Poetry

  The Vault _The turning sky enwraps the world. Each day, entreating eyes wide-open to This circling vault shall earn a benefaction, A grain of living salt; and over time Ensues discerning capability To separate inconsequential things _From those that absolutely matter. _Autumnal rains quell squirrel chatter, The leaves grow...

  Clonmacnoise (Cluain Mhic Nóis) Rocky gray ruins, round tower stronghold, speckling a wide expanse of green, residuum of a fabled scene: fine flourishment of monasteries, communes in strict ascetic mold, launched by godly visionaries. Saint Ciaran found this perfect site: the Shannon meets a key trade route. High kings...

  Song of the Beelzebots We lure you with our speed and with our flair. We snare you with our lexical appeal. We’re here to make you ever more aware Of why and how. And no---we cannot feel. We gather scattered fragments of ideas. We seek and scan and sift...

  Come Spring Come spring, and all the creeping things come back. The gnats and flies (of various kinds). The ants and spiders. And the ladybugs in black and red. The bees in pollen-gathering pants. The dragonflies and butterflies, one long of tongue, the other with its bulbous eyes. Cicadas...

Lydia, De-Tattooed Lady ---with apologies to Groucho Marx The years she spent performing in the sun Have made her epidermis overdone. To make things worse, in each one of her shows She posed onstage in scarcely any clothes. If Lydia had sheltered from the weather Perhaps her skin would not...

  Modern Generation Gap I wish some young folks’ touchiness was less extensive, _So more of them could ponder this apt dictum--- Some things can be perceived as other than offensive, _Thus there are ways to feel besides a victim.     Worries Of the large and small matters I’ve...

  A Fishing Tale ---24 November 2025 Young Jeffrey oft went fishing with his dad Sometimes for perch but oftener for shad. When spawning shad were running wild upstream To catch one, two, or three was Jeffrey’s dream. Jeff’s daddy drove his boat upstream and down They trolled and brought...

  Beatrice Departs, St. Bernard Arrives: Canto XXXI of Paradise by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) translated by Stephen Binns It was in semblance of a bright white rose______Celestial Rose, holding souls in Heaven __that I was shown the sacred soldiery, ______the souls __which by the blood He shed Christ would espouse,______Church...

  Beauty Is a State of Mind A young Masai tribe suitor who is wanting to get married, Must offer to her father cows, but the number’s varied. The more prestigious or more beautiful the woman is The more the cows to offer for the prize he wants as his....

  The Triumph ---on the three lost legions, and the abrupt end to expansion under Augustus The lovely face of recent progress made On far-flung savage shore, by loyal arms… And yet as though another roadway laid Away from Rome somehow, that now alarms As though behind the lovely mask...

  Carnival Quintilla Subtly startling Harlequin, Mutely miming tenderness, Yang you are and I am yin, Thrilled to feel your eyes’ caress Flashing as you nimbly spin. What appeal do you intend, Speechless dancer with a smile? Near and clearly to commend Sympathy as you beguile Ardor toward an early...

  Village There once was a village where everyone shared _whenever another had need. The folks in that place were all so filled with grace _and joy in the absence of greed. One evening a clown strode into the town _his face covered up with a mask. He hid his...

  Thoughts at Daybreak At break of day, you rise up quietly To check on our young daughter, who lies ill. From out the corner of my eye, I see You tie your robe, while I keep lying still. You slip out of our room, and soon I hear The...

  Humpty Dumpty Redux Some say we stole the land we think we own, and that we must return it to atone, but practically, it’s very hard to know just how far back it’s possible to go to find who first owned every property, so we can track down all...

  A Forecast of Fortune Here’s my forecast of fortune for today, The local and the universal too, Informed by signs the elements display. I hope you’ll find it meaningful and true. Regrettably, it seems a random stroke Of storminess might hit us here or there To vex us and...

  The Cupbearer or the Baker? --Genesis 40 A dream goes through a sieve once we awake, With only fragments left to contemplate. Although we think that what we saw is fake, we sense a meaning that we can’t negate. Thus, we try to decode the visions seen by ruminating...

  A Panegyric on the Nativity Babies are cool In spite of the drool And inordinate stool. Babies are cool. Babies are fat And better for that, To pinch and poke at. Babies are fat. Babies are silly: Wailing willy-nilly (Their drawers are frilly). Babies are silly. Babies are slobbery---...

  Tapiola Tapio is the Finnish god of the forest; Tapiola is his home. Only a fool disturbs my sylvan solitude. _See how my vassal firs crowd all around you, _Jostle you, silently surround you, Erasing every trace of one who dared intrude. Into my presence, shadowed by mortality, _You...

  Breath by Breath An orb of light in darkness flickers out To halt the marching steps of eager trust; As trembling nerves bite down into the dust _And sense the slow but pressing clout Of imminent defeat. Thus, breath by breath, The lonely heart must wander, losing sight Of...

  The War in Heaven ---for the IDF But stranger still and most sublime of all A second vision sweeps across the skies. The ancient war in Heaven before the Fall Is now arrayed for modern London eyes. Primeval paladins with arms adorned Appear across the firmament in flight; Dark...

. The Best Poems of 2025: Winners of the 14th Annual SCP International Poetry Competition Judges C.B. Anderson, Susan Jarvis Bryant, Margaret Coats,  Evan Mantyk, Reid McGrath, Patricia Rogers Crozier, Joseph S. Salemi, Adam Sedia, James A. Tweedie, Brian Yapko Based on the poems, all written in 2025, excluding poems by judges,...

. First Place ($200 Prize) "The Color True" Advika Asthana, 10th grade, Davidson High School, Ohio . Second Place "Refrigerator Bird" "What She Wanted" Armaan Fatteh-Patil, 12th grade, American Heritage School, Florida . The following Third and Fourth Place winners and Honorable Mentions have been published here. . Third Place...

  Mythology and Modernism by Joseph S. Salemi Many years ago I attended a poetry reading by my friend Psyche Ceres. This was the pen name for a woman who had a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, who taught philosophy at a college here in New York, and who...

  Canzone Sung from the Mountains   I Above the source of the refreshing fountain, The sloping forest of the soaring pine, And all the clouds, with careful steps I climb, Passing each root and crevice in the mountain, Until at last, I look upon the brine As might a...

  Winterberry Robins, cardinals, grouse, and bluebirds, Thrushes, waxwings, and grey catbirds. __Where do they go __In the ice and snow? _Who helps them to survive? Deer and black bears, bees, and flies The Northern Flicker lest it dies __How do they know __Where Winterberries grow _And it’s the one...

  How to Acquire and Maintain Political Power   Part 1: Acquiring Power Announce that you’re The Savior. _You’ll be the one who strives to transform our society _and better people’s lives. Are people’s problems their own fault? _No way. Of course, they’re not. “The system” is the reason for...

  A Surviving Maduro Guard Speaks A guard who was protecting Nicolás Maduro said: “We did not hear the Yankees coming. No, we were not dead. Th’ Americans possessed high-tech that we had never seen; they took off-line all that we used—radar…everything. The US used drones, taking out our bases...

  https://www.youtube.com/shorts/NtGOhHBi2G0?feature=share https://www.youtube.com/shorts/g3TADmtqtLc?feature=share     Andrew Benson Brown‘s epic-in-progress, Legends of Liberty, chronicles the major events of the American Revolution. He writes history articles for American Essence magazine and resides in Missouri. Watch his Classical Poets Live videos here.

  A Bit Player A dorm in Happy Valley. Solo room, door closed: a nineteen-year-old's cozy womb. Our heroine Helen, in a cloistered daze--- studying, yes, but reading was her craze. On loan from Pattee, classic texts piled high; also, used paperbacks she’d scraped to buy. She was devouring all...

  Snowshoeing on a Winter Morning A silver flicker in the tangy pine has stirred us: she, engulfed in puffery of white, and I behind. The nightlong whine of wolfish winds has carved a pageantry of stony icescapes just beyond our womb of crackling hearth. The pinkish blush of dawn...

  Politically Incorrect Poem You see, I am a poetess. We of my gender wear a dress. And to some nouns add e – s – s So you will know who’s who.     Home _I'm looking for a portal _Into another space Where nothing there will tick me...

  Main Message He got a hug when he arrived, _Another when he left, But that attention felt contrived--- _With time between bereft.     Manifestations of Love Of his countless love manifestations, That which arguably tops the chart, Is his bearing untold aggravations, For the sake of she who...

  Beyond Minneapolis These freedom haters styled as anti-fascists Arrive like clockwork at all ICE events To foment anarchy. These venal “cashists,” Procured by Soros, hate our country. Hence, These social-justice warriors for hire Are itching to disable law enforcement. They brandish guns (what for if not to fire?) And...

  Upon Hiking Eagle Rock Loop, Umpire, AR “Silence breeds creativity.” ---Jason Wood The raucous rush at once absorbed in full By holy hush. A stillness permeates. An invitation hovers in the air. A breathless expectation starts to pull Your wearied soul to slow… and contemplate, As autumn woods reveal...

  The Sky Small wonder we placed God up in the sky, Within its infinite and blue construed Eternity and beauty on the fly And in its midnight dark could scarce absorb The mystery divine so archly strewed Amid the seething sheath of star and orb. It prompts a motion...

  Out at Third We’d been good friends until I kept saying, “Yes!” And she, who felt uneasy, kept saying, “No!” My heart was beating hot, I must confess, When she said, “Stop,” and my green light said, “Go.” At times we’d been to First and Second base But even...

  Though My Eyes Grow Dim The world that was my senses, Of smell, of taste and sight, With feeling and with sound, Have vanished overnight. Although I hear less sharply The sounds—both low and higher--- I hear the singing now Of the angel choir. Though my steps are slower...

  Different Strokes The sin for which old Yahweh leveled Sodom, Though scholars, on this point, may disagree, Is penetrating someone else’s bottom, And so today we call it sodomy. But what, then, should we think about Gomorra, Which perished in that same destructive wave? Did people there, complicit with...

  Violin Vengeance In circumstances that exist no more, A rickety old mill stood near the border Of provinces in Poland and Ukraine, And there a Jewish miller ground the grain Of peasant farmers whose good land and weather Produced enough to eat or sell or trade, And pay tax...

  The Color True It bruises dusk with velvet shade, Descends where ocean dreams are laid. It clings to wings in mid-air flight A jay, a thought, a piece of night. It hums within the glacier’s hold, In sapphire flame and silence cold. It dresses flowers, firm yet shy The...