Poetry

. How to Write Contemporary Poetry a pantoum in free verse composition keep letters lower case. dump classical tradition then cite the marketplace. keep letters lower case make use of ampersands then cite the...

. Learnin’ Letters I wanna learn me letters Ma, I wanna learn ta read. If I can learn me letters Ma, We’ll ‘ave the things we need. An’ when I grows ta be a man, I’ll be a proper gent, Discussin’...

. The Antiques Buyer Meets His Match "What's the best you'll do?" I asked; __“It's nice, but needs some work... and parts for these, as you may know, __are sometimes hard to find!” “If you don't like...

. Ex-Freedom of Speech In fact, most liberals don't support free speech today, And often see a need for censorship instead. They claim “misinformation” causes broad decay, So free speech ends if they...

. Ponzi Your promises mean nothing if they lack fidelity.  It grieves a man to hear such welcome words, then have them taken back without the least regret before a year has passed.  I thought our future was...

. Old Orphan They’re over on my dresser, simply framed And looking 1940s fresh and young. There’s something to them holy and unnamed, Some song inside them waiting to be sung. And I their youngest, young...

. The War on Children “I quoted some Scripture, I said that there are only two genders. And apparently, because there are transgender students in the class, this was considered bullying.” ---Josh...

. The Last Night That We Met in memoriam CQD, Halifax, February, 2001 We gripped hands awkwardly. I’d grasped your shoulder To say goodbye, and, that cold winter night A month before your death, you asked...

. The Leprechaun Come mid-March, the leprechaun Glides up and o’er the rainbow, Playful as a unicorn That’s prancing in a meadow. With greedy eyes glimmering, And shim’ry as a peacock, He slides to...

. "The Lark in the Morning" is a traditional Irish song performed on classical guitar by poet and professional musician Jeff Eardley: . . Jeff Eardley lives in the heart of England near to the Peak...

. Freedom Convoy Song To bravely speak is to turn on the lights, __To silence darkens all of our debate; Yea, We the People know free speech unites __What foreign censorship did separate. The former, it is our...

. St. Jerome’s Cicero Obsession based on St. Jerome’s letter to his disciple St. Eustochium in Rome, A.D. 384 When I was young and foolish long ago, I traveled to Jerusalem alone To fast and pray away from...

. Beatrice Smiles: Canto XXXI of Purgatory by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) translated by Stephen Binns “You, on the other side of the sacred river,” __Lethe __she called to me, and sharply to the point,...

. Θαλῆς 2.0 In days of yore, Thales, the famous sage, Went out on a stargazing walk and fell Straight down an overlooked and vexing well. A passing woman mocked him: “At your age You ought to know...

. The Sea Cliffs Imposing, somber, motionless they stand, Like ranks of rugged soldiers primed for war, They stand where they have always stood before Through generations—guardians of the land. In dark...

. Britomart and Marinell In Edmund Spenser's epic poem, The Faerie Queene, Britomart is a female knight who represents the virtue of chastity.  Marinell is a knight whose mother has prophesied that he...

. The Scottish Gourmand A culture-rich country which lay to the east where we were invited to conference and feast from Cuba to China, and some of the rest they bade them here gather and money invest for...

. Winter Sunset Gnarled, naked boughs, shadowed skeleton arms Stretch in despair and agony. They frame Like barbed-wire twists the western sky aflame Red-orange, ember-glow that no longer warms--- The blasted...

Pastoral Calls—Part 2 of 3 . Face-to-Face A weeping woman called me on the phone And said, “My daughter’s in the county jail. They will not let me see her on my own She’s charged with murder with no...

. The Number 17: Ondine and Lucien’s Great Adventure;  Or, The Kind that Can Float from The Bus Poems: A Tale of the Devil, currently in preparation. Now this is a tale of two very good friends; They lived...

. The Very Best Business by Giuseppe Gioachino Belli (1791-1863) translated from Romanesco by Joseph S. Salemi First I was a gardener (a disaster), Then a bookseller. I made even less. So did I change my...

. El Melon There is a maze or map on melon skin Even the blind could read and seek to solve. A little girl watches the housewives, deft, Touching the head shapes swiftly, one by one, Until they somehow know...

. Poet Tree Legacy: The Saga Begins is a 14-chapter narrative poem. In this excerpt, the adolescent hero Abelbee, who has to venture deep into the Great Wood to find wise Vallenbee, arrives at...

. Why Strike? With prices high and living standards low, Our times are like what our grandparents knew. They fought world war; we slave for war abroad And soon will labor through retirement too. We export...

. Farinelli A thousand thanks, Martini, for your visit. Bologna is a town of balladeers. You’ll love it! Now I wonder, how long is it Since we both quit Madrid? Ah! Twenty years Since I last sang before the...

. Lean on Him after Ecclesiasties We labor long beneath the sun. Forgotten soon by everyone. We come from dust and end the same, Depart this life just like we came. It’s all just chasing wind...

. Gossip “There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, that it hardly becomes any of us to talk about the rest of us.” ---Edward Wallis Hoch Its spice, its ire, its hot...

. Evolution I can’t run fast or jump high anymore. Mistakes I make I never made before. Some maladies and aches don’t have a cure, Alertness and reflexes are less sure. My memory is challenged on most...

. Homeric Hot or Not (Hotness Ratings Out of 10) . 10 By birth divine and radiantly tressed And beautiful and of a charm possessed That turns men into pigs if she’s inclined, A better girl than Circe none...

. Before Going to Sleep as a Boy I saw Him when I closed my eyes, Gazing down sidelong, seeing all, Serenely, stoically wise. I knew that judgement was to fall But found His habit was to look Past me—a...

. Ruben “We have words that speak of the ongoing presence of such privations: orphan, widow, widower. And perhaps the fact that we have no word for the parent who has lost a child is itself a testimony...

. Civics 101 Jejune excuses used too many times Do not undo the doer from the deed: A miscreant accused of many crimes Is not the type of model children need. A partisan devoted to a cause Who votes his...

. Of When I Lived in Prague--- I wander through a maze of gold and stone, Mosaic pavement watched by gilded faces; Bridges, towers etched with cryptic traces Of bygone kings that haunt a bygone throne. I...

. Eulogy for a Them We gather here to celebrate a him Or her (an it? a they?) and in the end A prophet of the present who could bend Reality to suit their loosest whim. For whatsoever they had been or...

. Screened. I. The Phony Mom a true story Her phone, in hand above the stroller, Blocked her baby from her view. She held it like a game controller, Adoring every pixel’s hue As mothers not so long...

. Peach Blossom Dreaming Peach blossoms furnish inwrought dreaming room Intangible to fingertips corrupt; __Substantially beyond each tapered petal’s plume Flow fragrances to subtly interrupt The wintry...

. Spring Shower How beautiful the rain– The cool and cleansing rain! I watch as tiny rivulets Run down my window pane And countless glad and golden drops Renew the earth again. How tender is the rain! With...

. Born in a Wuhan Lab Newsflash: U.S. Energy Department says it was probably a lab leak. Those men in suits and labcoats thought it worth The lives of millions from their ivory tower To falsify the truth...

. ABOUT THE CONTEST Many poets who have been published by the Society of Classical Poets have had their poems linked to, and therefore promoted, by the news aggregator Whatfinger over the years. The people who...

. The Piano Student Glissandos flow like rivers from the keys, One by one, you slide with practiced skill And let us hear some hidden melodies, Delighting in these notes that lift and thrill. When you play...