Culture

If You're a Beggar, Be a Chooser Too (Villanelle) If you're a beggar, be a chooser too, For less is more and more can be a curse. The world will offer anything to you. You must discern the useful from the dross. With patience, judge, for better or for worse....

for Claudia Why didn’t Sisyphus simply walk away and climb, unencumbered, up the smooth cleft worn in the undulant hillside, up and over that crest bright purple with wild violets one brilliant day? Could a man who outsmarted death miss this no-fuss solution and become eternally dumb? With such an...

. . Javelin Ekphrastic Out of the air and shot from a thrust, Clout of the spear, forethought where it must, Wrought from the ancient and taut and released, Slaughtered and blatant, when caught be the beast. Note: Ekphrastic is a Greek word meaning a poem to a work of...

Lost The angel’s cry, the devil’s kiss: How did you let it come to this? You claimed the darkness too: How when the world was screaming, You thought you’d best be dreaming; You thought the lies were true— O, you have made a mess of things; The world breaks stars...

  When the wind blows true through the land Rustled leaves hold trees that withstand Tempered gusts with vicious intent. So long lives the day when air’s spent Upon the ridge: that jagged rock, Unchanged as what the ticking clock Tries to track but must then accept: The perfect clock...

Anasazi Mesa castles in the sky Where paintbrush blooms and eagles fly. A people's passage marked in stone; Artifacts of flint and bone. Cliffy cities - vanished host, Sanctum haunt of hawk and ghost; Beseech your mummies rise to tell The secrets time has kept so well. Shadow dwellers do...

Related Content 'Trump' Presidential Prophecy Poem by Nostradamus Donald Trump (A Clerihew*) Donald “The Donald” Trump Surprisingly took to the political stump What is, perhaps, not as great a surprise Is that he should thrive in a realm ruled by lies. *A clerihew is a whimsical 4-line verse about a...

Cribbed Agency (After a grating entrée) No matter how I madly strove to make sense of the garlic clove the waitress gave me with my plate, it simply made me more irate. And thus, like a rambunctious child, I called her to me, half beguiled that I could make the...

. . Lone Cypress, Pebble Beach Crack of stone for rest and bed, Wrack of storm unpressed I tread, Sun and proud and bright and gold; Dun and shroud of night, I hold. . . Fraternal I have some friends I got by word, We never met and rare conferred,...

So turn whereto it dies, Pulse of a draining sun: The face of daylight’s guise The yield that night has won. See on the far-west front, Goes trotting godly fame: The bull called occident. His white hide bears a name – By what light is yet sparred (Again, he is...

2016 Primaries This season, Mr. Trump’s a raging wildfire, a storm ignited by reality TV, fodder for anyone who likes good satire. He’s poised to win as far as I can see. The exit polls are making me perspire. Who gives a damn about democracy? A welcome distraction from death...

Gaunt fades the twilight, nearly gone, a weary world wearing thin Since last the unremembered sun smiled upon the land below, And sluggish sinks the eventide, smothering all warmth and light, Until, at last, the gloom of night entrenches there, deep and low. Dreaming, doubting, mortals slumber in a dreary...

Post your Tiananmen Square poems in the comments section below.   Tiananmen By James Fenton, Hong Kong, 15 June 1989 Tianamen Is broad and clean And you can’t tell Where the dead have been And you can’t tell What happened then And you can’t speak Of Tianamen. You must not...

To some the world revolves around them, And nothing else can matter. They’ll do anything to reach that end, Including endless idle chatter. They walk around like “Hey look at me.” And are only happy when you do. They’re like an exhibit for all to see, Like an animal in...

Go Forth, Graduates! To all you graduates, fare well! This world is yours today. Don’t follow the masses who sell Their minds or don cliché For meaning. The sky is crimson But not dark, the body Sick but not dead. Summon Your courage and join me! Get ready for the...

Chapter I: Arrival in Beijing Inspired by real events   Sing to me, Muse, who flies through Heaven’s realms, Sing of that night when terror swept the land And peaceful practitioners of Falun Gong Were made to live in fear, their practice banned. What was it like to know tomorrow’s...

In the Lotus Pose By Uwe Carl Diebes At first, he was uncomfortable in the lotus pose, but as he sat down carefully, his upper spine arose. Though startled where he found himself, he gradu'lly became relaxed, content, at peace, alert, like as a spirit flame. His inner being danced...

Unripe Deceived are we by the state of the skin, when overly reliant on our eyes. Of greater concern is what lies within, under the surface we find the true prize. A gentle squeeze applied to test the fruit, we learned the skill at a tender young age. In relationships...

William Shakespeare is believed to have died on April 23, 1616. Post your commemorative poems in the comments section or email to [email protected]. Remembering Shakespeare By Dusty Grein The Bard of Avon gave us many gifts. An actor, true, but he was so much more; A poet of renown and...

Storyteller We sit around the fire. The storyteller drones, until his words expire in silence like the stones. Primeval darkness frames the flower-yellow flames enlightening our faces. Like breeze-blown blossoms, we shift mutely in our places within the ring while he, as yellow flowers fail, resumes again his tale, which...

August 13, 2012 I dreamt last night of singing with Li Po. (Or is he now sleeping, dreaming of me?) How much we drank… The world all vertigo… He brought his ch’in.  It was life’s apogee. Yet thinking back, if he dreamt me before I went to sleep, what would...

Sonnet II The spark which lights my innermost desire,     whose flame burns fierce in Spirit and in vein, your blinding glory makes my heart aspire     to grasp the highest good one can attain. Of all the worthy joys that I could gain     from all the ecstasies of earth’s delights, I’d...

. Dunblane Cathedral On the massacre of sixteen children and their teacher at the Dunblane Primary School near Stirling, Scotland, March 13, 1996 LOVE’s light lost the bleak night breathes a black breeze of loss. The dread dawn dons dusk’s vale. “Is death dead?” the bells Ask across the mourning...

. . Metaphysical Mortar Between the cobalt and the blueGlean gestalt and sum of trueAll and each be more than sixWall and reach be more than bricks .   Photo by A Sclamberg & H Hall . . Tahoe Navy, cobalt, slate of blue,Bright and white and cold of hue,Bold...

  A Fifteen-Year-Old's Response to Frost "This 'pome' don't make NO sense! What junk!" the scowling students muttered. "Two roads in the woods!" one hissed. "Such bunk"-- opinions rudely uttered. I quelled the urge to hurl my book. I said, "Can't you surmise what they might mean? Let's take a...

Horses Tell me what power hits the ground, heard a mile away, ear to mound? Earth’s tympanic membrane resounds; like kettle drums, the hoof beat pounds! Or what, when they run together, frightens every flight from feather? Deer run sideways and leave their young; minnows from shallow creeks are flung....

Apes or Angels Humans, some say, aren’t much more than an ape— A reasoning beast, quintessence of dust. Others believe we’re of angelic shape. Hungry for morsels, we scrabble and scrape, Leaving the tree to indulge termite lust. Humans, some say, aren’t much more than an ape. Yet not all...

The Great The great are often shunned by their own age, While even the noble dead are sometimes mocked, And eras are damned when none who sees is shocked By scads of scorn spat on a sacred page. Today the sneering cynic’s deemed a sage. The door to love and...

Ode to a Soldier’s Wife I can see your tears are streaming, in the lamp light they are gleaming; How I wish that I were dreaming, and that duty hadn’t called. Through the wretched bars we’re kissing, as the steam train begins hissing And of all the things worth missing,...

Counterfeit Martyrdom Evil terrorists 'round the world Reject God's law, "Thou shalt not kill." Minds indoctrinated, furled up in a cold and savage will! Real martyrs are the brave who die adhering to their faith and creed. Suicide is murder high in cowardice, which marks this breed. Vile murders indiscriminate...

  Valentine The name of Spring is ever fresh and fair;     Her sound is ever gentle, ever true; The Spring is like the songbird of the air     Who sweetly choruses the good, the new. And we, my dear, have often seen the Spring     Arrive with promise, blossom, fade and go...

Models for Configuring Friendship A knight for whom the Grail is wholly you; the one who greets you sans your power, might; who never counts the favors that accrue; adheres to you whatever is your plight. An audience for fear, for woe, for laugh; an egger on, abettor of your...

  The lit brush burns oil on the canvas; Ancient word breathes stories of Atlantis; The silent stone speaks more than us all; Mortal mysteries that hold us in thrall. Throughout the ages, man has done and seen Terrible and beautiful—wondrous—things. But who are we to judge the weary hands...

Xerxes My power does lie In hue of the sky In the refined folds of God’s estate My throne I have carved Of sapphire hard And I crowned it with God’s ark of Jade My hosts of legions Number in millions Like a cloak o’er the land are they spread...

Sedona (A Rhupunt) Deep shadows fade Red rock cascade To purpled jade— Sun sparks ignite. Stone sentries stare Sightless through air At treadless stair Spanning the height. No mortals dare Enter the lair Or linger where Spirit meets sprite. This shrine of stone And bleached white bone Hides secrets shown...

The Gathering Upon the 400th anniversary of the founding of the town of Virginia in Ireland Oh town of the Virgin Queen I hear you call me back To your ancient Way of Woods following Vikings track Your castle is long gone But your market house still stands Four hundred...

Father and Son I. The Modern Daedalus I want you to carry yourself with pride: Stand up straight, with your shoulders back; don’t slouch; and yet, also, don’t let hubris deride you. Be humble. Get off that cushy couch I only could afford by working hard, from the ground up....

Updated: April 26, 2024 10 Greatest Poems Ever Written An Ambitious "Best Poems" List Limited to Poems Originally Written in English and of 50 Lines or Less by Evan Mantyk What is poetry? What is great poetry? The poems below answer these questions. From least greatest (10) to greatest greatest...

The band struck up for the comical clowns! They all sported wigs, red noses, and frowns And from painted mouths uttered sad cries. Then the fools threw water and custard pies In riotous ribaldry: mad, bad, and bold! The laughter and fun began to unfold; The children giggled; a vast...

Tender is the night shared in close caress With candied kiss and floral purr, no less. The pristine perfection of unclaimed time Drenches air with an ephemeral chime. Considering not money as pay off, The gift of work may be just a day off; Precious moments of leisure, free to...