Poetry

. Madrigal à la Tasso The surface of the lake reflects the flight _Of one and then another swan; _How it would add to my delight __To know where each has gone, _As when, my love, I look upon Those rapid thoughts which pass from left to right _Across the...

. The Lop-Sided House A lop-sided house on the edge of a cliff; A family trying so hard to be nice As their eavesdropping neighbors spy, wondering if They can catch every word said on every device. The father’s been threatened. He can’t speak his mind, And mother’s been ordered...

. Lady Agnew of Lochnaw, Loved by the Viewer and the Baronet The lady wanted prettiness and style. (The artist wanted pounds.) The chintz Gave both her wants. A “quizzical half-smile” Invites a conversation, or it hints At that. Chiffon hides shoulders, who knows why? Her breasts are also secret...

. Underfoot Fescue and clover: A luxuriant carpet Fit for a king’s feet. . . Murder They take noisy flight, Leaving the harvest’s stubble To hungry field mice. The crows will not make a sound When they return for the mice. . . Hunger _Silent and stately, The prince of...

. Montana High School Reunion The big fella who grew up in Butte, Claimed his high school sweetheart was so cute, __Going back would be grand __A reunion was planned So he went out and bought costly boots. He came thinking about his old lover, But as soon as he...

. Contemplative Days A sky of dim and pale display __Brings forth late autumn calm. "A restful peace," it seems to say; __My soul receives the balm. The faded leaves of golden tint __Which cover thick the ground Disguise a path with subtle hint __Of hibernation mound. A tepid sun...

. Smile “Nothing you wear is more important than your smile.” ---Connie Stevens I didn’t weigh your sway and worth__Until you left my faceDevoid of joy and minus mirth.__You left without a traceOf warmth and light---no hint of brightAnd beautiful---no shining sight__Imbued with rays of graceTo melt the mournful corners ofThe...

. The Trochaic Poems of Dorothy Parker by Joseph S. Salemi A few poets become famous, while most go down into oblivion. But a small scattering of them are eventually categorized as “minor poets,” whose work may be just as good as those who are well known, but who for...

. Talk Around the Urn In our Sunday best, on folding chairs, We solemnly talk around the urn; A tear, a sniffle, show who cares For the loved one who will not return. No box is there with dressed up corpse, But mostly wood burned into ash. The mourners show...

. A Colossal Event of Avoidance “This is a colossal event of avoidance not just in the state of Florida, but you will find avoidance in the Carolinas.” ---Marn’i Washington, FEMA Supervisor, November 11, 2024 A colossal event of avoidance occurred when a storm came and went causing damage unheard...

. Melancholy Hues (of Autumn) ---an ode The third of four trimesters of the yearsees summer flag. The mercury recedesand chilly grey replaces skies once clear,while on Earth’s tilted axis, Autumn feeds. From bole and trunk arboreal poisons coursethrough branches, twigs and into verdant leaves,which, tainted, turn to russet, red...

. A Vacillating Villanelle On Perception  "Understanding the world for a man is reducing it to the human, stamping it with his seal. The cat’s universe is not the universe of the anthill." ---Albert Camus Whatever life perceives, life will receive. The butterfly sees ultraviolet light. For us, what we...

. Truth Streaked Across the Sky Truth streaked across the skyAlighting on a foreign strand,Where politicians buried itBeneath the lying sand. The truth was stranger than the lies,Too dazzling for the mind.The leaders meant for it to dieIn the land of the half-blind. With gradual revealing tides,Truth showed as life...

. Saint Andrew My Uncle Andrew lived his lifeInflicting others pain and strife.‘Twas always said by mother dear“No good shall come of it, you hear!”He’d swill the hooch and whop his wifeOr kids within an inch of life.From trollops he would not abstain,Howled at the Pastor with disdain.These tales I...

. Just Doin' Our Job As if they didn’t have enough to do already---harvesting the light to make food for the tree and seeing to it you and I have clean air every day---leaves slake their host tree’s constant thirst by managing the process whereby unseen roots will take the...

. Sailing to Illusium Unheralded, the ancient oracle Appears and disappears, pronounce announcing Creaturely mortality while singing Dirges under breath; rhetorical Devices wringing images of death From sweet-sleep fentanyl and crystal meth. Unhinged abstentions from imperatives To live belabored sweat for paradise. Unplant, unwater, rape and reap the price Of...

. Diners For single men alone, what impulse spurs us To find them everywhere? –the burned-out lights, the squat brick block, so many times repurposed, the worn, clichéd inside, lit over-bright: Plump rows of sticky pseudo-leather booths, And dusty ferns suspended from the ceiling. The waitress looms like Venus, sturdy...

. Great Expectation Classical Poets Student Edition The summary and introduction below is from a newly adapted (UK spellings Americanized and punctuation updated), illustrated, and annotated version of Great Expectations by the Society of Classical Poets. A preview containing the first chapter is below. The complete novel can be purchased...

. Raking Leaves The blaze of autumn's orange-gold is gone, And now it's time to rake the fallen leaves, __To clear the cluttered eaves, __And face a colder dawn. Those piles and piles of crispy, mottled leaves Become as chaff between my sieve-like hands __And whirl in changing winds. __I...

. Solid Rock With open heart, but eyes shut tight, led by our feelings, not by sight, they are the rock upon which we once built the fantasy that the foundation that we engineered inside our mind as thoughts appeared, perhaps inspired but likely not, still we approved the plan...

. First Pick Flamingo They used to call this player the flamingo; They chaffed and mocked; they were full of bravado. ‘Cause he’s the new kid, they didn’t know his skills He missed three practice shots, so he was grilled. A weird name to deride his faultless form. The children...

. A Brief Respite From murky depths, I rise, by duty fetched,And breaking surface in the waking world,I find my horizontal self outstretched,Exposed to view, like some old map unfurled. Upon this couch, I sink with gentle sighsInto its softness, briefly now set freeFrom stresses, like a caravel that liesHalf-buried...

. Jehu Destroys the Temple and Statue of Baäl "—What did that madman want?" ---2 Kings 9:11 He saw Jehu Destroys the Temple and Statue of Baäl, the print by Maarten van Heemskerck of darkness to appall. He saw the flames inside the Temple—from windows pouring forth— the headless form...

. Beryl Spring ---Yellowstone National Park Towering torrents of steam and mist Rise next to the side of the road, Beckoning drivers to park and trudge toward a cloud. Roars like the noise of jet engines persist, Crescendo their clangorous mode; Vents firing volleys embark on cannonades loud. Beryl Spring...

. The Garden Dense boughs and variegated blooms __That once festooned a garden Are dying as November births __Pellucid forms that harden On them, my attic's roof, and grass. Now every morning when I pass __This place, once deeply green, A stark, white blandness greets my eyes; __No colour's to...

. https://youtu.be/B9aMXFVpFEk . . Andrew Benson Brown's epic-in-progress, Legends of Liberty, chronicles the major events of the American Revolution. He writes history articles for American Essence magazine and resides in Missouri. Watch his Classical Poets Live videos here.

. A Recruiter Tells It as It Isn’t Your World War One recruitment agent prays he finds you well. Your King and Country says we need you for a dalliance in France. In gay Paris, you’ll get to chat and dance with mademoiselles before you reach the Front. With pals,...

. Feeding the Alligators The orange king of lava tongue has won. He sings a spangled song that rings throughout A plundered land where dreams and gold once sprung. He's here to nourish hope and conquer doubt. The bullet-bitten boomerang is back. The cackle of the camel is no more....

. Homeostasis "When it is not necessary to change, it is necessary not to change."  —Lucius Cary, Viscount Falkland In general, everybody wishes things Would stay the same. An endless barbecue Of ribs and marinated chicken wings Prepared by chefs with nothing else to do Sounds fine to me; for others,...

. The Ghosts of Altamira ---a meditation A herd of prehistoric bison; blood beliefs Depicted in concentric whorls with prints of hands. Stick petroglyphs which hint at ice age births and griefs, And spells to bind the mammoths close to tribal lands. A saber-tooth lies buried in an earthen carpet...

. For the Sake of Ten Thousand: A Supplication from New Sodom And Abraham came near and said, ‘Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked?  Suppose there were fifty righteous…?’” ---Genesis 18: 23-24 Would you destroy the righteous with the savage?Supposing fifty-thousand people whoStill worship You, and still...

. O Lord, Let Me Not Fall O Lord, let me not fall today, I pray, Not in some vague or metaphoric way, As into sin or moral turpitude Or somewhat less than pious interludes. I’m talking, Lord, my face against the floor, The sidewalk, in some random corridor; Someplace...

. "Sometimey” People Sometimes he’s quite responsive, Sometimes he disappears. Sometimes he’s downright friendly, Sometimes he switches gears. Sometimes he’s so straightforward, Sometimes he seems to swerve. Sometimes “sometimey” people, Just get on my last nerve. . . New Priority When he was young to just be liked __Was his...

. Contra Computerdom I hold this fountain pen with thumb and fingers, burgundy barrel, gold and rhodium nib, Montblanc white-sea-star floating on its cap. German, this instrument, successor to the stylus trimmed from common river reeds, Sumerians marking wedge-shaped cuneiform on tablets fired from Tigris potash clay; the Roman calamus,...

. Simplicity “Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.” ---Sir Isaac Newton I smell you in the fresh-mown lawnAs linen billows in the breeze.I hear you in the chirp of dawn__And splash of seas. I taste you in the velvet...

. Horse Figurine —one inch by one point nine inch, 32,000 to 35,000 years before Giacometti's famous horse   A hallowed tiny horse, but missing legs, Comes down to us impossibly, or near In its impossibility.  No dregs Of artistry such items are.  They jeer At us for thinking we are...

. HellWard Canto 1: Hospital ---lines 1-92 It had to be---that long descent began: About me images, one century That started, stuttered, showed how poor is man In all things except his savagery. My grandfather's face, first in that stale line, Who missed the trenches through admin’s mystery; Was sent...

. Elegy for a Cowboy Cousin An autumn wind is stirring strong across the dusty hills, As tumbleweeds leave skittered tracks within the sandy rills. The western sun is slanting deep through breaks in gathering sky, And washes waning villages where watchful ravens fly. Here in Round Top’s ruffling breeze...

. Voting Advice When we vote in each election,few with brains will ever run.So, when we make our selection,we elect a simpleton. When a massive problem’s brewingthat can tear apart the state,since they don’t know what they’re doing,they will always obfuscate. They’ll create a new Commissionthat will study things to...

. Guy Fawkes Night Makeover November 5th! To Guy Fawkes let’s be kind--- no burning him in effigy this year. His hanged-and-drawn-and-quartered doom I find excessive; let’s reverse his fate most drear! His body parts (grim warnings to be loyal) return to London where they recombine. His entrails get un-burned,...