Poetry

. To My Daughter A woman’s life is hard, they say---and true, Though now not as our mothers understood: They battled nature’s facts and custom’s due; Your battle will be for true womanhood. Though all men’s ways now lie in reach for you--- Toil, battle, woes, cares, bruises, sweat, and...

. It Was Only a Winter’s Tale based on David Essex's classic 1982 Christmas song The nights are ever short and growing cold; the front door lies ajar from when you left one evening, though your reasons were untold, and in the time between I’ve been bereft. Your footprints have...

. A Harvard Education Who dares to say that Harvard in The present situation No longer is a purveyor of A top-notch education? Why even its own President Just now was taught to deem Free speech of great importance when Jew hatred is the theme. . . Russel Winick recently started...

. Thanksgiving I’m thankful most for what I can’t describe, Though otherwise I’m clever as can be At secular and sacred repartee. Yet when it comes to all that I’ve imbibed Of graces poured abundantly and how The earliest I savor even now, No subject with a verb can ever...

. Greta Thunberg Meets the Emerald Queen Part II of "The Emerald Queen: A Legend from the Future" One day through the forest leaves wafted her song, Attracting a young girl who wandered along, Who loved to go walking in nature and so She followed the voice and had no...

. Unsocial Addictions Why do some people lie, brag, or act mean?It must pump them up, like a jolt of caffeine.But soon they come down, right to where they have been,And can’t get back up, till they do it again. . . Sex Education One morning in our classroom for...

. Yet Another Year The birthday bells reverberate __Through haunted towns That lead you to an ancient gate __Beside which clowns Laugh aloud and break down in tears; __They stand and wait, Resembling dreams of former years __That've died to fate Or choice or both. The torches shine __Upon the...

. There Is a Way? Is there a way for beauty to be painted with a word? Is there a way to write in ways so music can be heard? Is there a way to make a point that others can’t ignore? Is there a way to say it that...

. Convictions of My Thoughts and Deeds Convictions of my thoughts and deeds are vapors, not substantial things. There are no clouds that hold the breeze, they toss about on errant winds. __Look yonder! See! __Huck Finn it be! From shore to land and land to shore An unsure raft...

. The Risen Though now the hearth is left to smolder __And light will soon be gone; Fire shall rise from hearts far bolder __And shine like morning dawn! Though the trees now lie here withered __With leaves tossed to the breeze; They shall survive the coming blizzard __Their roots...

. Sonnet for Mom (October 21, 1933 - March 28, 2014) I could not see how much she cared for me; Her faults were amplified in my young mind. But now I’m only left with memories; Perspective changes as I look behind. True need in childhood days I did not...

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/iKSrcgV__G0 https://www.youtube.com/shorts/uUi588ZCmbQ   https://www.youtube.com/shorts/0fXLunr7NVU https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ZRIOZkeWfIA https://www.youtube.com/shorts/RWYPcuIOTMY   . . 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,...

. Abraham and the Binding of Isaac after Genesis 22 I cannot sleep although the moon is high. I’m numb. Before me looms the sacred hill. My son snores softly. I look to the sky Submissive to God’s wish but anxious still About the dawn. How can I do this...

. Art and Belief by Joseph S. Salemi When I consider the question of art and belief, I recall the words of the world-famous Indian dancer, Sujata Rubener. She was born a Christian in Bombay, but she was the premier dance interpreter of the various myths of Hinduism and Buddhism,...

. Lee in the Furnace "He who thinks of Lee Must think of Washington. . ." ---Herman Melville So Oleh, Chief, my other grandfather, Mine on the distaff, on the losing side. The furnace burnishes your graven face. You smell destruction, like a gathered tide. As all your features soften,...

. Insouciance When circumstances wear you down Consider this important fact: It’s easier to smile than frown. When autumn leaves have all turned brown, Your borders breached, your cities sacked, And circumstances wear you down, Go find yourself another town To capture what you’ve always lacked: A cause to smile...

. Tampering with Permanence  a Seattle pantoum __Here where I live, a cloud looks like a mountain; mountains float. Like love, illusions laugh out loud. We’re stuck in nature’s drunken boat: looks like a mountain; mountains float and fade to air, though made of rock— we’re stuck in nature’s drunken...

. Pythagoras, Man of Music Pythagoras was of mathematical mind. No matter where he went, he’d often find Relationships to numbers. For example, The clangorous peal of blacksmith hammers’ metal On metal gave him cause to train his ear. That different weights made different tones was clear. He tested weighted...

. Voyage to Scotland Constantius II, son of Constantine and emperor from 337 to 361, hoped to glorify Constantinople by collecting relics of all twelve Apostles. He took Saint Andrew’s remains by force from the saint’s principal shrine in Patras, Greece. This violent robbery greatly distressed the people of Patras....

. Killing Common Sense The savagery of leftist rage __is getting more intense. There’s no rest from the war they wage __upon our common sense. The brave who voice their doubts out loud __are always shouted down. They’re cornered by the blue-haired crowd, __then driven out of town. Young brains...

. There Are Not Enough Hours in the Day There are not enough hours in the dayto take all of the naps I want to take.As soon as I have sprung up from the hayI think I'd rather dream than be awake—so long as they are of the pleasant sort,not...

. If You Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter If solidified oil with chemical clutter That helps it look yellow and tasty to eat Makes you think there’s no need to believe it’s not butter, You believe in modernity’s biggest deceit. If you think things can just be replaced with a...

. Death in Life, Life in Death: Canto XXXIII of Inferno by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) translated by Stephen Binns The sinner raised his face from that foul meal ____shade eating another’s head __and wiped his mouth then with hair that once was __upon the head that he consumed with zeal....

. What Sort of Freedom? What sort of freedom is it that proclaims Its export to the savage and demands Oceans of youthful blood to back its claims And wrests the first fruits from hard-toiling hands; That foists debt’s yoke on children, hollowing All human action with harsh usury; That...

. You Might Be a Leftist Liberal Democratic Clone You might be a leftist liberal Democratic clone, If you think someone else should pay your student loan. You might be a leftist liberal Democratic jerk, If you get paid for protesting and not for work. You may be that one...

. . Music by Jeff Eardley . . The Return to Ithaca by Brian Yapko This shall not be forever, This life spent on the sea. __I’m going to find my one true love And joined again we’ll be. I’ll risk the howling tempest With sails high on the mast,...

. My Last Delivery as Attending Physician adapting a line from Carl Sandburg Although she’s labored for eleven hours, determination freckled on her face to consummate nine months, she summons powers inherent in her gender of the race to introduce another life to air, and so she bears down through...

. Revolution Puckish Schoenberg, bored with Bach now assaults the tonic scale, pounding (his a frontal shock), on Mozart's coffin, a modernist nail. He scans the twelve established tones, then briskly rolls the musical dice, overturning melody’s throne, emancipating dissonance. What’s he doing, anyway? Has he made a radical break...

. 2 Peter 3 “Consider that our Lord’s patience is directed toward salvation.” ---2 Peter 3:15 For once in church (before, I think, the Sacrament) In silence deep and cast adrift in prayer, I folded in upon the immanent For just a moment (maybe more) and there Was made of...

. Wayward Their frosty hearts and polished oaken door Slammed shut the night she found her stolen voice. She sang a moonbeam song---a shocking choice In mystic keys that spurned the common score--- A black-sheep beat that rocked the status quo In jarring notes of pink and indigo. Her sickened kin---they banished her from sight With tongues so sharp they severed touch and tie; With barbs so blunt they bruised her summer sky. Through squalls of pain her bold refrain took flight--- A...

. The Ballad of Baldy McCass Canteen I From Utah to Colorado rode that wily desperado. Sometimes off to wild Wyoming or Nevada he went roaming. In late afternoons towards banks, high society’s rare ranks, coaches, too, slanted his shadow, having stolen o’er the meadow. Spring and summer, fall and...

. To Whom It May Concern a common spelling error: “Isreal.” "Woe to those who say of the evil that it is good and of the good that it is evil; who present darkness as light and light as darkness, who present bitter as sweet and sweet as bitter." ---Isaiah...

. Remembrance I When I, a boy whom youth made bold, Had bid my land of birth one last adieu, To search for glory, fame and gold On distant shores, as seamen do, Drowning old worries in the waves of blue, Exchanging comfort for the cold, The land for sea,...

. A 2023 Survival Villanelle for Potentially Contentious Thanksgiving Gatherings Keep dinner chatter chirrupy and perky. Don’t prod the pachyderm that plods the room. Thank your candied yams you’re not a turkey. Stay cool when you hear tosh that’s crass and quirky, Like blokes lactate and fellas have a womb....

. Spirit of Thanksgiving Past O, noble Spirit of Thanksgiving Past, You are a very strange yet gracious host! Of course the thought of going back brings joy--- To see my life when I was just a boy! So guide me as an insubstantial ghost And through a mist we’ll...

. . The Eve of Thanksgiving ‘Tis the eve of Thanksgiving, and all through the class, The students are wishing the time would soon pass. Though it’s nodes, modes, and frequencies they’re told to find, Bright visions of turkeys sashay through each mind. Though the pencils are poised over notebooks...

. Interrogation at the Grassy Knoll: November 22, 1963 Who are you guys? We’re from the CIA. And you? I’m Lucien Sarti from Marseilles. What about you swarthy types? Who, us? We’re Cuban exiles, and we won’t discuss The reason why we’re here. And how about you? I’m sent by...

. World View Beyond the line where sea and sky collideLie distant lands beyond myopic sightWhere men and women live and love besideThe self-same sea beneath the same sun’s light. Where East meets West depends on where one stands.I travel west to reach the OrientWhile those in distant cross-Pacific landsLook east...

. . Reversing Babel . I. Babel “Now the whole earth had one language and one speech.” ---Genesis 11:1 . An ill wind blows through Babel, where all speech Is one, so that it’s possible to plan--- Then build---our city’s tower, which will reach To realms where God can be...

. Perpetual Emotion “And everybody hates the Jews.” ---Tom Lehrer, National Brotherhood Week Not many people like the Jews; __By many they are hated. The people whom God chose to choose __At best are tolerated. Whenever something seems unfair __It’s Jews who are "outrageous." "Like viruses they’re everywhere. __Thank God,...