Poetry

. The Good Samaritan Scene: The road between Jerusalem and Jericho. It is now three days since a good Samaritan has left an injured robbery victim in the care of an innkeeper. Your wounds are healing? Good. No, please don’t speak. Just have some wine. Fear not. You cause no...

. Serious Poetry Serious poetry, somber and grim; Dashing, descriptive, with narrative flair. Formal and versified; Rhythmic and dignified; Romance and rhetoric; ribald and prim. Taking you places while curled in your chair. Serious poetry, rhyming each line. Sonnets, rondeaus, villanelles, triolets. Explosive hand-grenades; Sharp-witted razor blades. Dangerous, edgy, designed...

. Equal Schmequal   The traits of men were glibly mocked __By those who thought men strange--- Those who thought the world half-cocked __ And fought for chop and change--- All those who chose to rise and rail Against the rock and role of male--- __‘Twas time to rearrange The natural order of the...

. The Tech Addict’s Lament As I take one more hit of electronic cocaine, I snort a fresh shot of noise into my brain And feel the cacophony’s endless refrain Charging at me like a runaway train. I collapse on the floor, and I think, “What a drain! I’d love...

. 1960s Soap Operas “Soap operas,” they called them. Housewives watched Them while they sewed or cooked or ironed clothes. At two o’clock each afternoon began The sleazy saga to which mom attached Attention, sympathizing with the woes Of characters unlike her, who would plan Adultery or revenge. She sat...

. Green Energy with apologies to Dr. Seuss I do not like green energy Don’t subsidize it, AOC. I do not like it in the dark, My solar panels will not spark. I do not like it with no breeze, Wind generators tend to freeze. I do not like green...

. Sonnet 89 I passed her on the footbridge (underneath, the cars rushing pell-mell to Hades’ mouth). Backwards flowed time then as I scoped her face: lineaments of smack; thin, whorish, thief up for the morning from the blighted south, Hartcliffe or some such godforsaken place. I watched her back...

. Elysium O golden hour, soft denouement of day, O mystic time of quietude and peace, When boughs and rushes whisper as they sway, Twirled by the sighing zephyrs’ soft caprice; When, fallen from his blinding noonday height, The dimmed, declining sun, departing west, Immerses all in glowing, golden light---...

. A Woodstock for China You sit within a public Chinese bus, And out the window: buildings, concrete, dust, Which all are perfect—life is simply thus. You stare with shining eyes, soft-spoken trust. A face so ruddy, beard and hair unkempt, The locals turn to stare—once, twice, again. Guitar appears,...

. Uncontrolled When my behavior needs to change, __But I can’t make that be, Such lack of self-control seems strange, __And I’m ashamed of me. Sometimes the angst I feel inside __Was planted long ago, And all success that time’s supplied __Can’t counteract back flow. . . Two Forms of...

. Bergerette by Marguerite de Navarre (1492–1549), translated by Margaret Coats O shepherdess, my friend,On love alone I live.True love is life’s true end,My heart can comprehend,And therefore I intend_My love unceasingly to give.O shepherdess, my friend,On love alone I live. Love lends me confidence,Grants conscience calmer sense,Builds patient competence,_Forms...

. Lay of the Oak I now recall a lay for you, A Briton’s tale of love made new. A humble knight rode through light morn, Until dark clouds made blue skies mourn. Lost he was soon in a dreadful storm, Fair Summer turned to dark---forlorn. Dismounted then, the knight...

. Vicente el Bisonte (Vincent the Bison)  Vicente el Bisonte used to live in Mexico He said, “I do not like it here, it’s time for me to go. For lunch they give me Bison Chow, Purina mixed with hay, I’m penned up in the nighttime and I’m watched throughout...

. Fire on Ice How shall I serve my anger up to you? Shall I become like one most distant star Burning intensely, far from where you are, Incinerating---infinite degrees Made a mere twinkling to the earthly view--- Till, when its light has reached you from afar, By then, my...

. Ill-used I’ve been ill-used, no other word will do; pristinely packaged, sanitised and new a month ago I stood upon display till someone paid to carry me away. Once home, he placed me in a cup whose rim was chipped and whose interior was grim. Upon a shelf, inside...

. Congratulations and Homage to Giorgia Meloni Italy rises up and overthrows The stench of leftist tyranny at last. Rage among the EU’s pooh-bahs grows— They realize that their heyday is now past. Thwarted will, hurt pride, and disbelief Send quaking scum in Germany and France Into apoplectic fits of...

. The Last Detail Two cocksure, loud–mouthed lads one day set out, Intent on catching perch. “No,” Jim said, “trout.” The hole they headed for neither one knew: All for adventure, they sought someplace few Of their acquaintances had been before. “It’s just five hundred yards from Sandy Shore,” Said...

. Sex in the English Garden Light, feathery Astilbe Sways gently in the breeze Afraid she always will be Faint fluff beneath the trees Concealing dear Sweet William, Who rings each foxglove’s bell Mid coreopsis ruffles, While lily, like a shell With deeper inner meaning, Disdains to join with them;...

. Sentimental Song A pad and pen lie by his side __This moonless night of fall. And though he tries to hush his pride, To only see the tears she cried, His hands refuse to breach the wall, __A pithy line to scrawl. His mind, in angst, replays the day...

. Cruise Control? based on a real incident in San Francisco on April 1, 2022 (though not an April Fool's joke) A well-mannered Cruise driverless-car Drove light-less, but didn’t get far. Its empty seats were perused, By cops in their cruiser, confused: No driver to argue or spar! The well-mannered Cruise driverless-car Bolted...

. The Recollected Dream When midsummer rain is spearing From storm clouds darkest grey That provide no hint of clearing To reveal the blue of day, The scent from marshland grasses Permeates each breath of air That summons as it passes, Winged creatures from their lair. Then the wattled spur-winged...

. This photo comes to us from Joshua C. Frank of Texas. Write an ekphrastic poem based on it and post it in the comments section below. . .

. What I Learned from Tolkien The darkness comes and all seems bleak and wrong, My calm is rent, right burdens can’t be borne And Evil holds an iron grip so strong It seems it must prevail. With all hope torn, The path ahead seems lost in storm and murk....

. Milking the System We waited, we have waited, and we wait. Delays continue to increase the cost Of doing business.  Every magistrate Can understand the hours and dollars lost But yet cannot, according to the Law, Provide a satisfying remedy. It doesn’t matter what they really saw, Or how...

. Illusion At times we can’t tell what we’re looking at. It could be this or else it could be that. A beautiful young woman? Or old hag? Do lines run parallel or zig and zag? Two silhouetted faces face-to-face? Or is it just the outline of a vase? And is...

. Carcassonne by Gustave Nadaud (1820-1893) Translated by Joshua C. Frank “At sixty years, I’m getting old, And I’ve been working all my days Not being able to behold Fulfillment of my wishing gaze. I see that life on earth is filled With perfect happiness for none. My wish, it...

. . The Night When most have fled the day and sought their beds Pre-empting stealthy onset of the night; When every corner holds its store of dread And the courage my soul held has taken flight; When my eyes can’t see past the evening veil Nor the eerie shadows...

. StairWell Canto 10 extract 2 Context: In the 10th Canto of HellWard we met 4 poets condemned to Hell. Now in the 10th Canto of StairWell, we meet another 4 poets stuck in Purgatory. This extract takes us to meet the fourth poet in the sequence of meetings, which...

. Wanton Wandering Winds Those wanton wandering winds, my darling fair, Whose western currents comb in several ways And lose themselves within the marvellous maze Of locks luxuriant that you loosely wear; So sigh upon your silken sable hair A breeze as yet unboiled by summer rays, That its slight...

. Paracelsus Creating man demands not much: Combine the four base elements In right amounts; the lodestone’s touch At once should jolt him into sense. First Earth, in greatest quantity: For what is flesh but sculpted clay That feigns a crude nobility, Then quickly shrinks and wastes away? And most...

. To a Cloud  You’re a pillow of marshmallow. You balloon and bob and billow As I sprawl beneath the willow __On the grass. You’re a swish of whitest feather. You’re awash with hues of heather. You’re a whisper of wild weather __As you pass. You’re a starlit stratus wonder. You’re a moon-kissed nimbus under Luna’s spell before Thor’s thunder __Wages war. You’re a splash upon my brolly. You’re a dash of fuzzy folly. You’re that woolly wisp of jolly __I adore....

. Last Place Winner after winning the 30-34 age group with a last-place finish in a 5K Inhaling frozen oxygen, he rounds The final turn. No cheers, just muffled sounds. He barely wobbles ‘cross the finish line And checks the lit-up numbers on the sign. Nobody else is coming, there...

. I. Lefties, in fact, are cool with using guns. Their Mayakovsky howled The floor is yours, Comrade Mauser! as they came for the sons of their serfs, knocking grimly on their doors. What leftists won’t put up with are the guns We have, who are to shut up and obey, Ceding...

. Mid-September Reverie from the book Eternal Spring Moonbeams at midnight and frost on the pole; Wind in the willows to tickle the soul; Roses in gardens still share their perfume; Peonies offer the last of their bloom. Squirrels grab the acorns to store in their nests. Baking a pie...

. The Odyssey Translator's Note: The Odyssey, Book 1, which exemplifies an essential feature of Homer's art as a storyteller, the way he composes the books of his epics as wholes, each with its own beginning, middle, and end. by Homer (circa 8th century BC) Translated from Greek by Mike...

. The Salt Spring Island Trolls I have a boat In Fulford Bay. She does not float To my dismay. She lies forlorn Upon the shore, Ragged and torn To sail no more. An invalid All full of holes, Inhabited By empty souls. A home for sand fleas, Obsolete. Her...

. Obedience by Giuseppe Gioachino Belli (1791-1863) translated from Romanesco by Joseph S. Salemi It’s not true, Christians, what you have been told— That you need endless patience to obey. Obedience gives great rest to man, I say. That’s why the custom of obeying’s old. Listen: God blessed and joined...

. An American Tragedy In his mind the purple walrus __mutated to a bat, its unstable form evolving __till it became a cat. "Old cat," said he, "you frown at me, __it seems you are annoyed." "I am your mind," the cat replied, __"it's I, you have destroyed." "This is...

. The Beginning of Wisdom Within the passing noon of our own life, I saw through woodlands dark and traces grim, Those words upon the graven arches rim, Whose clarity compounds immortal strife. They claimed their maker was that power divine, The highest wisdom and the primal love, Who makes and...

. In Silence I Sing for those affected by the Mill Fire, September 2022 Uplifted to God as with wings of a bird In silence I sing without music or word. Though once filled with praise I no longer rejoice, For grief has consumed me and silenced my voice. No...