Poetry

"Beauty comes from life well lived." —Wilbur Dee Case They are all looking for a loveliness refined, a beautiful design or feeling of sublime. And there are moments when they find it, and refind it, on...

Held on April 14, 2014, at Da Tang, in New York, participants read Tang Dynasty poetry, contemporary poetry previously written by attendees, and wrote Haiku. Here are some of the poems:   A Spring...

  This Autumn Evening These words of Bashō I cannot claim as my own, but they appear again and again in poems I try to write this autumn evening. Three simple words I am unable to...

In prison cells our aching calls go nowhere but around the walls, and bruising hands repress our cries, replacing truth with frigid lies. We are the lost. For in these stalls no life can reach. No...

I love to gaze into the midnight sky To search the night for planets and bright stars, Caress, with pointing finger, blazing Mars, And blow a kiss to Venus passing by. I wonder and I ponder other...

A little hurt, a little grime, a little dirt, a little crime on Falun Gong. A little smell, a little sale, a little cell, a little nail to Falun Gong. A little fit, a little fist, a little...

O sweet be this soft morning’s song As golden mist on earth descends And skylarks trill an hour long While gently this wild river bends: The daisies rise to kiss the sun Fond lover of dear Mother...

Because he gave up life in town To graze the old undulant farm They called him a provincial clown Who did not get all up in arms. They said, rashly, he did not care About the evil ways of men. But...

I dreamed again last night, of waters, raging, That break in waves across the Thunersee, Where mountains coldly climb, fir-clad and aging; Impervious to the rain against the scree; Of ramparts there that...

A grand council of trees Stood majestic, serene Heavy laden with snow Beautiful and pristine And I felt reverence For such a peaceful scene And awe at the splendor Of a tall evergreen   Kathy...

If you want your children to be brilliant, tell them fairy tales. If you want them to be very brilliant, tell them even more fairy tales. -Albert Einstein Oh, the magic of Once upon a Time, an entryway to...

  Daybreak As day begins in honey’d light, I watch a flock of geese take flight. They fly formation heading south o’er field and stream, past river’s mouth. Where in that clearing, such...

Where Does the Sky Begin or End? Where does the sky begin or end? The sea above, the stars attend? Burn bright, a galaxy anew Not in the sky we see so blue Could paint a line up to the moon Hear...

  Waiting for Dawn atop Butterfly Mountain A dilapidated lepidopteran dying atop The Mountain of Butterflies holds out her wings to the darkness — wings as thin as the mist that swirls beneath...

The wisp of wind that makes the leaves go dance and play above the browning grass, cannot but stir awake my eyes and ears from trance to sound and sight more fine than can  be bought. Where sun and earth...

  A Message in the Halloween Decorations (Based on a True Story) Compressed and clandestine, the Chinese script small, The paper slip’s flimsy “Will it get out at all?” He’s hidden it...

  Unbroken If I should break myself today Unchanged from every burden bare Determined unafraid to say That I shall find the strength to wear Whatever fortune great or small My maker has...

  The Philadelphia Pepper Pot Legend This day in 1777, American soldiers, at Valley Forge, camped. By hunger and winter's breath, spirits were damped. Paying a toll for the new...

"More SpongeBob, Mimi"--this I hear a dozen times a day. How much more can I stand to see? No more of this, I pray! I turn the TV off and run to fetch his favorite toys. When he says, "Spongebob's much...

  Made (by Imprisoned Falun Gong) in China It's mass production everywhere I look, From toys of plastic hope to airplane parts, And after all the livelihood you took, You're pressing mass...

What’s out to kill us makes us more alive. Let’s go escape with me forget our fear, So run with me my brother lets survive. We just have to get in the car, and drive As fast as we can, racing to the...

  Instruction The tales of Ovid are a theme that suits The Prince, but will not do for your repute. Avoid lust.  Clients of the better kind Desire the tales that beautify the mind. You may...

  Research Guideline Throughout investigative history, a basic principle has long held sway: When we unravel Nature’s mystery, complexity’s the first to fall away. Upon one underpinning...

  Metaphorical Meditation Musings My thoughts, like waves of ocean's surface swells that roll repeatedly, then crash on shore, neglect to find how silent treasure dwells in depths of calmness...

Imprisonment, torture, pathetic wrong - begat from  a people of age-old culture, wit, classic beauty, artistry and song: practices akin to hyena,  vulture, or other sadistic depravity - such is the...

  Greeks, Bearing Gifts The coils of wood cascade as worn blades glide from cedar lengths, rough-hewn deformed and coarse, while nearby, ships await a final tide and summer’s winds chase sand...

What wonder! - In the arcs described by wings Aloft and floating on the fair spring air. In graceful glides, parabolas of dare Defying, in ascent, all earthy things. Blue light this, that arises o'er their...

  The Rainbow A wave of color binds our sentiments before it fades. For each emotion, is a subtlety in hue expressed, And through life's noble journey, may we add these tints and shades To vivid...

  Ballet Lesson The flow has ebbed and left a tidal pool. A little tern wades in with webbed feet So delicate they wobble in the cool But keep the balance of this athlete. She moves her slender...

  Calpurnia’s Paranoia Beware the Ides of March, she said— if you ignore the signs, you’re dead. But Caesar did not share her dread and shuffled off to work instead. Once on the Senate...

Sparks from nearby campfires Might be stars of paradise Glimpsed through twilight’s window Too briefly for surmise Of their height above the pines, Their hues - red, green, or gold -– Or mountains...

He looked all around him and saw monuments so vast Built with good intentions to endure and hold steadfast Awesome structures pointing up to heaven as to say Here is my creation and forever it will...

  Bounty When apples hang untouched on branches’ bottom, Or beans lie grounded, neither grown nor dead, Or bulbs down-nestle into earth of autumn, Then let them lie! Don’t hurry them...

  The Persecution of Falun Gong I. Meditating group One clear crisp day at Shanghai In earth’s sunny loop II. What is Zhen-Shan-Ren? Truth-Compassion-Forbearance Refiner of men III. Police arrive...

  The pendulum o' th' old grandfather clock goes back and forth, and forth and back, and back and forth, and forth and back, again, again, again. It stays on track, and oscillates both east and...

  Ode to Matters of Fact The best advice I've ever read -- if you don't breathe you'll soon be dead. And secondly -- a pleasant wife can rid a man of moan and strife. Then third -- rye...

It spreads like wildfire when you give a smile. At first you won’t really notice at all, But if you wait patiently for a small while, You’ll notice that each domino will fall. In the smile you see...

By Clinton Van Inman Editors who reject classical styles of poetry in submissions usually respond with, “I hate meter, rhythm and rhyme.” It is no secret that free verse dictates the modern world with...

  An English Autumn’s Coming Indoors, a crisp leaf skates on smooth floorboards, gunned by silent puffs from our gapped doorway – A fragile scout in advance of damp hoards soon to glut local...

  You came to life from dreams and thoughts and whispers. You were told and you were – forever true. The centuries have left you young and graceful. I come to ask you: please, let me be...