Poetry

. Abortion “My body, my choice” All her life that seemed best, And especially where There was rape or incest....

. Missed Call O Muse, would you call back another time? My little boy, armed with a sharpened stick, winged...

The Best Poems of 2021: Winners of the 10th Annual International SCP Poetry Competition JudgesJoseph S. SalemiJames SaleEvan Mantyk Past...

. First Place ($200 Prize) Alex Rubstein, 12th grade, homeschooled, Canton Aargau, Switzerland "Civis Romanus Sum" . Second Place Ellie...

. Judges Margaret Coats Evan Mantyk . First Place ($100) Talbot Hook, Connecticut "Mourning the Dead" by Li Qingzhao; "Bamboo-Grove...

. Plum Blossom Blessings The pine, bamboo, and plum are winter’s friends, Yet plum trees bloom to overcome the chill...

. Starbucks Villanelle Will someone call an order for Elaine? I have a bunch of stuff I need to do....

. The 10 Best Love Poems of 2021 What makes a great love poem? Love is such an emotionally charged...

. The Blood of Revolution  The blood of revolution fills my veins; Of those who fought to sever tyrant’s chains,...

. Tel Shikmona Mosaics here surprise: you wouldn’t know, tramping on thistles, dry late-summer stubble and tripping over rubble, stumbling,...

. My Mother’s Eyes We took a ride into the countryside to search for bluebells but we first saw phlox....

. Sir Percival A quiet desperation lives within my soul: to find the Holy Cup, the Grail; to touch something...

. Solitude by Wilhelm Müller (1794-1827) translated from German by Joseph David Greene As when a cloud is darkened And...

. Never Again Never again, beneath the sun Would mortal beings come undone. A pledge arose and soared on high---...

. Bach in Heidelberg for Marjorie Bach’s chorus didn’t leave us much to say After the Easter Monday concert in...

. You Are Too Far from Me Send me your love for I’ve nothing to write,And my words are vacant...

. The Attempt to Curse J.K. Rowling Once upon a time the stars aligned To strike a writer bound for...

. The Demons of the Night All since she left me I have lived in fear Of creatures dwelling in...

. The Two Corteges by Joséphin Soulary (1815-1891) | translated from French by Hadyn Adams Within a church two groups...

. On the Cost of Doing Evil I care not if the sky burns red and human flesh is seared....

. Toasting Burns    His words ring out from windswept glens. __They lilt from lapping lochs. I see love through his red-rose lens; __I...

. Dystopia Reality is never what it seems To be.  It hides itself in shrouds of mist, In bulging envelopes...

. Mourning the Dead by Li Qingzhao, Southern Song (1084-1155) | from Chinese by Talbot Hook Above in the heavens...

. The High Cost of Low Prices Poetry is what I treasure. Books of poems give me pleasure, but my...

. The Joys of Spring a pantoum It’s here—sweet long-awaited spring. New blooms smell lovely; skies are blue. The trilling...

. Disambiguation As in the dawn the nature of the beams Of light invading chambers---how they glint, Conceal with shade,...

. To Tchaikovsky by A.N. Apukhtin (1840-1893) | Translated from Russian by Olga Dumer With my musician friend’s departure A...

. The English Cantos: StairWell Canto 4 Leaving a broken relationship of the past behind in Canto 3, the poet...

. Rescuing Contemporary Poetry from Vers Libre The conservative & informal vs. the free Before addressing my thesis, let me...

. The Heroes of Beijing on the Jan. 21 movie premiere of Unsilenced, just days before the Beijing Winter Olympics...

. Apocalypse The fractured sky splits, flaming at the edge— The earth heaves upwards in explosive wrath. No eye can...

. To Sleep, to Sleep by Friedrich Hebbel | translated from German by Sean Thompson To sleep, to sleep and...

. Self-Exile "Parue—nec inuideo—sine me, liber, ibis in urbem.” —Ovid While driving underneath I had to pray: the tunnel, God,...

. Black and Red Within a latent, pathless peak, A mountain’s womb begins to leak The flicker of a fervent...

. O, Brother Surveillance permeates us now,__George Orwell saw it coming.Stamped social credits mark our brow,__the cityscape is humming, The...

. The Winter Games Go On Although detainees must sleep in cramped cells on cement floors, and though they must...

. Lockdown The day sprawls wider than a yawn, a mouth that sucks a ticking clock, a door that lets...

. Sonnetized “Why poetry?” My chair leans in his chair And slides me a sabbatical-swelled smirk. The past nine months...

. Living The Dream   “I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their...

. Martin Luther King, Jr. Meets Today’s Left How would the Left see Dr. King Just what reaction would they...