Poetry

. Bonanza The March of rains has staked its claim, its boast _To brag upon these thousand hills, and opened the sluice of the motherlode to mantle the slopes in yellow and gold. _From Tehachapi to the poppied coast, __meadowlark-loud with whistles and trills, _Spring’s linen is laid along every...

. Jargon The devil will manipulate, through jargoneers who fabricate non sequitur profundity tuned with the proper frequency that will, before you realize, infect your mind and hypnotize with phrases such as “Love is love,” which is the best example of how bumper-sticker jargoneers can craft a phrase that interferes...

. Going Home to Campania I come back to my cool and quiet road, Testudo-shielded by umbrella pines, Where pavement cracked and garbage overflowed To fade beyond in bright converging lines. I come back as a stranger, long since grown, Back to a land I knew when I was small,...

. Size Lies Clothing manufacturers are fond of tricks today, Making female customers feel good in one slick way--- Whatever size they’ve always been---they’re now two sizes smaller! So next they might try making men think they’re three inches taller. . . Bedrock Sometimes late at night when she’s sleeping,...

. The Water Closet An earthen pit, an outhouse stool, a chamber pot— We’ve long dispensed with these, the whole damn stinking lot! The housewife and the maid no longer shout, “Gar’ l’eau!” Before the toss of waste on city streets below. A lady needn’t lift her skirt, nor man...

. Eternity If I could give her just one gift, What would she want that gift to be? Would she prefer a diamond ring Or roses spread across the sea? Would she prefer a priceless gem, A string of pearls, or maybe two? Would she suggest a trip to France...

. The Spring Has Come The mating call of the black-capped chickadee (a North American songbird) sounds like "Hey, Sweetie!" "Hey, Sweetie!"—this is what you say.Small chickadee, it is your wayto signal interest in your mate.You sing and chase—and often wait—until she deigns to make your day. A furtive "cheep,"...

. If You Ever Break Down If you ever break down somewhere far from your friends _And you stick out your thumb for a ride. Don’t expect that a Beemer or Mercedes-Benz _Will slow down or pull up alongside. What you hope you will see is an open-bed truck _With...

. FIRST PLACE . Captured Souls by Twila Brase Seized by force, a mighty throng The captured souls of the Falun Gong. Intact for now, breathing still Only time is left to kill. Buyers vie for body parts Kidneys, livers, eyes, and hearts. From chopping block to bloody crate Execution...

. Pressed for Time Though life is good, it doesn’t last that long, And so we’re always left desiring more. Remember, though, you bought it for a song— Did you expect a grand eternal tour? We find we’re subject to a grave condition That challenges our hearts and tests our...

. Ogre Food My parents, dear, although you love me so; and in your love, wish only for my best. Yet, to the first-grade class I will not go, nor shall I end my tears of loud protest. For fearful premonitions haunt my thoughts. My heart is filled with terror...

. May 12 is National Limerick Day in the United States, corresponding to Limerick-writer Edward Lear's birthday. Poet James A. Tweedie invites you to share your limerick or limericks in the comments section below. Here are a few from his book Laughing Matters to get you started. See "How to Write...

. Written in a Cubicle What spurs me, in this breathing grave of coffee mouths and cheeks unshaved, to stand upon my chair and shout, __"I'm out! I'm out of this forever-widening coop where glumness, going on a loop, entraps, within its strangling mesh, __the mind and flesh?" I should...

. Back in the U.S.S.R. ---St. Petersburg, Russia. The present. Your borscht, Dmitri. Come and eat, smart boy. You asked me how life was? Well take a seat And hear what your babushka has to tell Of times before the Politburo fell, When nothing---truly nothing---was the same. St. Petersburg then...

. Genevieve Perhaps those languid eyes are looking up At angels hymning in the dove-grey sky, So soft and saccharine (and fluent in Provincial French) to give her haloed head A tilt insouciante and pull her lips Into a supermodel pout. It’s prayer Perhaps that’s brought the crimson to her...

. Supernova With no notice, the rockets destroyed festive peace,And a volley of bullets brought death and dismay.Ben ran straight to his car, telling strangers, “Get in!I can take you to town, a safe distance away.” As they raced over roads, on the lookout for foes,He called home with a...

. Ghost Town With phantoms, I have lived for far too long. Both day and night, I’ve sighed, without a song. In vacant shells, I’ve tried to make my home In this ghost town of memories where I roam. They crowd like tombs around me every day--- These husks of...

. An Unfortunate Encounter ---27 March 2025 A ragamuffin mob surrounded mewhilst on an errand, walking in the street.They pressed in close, they vied to shake my hand,distracting me---the foreigner. Then onecovertly lit a firecracker andhe dropped it in a pocket of the bagupon my back. They jeered, they squealed...

. The Sky _I'm watching the storm_From the sea coming in,Windy and rowdy and gray._The raindrops begin_And the gale makes a spin.Pelicans swoop o'er the bay. _A downpour at last_With some lightning and flash,Thrashing the coast and the cay._As thunderclouds boom_And the sky threatens doom,Nature makes good at its play....

. On Epic Madness Sing, goddess, of the hate, and killings, on the Earth unleashed, destructive wrath which brings such woe to south, west, north and east, and sends to hell heroic souls, to vile dogs of war, to crows and vultures, scavengers of death, and all their corps. This...

. A Faithful Friend's Advice The girl you have is just the one for you— my head could not conceive a better match. She is your sun, your earth, the very glue that rightly holds your tattered life attached. The stars aligned to seal your fate with her There is...

. Riverside Breeze ___How beautiful you look __Browsing the flowers one by one _While lying down along the babbling brook; ___And there, beneath the sun, __Whose melting kisses mark your skin, _The faintest of the zephyrs overrun ___The linen, wearing thin, __Of your translucent floral dress, _And as you fall...

. This survey is open to Society Member and non-Members alike. Designed by Roy E. Peterson and Evan Mantyk of the Society of Classical Poets to gain insights into views and tastes in the emerging movement to return to traditional poetry with meter and often rhyme. Your responses will remain...

. Big Pharma Ads Are Everywhere Big Pharma ads are everywhere __Suffusing my TV. They fail to give me confidence __that they are right for me. They start with all the maladies __their medicine is for. Then give the possibilities __of dangers I abhor. The list of all the side...

  Alive, Alive-o In Dublin’s fair city,Where the girls are so pretty,There lived an old woman,Who was well known to me;Where she sighed with amazement,At her new knee replacement,Singing, “Cartilege and Muscles,For me are all go.For me are all go, For me are all go,”Singing, “Cartilege and Muscles,For me are...

. Territorializing Slithering slowly, so very precise, A methodic invader (and catcher of mice), She stealthily slips toward the enemy there, So unsuspecting, at rest by the chair. Without a diversion to aid her approach, And only her instincts, I watch her encroach. So lethal and cunning, the hair on...

. Bear Spray My little brother took a dare To pepper spray a mama bear. It seems the spray was much too mild, So I've become an only child. Except for near the polar ice, The bears you'll see are mostly nice When people give them ample space But get...

. The New Headmasters As I sat, that afternoon, upon his kneeWhile he read a “witty” book and I faux-laughedI’m afraid, aged eight, I didn’t really seeWhat was happening: I now feel rather daft.But “frottage,” back in Nineteen Eighty-Nine,In an England run by toffs from public schools,Such as Geoffrey Howe...

. Pollinator When swift spring breezes suddenly excitethe conifers out back, they really comealive in dips and bows and surges rightbefore my eyes. I watch to see if froma few of them, or even one, a cloudwill be released, all green and dense and fraughtwith life. It happens, and I...

. The Ego Lingers Longer Than The Mind The ego lingers longer than the mind, It dares to whisper yearnings of its own: To manifest a will more keen than kind, A shady glow that will not be outshone. We think we know what stirs our minds to act, We...

. Headspace It’s easy to detect folks’ disrespect, And hope your feats will make them feel quite small. But better still would be if the effect, Was not to give them any thought at all. . . The Senior Dating Scene I was, from friends my age, quite shocked to...

. Back to the Greenwood The spring has come to England once again But I am far away and cannot see The blackthorn blossoms blowing in the wind, And blackbirds in the heavens, flying free. The sun, grown potent, burns the standing stones, Releasing things enthralled by winter’s hand, Igniting...

. The Society of Classical Poets Journal XIII has been published! It features poetry, translations, and essays selected from those published on the SCP website between February 1, 2024 and January 31, 2025.  The Journal also features exquisite art created by living artists who are at the top of the...

. There’s Nothing to Regain ---on the terrorist attack on tourists in Pahalgam town, in Kashmir, India Their hapless screams over that vale Had failed to cross celestial planes; But found their way beneath my veins To scratch my conscience, growing stale With frozen tears and empathy. The meadows reeked...

. Premonition The sun shines down in undimmed majestyAcross the heavens’ undiminished breadthOn life unsapped, unweighted levityOf loves and laughs untinged with sight of death--- Except for mine. An unseen shadow thrownAs night across the day strikes untold fearIn me of doom unnamable yet known,Unseen but felt, and menacingly near....

. Zips and Zooms The hummingbird both zips and zooms To search for nectar in the blooms Of flowers that unfold in spring. The hummingbird has peewee wings And yet she moves with lightning speed. Her eggs (like little jelly beans) Are laid into her nest of moss And twigs...

. How I Spent My Spring Vacation: Poetry and Photography by James A. Tweedie . It Begins 45 Days Surrounded by the circle of the sea I cruise Atlantic waters, eastward bound, As knot by knot each longitude degree Leads onward towards a world as yet unfound. To Portugal’s fair...

. Heritage I’ve never asked for anything The living soil does not provide. I don’t want cash; I don’t want bling; I only want to stand beside The footprints of departed fathers, Now looking down through time and space To see what son it is who bothers To understand his...

. An Ode to Silay Cathedral bells now toll, And horses march the streets, The crowd has filled the hall, We hear the priest now preach. A lady makes a curtsy To the Lord respectfully. The marble pillars stand, The bougainvillea blooms, The sky azure and grand, The silk dress...

. Medusa's Sisters Medusa lost her head and found renown instead. Her living sisters roared, “And why are we ignored who so much fouler are and deadlier by far? “You’d think that she’d become the pride of gorgondom. Who caused Medusa’s fall? A sniveling man—that’s all. To that galoot the...