Culture

. Author/Composer’s Note: The noël, Il est Né le Divin Enfant (“He is Born, the Divine Christ Child”) is one of the most beloved and beautiful French carols to have crossed into the English-speaking world. For Christmas this year I have taken the opportunity to compose a new piano arrangement...

. . “Even now, in sordid particulars, the eternal design may appear.” ---T.S. Eliot, Murder in the Cathedral . Among the moan of kine and smell of sheep, The plaintive whine of fowls half-asleep, A woman in the throes of Eve’s distress (Who never chose this charge, yet answered “yes”)...

. Sleigh Rides Do Not a Christmas Make While folks down under get to ride their bicycles __And dine alfresco at a Christmas picnic, We blokes up over are avoiding icicles __And making every effort not to nitpick The ugly woolen sweaters Santa left behind. __Because we live in different...

. The Wisemen and the Shepherds after Eileen Duggan The camels’ footfalls over and around Baked dunes, through pebbled streams, on forest floors; The sages straddling humps without a sound Who’ve long exhausted scholarly word stores; Like galleons cresting glittering hill on hill, The sunburnt sailors’ wills bent to their...

. Christmas by Force The jostling beast increases the distress Of Mary whose first labor has progressed. Joseph of the donkey’s reins keeps hold; The night is clear and calm, the desert cold. In town each door rejects their urgent need, Prophetic theme for this, the promised Seed. Labor does...

. Christmas I don’t recall the tree or what we ate With sentiment Dickensian and sweet. The tree was in a Midwest way ornate; The food: potatoes certainly; some meat. The past for me gives off more light than heat And memory is nearly pure caprice: As images within its...

. Midwinter “O blesséd day we now enjoy, from heaven it is granted.  He brings us bliss, He shows Himself for all our joy and worship!  O may our Lord each one today defend us from all evil!” ---from W. Stenhammar’s symphonic poem “Midwinter” Across the frosty fields the bleak...

. A Christmas Carol Complete text here: https://classicalpoets.org/2021/12/24/a-christmas-carol-after-charles-dickens-by-talbot-hook/ . . . 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...

. Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin in reference to the recent storm in Maine In Maine the Governor had to delay A hearing where the government had planned To air, promote, consider and to weigh A law where gas-fueled cars would soon be banned. The cancellation came because a storm Left...

. Curse of the Desert Ill-tempered droughts strip lands of foliage sheath. Its barren womb still yields a wilted crust that liberates, from layers underneath, a swell of ruffled soil and choking dust. Fluorescent flares and roars of forking light, that carve the palms of charcoal-tainted skies, make flickers of...

. Whence Come You, Shepherdess? . Translator's Note: “D’où Viens-tu, Bergère” was one of a number of old songs and carols from the French region of Périgord collected by Emmanuel Casse and Eugène Chaminade and published in Les Vieilles Chansons Patoises du Périgord (Old Songs in the Vernacular of the...

. December Oak Leaves Puis çà, puis là, comme le vent varie, A son plaisir sans cesser nous charrie, (The wind, gleefully, pushing us, changing its mind, Forwards and backwards, all of the time.) ---François Villon, "La Ballade des pendus" (“The Ballad of the Hanged Men”) The oak leaves are...

. Miles Fidelis (The Faithful Soldier)  for Joseph Salemi, whose essay introduced me to the soldier of this poem. The city shakes! Vesuvius spouts fire As Vulcan grins through Jupiter’s hot breath. Brute thunder roars. Pompeii’s become a pyre Of sulfur-crusted rubble rife with death. A ghastly pall has crimsoned...

. Are you looking for a good poem to read at your Christmas party or gathering? Is it a more serious or light-hearted event? Christmas poems come in a great variety of shapes and sizes. They can be short or quite long, such poet Talbot Hook's adaptation of Dickens' A...

. A Travelogue of Wonders My friends, I’m here to speak of wondrous sights. The first, at Alexandria’s port, was built By Sostratus. Of all the harbor lights, This brilliant beam, when lit, outshines the gilt Of gold! Through darkest fog, through twilight’s gloam, Through stormy seas—it guides the mariner...

. Here We Go Again… by Joseph S. Salemi Oh dear… it looks like the hillbilly software salesman is having another moral fit. Michael R. Burch of Nashville Tennessee has posted more venomous comments about the SCP and Evan Mantyk at his superannuated poetry-and-soft-porn website. Burch seems to be obsessed...

. Evening, Washington Metro Entrained, en masse, an ebb as from a beach: the tide drawn by the Capitol (the dome our moon) subsides. We move as one, yet each toward some divisibility called home. The trope (an ocean’s oneness) seemed more apt, or felt more apt, when, not so...

. What’s Left to Say? a rhupunt  When women’s plans Are like a man’s, So they act trans, What’s left to say? When folks believe That to conceive Is cause to grieve, What’s left to say? When Mother’s womb Is a place of doom, The trash the tomb, What’s left...

. Moon Before Yule The ashen lantern leavening the skyBegins in languor to proclaim sublimeFestivity to winter’s weather eye. The dome of heaven echoes back the chimeOf peals ethereal arising heardIn silver undulations maritime. Adorning landscapes for the coming Word,An ice storm spangles flannel drifts of snow;Large oaken logs blaze...

. To My Daughter A woman’s life is hard, they say---and true, Though now not as our mothers understood: They battled nature’s facts and custom’s due; Your battle will be for true womanhood. Though all men’s ways now lie in reach for you--- Toil, battle, woes, cares, bruises, sweat, and...

. It Was Only a Winter’s Tale based on David Essex's classic 1982 Christmas song The nights are ever short and growing cold; the front door lies ajar from when you left one evening, though your reasons were untold, and in the time between I’ve been bereft. Your footprints have...

. Unsocial Addictions Why do some people lie, brag, or act mean?It must pump them up, like a jolt of caffeine.But soon they come down, right to where they have been,And can’t get back up, till they do it again. . . Sex Education One morning in our classroom for...

. There Is a Way? Is there a way for beauty to be painted with a word? Is there a way to write in ways so music can be heard? Is there a way to make a point that others can’t ignore? Is there a way to say it that...

. Abraham and the Binding of Isaac after Genesis 22 I cannot sleep although the moon is high. I’m numb. Before me looms the sacred hill. My son snores softly. I look to the sky Submissive to God’s wish but anxious still About the dawn. How can I do this...

. Lee in the Furnace "He who thinks of Lee Must think of Washington. . ." ---Herman Melville So Oleh, Chief, my other grandfather, Mine on the distaff, on the losing side. The furnace burnishes your graven face. You smell destruction, like a gathered tide. As all your features soften,...

. Voyage to Scotland Constantius II, son of Constantine and emperor from 337 to 361, hoped to glorify Constantinople by collecting relics of all twelve Apostles. He took Saint Andrew’s remains by force from the saint’s principal shrine in Patras, Greece. This violent robbery greatly distressed the people of Patras....

. Killing Common Sense The savagery of leftist rage __is getting more intense. There’s no rest from the war they wage __upon our common sense. The brave who voice their doubts out loud __are always shouted down. They’re cornered by the blue-haired crowd, __then driven out of town. Young brains...

. What Sort of Freedom? What sort of freedom is it that proclaims Its export to the savage and demands Oceans of youthful blood to back its claims And wrests the first fruits from hard-toiling hands; That foists debt’s yoke on children, hollowing All human action with harsh usury; That...

. 2 Peter 3 “Consider that our Lord’s patience is directed toward salvation.” ---2 Peter 3:15 For once in church (before, I think, the Sacrament) In silence deep and cast adrift in prayer, I folded in upon the immanent For just a moment (maybe more) and there Was made of...

. To Whom It May Concern a common spelling error: “Isreal.” "Woe to those who say of the evil that it is good and of the good that it is evil; who present darkness as light and light as darkness, who present bitter as sweet and sweet as bitter." ---Isaiah...

. . The Eve of Thanksgiving ‘Tis the eve of Thanksgiving, and all through the class, The students are wishing the time would soon pass. Though it’s nodes, modes, and frequencies they’re told to find, Bright visions of turkeys sashay through each mind. Though the pencils are poised over notebooks...

. World View Beyond the line where sea and sky collideLie distant lands beyond myopic sightWhere men and women live and love besideThe self-same sea beneath the same sun’s light. Where East meets West depends on where one stands.I travel west to reach the OrientWhile those in distant cross-Pacific landsLook east...

. . Reversing Babel . I. Babel “Now the whole earth had one language and one speech.” ---Genesis 11:1 . An ill wind blows through Babel, where all speech Is one, so that it’s possible to plan--- Then build---our city’s tower, which will reach To realms where God can be...

. Perpetual Emotion “And everybody hates the Jews.” ---Tom Lehrer, National Brotherhood Week Not many people like the Jews; __By many they are hated. The people whom God chose to choose __At best are tolerated. Whenever something seems unfair __It’s Jews who are "outrageous." "Like viruses they’re everywhere. __Thank God,...

. “United” Nations? The U.N. won’t condemn Hamas’s slaughter,Supporting those who want Jews underwater.Iran’s a U.N. human rights group head,Though it would like Americans all dead. Two U.N. questions thus remain unclear---Why we’re still in it, and why it’s still here? . . True Apartheid Leftists say Israel uses “apartheid,”Though...

. Prayerwise for Gloria (1934-2013) Tough, keen, opinionated, shrewd:Collected junk, shared what she foundWith those who shared her roof and food,With those who shared her daily round. She prayed her daily round of beads.She loved the ancient Latin Rite,The Athanasian among creeds,Allied with Michael in the fight. Her children chose...

. Babylon (or Shelly's "Ozymandias" Paraphrased) . Oh Babylon, sweet Babylon, how long your skeleton has rotted in the sun— your name intoxicates like honeyed wine & makes me smell your incense in my mind & see your ziggurats & pleasure domes & zoos exotic creatures once called home, &...

. . Love Songs for Malcolm . I. Quickly you approach, King Malcolm, Firm and steady is your tread, Predetermined on defeating Faint reluctance in the greeting Made by one you mean to wed. . English words surprise me, Malcolm, Asking questions delicate; Comfort for us you’ve promoted, Courtly words...

. To Some Religious Brothers Beg! pray! or preach!  Or make one gravel-throated noise, Make murmur or a whimper or a single moan! Burble or belch or grunt!  The silence of your voice Unsettles souls and states, and your mute-mouth makes known Our pregnant insufficiency, our copious dearth. Our squally...

. What Do You Do When You No Longer Drink What do you do when you no longer drink, no tossing out the empties in a bag as one by one you hear that cautious clink then wipe end tables with a beer-soaked rag? Face reality? No, not right away....