Culture

  You came to life from dreams and thoughts and whispers. You were told and you were – forever true. The centuries have left you young and graceful. I come to ask you: please, let me be you! The one who thought you gave your words and accents. Sheltered by...

  I look upon how much people suffer Wishing Bian Que and Hua Tuo* were now here Predestiny links us now and forever To fulfill my wish: a medical career   *Bian Que and Hua Tuo: Ancient Chinese medical masters. 悬壶了愿 人间疾苦何多 扁鹊华佗难現 亘古缘牵末劫 悬壶济世了愿 Dr. Rong was born into...

A Sonnet Saluting Lady Snow Snow is a rainfall in frozen repose; Rainbow rich in hues, delicate its shape After lightning strikes; its thunder echoes. There is still tension in each crystal flake. Snow rings down, a chintzy, folding curtain, On worlds still steeped in a dark translucence. It makes...

“He strove to resuscitate the dead art/Of poetry; to maintain "the sublime"/In the old sense. Wrong from the start  …” –Ezra Pound, “Hugh Selwyn Mauberly” “Adolf Hitler was a Jeanne d'Arc, a saint.” –Also Ezra Pound An immigrant Jew, an old woman, her tattoo peeking from under a billowed sleeve,...

I Pray It’s Not Too Late I’ve walked in the eye of a hurricane Safe between its walls of rain And when the winds swept in again I stood alone in awe I’ve beheld forever in the sea Her gentle waves that called to me The world beneath so wild...

Faery Dust Anarchy With winds awhistling through the trees and air sprites dancing on the breeze, you'll hear the pipes from Éirinn’s lands - mayhap a leprechaun might sneeze at swirling faery dust - like bees that swarm in clouds of floating strands. Minutest drops of molten gold soon fill the air...

From Dante, to Beatrice In your father’s garden we first met, a pair in exile, two children playing without a care, in our shared exile. You were eight, I, nine, you in crimson and I blind to all else but the fall of your fair hair, from my exile. For...

He's placed dramatically center stage by Benjamin West—Benjamin Franklin. His gray hair flies. He's getting on in age. Electricity coming from lightning! He's dressed in dark clothes with a white tied tie. His brow is furrowed and his face is lit. His red cape sweeps up into windy sky. A...

Bereft of the poetry of his soul The knight took refuge in the house of death Into darkness he went with his mind crushed Wandering lust gone and with his own trust. The enchanter gone And disenchantment entered And the land of La Mancha Slowly turned to dust & cinders....

Written in May 2010 / Revised April 2020 Trumpets blast and Heaven opens, light shoots through, Gods of all the Kingdoms smile now anew, Legions of celestial soldiers stand, salute, Drumbeats sound between the flourishes of flute, Cherubs and celestial maidens spread their flowers, Time himself relaxes for these joyous...

  I This is the month, and this the happy morn, Wherein the Son of Heaven’s eternal King, Of wedded maid and Virgin Mother born, Our great redemption from above did bring; For so the holy sages once did sing, That he our deadly forfeit should release, And with his...

Ballade for Trains They are no more, the whistles’ longing wails, Retreating like a stately, mournful queen. Where are the smokestacks that left fading trails, The blackened engine with its oiled sheen, Imposing in its tons, unfazed, serene, The ties in creosote, the polished rails? I hear their bell, and...

The American poet Robert Frost was born on March 26, 1874, in San Francisco, CA. He spent his first 40 years mostly unknown, and it wasn’t until after returning to the United States from England—where he had his first two books of poetry published—near the beginning of the first World...

. Lepanto Editor's Note: Don John of Austria, or Don Juan de Austria, (1547-1578) was half-brother to King Philip II of Spain and a Spanish military commander who achieved victory over the Turks in the historic naval battle at Lepanto. White founts falling in the Courts of the sun, And the Soldan...