Poetry

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...

  The Decorator I live to decorate for Christmastide. My summer birthday barely means a thing As I count Christmases new glorified By fir or pine or spruce, encouraging My spirits as I check bulbs on each string Inherited. At last, tired colors died, And free to choose, I bought...

  The Time to Give Him Thanks In the still and pristine morning, When the flowers bathe in dew, And the meadows stir from slumber With their creatures, not a few; Just before the mountains shiver At the coming of the light, And the elk in stately splendor Ventures forth...

  The Keeper’s Wife “Dear God in Heaven, why have you forsaken me? To take my husband—rest his soul—in your embrace? Just looking out to sea now gives me mal de mer. I wish he never brought me here. This wretched place Is cursed! What strength I have comes from...

Musical Version by Lex McKee     Cetus and Jonah’s Lament "And Jonah was extremely happy about the plant. But God appointed a worm when dawn came the next day, and it attacked the plant and it withered." ---Jonah 4.5 When I think now of you, great Cetus---Whale--- And me...

  Rachel’s Bawbee Rachel: Chancellor Rachel Reeves who will present His Majesty's Government's budget on Nov. 26, 2025 “ae bawbee”: Scottish phrase for a single halfpenny NHS: National Health Service OBR: Office for Budget Responsibility, The only thing that Rachel had, That Rachel had, that Rachel had, The only thing...

  The Ground of Being Consider that our world may be sewn through With sentience, intelligence and thought. The dead philosophy that we've been taught Has bridled us, imprisoned me and you. Behold, Life! In its innumerable forms, The glory of an animated sky. Expanding from our penchant to ask...

  A Poet Explains Perhaps, dear madam and dear sir, You might with my remarks concur As I explain why I insist That poetry should still exist When all the world embraces prose, Though I admit I can’t suppose We yearn for language made to shine When common speech will...

  Swimming to the Waterfall at Uvongo In the heat of the early winter By the haunts of the southern strand. Filled with a lust for adventure We forwent the safety of land. But the cliffs watched on with suspicion, In silence they warned us and said: “Beware of the...

  Meeting Alexander You were the wonder of another age. Enemies and friends alike: they learned To love your laughter and to fear your rage. It was your therapy when cities burned, But if I somehow met you face to face Such probing questions I would like to ask. Yet...

  I Don’t Know With questions some adults are asked Why do they try to keep it masked--- Like they’re afraid to let it show--- That they should answer: “I don’t know”?     The Thought Was Good We get exotic foods and spices _As well-thought-out gifts, From folks who...

  Glog Gets Participation Prize Our tale’s set in a prehistoric cave Carved in a cliff above a vast expanse Which offers Aurochs Clan a safe enclave Within a land the future shall call “France.” The fecund plains below are lush and teeming With toothy predators and shrieking prey. A...

  The Bamboozlers of Belém inspired by the recent disasters that plagued COP30 (UN Climate Change Conference) in Belém, Brazil The shamans of the earth and air, _Messiahs of the seas, The saints of planetary care, _Redeemers of the trees, The wizards of the wind and waves, Have been exposed...

  The Last Caesar ---Ravenna, 476 AD The figure on this golden solidus: a beardless boy, his dress a bossed cuirass, helmet adorned with Rome's imperial crown, Augustulus, Orestes' handsome son. The annals say: Rome weakens year by year, Byzant holds strong; Hesperia quakes in fear. Attila's soldiers start to...

  Just Do It. _My spirit’s wings shall soar _Although at times I stray. When I’m downcast… when life’s storms blast… _I gaze upward and pray. _Fed up with sin and war… _Outside, inside my mind. I do not know where I should go. _What task have You assigned?  ...

Diocletian’s Horse “Save it for your horse.” ---Oedipus Tex, P.D.Q. Bach (Peter Schickele) While Diocletian owned the home Octavian built (although he ruled from Asia Minor, don’t be fooled, He was the emperor of Rome), ambition and a lack of sense brought some in Egypt to rebel against his title....

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/FzqtmavvpJ8   Video created by Andrew Benson Brown.

  Choosing a Thermometer If tubes hypoglottal Can cause you to throttle, And things in your ears Breed irrational fears, And under your armpits Occasion for harm sits, While probes in your nose May precipitate flows, Then you I expect’ll Most likely want rectal.     From Hesiod Cronus, while...

  Morning Rain Veiled sky, dusk at dawn, Night gone---yet not gone; Half-light, hardly day; Weird world, dim and gray. Rain falls---steady, soft. Mists rise, twirl, and waft. Gentle pattering Drowning everything, Drumming---constant, deep--- Coaxes back to sleep. Sleep, though, now eludes As day’s darkness broods. Thwarted, still I lie...

  Timeless The timeless, gentle swish of wave-washed sand; The echoed “chock” of rounded wave-washed stone; The silent, skittered feet of pipers and A distant sea-tossed crab boat’s throbbing drone. The squawk of gull, the sharp-shrill caw of crow; The unseen shaft of air where eagle’s soar; The dance of...

. Beyond "Daffodils" The British weather gets my goat. For once, upon a morning stroll, My path became a flooded moat, Whilst lightning’s flash and thunder’s roll Alarmed me with their blinding din - The downpour soaked me to the skin. I trudged through muck, avoided trees Lest I should...

  Longfellow I first met you in the schoolroom, _When I was but a child, And read your words and heard your voice _Sing out so sweet and mild. But as I grew, I saw your work _More cast off and despised, By those critics who now believe _History should...

  Sensation Amidst the flaming of the flying saucer’s landing gear, like as the Sunshine glazing it, in gold-white-yellow sheer, the meadow edge is filled with crabgrass seedheads by the trail, the bright, cement-gray road is lit by brilliant blazing rays. The shadow of the alien is ten-foot long, and...

  Seeing Shen Yun in Milwaukee The curtain rose—divine, resplendent stage, Where heaven’s hues met earth in living grace. The dancers turned as petals in the wind, Each step a vow, each motion born of truth. Then silence fell—a single voice arose, A song of gold descending from the clouds....

  Early Days The scent of roses, and the blazing sun, The gas pump next door busy—day’s begun. No school; some insects flit. I feel the heat Upon my skinny shoulders and my feet. As Mama’s chickens cackle in their pen, I revel in the world I’m in. But then...

  Snootsplaining For every galoot there’s a dutiful snoot Acutely aware that their truth’s absolute. They jabber and jaw as they bore to the root Of topics that wallop the nincompoop mute. For every galoot there’s a dutiful snoot To set cretins straight with the weight of a brute. For...

November by the Sea The cliffs, they are eroding On old Pacific shores, But chill November calls me To where the ocean roars. I hear the rolling breakers As they approach the land. I hearken to their thunder Resounding on the sand. And then I'm looking skyward Where there's a...

  Gilgamesh Lines Introduction In 2011 when we were evacuating Iraq, looted antiquities entered the market. One such was this shard which features 20 partial lines of the Epic of Gilgamesh, likely inscribed before the seventh century B.C. Verse translation “I” occurs early in the epic. Verse translation “II” occurs...

  Sonnet of the Hardened Heart Care less, I warn myself; bother no more With inner crevices: prying the shell Like scabs (rough, oozing, sore), which crust, but tell Of tumults against the psychic seabed floor; It is in vain. Swollen and hard around The meat (like newborn skin, or...

  Upon Seeing a Stump Where a Tree Once Was When in the park, I passed a felled oak tree That once with lofty boughs would softly sway. At least, I’m sure, it must have waved that way Had I but stopped with eyes willing to see. Had I but...

  On Time I went to bed too late last night And woke up to an awful fright But now it’s done, what can I say? Tomorrow turned into today They say time flies, you never know About the days, where do they go? A penny in your pocket, say...

The poem read by the poet herself at the Society of Classical Poets' in-person Poetry Symposium held in Naperville, Illinois on September 5-6, 2025: https://youtu.be/-9aSevsHMFo   Video created by Andrew Benson Brown.