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    • Classical Poetry and the Martial Ethos: An Essay by Andrew Benson Brown

      The Society
      June 13, 2022
      Culture, Essays, Homer, Poetry
      6 Comments
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    • ‘Apollo, Mnemosyne, and Poetry’: A Chapter from James Sale’s Gods, Heroes and Us

      The Society
      May 20, 2025
      2
    • ‘Spring Has Sprung’: A Poem by Roy E. Peterson

      The Society
      May 20, 2025
      8
    • ‘The Poppy’: A Poem by Akiane Kramarik

      The Society
      May 19, 2025
      2
    • ‘Young Catherine’s Vision’ and Other Poetry by Mary Jane Myers

      The Society
      May 19, 2025
      5
    • Cat Poems by Gigi Ryan

      The Society
      May 18, 2025
      16
    • ‘Today Like Yesterday’: A Poem by Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, Translated by Paul Burgess

      The Society
      May 18, 2025
      12
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    • A Line of Shakespeare Poetry Contest

      The Society
      May 8, 2019
      Culture, Education, From the Society, Humor, Poetry, Poetry Contests, Shakespeare
      148 Comments
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    • Winners of Friends of Falun Gong 2025 Poetry Competition Announced

      The Society
      May 13, 2025
      1
    • 2025 Friends of Falun Gong Poetry Competition

      The Society
      March 31, 2025
    • The Best Poems of 2024: Winners of SCP International Poetry Competition

      The Society
      February 1, 2025
      28
    • Winners of 2024 SCP International High School Poetry Competition Announced

      The Society
      February 1, 2025
      2
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      September 29, 2024
      14
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      August 31, 2024
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  • ‘Apollo, Mnemosyne, and Poetry’: A Chapter from James Sale’s Gods, Heroes and Us

    The Society
    May 20, 2025
    Essays, Poetry
    2 Comments
  • ‘Spring Has Sprung’: A Poem by Roy E. Peterson

    The Society
    May 20, 2025
    Humor, Poetry
    8 Comments
  • ‘The Poppy’: A Poem by Akiane Kramarik

    The Society
    May 19, 2025
    Art, Culture, Poetry
    2 Comments
  • ‘Young Catherine’s Vision’ and Other Poetry by Mary Jane Myers

    The Society
    May 19, 2025
    Beauty, Ekphrastic, Poetry
    5 Comments
  • Cat Poems by Gigi Ryan

    The Society
    May 18, 2025
    Beauty, Culture, Humor, Poetry
    16 Comments
  • ‘Today Like Yesterday’: A Poem by Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, Translated by Paul Burgess

    The Society
    May 18, 2025
    Culture, Poetry, Translation
    12 Comments
  • ‘Bonanza’: A Poem by Jonathan Kinsman

    The Society
    May 17, 2025
    Beauty, Poetry
    12 Comments
  • ‘Jargon’: A Poem by Warren Bonham

    The Society
    May 17, 2025
    Culture, Poetry
    18 Comments
  • ‘Going Home to Campania’: A Poem by Patricia Rogers Crozier

    The Society
    May 16, 2025
    Beauty, Poetry
    10 Comments
  • ‘Size Lies’ and Other Poems by Russel Winick

    The Society
    May 16, 2025
    Love Poems, Poetry, Satire
    14 Comments
  • ‘The Water Closet’ and Other Bathroom Poetry by Cheryl Corey

    The Society
    May 15, 2025
    Culture, Humor, Poetry
    14 Comments
  • ‘Eternity’ and Other Love Poetry by Angel L. Villanueva

    The Society
    May 15, 2025
    Love Poems, Poetry
    11 Comments

On ‘Hylas and the Nymphs’ Removal from a British Art Museum and Other Poetry by Bruce Dale Wise

The Society
February 3, 2018
Art, Beauty, Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Poetry
8 Comments
(All poetry by Bruce Dale Wise) Hylas and the Nymphs by Beau Ecs Wilder John William Waterhouse's "Hylas and the Nymphs" must go; enchanting,...

‘A Sonnet Riddle’ by Sharon Zhou

The Society
February 3, 2018
Poetry, Riddles
11 Comments
I’m born from a forked tongue’s hissing mutter, An ungrounded half-truth, forceless and tame. Just like a spark struck from flint I shudder At...

‘The Deer Crossing’ by Ken Allan Dronsfield

The Society
February 2, 2018
Beauty, Poetry
6 Comments
  Sun slowly dipping in the western sky; the winds are light and the pine boughs tossing. From their warm, peaceful beds the meek and...

‘A Robin’s Song’ by Connie Phillips

The Society
February 1, 2018
Beauty, Poetry
6 Comments
  A robin should fly south before the snow, With others in the flocks of migrant birds, Quite safe amid this seas’nal ebb and flow— To...

2018 Poetry Competition Winners Announced

The Society
February 1, 2018
Poetry, Poetry Contests
8 Comments
First Place ($500 Prize): C.B. Anderson, Massachusetts “Stonewalls Sometimes a Prison Make” “Praise for the Mother of Summer”...

‘Thoughts on January 31, 2018’s Complete Lunar Eclipse’ and Other Poetry by Amy Foreman

The Society
January 31, 2018
Poetry
21 Comments
Read about last night's lunar eclipse here. Thoughts on January 31, 2018’s Complete Lunar Eclipse Reflected Glory, full and...

‘The Drunken’ (A Raven Parody) by J. Simon Harris

The Society
January 30, 2018
Humor, Poetry, The Raven
6 Comments
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I wandered, drunk and weary, Over many a quaint and dimlit alley of forgotten doors— While I plodded, barely...

‘The Last Time I Saw Paris’ and Other Poetry by David Whippman

The Society
January 30, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
10 Comments
  The Last Time I Saw Paris You have imagined how it was, I expect: Troy’s famous towers burning, the city wrecked, the lines of weeping...

‘Sort of Old’ and Other Poetry by Heidi Griminger Blanke

The Society
January 29, 2018
Culture, Humor, Poetry
6 Comments
    Sort of Old I take my senior discount at restaurants and stores. I cover up my gray hairs with Clairol reservoirs My...

‘At Lincoln’s Tomb’ and Other Poetry by Adam Sedia

The Society
January 28, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Poetry
11 Comments
At Lincoln’s Tomb Springfield, Illinois, 2016 Be glad you cannot rise to life and stand Outside that tomb to die again from shame At Illinois,...

‘Firing Truman Capote on a Snowy Evening’ by Con Chapman

The Society
January 27, 2018
Culture, Humor, Poetry
9 Comments
Truman Capote was fired from his job as a copy boy for The New Yorker after he angered Robert Frost. Whose kid this is, I do not know, He seems to...

Translation of Dante Canzoni ‘Amor che ne la mente mi ragiona’

The Society
January 26, 2018
Beauty, Dante, Poetry, Translation
3 Comments
By David B. Gosselin The nature of the subject matter discussed in Dante Alighieri’s lyric poetry, his canzoni, has been debated time after...

Rediscovering Percy Shelley’s Greatest Work: ‘Prometheus Unbound, with Other Poems’

The Society
January 25, 2018
Beauty, Best Poems, Culture, Essays, Poetry, Reviews
8 Comments
By Brett Forester Writing but one fine, enduring poem is a remarkable achievement. Writing a book of great poems is an even rarer triumph. Yet in...

‘Stone Walls Sometimes a Prison Make’ by C.B. Anderson

The Society
January 24, 2018
Beauty, Human Rights in China, Poetry
5 Comments
  Stone Walls Sometimes a Prison Make What might have happened once in Carolina To folks whose only wish was for some peace Is commonplace...

‘The Garden of the Gods’ and Other Poetry by Elizabeth Spencer Spragins

The Society
January 23, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
2 Comments
  The Garden of the Gods A Cywydd Llosgyrnog When storm clouds hid the Manitou*, They cloaked invaders from his view: Giants* who...

‘Perked Coffee’ and Other Poetry by Bob McGinness

The Society
January 22, 2018
Culture, Humor, Poetry
7 Comments
  Perked Coffee Things today are bad and getting worse, examples always seem to us abound: service for consumers seems perverse, and music...

Translation of the Iliad’s Beginning by J. Simon Harris

The Society
January 21, 2018
Culture, Education, Epic, Homer, Poetry, Translation
7 Comments
Homer’s Iliad I.1-47. Translation in the epic hexameter, the meter of the Greek. Sing of the wrath, my goddess, of Peleus’ son Achilles, doomed...

‘The Breaking Season’ by Annabelle Fuller

The Society
January 21, 2018
Beauty, High School Submissions, Poetry
9 Comments
  Lips, soft as velvet, primrose pink, Are rent the blue of bruising ink. They rive and crackle in the cold, Retract in tissue paper...

‘On Reading Ginsburg’s “Howl”’ and Other Poetry by Gregory Spicer

The Society
January 20, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Humor, Poetry
13 Comments
  On Reading Ginsburg’s “Howl” Once, I possessed an open mind, Which I assure you was my own. I used it to read Ginsberg’s...

Review: What Is Shen Yun All About?

The Society
January 19, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Essays, Human Rights in China, Music, Performing Arts, Poetry, Reviews
42 Comments
By Evan Mantyk Advertising for it is everywhere. If you haven’t seen it, you just haven’t been paying attention. A brilliantly colored image...

‘On President Trump’s First Year in Office’ and Other Poetry by Evan Mantyk

The Society
January 19, 2018
Deconstructing Communism, Humor, Poetry, Riddles
16 Comments
  On President Trump’s First Year in Office An earlier version of this poem was published with an explication in The Epoch Times. In Donald...

‘The Old Westerns’ and Other Poetry by Linda Imbler

The Society
January 18, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
  The Old Westerns No more heroes on horses named Trigger No more rugged, chapped, white hatted figures The bad guys today do not always...

‘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...

‘The Oddity’ and Other Poetry by Mark Stevick

The Society
January 16, 2018
Beauty, Humor, Poetry
2 Comments
  The Oddity My pen and me set off to sea but washed up feeling useless; the cadent swell invoked a spell and story of...

‘Dreams as a Child’ and Other Poetry by David Hollywood

The Society
January 15, 2018
Beauty, Poetry
8 Comments
  Dreams as a Child Remember our lives in dreams as a child, When tingled excitement tickled inside, Surging in giggles which shivered our...

Essay: The Wit of William Cowper

The Society
January 14, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Essays, Humor, Poetry
17 Comments
By James A. Tweedie These days, William Cowper (November 26, 1731 - April 25, 1800) isn’t likely to be found on anyone’s list of “Top Twenty...

‘Glacier’ and Other Poetry by Francis Flavin

The Society
January 13, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Humor, Poetry
6 Comments
  Glacier Sleeping mistress of the land, Whose long repose the ages span, We tread across your fissured gown Until we find in looking...

‘To Winter’ by David Gosselin

The Society
January 12, 2018
Beauty, Poetry
17 Comments
When Horae's icy carpets sweep the dale And the heavy boughs shed their frozen tears, The earth is covered with her icy veil And mortals lashed...

‘A Great Divide’ and Other Poetry by Joe Tessitore

The Society
January 11, 2018
Beauty, Deconstructing Communism, Humor, Poetry
8 Comments
  A Great Divide "...to form a more perfect union" I walk to the edge of a great divide and I try to talk with the other side but they do...

‘The Night When Heaven Cried’ by Sam Gilliland

The Society
January 10, 2018
Beauty, Poetry
19 Comments
  I have been here before, when heaven cried, All my love and longing locked up inside, Where the green grass glowed in the falling...

‘The Filtering of English in Iran’ and Other Poetry by Bruce Dale Wise

The Society
January 9, 2018
Culture, Human Rights in China, Poetry
4 Comments
(All poetry by Bruce Dale Wise) The Filtering of English in Iran by Delir Ecwabeus "...nor did anything terrify the people so much as those...

‘Jax Beach 1950s’ by Lucy Giardino Cortese

The Society
January 9, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
3 Comments
  Beauties sashay across the sand Norma Jean look-a-likes hand in hand Times before bikinis and thongs Transistor radios blaring...

‘Whenever Terror Strikes’ and Other Poetry by André Le Mont Wilson

The Society
January 8, 2018
Beauty, Poetry, Terrorism
Whenever Terror Strikes Whenever terror strikes, wherever death enshrouds the land, its people live in fright of crowded places. Masses hold...

‘Where Have the Roses Gone’ by Leonard Dabydeen

The Society
January 7, 2018
Beauty, Poetry
5 Comments
Where have the roses gone from my garden? Look how those left freeze in cold winter wind; Nothing I can do nor ask for pardon To save the lovely...

A Sonnet for the Feast of the Three Kings (with Audio) by Joseph Charles MacKenzie

The Society
January 6, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Readings
16 Comments
Sonnet XLI - Gifts of the Magi A grander throne than Solomon’s of old, Though wrought of rough-hewn wood and winter hay, Received the royal...

‘Winter Wore a Raiment White’ and Other Poetry by Neal Dachstadter

The Society
January 5, 2018
Beauty, Humor, Poetry
6 Comments
  Winter Wore a Raiment White Winter wore a raiment white, Checkered blue as snow in shade, As he worked, amid the leaves, In the Autumn...

‘Why Add to the Suffering?’ by Daniel Magdalen

The Society
January 4, 2018
Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Poetry, The Environment
4 Comments
  Nature’s pillars, which have borne Earth’s breath for ages, Are now crumbling into dust... Still, more keep falling, Shattered by our...

‘The Exclusive Inclusive’ and Other Poetry by Ron L. Hodges

The Society
January 3, 2018
Deconstructing Communism, Humor, Poetry, Short Stories
4 Comments
  The Exclusive Inclusive I heard about a tender troop, Whose commission was to give Love like a ministry serves soup; They seemed, oh, so...

10 Greatest Poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The Society
January 2, 2018
Beauty, Best Poems, Culture, Essays, Poetry
51 Comments
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (born February 27, 1807 - died March 24, 1882) was an American poet of the Romantic period. He served as a professor at...

‘Lights’ and Other Poetry by Connie Phillips

The Society
January 1, 2018
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
4 Comments
  Lights The shining Santas smile in silver sleighs, With dazzling reindeer poised on roofs, midair; The phosphorescent elves stare in a...
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  1. Russel Winick on ‘Size Lies’ and Other Poems by Russel WinickMay 20, 2025

    Yep. Thanks Adam.

  2. Paul Burgess on ‘Today Like Yesterday’: A Poem by Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, Translated by Paul BurgessMay 20, 2025

    This is fascinating. Thank you for sharing! I really like the approach you have taken to translating these lines.

  3. Paul Burgess on ‘Today Like Yesterday’: A Poem by Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, Translated by Paul BurgessMay 20, 2025

    I meant to say "iambic hexameter" in my translator's note. Thank you all for pointing out the mistake. I will…

  4. Cynthia Erlandson on ‘Young Catherine’s Vision’ and Other Poetry by Mary Jane MyersMay 20, 2025

    “Where God’s light permeates the commonplace” — what a beautiful concluding line for your ekphrastic poem! Your second poem, as…

  5. Joseph S. Salemi on ‘Apollo, Mnemosyne, and Poetry’: A Chapter from James Sale’s Gods, Heroes and UsMay 20, 2025

    This is a well-written and compelling chapter from what must be a top-notch text. You give a thorough and carefully…

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