‘Stream’ and Other Poetry by Leland James The Society January 19, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Villanelle 4 Comments . Stream Above the bend, the water deep and clear, the current strong; seen from the Buckman Bridge, ten minutes walk for me, my cabin near, through pines down from a timeworn granite ridge —a lofty...
‘The Inca Kings’ and Other Poetry by Siham Karami The Society January 8, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Villanelle 2 Comments . The Inca Kings Who stole the kings? Even Pachacutec's mummy now is gone from Lima's hospital display of Inca royalty—the T-Rex of them all, ferocity turned brittle bones and shrunken body in a...
Four Poems on Writing, by C.B. Anderson The Society October 22, 2020 Beauty, Culture, Humor, Poetry, Villanelle 22 Comments Vocations Always there are things we should be doing; Others, though, are better left unfinished. Also, there are ends well worth pursuing; Likewise, goals that leave a wight...
‘Those Unknown’ by Camille Cechini The Society August 21, 2020 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Villanelle 15 Comments a villanelle My heart goes out to those unknown, Whose life by Time’s cruel hand erased, Their ravaged, riven, nameless stone. Shattered, lost, grass o’ergrown, No date to tell when coffin...
‘We Came Together With An Open Mind’ by James Allan Kennedy The Society August 15, 2020 Poetry, Villanelle 17 Comments a villanelle We came together with an open mind No crass intolerance or blinkered view Is it too much to ask us to be kind? The streets in which we children played were lined With generosity, and we all...
‘Dear Editor’ and Other Poetry by Susan Jarvis Bryant The Society June 5, 2020 Culture, Humor, Poetry, Villanelle 36 Comments Dear Editor, My odes are grandiose and overblown With pudgy gluts of stodgy adjectives In floods of flabby babble prone to drone, All topped with tired, archaic additives. Forsooth, methinks the...
‘Hummingbird Communion’ and Other Spring Poetry by Susan Jarvis Bryant The Society May 20, 2020 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Villanelle 54 Comments Hummingbird Communion I watch them play at dawn of day, as molten gold is splashed their way, on feathers flecked with flashing green and rubies fused in morning’s beam, where sleepers dream and...
Poetry from the 2020 Coronavirus Quarantine The Society April 17, 2020 Covid-19, Culture, Humor, Poetry, Villanelle 44 Comments Mayor Rules Chocolatier "Essential Business" by Mark F. Stone Our craving for chocolate is serious. Deny us and we will be furious. Withholding confections could alter elections for mayors in ways...
Two Poems on the Coronavirus by Evan Mantyk and Damian Robin The Society February 27, 2020 Covid-19, Deconstructing Communism, Human Rights in China, Poetry, Villanelle 7 Comments From Some Nightmarish Vial a villanelle by Evan Mantyk Did it emerge from some nightmarish vial? Is it a weapon meant for killing us, Like marching microscopic rank and file? If so, it’d sweep...
‘The Mortal Eyes’ by Emmanuel Flores, LC The Society February 11, 2020 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Villanelle 2 Comments a villanelle The mortal eyes in time shall wilt away, as fast as breath retreats its kiss from glass, but delight they will on the endless light of day. We never had enough of dawn’s array, of...
‘To You, My Wife’ and Other Poetry by Angel L. Villanueva The Society January 16, 2020 Beauty, Culture, Love Poems, Poetry, Villanelle 8 Comments To You, My Wife a villanelle To you, my wife, my love I declare, My joy and gain, a gift to me blessed, A morning flower of beauty and flair! O flesh of mine, this heart you repair, Whenever...
‘Palimpsest’ and Other Poetry by T.M. Moore The Society December 27, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Villanelle 8 Comments Palimpsest ...written in their hearts... Romans 2.15 We try, but cannot fully scrape away those ancient words engraved upon the soul. We would instead compose upon the scroll of our morality that which...
Hiding Behind a Mask: Five Poems by Anna J. Arredondo The Society December 12, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Villanelle 17 Comments Intruders Beware If you but knew what weakness lies concealed Within this adamantine outer shell— What woes, what worries I'm too proud to tell; If you but once should tiptoe past this...
A Villanelle and Video by Joseph Charles MacKenzie The Society November 5, 2019 Beauty, Love Poems, Poetry, Readings, Video, Villanelle originally published on MacKenzie Lyric Poetry Oh, run with the sun and the wind in your hair! Before the day-star sets in the west: Love flowers best in the wide, open air. Behold! The noon-tide waxes not...
‘Doublespeak Denial’ by Susan Jarvis Bryant The Society October 16, 2019 Culture, Humor, Poetry, Rondeau, Villanelle 20 Comments Doublespeak Denial Rondeau Redoublé “Gender mattered a whole lot less to Shakespeare than it seems to matter to us.” —John Irving If I don’t care for words you have to share (a pitch which...
‘Dodgeball’ and Other Poetry by T.M. Moore The Society October 9, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Humor, Poetry, Villanelle 28 Comments Dodgeball "But we have the mind of Christ." 1 Corinthians 2.16 Sometimes my thought-life is a dodgeball game— except that I’m the only one on my side of the line—and when at length I try to launch...
‘Let Flow’ by Sathya Narayana The Society September 16, 2019 Beauty, Poetry, Villanelle 4 Comments a villanelle Ye let it flow, the bitter brine, let flow! How long you hold it back, those snowy streams! Don't stop their course, until they touch your toe! Your past congealed as solid misery and...
‘The Loan’ and Other Poetry by Benjamin Daniel Lukey (with Audio) The Society July 11, 2019 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Readings, Villanelle 7 Comments A reading of the below poems by the poet: The Loan a villanelle This life we hold so dear is but a loan. For good or ill, its balance must be spent, For life is not a thing that we can...
‘That I Might Learn to Love’ and Other Poetry by Jeffrey Essmann The Society March 30, 2019 Beauty, Love Poems, Poetry, Villanelle 18 Comments That I Might Learn to Love a villanelle That I might learn to love I sorely prayed with hopes that God might teach me by romance as yearning I the empty sky surveyed. Yet lovers marched in cumbersome...
‘Villanelle of the Wicked Queen’ by David Whippman The Society March 19, 2019 Culture, Poetry, Villanelle 9 Comments I am a captive of the wicked queen. My mind’s a blank; the temptress took my soul. I know too well what this desire must mean. And oh! The evil beauty I have seen. Though loving her must...
‘Let Them Go’ by Mickey Kulp The Society December 5, 2018 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Villanelle 13 Comments a villanelle Be still now and let them go. Their trials and losses fade away. Briefly, they were yours to sow. Children stumble, cry, and grow. They are young and so they stray. Be still now and let...
‘I Journey On’ and Other Poetry by James A Tweedie The Society July 21, 2018 Beauty, Poetry, Villanelle 16 Comments a villanelle The sun descends into the silent sea. As shadows lengthen in the fading light I journey on to seek what yet may be. As death from life yearns to be free, And grief seeks comfort in the...
‘Tulip Tree in Bloom, January’ and Other Poetry by Tim J. Myers The Society May 16, 2018 Beauty, Humor, Poetry, Villanelle 38 Comments Tulip Tree in Bloom, January Every working day I pass a tulip tree on yellow grass and strain to see, when it appears, petals out this time of year. Even our southern winter's strong-- it...
‘How Can We Know?’ and Other Poetry by Caroline Bardwell The Society April 17, 2018 Beauty, Poetry, Villanelle 19 Comments How Can We Know? A villanelle How can we know where we go when we die; Pondering signs, looking up at the sky, Wondering if Someone's hearing my cry? Which religion is right, which one a lie? Too...
‘The Maid of Orleans’ and Other Poetry by Nicky Hetherington The Society March 22, 2018 Culture, Poetry, Riddles, Villanelle 10 Comments The Maid of Orleans A villanelle on Joan of Arc As I gazed at the flames of the fire my heart, with all there that day, broke – such strength could not help but inspire. A young woman burnt as...
‘Statues’ and Other Poetry by Charles Bauer The Society March 19, 2018 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Villanelle 24 Comments Statues A Villanelle Two Buddhas now a lost reality, A crowd chants loudly near a pile of stone; Across the South you won’t find General Lee. The temples fell despite UNESCO’s plea And ISIS’...
‘New York Villanelle’ by Michele Herman The Society January 17, 2018 Culture, Humor, Poetry, Villanelle 2 Comments We New Yorkers love our real estate. We measure our bliss by the size of our rooms. We all need a place to park our freight. We apartment hunt on our first date in vacated spaces swept with a broom New...
‘Let My Footstep Strike the Ground Like a Spear’ by Nathan Dennis The Society October 20, 2017 Beauty, Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Poetry, Villanelle 6 Comments Let My Footstep Strike the Ground Like a Spear A Villanelle Let my footstep strike the ground like a spear Hear me bound through the groves of Sicily Drawing power from an Earth soaked in...
‘Beneath Brambles’ and Other Poetry by Karen Shepherd The Society September 19, 2017 Beauty, Poetry, Villanelle 6 Comments Beneath Brambles A villanelle Beneath the tangled brambles, look around. Vines creeping, smothering, create the dark. A trillium insists her bloom be found. Canes strangle, branches slip to ghastly...
‘A Communist Specter Haunts the West’ by Adam Jon Miller The Society August 22, 2017 Deconstructing Communism, Poetry, Villanelle 1 Comment A Villanelle “The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it.” —George Orwell From the first green grass we navigate— Through days & nights of wake...
‘George and the Dragon’ and Other Poetry by Sue Vincent The Society August 14, 2017 Beauty, Culture, Humor, Poetry, Villanelle 6 Comments George and the Dragon In the Yorkshire dialect “Nah, sithee,” said Granny, “Just set thee dahn ‘ere, An’ I’ll tell thee a tale old and true, Of ‘ow good Saint George slew a dragon one...
‘Gazing above Daily Cares’ by Daniel Magdalen The Society August 4, 2017 Beauty, Poetry, Villanelle 10 Comments A Villanelle To breathe the beaming silence of the sky I long, when dawn’s chill wakes my eyes, and see The oft-unseen yet boundless peace on high. When slumber’s velvety dim moments die, Pale...
‘After the Peloponnesian Wars: a Microcosm’ and Other Poetry by James B. Nicola The Society July 23, 2017 Poetry, Villanelle 1 Comment After the Peloponnesian Wars: a Microcosm A Villanelle At last I grasp what I could never get: As long as man has heart, hope can exist. Doom’s not your only master, then. And yet for years I...
‘Déja’ and Other Poetry by Phillip Whidden The Society June 16, 2017 Art, Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Villanelle 19 Comments Déja Do you remember when a piece of art Held truth or meaning in its oil or stone— And beauty even? Paintings would impart Aesthetic truth and not just some sweet tone Of glowing like a...
‘Emily’s Lament’ by E.V. Wyler The Society April 29, 2017 Culture, Poetry, Villanelle 2 Comments A Villanelle My grandma smiled as I walked in the door pretending to overpower her pain because I came ... to see her once more. Black-and-blue I.V.-bruised arms, stiff and sore, rose to...
‘Sonnet for an Arabian Autumn’ and Other Poetry by Diane Woodcock The Society March 2, 2017 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Villanelle 1 Comment Sonnet for an Arabian Autumn After William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73 This time of year you will in me perceive When all things green take on their second growth, The sun at last agrees to a...
‘Says Simon Cowell (A Villanelle)’ and Other Poetry by Agnes Bookbinder The Society February 16, 2017 Beauty, Culture, Humor, Poetry, Villanelle 1 Comment Says Simon Cowell (A Villanelle) “Which came first, the egg or fowl? This is what I’d like to know.” “Who cares?” says Simon Cowell. (Not so much “says” as speaks in growl) I...
‘The Speaker Unaccustomed to Such Oratory Feats’ and Other Poetry by Wendy Bourke The Society January 3, 2017 Beauty, Humor, Poetry, Villanelle 7 Comments The Speaker Unaccustomed to Such Oratory Feats The speaker - unaccustomed to such oratory feats - cleared his throat, a bit too loudly, while he fumbled through his sheets. The crowd sensed, early...
How to Write a Villanelle (with Examples) The Society October 19, 2016 Education, Poetry, Poetry Forms, Villanelle 10 Comments by Dusty Grein Hailing from 15th and 16th century French and Italian roots, the villanelle is arguably one of the strongest repeating refrain forms in classical poetry. Related How to Write a Sonnet How...
‘If You’re a Beggar, Be a Chooser Too’ and Other Poetry by Courtney Dowe The Society August 10, 2016 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Villanelle 7 Comments If You're a Beggar, Be a Chooser Too (Villanelle) If you're a beggar, be a chooser too, For less is more and more can be a curse. The world will offer anything to you. You must discern the useful from...