Culture

  Always Ahead We live—but life runs on in restless haste; Through back doors cut in doubt and hidden fear....

  Faust Foresees His End Now, as holy darkness falls And curfew reigns within the walls, To each gatehouse troops...

  The Pinnacle of Poetry Well under one percent acceptance rate, Submitters wait a year to learn their fate. Yet...

  Poem 1 by Sappho (circa 630-570 B.C.) translated from Greek by Bruce Phenix Immortal Aphrodite, richly throned, wile-weaving child...

  Look Away “Look away, across the fabled sea,” Our fathers cried, with voices loud and clear, There’s a place...

  Sunday Morning in Canada By all accounts he was a thoroughly Unpleasant man. His wife divorced him and His...

  Bean I found you in a shelter, cold and wet, your dark, expressive eyes fixed on my own. They...

  The Gravedigger I garden to acquaint myself with graves. Accompanying death with every turn, my spade exhumes pharaonic tombs,...

  When Asked: “What’s Your Favorite Season?”   ---a villanelle I can’t decide which season I like best; they all...

  The Perpetual Battle   I From Arad north to Hazor acrid smoke Rose from each cyclopean citadel Of Canaan---altar-fires...

  At the No-Win Inn The room for error is across the hall, Between the storage bin for grave mistakes...

  When the Phone Rings I can’t still be excited when the phone rings, I was for decades, but no...

  The Poet's Plight I sit at dusk and bear the scorn, sarcastic talk Of friends, and brood upon the...

  Forest Fire Fantasy ---a trenta-sei The smoke from summer fires filled the air, A lightning storm had been the...

  An Excerpt Get up and amble through the city of the massacre, then lock your eyes, and, with your...

  Murder at the Stocker Mansion A Poetic Noir Whodunit   ---San Francisco. 1948. 1. Prologue The Stocker mansion sits...

  Barabbas They named their chosen one and set him free. They picked a thug who reeked of others’ blood....

  Out of the Box Round and round the mulberry bush The monkey chased the weasel. The monkey thought ‘twas...

  Who Do You Think You Are? You don’t know me, nor do you know my friend. You’re ignorant of...

  Unexploited Providence “Why am I here?” I was afraid to ask, While walking—half asleep—this land of wonders. So, stumbling...

  Pigeonholed The box they shove her in is small and dark. It skews all views and leaves her little...

  Leicester Square Concert —A true story. Note: Leicester is pronounced “Lester” I traveled to an intel brief _Convened in...

  By the Waters of Babylon All faces are foreign here, all streets unknown, and even the sun seems like...

  How Septuagenarian’s Cope Past seventy. Age does prevail. _The day is growing dim. I’ve managed through life’s calms and...

  Replication and Cessation Your parents had four children, grand-kids eight. But as for great-grandchildren, they’ll have none. How could...

  https://youtu.be/G9FpJcfCcGw     Back or Bottom? “Your back or bottom?” Dowdy grabbed the switch, a riding whip, from off...

  Re-shifting in Reverse Alas, I fear the world has fallen prey To well-conceived and ill-intended evil; An armageddon; shattered...

  The Face At night, surreptitiously, it emerges out of the TV screen, or when the light bulb's put to...

  Snow Foe I’m rather certain snow falls for a reason, Like adding charm to wintertime’s cold season. But after...

  Fireship ---August 7, 1588. The English Channel. Since William’s conquest England has not faced Such danger of defeat---so dire...

  Tinian Tucked into the corner of the sea, Birthed in fire, volcanic history, A stepping stone across the ocean...

  Prayer (5:00 a.m.) Some stubborn pain (the world… the past…) Is peeking through the cracks, and all I want...

  The Room Exhaled Before I Did The patient sat before me on the table Clearly hoping that I would...

  Mother’s Loom ---after Li Bai's poem "Midnight Song of Wu" The moon above the palace, Reigns bright within the...

  The Sons of Issachar “The Sons of Issachar understood the times in which they lived, and knew which way...

  Will the Sentence Get the Death Sentence? ---a triolet I write a line, then I decide: will it survive,...

  Mass Destruction Give me a reason to trust in words spoken--- Tricksters have twisted the truth till it’s dead....

  Mixed Blessing Our image of ourselves helps keep us grounded, As thoughts and deeds conform to feel well-founded. It...

  The Otherhood of Man “He who is compassionate to the cruel will ultimately become cruel to the compassionate.“ ---Jewish...

On the Ruins of the Ancient City Cumae by Jacopo Sannazaro (1458–1530), translated from Latin by Margaret Coats Here the...