. The Great Rub-off Norm and Zip, in mismatched chairs, __were sipping tea and talking, when Desi, their loyal hound,...

. Mexican Sestina Perhaps I left because I got too bored, and no one could put sense in my thick...

. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Silently beats an invisible clock. Night turns to day, day turns to...

. Autumn Twilight Full moon. Crickets singing. Scarlet sky.Long past summer solstice; now the sunDescends before the short day’s work...

. The Introvert Sequestered in an abstract mood,Replete in blissful solitude;Behind the veil of scenes overtYou’ll find the pensive introvert....

. Rattler ---inspired by Master Bedroom, Andrew Wyeth, 1965 The walls and windows unadorned, the bedkept neatly made, the blanket...

. Libra There in my hand I held a crystal vial Of distillation potent, red, and sweet, By which my...

. On Bill Mahrt’s Retirement as Choirmaster of the St. Ann Choir (June, 2024) W e all should thank our...

. I Will Awaken the Dawn The birds have yet to echo Their songs across the trees, The sun has...

. True Love On a hill far away, a true love waits, In a place of weathered, broken gates. And...

. Another Crossroads I have a rendezvous with destiny.It’s at the crossroads of Straight Street and Main.With cardboard sign, that...

. To Her Ghost: a Sequence from Orpheus Looks Back ---in memoriam Emily Desire Gaynor Rothman, 1964-2020 . 1. Breaking...

. The Magic Trick Another dove spawns from the wizard's hat. A youngster, goggle-eyed, forgets to clap, enchanted by the...

. Cloth of Destiny From his jail cell, he preached civility— despite the agony centuries had brought. Proud Rosa occupied...

. Anticipating President Trump’s Golden Age Unburdened from that which has recently been. An era of progress about to begin....

Free People In some sense, free people have no needOf poets to give their speech a better voice.But freedom wanes...

. Stones for My Parents I didn’t want to come. How sad it sounded To kneel beneath a hazy sun...

. Whoever Am I? Preface to His Poetry .by Prudentius (c. 4th century AD)translated by Margaret Coats If I see...

. The Hectic Life _Sometimes we get discouraged _With life and all its fuss, Its raucous moments speeding by _Like...

. Death Is But a Passing A death is but a passing from one world into another, A change of...

. Pearls or Swine? Pray show me how to tell a pearl from swine. I have a thirst for sanity...

. Best of the Windy City Nation’s hub and culture center, O’Hare Airport, millions enter. Stunning architecture sites, The awesomeness...

. Elusive Illusive Art Where are the pure, illusive works of artthat bubble upward from the deep unknown?Where in this...

. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF6v6ES3FMU . This is song was originally a poem published by the Society of Classical Poets in March, 2018....

. Four Newsy Limericks . A pedophile, if you should see one, Must not be reported. The reason? __It could...

. A Pleased Jaques ---after a soliloquy in Shakespeare's As You Like It At first there is the infant, grinning...

. My Soul Is at Home in the Depths of the Ocean My soul is at home in the depths...

. O Delta Smelt O Delta Smelt of silver scale, O threatened gem of fin and tail, In brackish waters...

. The Lemon Tree We leave the house, the nurtured lawn is gone; The garden still resembles lifeless works Of...

. Out in the Open The slanting rain comes on and on! The cold drops blear and blur the sun...

. Payday Before the crash, the market looked so strong. I doled out cash and credit, buying in While others...

. Magna Lex ---to the choirmaster, a Psalm (19) of David. . I The heavens herald God’s resplendency; The skies...

. Let There Be Light From beyond, there came the Word—a cosmic “Om”That pierced the void with one colossal bang...

. Unnoticed and Unknown Unnoticed and unknown, she passes through The homeless strewn along the downtown street. Unnoticed and unknown...

. Emergent Occasions “And even angels, whose home is heaven, and who are winged too, yet had a ladder to...

. Three Cascading Endings on Fallen Civilizations I. Everywhere, the sands are endless. Look: A joke is made of all...

. Winter Night A full moon fills the sky with lustrous light And gives the vault of heaven in the...

. My Inner Attorney "Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only...

. Two Idylls by Bion of Smyrnatranslated by Joseph S. Salemi . Idyll V Great Cypris stood before me in...

. . None for All Backbones wilt and waistlines grow; Brightness dims as diodes glow. It’s history’s course, a simple...