Poetry

  Who Do You Think You Are? You don’t know me, nor do you know my friend. You’re ignorant of us---yet you intend To write to her, purporting to be me? No, I don’t want your “help”---I’ll never send A phony letter. You don’t understand (Why am I calling you...

In partnership with the White House's Freedom 250 initiative. Submit Email a poem in celebration of America's 250th Anniversary to [email protected]. You may list a prize category, but you do not have to; we will put you in the best fit. These are ideas for what you might write about...

  Unexploited Providence “Why am I here?” I was afraid to ask, While walking—half asleep—this land of wonders. So, stumbling on, I took myself to task And totted up my many glaring blunders. Creation offered me its very best To satisfy my least advertent leaning, But tendencies of wastrels never...

  What We Learn From Breaking Waves Those who climb the furthest up the shore Are not the waves that break from greatest height, Who must contend with those who broke before And spend their force against their backwash flight. More to be admired are quiet swells Who bide their...

  Pigeonholed The box they shove her in is small and dark. It skews all views and leaves her little space For launching thoughts that rise with daybreak’s lark. Dawn’s rays no longer shine upon her face. They say this box is where her ilk belongs – It helps the...

  A Dear John Letter to Chaucer, in the Style of Chaucer Dear Geoff, I took the pilgrim’s springtime jaunt to Canterbury Cathedral, sacred haunt where Tom à Becket, blessed by God got sainted, whose blood and brains the Holy aisles once tainted. How can I, now that holy thoughts...

  Interdisciplinary Indiscipline A lifetime ago, back in seventh-grade band, “The Bullwhip” had all us kids pledge to expand Our goals for our music. He went on to ask us To double our time spent in personal practice. The girls—mostly woodwinds—were eager to please; Ol’ Bullwhip could always control them...

  Leicester Square Concert —A true story. Note: Leicester is pronounced “Lester” I traveled to an intel brief _Convened in London town. The Pentagon had ordered me _(Through Army Staff renowned). Invited by the British branch _Of their intelligence, I roamed the halls of Whitehall first _—Two hours in advance....

  By the Waters of Babylon All faces are foreign here, all streets unknown, and even the sun seems like an alien star, darker and redder than a homesick eye. One hundred miles, ten thousand miles, how far is far away? Laptop and telephone pretend to bridge all distances, but...

  How Septuagenarian’s Cope Past seventy. Age does prevail. _The day is growing dim. I’ve managed through life’s calms and gales— I still can trapse through woodland trails _And work out at a gym. Past seventy. Age does assail. _Our grandkids prove time zooms! Their one-track minds never derail: Just...

  The Antipope Gives Military Advice Aircraft should always be vehicles of peace, never of war! No one should fear that threats of death and destruction will come from the sky. —Leo XIV in a recent comment to the press. It seems that in the Vatican we have a fine...

  Replication and Cessation Your parents had four children, grand-kids eight. But as for great-grandchildren, they’ll have none. How could this come to be? Was it just Fate? Why would Nature, History, Civilization Choose this hour to forsake this life, love, thought? But who can blame the grand-kids? We’d have...

  Upon Meeting a Crane ---at the Wilmington VA Medical Center I met a crane; the crane met me beside A hill ambitiously too mowed, Girdled by a semi-liquid stream--- The kind that swells and empties with the tide. The crane and I perched, motionless, serene, Bore witness as the...

  https://youtu.be/G9FpJcfCcGw     Back or Bottom? “Your back or bottom?” Dowdy grabbed the switch, a riding whip, from off its rusty hitch that hung upon the wooden schoolhouse wall— a dangling deterrent for them all. “Macree, up front!” the teacher said with joy. Then, inching forward, crept a red-haired...

  Remains No-one saw them tumble empty down the fathoms, somersaulting gently on their way, at random caught and wafted by some subaquatic breeze. Answering the tenderest of gravities, in untold multitudes they lightly fell and fell, each an untwinned bivalve, exoskeletal remains in drifts and shoals, from sunlit upper...

  Re-shifting in Reverse Alas, I fear the world has fallen prey To well-conceived and ill-intended evil; An armageddon; shattered Tao; decay; A shadow play, primeval, medieval. Society re-shifting in reverse Where anarchy is called democracy. An AI rule-of-lawless-universe; The vanguard of a new plutocracy. For hidden deep behind the...

  The Face At night, surreptitiously, it emerges out of the TV screen, or when the light bulb's put to rest, its wave of horror surges from darkened corners, weakening my sight. It foams up in the bathing tub, assails my morning mind that's fairly free of thoughts. It smirks...

  The Teahouse Garden A place where you can leave your cares behind And have a restful, meditative mind; A Zen-like atmosphere is what you’ll find Without distractions. Put away your phones. Beginning with a path of steppingstones, Observe the moss, the ferns, the verdant tones, The koi-filled pond, the...

  Snow Foe I’m rather certain snow falls for a reason, Like adding charm to wintertime’s cold season. But after many years of getting pelted, My favorite type of snow is when it’s melted.     A Few Seconds More If there could be one thing about myself that I’d...

  Fireship ---August 7, 1588. The English Channel. Since William’s conquest England has not faced Such danger of defeat---so dire a maze It calls for setting our own ships ablaze. I’ve stowed away, a naval pyre embraced, To steer this burning ship to ram El Rey. I can’t conceive a...

  Morning Glory The mornings are a challenge for the old man. Get up. Get dressed. Get the dogs out. Get them fed. His several pains are worse. It’s cold and dark outside. The world, it seems, is set against him. But he knows that’s not the case. He hums...

  Tinian Tucked into the corner of the sea, Birthed in fire, volcanic history, A stepping stone across the ocean wide, Battered by the ever-flowing tides, Bobbing on the slow pacific swell, An island which unleashed the hounds of hell. This runway covered up by jungle vines, Was where we...

  Prayer (5:00 a.m.) Some stubborn pain (the world… the past…) Is peeking through the cracks, and all I want is somehow to at last Come home to something steady, fast, (I won’t say innocence, but still…) To something pure and whole that will In me a simpler soul recall....

  Damon and Pythias The two spoke number lore with every breath, Disciples of Pythagoras and friends, But one was seized and chained, condemned to death As loud opponent of tyrannic trends. He felt a need that normally attends Life’s end, to go and settle his affairs. The tyrant said,...

  The Throne at Knossos Kings, nations, empires, tongues have passed, Through fourscore centuries, but you last, _Carved from immortal stone Long before Caesar was to reign Or king of England, France, or Spain: _Europe’s most ancient throne. Within this crimson-frescoed hall, Enthroned on your majestic, tall, _White alabaster seat,...

    The Bridge by Victor Hugo (1802-1885) translated from French by Joy Nevin Axelson Shadows before me. An abyss without light, without shores or summits, with no end in sight. So mournful, immense, so vast, without movement. I was lost in its infinite depths so silent. Deep down, through...

    A Wedding Song (Away the Winter) In May shall be her wedding day, When hawthorn blooms do scent the air, And she will dance in fine array, With fragrant flowers pinned in her hair. Away the winter, come the spring, She waits to wear her lover's ring. Away...

  The Sun The sun’s so conscientious She gives us every dawn--- Her rays across the treetops And then across the lawn. Don't you think it's wonderful That sloth is not her sin: She never just rolls over And decides she will sleep in?     Leslie Lippincott Hidley is retired...

  The Room Exhaled Before I Did The patient sat before me on the table Clearly hoping that I would be able To return his life to normalcy As I treated his malignancy. The tension in the room was palpable. The worry in his eyes indelible. His voice was barely...

  My California A tangled maze of gushing streams My sunny California cries. Her sky is veiled in morbid memes That source her sad and raining eyes. What doleful demon of despair Has dared to infiltrate your skies? What craven catalyst of care Has dared to blur your sparkling eyes?...

  In the Vault of Default I store my memories in empty bottles, Which rest on horizontal 2x4s That gird the inner walls inside a cabin Close to a lake in Maine. I favor throttles, While others lean toward brakes. There’s no remorse That’s worth the having: Let what happens...

  Mother’s Loom ---after Li Bai's poem "Midnight Song of Wu" The moon above the palace, Reigns bright within the gloom, And mothers seeking solace, Work quietly at the loom. Cold autumn breezes shear Away their fondest tears, "Oh when'll my sons be home From deserts where horses roam?"  ...

Beneath an Iron Hand Though they spent years beneath an iron hand, the quiet people still knew how to sing and hope moved soft but steady through the land. Their murmurs grew, hushed voices echoing like hidden water stirring under stones, true hearts began to share what they could bring....

  The Ladies on the Floor Above ---for the pianist NW and her daughters, and AGM, aged just one "And therefore is Love said to be a child" ---A Midsummer Night's Dream The ladies on the floor above _Are not what they pretend; They all possess a secret love _And...

  The Sons of Issachar “The Sons of Issachar understood the times in which they lived, and knew which way Israel should go.” ---I Chronicles 12:32 I tilled the soil, and worked and thought, And listened, as the country fought. I walked my furrows, planting seed, My brow not furrowed,...

  Will the Sentence Get the Death Sentence? ---a triolet I write a line, then I decide: will it survive, or must it die? Before I can enter a stride, I write a line, then I decide if it allows my mind to glide. If not, once more I’ll have...

  Mass Destruction Give me a reason to trust in words spoken--- Tricksters have twisted the truth till it’s dead. Decades of pledges are buried or broken. Faith is now riddled with bullets and dread. Bombs are exploding and bombast is blasting--- Slick tongues of silver spin slogans all day....

  Cycle of Song O Schubert! Praise with Song your blessed Birth; With youthful Skill, no mortal Feats surpass, You crafted Lieder of the highest Worth And matched with Harmonies of the finest Class. Poets' Words took flight, lifted by your Art, And ancient Sorrow sprang through vaulted Air; You...

. The Contest Today in China peaceful Falun Gong practitioners are imprisoned, tortured, and killed by the communist regime simply because of their spiritual beliefs. It has also been uncovered that imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners are used as a living organ bank: they are killed on demand and their organs...

  It Must Be Spring Again The air is clear and crisp today _While walking through my garden. A morning shower comes to play, _But then it begs my pardon. The blended scent of flowers blooms, _And scrubs the morning air. A bee seems drunk on their perfumes _And wanders...