• Submit Poetry
  • Support SCP
  • About Us
  • Members
  • Join
Wednesday, October 21, 2026
Society of Classical Poets
  • Poems
    • Beauty
    • Culture
    • Satire
    • Humor
    • Children’s
    • Art
    • Ekphrastic
    • Epic
    • Epigrams and Proverbs
    • Human Rights in China
    • Music
    • Performing Arts
    • Riddles
    • Science
    • Song Lyrics
    • The Environment
    • The Raven
    • Found Poems
    • High School Poets
    • Terrorism
    • Covid-19
  • Poetry Forms
    • Sonnet
    • Haiku
    • Limerick
    • Villanelle
    • Rondeau
    • Pantoum
    • Sestina
    • Triolet
    • Acrostic
    • Alexandroid
    • Alliterative
    • Blank Verse
    • Chant Royal
    • Clerihew
    • Rhupunt
    • Rondeau Redoublé
    • Rondel
    • Rubaiyat
    • Sapphic Verse
    • Shape Poems
    • Terza Rima
  • Great Poets
    • Geoffrey Chaucer
    • Emily Dickinson
    • Homer
    • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
    • Dante Alighieri
    • John Keats
    • John Milton
    • Edgar Allan Poe
    • William Shakespeare
    • William Wordsworth
    • William Blake
    • Robert Frost
  • Love Poems
  • Contests
  • SCP Academy
    • Educational
    • Teaching Classical Poetry—A Guide for Educators
    • Poetry Forms
    • The SCP Journal
    • Books
No Result
View All Result
Society of Classical Poets
  • Poems
    • Beauty
    • Culture
    • Satire
    • Humor
    • Children’s
    • Art
    • Ekphrastic
    • Epic
    • Epigrams and Proverbs
    • Human Rights in China
    • Music
    • Performing Arts
    • Riddles
    • Science
    • Song Lyrics
    • The Environment
    • The Raven
    • Found Poems
    • High School Poets
    • Terrorism
    • Covid-19
  • Poetry Forms
    • Sonnet
    • Haiku
    • Limerick
    • Villanelle
    • Rondeau
    • Pantoum
    • Sestina
    • Triolet
    • Acrostic
    • Alexandroid
    • Alliterative
    • Blank Verse
    • Chant Royal
    • Clerihew
    • Rhupunt
    • Rondeau Redoublé
    • Rondel
    • Rubaiyat
    • Sapphic Verse
    • Shape Poems
    • Terza Rima
  • Great Poets
    • Geoffrey Chaucer
    • Emily Dickinson
    • Homer
    • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
    • Dante Alighieri
    • John Keats
    • John Milton
    • Edgar Allan Poe
    • William Shakespeare
    • William Wordsworth
    • William Blake
    • Robert Frost
  • Love Poems
  • Contests
  • SCP Academy
    • Educational
    • Teaching Classical Poetry—A Guide for Educators
    • Poetry Forms
    • The SCP Journal
    • Books
No Result
View All Result
Society of Classical Poets
No Result
View All Result
Home Poetry Beauty

‘Obi-Wan Bin Laden RIP’ and Other Poetry by James Sale

December 10, 2016
in Beauty, Culture, Humor, Poetry, Terrorism
A A
1
poems 'Obi-Wan Bin Laden RIP' and Other Poetry by James Sale

 

Obi-Wan Bin Laden RIP

Let’s remember what God wants:
Killing people’s never right,
So Obi-Wan Bin Laden then
Cannot be a Jedi knight.

To make folks free you face them straight –
Backstabbing lacks God’s protocol;
So Obi-Wan Bin Laden looks
Like something that has lost its soul.

He’s hard to find on Dégobah,
Afghanistan or Alderon,
Where Obi-Wan Bin Laden hides –
But surely he’ll slip in the sun.

Then see his shade evaporate,
His loud excuses miss their course:
As Obi-Wan Bin Laden tries
Escaping but without the Force.

 

Three Last Stars

And we came out to see once more the stars …Inferno
To her reborn, a tree renewed, in bloom… Purgatorio
I felt my will and my desire impelled … Paradiso

We climbed from darkness far away,
Opening ahead the circle round
Through which we went from night to day;
Yet strangely still they shone, profound,
The stars forever and beyond,
Signposting our immortal way.

My tree renewed, to see them there,
Above me, puncturing the dark,
So distant, like they couldn’t care,
Or were mere scratchings on black bark –
Each point, though, perfect in its work:
Upwards – certain, beyond despair.

Such, then, they were, beacons of hope
No blackness ever could erase
Them, mar, damage or change their shape;
Indeed, only one response, praise
Seemed fitting. As I pursued my ways
Ahead, behind the world’s dark drape.

 

James Sale FRSA has been a writer for 50 years, and has had over 30 books published, including 7 collections of poetry, as well as books from Macmillan (The Poetry Show vols 1-3) and other major publishers on how to teach poetry writing. Most recently his poems have appeared in the UK in: Dawntreader, Towards Wholeness, Quaker News and Views, The Bournemouth Central Library Exhibition; in the USA in The Anglo Theological Review. Shortly, his latest collection, The Lyre Speaks True, will be available and includes his prize winning poems from The Society of Classical Poets’ 2014 anthology.

ShareTweetPin
The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary.
Read Our Comments Policy Here

RandomPoems

‘Terrorism Can Be Defeated’ by Sandip Saha
Poetry

‘Terrorism Can Be Defeated’ by Sandip Saha

September 9, 2016

  Terror has infected the world today; And this disease is spreading day by day. Fanatics who lack spirituality And...

poem/sea/ocean
Beauty

‘Comfort’ and Other Poetry of the Sea by Catherine Lee

January 30, 2023

. Comfort I gaze upon the endless sea against high cliffs, on golden sand— her everlasting majesty. Through ages rolling...

Next Post
‘Kitty’s Crime’ by David Schultz

'Kitty's Crime' by David Schultz

How to Write a Sestina (with Examples and Diagrams)

How to Write a Sestina (with Examples and Diagrams)

‘Mulan’ by Stephanie Fang

'Mulan' by Stephanie Fang

Comments 1

  1. Evan says:
    10 years ago

    Is it just me or does the man with Bin Laden’s head look strangely like both Obama and Bush… ? At any rate, brilliant poem, James. There must be many angst-y youth out there being duped by radical terrorist dreams of martyrdom right now.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


  1. Briana Reavis on ‘Life Is Conflictual’: A Poem by Roy E. PetersonOctober 21, 2026

    So true, Roy. We must learn to hold these conflicting moments, one in each hand, I feel. How could we…

  2. Apollo Clark Co on ‘The Siege on Castle Hill’: A Poem by Apollo Clark CoOctober 21, 2026

    Thank you, everyone, for the kind words and for taking the time to read and share your thoughts on my…

  3. Apollo Clark Co on ‘The Siege on Castle Hill’: A Poem by Apollo Clark CoOctober 21, 2026

    Yes, that was deliberate. War is war, and regardless of its cause, people still have to live through it. I…

  4. Apollo Clark Co on ‘The Siege on Castle Hill’: A Poem by Apollo Clark CoOctober 21, 2026

    Thank you, Brian! I can certainly see your point about the length. I originally planned for only six perspectives, but…

  5. Briana Reavis on ‘The Valley’: A Poem by Briana ReavisOctober 20, 2026

    Thank you so much, Jan. I find that the valleys truly teach us so much, even when I’m less than…

Subscribe to Daily Poems

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 1,661 other subscribers
No Result
View All Result

Resources

       1. A Guide to Writing Poetry

      2. The Best Poems of 2020      

      3. Poetry and Writing Contests

      4. Journals Accepting Formal Verse

Recent Poems

  • ‘Life Is Conflictual’: A Poem by Roy E. Peterson
  • ‘The Siege on Castle Hill’: A Poem by Apollo Clark Co
  • ‘Every New Pantheon’: A Poem by C.B. Anderson
  • ‘Biblical? Emblematic?’: A Poem by Stephen DiLauro
  • ‘The Valley’: A Poem by Briana Reavis
  • The Blobfish—‘Mr Blobby’: A Poem by Paul A. Freeman
  • ‘Nature’s Family’: A Poem by Margaret Coats
  • ‘The River & The Sea’: A Poem by Rohini Sunderam
  • Poems by Derzhavin, Akhmatova, and Tyutchev, Translated by Kevin Rainbow
  • ‘After-Action Report’: A Poem by Joseph S. Salemi
  • ‘The Walking Wounded’: A Poem by Jeffrey Essmann
  • ‘Their Words, My Fault’ and Other Poems by Russel Winick
  • ‘Lazarus I’: A Poem by Jason Hunt
  • Poetry Challenge: Dictionary Delights
  • ‘In Defense of Rhyme’: An Essay by Euphrates Moss
  • ‘Gun Control’: A Poem by Kevin Ahern
  • ‘Power of a Pen’: A Poem by Janice Stanley
  • The Best Haiku of 2026
  • ‘One Night in Bangkok’ and Other Poetry by Brian Yapko
  • ‘Invocation’: A Poem by D.R. Rainbolt
  • ‘Enjoy the Peace, Prepare for War’: A Poem by Roy E. Peterson
  • Faust Part Two, Act One: ‘A Pleasant Landscape’ by Goethe, Translated by Josh Olson
  • A Song Inspired by Robert Frost’s ‘The Road Not Taken’, by Gunny Markefka
  • ‘Reappraisals of Mortality’: A Poem by C.B. Anderson
  • ‘What Is the Measure of My Days?’: A Poem by Peter Venable
  • ‘Polar Coordinates’: A Poem by Adam Sedia
  • ‘It Never Lies!’: A Poem by Paul A. Freeman
  • ‘The Mahjong Flowers’: A Set of Sonnets by Margaret Coats
  • ‘The Martyrdom of Saint Cassian’: A Poem by Joseph S. Salemi
  • ‘Mind Versus Beauty’: A Poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Translated by Eric v.d. Luft

Categories

  • Acrostic
  • Alexandroid
  • Alliterative
  • Art
  • Best Poems
  • Blank Verse
  • Chant Royal
  • Classical Poets Live
  • Clerihew
  • Covid-19
  • Deconstructing Communism
  • Educational
  • Epic
  • Epigrams and Proverbs
  • Essays
    • Interviews with Poets
    • Poetry Reviews
  • Featured
  • From the Society
  • Great Poets
    • Dante Alighieri
    • Edgar Allan Poe
    • Emily Dickinson
    • Geoffrey Chaucer
    • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
    • Homer
    • John Keats
    • John Milton
    • Robert Frost
    • William Blake
    • William Shakespeare
    • William Wordsworth
  • Human Rights in China
  • Limerick
  • Love Poems
  • Music
  • Pantoum
  • Performing Arts
  • Poetry
    • Beauty
    • Children's Poems
    • Culture
    • Ekphrastic
    • Found Poems
    • High School Poets
    • Humor
    • Riddles
  • Poetry Challenge
  • Poetry Contests
  • Poetry Forms
    • Curtal Sonnet
    • Haiku
  • Poetry Readings
  • Rhupunt
  • Rondeau
  • Rondeau Redoublé
  • Rondel
  • Rubaiyat
  • Sapphic Verse
  • Satire
  • Science
  • Sestina
  • Shape Poems
  • Short Stories
  • Song Lyrics
  • Sonnet
  • Symposium
  • Terrorism
  • Terza Rima
  • The Environment
  • Translation
  • Triolet
  • Video
  • Villanelle

Quick Links

  • About Us
  • Submit Poetry
  • Become a Member
  • Members List
  • Support the Society
  • Advertisement Placement
  • Comments Policy
  • Terms of Use

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Poems
    • Beauty
    • Culture
    • Satire
    • Humor
    • Children’s
    • Art
    • Ekphrastic
    • Epic
    • Epigrams and Proverbs
    • Human Rights in China
    • Music
    • Performing Arts
    • Riddles
    • Science
    • Song Lyrics
    • The Environment
    • The Raven
    • Found Poems
    • High School Poets
    • Terrorism
    • Covid-19
  • Poetry Forms
    • Sonnet
    • Haiku
    • Limerick
    • Villanelle
    • Rondeau
    • Pantoum
    • Sestina
    • Triolet
    • Acrostic
    • Alexandroid
    • Alliterative
    • Blank Verse
    • Chant Royal
    • Clerihew
    • Rhupunt
    • Rondeau Redoublé
    • Rondel
    • Rubaiyat
    • Sapphic Verse
    • Shape Poems
    • Terza Rima
  • Great Poets
    • Geoffrey Chaucer
    • Emily Dickinson
    • Homer
    • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
    • Dante Alighieri
    • John Keats
    • John Milton
    • Edgar Allan Poe
    • William Shakespeare
    • William Wordsworth
    • William Blake
    • Robert Frost
  • Love Poems
  • Contests
  • SCP Academy
    • Educational
    • Teaching Classical Poetry—A Guide for Educators
    • Poetry Forms
    • The SCP Journal
    • Books

© 2025 SCP. WebDesign by CODEC Prime.