Poetry

By Damian Robin Quick, pick a good book of poems and let your soul soar. Or clip in your ear buds and listen to words by the score. Or rack up some speakers and loudly let rhetoric roar — it’s April,...

. . Tahoe Plane On the above photo by M. Kirson Far above the lake I soared, Above the dock, above the shore, Above the rock, above the pine, Mid snowy cloud and engine whine. Below, the cafe - orange duck...

Dear George, If only you were living at this hour, Day, week, month, year. These times are newly strange— Hilarious, but not. You had prime power To forge a nation, though within the range Of law. Good...

Born at Constantinople in 1762 of a French father and Greek mother, André Chénier grew up in pre-revolutionary France and studied at Paris. Well-read, and enamored with ancient Greece, he is considered one...

A gray mid-March day: the bare branches lean across the blank sky. All colors moved indoors where my daughter and I play with her toys laid out on the rug: rattles, dolls, and trucks, nesting...

Storyteller We sit around the fire. The storyteller drones, until his words expire in silence like the stones. Primeval darkness frames the flower-yellow flames enlightening our faces. Like...

  The Clockwork Butterfly When I was a child, and my dreams were of gold I always believed everything I was told, My faith was implicit, my innocence pure And magic existed, of that I was sure. My...

By Dusty Grein and Evan Mantyk “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe remains one of the English language’s most popular and influential poems since it was written in 1845. Much of this was Poe’s own doing,...

 After Phoebe Cary, after Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.      Tell me not, in scolding shouts,     Education is an empty dream, For the brain is dead that...

The Rock Climbers By Cal Wes Ubideer I saw them climbing up the gray-white, rocky mountain hills, like any mountain goats, where over all the sunlight spills, so beautiful, so free, o, nature's booty...

August 13, 2012 I dreamt last night of singing with Li Po. (Or is he now sleeping, dreaming of me?) How much we drank… The world all vertigo… He brought his ch’in.  It was life’s apogee. Yet...

Sonnet II The spark which lights my innermost desire,     whose flame burns fierce in Spirit and in vein, your blinding glory makes my heart aspire     to grasp the...

. Dunblane Cathedral On the massacre of sixteen children and their teacher at the Dunblane Primary School near Stirling, Scotland, March 13, 1996 LOVE’s light lost the bleak night breathes a black breeze of...

Roly-Poly Talking on the telephone, a mother missed her baby Wait a sec, I’ll go and check And call you back, Jack, Maybe? Walking down the passageway, she thought she heard a noise She slid a paw...

. . Metaphysical Mortar Between the cobalt and the blueGlean gestalt and sum of trueAll and each be more than sixWall and reach be more than bricks .   Photo by A Sclamberg & H Hall . . Tahoe Navy,...

Inspired by real events in China   Not that long ago in China, in a labor camp confined a Year or longer, I was sitting, making for a U.S. store Christmas tree lights meant for hanging, when there...

  A Fifteen-Year-Old's Response to Frost "This 'pome' don't make NO sense! What junk!" the scowling students muttered. "Two roads in the woods!" one hissed. "Such bunk"-- opinions rudely...

Transient I lingered along the sandy runway Hearing the winds blowing about; A tender voice from far, faraway, “Hurry, or we’ll be late,” calls out. I cannot tear myself from it all. “Wait,”...

1.) The prankster's favorite home decor, Clockwise or counter, the choice is yours. Never eaten, found in bowls. Around I go, I'm on a roll. What am I? ANSWER   2.) A flightless bird,...

Horses Tell me what power hits the ground, heard a mile away, ear to mound? Earth’s tympanic membrane resounds; like kettle drums, the hoof beat pounds! Or what, when they run together, frightens every...

Shall I compare the CCP To a tragic Shakespeare play? For all the lies of history Unfold in China today. Good and evil set the stage, The last and final scene. But those who ‘gainst heaven rage Know...

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...

  They tweet like a bird, have books of your face, and Kindle who? I can hardly remember which TV button to touch. I simply don’t understand how to google or text you, or send instant telegrams in...

  In China now are shadows forged from fire, a DNA pre-history. They cloud troubled villages, rice fields, goldfish ponds. Stones form, creating outlines with moving corners of such mild movements...

  The journey back to your own true self Is not paved by comfort and untold wealth, But by finding the universe’s Great Law, Looking inside, and clearing what you saw!   Eddie Aitken is...

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...

Igor at the Kitchen Sink By Alecsei Durbew I saw him washing dishes at the sink. He stood against the smooth, white countertop, and tan, wood cabinet below his pink thick, stalwart legs—bull in a...

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...

Choice Now to change; rise to rearrange; fix buckled tracks; iron out the cracked strange. Time to take off the human make- up, look within and see beyond the fake: catch and count seeds in the...

Riverside Sun rays glisten Reflect the river I stand and listen Can’t help but shiver Restless fish swim Graceful, majestic Watching sunlight dim Thoughts are monolithic Nature’s beauty...

  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...

by Reid McGrath I forewarn you that these are the 10 greatest English Sonnets addressed to or concerning other poets and are not even the 10 greatest short poems concerning other poets. There are innumerable...

So many lasers stroked the night, the sky simply purred and burst apart. We held our breaths, but not from fright - the fireworks had launched their start. like mad housewives and activists, the...

Squinters The curious the contemplators the ones who concentrate on the littlest details. The most beautiful thing about them is how they space out and their attention is unattainable. While the...

  We left the Port of Joy so long ago, And ebbed so much the while and knew no flow, But still another strait we headed to. Whatever we did, wherever we steered All things led to one place, to...

Congratulations to the winners and to everyone who participated. There were many hundreds of submitted poems and many good works and poets who had to be left out. Thank you! ***Winners should email their...