Poetry

. When Orpheus Looked Back I find no peace. I lean upon this stone As wine-dark waves crash on the Grecian shore, My voice and lyre silent as the grave. I have no songs for children nor of war Nor for a marriage I’d have died to save. A dirge...

. Last Words They say I traced my finger in the air Before I died and let the wind erase My final, silent words. Those who were there Had fixed their eyes upon my dying face But found they were unable to agree On whether I had died in peace...

. John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester: A Restorative from the Restoration by Joseph S. Salemi John Wilmot, the Earl of Rochester, stands out because of his double-barreled reputation: he was a savage satirist, and a serious rakehell. His short life of thirty-three years (1647-1680) was packed with excitement and energy,...

. Alone Together Narcissus, in the days of old, Fell in love with his reflection. He knew none greater to behold And starved while staring at “perfection.” Now we’re enamored with our phones Reflecting worlds of our own minds. We sit and stare, as still as stones, Bound by the...

. The Red Sea From quite far off we smelled its salt And now stand stunned upon its shore. We stare into the writhing vault Where Moses sees a corridor. It seems there were not graves enough In Egypt so that now it’s rough And shallow holes of bloodied sand...

. Asinine to atheist evolutionists When your science cannot put to rights The special wrongs of our divinity, Your exasperation reaches heights That challenge all the laws of gravity. When you talk at us and see our hearts Are strong on blind belief and Godliness, Though we are more than...

. Ian’s Ire Forecasts: Storm blasts. Cars leave. Clouds heave Endless rain. Flood’s domain. Massive surge. Nature’s scourge. Toy boats heaped up. Homes filled like cups. Millions’ suspect Their lives are wrecked. Streets cleared of debris, Dead cars and Palm Trees. Owners return and gasp, Can’t wrap around and grasp...

. Eluding Beauty  “No legacy is so rich as honesty.” ---William Shakespeare I yearn to write about the moon, __The moon and that is all--- The moon, a lunar-pearl balloon, The moon that drenches mossy tomb, The moon that blenches blue lagoon… __But I can hear you call. You call from...

. Just Not Alone…   I never asked For easy tasks, For burdens light For just delights. Expected not The breaks I’ve got, And when they came I sought no fame. As demands abound, I’ve stood my ground. As storms have come--- I have not run! I asked to fight...

. The Modern Cardinal’s Song after “The Major General’s Song” from Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance from a faithful Catholic scandalized at the men purporting to lead the Church. I am the very model of a modern Catholic cardinal, I’ve passions homosexual, heretical, and criminal, I know no...

. Moonburst I saw a comet streak across the night, And rend the sky with fire-tipped harpoon; While stars went out in fits of astral fright, The comet struck and burst the silver moon. The moon came down in shards of silver ice, In million bolts that pierced the trembling...

. Dr. Quack My name is Dr. Henry Quack and in my little room out back, Are lots of pills and potions. There's drugs for this and drugs for that; if you’re too skinny or too fat, And drugs to cure emotions. I've studied books and bones and charts, learned...

. Σχολή (Leisure) A Meditation on Horace’s Carmen I.IX You see the glist’ning peak of Mount Soracte, which towers, high with snow, its straining forests bent low and cracking under their wintry burden, and frozen rivers stop, sharp with ice. So after supper fetch another log to feed the fire,...

. . Vanderbilt’s Nemesis Written for Matt Walsh of The Daily Wire who has called out the evils of lucrative transgender surgery on minors at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. They have since “paused gender affirming surgeries for patients under the age of eighteen.”  They reveled in the...

. I Sailed Away to Ancient Greece I sailed away to ancient Greece In search of Jason’s golden fleece. I climbed aboard the Argonaut, But could not find the fleece I sought. Odysseus was waiting there And took as pay my drachma fare. We had adventures on the sea That...

. Proposition One Proposition One, written by the state legislature, amends the California constitution “to expressly include an individual’s fundamental right to reproductive freedom, which includes the fundamental right to choose to have an abortion and the fundamental right to choose or refuse contraceptives.” This is the language on the...

. Making Apple Butter Once he got the fire good and hot, Old Silas filled the kettle with some cider; and when it boiled down to golden amber, he added quartered apples to the pot. He settled in his chair beside the fire on this, a mild day for late...

. Critical Failure Failure to launch in every direction; Ran out of fuel before firing the rocket. Time for some long internal reflection; Retool the nav and reschedule the docket. Lost in the black with no way to light it; Missing in action way out on the ocean. Time to...

. The clerihew is a relatively new poetry form introduced by Edmund Clerihew Bentley in 1905. It is usually a single quatrain of light verse rhyming aabb, without a standard meter. The first line usually ends with a name, often one difficult to rhyme with, and comes up with a...

. Tower of the Winds Eight winds blowing, bluster overflowing,Buffet all the crevices of earth.Eight winds searching, lustily and lurching,Spawning every misery and mirth. First blows Boreas, minion of Polaris,Bane of maids and travelers on the deep.Frost upon his beard, a visage to be feared,Stallions in his care that do...

. Sincerity of the Left The sanctuary cities said: “Undocumenteds may come here, It’s merciless to keep them out, We welcome them with open arms!” “We’ll grant your wish,” DeSantis said, "Take fifty more of them right here.” “That’s inhumane!” the Libs all shout. “A cruel stunt that only harms.”...

. Brain to Heart God has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart. —Ecclesiastes 3.11 To dig deep holes for bushes, shrubs— White Hydrangea, Crape Myrtle red— Sweating, grunting, post-hole digging . . . Tulips ready for flower beds. I pause, gaze...

. Never Argue with a Progressive They never tell the truth, except by accident, And when they do, they’ll tell you that they really meant The opposite, so what’s a trusting man to do? Admittedly, such perfidy is nothing new, But we would like to take a person at his...

. The Good Samaritan Scene: The road between Jerusalem and Jericho. It is now three days since a good Samaritan has left an injured robbery victim in the care of an innkeeper. Your wounds are healing? Good. No, please don’t speak. Just have some wine. Fear not. You cause no...

. Serious Poetry Serious poetry, somber and grim; Dashing, descriptive, with narrative flair. Formal and versified; Rhythmic and dignified; Romance and rhetoric; ribald and prim. Taking you places while curled in your chair. Serious poetry, rhyming each line. Sonnets, rondeaus, villanelles, triolets. Explosive hand-grenades; Sharp-witted razor blades. Dangerous, edgy, designed...

. Equal Schmequal   The traits of men were glibly mocked __By those who thought men strange--- Those who thought the world half-cocked __ And fought for chop and change--- All those who chose to rise and rail Against the rock and role of male--- __‘Twas time to rearrange The natural order of the...

. The Tech Addict’s Lament As I take one more hit of electronic cocaine, I snort a fresh shot of noise into my brain And feel the cacophony’s endless refrain Charging at me like a runaway train. I collapse on the floor, and I think, “What a drain! I’d love...

. 1960s Soap Operas “Soap operas,” they called them. Housewives watched Them while they sewed or cooked or ironed clothes. At two o’clock each afternoon began The sleazy saga to which mom attached Attention, sympathizing with the woes Of characters unlike her, who would plan Adultery or revenge. She sat...

. Green Energy with apologies to Dr. Seuss I do not like green energy Don’t subsidize it, AOC. I do not like it in the dark, My solar panels will not spark. I do not like it with no breeze, Wind generators tend to freeze. I do not like green...

. Sonnet 89 I passed her on the footbridge (underneath, the cars rushing pell-mell to Hades’ mouth). Backwards flowed time then as I scoped her face: lineaments of smack; thin, whorish, thief up for the morning from the blighted south, Hartcliffe or some such godforsaken place. I watched her back...

. Elysium O golden hour, soft denouement of day, O mystic time of quietude and peace, When boughs and rushes whisper as they sway, Twirled by the sighing zephyrs’ soft caprice; When, fallen from his blinding noonday height, The dimmed, declining sun, departing west, Immerses all in glowing, golden light---...

. A Woodstock for China You sit within a public Chinese bus, And out the window: buildings, concrete, dust, Which all are perfect—life is simply thus. You stare with shining eyes, soft-spoken trust. A face so ruddy, beard and hair unkempt, The locals turn to stare—once, twice, again. Guitar appears,...

. Uncontrolled When my behavior needs to change, __But I can’t make that be, Such lack of self-control seems strange, __And I’m ashamed of me. Sometimes the angst I feel inside __Was planted long ago, And all success that time’s supplied __Can’t counteract back flow. . . Two Forms of...

. Bergerette by Marguerite de Navarre (1492–1549), translated by Margaret Coats O shepherdess, my friend,On love alone I live.True love is life’s true end,My heart can comprehend,And therefore I intend_My love unceasingly to give.O shepherdess, my friend,On love alone I live. Love lends me confidence,Grants conscience calmer sense,Builds patient competence,_Forms...

. Lay of the Oak I now recall a lay for you, A Briton’s tale of love made new. A humble knight rode through light morn, Until dark clouds made blue skies mourn. Lost he was soon in a dreadful storm, Fair Summer turned to dark---forlorn. Dismounted then, the knight...

. Vicente el Bisonte (Vincent the Bison)  Vicente el Bisonte used to live in Mexico He said, “I do not like it here, it’s time for me to go. For lunch they give me Bison Chow, Purina mixed with hay, I’m penned up in the nighttime and I’m watched throughout...

. Fire on Ice How shall I serve my anger up to you? Shall I become like one most distant star Burning intensely, far from where you are, Incinerating---infinite degrees Made a mere twinkling to the earthly view--- Till, when its light has reached you from afar, By then, my...

. Ill-used I’ve been ill-used, no other word will do; pristinely packaged, sanitised and new a month ago I stood upon display till someone paid to carry me away. Once home, he placed me in a cup whose rim was chipped and whose interior was grim. Upon a shelf, inside...

. Congratulations and Homage to Giorgia Meloni Italy rises up and overthrows The stench of leftist tyranny at last. Rage among the EU’s pooh-bahs grows— They realize that their heyday is now past. Thwarted will, hurt pride, and disbelief Send quaking scum in Germany and France Into apoplectic fits of...

. The Last Detail Two cocksure, loud–mouthed lads one day set out, Intent on catching perch. “No,” Jim said, “trout.” The hole they headed for neither one knew: All for adventure, they sought someplace few Of their acquaintances had been before. “It’s just five hundred yards from Sandy Shore,” Said...