Poetry

  A Message in the Halloween Decorations (Based on a True Story) Compressed and clandestine, the Chinese script small, The paper slip’s flimsy “Will it get out at all?” He’s hidden it under a base plastic tray In Halloween décor, some Westerners display. Will anyone find it and what will...

  Unbroken If I should break myself today Unchanged from every burden bare Determined unafraid to say That I shall find the strength to wear Whatever fortune great or small My maker has bestowed on me. By chance wherever I may fall I forge alone my destiny. Then I may...

  The Philadelphia Pepper Pot Legend This day in 1777, American soldiers, at Valley Forge, camped. By hunger and winter's breath, spirits were damped. Paying a toll for the new revolution, Frostbitten, starving, they needed a boost, So Christopher Ludwick prepared a rich meal. Directed by Washington, he cooked to...

"More SpongeBob, Mimi"--this I hear a dozen times a day. How much more can I stand to see? No more of this, I pray! I turn the TV off and run to fetch his favorite toys. When he says, "Spongebob's much more fun," I must seek other ploys. "A Krabby...

  Made (by Imprisoned Falun Gong) in China It's mass production everywhere I look, From toys of plastic hope to airplane parts, And after all the livelihood you took, You're pressing mass production upon hearts By binding hands that never meant you harm, And feet that never trampled on your dreams,...

What’s out to kill us makes us more alive. Let’s go escape with me forget our fear, So run with me my brother lets survive. We just have to get in the car, and drive As fast as we can, racing to the clear. What’s out to kill us makes...

  Instruction The tales of Ovid are a theme that suits The Prince, but will not do for your repute. Avoid lust.  Clients of the better kind Desire the tales that beautify the mind. You may display the human flesh with taste Discreetly in the hands and face.  Be chaste:...

  Research Guideline Throughout investigative history, a basic principle has long held sway: When we unravel Nature’s mystery, complexity’s the first to fall away. Upon one underpinning postulate, succinctly balanced, we’ve come to expect all facts that we’ve observed should always fit, with math that’s both appealing and correct. Proposing...

  Metaphorical Meditation Musings My thoughts, like waves of ocean's surface swells that roll repeatedly, then crash on shore, neglect to find how silent treasure dwells in depths of calmness closer to mind's floor, where winds cannot whip frenzy nor implore illusion's masterful inventions be explored, like coral reefs I...

Imprisonment, torture, pathetic wrong - begat from  a people of age-old culture, wit, classic beauty, artistry and song: practices akin to hyena,  vulture, or other sadistic depravity - such is the state of Red China today. Subject to degrading atrocity, Falun Gong, spiritual bouquet, bright light of hope for millions...

  Greeks, Bearing Gifts The coils of wood cascade as worn blades glide from cedar lengths, rough-hewn deformed and coarse, while nearby, ships await a final tide and summer’s winds chase sand among the gorse. As carpenters, alone among the force of soldiers, stay and toil their keen minds on...

What wonder! - In the arcs described by wings Aloft and floating on the fair spring air. In graceful glides, parabolas of dare Defying, in ascent, all earthy things. Blue light this, that arises o'er their sails, To waves whose crests on gentle billows soar Across this sea unshadowed by...

  The Rainbow A wave of color binds our sentiments before it fades. For each emotion, is a subtlety in hue expressed, And through life's noble journey, may we add these tints and shades To vivid cast a rainbow in prismatic lightbeams blessed. Ephemeral are the tones of life bestowed...

  Ballet Lesson The flow has ebbed and left a tidal pool. A little tern wades in with webbed feet So delicate they wobble in the cool But keep the balance of this athlete. She moves her slender body, takes the stance Of ballerina on the sandy floor, Performs her...

  Calpurnia’s Paranoia Beware the Ides of March, she said— if you ignore the signs, you’re dead. But Caesar did not share her dread and shuffled off to work instead. Once on the Senate floor he knew Calpurnia’s portent would prove true, for there among that motley crew was his...

Sparks from nearby campfires Might be stars of paradise Glimpsed through twilight’s window Too briefly for surmise Of their height above the pines, Their hues - red, green, or gold -– Or mountains seen but dimly Beyond the forest’s fold. Lines of jeweled mountains, Pale as moonlit snows, Shining, reaching,...

He looked all around him and saw monuments so vast Built with good intentions to endure and hold steadfast Awesome structures pointing up to heaven as to say Here is my creation and forever it will stay How he envied those whose makers surely had the skill And patience as...

  Bounty When apples hang untouched on branches’ bottom, Or beans lie grounded, neither grown nor dead, Or bulbs down-nestle into earth of autumn, Then let them lie! Don’t hurry them ahead. Or when it’s only six o’clock at night Do not despair that no one’s at the door: Your...

  The Persecution of Falun Gong I. Meditating group One clear crisp day at Shanghai In earth’s sunny loop II. What is Zhen-Shan-Ren? Truth-Compassion-Forbearance Refiner of men III. Police arrive there Frosted breath flies from warped mouths Evil spirits flare IV. The days, weeks, and months Spent making dolls for...

  The pendulum o' th' old grandfather clock goes back and forth, and forth and back, and back and forth, and forth and back, again, again, again. It stays on track, and oscillates both east and west, or south and north, depending which way its positioned in the room. It...

  Ode to Matters of Fact The best advice I've ever read -- if you don't breathe you'll soon be dead. And secondly -- a pleasant wife can rid a man of moan and strife. Then third -- rye whiskey in a glass can knock a good man on his...

It spreads like wildfire when you give a smile. At first you won’t really notice at all, But if you wait patiently for a small while, You’ll notice that each domino will fall. In the smile you see happiness and love, So you smile back even if it hurts you...

By Clinton Van Inman Editors who reject classical styles of poetry in submissions usually respond with, “I hate meter, rhythm and rhyme.” It is no secret that free verse dictates the modern world with little room for classical styles that are considered as antiquated as grandmother’s dollies. There are a...

  An English Autumn’s Coming Indoors, a crisp leaf skates on smooth floorboards, gunned by silent puffs from our gapped doorway – A fragile scout in advance of damp hoards soon to glut local pavements and roadsides with the soaked, soft sprawl of  urban decay.   Winter Weight–A Present Hallowe’en Keep close;...

  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...

Beyond the skies is universal eternity. Nebulous ghosts of dust float around In the black hole of space. A night profound As death itself, as life in its old infancy, Contains a trillion grains of stars inside a galaxy Where suns (beyond the reach of sight or sound) Flare as...

Revised October 18, 2021 A Psalm of Christmas What the heart of the young activist said to the psalmist by Evan Mantyk Tell me not in boring numbers ___About today’s economy, For our consciences grow numb-er ___And then become our enemy. Money’s fake! Just an idea! ___It’s a value agreed to give;...

In darkness, in the mantling of the night, When Earth is calm, and troubling noises cease, I turn with wonder-looking eyes, to please My dulled senses, from the day’s untranquil sight: And first gaze upon heavens lesser light, The moon, who’s beams far into space, she shines; Next to the...

  In the Play Pit As Cameron stands, cap in hand, The jailers of New Middleland Keep a straight face As they keep him in place While he signs for their help in their sand. Poet's Note: For centuries, China was called the Middle Kingdom. New Middleland suggests its change...

Here is a blonde-marked maple tree: Stands by the road so stolidly While mourners make their floral shrines And in the night a taper shines; But soon the taper will burn out And yet the tree will remain stout; And it will stand for years to come Spreading its leaves...

  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...

Whether if my promise be known or not, Of which I spoke when lying on this spot, The weeds have covered up my trail; Their stalks show not the seat that I once made, But mounds still show the meadows where they fade, And here I sat: it is no...

Those Catskill Mountain Climbs I've walked from Ayers rock to Sydney I've seen all those majestic sites I've beheld the peaks of Mt. McKinley And of Everest in all its might I’ve seen the meandering Nile I’ve walked the great Silk Road I’ve beheld the beautiful Fiji Isle And the...

I Think Therefore “I think,” said Descartes, “and therefore I am.” declared many years ago, way before spam. It predated facebook and twitter and tweet, when only the lonely thought thought was a treat. Today there is seldom an unspoken thought; a trait to forsake for the misery it’s brought....

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...

A godly painting held over their heads As they process through a street in Florence, Each face is free from manic glee or dread And transcends with a tranquil tolerance; They are transformed by the art’s deep meaning, The ideals that they uphold in their lives Of what is proper...

“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...

Where lightness finds the passage through the dark the thoroughfare of dimness, where we’ll soar about the sun undone, unborn again, but one─divine the spark! The wicket door unfastens where the constellations form sepulchers made of stars. Celestial reach─ become what’s yet to be, your elegy of memoirs left beneath...