The Best Poems of 2020 The Society February 1, 2021 Best Poems, From the Society, Poetry, Poetry Contests 28 Comments The Best Poems of 2020: Winners of the 9th Annual International SCP Poetry Competition JudgesJoseph S. SalemiJames SaleEvan Mantyk Past First Place...
Winners of 2021 High School Poetry Competition Announced The Society February 1, 2021 From the Society, Poetry, Poetry Contests 5 Comments The talent this year has been astounding. Thank you to every high school student who participated. You are the future of literature and are leading...
Winners of 2021 Poetry Translation Competition Announced The Society February 1, 2021 From the Society, Poetry, Poetry Contests, Translation 4 Comments . Judges Margaret Coats Evan Mantyk . First Place ($100) Francesca Leader, Virginia "The Iroha Poem" by Kūkai (空海) (774–835) . Second...
‘Anchises’ by Anna-Marie Ahn The Society January 31, 2021 Beauty, High School Submissions, Poetry 16 Comments . Beneath the starry firmament so dark There lies tonight an old, forgotten tree Whose bark is peeling, wretched, cold and stark And has not heard...
‘Two Social Media Brothers: Jack and Zuck’ by Sarban Bhattacharya The Society January 30, 2021 Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Humor, Poetry 7 Comments . The world is ruled by two men---Jack and Zuck, More than their strange appearance their deeds suck. Jack’s goatee truly suits a Marxist...
‘Woman Is’ by Don Shook The Society January 30, 2021 Culture, Poetry 15 Comments . Changeable and fickle is the woman. Some things she says, and surely thinks are so, defy a logic with a bent to wander beyond the bounds of any...
‘Poetic Paraphrase of Martin Niemöller’ by James A. Tweedie The Society January 29, 2021 Culture, Poetry 13 Comments . First they came for the Jews, you see, And I did not speak out’ Because I wasn’t a Jew (not me!) I didn’t give a shout. Then they came for...
‘Go, Fading Leaf’ and Other Poetry by Anna J. Arredondo The Society January 29, 2021 Beauty, Humor, Love Poems, Poetry 12 Comments . Go, Fading Leaf __Go, fading leaf, Tell him who thought my heart to spurn __That life is brief (But briefer still his love did burn __I fool enough...
‘Note Written Between Two Lives’ by C.M. Rivers The Society January 28, 2021 Beauty, Poetry 10 Comments . Everything is gone, gone. ____No one’s ever stayed: the family and the friends I loved, ____the bread my mother made. Nothing’s ever gone the...
‘B.C./D.C.’ and Other Humorous Poetry by C.B. Anderson The Society January 27, 2021 Culture, Humor, Poetry 17 Comments . B.C./D.C. Where history and myth converge Two famous founders do emerge, Of nations that excelled at war. (Coincidence? Or something...
‘How To Be Like Byron’ by Andrew Benson Brown The Society January 27, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Humor, Love Poems, Poetry 21 Comments . How To Be Like Byron Bright butterfly, why do you fade Into that duller, browner shade That strays into the flame at night? You’ve lost your...
‘A Message from The Party of Unity’ by Susan Jarvis Bryant The Society January 26, 2021 Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Humor, Poetry 19 Comments . Daily we vent and cement our position In righteous and virtuous words. Unity fails if each crucial decision Is left to the whim of the...
‘Ode to Spring’ and Other Poetry by Andrew Elliott The Society January 26, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 2 Comments . Ode to Spring Oh glory be to things that grow! That burgeon, blossom, bud and blow In Springtime’s light and airy breeze, Which ruffles softly...
‘Father And John: How It Once Was’ and Other Poetry by Sally Cook The Society January 25, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 22 Comments . . Father And John: How It Once Was Before self-righteous rules, brash and insistent,There was a natural rhythm, quite unspoken.So when my father...
‘Verbum Dei’ by James Sale The Society January 25, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 51 Comments . The Verbum Dei Retreat Centre on the Isle of Wight aims to be a place of encounter with God We took the ferry; darkness closed; Warm lights ahead;...
To Joe Biden: ‘Abiding the Storm’, by David Watt The Society January 24, 2021 Culture, Poetry 17 Comments . Well, you beat the odds against you, though I think you rather knew That with media assistance, and a counting scheme or two, There would be a...
‘Uninspired’ by Siri Espy The Society January 24, 2021 Culture, Humor, Poetry 13 Comments . I fear my motivation’s dead; there’s no one home inside my head. I’ve looked for it from dusk to dawn; I tell you, it is really gone! The...
‘Bread and Circuses, Checks and Netflix’ by Susan Jarvis Bryant The Society January 23, 2021 Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Poetry 24 Comments . Tyrants would distribute largesse, a bushel of wheat, a gallon of wine, and a sesterce: and then everybody would shamelessly cry, “Long live the...
‘Lament for Henderson’s’: A poem for Burns’ Night 2021, by Margaret Coats The Society January 23, 2021 Culture, Humor, Poetry 16 Comments . January 25 is the birthday of Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759–1796). On or near this day, Scots worldwide gather for a supper of haggis...
‘Coats’ by Stephen Ramsek The Society January 22, 2021 Beauty, Culture, High School Submissions, Poetry 4 Comments . A coat of luminescent snow Descended on my patch of grass, And for a moment all its glow Inflamed my eyes like burnished brass. And in a moment it...
‘Long View Cottage’ and Other Poetry by Gregory Ross The Society January 22, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 4 Comments . Long View Cottage The view is long and dark atop the mountain where I roam. Birds sing a little sweeter in a high and softer tone. The people...
‘Earth Song’ and Other Poetry by Lawrence Fray The Society January 21, 2021 Beauty, Poetry 12 Comments . Earth Song We longed to see Norway's Northern Lights,That great, magnetic, celestial balletOf colour, one of nature's majestic sights:'Not...
On Rembrandt’s ‘Return of the Prodigal Son’ and Other Poetry by Brian Yapko The Society January 21, 2021 Art, Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Shakespeare 17 Comments . On Rembrandt's "Return of the Prodigal Son" Three centuries have passed since it was wrought--- A work of art transcendent yet humane. The tender...
Poetry on Piero della Francesca’s ‘History of the True Cross,’ by Michael Coy The Society January 20, 2021 Art, Beauty, Culture, Ekphrastic, Poetry 1 Comment . The Death of Adam Excerpted from Musings on Piero della Francesca’s “History of the True Cross,” in the Church of San Francesco, Arezzo,...
‘Priam, King of Troy, Addresses Cassandra’s Concerns about the Horse’ by Michael Vanyukov The Society January 20, 2021 Culture, Poetry 5 Comments . Even then Cassandra, who, by the god’s decree, is never to be believed by Trojans, reveals our future fate with her lips. —Virgil, The...
‘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...
‘Childhood, 1919’ by David Whippman The Society January 19, 2021 Culture, Poetry 34 Comments . Daddy came home from “the war to end all war” And seemed, at first, one of the lucky ones. He looked exactly as he had before, His flesh...
‘Virtual Propitiation: Sacrifice of the Quarantined Caregiver’ by Bethany Mootsey The Society January 18, 2021 Culture, Humor, Poetry 8 Comments Seven inches, simple dark design My modern mind disdains the notion That the measure of devotion Is the size or splendor of the shrine. Spilling...
‘Meditation’ by Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867), Translated by Joshua Mincio The Society January 18, 2021 Beauty, Poetry, Translation 6 Comments . Be good, my Sorrow. You may rest assured; The Evening whom you called descends; Behold; The fall of dusk leaves some in towns obscured With...
‘Every Little Thing’ and Other Poetry by Daniel Kemper The Society January 18, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Love Poems, Poetry, Poetry Forms 61 Comments X Every Little Thing I. His Version She treasured every little thing that you gave her: the sparrow necklace (hazel blueto...
‘For Martin Luther King Jr. Day, 2021’ by Susan Jarvis Bryant The Society January 18, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 30 Comments “I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” ---Martin Luther King,...
‘Rosarium’: A Sestina and Other Poetry by Benjamin Thomas Cepican The Society January 17, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Poetry Forms, Sestina 7 Comments . Rosarium a sestina A rose arises red from its green sheath Adorned with swords that prick and pierce: the thorn, Whose vigil kept ensures its...
‘A Poet’s Strife’ by Sterling Osborne The Society January 17, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 11 Comments . My word will not survive a fire: the dust, the ash of paper singed by matches struck by fingers bent on silence. And it must rot here in summer...
‘Malingerer’ by Ted Quarterman The Society January 16, 2021 Culture, Humor, Poetry 6 Comments . My inconsistent pharmacist, Administer that certain cure That can relax my hardened fist In doses sweet with taste impure. O give me something...
‘Orchestra Tuning Up’ and Other Poetry by Cynthia Erlandson The Society January 16, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Music, Poetry 6 Comments _ Orchestra Tuning Up Is this the way the universe once sounded?A mass confusion of discordant trumpets,Flutes, horns, and violins like baffled...
‘The Victory of Donald J. Trump in the 2020 U.S. Election’ and Other Poetry by Bruce Dale Wise The Society January 15, 2021 Culture, Humor, Poetry 18 Comments (All poems by Bruce Dale Wise) The Victory of Donald J. Trump in the 2020 U.S. Election by Erisbawdle Cue You can’t make something be so, if the...
‘Speak with Kind Gentleness’ by Mark F. Stone The Society January 15, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 22 Comments . Stress can envelop, encircle, entangle. Strictures can pressure from every angle. Tripping and slipping to ways that are errant happen to all who...
‘Portrait of God’ by Chateaubriand, and Other Translations by Adam Sedia The Society January 15, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Translation 7 Comments . Portrait of God drawn from Scripture by François-René de Chateaubriand (1768-1848), translated by Adam Sedia Know you the jealous God, who dare...
Two Poems of the Sea, by Susan Jarvis Bryant The Society January 14, 2021 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 33 Comments . Rapt “I must go down to the sea again, to the lonely sea and the sky…” ---John Masefield Today I felt the roil of sky and sea Merge to...
‘Hearts and Clouds’ by Roy E. Peterson The Society January 14, 2021 Beauty, Poetry 22 Comments You can’t imagine what I saw,Some clouds that only God can drawWith pinks and reds and violet blue.He painted with a heavenly hue. Then from my...
