Poetry

. As a child, they could not keep me from trees And craggy, tangled limbs and aching arms. I loved the camouflage, the filtered breeze, Nose-smacked tang of moss and far-off farms. Grandma's had a crook just right for hiding. I savored hard-won silence in my perch, Nursed calloused hands,...

. Owl ensconced on oaken branch, A wingèd spirit rare, His gaze is wisdom: calm, intent, Bewitching and aware. Soulful and implacable, His feathered stillness bright Is outlined by cerulean sky, A beacon of the night. Behind stark owl a full moon glows, Casts vectored rays of light, And yon...

.. Grauballe Man He lies exposed to view in this glass case Exactly as he lay three hundred years Before our Christ was born, between his ears Torn open with a savage force: his face, All blackened by the peat who in disgrace Perhaps or battle died, betrays his fears....

. Remembering Sandy Hook, Ct 12/14/12 Over 8 Years Later That day God's Angels' tears were shed,When first grade books and blackboards bledPure blood that stained a beige room red.Sad parents tuck ghosts into bedLike precious dreams which now are dead. This, I can't get out of my head:Such evil...

. Dear friends we gather here to say goodbye To words once used to speak both truth and lie. The HE and SHE and HIS and HERS and MINE By ZIE interred forever at ZIR shrine. No more can we know ZIM or VER by gender Just judging by the...

. Rush He was larger than life And it cut like a knife When his wife let us know That he died. From this kind of grief There can be no relief. Such a powerful blow Meant I cried. 12:06 comes around, I’m transfixed by the sound Of the words...

. Too long, too long, my love, Have we lain out here. Too long, too long, my love, Have our ease, our cheer Fixed us fast, sprawled in cool shade, With our arms and breasts clasped near, Too pleased to note that youth and day would fade. The sun, the...

by Adam Sedia The origin of poetry is inextricably tied to music. The earliest poems---the Homeric epics, the Chinese Book of Songs---were all lyrics to be sung. Because vowels allow the open voice to sing while consonants break the voice, the syllable defined the meter, setting the rhythm of the...

. The Great Reset has rocked the world--- What untold evil has unfurled! Unshakable foundations crumble. Through the rubble, nations stumble. Who is not shaken to the core By all that was and is no more? Ashless Wednesday came and went, Virtually I did repent. I sought myself in the...

. The Internet’s a work of art, Now everybody’s phone is smart. They’re very compact, very small, And so, begins a tale so tall. For once upon a time, a gent, A load of cash one day he spent. Delighted now, he was to own, A brand new, shiny Apple...

. For others it may be a breeze. Those hardy Arctic folk would wheeze With laughter as we Texans sneeze __And shiver. This slick of ice and lick of snow; This frightful bite as ill winds blow Nips our fingers, numbs our toes--- __We quiver. All those of us who...

. These stones that like huge sculpted figures lie __Amid the trunks of moss and fern-clad trees, Eons of creatures have seen born and die __And the land’s face carved by the shifting seas. ____All of earth’s seasons since the dawn of Man, ____Are but a day in their old...

  There is a scourge that permeates our midstWhich we cannot so easily dismiss.Elitists strive to elevate this curse;A type of art most poets call free verse. True poetry once rhymed and had some form,A style evoking passion was the norm;But now these attributes are deemed archaicAs it makes little difference how you...

. . Till rolling seas cease heaving high, The starry nights stop passing by, The universe is wrapped in flame, And there is no one left to blame. __Until then? ... You’re my loved one. Till sun no longer makes a day, And earth will never get a ray, The...

. For my friend Rose R., with sincere condolences. Good Lord, imagine my bad luck: I’m married to a hockey puck. I don’t know how it came about— A lover morphed into a lout! You’re a widow, not a wife, When hockey is your husband’s life. In his world, only...

. L O V E... It’s not a dozen scentless hothouse roses. __It’s not a chocolate-box of sweet cliché. It’s not the scorching kiss that lust imposes __To lead the fired and fevered flesh astray. It’s not an aphrodisiacal dinner __Or sighs in dizzy highs of fine Champagne. It’s not...

. Among the many flowers in the vase, ‘Tis I—the flower with the pretty face, Full humor, sound stamen, and skill in fun— Who is to say to you, Michele, “Well done.” As so the master charged.  Yet we who fade, Who soon, like him, shall die, know we were made...

. A Damsel in Distress A hot, courting Knightin blithering armourVowed on his horse he would never-ever harm herThen he revved up his stallion and bamboozled off hard,Heavy metaled to the damsel across the court yard,But the speed of his steed succeeded to alarm herSo she breathed a fast prayerto intercede for her karma....

C.B. Anderson was the longtime gardener for the PBS television series, The Victory Garden.  Hundreds of his poems have appeared in scores of print and electronic journals out of North America, Great Britain, Ireland, Austria, Australia and India. 

. . The Tale of the Rose (Excerpt) by Christine de Pisan (1364-1431), translated by Margaret Coats . This Tale comes from the Paris home of the Duke of Orleans, brother of the King of France, where on Saint Valentine’s Day 1402, there assembled certain noble folk, rich in honor...

. Fool’s Wisdom “I am fearfully and wonderfully made” ---Psalm 139:14 I am amazed at what some fools believe Who say I am a fool to have belief In a creative force. To preconceive Against this possibility is chief Among the many errors of our age. For what takes faith?...

. All fruit is sweet as marzipan, and seraphs carol just for me, Each brook sings like a silver lyre, and finches trill in every tree. Life is a cloth embossed with gold, and even through the blackest rains, No rainbow seems too hard to reach, for ichor courses through...

. All Major League Baseball teams share revenues, We treat them as if they were brothers. But sometimes self-interest means we refuse To treat each the same as the others. Some teams like the Yankees are wealthy, you see, We want them to win by competing. But when they are...

. Reality Check A ladybug landed on my arm On Saturday. I felt the charm The chosen feel. It brought with it Good luck—or so I thought—then bit Deep into me, paused for air, Spread its spots beside a hair, Then bit again. My gratitude became alarm That such a...

. They’re impeaching Number 45 today--- Like toddlers born to moan, Like bulldogs with a bone, Like warlords with a drone, Like tyrants on a throne, Although they know The Don left yesterday--- They’re impeaching Number 45 today. They’re impeaching Number 45 today--- Like straw-men with no brain, Like swindlers...

. Half a Blanket adapted from “Das Vierte Gebot,” or “The Fourth Commandment,” a folktale from medieval Germany There was an old king once in France Who grew in time too weak to reign. So, he renounced his jeweled crown To give his son his wide demesne. “I pledge I...

. The New York Times has just published a piece detailing a range of recommendations for the Biden administration to solve the “reality crisis” and to “de-radicalize” wrong-thinking citizens, including setting up a “reality czar” and a “truth commission.”  With truth on trial a czar  will rush to fish out...

. “The Gift of Life” is a formal epic poem of 600 original Shakespearean sonnets, a tale about a love that existed in life and art with equal force. The heroine of the tale goes to the great war of words with the avant-garde, on behalf of the classical artistic...

. I, Satan, Now Will Have Your Dream You'll be no longer citizens, by my decrees declared. Get used to being residents (assuming you are spared by forces of invasion massed already here and more in numbers soon to be the crush through widely opened door ignoring trampled sovereignty abandoned...

.. . Slow Verse No need to rush: These lines have lots of time. They never face a hanging at first light. They can take pains to whittle a neat rhyme And years to get each subtle cadence right, But they can never take the hero’s part, They can’t shout...

. They’ll be coming for you soon, Chairman Xho. It’s an old, familiar tune that we all know. You’ve been howlin’ at the moon And they’ll say that you’re a loon And you’ll bring us all to ruin, Chairman Xho. They’ll say that you’re their bro, Chairman Xho. But you...

. “Ha ha,” is all she gives her Dad when he makes fun of what she said. No more parental Galahad who nightly carried her to bed. He’s just a jaded humorist who doesn’t even merit laughs from her which once were numerous. For now she deems such jibes are...

. We can “Build Back Better” if we choose “Truth Over Lies.” What these slogans promise lead us to a big surprise. When the new administration’s promises come true, This is what we’ll get when what they say is what they do: * * * Here’s a happy poem with...

. You ask me “why?”---the question seems to burn like you were made to seek out novelty, to stimulate your mind, explore, and learn: exactly why your curiosity is not so curious at all, to me! Your brain contains an elemental drive that underlies a trait to quest and strive....

. Twitter by Esca Webuilder The bluebird of unhappiness, that twits all day and night, does not like to be seen that much, especi’lly in pure light. It tries to hide among the bushes of the golden mean, but it is so far off of that, it easily is seen....

. Charles Maurras (1868-1952) was a highly influential French poet, essayist, and political journalist. He edited the rightist paper Action Française, and was a member of the French Academy. He wrote that the most important event in his life was an epiphany at the Parthenon in 1896, where he came...

. How good of you to do your best __for our great population. So we'll do right by your request __to heal our ailing nation. If we feel sick we'll stay indoors, __won't shout---just put a sock in. With metal plates you'll screw our doors __to help our healthy lock-in...

. The Senior Covid Blues I have read many articles about the virus particles that swirl about and sneak into our noses. I know it takes tenacity to keep one’s lung capacity and not look up and see the roots of roses! According to virology my system’s etiology does put...

. Lahaina Mynahs The droppings of a thousand Mynah birds (While nesting in a Maui banyan tree) Descended on my pre-teen daughter. Words Cannot describe her abject misery. Her shoulders, arms and hands were plastered white As were her t-shirt and her auburn hair. In shock, she stood there screaming—what...

. Blackwater River State Park A warm summer day. The kayak floats quietly. The cicadas sing. . . Nightfall at Pensacola Beach The sun has now set And not a light can be seen. What just made that splash? . . The Forts of Pensacola Bay The guns are silent....