Henry Olunga Reads Susan Jarvis Bryant’s Poem on Toxic Masculinity The Society March 24, 2022 Culture, Poetry, Readings 20 Comments . https://youtu.be/LRxFaGgdazE Our Worthy Sons dedicated to Samuel by Susan Jarvis Bryant Our worthy sons should never be ashamedOf who they are and who they’re meant to be.For far too long men’s gender...
A Poem in Honor of Bishop Athanasius Schneider, by Karen Darantière The Society March 24, 2022 Culture, Poetry 3 Comments . Ode to Salmon, the Episcopal Fish a poem in honor of Bishop Athanasius Schneider No birdsong greets the chilly damp of dawn In dreary gray autumnal cloud-filled skies, As rosy salmon swim upstream to...
Rhyme Two Random Words Poetry Challenge The Society March 23, 2022 Humor, Poetry, Poetry Challenge, Poetry Contests 46 Comments . Your poem can be serious, silly, or something in-between. List the “random words” you chose as your poem’s title and feel free to use whatever poetic form you’d like. Then post the poem in the...
‘Dispiration’ and Other Poetry by James A. Tweedie The Society March 22, 2022 Culture, Humor, Poetry 19 Comments . Dispiration I have nothing to say, Not a thought in my head. If I needed to pray There would be nothing said. Just a large empty space And no functioning brain, With the mouth on my face Filled with nothing...
‘Not What He Thinks’ by Russel Winick The Society March 21, 2022 Humor, Poetry 19 Comments . Not What He Thinks All my success An old friend said Has clearly gone Straight to the head. I’ll grant that, but Judged by chagrin It’s his head my Success is in. . . Rachel Dolezal Poor Rachel had a...
‘The Street Cop’s Choice’ and Other Poetry on the Police, by Brian Yapko The Society March 20, 2022 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Triolet 32 Comments . The Street Cop's Choice Thanks for coming home to help me choose. I know my kids will always have my back. Today was rough. By now you’ve seen the News--- Such blatant lies! They’ve tied me to the...
A Tribute to Leonard Dabydeen (1948 – 2022), by Satyananda Sarangi The Society March 19, 2022 Beauty, Poetry 22 Comments . Tribute to a Poet for Leonard Dabydeen, an SCP poet who passed away on March 16, 2022. Read Leonard Dabydeen's poetry here. I gaze for long at star-filled skies __To feel the crumbling fears; I see the world...
‘Love Letter to a Spoon’ by Leland James The Society March 19, 2022 Humor, Poetry 5 Comments . Love Letter to a Spoon How fine thou art my silver spoon. Your neck as graceful as a swan. Your hips full as the harvest moon. Thy manner gentle as a fawn. Bright curls of finespun filigree Like rays of sun...
‘Dueling Violins’ by Tamara Beryl Latham The Society March 18, 2022 Beauty, Culture, Music, Poetry 11 Comments . Dueling Violins Yanni, Karen Briggs and Shardad Rohani live at the Acropolis in 1993 Anticipating each half-note he brings to life, her fingers stretch to find the grooves. Perfection springs, as sound is...
A Poem for Saint Patrick’s Day: ‘Slàinte!’ by Susan Jarvis Bryant The Society March 17, 2022 Culture, Humor, Poetry 26 Comments . Slàinte! Today we’ll lift the Lenten limitations And don our Gaelic garb of kelly green. Bonhomie and glee and lush libations Will flow at dawn and dusk and in between. We’ll pluck a harp and pick a...
Share Your St. Patrick’s Day Poetry (with Music by Jeff Eardley) The Society March 17, 2022 Beauty, Culture, Music, Poetry 15 Comments . Happy St. Patrick's Day! Share your St. Patrick's Day Poetry in the comments section below. While writing and posting, enjoy an Irish medley of songs, “Chief O Neil’s” followed by “The Red-Haired...
‘Heights of Passion’ by David Watt The Society March 16, 2022 Beauty, Poetry 22 Comments . Heights of Passion Passion flowers white and purple Bloom where tendrils curl and cling To the overhanging myrtle Sheltering my garden swing. Scents befitting distant tropics Catch the senses...
Two Poems on the Departed, by Sally Cook The Society March 15, 2022 Beauty, Poetry 38 Comments . Berenice for my mother, Berenice Stone Cook Indebted to a simple spark of life, You missed your chance at Europe’s wondrous door. A conscientious mother and a wife, You danced your dance upon an inland...
‘On Sighting a Marsupial’ and Other Poetry by C.B. Anderson The Society March 14, 2022 Beauty, Culture, Humor, Poetry 16 Comments . On Sighting a Marsupial "Serve with: Turnip greens" —Joy of Cooking Opossums are so ugly that it isn’t clear Another of their kind would find one good to look At. Matted fur and hairless tails do not...
Two Poems for White Day, by Margaret Coats The Society March 13, 2022 Beauty, Culture, Humor, Love Poems, Poetry 20 Comments . Two Poems for White Day On White Day, March 14, men in Japan present white gifts to women, in return for the chocolates they receive from women on Valentine’s Day. White Day began in 1978 as a commercial...
A Poem for Daylight Savings 2022, by Norma Pain The Society March 13, 2022 Culture, Poetry 17 Comments . Time Is of the Essence The powers that be in their ivory tower, Make important decisions for sure, While the rest of us mortals surrender our power, We conform… we adapt… we endure. I refer to the...
‘A White Knight’ and Other Poetry by Phil S. Rogers The Society March 12, 2022 Beauty, Poetry, Triolet 3 Comments . A White Knight a triolet With fires of hope and spirit bright, who will stand up for what is just thence set our country all alight with fires of hope and spirit bright? A hero true, a great white knight a...
‘A North Indian Summer’ by Rohini Sunderam The Society March 11, 2022 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 19 Comments . A North Indian Summer They ask of me to write a sonnet fine In praise of Summer and her pretty dress, But I hail from a place of different clime Where Summer’s heat knows best how to oppress. She raises...
Three Poems on Jewish History, by Brian Yapko The Society March 10, 2022 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Rondeau 43 Comments . The Arch of Titus The Arch of Titus was constructed in 81 AD by the Emperor Domitian to commemorate the victory of Titus and Vespasian, over the Jewish rebellion in Judea. The arch depicts the triumphal...
Comparing Translations of Charles d’Orleans, by Margaret Coats The Society March 9, 2022 Beauty, Essays, Poetry, Rondel, Translation 34 Comments . "I Heard Chapman Speak Out Loud and Bold" by Margaret Coats My title quotes “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer,” a sonnet by John Keats. When Keats first read Homer, the voice he heard was not...
‘Captured’ by Lucia Haase The Society March 8, 2022 Beauty, Poetry 8 Comments . Captured As Herbert writes in Love-joy there’s a view of grapes upon a vine. But mine is this- the perfect blooms of summer that renew by our Creator’s hand. Each one its own as you or I beneath a...
‘Hermes, The Artisan’ by Cheryl Corey The Society March 7, 2022 Culture, Humor, Poetry 6 Comments . Hermes, The Artisan Hermes, son and messenger of Jove, Surveyed the coast, where often he would rove, And found a tortoise beached upon a cove. He took it home and made a turtle soup— The shell, he...
‘Young Strongbow’: An Anonymous American Ballad Presented by Jack DesBois The Society March 6, 2022 Culture, Music, Poetry, Readings, Song Lyrics 7 Comments . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaAv09XqwAY . Young Strongbow anonymous American ballad (Words in parentheses are alternate lyrics suggested by other extant versions of the song.) To Dartmouth’s...
A Poem on the Proverbial Uptight Librarian, by Joseph S. Salemi The Society March 5, 2022 Humor, Poetry 32 Comments . Prudence Huntleigh, Head Librarian theme of “the proverbial uptight librarian” suggested by Brian Yapko She mans the front desk and she oversees All borrowings, returns, and two-cent fines. A tailored...
‘Yet Another Exhibition Opening’ by Shaun C. Duncan The Society March 5, 2022 Art, Culture, Poetry 16 Comments . Yet Another Exhibition Opening "Art is the pleasure of a spirit that enters nature and discovers that it too has a soul." ---Auguste Rodin Although this bourgeois slum is flush with cash, No decent man could...
‘Ex Nihilo Is a Joke’ by Phillip Whidden The Society March 4, 2022 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 3 Comments . Ex Nihilo Is a Joke “. . .it starts with an empty universe” ---Stephen Fry, Cosmos, vii An empty universe is paradox. In such a boundless space there’d be no time. Among all other blanks there’d be...
‘Justification’ and Other Poetry by Russel Winick The Society March 3, 2022 Culture, Poetry 20 Comments . Justification He smashed the windows, grabbed the wares, With rage against society That made him free of any cares Or thoughts of impropriety. He stole until his pockets filled The chance of apprehension...
‘Seeing the Light’: Three Poems by Susan Jarvis Bryant The Society March 2, 2022 Culture, Pantoum, Poetry, Triolet 43 Comments . Seeing the Light by Susan Jarvis Bryant . I. Peace Be with You… a pantoum “Peace is possible, truth at all costs.” ---Martin Luther The churchyard cat is terrified The belfry bats are numb with...
‘Little to Regret’ by David Watt The Society March 2, 2022 Beauty, Love Poems, Poetry 20 Comments . Little to Regret When Time has stilled my body __Think of me now and then, Asleep beneath the wattle, __Which flowers yet again. And as the summer follows __With rays I cannot see, Let the warmth embrace...
2022 FoFG Poetry Competition The Society March 1, 2022 Human Rights in China, Poetry, Poetry Contests . Introduction Today, the communist government of China, the world’s largest nation, is attacking the basic freedom of thought and belief that have been a cornerstone of human civilization throughout...
‘Pergola’ by Andre Wilson The Society March 1, 2022 Beauty, Poetry 13 Comments . Pergola My vines entwined around your posts and beams of weathered wood the sun had silvered gray. My trunk extends its arms, your trellis teems with viridescent leaves throughout the day. The hungry...
A Poem for Mardi Gras Travelers, by Ben Broussard The Society February 28, 2022 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 10 Comments . Memento, Homo… "There is no architecture in New Orleans, except in the cemeteries." —Mark Twain If we should go to New Orleans We’ll see our share of raucous scenes At Mardi Gras soirees and balls With...
‘The Poem that Built a Nation: Finland and the Kalevala’: An Essay by Adam Sedia The Society February 28, 2022 Culture, Epic, Essays, Poetry 13 Comments . The Poem that Built a Nation: Finland and the Kalevala by Adam Sedia Nowhere perhaps is the power of poetry more apparent than in its ability to unite a culture---literally to build a nation. Homer’s epics...
‘Trudeau’s Canada’ and Other Poetry by Norma Pain The Society February 27, 2022 Culture, Humor, Poetry 17 Comments . Trudeau’s Canada Jab them all, Big and small. Small are buffer And must suffer. No opinions, Little minions. Cover traces Of their faces, With a mask, Do not ask. Issue orders Across borders. What the...
‘Beneath the Tide’ and Other Pacific Northwest Shoreline Poems by James A. Tweedie The Society February 27, 2022 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 16 Comments . Beneath the Tide The tidal basin ebbs and flows each dayAs if it were a sentient, breathing thing—A pas de deux, a moon-dance interplay—As time and space, in silence, sway and swing. As like a fraying...
‘Salieri on Mozart’ by Brian Yapko The Society February 26, 2022 Beauty, Culture, Music, Poetry 26 Comments . Salieri on Mozart More wine, Signore... Should I say mein Herr? I know! French cognac. Spirits help me share Dark thoughts. Now listen. I take one full year To pen these operas Kaiser Josef lauds; Then you...
Share Your Poetry on the Russian Invasion of Ukraine The Society February 26, 2022 Culture, Poetry 245 Comments . Many poets have been sending in poetry on Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Post your poetry directly...
‘Spring’ by Morrison Handley-Schachler The Society February 26, 2022 Beauty, Poetry 2 Comments . Spring The Spring is coming and each day Earlier falls dawn’s curtain grey Before the star-enchanted world Where, in each other’s limbs fast curled, As Venus, our directrix, bade, In many acts our masque...
‘From the Tower’ by Francisco de Quevedo, Translated by Elwin Wirkala The Society February 25, 2022 Beauty, Poetry, Translation 6 Comments . From the Tower by Francisco de Quevedo (1580-1645) | translated from Spanish by Elwin Wirkala Retired to these deserts and at peace, and with but few, though learnèd, books beside, I live conversing now...
‘Because He Could Not Jump’ adapted from Lewis Carroll’s ‘The Pig’ by Beverly Stock The Society February 25, 2022 Culture, Humor, Poetry 7 Comments . Poem Introduction Lewis Carroll (who lived 1832-1898 and was born Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) was a master at humorous wordplay and making the illogical logical. His accomplishments as an English writer of...