Poetry

. Runway Ready An Anorectic at a Playground . Scrawny, lean and teen Miss Annie sat upon her bony fanny, straddled ‘cross a teeter-totter, filling up on Fibre Water. From above, bungeed a spider, claimed the empty seat as rider, launching Ann like some machine, Plop! Splat! onto a trampoline. When she...

. Distant Thoughts from Nearby I need to turn my dog-ears up __and harken to the quietude ____ignored for many years, __and contemplate my solitude, ____expressing through my tears Incautious songs that made me up. My oldest friends will never know __the thrall of certain moods I wear, ____the many...

. The House on 58th Street for my father Salvatore J. Salemi (1913-2008) The house on 58th Street stood right by A cemetery—Calvary by name. Looking out our windows we could see A high stone wall, hand-fashioned of huge rocks (And to a child’s mind only giants could Have raised...

. The Test The second is like it, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' —Jesus (Matthew 22:39, NASB1995) Is every trial just a self-created test? Perhaps we do not grow until we have been stressed. How do we pass the test, so that we may be blessed? Perhaps we...

. The Number 207: The Road to Nowhere Oh once along the Road to Nowhere That used to be the Uxbridge Road You’d board and pay the tuppenny bus fare And go where milk and honey flowed. For this was then a demi-Eden Where gentlefolk would take their ease. With...

. Anesthesia Where was I for that half an hour or so While somewhere deep inside me they explored? The body’s secrets mine so far outsoared, I’d been sent off someplace I didn’t know. And “sleep” they called it yet somehow a sleep Without the possibility of dream; A waking...

. Fracture Mechanics Dams, bridges, tunnels, buildings and the like Are often structurally sound for years If not centuries, whereupon men’s fears Creep up on them abruptly in a spike In degradation followed by collapse. When asked how he went bankrupt, Hemingway Said “gradually, then suddenly” (the way, It seems,...

. Emptiness I search for you in every face I see. True love should last forever and a day: Its book not closed until all chapters end. You walked into my life then walked away: There is no laughter left that I can hear. Each endless night will never become...

. The Moselle Tranquil meandering alluvion, From Vosges pink sandstone hills it percolates In rillets past rich vines in echelon To cradle villages of varied traits. Saint Castor limns a linear regime, Both slender arms extended fatherlike; The fields behind rise steeply from the stream. New homes? At either end...

. Fifth Glyph This glyph, in British talk, occurs most oft--- most common, too, writ down within our books. Twixt ‘a’ and ‘z’ it’s fifth, not sat aloft but low and unassuming in its looks. An ‘o’ ajar, in small form, with a rod slid inwards at a horizontal slant; this symbol...

. Sonnet When sitting on a swing my cheeks were chilled, I gazed and saw the dawn, a new spring day. I knew those colors soon would fade away, But for a moment, time had slowed and stilled. The sky was cloudless, clear, and it was filled With purples, reds,...

. Commodore Perry Opens Japan On July 8, 1853, on the orders of President Millard Fillmore, Commodore Matthew Perry led four American ships into the harbor at Tokyo Bay, seeking to pierce Japan’s isolation from the western world and establish regular trade and discourse for the first time in over...

. Lord, Give Me Serenity Lord, give me serenity To deal with lunatics, Especially the ones Who are found in politics. Help me to stay calm, And keep me honor bound, But take them to perdition Wherever they are found. Please give me the courage To stay in self-control; Although,...

. Classical Poets Live with Andrew Benson Brown Episode 4: Poetry in the Age of AI If you enjoy this video, please like and subscribe on YouTube to support the production. . https://youtu.be/WKQD9jfHpsk . .

. All That’s Left Is Yours based on I Kissed Dating Goodbye by Joshua Harris The bride walked the aisle to her husband-to-be, __Who gently took hold of her hand. They started their vows, all to hear and to see, __When a woman there started to stand. She boldly but...

. Beyond the Visible Veil Gravity cannot hold those forms who float __And drift—hiding in air— Though some guard human souls; the others gloat __And sow their bait on snares. These spirit shapes wage constant war unseen. __Shadowy ones stalk near— Whether in daylight bright or moonlight sheen, __Their sly...

. The 10 Best Love Poems of 2022 If you are more of an academic poetry lover who stills enjoy Shakespeare’s love sonnets now and again, then the list for you of the 10 Greatest Love Poems Ever Written is recommended. But, if you find the language of the Renaissance half a...

. Xanadu Revisited after "Kubla Khan" by Samuel Coleridge __In Washington aristocrats __ordain corruption happily: __here the Potomac River flows __past million dollar homes in rows, ____no common man you’ll see. __Declared a district not a state __where crooks decide our nation's fate in fancy restaurants where they all dine...

. How Strange We Cannot See a Reflection on Indian Boarding Schools and the Continuing Subjugation of Native Peoples God gave the land: the water, earth, and sky. And though we take it all away and try To “Kill the Indian and save the man”— While through our scheming lies...

. Half the Night a villanelle My stomach isn’t working right. Bubbles, gurgles, twinges and sighs Kept me up for half the night. I’ve got hives too, quite a sight— Neck, belly, all over my thighs. My skin just isn’t working right. Aching and stiffness are my plight; Take my...

. The Revised Guide to Selling Adult Beverages  Dismiss the woke approach to advertising--- It’s mad and bad and far from enterprising. Avoid loud, lipsticked lads in soapsud scenes In full and frothy flounce on TV screens. This rainbow-lemming, cliff-top leap to ruin Has bubbled up in Budweiser’s undoing. Ensure...

. The “Muse” A sailboat, small, unvarnished wood, her sail a swath, a patch, of red fastened by type-9 yo-yo string to a pencil mast and a stick of boom; a sailboat, small, unvarnished wood atop a bookcase, moored abreast an amphora vase wanting Greek wine, sprouting a wilting bouquet...

. Gnome A long-time fixture at our home Is Schnozz, our little garden gnome. This non-complaining happy chap Appears to have a handicap, And looks to me, I must confess, A poor neglected, grubby mess. His hollow body, cheaply cast, Sadly wasn’t made to last. Beaten down by wind and...

. Life and Death This life has so much left in store, We think, a day gone by isn't lost; It's made of hours that bear no cost, A hundred gone, a thousand more While each tomorrow brings its weight, A list of things to be achieved, The joys embraced and...

. Quattrocento On the Fresco “Madonna del Parto” by Piero della Francesca, Monterchi, Italy, circa 1460 We file into a silent darkened room. Now, a stagelight floods the wall to show bright colors of a rediscovered fresco. Our eyes adapt to preternatural gloom. Twin angels grasp a fur-lined tent, reveal...

. An Aging Senator Returns to the Capitol Confused and more than half-way gone to Hell, They wheel her in like some decrepit couch They found beside the road. What ebon spell Or awful drug could fortify that slouch And stir those lips to slur some spoon-fed lines? Perhaps corruption...

. Congratulations to SCP Poet Monika Cooper who took First Place in the 2023 Annual Sacred Poetry Contest held by Catholic Literary Arts. See details here: https://www.catholicliteraryarts.org/2023-poetry There will be "a virtual Celebration of Winners and Finalists," on Tuesday June 6 at 7 p.m. CST (that's 8 p.m. EST) including...

. Creation From deep within eternity, the soundOf song burst out! As Perfect Fullness stirred,A melody in wisdom wrought, profound,Complex in form and powerful in wordReverberated… undulated… surged!Celestial sleeves rolled up; the work could start.Then the opaque, void emptiness emerged,As the Almighty Mover set apartA space where being meets with time....

. Emptiness “There’s emptiness and then there’s emptiness,” the wise old voice inside me sighing said (and maybe not so wise as old, I’d guess): the emptiness that sits like something dead and leaden just behind your heart and bred there by a life too silly and too sad and...

. Come September a pantoum Ohio State’s your home come September, Though we'll be lonely, stuck as empty nesters. Our home will be without its central member, When college life will beckon each semester. Though we'll be lonely, stuck as empty nesters, We'll always cherish memories of you as a...

. Contract Murder No one is ever quite sure how it’s planned— What’s clear is that a grievance is expressed By injured parties, who directly make Complaints to the Commission, which in turn Investigates, considers, and decides. There are some instances where no one brings Specific charges—bad blood or distrust...

. The Number 165: Emily Hyatt A Cautionary Tale . Now this is a story that all those should heed Who think the sole gustatory pitfall is greed. For hear now what happened to Emily Hyatt Whose pleasure by contrast was only to diet. Miss Em of South Hornchurch was...

. Note to a Sloppy Homeowner in response to C.B. Anderson's “Know How to Mow” Increasing rates are musts for folks like you. “Annoyance tax.” I mowed your lawn last time. I chose the route and sent away the crew— (They’re Mexican). The scheme was by design. As we all...

. To Music Oh, Music, wherein lies your wondrous power To pierce the barren heart and open wide Joy's floodgate in the soul, that from inside Fresh streams may flow that make the desert flower? By what strange force do your strains overwhelm The soul beneath great cataracts that surge...

. Target Gets Targeted A leftist agenda endorsed,Down customers’ throats it was forced.They now find their business is blighted,You could say that they’ve been “Bud Lighted.” . . Newspapers Newspaper costs had tripled.The boss said “read online.”To keep the peace I tried it.It didn't turn out fine. I like to check...

. We Must Invest in Self-Investigation __If past mistakes were soft cupcakes ____to scoff at and reject and so avoid the drill of mending toothaches, __If all the try-out greeds of youth ____were but a crumb of sugar to be brushed off from behind a tooth, __If all our fails...

. When Two Elephants Fight---Sudan, 2023 The regular army and the Rapid Support Force (RSF) are at war with each other in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, Dharfur, and other places, and civilians are paying the price. There’s a saying in Africa: ‘When two elephants fight, it’s the grass that...

. Elegy "Beauty can pierce one like a pain." —Thomas Mann, Buddenbrooks When Mother died, she left me all her books. Bewitched by words, how much she loved to read. And chief among her loves was Buddenbrooks. Its blues and yellows deeply sowed their seed. When she read Mann, his...

. Classical Poets Live with Andrew Benson Brown Episode 3: Embrace the Epic, Not the Opaque If you enjoy this video, please like and subscribe on YouTube to support the production. . Podcast on Spotify: https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/PW0LljpabAb Podcast on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/classical-poets-live/id1685283102 . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMBAsu3BkqA . .

. Gaslighted Our friendship limped along for thirty years. I can’t say why. The scornful views you’d share Instilled resentment, anger, even tears. Your condescending words. Your cutting glare. “Why can’t conservatives just come to grips With facts? You stooges of the Right are cruel; Your policies will bring Apocalypse....