Poetry

. The Great Legitimizer by Euphrates Moss Up from the barbaric yawp of Beowulf and routing through Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375), an Italian poet of great distinction, Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1340s-1400) created the greatest collection of short stories ever assembled. Recognized by consensus as his masterpiece, The Canterbury Tales used Middle...

. Putin That’s, I’m sure, a vampire: Gnaws on bones, bloody-lipped. —A. S. Pushkin. “Vurdalak,” Songs of Western Slavs (Это, верно, кости гложет Красногубый вурдалак. —А. С.  Пушкин. “Вурдалак”, Песни западных славян) What’s in the mirror that you see? No bloody fangs, which would be fitting: you feed on corpses of your victims. You make them...

. Graves “Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and have you rise from them.” ---Ezekiel 37:13 There was a time indeed when I was dead: Oh: breathing yes, and witty, so I’m told; Yet deep within me wormed a sour dread That...

. Snowfall: Via Negativa “Less is more.” ---Literary Dictum Out on the highway, snow settles in place Covering the tracks the traffic has traced Blotting out edges, disguising the rough Burying the world in heaps of white stuff Obscuring the details of branches rimmed white With down-drifting flakes that fill...

. Independence Day? a rondeau Some dared. Some died. With pluck and pride And guts and grit the brave defied Despotic rule. They stripped the foe Of dominance below a glow Of stars that spangled eventide. With God and gumption on their side, They brawled and bled for kin that cried Beneath...

. To All Great Eagles Up on High To all great eagles up on high I hope you hear my battle cry! I have some plans I know you’ll love While you are circling above. There is a retailer to maul That has a Target on its wall. As if...

. Fourth of July Limerick Top left, there’s an oblong that’s blue; add in fifty stars, white in hue. To offset the stars are parallel bars, six white, seven red, straight and true. . . Paul A. Freeman is the author of Rumours of Ophir, a crime novel which was taught...

. America Is Not the Same America is not the same. __I do not recognize it. We all know who should bear the blame, __But still we analyze it. The teachers’ unions and the press _  All share part of the shame. Our legal system is a mess __That functions...

. Evra Our grandma Evra was a trifle difficult. If ever sound advice was needed she’d be there, But quiet, not a word until a person asked, And then she’d give it and you’d better listen ‘cause She never gave it twice—save once, and I’ll get back To that.  Her...

. Adams Mountain I gather in from this high place, my shadow sprawled on shivered stone: Dusk drifts down: autumnal shroud upon the rusk-brown earth below, fall colors fading; chimneys trailing smoke, primordial prayers rising. I see myself as from a far-off orchard, gauged in fading light, a serpent’s view,...

. First Steps in a New World for Toribio Moras, age 14, Vera Cruz, Mexico, 1908 The young Castilian boy set sail, alone, and sought to build a life across the sea. Adrift, so far away, you had no throne, and homeless, you spent nights beneath a tree. Your loyal...

. . This Silence. Foremost among my woes: _This silence as it grows, __My mind fatigued from listening for your voice; Amid the constant buzz, The thought of what once was--- __Your gaping absence overwhelms the noise. . . . . Just Fine_ We’re made of breath and dust And...

. Virgil Recalls Meeting Beatrice: Canto II of Inferno by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) translated by Stephen Binns . The light was failing and the air embrowned, __relieving every creature of the curse __of toil. I alone in that surround was getting ready to endure much worse, __both of the road...

. Classical Poets Live with Andrew Benson Brown Episode 5 Parts I & II: Why Amanda Gorman Is Not a Poet / Building a Renaissance  If you enjoy this video, please like and subscribe on YouTube to support the production. . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPsbQLPUXHU . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XRk4pgRDOw . .

. La Campana Ring, grandfather! And ring for liberty. The bell spoke once and, speaking, croaked and cracked. Our gazes bathed its iron in gold hazes As Hebrews treasured tablets their sin split. Its silent iron: I will ring again. We have a problem---witnessed by the crack. The groan of...

. Miracle of the Book Distance was short, but porters would be needed, And sacks were packed with small necessities. I wrapped the Gospel book and then proceeded Along the rowan-bordered road with ease. Only when day and its activities Were done did I seek out the book and find...

. Incensed For days, drawn draperies of fire, pinned close by dry pines, needled us with smells of smoke so thick it stung our eyes and burned our nose and made us run to see if flames arose from lightning flashes on the street-lined oak. Undoused by rain, unsoaked by...

. The Number 44: The Cookery Class Now, this is a tale of a cookery class; It happened in Battersea early one March. The teacher was Jane who though barely thirteen Already sought fame as a culinary queen. Our Jane had decided, supported by Mum, To ask all her friends and...

. Le Bal Des Ardents for Joe Salemi On 28th January 1393 in Paris, Queen Isabeau of Bavaria, wife of the mad King Charles VI of France, held a ball which became the scene of a terrible tragedy when four members of the nobility, masquerading as “wild men,” were burned...

. Psalm 23: King David’s Version When I was just a hungry sheep __and I was lonely, lost and scared, You somehow found me, fed me, led me, __showed me just how much You cared. When in the valley with its shadows __that each prophesy my death, Tho’ I hear...

. Pillar of Salt “By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah... Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities... But Lot’s wife looked back, and...

. As Orwell Warned The Right now gets censored to silence, While schools and the media teach, That speech from the Right equals violence, And Left violence merely is speech. . . “When I Was Your Age…” Sometimes when my kids converse __I simply have to say, How often things...

. South Vietnam Warfare . Northern Jungle The rat-tat-tat of machine gun Split through the mist of morning sun. The sympathetic Montagnard Were blown apart from near to far. The boom of friendly howitzer Made opposition disappear. The screams of death fell silently As hell consumed with entropy. How free...

. The Adventures of Verb At six, I had a dictionary Where I would meet a man named Verb, Superb and quite extraordinary, In every definition’s blurb, Right at the finish, did while doing, For example: “Verb chewed, chewing.” In my mind, I saw Verb clearly, With brown hair, mustache,...

. Darkface at Dusk "Death is swallowed up in victory" ---1 Cor. 15:4 At twilight, as I walked in solitude Along a country lane, unpaved and worn, Past gloomy fields, of springtime’s verdure shorn, My thoughts enshrouded in a solemn mood, I saw across the road, behind some trees, Through...

. Even the 49ers Don’t Play There Anymore Is San Francisco slip-sliding away? Old Navy, Nordstrom, Saks, the Gap, have all Closed stores—with Hilton in default—as they Abandon a once-thriving downtown mall. . With sidewalks strewn with needles, poop and tents, And smash and grab shoplifting city wide, Old businesses...

. Job’s Rant Job 3: 3-10 . May darkness and death’s shadow claim the day When I was sent to bear the curse of earth. May clouds blot out the night that gave me birth And drown it in the densest blackness.  May Malediction blot each brazen ray Of sun...

. In Extremis ---from the Western wilds Here at the most attenuated ends Of America’s arterial transport map, Where pavement stops, dissolves to native dust, I find I’m mostly mindful of defense: Where hedgerow thorns have failed to fill a gap, Or chain link steel has rotted into rust— As...

. This Is the Choice  The gates of hell Closed from within. No one sends us--- We lock ourselves in. . The gates of Heaven Are open and true, Welcoming souls who Choose to walk through. . This is the choice--- One all of us make. God will walk with...

. The Deluge From Heaven came the rain; On Earth the waters swelled To wash away each stain The eyes of God beheld. Each structure man had made Of metal, wood, and stone Cut down by Water's blade, Save for the Ark alone. Till sense of time had ceased, We...

. Reviewed Book: Laughing Matters: Poems with a Wink and a Smile by James A. Tweedie, Duncrest Press, 2023 by Theresa Werba This collection of humorous poetry by the excellent James A. Tweedie is more than a mere collection of clever jokings and funny sayings. James Tweedie is reveling in...

. Green I’m talking green: the greening ground Of spring and springing hope eternal; The spectrum’s hidden light unbound And animation of all that’s vernal; The pulsing new-found energy Of green, intoxicating green, Candescent with viridity. There is no other drug but green. . . The Luxuriance of Leaves What...

. Pharaoh’s Dream Redux “And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, In my dream, behold, I stood upon the bank of the river: And, behold, there came up out of the river seven kine, fatfleshed and well favoured; and they fed in a meadow: And, behold, seven other kine came up after...

. The Gallows The trial was quick, the verdict read: “Guilty as charged,” the foreman said. The judge declared the man would hang, the leader of a robber gang who stabbed the sheriff with a knife, and made a widow of his wife. Appeals denied, his luck now spent, to...

. The Straight-Fishing, Straight-Talking Jiang Ziya Far off in time and place but still on this small globe, By a river with his beard and stick and robe, A sage thought on a kingdom’s end that war might loot And by the river swung an unbent hook to probe. For...

. Runway Ready An Anorectic at a Playground . Scrawny, lean and teen Miss Annie sat upon her bony fanny, straddled ‘cross a teeter-totter, filling up on Fibre Water. From above, bungeed a spider, claimed the empty seat as rider, launching Ann like some machine, Plop! Splat! onto a trampoline. When she...

. Distant Thoughts from Nearby I need to turn my dog-ears up __and harken to the quietude ____ignored for many years, __and contemplate my solitude, ____expressing through my tears Incautious songs that made me up. My oldest friends will never know __the thrall of certain moods I wear, ____the many...

. The House on 58th Street for my father Salvatore J. Salemi (1913-2008) The house on 58th Street stood right by A cemetery—Calvary by name. Looking out our windows we could see A high stone wall, hand-fashioned of huge rocks (And to a child’s mind only giants could Have raised...

. The Test The second is like it, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' —Jesus (Matthew 22:39, NASB1995) Is every trial just a self-created test? Perhaps we do not grow until we have been stressed. How do we pass the test, so that we may be blessed? Perhaps we...

. The Number 207: The Road to Nowhere Oh once along the Road to Nowhere That used to be the Uxbridge Road You’d board and pay the tuppenny bus fare And go where milk and honey flowed. For this was then a demi-Eden Where gentlefolk would take their ease. With...