. Contagious Joy a villanelle You always find a way to make me smile. Like sunlight tracing rainbows in the...

. Vintage Love Love is as a grape when it begins, Unblemished by the bruises and the sins That will...

. When? I’ll love you when the bee has lost its buzz, When wolf and bear have quit their howl...

. . February 14, 2024 A heart of burning love, an ashen cross Converge today: the marriage of two kinds...

. Ash Wednesday Valentines by Charles d’Orléans (1394-1465), translated by Margaret Coats . I. Who’s there? Who comes so early,...

. I Am the Stone I am the stone The humble stone the barefoot shepherd boy Selected from the muddy...

. The Southern Cross The caravels escaped at last The roiling tides of Bojador And entered tropic seas far past...

. Off Switch My brain hurt every time I thought, so then I thought “I’d rather not.” I found the...

. . Nocturnal Litany I “From all malevolence the night employs….” ---James Agee, “Epithalamium” . From all malevolence the night...

. Love Sonnet The glint of summer’s evening leaves a glow upon her cheek, so soft and plain and fair—...

. The Austrian Non Placet Comes in Time (Recess at the papal conclave in Rome, August 1903. One cardinal speaks...

. The Monster Geryon: Canto XVII of Dante’s Inferno by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) translated by Stephen Binns “Behold the stinger...

. The Screaming Screed and Stench Sister Cindy, Brother Jed, Before the cellphone, rumor spread, "They're speaking on the Common,...

. Ode to a Dodo  inspired by Paul A. Freeman’s "Paradise Island"   O tragic fowl of cataclysmic fate, Your magic...

. Babel There was a time when all the world one tongue Among its peoples shared, and language preened Itself...

. How Septuagenarian’s Cope Past seventy. Age does prevail. __The day is growing dim. I’ve managed through life’s calms and...

. . I See Dead People Don’t tell me that my mind’s no longer keen And that I should be...

. . . What Happened to Great Poetry? by Andrew Benson Brown When was the last time you sat down...

. Bedtime Stories in triolets He’d curl her close and hold her tight and let the words dance in the...

. Proof of Climate Change The proof of existential crisis climate change is seen In too much snow, too little...

. Paradise Island Some years ago, from cliff top and from shore,a flock of birds that never touched the skylooked...

. The Knitted Dress I began with the best of intentions, Though in hindsight I have to confess, That the...

. My Beatrice III Affording still these glimpses like the first, those moments you were yet without a name; between...

. A Musical Offering When Bach arrived at Sanssouci, King Frederick said, “Sir, you must be tired. My fortepianos may...

. The Fall of Time A Haiku Sonnet . Thinning coat of frost Whitening the ground with grief— Love forever...

. Off Guard Coyotes drag their quarry past the line  Drawn in the sand to stop the ghastly game   Of...

. A Temporary Exhibit A million drops of water will be sprayed Across my yard today. And each of them...

. Masks When tourists arrive in our village, The question that most of them ask, Is, “Why is it all...

. Left Outside The shopping cart, precisely ordered now while searching for those perfect little lines of lights for decorations---anyhow,...

. Sunshine Sun, shine on me—come and stay! Dry my tears, send gloom away. Warm my soul, chilled to the...

. Gawain’s Prayer in the Wilderness …the wildrenesse of Wyrale; wonde ther bot lyte That auther God other gome with...

. Had I held you in the fields of Hay beside The Wye and on an afternoon that cleared To...

. In a Home based on Michael Bunker’s grandmother (b. 1909) as described in his book Surviving Off Off-Grid ....

. The Best Poems of 2023: Winners of the 12th Annual SCP International Poetry Competition Judges Joseph S. Salemi, James...

. First Place ($200 Prize) "A Star" John Freeborn, Logos Online School, 12th grade student in Concordia, Kansas. . Second...

. A Wing-stroked Spectacle Segmented sets of starlings sharply elevate towards candescent skies, suspend, then circulate in sync. Their wingspans...

. A Pro Who Can Con “Truth” is whatever will further the movement. You’re “credible” if you are telling the...

. A Blanket of Snow from childhood memories of the blizzard of 1949 on a farm near Bonesteel, South Dakota....

. Unshackling the Spirit I toss and turn at night. I wonder why I’m here. But then with dawn the...

. Once the Future You were the future once, not long ago. Your sterile walls of concrete, brick, and glass...