Poetry

. Becalmed When life is smooth—a gentle breeze On a porch swing—the garden lush. Retirement! Do as I please. Watch leaflets stir—two bluebirds fuss. Gardinia scent—I swing and swoon. My mind is still as a lagoon. I scoop yogurt with my teaspoon. No urge to move—no need to rush. The...

. Street 3/4 On both sides of this street, there are small stores Of groceries, canned food, medicine, and toys. Beside a Hindu shrine whose iron doors Are always fanned, an art school for teen boys Displays its billboard, saying, "Come! Let's learn!" This road I amble through once lay...

. The Lord of His Castle Setting: King Stephen’s siege of Newbury Castle, England during the English civil war known as “The Anarchy.” The year is 1152 A.D. Strategic though this castle is to me I would we had avoided Newbury Where I have been outwitted and outmanned. John Marshall!...

. I Need My Coffee  I need my coffee; don’t get in the way Of that which wakes me up and makes me tick. Addicted? Yes. I’ll quit another day. I’ve work to do; on task I need to stay. My morning  cup of Joe gives me that kick. I...

. A Console Table after a Google entry A console table in the entryway __Provides a focus for a guest Inside your home: a welcome, you might say. A strong impression’s vital to convey, __And for this purpose I suggest A console table in the entryway. Style mixed with function...

. A Hurricane by Any Other Name... The lights went out in Mexico today. A fury hit Cancun with no remorse. With death upon her breath, she makes her way To Lone Star shores. She's on a fiendish course. The Yucatan sapped ire from her eye And now she's sucking...

. Dandelion Dreams ---to Melody, on the occasion of her fifth birthday I see her, through the window, picking flowers. Adrift upon a sea of green, she towers Above the honeybees that hover over The rippling waves of newly blooming clover. She sees the dazzling meadow all around her And...

. The Convert “Uh, Professor, I don’t get it, Why do people choose to read that? Does it just not fit my taste?” She said, “If you really let it, This will sway you. You’ll concede that This has moved your very soul.” So I dug and mined each sentence,...

. It Goes Without Saying "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." ---the Declaration of Independence Self-evident truths were once taught in...

. . Battle Hymn of the Republic The Lord doth come; the grapes of wrath are crushed! Behold His fiery sword of Victory. He heartens those whose voices have been hushed To loudly shout our rage: “We shall be free!” America, rise up! Look to the light. Sing Glory Hallelujah,...

. American Dream Where Did You Go? American dream, where did you go? Visions grand that I loved so? Land of opportunity Heading toward disunity. Politics that once were regal Neuter the American eagle. Merit thrown out of the window Makes of us a sickly widow, Ignoring all the present...

. Miss Jewell’s Suicide ---from a story by George Gissing The chipped and mismatched crockery,Two boiled eggs and tepid tea,A single slice of buttered toastWith marmalade—a dab at most—And oatmeal porridge barely warm:Such is breakfast’s pallid normHere in a low-rent boarding houseWhere lodgers live sans friend or spouse. Miss Jewell...

. Endless Dreaming a villanelle I lunge ahead in bed and start to scream. The nightmare’s end is far; I’m still inside A dream within a dream within a dream. I fall out my front door at heights extreme (Since now my house sits on a mountainside); I lunge ahead...

. Fed Up It’s not just fogies and the aging nanniesThat look askance at all the mixed-up trannies.The everyday American has had itWith flagrant bald hypocrisy so bad itReminds them of the old Obama years,But nowadays there is no time for tears. . . Findings of the Proctors of Proctology...

. . Militant Books Marshaled ranks of silent books Formed on shelves as in brigade, Fill the wooden dusty nooks Waiting for their next parade. Untamed spirits hide inside, Lurking out of watcher’s sight, Feeding off a soldier pride, Waiting for the well-loved fight. Leather armor fading dull, Nameplates wearing...

. The Rise of Washington from Legends of Liberty, Volume 3 IT’S TIME! Let’s give our story’s star some space. He’s famous through the land, you know his role: “A fire in his eyes, a light in his face,” Eternal Heaven destined him to rule. His birth miraculous, his father...

. A Formalist Poet at the Open Mic Part IV: Becoming a Poet Laureate by Daniel Kemper Inflationary times. The invisible hands of markets or of governments have synchronized in some secular mysterium to take something from me. They’ve synchronized so that their stuff is worth more than my stuff. If...

. Ba’al "And they built the high places of Ba'al to burn their children with fire as burnt offerings to Ba'al, which I did not command, neither did I speak nor did it enter My mind." — Yirmiyahu (Jeremiah) 19:5   "Destroy another fetus now We don't like children anyhow"...

. Three Views of Venus "When you’ve got a goddess, make good use of her. —local guide, Green Velvet Bedchamber at Houghton Hall, Norfolk “Ah, Mars, my dear, lay down that spear, and wage Love in the tender tenor of our way. Disarm, and let me have the upper hand...

. Elder Abuse What’s left to us to say? There’ll be no more debates. We know the truth now. Biden is not there--- The president of the United States: A man lost in a blank and vacant stare. They hid this old, frail man away with lies. They sneered and...

.  Soulmate Your spouse ideally is your best friend,Providing love and laughter end to end,Supporting and enhancing all day through,But still at times your soulmate must be you. . . Ultimate Question Some things are unforeseen, unique, and new,Arising like unprecedented seasons.Which prompts the question as they’re all thought through...

. To the Full Moon Heavenly voyager, you course Across the skies’ infinity--- The calm, serene celestial sea, Which yields before your silent force--- Traversing the shoreless expanse Of unplumbed ultramarine heights--- Or depths?---as countless, sparkling lights Like myriad sea ripples glance. Floating by lazily, you plow The wispy silver...

.. 1. Generative artificial intelligence As for-profit tech makes some obverse sense: It markets to itself, its own monopoly Secured on genuine stupidity. . 2. The chattering class, of which society is knit: Such empty suits, chock-full of so much shit. . 3. Though I am all for proper dress,...

. The Pink of Gentle Hermione and White of John Paul II The lodger pauses, as he leaves, to gaze At blossoms in the border at the front— The blooms of roses, saintlike pink—appraise Them as a Monday man might dare confront Such sacredness, such pilgrim pink, and try To...

. Again Sir Charles Hallé plays Beethoven’s “Appassionata” Sonata for Henri–Montan Berton and Luigi Cherubini, Paris, ca. 1835 The two composers sat at rapt attention,listening to Beethoven’s “Appassionata,”and when Hallé had struck the final chord,a moment’s silence ended with “Again.”Hallé obliged, repeating the entiresonata while his listeners’ ears and minds    attended...

. Savannah Blossoms Blossoms dress the trees __On Southern parkways Where petals glow like silk __If skies are fair, And a busy stir of bees __Within the nectar Allows the hummingbirds __A rightful share. The blossoms do comply __With nature's calling As butterflies approach __In cautious dare, And the artists...

. The Lazarus Effect Until you’re raised, you’ve no idea how dead You were, how long you’d been beyond the scope Of human give and take; how poorly read You were in all the texts of simple hope. And yet somehow you bravely scuffled on, Your faith by grace just...

. Rending the Night Remembering My Army Service in Vietnam . Flying bullets rend the night, Sleeping birds in instant flight. See the darkness glowing bright. Sleeping soldiers wake in fright. Targets outlined on the screen, Infrared shows moving green, Men in motion flee the scene, Bombs devour those unseen,...

. Were She to Ask, and I Affirm Were she to ask, and I affirm That I'd still love her as a worm, I'd make it clear (because my dear Has Northern Cardinals to fear) The Robins and the Starlings Would die before my darling's Tears went down her little...

. Spanish Moss A thicket hides the remnants of a grange, An antebellum place of ghosts and rue--- A gothic ruin---tropical and strange Which even egrets shun. The faintest clue Of why is whispered when the trade wind moans Of shadowed secrets from this voiceless void Of cotton grown from...

. Memento Belli _My father had mementoes of the war; _he kept them in a box above his clothes, _where also hung a uniform he wore _when he was someone in that time ago _till trauma came, caused by the weight he bore from carnage, chaos, unrelenting noise and such—...

. The Plagiarising Poet A young lad sat in class—geography— Bored and in a peaceful reverie. The school bell blared, the teach showed indignation, “The bell does not free you!” she yelled in frustration. “You’ve homework that I need you to complete: Some verse on lands that host the parakeets;...

. On the Dine-and-Dash Phenomenon In restaurants, we dined but didn’t pay; we gourmandised, then upped and ran away. An appetiser, main course and dessert, we wolfed them down until our bellies hurt. The wife, the brats, yours truly, ate our fill and promptly legged it---no one paid the bill....

. Flamingo The S-curve of that sinuous neck,The stern black tip of that great bill,The blue eye with which we must reck-on like a gaudy monarch’s will. Not Disney’s giddy croquet bird,The one which lolls while Alice triesTo make it mind---a bird absurdUnder the Red Queen’s baleful eyes. Rather a...

. Just Like That No special words, no passionate embrace; No gazing, full of meanings, soul to soul. Just casual talk, not even face to face; Just mundane filling each of them their role. Perhaps they did touch base---a text, a call: “We’ll have the roast tonight. If you don’t...

. Four Letter Words My dad was smart, my dad was wise; He crossed his t’s and dotted i’s. His grammar skills were without taint. And he did not say y’all or ain’t. He taught an English class to teens (In a suit and never jeans). “Raise your hand, do...

. Ora Pro Nobis Pray for us. The dead die when we living let them die; We breathing clasp to hearts our breathless dead; We pack them fresh-embalmed on icy beds. In silent rooms they speak our names. They cry To us: “Remember me! Remember me!” Ah, Cissy, I remember...

. Reward for How You Live from Italo Calvino’s Italian folktale “Gesù e San Pietro in Friuli” One night, while traveling on a mountain road, two wanderers came upon a small abode. The vagrants, Jesus and Saint Peter, knocked. The house’s occupant then came, unlocked the door, and opened it...

. The Ghost Girl One sunny May, I ran to play, __When I was twelve years old, Upon the hill.  I miss her still— __A girl with curls of gold In ribbon ties, big sky-blue eyes, __And waving, dark-red dress Soon ran my way and asked to play— __How could...

. The Snare Drummer’s Plight The highlight of the evening is Bolero. The snare drummer begins the famous beat, the marrow of the land of the torero. The players, who have sprayed themselves with Deet, ignore the insects swarming in the light or lighting on the scores. The music’s bite...