Beauty

. A Clamshell in Concrete  I was a child in kindergarten class. My mother held my hand as we trod on The sidewalk leading to the boulevard. This was 1951. The path Was paved in smooth cement, and at the edge The numbers 1 - 9 - 4 - 0...

. Parallel Man As I was going to the fair, I met a man with silver hair. The more I looked how could it be? He looked an awful lot like me, ‘Cept furrowed brow and walking cane. Perhaps my thoughts were just insane. Perhaps it was a twist of...

. Slivered Moon Slivered moon on slippers slides Across the skies on silver tides, Draping cobwebs over trees And coaxing shadows to their knees. No more this day will swallows sweep, Above the ground where creatures creep. Where frog and toad with bulging eye, Sing to the world their lullaby....

. Love’s Seasons In the heat of the night, when conditions are right, __Gentle lovers will cuddle and spoon. It’s a wonderful plan, much more marvelous than __Any other found under the moon. When the weather grows crisper and winter’s a whisper __On the sensitive nerves in your skin, Just...

. Birdbrains a villanelle   “When you control a man’s thinking you do not have to worry  about his actions.” ---Carter G. Woodson If we just parrot newspeak without blinking And push prize poppycock as logic fails, We’re cuckoo and we’ve given up on thinking. Our minds will end up shriveling and shrinking, Our...

. (See an explanation on what Sibyls are here.) . The Tyburtine Sibyl The Tyburtine sibyl has the iconographic attribute of a hand, indicating her foreknowledge of insults suffered by Jesus. Not from my heart's imaginings do I (A Sabine woman of the waterfall Crashing at Tivoli as a crazed...

. Uncle Sam's Tomb after Samuel Coleridge's "The Knight's Tomb" (see below) Where will the grave of that great figurehead be, That leader of free men and symbol of might, That vision of justice in our country so free, Great defender of all that is wholesome and right? Can he...

. Woman For years I’ve known exactly what it means To own the weight and wonder of my sex--- The crimson flow of knowledge in my teens, The curve and swell---my spell---the heady hex That lures love to the precipice of bliss. I know the grit and guts it took to claw Through...

. He Catches When We Fall! Of all life’s mysteries, The deepest of them all--- Not how high we've risen But on what day we fall. Pride’s an untrue friend, And hubris does us in. A loss of faith in God Would lead us now to sin. Pride’s an empty...

. Sleep Now the hour has come to lay me down Upon the waters of the river Lethe, To float into the maelstrom and to drown In swirling waves above me and beneath me. Who can recount those dark, forgotten hours When, having drunk the cup of Morpheus dry, We...

. The Hypodermic For a poet, the pen is merely part Of the apparatus of addiction. He emulates the frozen fly in amber Watching eons come, roll by, and pass. As motionless as veined quartz in a stone, He seeks a waxen perpetuity Bound and shackled in his dreamless cell,...

. Quarantined Against the wind, our candles out, The smoke will rise, we have no doubt, Yet in the dark with all our kin, We’ll strike a match and crack a grin, And once alight, our joy will sprout. All those outside, alone, will pout, “You’ll spread disease,” they’ll scream...

. Where Wonders Remain Snow crowns violet mountains that reign over trees, __Whose forests stand verdant and old; It ends where rich valleys roll down to the seas, __To welcome blue waters with gold. From mire-slicked rocks swift crustaceans crawl, __And offer themselves to the sea. Above, flocks of gray...

. Sold I. Summer Honey Crush  Soft, silken lips shone from her screen last night. She saw them, plump and ripe, as smooth and lush As velvet peaches kissed by Sol’s delight. If her smile blushed in Summer Honey Crush She’d beam a flirty grin to light his eyes--- That...

. The Street Cop's Choice Thanks for coming home to help me choose. I know my kids will always have my back. Today was rough. By now you’ve seen the News--- Such blatant lies! They’ve tied me to the rack. And we still have to see if this guy sues....

. Tribute to a Poet for Leonard Dabydeen, an SCP poet who passed away on March 16, 2022. Read Leonard Dabydeen's poetry here. I gaze for long at star-filled skies __To feel the crumbling fears; I see the world through human eyes __To feel the wrath of tears. I come...

. Dueling Violins Yanni, Karen Briggs and Shardad Rohani live at the Acropolis in 1993 Anticipating each half-note he brings to life, her fingers stretch to find the grooves. Perfection springs, as sound is bounced from strings, then quickly as Baryshnikov, she moves. His chords a hurried sequence, devil's notes, seduce...

. Happy St. Patrick's Day! Share your St. Patrick's Day Poetry in the comments section below. While writing and posting, enjoy an Irish medley of songs, “Chief O Neil’s” followed by “The Red-Haired boy," performed by Jeff Eardley. Also enjoy the image above suggested by Roy E. Peterson. Thank you,...

. Heights of Passion Passion flowers white and purple Bloom where tendrils curl and cling To the overhanging myrtle Sheltering my garden swing. Scents befitting distant tropics Catch the senses unaware, Lingering like sweet narcotics For the swinger, high on air. Rise and fall like waves on ocean Moves the...

. Berenice for my mother, Berenice Stone Cook Indebted to a simple spark of life, You missed your chance at Europe’s wondrous door. A conscientious mother and a wife, You danced your dance upon an inland shore. Your simple fabrics catch my memory. Aprons and cotton stockings made a trail...

. On Sighting a Marsupial "Serve with: Turnip greens" —Joy of Cooking Opossums are so ugly that it isn’t clear Another of their kind would find one good to look At.  Matted fur and hairless tails do not endear Them to Americans.  According to a book I read, their closest...

. Two Poems for White Day On White Day, March 14, men in Japan present white gifts to women, in return for the chocolates they receive from women on Valentine’s Day. White Day began in 1978 as a commercial venture to sell more candy and flowers. It is now observed...

. A White Knight a triolet With fires of hope and spirit bright, who will stand up for what is just thence set our country all alight with fires of hope and spirit bright? A hero true, a great white knight a person worthy of our trust with fires of...

. A North Indian Summer They ask of me to write a sonnet fine In praise of Summer and her pretty dress, But I hail from a place of different clime Where Summer’s heat knows best how to oppress. She raises up the dust from Rajasthan And like a warrior...

. The Arch of Titus The Arch of Titus was constructed in 81 AD by the Emperor Domitian to commemorate the victory of Titus and Vespasian, over the Jewish rebellion in Judea. The arch depicts the triumphal procession celebrated in 71 AD after the Roman victory culminating in the fall...

. "I Heard Chapman Speak Out Loud and Bold" by Margaret Coats My title quotes “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer,” a sonnet by John Keats. When Keats first read Homer, the voice he heard was not Homer’s, but that of English translator George Chapman. Verse translations are original poems;...

. Captured As Herbert writes in Love-joy there’s a view of grapes upon a vine.  But mine is this- the perfect blooms of summer that renew by our Creator’s hand.  Each one its own as you or I beneath a Heaven’s bliss. As over all of this, a warmth has...

. Ex Nihilo Is a Joke “. . .it starts with an empty universe” ---Stephen Fry, Cosmos, vii An empty universe is paradox. In such a boundless space there’d be no time. Among all other blanks there’d be no clocks. Eternity could not produce a chime. This space would be...

. Little to Regret When Time has stilled my body __Think of me now and then, Asleep beneath the wattle, __Which flowers yet again. And as the summer follows __With rays I cannot see, Let the warmth embrace you— __My passion cannot be! And when your time approaches __(In many...

. Pergola My vines entwined around your posts and beams of weathered wood the sun had silvered gray. My trunk extends its arms, your trellis teems with viridescent leaves throughout the day. The hungry children broke your lower rail. They stood upon it, grasping grapes that hung beyond their reach....

. Memento, Homo… "There is no architecture in New Orleans, except in the cemeteries." —Mark Twain If we should go to New Orleans We’ll see our share of raucous scenes At Mardi Gras soirees and balls With kings and queens in grandiose halls. We’ll see the floats sail down Saint...

. Beneath the Tide The tidal basin ebbs and flows each dayAs if it were a sentient, breathing thing—A pas de deux, a moon-dance interplay—As time and space, in silence, sway and swing. As like a fraying tapestry unweavesThe sea withdraws to show its stone-strewn floor;With empty clamshells lying thick...

. Salieri on Mozart More wine, Signore... Should I say mein Herr? I know! French cognac. Spirits help me share Dark thoughts. Now listen. I take one full year To pen these operas Kaiser Josef lauds; Then you compose a piece in half a season--- Vienna, Prague, all history applauds...

. Spring The Spring is coming and each day Earlier falls dawn’s curtain grey Before the star-enchanted world Where, in each other’s limbs fast curled, As Venus, our directrix, bade, In many acts our masque we played, Then, in a night-long revelry, Entranced I slept and dreamt of thee. But...

. From the Tower by Francisco de Quevedo (1580-1645) | translated from Spanish by Elwin Wirkala Retired to these deserts and at peace, and with but few, though learnèd, books beside, I live conversing now with the deceased, and listen with my eyes to those who died. Open, whether or not...

. Come Winter, Come Come Winter, come. Lay this body down to rest. A squalling wind is blowing, north by northwest; __And every tree a bower __In Nature’s darkest hour, __And every creature deep __In hibernation sleep; And how I yearn for peaceful, calm repose! So come, Dear season, cover...

. When words are sharp, and clash like iron blades, I swallow swords. I grimace, turn away. You fear I wield a shield, that love will fade, That wordless I our promises betray. Yet iron sharpens iron, I have heard, And so I breathe and write and learn to speak....

. Bluer Skies after Ogden Nash Spring ain’t sprung, the grass ain’t growed, The fields ain’t fit for man nor toad. They tell us that the world is warmin’, ‘Pears to me the world is stormin’. Snow ‘n’ rain ‘n’ wind a’ blowin’, Local rivers overflowin’, Global warmin’ diagnosed Yet...

. Music of the Contours part of "A Double Unfinished Symphony" sonnet sequence The way that curls sway lovelier than straight, ..And curving strands of gold set pearls in grace, ....That nuns' bow necks to take novitiate, ......That perfect comets bend to spangle space, .......Your memory impairs and sags my...

. The Ugly Child Some poems “hit the spot” and please the crowd--- Relatable, well-crafted, poignant, funny--- They beg to be perused, reread aloud; They squeeze tears from the low, perk up the sunny. Some dazzle with heroic, epic tales Of battles far away and long ago; Some---deep, concise, and...