Poetry

. Gossip “There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, that it hardly becomes any of us to talk about the rest of us.” ---Edward Wallis Hoch Its spice, its ire, its hot desire __Will lure the listeners in...

. Evolution I can’t run fast or jump high anymore. Mistakes I make I never made before. Some maladies and aches don’t have a cure, Alertness and reflexes are less sure. My memory is challenged on most days, It’s easier to get stuck in old ways. But some emotions long...

. Homeric Hot or Not (Hotness Ratings Out of 10) . 10 By birth divine and radiantly tressed And beautiful and of a charm possessed That turns men into pigs if she’s inclined, A better girl than Circe none can find, 10 While of the boys, for clever, handsome, strong...

. Before Going to Sleep as a Boy I saw Him when I closed my eyes, Gazing down sidelong, seeing all, Serenely, stoically wise. I knew that judgement was to fall But found His habit was to look Past me—a boy’s vain hope, as He Was of his conjuring? I...

. Ruben “We have words that speak of the ongoing presence of such privations: orphan, widow, widower. And perhaps the fact that we have no word for the parent who has lost a child is itself a testimony to the unspeakable abiding horror and pain of such a circumstance.” ---Carl...

. Civics 101 Jejune excuses used too many times Do not undo the doer from the deed: A miscreant accused of many crimes Is not the type of model children need. A partisan devoted to a cause Who votes his party, never mind the man, Should not complain when his...

. Of When I Lived in Prague--- I wander through a maze of gold and stone, Mosaic pavement watched by gilded faces; Bridges, towers etched with cryptic traces Of bygone kings that haunt a bygone throne. I wandered through that city all alone, Aimless through its trove of secret places,...

. Eulogy for a Them We gather here to celebrate a him Or her (an it? a they?) and in the end A prophet of the present who could bend Reality to suit their loosest whim. For whatsoever they had been or might Have been, they were their own priority;...

. Screened. I. The Phony Mom a true story Her phone, in hand above the stroller, Blocked her baby from her view. She held it like a game controller, Adoring every pixel’s hue As mothers not so long ago Adored their babies just for being. What more could phony glow...

. Peach Blossom Dreaming Peach blossoms furnish inwrought dreaming room Intangible to fingertips corrupt; __Substantially beyond each tapered petal’s plume Flow fragrances to subtly interrupt The wintry retrospectives of my gloom. On water shields and Long Jing tea we supped, But now beneath peach buds you prate of wine __Poured...

. Spring Shower How beautiful the rain– The cool and cleansing rain! I watch as tiny rivulets Run down my window pane And countless glad and golden drops Renew the earth again. How tender is the rain! With what maternal grace It nourishes the passive earth And wipes its soiled...

. Born in a Wuhan Lab Newsflash: U.S. Energy Department says it was probably a lab leak. Those men in suits and labcoats thought it worth The lives of millions from their ivory tower To falsify the truth about my birth Lest China lose its influence and power. The masks,...

. ABOUT THE CONTEST Many poets who have been published by the Society of Classical Poets have had their poems linked to, and therefore promoted, by the news aggregator Whatfinger over the years. The people who put this grass-roots site together are genuinely interested in truth and justice despite being...

. The Piano Student Glissandos flow like rivers from the keys, One by one, you slide with practiced skill And let us hear some hidden melodies, Delighting in these notes that lift and thrill. When you play Bach or other masterpieces, Interpreting in ways that give a new Shape to...

. Delmon’s Progeny Delmon, also known as Dilmun, is a Semitic culture connected to Mesopotamia that flourished in the 2nd millennium B.C.  Beneath the torrid coastal sun tenacious men these waters rode. They ferry pearls from port to port; each City sings its special ode. Some sing of spice, some sing...

. Bite Your Tongue If you should feel the sudden urge __To put forth your opinions, Letting sundry thoughts diverge __To influence the minions. Just take a moment to reflect __On whether to opine, Or shut-up and inject __Another soothing anodyne. If you should find yourself about __To state your...

. Winter Hyphenation Knit cap above, two squinting eyes below Face frozen fresh-fall snowfall, white as snow. Constricted pupils dim the sight and fight Against the blinding sunrise-lumined light. An ice-chill world where exhaled, hot breath steams And wreathes a winter wonderland of dreams Where muffled footfalls squeaky-clean impress Compressive tracks...

. A Woman’s Right Eli Hart's story was highlighted by the Daily Wire here. Come hear of little Eli Hart— His father fought the “family court,” Misnamed misandrists lacking heart. His mind-sick mother got support From "child welfare" workers, who, __Despite his father’s wishes To raise his son himself, just...

. On Hate God hates the evildoer and I can do no less. He gave us ten commandments for evil to assess. He helped identify them—the evil and the bad— And then he brought destruction with every power he had. Sodom and Gomorrah were suffering in sin. God said to...

. Moon Garden Party It’s small and all reserved For plants that love full sun, Edges distinct though curved Refine how moments run Through dainty daisy days Succeeded when they’re done By crazed azaleas’ blaze. The details glow at closer range: Kaleidoscopic shape, spread, height Delight the guests whose interchange...

. Aristotle Abridged* And so we ponder virtue and vice. __We seek the mean, not the extreme. Perplexed, I ask for wise advice: __Why does not vice ever suffice? Excess—restraint—both have a price. __So hard to find the Good between. Quench the fire—thaw out the ice. __How shall I choose?...

. Willy Wonky on the revision of Roald Dahl’s works  The whacky wokester clowns employed at Puffin Are wrecking classics with exciting stuff in. They’re ditching all the derring-do and dark (The spunk and spark and funk and quirk and snark) For noggin-numbing, glum and humdrum dross That doesn’t make despotic critics cross. They’re swapping all that’s riveting and peachy For joyless crap that’s sappy, flat and preachy: Chocolate factories free from nuts and dairy, Aunties that aren’t spongy-spiky scary, Oompa Loompas tolerant and tall, No one ugly, beastly, fat or small. Next will be the...

. The Reagan with apologies to Edgar Allan Poe Once upon a long and weary voting day with chances dreary for a quaint and curious choice, a nominee we all adore; while I gauged the sense of voting, suddenly I heard some gloating as of someone sugarcoating memories of years...

. The Emerald Queen A Legend from the Future . Part I. Have you heard the old tale of the Emerald Queen? ‘Twas a long time ago when folks would demean Us humans as animals—nothing else more!— Evolved from bacteria found on the floor. They forgot the Creator had made...

. Through the Eyes of Angels Look down upon the Earth as angels might! See seas as insignificant as ponds, Each desert a mere sandbox. From this height Vast forests are a park, the sun a bronze And distant torch! The mountains are like toys Built up from pebbles, rocky...

. Reckoning Will darkness drop again so we may know The thrill and chill of winter blowing, storming, And will we feel death's icy undertow As husks of hell begin their frantic swarming? Will manna rot or will it fall unleavened When Hades' depths start rumbling and yawning? When skies...

. In a School of Transformation I fix a mildly-optimistic smile upon my face, which until lately bore a tortured hue whilst in a pool of bile and piss I lay---upon a prison floor. I sing a lusty, patriotic song about our leader watching from the wall; aloofness from my...

. Officium Defunctorum Spiritus meus attenuabitur, dies mei breviabuntur, et solum mihi superest sepulcrum. —Job 17:1 There is no need for first or final vow; Our cities all are monasteries now, And every squalid garret is a cell Where oblates reach for heaven out of hell. There is no light,...

. La Sirena At some point they ceased to be beautiful. Even their voices. Bare breasts, bare arms, screams Savage as acid swamped the scholar-priest His reasoned teaching fading from his lips. Bare breasts, bare arms, black stripes across their eyes. The cover granted to anonymous hate. That doesn’t make...

. Troll   "Be like seeds; do not see dirt thrown at you as your enemy, but as ground to grow." ---Matshona Dhliwayo A witch! A witch! Let’s hush the wicked witch!     His spleen slid through the ether like a snake. He hissed his pissy, pietistic pitch. This carper had a vicious thirst to...

. The Times Madness clamours all around me, Brute unreason fouls the air, Rampant passion would confound me— Invitations to despair. Phantoms disperse! For reason’s terse And ancient sway Will have its say, With evidence And common sense For all to judge, That noise and grudge, Through forms well-grounded, Be...

. And Every Dog His Day There’s no such thing as dog-years.  You were fooled By sentimental nincompoops who don’t Know how to count correctly, twits unschooled In logic or in basic facts who won’t Admit that they are misinformed:  A year’s A year, no more, for any creature caught...

. So Much Depends upon a Dog So much depends upon a dog The earth revolves around the sun. Each day revolves around our jog— unclip your harness, watch you run, and sniff where other dogs have wet. So much depends upon a dog. Across the sky, the tempests jet...

. Snowflakes Now soft and white the snowflake clusters fall. The wind picks up and blusters. Millions drift Like powdered sugar shaken by a baker’s sift, All the same to the naked eye. A fractal, However, proves that’s not the case. Each flake Was once a microscopic hexagon Of radial...

. Poetic Influence true stories I His baby girl with Mom at home, The work bus carted him away. His mother emailed him a poem (Which he would read on break that day) About another doting dad, Who saw his baby daughter’s ear Of seashell shape and knew God had...

. The Chinese Spy Balloon From that balloon botch I’m most wondering, Why Biden stalled to shoot it from the sky. Was it more fecklessness and blundering, Or might some hidden issue underlie? Did hearing it arrived illegally, Make Joe think the balloon was just a boat, With cargo hoped-for...

. Modernism and the Murder of the People’s Poetry and Art In Response to “Poetry Died 100 Years Ago this Month” by Matthew Walther in the New York Times . by Phillip Whidden First, let’s have a sonnet about the difficulty imposed by Modernism as regards literature: . A Sonnet about...

. Dante Meets Paolo and Francesca: Canto V of Inferno by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) translated by Stephen Binns And so from that first circle I went down __into the second, where there is less space __and much more grief, and toward a distant moan. There Minos grinds the teeth within...

. An Appeal I want to be a fiber on your loom, A constant fixture in your living room, A luscious morsel that you save for last. It's time for us to build a solid past, If only to secure a firm foundation Where we can play it loose and...

. Ageless Not in the golden mists of memory Nor in the colder mists of future years Shall I find love as true as yours for me--- A love so fair it banishes all fears. Your eyes, like sunlight, ever faithful gaze On all we’ve built and are. No clouds...