Poetry

. Fungible Assets A pint’s a pound the world around. Now, lay your oars athwart the gunwales And let your aching muscles get some rest. Relieving strain on carpal tunnels, Your doctor says, is always for the best. What use, my friend, is all the rowing When final destinations are...

. Babylon (or Shelly's "Ozymandias" Paraphrased) . Oh Babylon, sweet Babylon, how long your skeleton has rotted in the sun— your name intoxicates like honeyed wine & makes me smell your incense in my mind & see your ziggurats & pleasure domes & zoos exotic creatures once called home, &...

. . Love Songs for Malcolm . I. Quickly you approach, King Malcolm, Firm and steady is your tread, Predetermined on defeating Faint reluctance in the greeting Made by one you mean to wed. . English words surprise me, Malcolm, Asking questions delicate; Comfort for us you’ve promoted, Courtly words...

. To Some Religious Brothers Beg! pray! or preach!  Or make one gravel-throated noise, Make murmur or a whimper or a single moan! Burble or belch or grunt!  The silence of your voice Unsettles souls and states, and your mute-mouth makes known Our pregnant insufficiency, our copious dearth. Our squally...

Classical Poets Live with Andrew Benson Brown Episode 8: Torquato Tasso, "King of Poets" If you enjoy this video, please like and subscribe on YouTube to support the production. . https://youtu.be/oOoeozJXUVU . . Andrew Benson Brown has had poems and reviews published in a few journals. His epic-in-progress, Legends of Liberty, will...

. What Do You Do When You No Longer Drink What do you do when you no longer drink, no tossing out the empties in a bag as one by one you hear that cautious clink then wipe end tables with a beer-soaked rag? Face reality? No, not right away....

. Assorted Sonic Salads (i.e., Kamalisms) being the first installment of a repository of wisdom from the Vice President of the United States of America. Edited by Jeff Kemper . Space! Exciting insight cited from a speech at the Vandenburg Space Force Base in Vandenburg, CA on 18 April 2022...

. Poetry A poem, subscribing to a plan, Flies higher than the highest planes, Seems safer than a rose-red tan, Or traffic in the fastest lanes, Where people die in random crashes. And yet how dangerous are words? Combined, their meaning soon surpasses A single, random act. Like birds, We...

. It Seems Like Only Yesterday Votes and virtue did not yield Control of our own border, And context did not supersede A breach of law and order. Most people thought the playing of Our anthem was the grandest, The media told what they saw, And weren’t just propagandists. Then...

. Sounds Like Paradise Kids are in the backyard playing; __The dog is playing too. I think that sounds like Paradise--- __Doesn’t it to you? Wife is in the kitchen humming, __Making pumpkin pies. Husband working on a project— __Sounds like Paradise. Christmas gifts under the fir tree; __Each with...

. Beware the Lion "Your adversary the devil prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour" ---1 Peter 5:8 Beware the lion! Stealthily he creeps By dark of night, or camouflaged by day In leafy veils. He stalks his fated prey With icy stare, then without warning, leaps,...

. Superior Pontiff for Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, deposed November 11, 2023 Our Father in heaven gives the Bread On which the need of souls is fed. With doctrine and devotion rife, I am he, the Bread of Life Now sin no more, but follow me, Not blinded...

. The Navy by Paul Fort (1872-1960) translated by Joshua C. Frank We find them all again in brief In little loves that last one day, Every joy and care and grief Of loves that shall forever stay— The sailor’s fate and our distress, And that of all our little...

. Glow Brave little candle, shining bright! You send out rays of hope all night. Within your heart you hold a flame, A yellow flame, with loving aim, A flame that banishes the dark, Dispels despair and lights a spark Of faith and hope in every heart. Ignites a love...

. London, 11-11-2023 As wreaths of poppies roar in rebel red Commemorating all our noiseless dead, The streets of London buzz with blatant hate Inflamed by fiends who have a lust to sate--- That ferrous gush splashed in the name of peace. Greed knows the jaws of war will never cease To shred the flesh of...

. The Soldier He started as a little boy from any small hometown. He loved to throw and hit a ball but never gained renown. His parents taught him right from wrong and how to do his best, So he grew up a normal way, not unlike all the rest....

. War Paths in honor of veterans I have known through the retelling of their stories. . “Any Man’s Death Diminishes Me” Preface “Be killed or killed! Be cursed or cursed!” __A lose-lose battle cry. For even if I kill him first __a part of me will die. And though...

. Returning Soldiers With hedgerows, fields and trees the soldiers of a forward trench have rested with unease, reduced beyond a carcase stench. Beneath a one-time, war-torn land they’ve lain---forgotten bones. A century plus has spanned since Frankish earth expunged their groans, flung up, with shrapnel fed, that nowadays rears...

. Carving Fingers "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." ---St. Paul Percy exhales with a scowl and he spits. In his hickory fingers, an obstinate block; in his critical snicker, a grin; on his table, a cup of the bitterest chicory left to go cold, but the...

. Until You Try "You’ll never know Until you try…" Make this mindset Your battle cry! Your first few steps, A paper route. Try out for sports. Doors all about! Reach out your hand, And make a friend, And when you fail, Make true amends. A summer job, A new...

. Free Press Our founding fathers fought the fight __to conquer tyranny. Once won, the Congress met to write __new laws to keep us free. They knew that governments all gained __voracious appetites. To keep that appetite restrained, __they passed the Bill of Rights. Of all our rights, the single...

. Israel: A Leftist's Guide Hamas atrocities? Don't say a word,To point them out would be an act of treason.A level playing field? Don't be absurd.Make sure your slogans take the place of reason. Remember: Israel's name is always mud.The Jewish state must always be to blame.When ayatollahs scream for...

. . “The moon hung low in the sky like a yellow skull.” ---Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray . The moon hung low in the sky like a yellow skull, A glowing goblin with a garish grin And pathos in its hollow-socket eyes, Like some abandoned, decomposing doll...

. Alfie’s Answer “What’s it all about, Alfie?” ---Hal David Not selfish pleasure, as I thought, but love For isolated pleasures quickly sour. Love feeds a hunger nothing else avails The power of love all others overpowers And love is needed in the giving too, For giving love gives more...

. The Stream of Love Like swollen streams in Spring, young love will roarThrough every obstacle that checks its flow,Though not so fast that winter cannot slowIts great vitality, ‘til frozen o’er;But even as the Spring returns once more,To melt away the coldest of the snow,So Time unthaws the tears...

. Treasure in Heaven "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal."  ---Matthew...

. Ecstasy and Me I’ve not, I fear, the spiritual thrust To quite propel myself to mystic heights; To taste the inconceivable delights That saints have savored, hallowed and nonplussed By drawing near to something so august The very soul with tender awe ignites And somewhere in the human heart...

. The Miasma Enshrouding Disneyland I came here as a fairytale-struck child; The tickets cost less than a week of pay And we would spend a carefree, joy-filled day. The park was clean; the rides were fun though mild: Space Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean. The Haunted Mansion where blithe...

. Ode to Old Tom Old Tom he stalks the English Dales, The Patron Saint of potent ales. He makes you wobble when you walk, He makes you gobble when you talk. He warps the function of your brain, The common-sense from you, he’ll drain. He makes you hang around...

. . Traitors on Ice: Canto XXXII of Inferno by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) translated by Stephen Binns . If I could summon up such raucous rasp __in rhymes as could apply to that sad sluice____Ninth Circle of Hell __where all the stones converge, and then could grasp my theme more...

. Beyond the Shadows  The light from above may be blinding And cause us to shelter our eyes, But promises God makes are binding, For laggards as well as the wise. At last we get used to the brightness, Descrying a path up ahead That leads to a place where uptightness...

. Paths —Inspired by “Is Mod Se Jaate Hain” (see below) by Gulzar from the film: Aandhi, 1975 Sheer multitudes of paths diverge from here— Some are jet setters, some meander slowly— Which one among these paths should I draw near? Promising fame and fortune, some paths steer Me towards...

. Two Ekphrastic Poems . The Light of the World, Holman Hunt As predawn darkness shrouds the land, With warm-lit lantern in his hand The risen Jesus stands before A rusted, weed-choked, shuttered door And knocks, and waits, in hope that he— Before the night has passed—might be Invited in...

. Icarus Sings I’ve tempted fate, And sought the sun, I’m Icarus, I’ve come undone. My wings have failed, For what it’s worth, My long descent, Shall end on earth. I tempted fate, I, fate did shun, I’m Icarus, The fallen one. I tempted fate, I sought the light, But...

. Poet Paul A. Freeman challenges you to write a nursery rhyme in the style of the Mother Goose classic "Jack and Jill." Below is his model example. Post yours in the comments below. . Nigel Neath Nigel Neath lost all his teeth Through eating too much candy; He threw...

. Child's Laughter It bubbles forth from deep inside his soul; Joy twinkles brightly through his youthful eyes, For any pain he knows, his laugh defies: This shattered world has briefly been made whole. It rings out clearer than choir bells toll, And sings God’s promise out to hopeless lives....

. To Dance with Death I caught the fierce gaze of the trickster, Death. He charred bleak Aztec ruins with his breath And shadowed me through pueblo, plaza, palace, With knife in hand---a Mexican Macbeth. The pyramids perspired with his malice. An apparition with a straw hat crowned, Death stalked...

. All Saints' Day by Gabrielle de Coignard (c.1550–1586), translated by Margaret Coats O Saints, you have your heritage in hand Because you battled Satan’s sanctimony! Though burned or tortured, you gave testimony; A thousand torments tore your valiant band. Arrived in port, you see the whirlwinds fanned Around our...

. The Legend of Ole Stingy Jack Do you recall Ole Stingy Jack?Whose tricks cost him a great set back?They say he tricked the Devil twice,But when he died he paid the price. At first denied the pearly gateAnd left to wander shadows late.The Devil did show some remorse,And gave an...

. Word Witch She’ll tease and tempt with mystic words, __This foxy sorceress. Her syntax soars like sun-bound birds--- __This wizard poetess Casts slick linguistic spells that sing __Of Cupid’s carnal kiss. Her saucy muse is sure to bring A red, red rose and diamond ring, __But cannot conjure bliss. She’ll thrill and spill the sweetest sea __Of honey...