Poetry

. Meeting Xu Zhimo by Margaret Coats Three Chinese girls behind me in the line Escape King’s College Chapel evensong; They show a phone, ask where, at once decline Sought-after seats, to rush away...

. . Download "Longfellow's Bridge" on your favorite music app HERE. . Longfellow’s Bridge (Lyrics) lyrics by Gunny Markefka, inspired by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem (after lyrics) I stood on the...

. I Hear the Distant Thunder I hear the distant thunder rolling__Across the nighttime sky.Incendiary lightning strikes__Of fire are drawing nigh.If I can keep on writing, it__May be by candlelight.I must...

. . Little Boy Blue . Original Version Little Boy Blue, come blow your horn, The sheep's in the meadow, the cow's in the corn. Where is the boy who looks after the sheep? He's under a haystack, fast...

. . Driven from Their Homes Deported and despised. Compelled to leave. 900,000 driven from their homes With pain enough to fill one-million tomes--- And yet they are forgotten. Will none grieve? . Morocco,...

. The Latest Gender Identity He’s fat, but he identifies as skinny, Insisting everybody call him “Mini.” He now, of course, considers “slim” his gender, And must henceforth be referenced as...

. Cape Canaveral’s Pioneers Asleep I wonder if the lights across lagoon Waves, little though they are, the lights and waves, Portend some goodness underneath the moon Like new moon light on marble...

. The Universal Horoscope and Zodiac Twelve figures in the blazoned zodiac Set by the gods in their unchanging track Spin in a regulated, yearly round Until an infant’s primal, wailing sound Puts an end to...

. The Song of Everlasting Sorrow Tang Dynasty poet Bai Juyi (772-846) wrote this poem about Tang Emperor ("Son of Heaven") Xuanzong (685-762) and his famous concubine and former Taoist nun Yang Guifei, who is...

. In Spring 2024, UK poets Jeff Eardley and Peter Hartley crossed paths with American poets James A. Tweedie and Margaret coats in England. . . The Day That I Met Jim by Jeff Eardley The rain was horizontal...

. Winter into Spring Sonnet The garbage dump outside the town is white as winter’s snowfall claims the castoff chair from autumn’s cluttered leavings, hid from sight in drifts, the broken dinette set left...

. Book Reviewed: Legends of Liberty Volume II by Andrew Benson Brown, Bard Owl Publishing, March 2024 by Theresa Werba Andrew Benson Brown has created a continuation of his Revolutionary War historical mock...

. Admonition It is a form of madness To long for days of yore. And bitter is the sadness O'er those who've gone before. Now we, ourselves, must wander The dark Stygian shore And cross the river yonder, But...

. Poetry Is Warfare A poem is the writer’s battle pleaAgainst asceticism’s barren call.Truth and beauty (air that poets breathe)Needn’t acquiesce to Adam’s fall.A poem with its structure,...

. On the 80th Anniversary of D-Day Humanity once more is under threat,when eighty years ago a Western frontwas opened up at Normandy to getanother foot in Europe’s door, then hunt down fascists who...

. Today My Brown Sedan Is Two Today, my brown sedan is two, But I behave as if it's twenty, So freezing by a showroom's door, I scan the models—new; aplenty. And busy with an old dollop Of mud, there goes...

. To a Cicada So, welcome back, you ancient thing! Some time ago, your tribe took wing; But here you are again, my friend, These summer nights with me to spend. Some may have thought you'd left for good, But...

. Under the Umbrella inspired by “Le Parapluie” (“The Umbrella”) by Georges Brassens (1921-1981) Rain fell in waves throughout the street; A woman walked with no umbrella. I offered mine; in voice real...

. The Harmonies of Holst While doing errands, driving roundabout, I listen to the classic music station. An orchestra plays a courtly lyric song. What can it be? I know it well, but how? Perhaps a ballad...

. . They Say Somebody Said This; It Must Be True! Some people love to share with you news they’ve been told, but may not know all juicy details. They’ll ask, “Do you know more stuff? What have you...

. The Figure Skater Across the frozen way, stamping, sprinting, faster as hurried steps display something that she'll master her body starts to sway faster, ever faster. Wind and its turbulence eddying over...

. Before Checkmate “Tis all a Checker board of nights and days Where Destiny with men for Pieces plays: Hither and thither moves, and mates, and slays, And one by one back in the closet lays.” ― Omar...

. The Witch Hunt I’ve been a lawyer for a long, long time And seen a lot of things that shouldn’t be--- Like rape and murder; every type of violence But now I’ve seen the worst---a made-up crime: A...

. Finding the Crime “Show me the man and I’ll find you the crime” ---Lavrentiy Beria, Head of the Secret Police under Josef Stalin Every blue-state AG and each Soros DA now let dangerous criminals just...

. At Dorr Point Our far too brief excursion about to cease,We walked the woods to Dorr Point—one last partingImmersion in resuscitating peace.But what we witnessed at trail’s end was startling:Jangling...

. Selling Short The winter wind’s a shot across your brow, An addend to the sense of deficit You wrestle with inside the here and now. You’re happy only in the preterit Or future tense—because you hate...

. A Formalist Walks into a Bar... “Dear barkeep, give me something most unsweet,I like my drinks with an astringent bite.And please forego the rocks and make it neat,My sorrows this nepenthe soundly...

. Upon Learning of Trump's Conviction _America is big;__Does things in style:Like setting up a President__And rigging his trial. _America is small;__Does things with guile:No charge against the...

. Phone Home I often talk to radio astronomers, The kind of guys who like to stay anonymous, Who chew on reams of stellar data every day From objects, many million, zillion miles away. In England’s fields,...

. God Knows Tomorrow’s torched and trampled on the street. __We hear the battle cry Of demons dancing to the Devil's beat __As truth and faith run dry. The skies are scorched with ever-rising heat __As hope...

. Leopold and Loeb Or, the Consequences of Ideas A Frenchman’s thought-experiments Argued by Englishmen until A German stripped pure thought from sense; A second then conceived the will; And last, a third...

. Out Walking I hear the heath alive to free A heart from hearthside reverie, _And with my rambling feet __Start out in stealth, Intent on sunnyside-up health _And daybreak flurry fleet. Let’s shake...

. A Tiny Tabby Beside our garden’s scalloped fence, where English Ivy’s vines are dense, we viewed an unexpected sight; a mini tiger, gold and white! This morning’s new, bewildered guest, abandoned here...

. The Devotee She moves from one devotion to the next, From this beloved statue to the text Of some obscure or justly famous saint Who’s good at whatsoever her complaint Parochial or personal may be That...

. I Saw a Naked Wood Nymph I sat down in the forest, a picnic in the shade. I saw a naked wood nymph flitting across the glade. I dropped my sandwich there laying on the ground. I went to chase the wood...

. Rising with the Sap You would not call them blocks, those obscure streets Where people live. Their driftings trace the hem Of Manchester. I drove there once at dusk My windows down, in the sleepy perfume Of...

. Surviving Caligula Setting: Caligula’s Palace, the Palatine Hill, Rome Date: 23 January 794 Ab urbe condita (41 A.D.) The Matter: A Praetorian Guard contemplates Rome’s future under the Emperor...

. Love and Vipers for Harrison Butker, the football player criticized for supporting traditional views of women in a commencement address How hated you are for proclaiming love---Not just your own, but love...

. Memorial Day, 1984 2024 “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”  ---George Orwell Today we honor those who gave their all In monstrous conflicts in the name of peace; Those who...

. The First and Usually Unspoken Rule of Great Writing The greatest rule of writing is to tell A truth, the truth if possible, within The scope of lines set out, to sound the knell Of honeyed feelings, not...