Poetry

  A Poet at the Tower Ah, what a perfect, golden, autumn day. The headsman’s brought the bearded ax, I see. The cocksure ravens strut like popinjays. The river shimmers like a bright malmsey. Make haste and strike; let’s have it done, prithee. The grass, the gentle breeze, the stark...

  Florence Foster Jenkins “A Jenkins recital was never exactly an aesthetic experience--- only to the degree that an early Christian among the lions provided aesthetic experience; it was chiefly immolatory, and Madame Jenkins was always eaten in the end." ---William Meredith Carnegie Hall, New York. October 25, 1944. High...

  WINNERS & RANKINGS The Great American Poetry Competition Judged by Andrew Benson Brown, Joseph Bottum, Margaret Coats, Evan Mantyk, Arthur Mortensen, Joshua Philipp, Mark F. Stone . Henry Longfellow Ode & Ballad Grand Prize Prize Winner ($1,500) Hymn – Joseph Charles Mackenzie   Finalists Tier 1 ($250) The Melody...

  The Gold Star Mother “Dear Mom, Dad, Billy and Baby Sis, It’s rough out here but I’m with some great guys. We look after each other, so mom, I’m well taken care of. Believe it or not, there’s no place I’d rather be. I finally found the place where...

  An American Dash There are two dates on a headstone: the date we’re born, and then the last. And between them there’s a little dash reflecting every day that’s passed. A little dash that represents our life--- all the smiles, and all the tears, all the minutes that turned...

  The Anonymous Soldier Beneath these granite monoliths we stand, Immortalizing warriors’ names in stone. We oft forget the sacrifices made, For liberty is all we’ve ever known. Amongst these tributes stands an unmarked grave, A peaceful seeming monument of stone. It rises proud for all the brave unnamed, Who...

  For Those We Never Meet Before the dawn could touch the pines, _Or gild the ridges high, The miners left their narrow homes _Beneath the August sky. No trumpet hailed their marching feet, _No drum proclaimed their names; The mountains watched them wind below _Like sparks before a flame....

  Ben Franklin's Copper Fugio Cent Designed by Benjamin Franklin, the copper Fugio coin was the first coin circulated in the new United States. On one side of the first coin minted in the new United States you see a sun dial—not a king or queen or anyone— and embossed...

  Three Brief Poems by Luxorius (circa A.D. 500s) translated from Latin by Joseph S. Salemi   11. A Phalaecean poem against a lecher, because he wept that when drunk he could not perform the act of coition. You swive too often, and too frequently— You don’t let up, unless...

  The American Spirit (One Voice, 250 Years)   I Brave loving hearts have helped our nation stand, though history forgets the giver’s names; no marble marks the works of helping hands, but countless lives are strengthened all the same. A meal that’s shared; a burden freely borne; a word...

  The Ballad of Zebulon Pike In Colorado’s mountain range _There stands a peak named Pike’s. Named for our hero Zebulon The revolution’s own true son His father fought for Washington, _Our freedom and our rights. Like our country, born at war _In George’s winter camp--- A Jersey boy who...

  We Are the Ones The first to circumnavigate the globe, To map the continents and island chains, To climb the highest mountain peaks, to probe What lies beneath the waves and underground, To reach the north and south magnetic poles. We walked upon the moon, and now we're bound...

  My Pyjamas! My jamas have lemurs and llamas, A rude cockatoo and a yak, Cerulean shrews and iguanas All running amok on the back. Each sleeve has a mischief of muskrats, A murder of clamorous crows, A skink, a pink skunk and four fruit bats With rows of opposable...

  A Snowy Egret While driving down the road one day, in the pouring rain, a snowy egret flew above him, like a mighty crane. He saw its giant underbelly and great wing-span soar; it was not anything that he had ever seen before. He wondered why it bade its...

  The Swearing-in of Calvin Coolidge ---Plymouth Notch, Vermont, 1923 Strange, the postman’s loud, insistent knock (The nearest phone, in town, two miles away) Which roused them out of bed at one o’clock, Tired from bringing in the August hay. And stranger still, two telegrams they read By lantern light:...

  Ballad of the Sequoia _Six hundred years ago, My seed was planted in the ground, _A life so full of promise, And the green grass all around, _Since then, I’ve weathered storms; I’ve seen my brothers come and go, _But here I am still rooted, In this valley here...

  The 51st State "A republic, if you can keep it." — Benjamin Franklin, attributed answer after the Constitutional Convention, 1787 I sometimes wish—in England now— We were the 51st State Of America—and knew somehow We'd failed the test, become third rate. The Puritans who left these shores, First from...

  La Uva I packed a bag of grapes into her lunch. My hands resembled his, though not as worn; they brought me back to what he told me once, just days before my little girl was born. … “Ay, mijo, come outside,” my grandpa said. He swung the screen...

  There’s Blood that Flows Within the Stripes There’s blood that flows within the stripes; _The stripes upon the flag, Those streaks of red on purest white, Were watched by Key throughout the night, _And none would let it sag. There’s blood that flows within the stripes, _The blood of...

  Birdsong If I might for a moment go all soft And corny; hold in humble hands aloft A simple thought about a simple thing: The sound of morning birds who sing and sing As daylight starts its soft intrusive creep And drives away the blurry world of sleep. I...

  The Melody That Lingers On “Any requests?” the leader asked from the Old Time Country Band. “Just tell us what you’d like to hear, we’ll play it if we can.” “There is this song,” an old man said, “I’ve forgotten through the years, but the melody won’t go away,...

  American Dreams   I Dreams of new realms, refuge outside The scepter’s and the crozier’s reach: Dour, black-clad zealots braved the seas, The cold, gray waves, the churning tide, To glimpse upon that distant beach A hostile waste where north blasts freeze--- An untamed, virgin world to build Their...

  An American Fabius I shan’t soon forget that impactful day When my son marched with face weathered cloudy and gray. His tears bitter rain as his chest moved in heaves, Crying, “Daddy, I do not know who to believe! My hero, George Washington, just died today! Puzzled, I urged...

  Vernal Clinic To regular observers, spring had never seemed So jarringly abnormal as it did this year. Its bright chromatic strains came winging in, some claimed, On airships made from canvas scrap and two-by-four. The whole three months came off as crudely improvised, A makeshift presentation staged without a...

  Omaha Beach The ramp went down, and the brute din of war Was like a furnace. Some collective will Drew us into the water, and the air Bloomed with sour bullets. They sank their roots in me As if I were a rotted corpse. I fell, And I was...

  Music to Part the Veil ---on first hearing Mendelssohn’s 5th forty years ago. The winter sun had just begun to light the morning sky as I cranked up my car to head back home. The group of men I met with every Tuesday morning were as bright as any...

  A Gentleman’s Guide to Losing a War I hold my spyglass to my face, _And straighten my cravat. A cannonball just flew on by, _And flattened my best hat! I brought some fancy silver spoons _To have a pleasant war, But soon the stupid peasants came, _And battered at...

  Black Shuck There are curious marks on the north door of Holy Trinity, in Blythburgh, England. Tradition has it that they were left by the scorching paws of Black Shuck, a fearsome dog which tried to force its way into the church one violently tempestuous night in 1577. Some...

  When the Last World War II Veteran Passes Away _Lower the flag, men! The last great one has passed. _Take care of Old Glory, Set her down at half-mast. _As boys they grew up In the Dustbowl’s great heat. _The Depression taught them How to make short ends meet....

  A Fallow Year at Worthy Farm No Glastonbury Festival occurs at Worthy Farm in twenty twenty-six. the land, where banished wildlife once more stirs can testify to Nature’s magic fix. No chemicals from leaky porta-loos will seep into the grassed and flowery leas; and cows---usurped by punters swigging booze...

  Outstanding in Afghanistan The man rose up at break of day, His feet like thunder on the ground, He marched through heat along the way, But never heard the danger's sound. He ran through bases, full patrol, He watched for targets, cold and gone, He steadied breath and steadied...

  250 More My country, sweetest home I’ve come to know, Your wings have sheltered me, a foreigner. I came to you a migrant as a boy, Without the blessing of your government. But still you loved me, educated me, Prepared me for the tasks I bear today. America, I...

  Americans Cross the Rubicon   1. Preamble Be proud, be grateful that we’re here! We came In pain from stifling lands which we outgrew, And crossed the wildest seas that we might live. It’s madness to assume a stance of shame. We took vast risks and offered all we...

  Two Fateful American Coin Flips   Asa Lovejoy, Francis Pettigrew & The Portland Penny We settled on the banks of the Willamette, “The Clearing’s” what we called our settlement. “A better name could prove to be an asset,” Said Asa, and I shared his sentiment. “It’s 1845 and folks...

  Clarence Thomas, American Hero “The mob I now faced carried no ropes or guns. It s weapons were smooth-tongued lies spoken into microphones and printed on the front pages of America’s newspapers. It no longer sought to break the bodies of its victims. Instead it devasted their reputations and...

  What America Was Meant to Be We often hear what they said back then, no crown should rule over women or men, no single hand should hold that key, to bend the lives of you or me. No whim of power, no passing decree, should decide who lives in...

  America: 250 Years Should we commit to celebrate our birth? We’ve run so many laps around the sun, Yet in our nuanced realm upon this earth We may not cherish all that we have done. Our country, on the balance, stood for good. It claimed the peaks of freedom,...

  The Second Rain A grandly booming, flashing shower Comes flying in and promptly starts To soak the neighborhood an hour. This done, still rumbling, it departs. The garden plants, once somnolent, Are jostled wet awake and clean, While in long grasses skewed and bent Droplets shine and the day...

  Archaic Torso of Apollo by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) translated from German by Mary Jane Myers We'll never know his head, its mythic fame, the fiery ripening-apple eyes, although his torso casts a candelabra’s glow, the gaze now dialed down to a lower flame, its gleam preserved. Or else...

  The Council of Infinite Opinions A council met where certainty was banned, And every truth was shaped by shifting hand. “No fact may stand,” they spoke with measured breath, “Unless it bends to every shade of depth.” The wise withdrew; the louder filled the floor, Each syllable a carefully...