Culture

  The Meteor A Vision ---09.10.25 It cut across the skies, Grim sign to terrorize A world whose conscience dies....

  Sally Forth, Ms. Cook "My holiday shall be That they remember me; My paradise, the fame That they pronounce...

  The Mission Our mission---to discover signs of life amongst the stars---seemed destined to succeed; for though our sun-strewn galaxy...

  A Genuine Petrarchan Note on William Wordsworth’s Ecclesiastical Sonnets How did it end, then, for Romantic Bill? He labored...

  Victimhood Diet “You can’t hold on to your victimhood and get on with your life. You have to choose...

  Just Hang On! When I was young, I played outside and cousins often were my crew; the big kids...

KO ---inspired by the Lyoto Machida-Vitor Belfort Fight, May 12, 2018 Below the jaw---no gentle punch, A flying kick, a...

  Feeble Best We try to earn God’s love but can’t succeed. When on His narrow path, we trip and...

  The Decorator I live to decorate for Christmastide. My summer birthday barely means a thing As I count Christmases...

  The Time to Give Him Thanks In the still and pristine morning, When the flowers bathe in dew, And...

  The Keeper’s Wife “Dear God in Heaven, why have you forsaken me? To take my husband—rest his soul—in your...

Musical Version by Lex McKee     Cetus and Jonah’s Lament "And Jonah was extremely happy about the plant. But...

  A Poet Explains Perhaps, dear madam and dear sir, You might with my remarks concur As I explain why...

  Swimming to the Waterfall at Uvongo In the heat of the early winter By the haunts of the southern...

  Meeting Alexander You were the wonder of another age. Enemies and friends alike: they learned To love your laughter...

  Glog Gets Participation Prize Our tale’s set in a prehistoric cave Carved in a cliff above a vast expanse...

  The Last Caesar ---Ravenna, 476 AD The figure on this golden solidus: a beardless boy, his dress a bossed...

  Just Do It. _My spirit’s wings shall soar _Although at times I stray. When I’m downcast… when life’s storms...

Diocletian’s Horse “Save it for your horse.” ---Oedipus Tex, P.D.Q. Bach (Peter Schickele) While Diocletian owned the home Octavian built...

  Sensation Amidst the flaming of the flying saucer’s landing gear, like as the Sunshine glazing it, in gold-white-yellow sheer,...

  Sonnet of the Hardened Heart Care less, I warn myself; bother no more With inner crevices: prying the shell...

  On Time I went to bed too late last night And woke up to an awful fright But now...

  Big Pharma Big Pharma companies pay fees that get spent on the salaries of scientists who regulate each new...

  The Golden Soldier ---for my grandfather He had a calming charm. He always spoke Of garden-basking instances of joy---...

  A War Poem of Sorts ---to Robert Thomas Waldock, who died in 1983 The graveyard’s last but one dug...

  Old Bottles ---Oneida County, Wisconsin From time to time, when stirring in the muck below our lakeside dock, we...

. Europe Arranges Its Own Autopsy ---with apologies to T.S. Eliot . I. The Trojan Horse When April came it...

  Listening to Incense A spiral from ignited aloe rises, Translucent, swayed with compound camphor salve Through azure air that...

  Machine Learning All algorithms, hypothetical Or otherwise, all organised behaviours Evoke responses antithetical— And thus the desperate ever doubt...

  Melampus: The Listener   Canto I---The Gift of Listening 1. The Birth of the Listener The strong winds over...

  Words of Wisdom One bit of wisdom that life has conferred Is when to give somebody else the last...

  On Swatting a Fly The fly I hunted down is on a pane, a window pane, where yesterday a...

  Alas! “Alas!” A word of grief and rueful mourning; A gut-punch from what was but is no more Or...

  The Lorelei by Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) translated from German by Bruce Phenix I don’t know what it can mean,...

  Sign Wars Each autumn brings the Sign Wars once again. MUSSELLA versus TAYLOR for the crown of Village Mayor....

  Lead, Kindly Light ---in the voice of John Henry Newman (1801–1890) Firmly I stand by virtue of belief, Belief...

Pumpkin Palooza Spooky, Kooky, Mostly Ghosty. Pumpkins round Cover ground. Corn stalks propped. Traffic stopped. Costumes galore: Short dinosaurs! Spiders!...

  Fervid Fall Fantasy Dismal dread night shadows creeping, Darkened curtains barely keeping Misty moonlight beams from seeping Through my...

  Uncle Stanislaw I still can hear the sound of acorns popping Beneath the wheels of father’s horse-drawn cart As...

  Vera Crux Vera Crux is Latin for “True Cross,” and is the source of the name of the Mexican...