Culture

. Talk Around the Urn In our Sunday best, on folding chairs, We solemnly talk around the urn; A tear, a sniffle, show who cares For the loved one who will not return. No box is there with dressed up corpse, But mostly wood burned into ash. The mourners show...

. A Vacillating Villanelle On Perception  "Understanding the world for a man is reducing it to the human, stamping it with his seal. The cat’s universe is not the universe of the anthill." ---Albert Camus Whatever life perceives, life will receive. The butterfly sees ultraviolet light. For us, what we...

. Truth Streaked Across the Sky Truth streaked across the skyAlighting on a foreign strand,Where politicians buried itBeneath the lying sand. The truth was stranger than the lies,Too dazzling for the mind.The leaders meant for it to dieIn the land of the half-blind. With gradual revealing tides,Truth showed as life...

. Sailing to Illusium Unheralded, the ancient oracle Appears and disappears, pronounce announcing Creaturely mortality while singing Dirges under breath; rhetorical Devices wringing images of death From sweet-sleep fentanyl and crystal meth. Unhinged abstentions from imperatives To live belabored sweat for paradise. Unplant, unwater, rape and reap the price Of...

. First Pick Flamingo They used to call this player the flamingo; They chaffed and mocked; they were full of bravado. ‘Cause he’s the new kid, they didn’t know his skills He missed three practice shots, so he was grilled. A weird name to deride his faultless form. The children...

. Jehu Destroys the Temple and Statue of Baäl "—What did that madman want?" ---2 Kings 9:11 He saw Jehu Destroys the Temple and Statue of Baäl, the print by Maarten van Heemskerck of darkness to appall. He saw the flames inside the Temple—from windows pouring forth— the headless form...

. The Ghosts of Altamira ---a meditation A herd of prehistoric bison; blood beliefs Depicted in concentric whorls with prints of hands. Stick petroglyphs which hint at ice age births and griefs, And spells to bind the mammoths close to tribal lands. A saber-tooth lies buried in an earthen carpet...

. For the Sake of Ten Thousand: A Supplication from New Sodom And Abraham came near and said, ‘Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked?  Suppose there were fifty righteous…?’” ---Genesis 18: 23-24 Would you destroy the righteous with the savage?Supposing fifty-thousand people whoStill worship You, and still...

. O Lord, Let Me Not Fall O Lord, let me not fall today, I pray, Not in some vague or metaphoric way, As into sin or moral turpitude Or somewhat less than pious interludes. I’m talking, Lord, my face against the floor, The sidewalk, in some random corridor; Someplace...

. "Sometimey” People Sometimes he’s quite responsive, Sometimes he disappears. Sometimes he’s downright friendly, Sometimes he switches gears. Sometimes he’s so straightforward, Sometimes he seems to swerve. Sometimes “sometimey” people, Just get on my last nerve. . . New Priority When he was young to just be liked __Was his...

. Contra Computerdom I hold this fountain pen with thumb and fingers, burgundy barrel, gold and rhodium nib, Montblanc white-sea-star floating on its cap. German, this instrument, successor to the stylus trimmed from common river reeds, Sumerians marking wedge-shaped cuneiform on tablets fired from Tigris potash clay; the Roman calamus,...

. Horse Figurine —one inch by one point nine inch, 32,000 to 35,000 years before Giacometti's famous horse   A hallowed tiny horse, but missing legs, Comes down to us impossibly, or near In its impossibility.  No dregs Of artistry such items are.  They jeer At us for thinking we are...

. Guy Fawkes Night Makeover November 5th! To Guy Fawkes let’s be kind--- no burning him in effigy this year. His hanged-and-drawn-and-quartered doom I find excessive; let’s reverse his fate most drear! His body parts (grim warnings to be loyal) return to London where they recombine. His entrails get un-burned,...

. Polarities The only certain solidarity among the Self-Reliant is the ease with which their pride in insularity is spoken of like some esteemed disease they welcome to their homes: To seek a cure would be a show of weakness to appease the Socialists who want them to endure the...

. Loose Me! “Loose him, and let him go.” ---John 11.44 O loose me, Jesus! Jesus, set me free from all that binds my soul and blinds my way. Unwrap the shrouds of death that cling to me! Let every shade of doubt enlightened be, the gloom of night bathed...

. Fall Back: Central Standard Time Already it is dark: the falling arc Of each advancing year, when the eager moon, To catch the setting sun, comes up too soon. Full light no longer lingers at high noon, Or loiters there long past our long day’s work, But languishes at...

. Lady Gwyn  I hear the scratching of a claw--- A disembodied monkey’s paw Scraping at decaying bones. I feel a gust of ghostly moans Wuther through my withered heart. It’s time to stir. It’s time to start This ghastly party with a scare To widen eyes and heighten hair....

. Elisha's Bones II Kings 4:32–37, 13:20–21 Elisha died, the prophet doubly strong In spirit, and his sepulcher was grand, For he had caused a lifeless child to stand And speak, then heard the mother’s grateful song. A withered elder passed away—erelong The bier was carried forth, with burial planned...

. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5zId3BCl6M . . Andrew Benson Brown has had poems and reviews published in a few journals. His epic-in-progress, Legends of Liberty, will chronicle the major events of the American Revolution if he lives to complete it. Though he writes history articles for American Essence magazine, he lists his primary occupation...

. Where Babylonic Rivers Flowed after Psalm 137, a lament at the destruction of Jerusalem Where Babylonic rivers flowed We settled down to weep and mourn And mused on Zion, our abode, Our city sullied and forlorn. In foreign land by poplar trees We placed our lyres. For it was...

. Prayer as an Antidote for Unbelief Just imagine if, while you’re entreating the sky, You were met with the wink of a generous Eye. __A very grave disaster it would be __If all there was to your approach to God __Were, now and ever, for eternity, __Dead fingers pushing...

. The Venetian Doge on the Sack of Constantinople Setting: Constantinople in the Summer of 1204 AD. Doge Enrico Dandolo of Venice prepares for bed after an exhausting day visiting Byzantium’s famous bronze Hippodrome horses as they are loaded onto a ship for the journey back to Venice. These venerable...

. The Java Joe Machine My jiffy Java Joe machineAllows me to make only oneCup of coffee when I please,Convenient when I’m on the run. But in the seconds as it brewsI recall my coffee potDripping cheerfully while newsI read. The Post, which I pre-bought So it would on my...

. Senior Village The ambulances come and go. Last night it was the man across The hall, whom I’d begun to know. Another friend, another loss. __I never know, From day to day, who I will see Driven away. They come and go--- The red-lighted emergency Vehicles. It’s sad---although, __Realistically,...

. Homage to Morton of Merrymount To you I pay this homage and devotion: Thomas Morton, Host of Merrymount— You, whose learnèd writing put in motion The court suit that brought Plymouth to account. Yes, Plymouth Bay—that gaggle of fanatics Singing hymns with nasal intonation— Those prim, precisian whiners and...

. S O S Keep the fleecy wolves from bleating. Hold the pack of jackals back. Seize the greedy grubbers eating Scraps from bowls of those who lack. Bar the charlatans from cheating. Quell the yak of quack and hack. Snare the fat cats trick-or-treating--- Stealing sweets and doling flack....

. The Mask Sin wears a Cherub’s mask And beams forth paradise. “Come in, recline, and bask.” Discerning eyes looks twice: The gate shuts like a vice. . . The Strange Case Of Homo Sapiens At my right hand, my fountain pen Waits on the desk by me. A loaded...

. Look Up Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn on a world split apart The prophet scorned the academic dress of those who had invited him to their Parnassus of the Ivy League. Why wear their garb, when he intended not to bless them, but to warn, and even to condemn their way of...

. The Night My Father Punched the Cow The night my father punched the cowWas dark and windy, late; and nowHis job was dangling on a row,And he was sick of it, somehow__That night. He broke his hand, and held it tightIn place throughout that fractious night— My mother thought,...

. Apologies at Antoninus Pius’s Table, 155 A.D. . I. Rome’s Glory “Arriving at this feast, how proud I stand that Rome endures to succor those who dwell here in this citadel and those whose hands till soil across the empire that reaps well.” Sharp Aristides spoke to those who...

. Sudan, 2005 ---on the death of Dr. John Garang, Liberation Fighter and Sudanese Vice President Garang is dead! An accident, they say--- his helicopter downed by slanting rain. This man who kept the Northerners at bay no longer lives to temper hatred’s strain. Conspiratorial tongues have lit a fuse...

. Westward, with Columbus The North Atlantic Ocean was awashwith monsters and leviathans, or sowe fearfully supposed, and thought it toshby sailing west, to India we could go. Then Christopher Columbus raised three crews.From Spain we sailed. A westward route we took.For sixty days no terra firma news---we took our tight-lipped...

. Their Principal Principle With their hideous lies and a gleam in their eyes They disable each new generation, For the best route to power in districts gone sour Is attacking the heart of the nation. . . Speak Up! I’m not afraid to be a bit transgressive When I...

. A Roman Noble on Constantine the Great Setting: A villa on the outskirts of Rome, ab urbe condita 1082 (329 A.D.) Cornelia, no. The household gods should stay. Wait till the clothes and furnishings are packed, And then we’ll have the Lares and Penates stacked Inside the wagon. As...

. Peter Pan’s Soliloquy In Never Land, each sunrise brings anew A day of play and laughter to pursue. I meet the mermaids, swim in their lagoon, And dance with Indians beneath the moon. I once fed Captain Hook to Crocodile! Still every time I think of it, I smile....

. Odd One Out Moored to the screen, he barely gets involved In vapid, paltry things his workmates seem To swap their saneness for—magnetic schemes On end-of-season sales—their worlds revolve Around the dernier cri. Apparels solve Life problems; flat discounts project a gleam Upon their cheeks. And he, much like...

. Ghosts of the Watchtower The end-of-summer breeze gives hint with cool caress Of coming autumn gales and forecasts of distress. But who beneath the sun, when halcyon days abound Imagines they will face the storm tide’s rising crest? The tower stretches high above the granite ground So built to...

. The Prestige of the Puppet-Master To be deceived must bring some satisfaction, For all are well aware of the illusion Yet most will play the dupe quite willingly; Indeed, they’ll pay good coin for cheap distraction, Preferring the excitements of confusion To the drab wasteland of sobriety. But let...

. Time For Some Gardening It was time for some gardening. He heard a train go by. Its distant airhorn sighed. There were no clouds up in the sky. He trimmed the grass beside the craggy boulders at the edge. He dipped his shoulders, reaching down. He heard a passing...

. Consequences of Following Advice Advice can come in snappy lines __That have a fun refrain: “Let a smile be your umbrella,” __Though that won’t block cold rain. They tell us that “To err is human. __To forgive is divine.” But to forgive may let errors happen __Yet another time....