Poetry

. Knee Jerks When wronged or hurt, the way life works, we all convert to knee-jerk jerks. Our brains react, but do not think. It’s just a fact, our instincts stink. We can’t forget or dare look weak. Our...

. Anthony Comstock: An Extended Dactylic Higgledy, piggledy, Anthony Comstock, the Toughest enforcer of morals to date, Couldn’t stand looking at nude female pulchritude Due to his stern puritanical...

. The Taxman Cometh Get out your Number Two and calculate Your taxable income; what, if anything, You owe. The taxman doesn’t like to wait, And government has to fill its money chest. That hated agency, the...

. The Ten Best Poems to Analyze by Adam Sedia The Roman poet Horace famously set forth the twofold purpose of poetry: to teach and to delight. The sheer aesthetic and imaginative language of poetry is often...

. Outside Chance I hold my heart out in my handpalm up, the same way one might offerseeds to birds. (They’d understandthe danger in the gifts I proffer:As tempting as the snack may be,if once their...

. Old Clem In his novel Great Expectations, Charles Dickens refers to a song sung by blacksmiths at the forge "Old Clem," which plays an important role in the story. It is unclear whether Dickens invented this...

. Third Eye An Ophthalmologic Triptych . The Emergency Room I came because the website told me to, My symptoms glowing dully on the screen, Insisting that I move with much ado. So quickly then I said a prayer...

. Peacemakers Islam is sometimes referred to as the Religion of Peace Go on, won’t you bless the peacemakers— The ones who make peace with the beasts. They think that would take them like Meccans Around...

. Captain Francisco Menendez Born a Mandinga, on Africa’s west coast, Where farm and hunting toil supported most, But tribal spats and small jihads maintained For centuries a brutal trade in slaves, This...

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. Puddleplat Place The pill-popping people of Puddleplat Place, __Were a very unhealthy lot. You could tell by the pained look on everyone’s face __That ‘blooming with health’ they were not. For every...

. . Peaches, Plums, and the Sistine Chapel . . I. Pondering Prufrock   a pantoum  . The women come and then they go As foggy muzzles nuzzle air. There’s talk of Mike and Angelo. Time strides...

. Authenticity Some skies stark and vivid, But others milky white. Sometimes lovely azure skies, Or pale with fading light. Some skies gray and gloomy, Yet others black as night. Skies! Their...

10 Poems on Builders & Buildings by Michael Curtis . Temples and architects, builders and buildings are like poets and poems, each creates rooms, stanzas, within which we and our ideas have life....

. On Me I am a simple Eastern bard __Who moseys by the heather That grows in sweeping fields and loves __To dance in springy weather. I glamourize my hometown great, __Pen tales of grief and love, And avidly...

. Lachrimosa As winter pushes fall aside And birds complete their southward flight I sit and watch the water glide Beneath the old stone bridge at night. The crescent moon, with smile askew, Reflects her...

. The Name We Leave When we first breathe and start to peer, What we will be is still unclear. A book of pages yet unturned Is what we are when we appear. Whether assigned, purloined, or earned, And when a...

. . Maura H. Harrison is a writer, photographer, and fiber artist from Fredericksburg, VA. She is currently an MFA candidate in Creative Writing at the University of St. Thomas, Houston.  Her works have...

. You Can't Control Everything You can't control the wind that blows, The destiny of others' souls, Time and tides and what they bring--- You can't control everything. Blame volcanoes for ash and dust, It...

. Ipse Dixit I say Cogito ergo sum To the animal here in the room. So how do I know I exist? Well, here’s a provisional list: I doubt, and I fear, and I bleed; I attend to a friend who’s in need. The...

. In the Woods by Eduard Mörike (1804-1875) translated from German by Alan Steinle While lying on the grass beneath the leaves, I listen to a cuckoo's mournful song. His melody flows gently out along the...

. Epic poet and poetry video maker Andrew Benson Brown created a bit of excitement with his invented sonnet-haiku or haiku-sonnet published earlier this month---what poet Michael Pietrack has coined as "the...

. Poem 101 by Catullus (circa 84-54 BC) translated by Bruce Phenix Conveyed through many countries, over many seas, to these poor funerary offerings I come to give you, brother, that last present for the...

. Last Visit to the Beach a sestina The beach, untouched by Time throughout the years As millions of waves washed from the sea, As Time transformed me, now no more a boy, Where I would walk each season on that...

. Quilting the News Lots of people still don’t know __that what’s portrayed as “news” is often pieced together to __promote the crafters’ views. Like sculptors with a block of clay, __the crafters...

. The Poet’s Good Pen Take up your good pen. Write only words true. Now open your heart--- Your worth will shine through. Among the spare lines A poet can't hide. Their soul thus defined--- In their words,...

. Crosses and Losses I tried to write a poem to acclaim The passion flashing like a lightning strike Between a man and woman, though the same Return to normal from a single spike. It’s hard to say true love...

. Contagious Joy a villanelle You always find a way to make me smile. Like sunlight tracing rainbows in the rain, Contagious joy is never out of style; The day we wed, when you walked down the aisle, You...

. Vintage Love Love is as a grape when it begins, Unblemished by the bruises and the sins That will come in time. For now it is Refreshing sweetness and delightfulness. Bewilderment accompanies the crush That...

. When? I’ll love you when the bee has lost its buzz, When wolf and bear have quit their howl and growl, When lambs don’t sport a snow-spun fleece of fuzz And hoots don’t float from barns that house...

. . February 14, 2024 A heart of burning love, an ashen cross Converge today: the marriage of two kinds Of love. The feast day is St. Valentine’s--- Which, this year, intersects Ash Wednesday: Eros United...

. Ash Wednesday Valentines by Charles d’Orléans (1394-1465), translated by Margaret Coats . I. Who’s there? Who comes so early, who? “It’s I myself.” Saint Valentine, you! Why turn up now at...

. I Am the Stone I am the stone The humble stone the barefoot shepherd boy Selected from the muddy river bed; The stone which fit inside the sling he made As soon as he was given leave by Saul To fight for...

. The Southern Cross The caravels escaped at last The roiling tides of Bojador And entered tropic seas far past What any chart described before--- __An unknown world to cross. Strange southern seas! Unending...

. Off Switch My brain hurt every time I thought, so then I thought “I’d rather not.” I found the off switch to my brain and thought, “Why turn it on again?” Without my brain, but with my heart, at...

. . Nocturnal Litany I “From all malevolence the night employs….” ---James Agee, “Epithalamium” . From all malevolence the night employs To haunt our ragged hearts and weary brains With bitterness...

. Love Sonnet The glint of summer’s evening leaves a glow upon her cheek, so soft and plain and fair— the glister of the twilight hours show the rosebuds, luminescent in her hair. And all the earth now...

. The Austrian Non Placet Comes in Time (Recess at the papal conclave in Rome, August 1903. One cardinal speaks to a small group of his allies) Two ballots done already. I perceive Things are not going our...

. The Monster Geryon: Canto XVII of Dante’s Inferno by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) translated by Stephen Binns “Behold the stinger tail upon that freak! ____a mythical monstrous king of Spain __He soars...

. The Screaming Screed and Stench Sister Cindy, Brother Jed, Before the cellphone, rumor spread, "They're speaking on the Common, dude, Their testimony's waxing crude!" Pioneer, the sawdust trail, Jed and...