. The Problem of Good a Petrarchan sonnet If there’s (the armchair philosopher maintains) A God (most likely writing in...

. . On Alma Tadema’s Coign of Vantage Flora peeks over the marble parapet, a dizzying perch above the azure...

. Transgression, Fake and Genuine       by Joseph S. Salemi When Henry Harland and Aubrey Beardsley brought forth...

. WEF, Davos, ‘23—A Modern Reply after “Endless Pleasure, Endless Love”* Endless hooey, endless snow, We’re exposed to here below....

. On a Terrible Orchestral-chorale Concert Trapped here with vain musicians---what a fate! An echo chamber that I can't escape....

. Ever Flowing Upon the rushing river’s bank I stand, deep water, ever flowing as it goes. The turbulence of...

. John Adams in Heaven John and Abigail Adams are being guided through heaven by John Milton. He takes them...

. A Note on Iambic Barktameter I have an Australian Shepard named Sunny who loves poetry. I didn’t believe it...

. Bats at Sunset The monster is rotund, vile, enormous, three-muzzled, and barking ---Vasily Trediakovsky, after Virgil The woods are...

. SCP Members and readers are invited by poet Michael Pietrack to his Virtual Launch Party on Saturday, January 21...

. The Calendar You are the festive dregs of January,you liven February with Valentine’s.You are the March that gives spring...

. Moments from Dante’s Inferno Prepared to travel, if the gods allowed, I saw the woods were dreary, dark as...

. Banish the Thought Who are you? Not me, I know You creep and crimp my edges fray, An apparition...

. Swimming with Dreams and Memory My childhood dreams and memories remain through adulthood and old age. My doll speaks....

. “Newquay, we have a problem” January 9, 2023 We’ve gathered in thousands to witness the blast-off, We’re sipping Champagne...

. Greta's Smorgasbord of Hate I love the pretty trees, the trees love me! They make me dance and sing,...

. Gloucester in July A thousand silent saints and angels Hewn from vertex, plane, and angle Raised by blow of...

. Beatitude Be glad and smile, for they revile, The Truth they mock and put on trial, The Beauty they...

. El Pescado They gloat: the age of Pisces, it is over. They chant to call Aquarius’ forces in. In...

. The Christmas Story An angel of the Lord, Came forth with joyful news, Of Him Who is adored, Messiah...

. The Wind Listen, listen! Do you hear it?  It is on the march tonight--- The incessant winter wind that...

. Worth Disguised The hammer lifts, the anvil rings, The room with screaming noises brings __A torture, here inflicted. The...

. Cookies I bought a bag of cookies for a snack, But they were way too sweet… I took them...

. Civilisations Forget the Taste of Their Own Tails To see a friend possessed By the time’s ideological incantations, To...

. Bingo Ladies Gray-haired gals meet twice a week, Have their luncheon with the clique At the Wendy’s in Coppell....

. Out, out, brief candle! ---Macbeth I am black-dog blue and blinded by the glitzy gaze of stars. Lucent moons...

. This Side of Eternity I. Imagination, you’re a two-edged sword, The universe your oyster, opened wide; Conceiving all the...

. For Sophie Pakaluk Barrows based on The Appalling Strangeness of the Mercy of God by Michael Pakaluk in pie...

. On the Banning of the Word 'Field' by the University of Southern California’s School of Social Work See the...

. For the French Revolution Oh, this shall tell the tale of France’s past: the revolution brought in ‘eighty nine,...

. Be Gone an angry teenage daughter to her absconded mother What irritant incited you to leave And not come...

. The Fluctuations of Modernity and Antiquity a pantoum __Something is ahead, A solemn note on open sky, __It rises...

. Putting Settings in Their Place For dilettantes the world’s bereft When table settings aren’t precise. For if the forks...

. Letter from a DC Prison We’d seen the evidence, the ballots dropped In loads of boxes trundled in late-night...

. Antietam It was the bloodbath battle of the Civil War; Scores of men died, by musket, the gore; Was...

. Queen of Jubilees A Queen there was, revered, of global fame--- Elizabeth the Second was her name. For three-score-years-and-ten...

. Elegy for an Unremarkable Man Poor Niel is dead. He’d been off sick since May. Cancer, they said, as...

. Thorns Grow with Song It’s time to rend our hearts and look inside The chambered will, into the voices...

. I Met a Shepherdess  by Guido Cavalcanti (c. 1250-1300) translated by Joseph S. Salemi I met a shepherdess in...

. Mourning Louis XVI We must not say in public that we mourn--- Sit still, Brigitte, and listen to your...