pea-coats, off of the...

From the Pages of Washington Irving, for my Hudson River Friends Whoever 's made a voyage up the Hudson must remember Catskill Mountains, a dismembered branch of the great Appalachian family, I trust. West...

French Suites Each keystroke is precise, clear as a verb Untouched by modifiers. Sharps and flats Are reliable as death, the light trills All mapped out. This strict staff allows no room For cadenzas....

  Waiting at a Bustop Under an Umbrella By Damian Robin The pro-democracy tear-soaked bud could burst into a petaled flower flood. Protesters gorged the city like a sea and said they’re not...

Two Months On I walk between the tired trees restless soldiers standing ground pray for just a tiny breeze bringing me a cheerful sound. Bubbling ruby robins tweet, squirrels dart from tree to...

610 is there to take it down, the Falun Gong, that touches Dao. It's clear to see the dangers of forbearance, truth, compassion, love.   Note: The 610 Office, created on June 10 (6/10),...

Courage I saw a tiny spider spin a web Within my humble hut between two beams. He tried to throw a thread across, it ebbed Away.  He did not have the will, it seemed. And then the tiny spider tried...

I saw the face of beauty fixed Upon the rising sun Beyond all mortal compliment Her loveliness there shone Within the constellations set Against the heav’nly realm She glittered ‘cross the...

Lamenting our Complicity in the Installation of Suicide Nets I met a “bum” outside an Apple store holding a sign which read: “I’m taking bets.” “On what?” I said. “On something that’d...

  "Breathes there a man, with soul so dead, Who never to himself has said, This is my own, my native land." —Walter Scott I saw this stolid man stand tall, and obviously proud. He wore a bit of...

A counter to a Walt Whitman poem When I first heard the learn'd astronomer explain his proofs and figures, and arrange the particles of this vast universe, I was excited; I was not estranged. I truly...

Chinese Cameo 1 Here’s a tale of friends and family— Near the founding of the CCP, Zhou Enlai and Sun Bingwen were friends, both Party members seeking sim’lar ends. Both heaved and puffed up...

  I hope your life will offer you new opportunities, that you will find contentment in the choices that you seize. Remember family's important. You can count on us, especially when the way of life...

  When snow arrives As long forecast, It sets a scene That does not last; But for the while Snow sits around, All else remains Transfixed, spellbound.   Jane Blanchard lives and...

For the Mid-Autumn, or Moon, Festival My Ford Explorer would ascend no higher: Stuck half-way up that driveway's first steep hill. 'Twas a December night so cold and dire, The truck, that old machine,...

  The Truth James Foley Stood For, a Ten-nos* James Foley, searching for the truth, a photo journalist, was murdered in cold blood by a masked IS jihadist, beheaded on a video in deserts of...

Untitled Savants like to arrange their stars and push their poets into piles: marble-misers who assign the jars according to the artists’ styles. They line them in their fusty den when they deem an...

There’s a wonder about it, the fragile beauty of lace. Many kinds for centuries have been important to own; one can go to Ireland, Flanders, from place to place— they’re in catalogs: Irish, Mechlin,...

There are a number of reasons for writing poetry, and alas they are not all good; for not all poetry is good, and indeed some ‘poetry’ is not poetry at all. This is not to denigrate anyone’s effort, but...

The Commissars Oppose Falun Gong They were old, had lost their youth, So, like the old, repressed the Truth. They fumbled, rigid in expression, So stiff – they lacked Compassion. Their purpose was...

In Rembrandt's scene of 1653, Aristotle Contemplating a Bust of Homer, there is much that we can see amidst that musty sett(l)ing of gold dust that balances upon the old and new, upon the dark and light,...

The Bored Knight A tired knight rode to his castle After a long day of hassle. He bowed to the land’s king, his lord, “My liege, I’m incredibly bored, I’m more like a stupid monkey Than...

The allegory of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne isn't flawless; yet it is, in places, good. The A itself does signify adultery, able, and angel, as well as in the hornbook phrase, "in Adam's...