Culture

. 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 happy only in the preterit Or future tense—because you hate the cold And you believe a sleight of handy grammar Can save you. ...

. 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 objects, many million, zillion miles away. In England’s fields, we have the famous Jodrell Bank; This mighty dish could hold a thousand...

. 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 dry. The skies are scorched with ever-rising heat __As hope and daylight die--- So where are we supposed to go from here? Our...

. Leopold and Loeb Or, the Consequences of Ideas A Frenchman’s thought-experiments Argued by Englishmen until A German stripped pure thought from sense; A second then conceived the will; And last, a third who said God died, Made will his god and from it sought The superman he prophesied--- Three...

. 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 whatsoever her complaint Parochial or personal may be That holds her in the grip of piety. No claim is made here that...

. Surviving Caligula Setting: Caligula’s Palace, the Palatine Hill, Rome Date: 23 January 794 Ab urbe condita (41 A.D.) The Matter: A Praetorian Guard contemplates Rome’s future under the Emperor Caligula. This gladius---this dagger of sharp steel--- Has been my closest comrade since the reign Of Emperor Augustus. I can...

. Love and Vipers for Harrison Butker, the football player criticized for supporting traditional views of women in a commencement address How hated you are for proclaiming love---Not just your own, but love as sacrifice,Selfless and fruitful at once, that puts no priceOn what it builds, and draws strength from...

. Memorial Day, 1984 2024 “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”  ---George Orwell Today we honor those who gave their all In monstrous conflicts in the name of peace; Those who answered altruism’s call For war to build a world where all wars cease--- A lie that...

. 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 lines set out, to sound the knell Of honeyed feelings, not commit the sin Of telling things untrue, like showing men As heroes always...

. Betrayal a villanelle Today she spied the shadow of a snake Slither through the spreading family tree--- A curse her startled heart finds hard to take. She heard this serpent hiss. Though wide awake A nightmare flared with fanged reality. Today she spied the shadow of a snake. She watched the burdened branches bend...

. 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 ago: I picture you once sitting on Grandpa's knee And asking him, where do our spirits go When they leave earth? I'm sure...

. Newman, Alone Newman, thirty, alone, asleep in bed, Groans, yearning for his mother, years now, dead--- Alive, her vivid female acts above Had served as lodestar for his childish love. The women he’d seduced, while far from God, were back to haunt his dreams, with sneers, eyes hard (He’d...

. 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 though the oceans brim with blood, __Foretold in ancient lore, The word still stands through bitter scorn, __That two times two is four....

. Unopened Letters Unopened letters strewn across the floor Addressed to me with your name on the back. Left where they fell inside my slotted door. A postal service-aided sneak attack. I step on them with smug indifference, Rejecting your repentance with distain. A callous disregard my best defense From...

. 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 mute Surrounded by the rock where she abides. If from her hollow she looks to the vast Skies she sees her predator remains, But...

. Chelsea a true story from I Kissed Dating Goodbye by Joshua Harris “Behold not everybody's beauty: and tarry not among women.” ---Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) 42:12 That long-skirt, apple-pie brunette from Kansas Whose wholesomeness shone bright like Moses’ face… I could go on with praise for forty stanzas About her femininity...

. AI's Promise What is the latest ingenious ability makers have made out as mental agility? Smoothly unveiling the newest utility, __though it effusively services whims, it reveals our fragility __more than conclusively. Digital painting and digital writing and digital telephone management; lighting and quickly delighting on schedule, inviting and...

. 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 lifetime numbered sixteen years, he'd lie about his age, His build appeared near twenty, their questions he'd assuage. He fed and milked the...

. Saturn "When we have shuffled off this mortal coil" —Shakespeare "According to medieval thought, the worst planet was Saturn,  sponsor of death, destruction, darkness, and disaster." —Michael Ward When Saturn and his choking rings complete their toils, Malign, diseased senescence, smirking au revoir, Are we to shortly shuffle off...

. 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 women wildwith bloodlust that ten thousand here would die? A long-historic grudge again saw light,a tribal discord fanned by men on airwho cried: “Our foes are...

. 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 the monks’ academy. Their island abbey Reichenau became My home to nurture life, surrounded by The beautiful Lake Constance, Nature’s frame For all my...

. 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 their thumb…) Intent upon the tiny screen. There’s no enjoyment, no surprise, Nor do they seem to realize They’re dead already at thirteen. ....

. 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 front of the crowd. “I aminnocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “It is yourresponsibility!” ---Matthew 27:24. We Christians must take action.We...

. Music by Jeff Eardley . Look Homeward, Sweet Afton after Robert Burns Look homeward, Sweet Afton, back to thy green braes, Recalling with pride Britain’s glorious days. Then forward flow strongly, I pray thou restore The gallantry needed to fight one more war. This island of Tennyson, Milton and...

. S.W.A.M.P. Soulless, Warped, And Monstrous People look at us as smelly “sheeple.” Easily manipulated. Otherwise, we’re mocked and hated. Those revolting, loathsome creatures, all have normal-looking features, and since each one’s always lying, they are hard identifying. They’re well-practiced at concealing what their blackened hearts are feeling as they...

. Hookerville School Built just before the Civil War, employed till twenty-nine, This one-room school that stands today withstood the test of time. Turn back the clocks to times long passed, so many years ago, Some children trudged a mile to school, through rain and sleet and snow. Upon the...

. Orpheus We want the heroes back so we can learn: Herakles smashed his way to hell and stormed By violence the ferryman and three-faced dog; Even yanked Theseus from his deep-rooted seat Without a by-your-leave to hell’s dark lord. Is that the way to go? Now is our turn?...

. 10/7/2023 More than one has risen up against us to destroy us. Rather, in every generation they rise against us to annihilate us. —The Passover Haggadah The world is killing Jews, again. There are too many for its comfort. It kills because it simply can— its evil ever ripe...

. On Scotland Police were inundated with over 7,000 calls in the first week following the passage of Scotland’s Hate Crime and Public Order Act last month. Where tartan, tweed, and Highland Games began: The land of Gaelic-gathered tribe and clan; Where Scots and Angles, Britons, Picts, et al Would push...

. Truth Is Not Beauty “What is the worst mistake you ever made in bed?” Reply: “My son.”  (Actual dialogue on social media) I learn the truth; I’m more and more aggrieved. There’s nothing left, no gleam or glint of hope When parents wish their children weren’t conceived. What bitter...

. Bridgerton’s DEI vs. Historicity They sacrifice true historicity, So DEI trumps authenticity. But Bridgerton and Netflix, they don’t care, Because those ethopaths with neon hair Give fat cats in their boardrooms such a scare. Black aristocracy in England, when? I know a Frenchman with a skillful pen: Dumas was truly aristocracy;...

. Reservoir Those who can still see through accreting years Are getting scarce, those who can lift such veil To remember when the Corps of Engineers Dammed a minor river to end its tale Of flood and misery among the local Communities of farmers and the like. The reservoir’s now...

. Carmen by Théophile Gautier (1811-1872) translated by Bruce Phenix Carmen is thin—a dark-brown line Of bistre rings her gipsy eye. Her black hair bodes a dark design, The Devil gave her skin its dye. She’s ugly, every woman feels, But men all find her madly sweet: Toledo’s great Archbishop...

. Easter Evening Appearance Luke 24 Sealed up within my upper room, Absorbed by morbid discontent And fear, I questioned everything I’ve done and wondered what it meant. Though slim perspective chided me And better angels gently mocked, When I’m alone there in that room, The door is pretty firmly...

. May Songs . I. Where does loyalty take its rest? Where is charity’s portraiture, Except in you, sweet virgin pure? Where has virginity possessed The honor due its high allure? Where does loyalty take its rest? Where is charity’s portraiture? Where can a creature find the best Retreat and...

. Throughout American Academies One hears throughout American academies a strainthat is at once belligerent, intolerant, and strange.It drips with antisemitism all across the land.What new “Mein Kampf” is being written? What new hate is planned? From Harvard, Stanford, Michigan State University,to Swarthmore, Tufts, U of Chicago, SUNY, MIT.Unbated seething,...

. Lie Low, Jew! Echoes and Irony The Hamas flags are raised on London streets By swarms that seethe with scorn and blaze with hate. This nasty nod to History’s evil greets  A Londoner reminded of the fate  Of kin as he strolls from the synagogue  Looking far too Jewish for the taste Of bulldog bobbies...

. How Many Wrongs Make a Right? The left rights wrongs by doing wrong, but wrongs so fixed don’t stay fixed long. When things re-break, they wrong once more, and hope thereby they can restore things back to how they briefly were when right and wrong began to blur. They...

. On Student Protestations They protest on behalf of Gaza from afar— Why won’t they do the same regarding Myanmar? To speak of Falun Gong and China’s Muslim Uyghur Will get you vacant stares—the understanding’s meager. Sudan’s embroiled in civil war, but they don’t care— When blacks kill other blacks,...

. Jerzy and Cyla Jerzy, a Polish teen in World War Two, Arrested for suspected membership Of the resistance, faced a one-way trip To Auschwitz. There, where womenfolk were few, Labouring in a storehouse used for grain He witnessed the arrival of a crowd Of girls. One, by extremity uncowed,...