Culture

. The Knight of Monticello Everywhere and always, Jefferson read. His library stocked a sage’s daily bread. Four volumes, leather-bound, well-thumbed, perused: Don Quixote, his most peculiar muse. He understood as written, Spanish words, no episodes obscured, no meanings blurred. Delighting in that knight’s befuddled thoughts, he seemed to mold...

. . Theópneustos Greek, “God breathed” . The Word of God is absolute— __Or else, some claim, it’s obsolete. Many hold it in disrepute, __Dismiss it as myth and deceit. . I say it’s for the destitute, __For those below life’s balance sheet. Emmanuel is resolute: __He beckons to His...

. When the Dragon Spreads Its Wings Millennia, the Dragon stayed at home, Consumed its own, kept dissidence at bay, Until it felt a gnawing urge to roam, To make its global domination play. With Belt and Road, the Dragon stretched its limbs And made its presence known across the...

. Exodus "The entire community of the children of Israel complained against Moses and against Aaron in the desert. The children of Israel said to them, If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by pots of meat, when...

. https://youtu.be/ICEvMGx4WnY . . Andrew Benson Brown has had poems and reviews published in a few journals. His epic-in-progress, Legends of Liberty, will chronicle the major events of the American Revolution if he lives to complete it. Though he writes history articles for American Essence magazine, he lists his primary occupation...

. Rolling the Roads The Days Before Snow Plows . A major storm throughout the night __Of heavy, wet, spring snow. Nor'easter off the coast of Maine __Hence wicked winds did blow. When finally the storm was over, __A six-horse team stood hitched To a double drum snow roller; __Teams...

. Carpe Diem Carpe diem quam minimum credula postero. (“Seize the day, trust as little as possible in tomorrow.”) Horace, Odes I:11 We live our lives, we make our plans, and then Both time and circumstances intervene To bring us back to making plans, again. Tomorrow can be only guessed,...

. The Sound of Dirt   in memory of my granddaughter, Valerie (March 30, 2020 - April 20, 2020) Above uneven chairs a canopy Protects the mourners from the blazing heat. It does not shield from view the pile of dirt That yesterday was six feet in the earth. The canopy...

. Snowy Egret Here where sunlight sparkle rinses Cypresses whose balding branches Shoulder epiphytic orchids (Cowhorn, spider, ghost, or scented), Tangled mangrove swamp condenses Fortress walls against surf breakage; Leggy roots and finger shoots pry Into algal mats fermented. Spanish moss like pearl-grey hair flows Over knobby knees of pond...

. . On the Altar of Our Nation I must confess it took a long, long time For Donald Trump to grow on me. He’s gruff, Undiplomatic, calls opponents slime And scum. Of course the man is right, but rough . Around the edges. Loud, uncensored, brash. Plus I can...

. Gallows Lane A lesser charge once meant the pillory, With head and wrists securely set in blocks; For just the legs and feet, a pair of stocks; Or stripped and strapped against the whipping tree, Then branded “A” as in Adultery. Offense to God or Christ the great Redeemer...

. A Clock Describes People Their faces do not show the time of day But something called emotion: what that is, I've no idea; but I can tell you this: they worry as the hours slip away. “Time's a great healer.” So they like to say, and yet it carves...

. Counsel from a Self-Help Guru I haven’t come here purposed with defendingYour excesses or manifold omissions,Or promise all of you a happy ending:I’m here to explicate a few conditions That bear on how you’ll elevate your game.If you repeat your most egregious errors,The end-result will likely be the sameAnd...

. Lone Musketeer "To be a poet in a destitute time means: to attend, singing, to the trace of the fugitive gods. This is why the poet in the time of the world’s night utters the holy … Poetry is a place marker for the gods in times of great...

. How to Build a Monster Don’t bother digging corpses up to suture body parts; Don’t seek out full-moon werewolves or unstake vampiric hearts--- For monsters can be crafted much more easily of late: First, take a child and train him to hate everyone you hate. Then sneer at common...

. Old New England Logging Camps My father-in-law oft told me tales __Recalling logging camp— Tough men who cut gigantic trees __In winters cold and damp. Nearly all were bonded Frenchmen, __Who hailed from old Quebec. And pledged that when the winter passed __Back homeward they would trek. Formal schooling...

. Ovid in Tomis Relegated, scorned, I languish here in this drab town. Unwitting, I caught sight of what must not be seen; my wretched plight, harsh exile from my laureate lettered sphere. The ancients tell of Actaeon, a brash voyeur, ravishing virgins his sanguine princely right. I think my...

. Thoughts Upon Hearing of the Taiwan Earthquake Big earthquake in Taiwan. My first concern: “Will China take advantage and attack?” Why did that cross my mind? Where did I learn To think like that? My brain is out of whack! My wife reminds me that someone we know Is...

. Rudolf Hess Deputy Führer found strangled at Spandau Prison, August 17, 1987 Odd winter whirlwinds occupy my brain With telepathic messages I cherish. Dynamic years! Mein Führer cannot perish When august frenzy storms my mind’s terrain, But fever may mean poisoned food. I sensed it. These Allies once starved...

. Soviet Tactics I Witnessed and Still in Use Today by LTC Roy E. Peterson Outside of the Chinese Communist Party, which itself uses forms of capitalism to advance its economy, people today tend to think of communism as an antiquated bogeyman. They point their fingers elsewhere: statism, totalitarianism, corporate...

. Sapphire Space and Eden Green "...and they saw the God of Israel; and under His feet there appeared to be a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself." ---Exodus 24 "I saw a new heaven and a new earth" __---Revelation 21 O Son of God, this ground...

. Glimmers Alone in rumination, distant dawn Eludes the desperate aching of my eyes, My senses blunted by a cheerless pall, Upon a cratered landscape, dazed hope lies. . Unbridled chaos there for all to see In unrelenting waves from every side, Strong breakers pound the ever-shifting shore And leave...

. The Emmaus Highway Each day we wake up and we walk to Emmaus, escaping what has, and what may yet dismay us. Returning each evening downcast and defeated. Arising again as this loop gets repeated. We start every journey with thoughts that are clouded, and inch down the highway...

. He Knows Our Hearts The Sunday flocks who sing as glory pours Through fancy glass as lusty organs play, The loner bowed in prayer behind closed doors, The lonely who have lost their will and way--- __He knows our hearts    ____He hears our call   ______He loves us...

. Who Believes in Easter Anymore? "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God . . . For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God...

. Peter’s Story a villanelle I’m standing by the Sea of Galilee And Jesus calls for me to come along With James and John, the sons of Zebedee. I’m with Him as He sets the prisoners free, Feeds the hungry, and instructs the throngs. I’m standing by the Sea of...

. Once Once he was finally dead; once just a piece Of meat nailed to the planks of scabrous wood; Once suffering had done all that it could To him before it ceded him release; And once it seemed that evil no surcease Or reasonable limit understood And thereby the...

. Stations of the Cross . I. Pilate Why, Pentheus, Cambyses, why, Why, Antony, in days gone by, Did you the sons of gods defy? __Well, I your madness share. __Barabbas I shall spare __And must the dread abide __Of Jesus crucified. . II. Disciple  Hence leads the long and...

. The Lilacs on Good Friday Tumult of noontide long ago dismissed— The rent veil unremembered, and the sun Relit, though shrouded in a new eclipse Of rainswept sky. The garden seems to shun That spectral agony of blood and bone; Consigns itself instead to placid sleep Untroubled as the...

. The Lamb “And suddenly there was with the angel a heavenly host saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.” ---Luke 2:14 The lamb looks up and sees a light, a star Or something heavenly, a highness like A lamb’s best dreams.  He...

. Distress Signals an extended villanelle Distressing times are coming round again, And all the talking heads now flap their jaws To say it isn’t if, but rather when.— There is a dearth of good upstanding men, And far too many convoluted laws; Distressing times are coming round again, As...

. Reading of Mark F. Stone's poem "The Wisdom of Ric Edelman" by Ric Edelman on his show available here: https://www.thetayf.com/blogs/this-weeks-stories/the-wisdom-of-ric-edelman . The Wisdom of Ric Edelman Tush on the sofa and heels on the hassock. Buying a fancy car, new or a classic. Drinks with umbrellas, imbibed on the...

. Imagine Mountains For the Sesquicentennial of Robert Frost's birth (March 26, 1874 – March 26, 2024) "Let chaos storm! Let cloud shapes swarm! I wait for form."  ---Robert Frost, "Pertinax" Imagine a mountain’s patient peaks revert to wave-rinsed shoals of sand, that limestone’s undulating streaks or slate stairs crumbling...

. The Line For Ashes Line is long and moving slowly: Step by step, the high and lowly, Halt and limber, shorter, taller, Young and elder, greater, smaller, Plainer, fairer, pallor, color, Father, daughter, mother, brother Creeping toward the mark of dead then Signed across an offered head, an Ember...

. Deep State Anonymity Ah, the devil. His motive? To deceive __And for us to deny, To dismiss him as simply make-believe. He loves attention. Like All Hallows’ Eve: __Witches and goblins fly As all his demons snicker and high-five. Malevolent plots he rolls up his sleeve! __Incognito and sly!...

. Shades of Vesuvius Seldom does one see horror in a tranche De vie like that in Herculaneum And Pompeii, when a sudden avalanche Of heat and ash ruptured your cranium (After you met your death in frenzied throes), Leaving your brain a shriveled clump of glass And you stiff in a...

. Limerick Perhaps it’s a marketing trick, or else Iceland’s taking the mick; __for what kind of fun __is an Easter Day bun when the cross has been swapped for a tick? . taking the mick: making fun tick: check mark . . Paul A. Freeman is the author of Rumours of Ophir,...

. The Whiskey Priest based on The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene I stand condemned because I am a priest, Condemned to die by law here in Tabasco, The last eight years of memories I’ve pieced Together show my life’s one big fiasco, For, stupidly, when all priests...

. We Are Wrong You shall remember what Amalek did to you on the way, when you went out of Egypt, how he happened upon you on the way and cut off all the stragglers at your rear, when you were faint and weary, and he did not fear God....

. Queen Esther's Lot for the Jewish holiday of Purim (“Lots”) Oh, to be taken from home’s holy ways, Delivered to a king uncircumcized, And after one grand night, spend endless days With harem women and men feminized— My living God, let this not be my lot. They say cosmetics...