Beauty

Proverbs for Engraving onto Imperial Monuments War is the price of freedom. Depths bewilder. The blow aimed at the beast...

  Within the shadow of the fortress wall, I stand agape; such gross, exquisite scale. My bulging eyes attempt to...

An English Ode That famous field where nodding poppies sway In sunlit grass, where souls of all the good Spend...

  Song of the Rose The rose awakens, ere the sky Has wakened to the sun; And we, my one...

Victus a response to William Ernest Henley’s poem “Invictus,” from which the first two lines of the final stanza are...

  A Letter to Sir Grammar Dear Sir Grammar: With all kindness and courtesy, may I request, A new package...

  Years ago—I still remember: final Thursday in November, I was in my kitchen cooking food to rival feasts of...

  translation by Anna Leader I do not know what it might bode That I should be so sad, A...

Praise for Fall You float in on a late September breeze with still-warm days and mild, cool nights in tow....

Thank You Sonnet This thanking you in sonnet form might seem Somewhat unusual, but I think it best, Simply to...

  Forgotten The grass has overgrown the weathered stone Since they first placed his body in the ground, And visitors...

Mama My mama took two drinks a year; A shot glass down the gullet— Yet hated bars and abhorred beer....

  Et In Arcadia Ego Oh, that's it, Keko. Pass through. Go ahead. Just walk across my books without a...

  What song shall I sing for a nation divided By politics, race, economics, and power? By what sweet refrain...

The above photographs were taken and submitted by New York City poet Joe Tessitore. We invite readers to pick one...

Translator's note: The following consists of three poems by Jehan (or Jean) Froissart (c.1335–c.1410), translated not very literally but as...

Song at Sunset The sun sets ‘neath the mountain top: __A golden orb that blinks And just for seconds lights...

Requiem for the U.N. 73 years—countless billions of dollars— And here we are today... Behold the statesmen smartly dressed Assembled...

  To You, My Wife a villanelle To you, my wife, my love I declare, My joy and gain, a...

  Eternity in Our Hearts after Ecclesiastes 3 I contemplated all these matters from beneath the heaven, seeing things the...

  I. Return to Rome Turn, turn, sing Seeger and the Shakers, turn Till one day all comes right—but is...

  My Daughter Sees a Starling on the Lawn I thought to tell you how the bird was called, What...

Who is that smiling cherub whose huge wings, Open, extended, like a swan in flight, Lifts him above the angels...

  In Frenchman bay, near Otter Point, the sea Against an ancient rock comes crashing down. This grey-clad cliff protrudes...

The New Year The fields stretch out, bare, icy: __Wide, blank, yet-unetched slates, Tabulae rasae, waiting __The chisel of the...

  I am the raging tempest tossed upon the fretful sea; you are the calm and quiet gale that steadies...

  The sun sinks deep into the hill Behind the town that perches still. An amber fog prowls through the...

  Moth, Angel of the Night Emerging from a rich cocoon, you shed off your old husk– with legs outstretched...

Surveillance, Twenty Twenty I never thought I'd live to see my TV looking back at me!     One Nation,...

  It seems the art world all but missed the dart Hurled ‘cross the continent when Hassel Smith Called Jackson...

Cumæan  Below, beyond the tiles now cave’d down, Up from the rubbled earth arose a sound Shrieking in a pitch...

Bees Are Spectacular When people talk of “bees” it well could mean Two things: the sum of separate insects or...

On the occasion of New Year's Day 2020, two poems by Damian Robin, a writer and editor living in the...

  ‘Tis late now in the balmy eve, without the slightest stir, When lighter than a hot balloon cuts through...

  Three Hundred Spartans In twilight’s ash three hundred stars await As blue-black thunder roars with battle drums, Three hundred...

One Last Candle The angry storm approaches in the night, Its curdling howl is heard for miles around. The trees...

Palimpsest ...written in their hearts... Romans 2.15 We try, but cannot fully scrape away those ancient words engraved upon the...

Come to Bethlehem / Silent Night   Song and Poem by James A. Tweedie Come to Bethlehem, come and see...

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sA_UsvwgdQ8 Our nakedness was swaddled by the night, With Eden’s worn-out dust our feet were shod, When heaven opened...

The Feast of the Nativity ‘Twas the night before a brilliant star They roam the desert near and far, When...