Poetry

Exchange They go to take the heart of you, mark your skin & cut you through. With silk knives, their sharp skill connives to stroke apart flesh & lives. In surgic- al masks, they'll...

My love, accursed, will never let me go. I mourn your loss and all those wasted years. The wars that men have fought for causes, though, Can never bring you back, nor make it so That I can be a stranger...

Come, tell me your story, master of prose. Use elements of the proper language To sway me to your side, and if all goes Well, hallowed will your words be on the page. So many things in common do we...

Spirit of green engendered in liberty Sweeping across the glanded glades Tangled tree spirits in tarnished brief Dancing shades of sunlit lauded leaves. Some reveries of buttercups in a sea of...

Soft warm eyes searching, yearning full plump lips pouting and burning she looks upward in hope and desire burning inside consumed by fire. Big bright eyes warm and true deep inside, her soul shines...

A red-tailed hawk on a bridge railing looks fixed, loosed from its master. Reading one haiku, two bowls of strawberries passed through three centuries. When I looked back, o, the man whom I passed,...

How beautifully does Pisanello seize upon the Vision of Eustachius in paint, where all conjoins together in a whole to please, although a grim foreboding portrait of the saint, for he and family will all...

No one could recall When, in days of yore, The calm York River Had so breached its shore, Or where such places Roiling water went! Remarked one and all, "'Tis a rare event!" So, with great...

Department stores are nice But prices there are high If you've got lots of cash They've lots of things to buy But if you're like most folks Just trying to make do You'll want to save some bucks But...

Final Drip Sun’s broke through, it’s blinding. The crickets fade away, adjourn. The glowing, steaming mist falters; Creeps down to ground to burn. Silhouetted branches Well with tears of...

No Sweeter Spell Those things that I have told you, little things That no one else knows, things I’ve dared not share Fall out my mouth to you as if on wings - Cavorting swallows free upon the...

Translated by Lan Hua The Yu Gong Valley - I Heading into a valley Quite simply traveling With nobody else But Master Li To accompany me Nothing is needed For either of us Except a place to...

One Saturday in Boston, The Beacon of the Bay State. Many people went a'walkin' And came upon a mainstay: Disciples of a Zheng Fa, Falun Xiulian Da Fa. All gathered in a circle, Together for a Hong...

What He and Michelangelo Know "There on the scaffolding reclines Michael Angelo." -Yeats The Hudson’s sunk in this great vale of blue. The Catskill’s hackle bristles in the sky. The setting sun...

Storage Let us lug in more stuff Storage man mumbles hi First year by in a huff Second year wonder why Save dad’s lured fishing hat Mom’s torn wedding picture Worn collar from Push cat Who slept...

I. The greatest writers are the teachers; The paper is their pupil; Each sheet defiantly stretches With a stark blank, diffused will. But, the teacher writes a story To fill minds, however...

One Has To "quod idem in poematis, in picturis usu venit in aliisque complaribus, ut delectentur imperiti laudentque ea, quae landenda non sint" —Cicero One has to keep on striving even when no one...

Momma says you can do it. Fly away, little bird. Momma’s watched over you, fussed And taught you every word. Momma doesn’t know it all; The dangers out there lurk. She taught you to be...

Until He Dies With hollow bones a bird learns how to fly Not once despising frame all delicate, But pushed without the nest his wings to try, Fast finds the air till flight’s inveterate - And pauses...

Confection Connection The girls were bored and at a loss To find a treat that did not cost An arm, a leg, no more a dime They chose confectionary dross They pulled two nickels from the grime And gave...

Hummingbirds How dramatic of thou hummingbird Glides like a cherub through airs curb Precious gems scatter across and fly To sparkle and gleam in our eye How the glistened hummer Unfolds an enchanted...

Oh sad age, how the years will pass us by, Pass us and then our last visions refuse, Refuse us to look on our childhood skies: Oh daughter I am a burden to you, And this vision of mine, oh cherished...

On the Beam At times when my roiled brain becomes serene, I may achieve a state of clarity In which intuitive insight grows keen, As if it were a beacon beckoning me, And then I sense the guidance of...

The water-birds too are fast asleep upon the Great Lakes of the North. Looking carefully, one finds shepherd's purse on a Vancouver sidewalk. The sound of water alerts a weasel to ducks upon the...

If I were dying, would you ask me to stay Until the Divine came to take me away From the Earthly protection of your arms, Ascending as energy, leaving your charms? Would you kiss me tender, say in my...

As Icarus drowns in the deep-green, wine-dark sea, before the white, round fisher happily ensconced and th' extr'ordinary sailing ship embarking, a shepherd, standing near his flock and loyal dog, is...

Unicorns on New Mown Lawns Quintessential qualities quite quickly quantified Each reason for the morning winds that oh so slowly died, Some things are inescapable, and never fade away And some things...

People always offer opinions and advice, As to what you should or shouldn’t do, Though they can barely manage themselves, They seem to know what’s best for you. An old friend offers relationship...

To the Society of Classical Poets, The website you have is great for starting poets. I don’t know what I would have done without your help. I can be called a poet because of your help. May your anthology...

Looking for Your Keys     While trapped between your life and soul. You look for keys to fit the hole, You struggle through your daily pace; In what we call "The Human Race." How much rain must...

‘On The Group Of The Three Angels Before The Tent Of Abraham, By Raphael, In The Vatican’ O, now I feel as though another sense, From heaven descending, had informed my soul; I feel the pleasurable, full...

Zombie Dawning The zombies are coming; no one knows why – no time to ponder such things anyhow. Apocalypse gives us no time to cry. Survival is all we can think of now. They hunt for us in slow,...

The Society of Classical Poets is pleased to announce the publication of its First Annual Poetry Journal, available on Createspace and Amazon.  Below is a preview of the Featured Poets and...

Verse Forms as Evokers of Poetry I wish to dispute the notion that a “poem” arrives in the formal poet’s mind as if it were a compressed computer file, which he or she then expands into the poem...

The simple fruit the body once begot To please the supplicating year’s poor sky, Who pleaded tearful, nor did have a plot For bare escapes the heart could dignify, Lived and lost against the winter...

"Heavenly Hurt, it gives us—" —Emily Dickinson A sunlit chair by Michael John Hunt sits in light, inside a house with open door. It's at a foyer corner—shadowed bits upon the greenish wall and...

The losses of this lifetime in retrospect I see Reflect a downward spiral of a flawed society: can we now recapture a mere morality? Erase euphoric rapture of the imperial ME? Delete from daily...

"How the Chimney-sweeper’s cry/ Every blackning Church appalls…” —William Blake, London “The Beijing Cough may not be as bad as the Hebei Hack." —Wu “Sacred Bee” Li   In...

Elegy for a Blush No more does she show her flower; No more does the maiden cower. Snow-white cheek has turned to tawny. All the lads are looking scrawny. On Her cheek she spread her plume: A roseate...

History There’s a story in every piece of history. Each time I probe into a part of history, I see wars, plagues, triumphs, romances, and conflicts Between the poor and the rich. History inflicts Me...