Poetry

or Mutatis Mutandis The mode of most catastrophe is gradually, then suddenly. Time slowly ratchets up the stress in states that tend to stay at rest until some last-straw catalyst, the tumblers’ incremental twist allows locked plates at last to shift; the temblored continental drift frees the long pent-up potential...

By Wilbur Dee Case One of the most unlikely poems of the Modernist period is that by Robert Frost: "The Pasture." It is unlikely for many reasons. First, it seems more like a Romantic lyric, i.e., one hundred years too late, because of its rural depiction and its simple, formal...

  The World Is Still Too Much Too much, and much too much, it still goes on: The men and women who covet wealth and bling, And acquisition of each material thing, Yet search for some elusive paradigm Of Self as one with Nature. Rising seas And tempest winds instill...

By Evan Mantyk One week in mid-January this year, in the relatively obscure world of poetry, Joseph Charles MacKenzie’s “Pibroch for the Domnhall” exploded like an atomic bomb, shattering perceptions that rhyming and rhythmic poetry—poetry that common people appreciate or at least understand for a change—was dead upon the stage of...

When I struggle for sleep, I dust off a classic and try counting sheep: Trouble is, my sheep show off, they leap like Olympians over their feeding trough – They soar through the air, blending into the clouds, pirouette, land back down, where the rest of the animals wait, giving...

All photos by Mark Wyatt / All poetry by Alec Ream Chant of the Wooded Hall Chlorophyll concordant eaves Soaring ceiling, verdant leaves Torah spell my secret sees Worded oracle of trees Beneath a thing be found intent Unsheathing singing, sound and scent Growing shoots a task of me Sowing...

Sonnet for an Arabian Autumn After William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73 This time of year you will in me perceive When all things green take on their second growth, The sun at last agrees to a reprieve, And birds return to keep their migrant’s oath. You’ll see a certain lightness in...

  Teaching the Inner Couplets of one Rumi Has left me truly desolate and gloomy. They say he’s great, this Sufi poet Rumi, But frankly, it is most astounding to me That anyone can read the text of Rumi Without becoming gaunt and pale and rheumy. Old Shakespeare might have...

  This time of year makes it hard to believe in randomness. Maples flame up, then out, visible symmetry undressed as roots-in-air mirrors.  That blood moon too; imagine it even older, chokecherry-small, earth an egg, the sun a perfect boulder. What precision engineering to have them appear in eclipse as...

Often I ponder things unseen Eons of light and mysterious beings The breathtaking fallout as stars collide A silent womb where souls reside Hidden space where last breaths are kept Moss ridden stone where Jesus wept Tribal paintings of Mermaids on caves Star gates unsealed and paths unpaved Particles of...

A Million Thoughts Based on the Holocaust testimony of Bertha Haberfeld By Surina Patel A million thoughts are rushing through my brain, The looming gas chamber ahead of me, The sounds I hear and the sights that I see, The mud beneath my numb feet from the rain, Everything feels...

Darkness No longer did they see the need For things called books they used to read. Music—no longer symphonies, But simple tunes composed with ease. And what of Beauty?  What of Grace? They disappeared without a trace. Because of that, without a doubt, The light of Wisdom did go out....

  Console her with the Atheist’s philosophy: ____Never mind! Your grandma’s dead. It’s Nature’s way of denoting an atrophy ____In the muscles, lungs and head. I mean to say her central nervous system ____Was gradually shutting down. You really can’t appreciate its Wisdom? ____Oh, darling, must you frown? For when...

  Heat waves frolic along the desert’s endless edge I hear the shuffling of camel’s toes The soft landing of camel dung The smell adding to my woes My knees embedded in sand Awaiting the wrath of the queen of hearts The bald ibis watches from his rocky perch I...

Riven (A Rannaigheacht Ghairid) Once I dreamed Ospreys soared where salmon teemed. Frigid streams and waterfalls Frosted walls where glaciers gleamed. Darkness cowled The moon whenever wolves howled Until hunters fired a torch That scorched the realms where night prowled. Sunlight slew Calves* of glaciers tinted blue, Snowy owls, and...

  After college, in my job search I found A prestigious post in antiquities At the historic museum downtown (As a gift shop clerk, more accurately). In my second year, the docents told us A few rounds of layoffs were to be made. As store manager, I bore the onus...

  Winter’s Passing Now I can see no sky above your space, For dark clouds hide the blue that may be there. The air is full of rain that pelts my face, The ground is flood and mud the grieved must bear. I think of those that live in warmer...

Where was it that Alice went, One bright and shining day, A rabbit's lair, beneath the blare, A restless child at play, And where was it that Alice was, To greet a smoking bug, Who's pipe spelled words, Such tales unheard, If ever were heard of, So, where was it...

. . Humble Shant My humble shant be free of strife Untroubled see my simple life Skiff and paddle, hat and brim Gift unaddled bright, not dim Photo by Tunde Hegedus at Inle Lake, Myanmar . . . . . . . . . . Amid the Stream I walked...

  Education:  To Be Continued ... There is no lack of opportunity For education in this spendthrift age, And boys who wish to earn a decent wage Must show the general community That they have somehow learned to use their heads For more than just a place to lodge a...

  Says Simon Cowell (A Villanelle) “Which came first, the egg or fowl? This is what I’d like to know.” “Who cares?” says Simon Cowell. (Not so much “says” as speaks in growl) I care, I think, and tell him so -- “Which came first, the egg or fowl? An...

  Once Flew and Flown No More Such heights I once had seen and gusts of winds that caught my caution Through clouds above a world I didn't know And pressed towards horizons, body wrought with all exhaustion Soaring carelessly so far and long ago O'er ocean spray and hills...

  Time (for Children) Time flies, as everyone knows and time marches on, as the saying goes and time will stand still now and then when we wish but does time ever swim for fish? And does it swing from the trees for monkeys? And does it leap over logs for...

  Haiku "You are what you eat!" That's what all of the books say Then I guess I'm nuts!   Naturally You walk into the beauty shop to get help for your hair, the receptionist greets you at the door and shows you to your chair. The beautician saunters over,...

(thanks for your kindness) How like a star in a darkening sky, appears an unexpected friendly deed. How much more so when storm warnings belie the growth potential of one’s kindling seed. But though my firmament was overcast from waiting for a bus to get to work - which forced...

Mulched beyond bones, but reprieved, Wolfgang has a home in my mind, and he’s still bereaved. From his pauper’s grave, and with a whispered pitch, I’ve summoned him with my ‘On/Off’ switch. I’ve a front row seat, alone in my darkened room. Herr Mozart performs for an audience of one,...

  On Super Bowl LI I went to bed. The Falcon’s made it 28 to 3 and yet I never should have doubted the poised Tom Brady. Halfway through the third-quarter he had a ways to go. I woke up in the AM and was quite flummoxed to know the...

There used to be a limpid lake Home to the finest birds you'd find. We'd watch their glory till daybreak. But now those days are far behind. I used to hear the bullfrogs croak Before the pond was quarantined. We left the woods in haze and smoke And all the...

Related How to Write a Sonnet How to Write a Haiku How to Write a Rondeau How to Write a Villanelle How to Write a Poem Like the Raven by Dusty Grein The history of the poetry form we know as the Limerick is rich and wild. There are examples...

  How Eden weeps to see, the ache of every tortured tree. How Eden doth recoil, at bitter cancer of the soil. Man was placed as king of beasts, his palace carved of nature's stone, and every corner of his house, he builds a city, builds a throne. And every...

What a Wit is Worth For John Whitworth, poet Oh,  Whitman was a rhymer who enjoyed to play the part Of complicating everything.  It's something of an art To ramble on for pages on the pinprick of a thought, Which makes word choice irrelevant, and form seem overwrought, And chokes the...

What thoughts has thinking hard put in my brain, that show a different world than my eyes see, before, things easier were, clear and plain, but now are always less than used to be. What did I learn from all that reason claims? A lot indeed, and that can’t be...

You’ve not come to a meeting in three years— Within the movement, there are buzzing fears That marriage has ensnared you in its cage. And frankly, I myself have reached the stage Where anger has replaced the old respect. Now don’t get sulky—what did you expect? A happy private life...

  “Vexed by a verb!” I often vent, undeniably discontent. Let my quirky quote be the key to promoting a patent plea for the status I’d reinvent: Pairing “I am” with “years” has meant an identity I resent; being defined by age makes me vexed by a verb! The remedy...

On the Protesters Filled With Hate By Bruce Dale Wise And while American airports were filled with screaming hate, Chief Petty Officer Will "Ryan" Owens met his fate, caught in a raid against Al-Qaida's force in Yemen's love. Who gives a damn for him who gave the last full measure...

First Prize ($500): James Sale, Bournemouth, United Kingdom “In Telling This Story” “Obi-Wan Bin Laden RIP” “Imitating Shakespeare’s Sonnet 107” Second Prize: Lorna Davis, California “Buyer’s Remorse” “At the Gates of Heaven” “The Garden Guest” Third Prize: C.B. Anderson, Massachusetts "Water Music" "Heaven and Nature Sing" "Taqqiya"  Honorable Mention Courtney Dowe,...

  Bubbles I swish the stick To watch a spread of bubbles gleam; Free and delightful they float Almost a dream. This pristine orbs, A fragile yet audacious batch Seem hopeless until they reveal A rainbow patch. They move away And occupy a placid realm To demonstrate the physics of...

by Evan Mantyk WHAT DOES THE classic Chinese story Journey to the West have to do with William Shakespeare’s classic play Hamlet? A lot it turns out. Both Hamlet and Journey to the West were written in the late 16th century, one in China and the other in England. Both rely heavily on poetry. Both also are...

  A Strange and Sweet Unrest Awake forever with a sweet unrest . . .” —John Keats, “Bright Star” She stands at the windowpane, no one in sight, No one behind her in the silent room, No human form to be seen in the sultry night; And, for a moment,...

Trees, Libraries, and Chinese Communism To wrap a ribbon round a UK tree And tie it into Chinese tyranny, Or flag up five star Chinese hostelry Above a Yorks* Art Deco library, May tighten minds to ask: “How can that be?”— The links are not far fetched. Please bear with...