Poetry

  Winter Storm Watch The sky is still; no flakes appear and yet we know that they will come. Held hostage by our doubts and fears we beat out warnings on our drums. We know, for sure, the flakes will come; we may be buried to our ears or slip...

Observations both Literal and Inferred on The Course of Empire, 1833-36, by Thomas Cole   The Savage State THE foreground is dark, sublime, and savage. Storm-clouds roll up towards the right. The ledge reflects the setting or the rising sun. The turquoise waters crash; the storm's not done. One bounding...

O Thou Fount of Joy, I Praise Thee In my dark night He brought His joy    by an ancient melody. I was young then, did not know that    what He taught me by degree was a way to remain with Him    when the storms of each new year gathered o’erhead...

  Sonnet on the Death of a Friend Throughout our lives we have the love of some Our family, our friends , the special ones Who help us deal with problems as they come And share our joys and sorrow as life runs But one by one they leave, the...

They gathered softly in a field for many miles around to taste in haste the flowers before showers tumbled down upon the clover blooms, the goldenrod, thistles and grasses; never in one place too long as hungry blackbird passes. An undulating wave of black and orange fills the skies. Silent...

A mysterious substance is ruling our lives. It flows through our oceans and floats in our skies. “It’s good for you,” cries four docs out of five. It will keep your skin young for the rest of your life. It will grow your corn tall and make your kids bright....

  For a girl with rosy cheeks I didn’t know when Valentine’s Day was, and didn’t need to. That day came and went like any other. Now I know it cause you’re perfect, dear; you don’t know what you’ve meant to me, my life, completely ignorant to Love which waters...

I saw a grand palace as sculpted by the Genie of the Lamp, adorned with lights so golden, as if it came from within. I saw great achievements under the sky of glass, soared to extraordinary heights: a modern Tower of Babel, raised again! I saw a celebrated elm, stood...

for E.E. Club Saw Reid   I. Priam, Returning to the Ramparts He’d never say it to my face and yet I sense that Hector senses I’m washed up: too old, too soft. Not that he is the pup that sees for the first time his dad beset with something...

  I Saw a Giant Train by Red Was Iceblue I saw a giant train come out of blue and purple light, the colours of its cars, red, yellow, orange, black and white. It seemed gargantuan and powerful, a forceful shape, about to take the World on in one horrendous...

Chinese Cameo 5 A glinty dental check-up’s made my day – some skiffs of plaque, no ominous decay … A shiny, multi-jointed arm in white displayed a tray of steely tools laid tight. These instruments were danced before my eyes by latex’d fingers coloured like blue skies. I’d lain back...

  First Prize ($500): Reid McGrath Winning Poems: “Tares in the Wheat” “A Recurring Dream, Vanquished” “Retreating Snow” “Lamenting Our Complicity in the Installation of Suicide Nets” “Three Trojan Perspectives”   Second Prize ($100): James Sale Winning Poems: “Apollo Builds Troy with His Lyre” “The Commissars Oppose Falun Gong” “Noah...

  The Shore Forever lost in the ocean the water seeps into my chest I’ve lost myself in the motion let the fish swim beneath my breast And yet each time I’m pulled under the sun too far to touch my face never does my body sunder and crumple in...

Though tear gas spiraled through receding light and wrung out tears and mangled up clear sight; and though the bitter gas was spiked with hate, the thin-clad crowd did not retaliate. The death of freedom’s wrapped in "legal" care not the “Open fire!” on Tiananmen Square where peaceful rules faced...

Rose Window Firs at sunset cast golden geometries As myriad needles swarm like bees And burst into sun-kindled flame – A rose window without its frame.   Falun Dafa Fingers curved like willow stems, Dancers bow before killers’ blows, Soldiers whose helmets bear red stars Soldiers whose eyes rage red...

  Where Can I Find You? A girl, with hair the colour of honey, giggled while she chased a little bunny through fields of golden hay and black cherries. Suddenly she stopped and asked a fairy, “Beauty, you only appear to a few. When you’re not with me, where can...

  Vessel No one can insure candlelight; its flame Precisely burns in flickering waves of gas, Ingesting oxygen while fibers pass Through burning into soot, and feel no shame. A stroke of pen or brush behaves the same When we regard them steadily: the mass Remains inert like painted prairie...

The nightingale flutters on its wings And lighting on a branch he sings Voices the song of his spirit Brings joy to all that hear it With pen and paper in my hand I listen to my heart’s command I hope that someday I can be Like the nightingale flying...

Life's Golden Key Like the sparrow, robin and crow sharing in a concrete birdbath, mortals require kindness to grow, pleasantly exploring life's path. Each gifted day, time is borrowed to search and find life's golden key. Somewhere, in dark depths of sorrow, glows kindness for eager hearts to see. On...

  I. The people of China in ancient times, Knew good was blessed and evil was punished, By Gods who observed all of their actions, When they were virtuous their country flourished. For five thousand years they led their lives, Their history replete with much glory, But when the last...

In the Shadow of a Mountain In the shadow of a mountain lies a valley, lies my home swaddled by the earth’s embrace in sweet repose – a state of grace in the shadow of a mountain in a valley, in my home where I am blind to turquoise skies...

  Shadow of the Laogai In the Laogai’s shadow, the ghosts of China stir, Unseen by dreaming eyes as golden currents blow Across the sea. Our compassion seems to falter In the Laogai’s shadow. As the Red rope tightens, prices fall like Harbin snow Upon the Western coast. What need...

Shakespeare Wrote Shakespeare Some say that Shakespeare didn’t write The many works that bear his name; But surely if that were the case, A rival would have blown his game...   Inner Beauty My wife was born without her eyes; She cannot love her pretty face, Yet knows her inner...

  The Day the Persecution Began "The year is 1999, July, A king of terror would come from the sky,” The Frenchman Nostradamus prophesized Indeed, the red dragon in China flies. It covers all in its violent shadow, Into detention centers it throws The practitioners of Falun Dafa, The hardworking...

He Kept On By Erisbawdle Cue He kept on striving to attain an ideality connected to the good, but grounded in reality. He kept on working to achieve perfection in the act, pragmatism on the run with satisfaction's fact. He kept on pressing to combine both ecstasy and truth, to...

Just a Dream I. You vowed to descend to the world below, In an agreement that was made. To the mortal world others dared not go, Yet what would happen if you stayed? A promise to save sentient beings, Empowered your hesitant heart. Your compassion for all living things, Made...

Tares in the Wheat "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God,” Luke 9:62 “The sun will burn; the heat will cause you sweat; Dust will choke before the sun is set,” Michael Curtis, -“Novice”- When I recall various seeds...

Youths' Sonnet They view the world through filmy innocence, these youngsters who now hear the future call. Into that forest bountiful and dense, some travel slowly, wary of the fall. With nurturance and guidance young ones need and patience to sustain and keep them strong, they labor long and hard....

I've had some poems I could submit but now I've got behind a bit, they're packed inside the silent hive of a sev’ral-year-old, old hard drive tho’ un-backed-up, their form survives in sev’ral forms of after-lives, some stuck fast inside the lump that's hard as nails and gives me stump...

The British are coming! The whole fourth estate Must wear what is smart For William and Kate. The British are coming! Men, watch how you dress: A jacket and tie Should lead to success. The British are coming! So, ladies, look nice: A suit, pants or skirt, Would likely suffice....

To incarnate legally─ No reincarnates can be found In Beijing’s atheist compound─ In this city where dead is dead─ A reincarnate could lose his head! No passports may be issued now To souls returning once again─ The Dalai Lama must disavow That he remembers more than men─ The frightened leaders...

Our Day in the Sun We, each of us, every one Have had our day in the sun Came a time that day was done Let us then no longer dwell On what we consider we did well Time moves on –so must we all.   If for Change You...

"...that best portion of a good man's life;     His little, nameless, unremembered acts     Of kindness and of love."         —William Wordsworth, Lines Composed...Above Tintern Abbey At any time in life, the little kindnesses occur. Somebody greets you with a smile brightening 'Yes, sir!' One store clerk reassures...

Life Ravaged forests again take root Life nestling within the sturdy acorn Cannot be throttled Ashes reborn yield bitter fruit Fragrance scattered upon the winds Cannot be bottled   The Old and the New What shall Lord and land and hall and bower Castle and fen and glade and tower...

Dandelions She touched their gray-haired afros tenderly: an urban six year old with kinky hair who pounced on dandelions (bud-vases were full of yellow stubby). Telling me: “This is the way that dandelions age” – then blew upon them (instant baldness), sad that “no one liked them but the wind...

Canadian reservist Corporal Cirillo was killed this day at the War Memorial in Ottawa, while standing in his ceremonial and Scottish dress, Glengarry bonnet, kilt, red garter flashes, and the rest. He was a barrel-chested bouncer at the Club Absinthe, an ordinary guy assassinated at the plinth, by some crazed,...

The tip jar was snatched at O Cafe. O! “Somebody just picked it up,” mused the guy at the register. I’d stopped in to buy six ounces of beans, fresh sweet espresso, number two grind. The young baristas know their stuff. They're very warm--no snark. So why did you make...

Fall Haiku New England college towns: Pumpkins, apples, breakfast in a warm café. Swamp-maples afire! Rusty colored barns, silos draped in bittersweet… In their black pea-coats, off of the Metro North, the leaf-peepers arrive. Cross-country. Small-town football. The leaf-smell hunting— God I love the Fall...   The Little Vector (a...

From the Pages of Washington Irving, for my Hudson River Friends Whoever 's made a voyage up the Hudson must remember Catskill Mountains, a dismembered branch of the great Appalachian family, I trust. West of the river, swelling to a noble chance, their hues and shapes are magical barometers. When...

French Suites Each keystroke is precise, clear as a verb Untouched by modifiers. Sharps and flats Are reliable as death, the light trills All mapped out. This strict staff allows no room For cadenzas. Play it as he wrote it. Still, out of all that, out of each note hit,...