‘The Jeweler’s Deposition at the Coroner’s Inquest’: A Poem by Joseph S. Salemi The Society July 23, 2023 Culture, Poetry 30 Comments . The Jeweler’s Deposition at the Coroner’s Inquest I certainly will tell you what I can. I knew the family—watched her growing up. Take it for...
‘The House on 58th Street’: A Poem for Father’s Day, by Joseph S. Salemi The Society June 18, 2023 Beauty, Blank Verse, Poetry 26 Comments . The House on 58th Street for my father Salvatore J. Salemi (1913-2008) The house on 58th Street stood right by A cemetery—Calvary by...
‘Contract Murder’: A Poem by Joseph S. Salemi The Society June 3, 2023 Blank Verse, Culture, Poetry 17 Comments . Contract Murder No one is ever quite sure how it’s planned— What’s clear is that a grievance is expressed By injured parties, who directly...
Poetry As The Philosophers’ Stone: An Essay by Joseph S. Salemi The Society May 12, 2023 Essays, Poetry 44 Comments . Poetry As The Philosophers’ Stone by Joseph S. Salemi The alchemical art, though long in disrepute, is nevertheless of great antiquity. ...
‘Byron Swims the Hellespont’ by Joseph S. Salemi: A Reading by Andrew Benson Brown The Society May 6, 2023 Culture, Poetry, Readings, Video 8 Comments . If you enjoy this video from Andrew Benson Brown's Classical Poets Live, please click on "Watch on YouTube" and then press like and...
‘La Pompe Funèbre’: A Dramatic Monologue in Poetry by Joseph S. Salemi The Society April 17, 2023 Culture, Poetry 24 Comments . La Pompe Funèbre Félix François Faure, President of the French Republic, died on February 16, 1899 in his chambers at the Palais de l’Elysée,...
‘Cryogenic Freezing’: A Poem by Joseph S. Salemi The Society April 10, 2023 Culture, Poetry, Satire 35 Comments . Cryogenic Freezing from the conclusion of A Gallery of Ethopaths Let’s end on a deathly note To grab my readers by the throat. When ethopathic...
‘The Very Best Business’ by Giuseppe Gioachino Belli, Translated by Joseph S. Salemi The Society March 9, 2023 Culture, Poetry, Satire 12 Comments . The Very Best Business by Giuseppe Gioachino Belli (1791-1863) translated from Romanesco by Joseph S. Salemi First I was a gardener (a...
Three Poems of Mortality, with Candles, by Joseph S. Salemi The Society February 19, 2023 Beauty, Poetry 32 Comments . Officium Defunctorum Spiritus meus attenuabitur, dies mei breviabuntur, et solum mihi superest sepulcrum. —Job 17:1 There is no need for first...
Transgression, Fake and Genuine: An Essay by Joseph S. Salemi The Society January 23, 2023 Essays, Poetry 40 Comments . Transgression, Fake and Genuine by Joseph S. Salemi When Henry Harland and Aubrey Beardsley brought forth their groundbreaking periodical...
‘I Met a Shepherdess’ by Guido Cavalcanti, Translated by Joseph S. Salemi The Society January 8, 2023 Essays, Love Poems, Poetry, Translation 22 Comments . I Met a Shepherdess by Guido Cavalcanti (c. 1250-1300) translated by Joseph S. Salemi I met a shepherdess in a small copse. More beautiful than...
‘The Tartini Tones’ by Joseph S. Salemi The Society December 18, 2022 Beauty, Culture, Music, Poetry 26 Comments . The Tartini Tones Combination tones generated by violins of good quality can be easily heard, affecting the perception of the intervals. The...
‘Pope-Lion’ by Giuseppe Gioachino Belli, Translated by Joseph S. Salemi The Society November 30, 2022 Culture, Poetry, Satire 8 Comments . Pope-Lion by Giuseppe Gioachino Belli (1791-1863)translated from Romanesco by Joseph S. Salemi Before Pope Genga went down to the grottoTo be four...
Henny and Sal: An Essay by Joseph S. Salemi The Society November 14, 2022 Education, Essays, Poetry 12 Comments . Henny and Sal by Joseph S. Salemi My father, Salvatore J. Salemi, was a noncommissioned officer in G-2 (Military Intelligence) during the Second...
‘Shroud-Eater’ by Joseph S. Salemi The Society October 30, 2022 Culture, Poetry 18 Comments . Shroud-Eater The undead Shroud-Eater, or mâcheur de suaire, is not as well known as the vampire, but is just as horrifying. He prowls...
An Essay on John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, by Joseph S. Salemi The Society October 20, 2022 Culture, Essays, Poetry 24 Comments . John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester: A Restorative from the Restoration by Joseph S. Salemi John Wilmot, the Earl of Rochester, stands out because of...
‘Congratulations and Homage to Giorgia Meloni’ by Joseph S. Salemi The Society September 27, 2022 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 61 Comments . 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...
‘Obedience’ by Giuseppe Gioachino Belli, Translated by Joseph S. Salemi (with a Long Note) The Society September 13, 2022 Culture, Essays, Humor, Poetry, Translation 16 Comments . Obedience by Giuseppe Gioachino Belli (1791-1863) translated from Romanesco by Joseph S. Salemi It’s not true, Christians, what you have been...
A Conceit or Just a Similitude? Two Brief Illustrations from Sir John Suckling, by Joseph S. Salemi The Society August 25, 2022 Culture, Essays, Humor, Poetry 13 Comments . A Conceit or Just a Similitude? Two Brief Illustrations from Sir John Suckling by Joseph S. Salemi One of the earliest things one learns in poetry...
‘Byron Swims the Hellespont’ by Joseph S. Salemi The Society August 6, 2022 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 43 Comments . Byron Swims the Hellespont On May 9, 1810, Lord Byron swam across the Hellespont from Sestos to Abydos to duplicate the legendary back-and-forth...
‘Creativity, Originality, and Eccentricity’: An Essay by Joseph S. Salemi The Society July 22, 2022 Essays, Poetry, Shakespeare 38 Comments . Creativity, Originality, and Eccentricity by Joseph S. Salemi I don’t know why it should be so, but I have a propensity to attract the attention...
A Translation of Horace’s Barine Ode, by Joseph S. Salemi The Society July 11, 2022 Culture, Love Poems, Poetry, Sapphic Verse, Translation 20 Comments . Quintus Horatius Flaccus, Odes, II.8 “The first thing we learn about Barine is that she is in the habit of making and breaking promises (of love...
‘A Glass for My Father’ by Joseph S. Salemi The Society June 19, 2022 Blank Verse, Culture, Poetry 20 Comments . A Glass for My Father Marie-Maurille de Virot, Mademoiselle de Sombreuil (February 14, 1768—May 15, 1823) My father was the Marquis de...
‘Three Poems on Problems’ by Joseph S. Salemi The Society June 4, 2022 Culture, Poetry 26 Comments . Servant of the Servants of God Servus Servorum Dei —a title of the Pope A small informal gathering of clergy From satin cassocks down to the...
‘Satan’s Limericks on the Seven Deadly Sins’ by Joseph S. Salemi The Society May 15, 2022 Culture, Humor, Limerick, Poetry 19 Comments . Satan’s Limericks on the Seven Deadly Sins Sepulchrum patens est guttur eorum; linguis suis dolose agebant: venenum aspidum sub labiis...
‘Crank Out a Few, Please’: Observations on Poetic Composition by Joseph S. Salemi The Society May 3, 2022 Education, Essays, Poetry 22 Comments . Crank Out a Few, Please by Joseph S. Salemi Many years ago, when I was in graduate school, I attended a seminar on Vergil’s Eclogues. These are...
‘A Clamshell in Concrete’ (and a Short Note) by Joseph S. Salemi The Society April 8, 2022 Beauty, Blank Verse, Essays, Poetry 24 Comments . A Clamshell in Concrete I was a child in kindergarten class. My mother held my hand as we trod on The sidewalk leading to the boulevard. This was...
Three Poems on Language by Joseph S. Salemi The Society March 28, 2022 Beauty, Blank Verse, Culture, Poetry 20 Comments . The Hypodermic For a poet, the pen is merely part Of the apparatus of addiction. He emulates the frozen fly in amber Watching eons come, roll by,...
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...
A Valentine: ‘To a Girl Named Olivia’ by Joseph S. Salemi The Society February 13, 2022 Beauty, Blank Verse, Love Poems, Poetry 19 Comments . To a Girl Named Olivia What shall I say to you of untold love In this more than empty space that lies between Our two selves wound in tongue-tied...
‘The Crucifixion of the Serpent’ by Joseph S. Salemi The Society February 8, 2022 Blank Verse, Culture, Poetry 17 Comments . The Crucifixion of the Serpent And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any...
Three Poems on Religion (with a short note) by Joseph S. Salemi The Society January 20, 2022 Beauty, Blank Verse, Culture, Poetry 13 Comments . Apocalypse The fractured sky splits, flaming at the edge— The earth heaves upwards in explosive wrath. No eye can bear the clay-caked risen...
Poetic Pitfalls: An Essay by Joseph S. Salemi The Society January 5, 2022 Education, Essays, Poetry 18 Comments . There are a number of ways to go wrong in poetry. Unfortunately, the Poetry Establishment is only willing to admit the existence of a select few...
‘Twelve Chaucerian Limericks’ by Joseph S. Salemi The Society December 20, 2021 Chaucer, Culture, Humor, Limerick, Poetry 19 Comments . Twelve Chaucerian Limericks for Paul Freeman Some pilgrims went riding to Kent, And here’s how the journey was spent: As they traipsed through...
‘What Foo Dogs Can Teach Us’: An Essay by Joseph S. Salemi The Society November 26, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Essays, Poetry 19 Comments . Many years ago I gave a talk at a scholarly conference at Queens College, C.U.N.Y. My section of the conference was dedicated to contemporary...
A Poem for Kyle Rittenhouse: ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ by Joseph S. Salemi The Society November 20, 2021 Culture, Poetry 18 Comments . Don’t Tread on Me For Kyle Rittenhouse, acquitted on November 19, the feast day of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, patroness of the falsely...
‘Biden Has an Accident at the Vatican’ by Joseph S. Salemi The Society November 9, 2021 Culture, Humor, Poetry 15 Comments . Biden Has an Accident at the Vatican Ubi Petrus, ibi Ecclesia: Where Peter is, there is the Church. Ubi Bergoglius, ibi merda: Where Bergoglio is,...
‘Let’s Go, Brandon…’ by Joseph S. Salemi The Society November 4, 2021 Culture, Humor, Poetry 22 Comments . "Let's Go Brandon" People don’t want to say “F--k” When dealing with President Schmuck. So they say “Let’s go, Brandon” instead To a...
‘The Asinine Armoress: Hannah Gutierrez Reed’ by Joseph S. Salemi The Society October 28, 2021 Culture, Humor, Poetry 7 Comments . To all the tough women in Texas who actually know how to handle guns. My daddy got the job for me. He wanted me to work. And daddy’s got a lot of...
‘Pope Sylvester II and Meridiana’ by Joseph S. Salemi (and an Essay on Dramatic Monologues) The Society October 24, 2021 Culture, Essays, Humor, Poetry 11 Comments . Pope Sylvester II and Meridiana Pope Sylvester II, born Gerbert de Aurillac (946-1003), is said to have had a demonic succubus named Meridiana who...
