Poetry

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...

What if the tall tales we’re told as children, are in fact true?Lost stories about elves, hobbits, and knights of great virtue-Waging battles of honor, searching for glorious men,Fighting wretched villains in disguise once again.Old lore more true than not, yet older than your oldest thought, Over time most men...

By Douglas Thornton "And lo I lie between the sun and thee" (Venus and Adonis; line 194) To see the poet in the act of composition, to hear his words tell not only the story, but with imaginative zeal, recount the inner movements of his life, makes prejudice relax, and...

Original Shakespeare followed by imitation.   Sonnet 49 Against that time, if ever that time come, When I shall see thee frown on my defects, When as thy love hath cast his utmost sum, Called to that audit by advis'd respects; Against that time when thou shalt strangely pass, And...

  If anything I could choose to be, certainly the pig I would choose; with an oink and a roll in the mud, of me, no man would accuse gloominess, misery, or grief. I would wake up in a bed of muck with no stress, no need of relief, and...

  Zhang Dejiang's Hong Kong Visit, May 2016 By Li "Web Crease" Du "But if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao You ain't going to make it with anyone anyhow." -The Beatles, Revolution Zhang Dejiang, the Communist charged with Hong Kong's affairs, arrived amidst great discontent, as one of...

  Grooming Kids get pressed down tight in rooms — closed rooms with bare soft furnishing — fresh flowers tunnelled, forced to blooms, re-fertilised, kept promising. Sweet words lead children out of schools; Slapped love can tender skin and tongues. Big men can muster round in pools insensitive to gasps...

By James Sale In our egalitarian and democratic societies we very much hope and want all good things to be available to all people if they have a mind to have them. Indeed, in the world of personal development you can achieve whatever you believe (paraphrasing one of its leading...

I thought that maybe you’re no longer free To think separately from Time’s favored paths Choosing its well-worn roads to unmarked streets, Gathering fruitless branches, your trip won’t last. I can see someday you’ll fall forward, Tripping over the silent ground face first Unto fresh scents of petrichor towards Unforgiving...

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...

  The Mirror True When all at once I seem to see you there I find I never knew you from the first When all that I once thought you seems reversed I wonder what my mind could so ensnare. How could I so mistake your every mood Give words...

By James Sale Poetry is a delicate balance of language that is prone to either too much yin or too much yang; or put another way, as the poet steers his or her course like Odysseus towards his true soul, Penelope, waiting at home, he must venture through the double...

  Spring O hallow tulip, flower of the spring, I cannot wait until the sun may bring, From out the earth your amethystine grace, Your smell, your pinkish shade, your tender face. For of your musky scent does bringeth glee, So come! My lovely spring, come gladden me!   The...

By Wilbur Dee Case | Edited by Kent Van May Now I can see why T.S. Eliot disliked Edgar Allan Poe's verse; Eliot was trying to write a different kind of poetry; and it is no surprise that, for Eliot, Poe was no kindred spirit. Yet it was unwise for Eliot...

  1.  The Man There’s a little village up north,     yet untouched by modern strains, Where plain folk in stilted thatched huts,     lived midst fields of yellow grains, Now the best known of this poor lot     was an aged but gentle souse, Who was hired to tend the five rooms...

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...

A Riverside Sonnet Under a tree and upon roots I sit, Drinking a forlorn draught of love’s sweet rhyme. Leaves fall and birds fly to distract my wit, For I’ve seen her not in so long a time! Days beyond counting are measured in years, Stretched out by feelings so...

By Damian Robin Quick, pick a good book of poems and let your soul soar. Or clip in your ear buds and listen to words by the score. Or rack up some speakers and loudly let rhetoric roar — it’s April, it’s Poetry Month, let poems take the floor. The...

. . Tahoe Plane On the above photo by M. Kirson Far above the lake I soared, Above the dock, above the shore, Above the rock, above the pine, Mid snowy cloud and engine whine. Below, the cafe - orange duck - Amid the forest, doe and buck, Composed in...

The Society of Classical Poets is pleased to announce the release of its 2016 Journal! Click here to purchase a copy. It is also available on Amazon. This year's journal is bigger and better than ever! In addition to the best poetry being written today in the English-speaking world, it...

Dear George, If only you were living at this hour, Day, week, month, year. These times are newly strange— Hilarious, but not. You had prime power To forge a nation, though within the range Of law. Good whisky and false teeth might help Us muddle through an age without decorum,...

Born at Constantinople in 1762 of a French father and Greek mother, André Chénier grew up in pre-revolutionary France and studied at Paris. Well-read, and enamored with ancient Greece, he is considered one of the last classicists in verse, and for his sentiment, a precursor to the romantics. He was executed...

A gray mid-March day: the bare branches lean across the blank sky. All colors moved indoors where my daughter and I play with her toys laid out on the rug: rattles, dolls, and trucks, nesting plastic bowls, a flock of yellow ducks. Shakily she stands, her tongue darting like a...

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...

  The Clockwork Butterfly When I was a child, and my dreams were of gold I always believed everything I was told, My faith was implicit, my innocence pure And magic existed, of that I was sure. My old uncle Arthur was always in bed His twinkling eyes sunken into...

By Dusty Grein and Evan Mantyk “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe remains one of the English language’s most popular and influential poems since it was written in 1845. Much of this was Poe’s own doing, as he performed it quite frequently, and wrote many essays and commentaries on it...

 After Phoebe Cary, after Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.      Tell me not, in scolding shouts,     Education is an empty dream, For the brain is dead that doubts,     And things are not what they seem. Married life is real, earnest ;     Though one must not forget to learn ; Taken from love,...

The Rock Climbers By Cal Wes Ubideer I saw them climbing up the gray-white, rocky mountain hills, like any mountain goats, where over all the sunlight spills, so beautiful, so free, o, nature's booty draped in green, and up above a little pool of water, splashing, seen. What were they...

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...

Roly-Poly Talking on the telephone, a mother missed her baby Wait a sec, I’ll go and check And call you back, Jack, Maybe? Walking down the passageway, she thought she heard a noise She slid a paw around the door And looked in on Her boys. She saw Bubs first,...

. . 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...

Inspired by real events in China   Not that long ago in China, in a labor camp confined a Year or longer, I was sitting, making for a U.S. store Christmas tree lights meant for hanging, when there came an awful banging Like a phantom’s chains’ loud clanging—angling through the...

  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...