Poetry

Free me from wars? Make my debut? Oh, Mr. Handsome G.I. Joe— your face and a blanket won’t do. Sift flour from Mama’s ashes, melt glue from Papa’s bones. Knead them into dough— free of wars, rising for my debut. Am I marble pale and girlish thin enough for you—...

A news report here provides some background on China Radio Like Radio Free Europe, Which popped the wax Plugs from deafened Soviet ears, And warmed their sterile souls With tales of liberty, China Radio wafts as pleasant song Through the ears of benighted Europeans, Australians, Canadians, and Americans, Especially Americans...

The rustic minuet's small step has since been swept away by all the modern pop and pep and fizzle of the day. One of the first to introduce it into music's lair was Frenchman Jean Baptiste Lully of Louis' court and care. That king first danced it at one of...

Laments of the Oppressed My great country, please let me be, What I think and say should be up to me, The world cannot be so controlled, You don't have to block every single road. It isn't something bad we seek, To have good virtues when life is complete, Abandon...

Updated January 9, 2020 A Quick Sonnet Guide.  A traditional sonnet should have... 14 lines. X Rhyming. The most common is the Shakespearean rhyme scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. These 14  letters represent the sonnet's 14 lines and the same letter means those lines rhyme with each other. The more...

This poem was inspired by Shen Yun Performing Arts.   Bleak and somber is the flavor du jour; Modernism pervades all spheres of art; Artists lacking virtue make it a bore, People wait for a refreshing restart. A booming strike! The gong that evil fears, Pulses race, while excitement fills...

Ode on a Children’s Cemetery Plot 1. Behind the soul-gorged cemetery ground, We discovered a plot of yet more dead, A trim, verdant patch cradled all around By a low brick wall, like a toddler’s bed. Sunken in the grassy earth, broken lines, Glossy black, marked where all the children...

Beneath the Mask Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth. -Oscar Wilde A mask is worn to hide one’s face from the surly light of day but if you open up your mind, you’ll see...

Two young brothers are left at home, All by their lonesome selves, The older one notices a new toy, Sitting high up on a shelf. He climbs up and brings on down, What he believes is a toy gun, He thinks about the games they’ll play, Boy this sure will...

Secure the yoke and bind the crown. Steady the mouth and tongue for sound. The morning breaks. Our sight is found. The bell is hung. Let’s gather round. Now strike the lip for their renown. Each hammer swing is coming round with darker wind, with darker sound. The bell is...

When You Have Reached the Bottom By R. Lee Ubicwedas When you have hit rock bottom, you have nothing left to lose. You gain experience and wisdom that you now can use. You have a choice how to react when you have fallen down. Forced to confront the hard things,...

The Apprentice of the Dead He painted the lines of the country road. He painted the leaves: saffron and gold. He painted the canopy, round the mere, all rubicund this time of the year. He painted the trees, without any bark. He painted the swamp, pickerel-dark; the cattails, herons, the Berkshires east, the Katerskills west,...

  The warmth of daylight’s veil is cherishingly cast Upon the sacred walls of ancient Angkor Wat, Whose temple towers show grand myths from ages past, With timeless lands of gods to fading matter brought. Enthralled by its distinct yet unassuming grace, The heirs to transience, while on the sixfold...

The wind was high that horrid day. The wind blew long and high, and I heard three strange women hum-humming as they came through the harvest rye. I watched them in my childish way. I watched them with surprise, their sighs sent cold into me thrum-thrumming that day the wind...

  Political Banter Once again it’s that time of year, When political banter seems the rage. When otherwise normal people, Try to come off as some worldly sage. I have friends who are really nice folks, Any other time of the year. But, once they start with the political rants,...

The God Morpheus vs. The Little Baby Kuppy You'd think in such a fight - no contest To be sure - immortal gods happen not To happen, but have always been best And around to give humans their best shot. That's it - perhaps complacency, the sense That once in...

To Hell with the Hoi Polloi A droll from the Man of Mode To hell with the hoi polloi, I say, democracy is démodé; aristocrats, by troth, know best, who needs a scurvy IQ test? A pox upon the under-class, salute the King and raise a glass; the Devil take...

The White Stag By Bard Eucewelis I saw it long ago; so long ago it seems as if it was a dream, a white stag in the wood. Reality is ever fading through time's seams. It's odd to say so; but its sighting was so good. Although it was at...

The Golden Mean By Aedile Cwerbus Right living's hard, the ever-urgent prow pursuing storms or pressing up against life's dangers, tricky shoals and shores. The golden mean is perfect, but hard to achieve. It lies between th' abodes exciting envy and those men despise. O, oft it's pine or tower,...

A Sonnet's Beauty A sonnet’s beauty’s mostly in the planning, Not in the writing, reading, even saying. The builder knows it’s in the careful laying Of foundations ‘fore the brutal sweat of scanning He finds his glory, Xanadu, still standing. But watch, the towers' walls have started swaying, Bricks bursting,...

Volkswagen has admitted to rigging as many as 11 million vehicles with illegal software that cheats on emission tests.   Lies and half-truths? Daily fayre But for pious folk it’s only fair If you peddle wares upon our trust When you’re caught you should be bust. Someone must have made...

It’s called “the magic hour” Before the sun sinks low When everything is bathed In a warm, golden glow Colours look much richer Flowers, more velveteen And a country garden Is a haven of green The dragonflies hover As light glints on their wings Tree frogs start their chorus And...

. . Farm Air and Poplar Before the air be clearly cool, In Georgia, Monticello, see, Be one precursor of the rule, That lower heat - humidity - Be gaining ground and holding sway, Embryonic, slight and small, Be indicating potency, In Autumn, on a sunny brae. (hill) As Uncle...

Winter Smoke Winter smoke and little houses Drawing blinds against the dark The cold, the crying wind Against a stark White moon Winter smoke. Wispy phantoms Casting a ghostly veil Of patterned, ancient symbols Against a pale White moon Sweet-scented turf recalling Times more pleasingly mellow Winter smoke reaching the...

By Damian Robin ‘Land of Hope and Glory, Mother of the Free, How shall we extol thee, who are born of thee? Wider still, and wider, shall thy bounds be set; God, who made thee mighty, make thee mightier yet!’ Lyrics by A. C. Benson from the ‘Coronation Ode’, first...

For 30 more riddles click here. I. I may not have a large population Compared to China or the United States, But more than those two or any nation I’ve more coastline and freshwater supplies. What country am I? II. On this exact day, the year’s half over, The cold...

Dawn on the Shore An hour before the dawn of day, I walked beside the tranquil bay, Along the sandy shore. The air was still. The wind had ceased. The planet Venus hung in the east, In the west the moon sank lower. The tide was down, the sands outspread;...

  Your spirit’s eyes, now opened, see The timeless steps of stone ahead... Old debts weigh down your weakened knee, Each step, a human burden’s shed. While slogging up the sacred blocks, This trying but fulfilling climb Casts off the sinfully wrought locks To your soul’s roots sealed off in...

Game Over With my friend P. Modernity, We played a game of strategy. Sipping our hot cups of coffee, We spoke over a game of chess. Most of our chat was mere bs, But then the game turned serious When my friend made a move untoward: His bishop straight across...

Ideology is a disease, Impervious to reason, An infection known to seize One in the election season. It has alas no known cure, This paralysis of the brain, No thought is allowed to stir If it runs against the grain. Left untreated it will spread Far and wide o’er the...

Rare Dreams I'm looking through the window of a plane in which I've never been, nor ever will; staring beyond a wing that is not there into a sky I've never seen nor care to see again; above clouds strangely still, dropping a soft and steady soothing rain upon the...

Danger: Helping Is Forbidden By Aw "Curbside" Lee It's been a month since he's been seen— the Chinese advocate of civil rights— Li Heping. Two, believed to be police, came to his door on the 10th of July, and took him off to where nobody knows, but Communist operatives beneath...

Night and Moonlight What more can be said about the full moon that hasn’t already been said before? The queen of tides, now glaring at the shore, sits on her throne as if midnight were noon; a Janus-faced sovereign the lovers swoon, the ages measure, the rich praise, the poor...

. A trail it stumbled on a door, A doubled one, upon a floor, Some fellow just as you and me, Approached the portal now we see, And unobtrusive might have been, Except he’d shed, down to the skin, Some aspect of mundanity, He’d cast away, like vanity. O was...

Confucius Institutes, which advance the agenda of the Chinese Communist Party, are found at universities in the United States and around the world. In colleges and schools, and blocks of universities, academe has rules for bringing in diversities. On dube’us, ethnic grounds there bloom Confucius Institutes * that buy up...

The Backwards Romantic “Most of those once common occasions for poetry seem embarrassingly old fashioned now that piped-in tunes and hand-held devices provide the background music for life’s journey.” -Dana Gioia I’m prone to loathe the radio and television, noise from all angles, laptops, iPads, cell-phones— the gibber-jabber of the...

. . Arizona Midnight Strewn across the vault of ink, Runes and constellations link- ing platinum silver fiery space Unfathomed grace, untiring place. Stare until the nod of head There until the plod to bed. Featured Image: "Arizona Sunset" by Alex Izatt. . . Beneath the Rocks Waters, depth, and...

Haiku of Righteous Thought Inspired by Dafa Karma turned virtue Evil eliminated Virtue travels home Foe falls defeated Demon laughter quieted Perpetual peace Heaven earth conjoin Restoring eternity Missions completed   The Hazy Way of Shades of Grey When caught in the haze Inside shades of grey Navigate the way...

Poetry, arguably the most powerful form of communication ever devised by mankind, has died. It was thousands of years old. Poetry died yesterday after a prolonged illness. Trapped in a meaningless, vegetative state for some time, feeding tubes were removed, allowing Poetry to die with dignity. Aristotle once wrote, “Poetry...

  The moon, surrounded by gray lands with floating hills and cliffs of clouds, Spreads fields of light that fade away upon the drifting misty shrouds. The lonely park in stillness waits, its blooming trees in dreams all rest, But now, a gentle breeze comes by to whisperingly greet a...