Poetry

  Advice to a Cigar Aficionado If you smoke a cheap cigar You may get severe catarrh, For a poor grade of tobacco Can drive your bronchial system wacko. Stick to stogies from Havana Which are like angelic manna. Even though they are illicit (Yes, the law is quite explicit)...

  Summer’s End ---an Alfred Dorn sonnet It must have been a dream: the nodding boughs Of loveliness, midsummer nights of calm, The days festooned in floral spray finespunned; But seasons change, and now the plaintive soughs Of sadness rustle through the trees. What balm Is there for coming days...

  The Society of Classical Poets is proud to announce the publication of Homer's civilization-defining classic The Odyssey, translated by Michael Solot, edited by Andrew Benson Brown, and spectacularly illuminated with hand-drawn illustrations by Aedan Kennedy. Mr. Solot's enchanting metered and often alliterative translation and his dedication to effective storytelling...

  Grave New Globe   I. Lair ---a pantoum You said that owning nothing was a blessing. You whipped our worldly wealth and worth away. You told us that regressing meant progressing To greener grass where sunbeams saved the day. You whipped our worldly wealth and worth away. You locked...

  Sunrise The world is blue at its beginning. Birth is what we wait for, at the edge of earth. __The vague waves lap the shore, __swelled by an unseen oar from where the sea and sky are blurred one blue, a periwinkle, hazy stretch of hue, __a bar of...

  No Doubt Someone Was Very Busy The shopping cart was in a parking space, And not the store’s close-by cart storage place, Though every other cart had been put in it, But that would take an extra half a minute.     Disregarded Dumb things we did back in...

  Canzone at Evening by Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374) translated from Italian by Margaret Coats At the hour when heaven rapidly recedes To greet the West, and our day flies away To those who are perhaps expecting it, Alone and far from where she used to stay, A pilgrim, old and...

  Firefly Behold it glimmer through the trees— A lantern drifting soft and low— It weaves along the evening breeze, A thread of light with gentle glow. It floats, a flick of fairy flame On wings too fine for eyes to trace— A moment's spark—yet not the same As stars...

  Blooming Early or Late? This tyro of six years reads hardly a word. The idea of language displayed on a screen or printed on paper strikes him as absurd— no matter for minds like his, agile and keen. It’s stuff—string and tape, stacks of cardboard and paper— he much...

  Ancestors Forlorn From elderly to youngest child, Methinks our forebears never smiled! It seems that every picture shows Each person with a solemn pose! When shutters snapped and powder flashed, All faces froze! All smiles were trashed! No cheery smile was ever gleaned. Was each upon a lemon weaned?...

  Magic Show, North Country The puddling snowbank spills a silver trace, its melt a mirror shattered on the earth. A clutch of clouds wings, birdlike, through blue space above a garden in the throes of birth. First come snowdrops, then the bumptious crocus. Pickets of narcissus will fence tulips’...

  Grandbaby Oh little child, you bring the mysteries of rainbows, storybooks, and pixie dust to life with tiny smiles. Your mama fussed with pink and perky bows and gowns, to please her special angel, pausing once to tease with cooing whispers, even as she shushed the puppy (though without...

  Rhyme Crimes How strange that rhymes for “wife” abound While rhymes for “husband” don’t exist. An “errant” “parent” might be found, But “children?” Rhymes aren’t on the list! And even worse, when poets seek A rhyme for the word “family” There’s only two, they’re up a creek With “hammily”...

  Winter Looms Jack Frost has brushed the mountains’ crests And highland nymphs are shivering, The blackened mauve below the snow Has set my heart to quivering To be among the old growth firs, And tasting icy alpine air--- This flatland life’s no life for me, I’d rather pass my...

  Poor Minnesota Normal people have an issue recreating Mogadishu, while destroying each iota of what once was Minnesota. Minnesota paid out millions to a small group of civilians with Somali shared traditions, and with fraudulent ambitions. When Tim Walz first heard about it, he did more than merely doubt...

The classical Chinese original has been versified in English by poet Evan Mantyk and is read by him at the Society of Classical Poets' in-person Poetry Symposium held in Naperville, Illinois on September 5-6, 2025. The translation and original Chinese can be read here: https://www.classicalpoets.org/preface-to-the-poems-composed-at-the-orchid-pavilion-a-rhyming-poetry-translation/  https://youtu.be/AT7K7Fe813o Video created by Andrew Benson...

  Burnham Beeches A weary pilgrim rests ‘neath ageless trees, Enraptured by a blackbird’s ancient rhyme; The tones of his soft voice upon the breeze Invoke the metered poetry of Time. Each phrase is like a faded memory Of many lives our pilgrim led before; Each life, since passed, transformed...

    Milton’s Heavenly Muse words by John Milton (Dec. 9, 1608 - Nov. 8, 1674) musical interpretation for Milton's birthday by Gunny Markefka Of Man's first disobedience And the fruit Of that forbidden tree Whose mortal taste Brought death into the World And all our woe With loss of...

  The SCP has just learned of the recent passing of poet and artist Sally Cook. She had been contributing her work since 2019 and recently her husband Robert Fisk passed away.  The SCP sends its condolences to any surviving family and her many friends and fans. Read about Sally's...

  Civilized Let’s be honest: the world has changed little since it was common knowledge that Jews are humanity’s enemy. Hitler was just somewhat extreme. Fast and loose. Some think he was all right, but that's faulty. Our approaches are more civilized. Killing Jews is sometimes too revolting. Some may...

Dead Singer Gear-grind crushed the parrot’s beak and ground the skull to mucous mass. I found this gesture quite unique— the parrot family claimed it crass, filed suit against the perpetrator demanding substantial compensation in form of cash, or real estate, or stocks and bonds adjusted for inflation. Their day...

  All the Colors With all the colors of the rainbow glowing in their hue, I find the one I love the most is the shining ray of blue. It’s the color of the open sky on a clear and gentle day— the same that shimmers through the waves where...

  Ghost Lightning So ominous, this strange, unsettling sight: Sharp lightning pulses pierce the moonless sky In silence as if Jove hurled demon-stars At Earth. The embers streak across the night Beyond the clouds---but mute. No blast or cry. Could this yet be the soundless rage of Mars--- A subtle...

  Perfect Synchronicity He thought back to that hour at dusk’s still height, When bird-song sounded both, outside and in him, And body’s form dissolved in fading light--- No line to part the outer from within him. He closed his eyes, lest vision should betray The boundless calm that gathered...

  Toads Don’t Fly On toad and frog hunt, evening this, A Friday, tenth of August bliss, Two thousand eighteen. Reminisce When katydids chirp and beetles hiss And lights illumine night’s abyss Where sandy shore and water kiss: One cloudless night in August-time When people talk and poets rhyme, Two...

  At Dawn of Time ---after Genesis 1:1—2:3 At dawn of time God made both heaven and earth. And as the earth was formless and unfilled And darkness blanketed the ocean’s girth, God’s Spirit interceded as he willed And hovered over all the waters chilled. “Let there be light,” God...

  Fool’s Paradise The words from fools surround us all— they’re siren calls that can entice our base desires, and thus we fall into a world imbued with vice. Like paradise, it can appear, until your coveted career or family ends up destroyed, due to falling into the void.  ...

  Four Rooms in Music’s Mansion   1 _The maestro grasps a complex score, conducts his orchestra without reserve. Connoisseurs praise him; audiences adore _his aura of command, his verve. Spacious chords swell; musicians fill the stage, __laboring to outpour luxurious works of our Romantic age.   2 _Five players...

  The Meteor A Vision ---09.10.25 It cut across the skies, Grim sign to terrorize A world whose conscience dies. Like blinding lightning hurled From thunderclouds wind-whirled, It stuns the silenced world, Rends peoples, realms in twain, Shakes continents amain, Drives multitudes insane. In its horrendous wake, A rift tears...

  Sally Forth, Ms. Cook "My holiday shall be That they remember me; My paradise, the fame That they pronounce my name. —Emily Dickinson I’m well acquainted with a gal named Sally, Whose verses span the hither and the yon— She’s mapped more real estate than Rand McNally And raises...

Mark F. Stone reads his poetry at the Society of Classical Poets' in-person Poetry Symposium held in Naperville, Illinois on September 5-6, 2025: https://youtu.be/9t2Dp0pEI-Y   Video created by Andrew Benson Brown.

The poem read by the poet himself at the Society of Classical Poets' in-person Poetry Symposium held in Naperville, Illinois on September 5-6, 2025: https://youtu.be/-CFICL42ZMw Video created by Andrew Benson Brown.

  The Mission Our mission---to discover signs of life amongst the stars---seemed destined to succeed; for though our sun-strewn galaxy was rife with barren orbs, our probe commenced to feed our mother ship with data that portrayed a double-planet’s larger sibling as a place where fast-evolving beasts once stayed before...

  A Genuine Petrarchan Note on William Wordsworth’s Ecclesiastical Sonnets How did it end, then, for Romantic Bill? He labored long on Church-of-England lines— Which had to be, fans thought, of all designs The most surprising. He pursued it still. Octave and sestet he worked hard to fill With pious...

  Victimhood Diet “You can’t hold on to your victimhood and get on with your life. You have to choose one.” ---Jordan Peterson Most people who riot were raised on a diet of slights and oppressions from past grievance sessions. The wrongs made against them were real and incensed them,...

  Just Hang On! When I was young, I played outside and cousins often were my crew; the big kids usually would decide which games to play, and what to do. One spring day my excitement grew as we set out just after dawn: my cousin said keep him in...

  Cultural Diversity O, Reason is a Western trait; _Dead white men love logic And dominate the world with it--- _A practice demagogic. No syllogism from the Greeks _Will boss me, no, my thought’ll Go where and when it wants to go _No matter if it ought’ll. I’ll think what...

KO ---inspired by the Lyoto Machida-Vitor Belfort Fight, May 12, 2018 Below the jaw---no gentle punch, A flying kick, a dental lunch; Incisor, cuspid, bent to munch A bitter flavor with a crunch. Machida hailing from Brazil, Where masses staring, glaring, still; He passed his foe a snoozing pill, Out-sassed...

  Feeble Best We try to earn God’s love but can’t succeed. When on His narrow path, we trip and fall. How could we not? We’re merely noise and need. Just shrieking infants, unaware we’re small. To us, our shrieks sound like a symphony. To Him, each one must sound...

  Ode to My Plumber Bubble, bubble toilet trouble, Fix this problem on the double. Plugged up draining. Will not flush. When it breaks loose, gonna gush. Nowhere for the stuff to go When there's stoppage far below. Situation most alarmin'. Someone overused the Charmin, Forming one big massive plug...