Poetry

. A Petless State after Katherine Philips' A Married State, 1664 A house with pets affords but little grace. The best of dogs or cats destroy the place. Note when you visit friends you can detect foul odors,...

. Congratulations to Society of Classical Poets Member Paul A. Freeman who won the Queen's English Society Poetry Competition. His winning poem was "An Apple for Geoffrey Chaucer." Read the official...

. My Brother in Galilee I had a fearsome dream---I saw my friend -- My teacher-brother---nailed onto a cross. I wept with sorrow at my brother’s feet. He said his mother henceforth would be mine. Unearthly...

. A Leftist Rebukes Hamas Hey, Hamas, you silly dolts, You need to mow down more adults. Keep fighting for your patch of sand, Since Jews do not deserve the land, But chopping off their babies’ heads And...

. Autumn Winds have Come Again Autumn winds have come again, Whistling wafts are dithering, Trees are shedding leaves like rain, Garden vines are withering. Looking from my window sill Out into the snowy...

. Epiphany It stays in your memory like a pealing bell, A smallish thing, an unimportant fact— The mute suggestion of a random act. What do I speak of? Listen, I shall tell: A kindness from someone you...

. Trump in Asia the carp glows in dark waters, remembering the time that Trump fed him . . White House Advent Melania walks in her orchard of glass fruits her Christmas forest . . Monika Cooper is an...

. Autumn in Pennsylvania in 2023 In response to Susan Jarvis Bryant’s poem on "Autumn in Texas" If Autumn is a bummer down in Texas, Up north it casts forth some contrasting hexes. Fall has befallen us in...

. Two Bugologues . Moth Onto a wall in chilly gloom I fold myself, all silk and dust, and then, from half across the room, the candle flickers: Come. You must. I am well past my crawling days when, wingless,...

. Homage to the Cultural Contributions of Native Americans Columbus bumped into this wondrous land— Out of his ships came a little band To offer up thanks on the golden sand. Chris found three things that...

. Uninvited Guest A man came by my house one day. I smiled and said he couldn’t stay. He smiled right back and said “OK,” but then he didn’t go away. Instead, he walked right through my door and put...

. The Number 235: The Fall Sludge in extremis  ‘Twas on the 235 at Feltham Station, It happened in the very recent past, That Sludge began to think about salvation And how he really ought to find it...

. A Psalm of Lament So says the Lord: A voice is heard on high, lamentation, bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children, she refuses to be comforted for her children for they are not. ---Jeramiah 31 In...

. Sacandaga I go, I go to the lake so blue, Tree-lined shore in autumn hue. This place, my heart, my Shangri-la-da— The deep blue lake of Sacandaga. The morning dawns upon the scene; Its peace replaces...

. One of England’s best-known poems, “Kubla Khan,” was written by Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834). Waking from an Opium-induced dream, he was 55 lines into this epic when he was...

. Ode to the Cello Fingered strings upon the cello Vibrate by the moving bow. Autumn tones in red and yellow Echo from the to and fro Through the eight-shaped box’s hollow, Out the narrow, curving...

. For Israel Under Siege Imagine that you live in fear of violent Acts of terror daily---bombs may kill Your friends and family---all you love grows silent As hatred of the Jews makes more blood...

. The Man in 2C I’m trying not to make too much of this, But someone in 2C (the floor below) Has walled himself within an edifice Of waste, a rank malodorous abyss In which he sits as insects skitter...

. Morning Witness To greet the dawn, I crossed a meadow green, still blanketed in jewels of morning dew. I sat upon a rock, still and serene, and watched the sky transform from black to blue. Even before the...

. Not Alexa's President a pantoum on the news story here “The real risk with AI isn't malice but competence.”  —Stephen Hawking Alexa says election fraud took place. She says the 2020 vote was...

. It’s All for Show The Big Guy’s going to build a wall. He’s going to build it strong and tall "Because," he says, "we cannot leave Our border leaking like a sieve." He used to say, “It isn’t...

. The Cabin _Atop the plateau’s rise, __I’m homeward bound, When sights familiar strike my eyes. Come with me---see the scenes I've found. _Turn right off highway 8, __Mount Pleasant Church, Then left,...

. Blocked Though honeyed breezes warm the marble halls on Mount Parnassus, vainly do I search for writing on my January walls— molasses clogs my veins.  A different church, perhaps a fresh sodality of...

. The Lowest Heaven: Canto III of Paradise by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) translated by Stephen Binns The sun which with first love had warmed my breast ____Beatrice __now showed, in her reproving, proving...

. Winter Storm in May A High Sierra snowstorm passes through, Injecting winter into springtime May; As frozen fluffs of ermine drift into A world remade in black and white and gray. The once-blue sky anneals...

. Village Home after George Enescu's Orchestral Suite no. 3, “Villageoise” Along the tree-lined lane he walks at dusk; What brought him here, he cannot now remember. The chilling breeze, the scent of pine...

. Hybrid and Wild All of her life had a meaning, Each section in its compartment. Tenants went through a close screening— Somehow, I got the apartment. She was a prickly old lady— I, a rambling young...

. Introduction This long lyric of short lines has pairs of stanzas linked in rhyme. It is a sequence honoring Gilbert of Sempringham (1083–1189, canonized 1202), founder of the Catholic Church’s only...

. Late Changes Though older people may proclaim __That they intend to change, One should by no means find it strange __If they remain the same. . . Reunion Conversations with dear, old friends sharing Key...

. The Song of the Woman Who Bled Mark 5:25-34 When you have no more money you can spend, Then men will tell you, “You cannot be cured.” Though Jesus makes it better in the end, First tribulation has to be...

. Season of Gall and Sticky Listlessness Autumn is upon us here in Texas. Her shy arrival’s destined to perplex us. Just like the voiceless aria of Spring, Fall’s muted presence doesn’t change a...

. . Massacre of the Innocents Matt. 2:18, 10:28, 18:10; Psalm 116:15; 2 Mac. 7:29 Why are the fish and fruit stands closed today— Too many soldiers, stationed all around. My God, they’re pulling out...

. The Fairy Godmother for Susan Jarvis Bryant The fairy sings so far away and lifts My spirit, day by day through fading light; With every word well measured, clear inspite Of distance, space and time. The...

. The Idealist Who Became an Ideologue a rondeau redoublé To heal the world he treasured this ideal: Unite the many into one great whole. He preached the view that truth is what you feel, Convinced he played...

. Writers of the Purple Sage What happened to the music? The writers of the West? The legends of the cowboys? The songs I loved the best? The outlaws and the posse? Please tell me where they went? The ones who...

. Autumn Summons The wind carries the leaves, And leaves the colors bear; The field prepares the sheaves That hold the sun ensnared. The leaves the colors bear; The colors hold the song That cooler grows the...

. Victimhood & Narcissism . I. The Joy of Grief “To have a grievance is   to have a purpose in life” ---Alan Coren I bleat and beef with no relief. The joy of grief has served me well. I’m...

. Wood a pantoum It’s only furniture. But that’s both truth and lie. To find Mom’s treasured things a loving new address is near impossible, no matter what I try. Her home’s impending sale exacerbates...

. Ode to the Strings of My Guitar I How still you sleep, oh strings of my guitar, As if you did not feel the faint caress Of my soft finger, shaped to form a bar; I wish to wake you with a gentle press, So as...

. The 23 Best Haiku of 2023 Winner and Runners-up of the Society of Classical Poets 2023 Haiku Competition Judged by J. Thomas Rimer and Margaret Coats (see their remarks below) See all...