Culture

. Alotta Lip About my Hip Alotta lip about my hip On paper, phone, computer-drive. The new one at my femur’s tip Has generated verbal jive Beyond my wits. I can’t contrive The need for queries they should skip. I’ve been forever asked of these: “How is your pain? Drive...

. Samhain Spree Come, gather underneath the horns _That rise out of the east! Come, join the host in revelry _To frolic, sing, and feast! The winter is upon us now, _And summer gone away, And we have gathered at the henge _To romp, carouse, and play. The temple has...

. An Update for Dylan Thomas’s Aunt "Fie on you, aunt! I’ll show you how To elevate your middle brow, And how to scale and see the sights From Modernist Parnassian heights." —Dylan Thomas, “A Letter to my Aunt Discussing the Correct Approach to Modern Poetry” Your nephew Dylan once...

. Soldier of the Rising Sun Date/Location: February 19, 1974---Uninhabited jungle, Lubang Island in the northern Philippines. The matter: Believing that Japan is still fighting World War II almost 30 years after its defeat, Japanese soldier Hiroo Onoda has not surrendered. However, he senses the winds of change in the...

. Double Rondel for Pentecost Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire! O fire that warms my soul, You burn within to turn my love heart-whole, And burst beyond as fervor unsuppressed. Celestial flame, my most delightful guest, Inspire me as a temple you control. Dispel my darkness, radiant aureole, Refine my gold...

. On Twenty Years of YouTube Dull dinner party video clips unshared shaped YouTube’s genesis, or so it’s claimed. Yet others say, when Janet Jackson bared a nipple, that a co-creator aimed to see if it was accidentally flashed. His curiosity was not assuaged--- by old technology his hopes were...

. The Legend of Zhong Kui Zhong Kui is pronounced like “Jong Quay” One dark and dour winter day His mother sent her son Zhong Kui Along with his good friend, Du Ping To take exams held by the King. Zhong Kui, a large and ugly lad, had bulging eyes,...

. Roads of Potter County Finally Spring has come north here---Always my favorite time of year.Potter will tease you in some way---Tomorrow might be a snowy day. Instead there came the green of grass,The white of snow its height surpassed.I rode and mowed without a pain,Across the lawn I would...

. Lost Ark ---upon reading of the hunt for the Ark of the Covenant It used to be, a life ago, that fear caused me to lift my hands to hide my sight when Raiders’ climax was on screen—to peer at wonders shouldn’t be considered trite. As wisdom starts with...

. Still Life of a Bouquet Seems wrong to me that flowers die, A live display of borrowed time, To see them bloom from beaming buds To threadbare bones cut off from blood. Those sharp-set stems, sturdy, stoic Wean from will, though still heroic Fragrant flames of fuchsia flutter, Blushing...

. Folk Heroes We’re told to laud our new folk heroes, but they’re made up by woke zeroes. always stirring up commotion led, not by facts, but by emotion. MS13 will dismember, all except for one lone member, who the mainstream news reported was too good to be deported. His...

. The Institute of Peace: Constitution Avenue, N.E. The Institute of Peace looks down on LincolnFrom high atop her perch on Constitution.She has the hollow belly of a beast.She yearns to eat the people piece by piece.She spreads a sharp aluminum of wingsOver a nation that should fear the thing.The...

. A Taste of Northern New England I’ll never feel at home in Robert Frost’s Vermont—too many deconstructed walls, And far too many melancholy falls That adumbrate a host of tragic costs Come winter. Nonetheless, I’d rather be Up there than ever have to live in some New Hampshire version...

. On a Raging Storm Storms raged in the eastern U.S. in Spring of 2019. Is it a freak of summer or the norm? A gale, a blast, a squall is roaring past. In wrath that cuts and claws, the raging storm Leaves in its wake select debris amassed To...

. Ten Pennies Per Paper Poppy ---a childhood memory of Memorial Day Ten pennies per paper poppy I helped my mother sell We sold some fifty poppies ---She thought we did quite well. Pretty paper poppies For soldiers who passed away. They had a smell of honor On our Memorial...

. The Genesis Wind ---written in the wake of Hurricane Milton I close my eyes to better gauge the gusting wind. It howls and tantrums hard against the metal shutters And bends the flailing palms and scrub oaks. Then I find It deadens into ghastly silence. My heart flutters Within...

. Kissing Cousin I see her every two years, usuallyWhen someone dies or marries. And we kissAs if we were old lovers, passionately,Just as a silly spoof. She says I missThese hot encounters! Prudish maiden auntsAre duly scandalized, and start to talk.I say Now ladies, I’ve kept on my pants—When...

. Sound and Fury . I. Of Farcical Requital He craved the slavish praise his patter wooed. His slick, linguistic syrup charmed the ear Of she who shunned the candor of the crude--- A fellow fox who held his fawning dear. Her honey-butter coos appeased his need For piffle-fizzing frissons...

. Know Your Place __“Know your place!” In grammar school, that stung like mace.“To the corner!”—my timeout place. __“Know your place.” On my first date, with pimpled face,I never even reached first base. __“Know your place.” Now I craft poems, surely first rate!An editor wrote, “Do erase:Your poems plod like...

. The Poppy I walk a poppy universe, I rattle the hourglass’s isles, Where time slows down and turns to hope And I’m a brush that paints for miles. I balance on a single finger; At first all’s white and undefiled. From star to star I jump alone Only to...

. Sally  November rains brought to our basement door From the woods some pleading, needy eyes Staring from a fur mass, soaking wet. Our catless home (about to be no more) Welcomed her and tended to her cries. By Providence we had ourselves a pet. I don’t recall why Sally...

. Today Like Yesterday by Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer (1836-1870) translated by Paul Burgess Today like yesterday, tomorrow like today: ___A sky of only grays, An endless horizon that goes on, changeless, dull, ___The same across the days; The heart's repeated mindless pounding, like machines' ___Insistent pulsing beep; A brain lethargic...

. Jargon The devil will manipulate, through jargoneers who fabricate non sequitur profundity tuned with the proper frequency that will, before you realize, infect your mind and hypnotize with phrases such as “Love is love,” which is the best example of how bumper-sticker jargoneers can craft a phrase that interferes...

. The Water Closet An earthen pit, an outhouse stool, a chamber pot— We’ve long dispensed with these, the whole damn stinking lot! The housewife and the maid no longer shout, “Gar’ l’eau!” Before the toss of waste on city streets below. A lady needn’t lift her skirt, nor man...

. Pressed for Time Though life is good, it doesn’t last that long, And so we’re always left desiring more. Remember, though, you bought it for a song— Did you expect a grand eternal tour? We find we’re subject to a grave condition That challenges our hearts and tests our...

. Written in a Cubicle What spurs me, in this breathing grave of coffee mouths and cheeks unshaved, to stand upon my chair and shout, __"I'm out! I'm out of this forever-widening coop where glumness, going on a loop, entraps, within its strangling mesh, __the mind and flesh?" I should...

. Back in the U.S.S.R. ---St. Petersburg, Russia. The present. Your borscht, Dmitri. Come and eat, smart boy. You asked me how life was? Well take a seat And hear what your babushka has to tell Of times before the Politburo fell, When nothing---truly nothing---was the same. St. Petersburg then...

. Supernova With no notice, the rockets destroyed festive peace,And a volley of bullets brought death and dismay.Ben ran straight to his car, telling strangers, “Get in!I can take you to town, a safe distance away.” As they raced over roads, on the lookout for foes,He called home with a...

. An Unfortunate Encounter ---27 March 2025 A ragamuffin mob surrounded mewhilst on an errand, walking in the street.They pressed in close, they vied to shake my hand,distracting me---the foreigner. Then onecovertly lit a firecracker andhe dropped it in a pocket of the bagupon my back. They jeered, they squealed...

. On Epic Madness Sing, goddess, of the hate, and killings, on the Earth unleashed, destructive wrath which brings such woe to south, west, north and east, and sends to hell heroic souls, to vile dogs of war, to crows and vultures, scavengers of death, and all their corps. This...

  Alive, Alive-o In Dublin’s fair city,Where the girls are so pretty,There lived an old woman,Who was well known to me;Where she sighed with amazement,At her new knee replacement,Singing, “Cartilege and Muscles,For me are all go.For me are all go, For me are all go,”Singing, “Cartilege and Muscles,For me are...

. Bear Spray My little brother took a dare To pepper spray a mama bear. It seems the spray was much too mild, So I've become an only child. Except for near the polar ice, The bears you'll see are mostly nice When people give them ample space But get...

. The New Headmasters As I sat, that afternoon, upon his kneeWhile he read a “witty” book and I faux-laughedI’m afraid, aged eight, I didn’t really seeWhat was happening: I now feel rather daft.But “frottage,” back in Nineteen Eighty-Nine,In an England run by toffs from public schools,Such as Geoffrey Howe...

. The Ego Lingers Longer Than The Mind The ego lingers longer than the mind, It dares to whisper yearnings of its own: To manifest a will more keen than kind, A shady glow that will not be outshone. We think we know what stirs our minds to act, We...

. Headspace It’s easy to detect folks’ disrespect, And hope your feats will make them feel quite small. But better still would be if the effect, Was not to give them any thought at all. . . The Senior Dating Scene I was, from friends my age, quite shocked to...

. Back to the Greenwood The spring has come to England once again But I am far away and cannot see The blackthorn blossoms blowing in the wind, And blackbirds in the heavens, flying free. The sun, grown potent, burns the standing stones, Releasing things enthralled by winter’s hand, Igniting...

. There’s Nothing to Regain ---on the terrorist attack on tourists in Pahalgam town, in Kashmir, India Their hapless screams over that vale Had failed to cross celestial planes; But found their way beneath my veins To scratch my conscience, growing stale With frozen tears and empathy. The meadows reeked...

. Premonition The sun shines down in undimmed majestyAcross the heavens’ undiminished breadthOn life unsapped, unweighted levityOf loves and laughs untinged with sight of death--- Except for mine. An unseen shadow thrownAs night across the day strikes untold fearIn me of doom unnamable yet known,Unseen but felt, and menacingly near....

. How I Spent My Spring Vacation: Poetry and Photography by James A. Tweedie . It Begins 45 Days Surrounded by the circle of the sea I cruise Atlantic waters, eastward bound, As knot by knot each longitude degree Leads onward towards a world as yet unfound. To Portugal’s fair...

. Heritage I’ve never asked for anything The living soil does not provide. I don’t want cash; I don’t want bling; I only want to stand beside The footprints of departed fathers, Now looking down through time and space To see what son it is who bothers To understand his...