Poetry

. The Street Cop's Choice Thanks for coming home to help me choose. I know my kids will always have my back. Today was rough. By now you’ve seen the News--- Such blatant lies! They’ve tied me to the rack. And we still have to see if this guy sues....

. Tribute to a Poet for Leonard Dabydeen, an SCP poet who passed away on March 16, 2022. Read Leonard Dabydeen's poetry here. I gaze for long at star-filled skies __To feel the crumbling fears; I see the world through human eyes __To feel the wrath of tears. I come...

. Love Letter to a Spoon How fine thou art my silver spoon. Your neck as graceful as a swan. Your hips full as the harvest moon. Thy manner gentle as a fawn. Bright curls of finespun filigree Like rays of sun doth frame thy face. How splendid to my...

. Dueling Violins Yanni, Karen Briggs and Shardad Rohani live at the Acropolis in 1993 Anticipating each half-note he brings to life, her fingers stretch to find the grooves. Perfection springs, as sound is bounced from strings, then quickly as Baryshnikov, she moves. His chords a hurried sequence, devil's notes, seduce...

. Slàinte! Today we’ll lift the Lenten limitations And don our Gaelic garb of kelly green. Bonhomie and glee and lush libations Will flow at dawn and dusk and in between. We’ll pluck a harp and pick a lucky shamrock, Kiss the Blarney Stone and spin a yarn, Eat colcannon, steaming stew, and...

. Happy St. Patrick's Day! Share your St. Patrick's Day Poetry in the comments section below. While writing and posting, enjoy an Irish medley of songs, “Chief O Neil’s” followed by “The Red-Haired boy," performed by Jeff Eardley. Also enjoy the image above suggested by Roy E. Peterson. Thank you,...

. Heights of Passion Passion flowers white and purple Bloom where tendrils curl and cling To the overhanging myrtle Sheltering my garden swing. Scents befitting distant tropics Catch the senses unaware, Lingering like sweet narcotics For the swinger, high on air. Rise and fall like waves on ocean Moves the...

. Berenice for my mother, Berenice Stone Cook Indebted to a simple spark of life, You missed your chance at Europe’s wondrous door. A conscientious mother and a wife, You danced your dance upon an inland shore. Your simple fabrics catch my memory. Aprons and cotton stockings made a trail...

. On Sighting a Marsupial "Serve with: Turnip greens" —Joy of Cooking Opossums are so ugly that it isn’t clear Another of their kind would find one good to look At.  Matted fur and hairless tails do not endear Them to Americans.  According to a book I read, their closest...

. Two Poems for White Day On White Day, March 14, men in Japan present white gifts to women, in return for the chocolates they receive from women on Valentine’s Day. White Day began in 1978 as a commercial venture to sell more candy and flowers. It is now observed...

. Time Is of the Essence The powers that be in their ivory tower, Make important decisions for sure, While the rest of us mortals surrender our power, We conform… we adapt… we endure. I refer to the wisest decision of all, Introduced by our leaders so bold, Affecting each...

. A White Knight a triolet With fires of hope and spirit bright, who will stand up for what is just thence set our country all alight with fires of hope and spirit bright? A hero true, a great white knight a person worthy of our trust with fires of...

. A North Indian Summer They ask of me to write a sonnet fine In praise of Summer and her pretty dress, But I hail from a place of different clime Where Summer’s heat knows best how to oppress. She raises up the dust from Rajasthan And like a warrior...

. The Arch of Titus The Arch of Titus was constructed in 81 AD by the Emperor Domitian to commemorate the victory of Titus and Vespasian, over the Jewish rebellion in Judea. The arch depicts the triumphal procession celebrated in 71 AD after the Roman victory culminating in the fall...

. "I Heard Chapman Speak Out Loud and Bold" by Margaret Coats My title quotes “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer,” a sonnet by John Keats. When Keats first read Homer, the voice he heard was not Homer’s, but that of English translator George Chapman. Verse translations are original poems;...

. Captured As Herbert writes in Love-joy there’s a view of grapes upon a vine.  But mine is this- the perfect blooms of summer that renew by our Creator’s hand.  Each one its own as you or I beneath a Heaven’s bliss. As over all of this, a warmth has...

. Hermes, The Artisan Hermes, son and messenger of Jove, Surveyed the coast, where often he would rove, And found a tortoise beached upon a cove. He took it home and made a turtle soup— The shell, he thought, was like a giant scoop; And then, inspired, he cried a...

. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaAv09XqwAY . Young Strongbow anonymous American ballad (Words in parentheses are alternate lyrics suggested by other extant versions of the song.) To Dartmouth’s scientific hall __In olden times there came A sprightly Red Boy from the woods, __And Strongbow was his name. Much had he heard of Dartmouth’s skill,...

. Prudence Huntleigh, Head Librarian theme of “the proverbial uptight librarian” suggested by Brian Yapko She mans the front desk and she oversees All borrowings, returns, and two-cent fines. A tailored tweed suit (hems just at the knees) Is proper for her trim and shapely lines. Her horn-rimmed glasses sit...

. Yet Another Exhibition Opening "Art is the pleasure of a spirit that enters nature and discovers that it too has a soul." ---Auguste Rodin Although this bourgeois slum is flush with cash, No decent man could ever make the rent; So Thursday nights the galleries present The latest styles...

. Ex Nihilo Is a Joke “. . .it starts with an empty universe” ---Stephen Fry, Cosmos, vii An empty universe is paradox. In such a boundless space there’d be no time. Among all other blanks there’d be no clocks. Eternity could not produce a chime. This space would be...

. Justification He smashed the windows, grabbed the wares, With rage against society That made him free of any cares Or thoughts of impropriety. He stole until his pockets filled The chance of apprehension slim. But near his home was robbed and killed By someone angry just like him. ....

. Seeing the Light by Susan Jarvis Bryant . I. Peace Be with You… a pantoum   “Peace is possible, truth at all costs.” ---Martin Luther  The churchyard cat is terrified The belfry bats are numb with fear The oaken door creaks open wide The luckless flock is drawing near The...

. Little to Regret When Time has stilled my body __Think of me now and then, Asleep beneath the wattle, __Which flowers yet again. And as the summer follows __With rays I cannot see, Let the warmth embrace you— __My passion cannot be! And when your time approaches __(In many...

. Introduction Today, the communist government of China, the world’s largest nation, is attacking the basic freedom of thought and belief that have been a cornerstone of human civilization throughout history. As China’s influence continues to expand to everywhere from the NBA to organ transplantations to hi-tech products in our...

. Pergola My vines entwined around your posts and beams of weathered wood the sun had silvered gray. My trunk extends its arms, your trellis teems with viridescent leaves throughout the day. The hungry children broke your lower rail. They stood upon it, grasping grapes that hung beyond their reach....

. Memento, Homo… "There is no architecture in New Orleans, except in the cemeteries." —Mark Twain If we should go to New Orleans We’ll see our share of raucous scenes At Mardi Gras soirees and balls With kings and queens in grandiose halls. We’ll see the floats sail down Saint...

. The Poem that Built a Nation: Finland and the Kalevala by Adam Sedia Nowhere perhaps is the power of poetry more apparent than in its ability to unite a culture---literally to build a nation. Homer’s epics forged a bond of cultural unity between the various city-states of the Greek...

. Trudeau’s Canada Jab them all, Big and small. Small are buffer And must suffer. No opinions, Little minions. Cover traces Of their faces, With a mask, Do not ask. Issue orders Across borders. What the Hell, Some rebel. They call you clown, Just double-down. Drop the hammer, Use the...

. Beneath the Tide The tidal basin ebbs and flows each dayAs if it were a sentient, breathing thing—A pas de deux, a moon-dance interplay—As time and space, in silence, sway and swing. As like a fraying tapestry unweavesThe sea withdraws to show its stone-strewn floor;With empty clamshells lying thick...

. Salieri on Mozart More wine, Signore... Should I say mein Herr? I know! French cognac. Spirits help me share Dark thoughts. Now listen. I take one full year To pen these operas Kaiser Josef lauds; Then you compose a piece in half a season--- Vienna, Prague, all history applauds...

. Many poets have been sending in poetry on Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Post your poetry directly below. . . . .

. Spring The Spring is coming and each day Earlier falls dawn’s curtain grey Before the star-enchanted world Where, in each other’s limbs fast curled, As Venus, our directrix, bade, In many acts our masque we played, Then, in a night-long revelry, Entranced I slept and dreamt of thee. But...

. From the Tower by Francisco de Quevedo (1580-1645) | translated from Spanish by Elwin Wirkala Retired to these deserts and at peace, and with but few, though learnèd, books beside, I live conversing now with the deceased, and listen with my eyes to those who died. Open, whether or not...

. Poem Introduction Lewis Carroll (who lived 1832-1898 and was born Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) was a master at humorous wordplay and making the illogical logical. His accomplishments as an English writer of children’s fantasy fiction are highlighted by his works, Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. “Because He...

.   The Pear Pit I fell into a pear pitupon a summer’s day.I fell into a pear pitand whiled the time away. How sad will be the hunter,as sad as he can be,finding not a pitted pearbut finding only me. . . Leland James is the author of five...

. Come Winter, Come Come Winter, come. Lay this body down to rest. A squalling wind is blowing, north by northwest; __And every tree a bower __In Nature’s darkest hour, __And every creature deep __In hibernation sleep; And how I yearn for peaceful, calm repose! So come, Dear season, cover...

. Unsettled written upon reading of the CDC refusing to publish data on booster effectiveness I’m niggled and nettled. The science is settled __Yet fails to make sense or equate. My mind is left addled when medicine peddled __And pushed is not up for debate. I crave clear conclusions not...

. When words are sharp, and clash like iron blades, I swallow swords. I grimace, turn away. You fear I wield a shield, that love will fade, That wordless I our promises betray. Yet iron sharpens iron, I have heard, And so I breathe and write and learn to speak....

. A Working Man and Wife “…aware of the humanity on the other side of the door.” ---Criselda Vasquez They stand before some distant trees, on pavement, amber, gray,a three-door cargo van, a drab-red Astro Chevrolet,together, working man and wife, he with his upheld hoe,she with red bucket and her cleaners,...