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    • 'From the Bay of Naples' and Other Poetry by Brian Yapko

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      Beauty, Culture, Poetry
      29 Comments
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      June 9, 2025
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      June 8, 2025
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      June 7, 2025
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      The Best Poems of 2023: Winners of SCP International Poetry Competition

      The Society
      February 1, 2024
      Best Poems, From the Society, Poetry, Poetry Contests
      28 Comments
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      March 31, 2025
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  • ‘Samhain Spree’: A Poem by Patricia Rogers Crozier

    The Society
    June 9, 2025
    Culture, Poetry
    4 Comments
  • ‘An Update for Dylan Thomas’s Aunt’: A Poem by Joseph S. Salemi

    The Society
    June 9, 2025
    Culture, Poetry
    10 Comments
  • ‘Time and Place’: A Poem by Margaret Brinton

    The Society
    June 8, 2025
    Beauty, Poetry
    6 Comments
  • ‘Soldier of the Rising Sun’: A Poem by Brian Yapko

    The Society
    June 8, 2025
    Beauty, Culture, Poetry
    14 Comments
  • ‘Double Rondel for Pentecost’ by Margaret Coats

    The Society
    June 7, 2025
    Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Poetry Forms, Rondel
    16 Comments
  • ‘On Twenty Years of YouTube’: A Poem by Paul A. Freeman

    The Society
    June 6, 2025
    Culture, Poetry
    10 Comments
  • ‘Family Values’: Four Poems by Susan Jarvis Bryant

    The Society
    June 5, 2025
    Humor, Pantoum, Poetry, Triolet
    31 Comments
  • ‘The Legend of Zhong Kui’: A Poem by M.D. Skeen

    The Society
    June 5, 2025
    Culture, Poetry
    6 Comments
  • ‘Roads of Potter County’: A Poem by Frank Rable

    The Society
    June 4, 2025
    Culture, Humor, Poetry
    19 Comments
  • On the Art Institute of Chicago’s South Garden and Other Poetry by Adam Sedia

    The Society
    June 3, 2025
    Art, Beauty, Poetry
    16 Comments
  • ‘My Fairytale’: A Poem by Roy E. Peterson

    The Society
    June 3, 2025
    Love Poems, Poetry
    16 Comments
  • ‘In Her Fair Foundry, Nature Forges Art’ by Claude Gaspar Bachet, Translated by Josh Middeldorf

    The Society
    June 2, 2025
    Beauty, Poetry, Translation
    5 Comments

‘Selling Short’ and Other Poems by C.B. Anderson

The Society
June 1, 2024
Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Villanelle
14 Comments
. 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...

‘A Formalist Walks into a Bar…’ and Other Poetry by Drilon Bajrami

The Society
June 1, 2024
Poetry, Satire
11 Comments
. 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...

‘Upon Learning of Trump’s Conviction’ by UK Poet James Sale

The Society
May 31, 2024
Poetry, Satire
17 Comments
. Upon Learning of Trump's Conviction _America is big;__Does things in style:Like setting up a President__And rigging his trial. _America is...

‘Phone Home’: A Poem on the Jodrell Bank Observatory, by Jeff Eardley

The Society
May 31, 2024
Culture, Humor, Poetry
19 Comments
. 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...

The Day After Trump’s Conviction: ‘God Knows’ by Susan Jarvis Bryant

The Society
May 31, 2024
Culture, Poetry
69 Comments
. 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...

A Sonnet for the 100th Anniversary of the Leopold and Loeb Case, by Adam Sedia

The Society
May 31, 2024
Culture, Poetry
22 Comments
. Leopold and Loeb Or, the Consequences of Ideas A Frenchman’s thought-experiments Argued by Englishmen until A German stripped pure thought from...

‘Out Walking’: A Poem by Margaret Coats

The Society
May 30, 2024
Beauty, Poetry
33 Comments
. 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...

‘A Tiny Tabby’: A Poem by E.V. Wyler

The Society
May 30, 2024
Humor, Poetry
28 Comments
. 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...

‘The Devotee’ by Jeffrey Essmann

The Society
May 29, 2024
Culture, Poetry
7 Comments
. 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...

‘I Saw a Naked Wood Nymph’: A Poem by Roy E. Peterson

The Society
May 29, 2024
Humor, Poetry
25 Comments
. 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...

‘Rising with the Sap’ and Other Poetry by Monika Cooper

The Society
May 28, 2024
Blank Verse, Dante, Poetry
18 Comments
. 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...

‘Surviving Caligula’: A Poem on the Roman Emperor, by Brian Yapko

The Society
May 28, 2024
Culture, Poetry
31 Comments
. Surviving Caligula Setting: Caligula’s Palace, the Palatine Hill, Rome Date: 23 January 794 Ab urbe condita (41 A.D.) The Matter: A Praetorian...

A Sonnet for Harrison Butker, by Adam Sedia

The Society
May 27, 2024
Culture, Poetry
22 Comments
. Love and Vipers for Harrison Butker, the football player criticized for supporting traditional views of women in a commencement address How hated...

A Poem for an Orwellian Memorial Day, by Susan Jarvis Bryant

The Society
May 27, 2024
Culture, Poetry
44 Comments
. Memorial Day, 1984 2024 “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”  ---George Orwell Today we honor those who gave their...

‘The First and Usually Unspoken Rule of Great Writing’: A Poem by Phillip Whidden

The Society
May 27, 2024
Culture, Poetry
12 Comments
. 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...

‘He Who Was’: A Poem by Warren Bonham

The Society
May 26, 2024
Beauty, Poetry
18 Comments
. He Who Was Omnipotence, omniscience __and there’s omnipresence too. If you possess those qualities, __there’s nothing you can’t do. Be here...

‘I Never Do a Happy Dance’: A Poem by Lisa Marie Miller

The Society
May 26, 2024
Beauty, Humor, Poetry
8 Comments
. I Never Do a Happy Dance I never do a happy dance, Or look online to find romance, Speak my sentences upended, Or keep saying I’m offended, Check...

‘Betrayal’ and Other Poems by Susan Jarvis Bryant

The Society
May 25, 2024
Culture, Pantoum, Poetry, Rondeau, Villanelle
21 Comments
. Betrayal a villanelle Today she spied the shadow of a snake Slither through the spreading family tree--- A curse her startled heart finds hard...

‘View from the Beach’: A Poem by Lucia Haase

The Society
May 25, 2024
Beauty, Poetry
11 Comments
. View from the Beach after Robert Frost’s "A Cliff Dwelling" Here hazy seems the azure sky and azure seems the hazy sea. One lone gull lends an...

SCP Poet Lionel Willis (1932-2023) Passes Away

The Society
May 24, 2024
From the Society, Poetry
9 Comments
. The SCP has just learned of the passing of Canadian Member poet Lionel Willis on December 28, 2023. He had been contributing his work since 2021,...

‘Eulogy to the First Ms. Brown’ and Other Poetry by Betsy K. Brown

The Society
May 24, 2024
Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Terza Rima
5 Comments
. Eulogy to the First Ms. Brown or a Divine Comedy of Educators . To my aunt—the second daughter of three, And first to leave us just two years...

‘Just Off the Cuff’ and Other Poems by Stephen M. Dickey

The Society
May 24, 2024
Epigrams and Proverbs, Humor, Poetry
19 Comments
. 1. Just off the cuff, I’d cap the alcoholic swill __Before it calls your bluff and saps your will. . 2. The dead, although their tongues are...

‘Newman, Alone’: A Poem by Adam Wasem

The Society
May 23, 2024
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
15 Comments
. Newman, Alone Newman, thirty, alone, asleep in bed, Groans, yearning for his mother, years now, dead--- Alive, her vivid female acts above Had...

‘Two Times Two Is Four’: A Poem by T.M.A. Day

The Society
May 23, 2024
Culture, Poetry
14 Comments
. Two Times Two Is Four Now Kierkegaard once wrote a book, __Entitled Either/Or, But for myself, I only know, __That two times two is four. For...

Three Love-Crossed Sonnets by James A. Tweedie

The Society
May 22, 2024
Culture, Love Poems, Poetry
21 Comments
. Unopened Letters Unopened letters strewn across the floor Addressed to me with your name on the back. Left where they fell inside my slotted...

‘The Cleft’ and Other Poetry by Gigi Ryan

The Society
May 22, 2024
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
10 Comments
. The Cleft There’s danger for the harmless dove; she swoops Into the cleft of the great mountainside. Her heartbeat calms as she keeps still and...

‘Dandelions’: A Poem by Cynthia Erlandson

The Society
May 21, 2024
Beauty, Poetry
34 Comments
. Dandelions “...all the days of his vain life, which he passes like a shadow....” ---Ecclesiastes 6: 12 . ____As I stepped out one...

A Poem Based on Joshua Harris’s I Kissed Dating Goodbye, by Joshua C. Frank

The Society
May 21, 2024
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
23 Comments
. Chelsea a true story from I Kissed Dating Goodbye by Joshua Harris “Behold not everybody's beauty: and tarry not among women.”...

Two Poems Inspired by Shakespeare Quotations, by Joseph S. Salemi

The Society
May 20, 2024
Beauty, Poetry, Shakespeare
25 Comments
. Miss Crespo’s Halloween Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead Are but as pictures; ‘tis the eye of childhood That fears a painted...

‘AI’s Promise’ and Other Poetry by Daniel Kemper

The Society
May 20, 2024
Culture, Poetry
24 Comments
. AI's Promise What is the latest ingenious ability makers have made out as mental agility? Smoothly unveiling the newest utility, __though it...

‘King George III Declares War’ from Vol. 2 of Andrew Benson Brown’s Mock Epic Poem

The Society
May 19, 2024
Epic, Humor, Poetry
17 Comments
. King George III Declares War from Legends of Liberty, Volume 2 Note: The British have won a pyrrhic victory at Bunker Hill. King George, who has...

Poems About Doing the Dishes, by Julian Woodruff

The Society
May 18, 2024
Humor, Poetry, Song Lyrics
18 Comments
. Dishing Out Advice Why are there always dishes in the sink? So lazy and undisciplined. You’d think they might show just a little more respect and...

‘He Lied About His Age’: A Poem by Joyce E. Rogers

The Society
May 18, 2024
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
9 Comments
. He Lied About His Age 'Twas May of nineteen seventeen, our country now at war. Will had decided to enlist, this great world to explore. His...

‘Saturn’: A Poem by Alan Orsborn

The Society
May 17, 2024
Culture, Poetry, Villanelle
14 Comments
. Saturn "When we have shuffled off this mortal coil" —Shakespeare "According to medieval thought, the worst planet was Saturn,  sponsor of death,...

A Poem for the 30th Anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide, by Paul A. Freeman

The Society
May 17, 2024
Culture, Poetry
27 Comments
. Rwanda, April 1994 Inside Nyamata Church the pews are piledwith clothes, the blood that drenched them dull and dry.What demon turned sane men and...

‘An Incomplete Account of How Things Are’ and Other Poetry by C.B. Anderson

The Society
May 16, 2024
Beauty, Poetry
28 Comments
. An Incomplete Account of How Things Are __From where I drift, One hundred meters from the shore, The elemental thunderous roar __That’s falling...

‘Herman the Cripple’: A Poem by Margaret Coats

The Society
May 16, 2024
Culture, Music, Poetry
44 Comments
. Herman the Cripple A body helpless in deformity Was mine, though loving parents carried me Full seven years in sick infirmity, Then placed me in...

‘Go Woke, Go Broke’ and Other Poems by Russel Winick

The Society
May 15, 2024
Poetry, Satire
22 Comments
. Go Woke, Go Broke Sports Illustrated’s prize was doing great. Big bucks each year from the swimsuit edition. But then it seemed keen to...

‘The Dead’: A Poem by Jeffrey Essmann

The Society
May 15, 2024
Culture, Poetry
12 Comments
. The Dead They’re pretty but the dopamine Has hollowed out their pale blue eyes. They sit there, staring, silent, numb, (They only need to move...

‘And Yet We Wash Our Hands’: A Poem by Roy E. Peterson

The Society
May 14, 2024
Beauty, Culture, Poetry
25 Comments
. And Yet We Wash Our Hands When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, butthat instead an uproar was starting, he took waterand washed his hands in...
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  1. Margaret Coats on ‘Samhain Spree’: A Poem by Patricia Rogers CrozierJune 10, 2025

    A telling tale of "tangent spheres" and tricks that may transpire when it's time for interchange between them. Alliteration is…

  2. Margaret Coats on ‘Double Rondel for Pentecost’ by Margaret CoatsJune 10, 2025

    Thanks, Paul. I've long been fascinated by both Egyptology and cats, so this is welcome.

  3. Margaret Coats on ‘Double Rondel for Pentecost’ by Margaret CoatsJune 10, 2025

    Well, Warren, the round forms do tend to gather families of similar forms around them, but when poets push toward…

  4. Margaret Coats on ‘The Legend of Zhong Kui’: A Poem by M.D. SkeenJune 10, 2025

    I vaguely remember hearing this Chinese myth, but you make it come alive in vividly rollicking verse with, I believe,…

  5. Margaret Coats on ‘Double Rondel for Pentecost’ by Margaret CoatsJune 10, 2025

    Yes, Paul, that unrepeated third stanza does reach toward boundaries of the universe and the vast fires we occasionally glimpse…

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