Poetry

. __Of Helen, Menelaus, war, Achilles, Paris and his treachery, __Of Agamemnon, Troy, and more, I wrote the Iliad and Odyssey. __Of Saracens and Charlemagne, Of Roland and his tragic, fateful day, __Of gallant loss and nobler gain I wrote and oft-performed my epic lay. __From Florence, and all that it hides, I...

. City of Holy Faith The time to weep is over. Turn away From somber matters of this sordid age And turn your pilgrim gaze to Santa Fe--- Garbed in aspen gold and desert sage. The sky’s an ever-burnished turquoise blue, And amber sunlight sanctifies the hills. At night she...

. Sonnet of September Two thousand one eleven September, terrorists hijacked four planes in the sky. The crew, the passengers, did surrender, to those Bin Laden had sent to die. Two thousand one eleven September, the Pentagon and Twin Towers were hit. Buildings collapsed into ash and ember, and bodies...

. I don't know why I think things will get better. I'm always holding on to flimsy hope. I've held it since I was a young go-getter before the downward slope. Is wishful thinking printed on our genes? Before we crawl, has nature made it so? To want things right...

A version of this interview originally appeared in The Epoch Times by Evan Mantyk A widely published translator of ancient Latin texts, a former high-ranking government bureaucrat, and an incredible poet who just released his book Wonder and Wrath last September, A.M. Juster is a man at the confluence of...

. At Brighton Beach the seagulls fly, they soar and circle in the sky; they swoop and steal the punters’ chips amidst the backdrop’s sailing ships and underneath the sun’s sharp eye. The lockdown days have now passed by; face-down upon my towel I’ll lie, my limbs burned red as...

. Leave Our Kids Alone!  “Fauci: Officials Will Decide on COVID-19 Vaccine Recommendation for Children Aged 5 to 11 Soon” ---Epoch Times Headline 9/20/2021 The mask is off.   Come see the twisted face Of devilry beneath each wily lie. The truth has been erased without a trace To coax the mild and make the wild comply. Potions in perpetual...

. The relentless rain sought to admonish those creatures who dared venture out. The wind carried a sorrowful message, determined to generate doubt. A less desperate man would have faltered on reaching that clifftop rim, But the resolute prisoner kept standing— Against Nature and instinct, still standing— He remained there,...

. Raise your quill to the sky like a madman’s harpoon— Super tempered in blood and the blackest of wine Is the blade of our mania, flashing and white As a lightning bolt fresh from the night. Raise your quill to the sky like a madman’s harpoon— Dare the lightning...

. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhNIScHrUOM&t=4s . Biden Blues When I was just a kid,I’d shout and I’d refuse.My mama taught me, be polite,Taught me the words to use:No thank you, Joe; no thank you, Joe.I’d rather sing these no thank you blues. (Refrain:)No thank you, Joe; no thank you, Joe.I learned my manners...

. El Chapo El Chapo was a criminal, a very nasty bloke. A dealer in Amphetamines, along with Crack and Coke. He plied his trade in Mexico, where guns and drugs are rife. He made a pile of money and enjoyed the wealthy life. But then one day the cops...

. California Wildfires to the tune of “California Dreamin’” All her landscape bronzed, Her breezes ashen gray, What can Cali dream on, Despoiled and rechauffée? Never safe, too sultry In her disarray . . . California wildfires Have scorched her prime cachet. Tresses blazing gold Her forest wealth display, Woods...

. Cancel Madame Butterfly today! Such racist music cannot soothe the soul. Let’s never show another hate-filled play. The King and I must also cause dismay Since white composers can’t know ethnic dole. Cancel Madame Butterfly today! We also need to cancel the ballet. Swan Lake promotes a privileged white...

. The Lyme Brain’s Refrain, or At the Cupboard What am I doing? What am I doing? What am I, what am I, what am I doing? I’m doing something—something I’m doing— But what am I, what am I, what am I doing? What am I doing? Where am I...

This challenge comes from New York poet Joe Tessitore. He asks you to use the following couplet in a poem. Post your version in the comments section below: . How very much do I despise The tyranny of fear and lies? . . . .

. "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."  ---H.L. Mencken In days of yore, like maybe fifty years ago,We scorned all those who claimed...

. Regrets and Repercussions Inconsequential are the things we do Sometimes, or things we don’t, we don’t know why. So will we wonder far too late and sigh To think that if we knew we could undo The past before it starts, begin anew. How many of us would instead...

. “Of all the tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.” ---C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock: Essays on Theology  It’s said that life’s a bitch and then you die. Cold-shouldered super-scolders make it worse. Smug, mega finger-waggers sell the lie That...

. Where meagre rains are tinted red From dust the Western winds have borne, The publican to stranger said: “We’re fortunate that here is shorn A class of wool unique in hue— The pre-dyed fleece of Station View. “And as for boundary fence and post That creeping sand is wont...

. Twenty years . . . So long ago as that? When fantasy became reality And falling human bodies turned to splat. Death in living color on TV. Maxwell’s silver hammer coming down On our collective metaphoric head; Manhattan’s shredded, bloodied wedding gown, Pentagon’s and Shanksville’s mangled dead. Terror’s Krakatoa...

. Heroes Where are they now---the bold who brave The choke of smoke to ways that pave The path to breath beneath wide skies? Where are the ears that hear the cries Of souls they fight death’s bite to save? Through 9/11’s hellish wave Of terror, angels fought and gave...

. A Summary of Oedipus the King by Sophocles, and Notes This play, no doubt to Sophocles’ surprise, When first performed took only Second Prize. Summary King Oedipus of Thebes, both good and wise— Or such, in pride, he thinks himself to be— Packs Creon off to Delphi to surmise...

. Future Shock Our newfound World is happy, calm and clean The human factor, countered by machine. Where every thought is carefully processed and value to the Groupthink goals assessed. All individuality, deleted. The reboot of the species' aim, completed. It came as no surprise, there were deranged who fought...

. from Eternal Spring Once upon a time in space God contrived the human race, Gave two things to help us cope: One was love, the other hope. Man was destined for a fall, But love sustained him after all. When all hope was lost in fear, Love would make...

. I This crucifixion hides the anguish. Racked With pain, belied by bloodless hands and feet; Intolerable torments, they compete As muscles in that arching back contract. His hanging head forestalls all eye contact; And here we see Him, harrowing complete, As Pilate meted out from judgment seat Beyond this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pw5AJQgDeQQ&feature=emb_imp_woyt . What can it mean---this swan of black? What cryptic codes must eggheads crack? What will this ebon-feathered thing Of beauty spring? What will it bring To pass in days with ways off track? Scour the Chinese zodiac. Grill a bibliomaniac. A long-necked portent haunts Beijing; __What can it mean? This woeful world wails on the rack As dullards dance for hack and quack, And puppeteers pull taut each string Attached to marionettes that sing...

. On Lonely Paths On lonely paths I like to walk, beneath pure azure skies, Where white clouds stretch like streaks of chalk, and one lone eagle flies; I watch him gliding overhead and feel as blithe and free As he who soars, with wings outspread, in circles over me....

Winner and Runners-up of the Society of Classical Poets 2021 Haiku Competition Judged by Margaret Coats (see her remarks below) See all entrants here. . WINNER . Fog enshrouds the nightWoven in the heavy mistA thread of fireflies ---Joe Tessitore . . RUNNERS-UP in seasonal order . Spring in the hedgerowsMagpies...

. Sean who passed away this week in Honolulu, Hawaii Although there are a few who’ll grieve and mourn, Who’ll celebrate his life and then move on, The unexpected loss will be hard borne By those who called him “Brother” and “My son.” I knew him back when he was...

. Most schoolgirls, street-people, attorneys, and Bachelors of Art are aware that Thomas Jefferson composed what is likely the most widely-known, oft-repeated sentence in American history: . We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable...

. Prayer of the Guilty Poet Before I put these words to ink, Be still, my pen, and let me think. Are they the balm to expiate, Or bomb indeed, to detonate? . . A City Short Make no excuse, I heard a sneeze! Old man, produce Your papers, please!...

. Know How to Mow __You want to raise your rates, you say? __Your crying poor is killing me, __for what it’s worth.  Just yesterday, __when you were blithely billing me __for services you rendered on __a Saturday two weeks ago __—the mowing of my splendid lawn— __you seemed quite...

. With Coffins at the Dover Air Force Base: 29 August 2021 On Sunday, Biden traveled to the Dover Air Force Base to pay respect for thirteen service members who were slain. But grieving parents of the dead were not consoled by him— he kept on looking at his watch—and...

. Allgibberish (I Saw a Man Who Wasn't There) after “Antigonish” (“I Met a Man Who Wasn't There”) by William Hughes Mearns Yesterday in great despair, I saw a man who wasn't there. He's on the news again today, oh how I wish he'd go away. This afternoon at ten...

. WINNERS ANNOUNCED HERE. "Select, all ye who write, a subject fit, A subject not too mighty for your wit! Before you lay your shoulders to the wheel, Weigh well their strength, and all their weakness feel!" ---Horace (65-8 B.C.) First Prize: $2,000. Publication on the Society's website and Journal....

“Select, all ye who write, a subject fit, A subject not too mighty for your wit! Before you lay your shoulders to the wheel, Weigh well their strength, and all their weakness feel!” —Horace (65-8 B.C.) First Prize: $200. Publication in the Society's website and The Society of Classical Poets...

“Select, all ye who write, a subject fit, A subject not too mighty for your wit! Before you lay your shoulders to the wheel, Weigh well their strength, and all their weakness feel!” —Horace (65-8 B.C.) First Prize: $100. Publication in the Society's website and The Society of Classical Poets...

. The starlit sky is filled with smoke ______and men succumb To dread, while folded hands invoke ______to overcome This awful plight; yet prayers heard ______through fervid faith Are breath for Satan. Death’s preferred ______to blows that scaith And wake the human soul. If eyes ______could only find A route...

. The Peach Garden Oath This oath of fellowship is an iconic moment in the first chapter of the historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, by Luo Guanzhong (14th century), in which the main heroes of the novel pledge to restore goodness and order to a nation whose government...

. Waking Up (Freedom Doesn't Come in a Can) A Protest Song Written and Performed by Jack DesBois I was lying in my bed, Waiting for the day to start, Waiting for the sun to get me on my way, And I waited, and I waited, And while I lay...