Poetry

. Cain’s Daughter I was not in the garden when the veil of beauty tore I heard no serpent beckon to me through the orchard door I weep no tears beholding the angel’s flaming sword For I never breathed the jasmine in the garden of the Lord. I did not...

. Abyss  In deepest, darkest depths of my despair I find myself without a saving grace. A pendulum of pain prevents my prayer from rising upward through the dead of space. Within these walls a war where no one wins repeats itself just like a worn-out rhyme. No swain should...

. Poems from 'The Still Beloved' ('La Amada Inmóvil') by Amado Nervo (1870-1919) translated from the Spanish by Alan Steinle The poems below are selections from the book La Amada Inmóvil: Versos a Una Muerta (The Still Beloved: Verses to a Dead Woman). This Spanish book was written by the...

. A Poetic Heretic’s Poetry Tips a villanelle inspired by Dr. Salemi's essay "Poetry As The Philosophers Stone" Don’t listen to the howl of highbrow spiel From preachy creatures out to flatten flair. Don’t let the sunbeam-zappers sap your zeal. Don’t bow to scoffing boffins. Never kneel Before a do-it-my-way doctrinaire. Don’t listen to the howl of highbrow spiel. Don’t let...

. Reviewed Book: Seven Poems by Jacob Balde (Translated by Karl Maurer) Cooper and Posey, 2023 by Monika Cooper In 2022, a small and brand-new press launched a paper ship, full of herbs and poppies from Bavaria… That’s the story behind Cooper and Posey’s publication of a little book called...

. La Corona A childhood scene recalled by Trump of his mother, Mary MacLeod Trump, in The Art of the Deal, with a parallel to English-Scottish history.   Two popes, two presidents. Two queens. Recall How Mary, Queen adored Elizabeth. “My royal cousin” she wrote with affection In her too-imitable...

. Matters of Class . Saying hello The modest o’s the most polite of letters; But is he facing up today or down? Each day he questions those he calls his betters In order so he knows to smile or frown. A frown, you see, becomes a charming smile When seen...

. Below is the SCP Journal XI Introduction written by lead editor and SCP co-founder Evan Mantyk. After the Introduction is the complete first section of poems and art from Journal XI. Other Journal XI editors include C.B. Anderson, Dusty Grein, and Daniel Magdalen. Click here to purchase a complete...

. Rhymeless in Manama My UK friend said, “Rhyme is old, you need to venture free and bold.” My Turkish friend said, “Rhyme's a must, a rhymeless bard deserves no trust.” But I found out I needn't choose I better leave it to my Muse: she knows this poem needs...

. Canyon de Chelly Reflections of a Non-Native Visitor . An updraft from the red-rock canyon floor Blows through the mesa’s Piñon pine and sage As ravens, wings outstretched, in freedom soar Between the distant past and present age. At night, Coyote and the owl seek prey Beneath the Milky Way’s broad arching...

. So Much for Legitimate Women's Sports Vladimir Gonzales, a young Italian athlete, With 28 inch biceps and a 68 inch chest, Entered competitions where he knew he wouldn't find Even a tiny---you-know-what---dangling from the rest! Afraid to state the obvious, the girls---who'd turn their eyes When Vladdy'd flaunt the...

. Spring’s Here! It’s sprung in the branches and springs home to me, It soars through the sap and the buds in the tree. The geese have returned and the flowers and bees Are buzzing with life and perfuming the breeze. The fields are all wet with the fresh-fallen rain,...

. Bach's Amazing Journey In the autumn of 1705, when Johann Sebastian Bach was 20, he set out to travel over 275 miles (each way) on foot from Arnstadt, Thuringia, in the heart of what is now Germany, to Lübeck, near the Baltic coast. He undertook this extraordinary journey in...

. The Garbageman Adrift amid a world that’s lost all rhyme, Where reason reels from first degree assault, It’s little wonder that from time to time One’s inner life can lapse into default. Our former passions have gone absentee And simple griefs cut closer to the bone. The more we...

. The Power of One You think that you're alone. There's nothing to be done. But I say, "You have strength. It is the Power of One." You may have had ideas That you have told to someone. They may have laughed and scorned you. They don't know the Power...

. Newness a sonnet corona for Doris   I watch you view the newness of your world. Your widened eyes are dazzled by the light. Your fists of curiosity unfurl Like flexing wings on chicks who dream of flight. I see you snooze to music in your sphere Wooed by Mommy’s...

. The Ballad of the Heroic Mother a true story A toddler into water fell __And sank as quick as rock. At nine feet deep, she couldn’t yell __Or jump or thrash in shock. Her mother heard the splash portend __Her daughter’s water grave; She dove into the pool’s deep...

. Classical Poets Live with Andrew Benson Brown Episode 2: Fake Poets and Hollow Prestige . Audio version available here: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7nbFbs2YtvlgZ2B4RtQOcG Apple Music: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/classical-poets-live/id1685283102 . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XHnlF7kU4o . Thomas Gray complete poem "Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat Drowned in a Tub of Goldfishes" read in this episode by...

. FIRST PLACE . Tooth and Claw a pantoum by Susan Jarvis Bryant Observe the tooth and claw of savage deed. Beware the ferric breath of looming dread. Don’t let the taunt of terror sow its seed— The heartless reap a harvest seeping red. Beware the ferric breath of looming dread On ill winds wafting from a shady shore. The heartless reap a harvest seeping red— The truth is leaking neath the Dragon’s door. On ill winds wafting from a shady shore Ghosts whisper of the fate of Falun Gong. The truth is leaking neath the Dragon’s door...

. Poetry As The Philosophers’ Stone by Joseph S. Salemi The alchemical art, though long in disrepute, is nevertheless of great antiquity.  Supposedly founded by Hermes Trismegistus, a Ptolemaic Greek reflex of the Egyptian god Thoth, alchemy has fascinated men since the days of imperial Rome, and probably earlier.  Thinkers...

. The Devil Comes to Buckingham from Legends of Liberty: Volume 2 One day as Britons cheered their sovereign’s sight, The devil crawled into his servant’s brain. He entered through the ear as a termite And caused poor George the Third to go insane. His Majesty’s gray matter had a...

. On the Divine Mercy Seven times the just man falls, and rises again. ---Proverbs 24:16 by Eustache Deschamps (1346-1406) translated by Margaret Coats The just man seven times a day offends, Says Solomon’s poetic apothegm. What then of the unjust, who wrongly spends His life in crimes that holy...

. Land and Lake and Sky Here standing by the margin of a lake, I look into its waters, cool and deep, Then scan its surface, glassy and opaque, Rimmed by the ancient hills, sublime and steep. They rise up nobly, shimmering gold and green, Reflecting beams which, on this...

. Why Can’t I Marry My Pit Bull? Why can’t I marry my pit bull? He’d make an incredible spouse, In spite of the dog hair and doo-doo, He’d always be king in my house. He’d listen whenever I talked to him, Of deceit I would find not a trace,...

. September 9th 1901… A September evening in old Paris town, The time when Parisians let their hair down. There’s laughing and dancing and folk getting drunk, And all of the ladies are looking like punks. It just needs an artist to capture the scene, But Toulouse-Lautrec is nowhere to...

. Ode to the Turnip Oh, turnip! You’re a vegetable maligned, suggestive of a drunk’s empurpled nose. Baked, or boiled, or steamed, on you I’ve dined, then revelled in a peaceful night’s repose. Your sweet and nutty earthiness when cooked __belies a dull repute--- __though you’re the favourite root on...

. Bend in the River In looking back, a moment since it seems, the river ran, a fawn, leaping, cavorting; and I beside would follow to the sea. The river widened, hurried, running fleet, bright, quickened water rippled, ruffling white; soon I would come to ply the telling deep! But...

. Poet, What Dreamer Thou Art  "I feel more and more every day, that as my imagination strengthens, that I do not live in this world alone, but in a thousand worlds." ---John Keats I’m busy doing nothing, can’t you see? I’m like a bee. I float from flower to...

. The Shortfalls of Empirical Knowledge Sorry, Iowa. Each night is different from all previous And therefore not the same as those to come. The ways of Nature can be devious: They test experience and leave us numb To expectations we would otherwise Have nurtured and applied to form our...

. An Unexpected Smile inspired by the coronation of King Charles III  Today I woke before the sun had spread Her golden grin across the Texas skies. With childlike zest and joy I leapt from bed To cram my Kentish heart and flood my eyes With coronation scenes from streets I know--- Grand streets that speak of days...

. If you enjoy this video from Andrew Benson Brown's Classical Poets Live, please click on "Watch on YouTube" and then press like and subscribe. . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VahmUnlLEY0 . .

. DoorWay Canto 2, Extract The Poet has gone through the ‘DoorWay’ and entered heaven. Here in the second Canto and in the constellation of Libra he meets his dead grandfather (who was a Libran: 30/7) and his uncle Jim, who died only ten years old and long before the...

. A Right Royal Coronation Anon the pomp and pageantry will beam From London as King Charles III is crowned. The Abbey-bound procession’s set to stream On gleaming tides of splendour to the sound Of jaunty hooves and chatter from a sea Of gazers as his coach cleaves through the...

. The Number 151: Teatime in Cheam A Cautionary Tale . Now this is a story of two little girls; The older had pigtails, the younger one curls. They lived in the wonderful village of Cheam And both were addicted to chocolates and cream. And ever these sisters would rival...

. Planets, Gods and Weekdays Alarms are snoozed, and Monday's born. A few more snores as dreams are shorn, And sleep is corked by clanging horn; __The moon's bereft, Her silver day now dimmed and worn __By weekly theft. A remnant fire of Mars appears, Now Tuesday steers earth's working...

. Books Some say that books are obsolete, __Preferring new devices. But reading books is still a treat, __No gadget quite suffices. . . Tipping Etiquette The credit card machine implied that __I should leave a tip, For someone who provided “service” __No more than a blip. The hope is...

. . Sophisticated Lady—Small Town Girl “Sophisticated lady” gropes the table at her bedside, blindly taking random swipes to kill the morning scream That shatters little privacies she shares with no one else, and steals, with full impunity, her one recurring dream. Cursing imperceptibly, she slaps the tiny box wherein...

. On Binge-Reading Sylvia Plath Verdammte mirror-bee-eyes stare at you As you describe in depth colossal pain. You say too much: your tormented achoo Your lack of faith, your overactive brain. I read your sadness---verses made of hurt And genius, from a coruscating pen Of acid-green, with not one word...

. The Sonogram Dodona housed the oracle of Zeus, And there the Greeks sought his prophetic aid (Whose force depended on how much they’d paid) In auguries divinely quite abstruse. Beneath his sacred oak they lay diffuse, His priests who’d listen to the serenade As wind among the leaves discreetly...

. Chicken and Andouille Gumbo Try my gumbo recipe From the land of andouille: ½ cup unsalted butter; ½ cup all-purpose flour Melt the butter, whisk in flour, Cook and stir a quarter-hour Till it’s peanut-butter hue. Set aside. This is the roux. 1 Tbsp canola oil, ½ cup each...