Poetry

. . Ode on ​Bertel Thorvaldsen’s Ganymede and the Eagle Bending down in offering, a Boy extends a shallow bowl; Craning neck of eagle dips, the Child foresees his coming role. Swept from earth to heaven’s cheers, What held your heart with world below? Now countless days will turn to...

  . O hail you lied-to, baffled Yanks,__false-fed with sick afront’ry,If only rigging votes were pranks__not killing your good country. I know you're in the midst of it,__the bin bags full of ballotsThat bulge their plastic 'til they split__and tumble over pallets Stacked with further postal votes__that Deviants would buryWith...

“Pride Goeth . . . .” “How dare you, sir! Your libel will not stand!” The words flew out across the now-hushed room. “Retract your vile lies or face your doom! “Repent or you shall die by my own hand!” A single calf-skin glove was raised on high. “My honor...

. Long the shadow that it casts, Christmas present, o’er our pasts. In its darkness made to bask, Mumbling carols through a mask. Oh, the distance we observe. No resistance, gone our nerve. Cowering in abject fear, We no longer gather near. Through the mail, gifts we exchange. Can it...

. Anno Domini 1348 ‘Tis thirteen months since those twelve ships of death Docked in Messina bearing vicious plague From the Black Sea. The fevers, rasping breath, The frightful buboes, tortured minds gone vague... The panic of the masses makes it worse. All kindness dies as fools seek sword or...

. The Burden of Truth Our founders feared and could foresee that politics might come to be far more intense than mere debate of means to best perpetuate the liberty they'd given birth unparalleled in all the earth, secured by selfless sacrifice of those becoming precious price. Thus, knowing pure...

  adapted from a Filipino folktale __Once, when the sun was at its height, A dragonfly thought she’d alight Upon a branch. The air was hot, And she fatigued. So, on that spot, Under the shade of foliage blessed, The dragonfly judged she would rest. __As with her wings she...

. The leaves may shine with colored gloss, But they will fall, forever lost. In this false world, what soul, I ask, May hope in timelessness to last? Today I cross these mountain depths With no vain dreams or drunkenness. . Original Japanese いろはにほへと　ちりぬるを わかよたれそ　つねならむ うゐのおくやま　けふこえて あさきゆめみし　ゑひもせすん Iroha nihoeto  ...

  This is the day for manifesting soul To flesh, for making contemplation real; Incorporeal yet real and whole Advancing to some heavenly ideal. Not such transcendence as annuls the Earth Or disregards Creation as a dream. We live awhile, then fall into our birth Past death into a luminescent...

. Freezing in a Winter Wonderland  to be sung to the melody of "Walking in a Winter Wonderland" I am cold. Are you listening? On my nose, ice is glistening. Why must we roam? I wanna go home. Freezing in a winter wonderland. Gone away is the feeling in my...

. The Night after Christmas You better not cry. “Deplorable” might be how best to putit, just to underscore the gravityof chores that border on depravity,begriming Santa’s uniform with soot. A chimney’s not an option for the Chosenif any other path is close at hand,and empty hearths are not the...

 . To miss the mark, to lose my way,to choose the dark, on Christmas Day. No star I see, no Virgin Birth.No joy for me, no peace on earth. But for a wretch like me He came,to fetch me from my sin and shame. So by His manger, now I...

. Wake up and raise the blinds, to see the light, The colors; hark, the carols, feel the cheers Emerging, from within this Holy Night. Hear choirs of hope, in spirit, ‘mid your plight, While you can’t see the star. Would one, in tears, Wake up and raise the blinds...

  Christmas trees and Christmas carols, Christmas lights and reindeer, too.Christmas cards and Christmas presents, wrapped with paper, bows and glue.Christmas bells and Christmas cookies, Christmas ornaments galore!Spending money—is this all that Christmas means?  Or is there more? Is that all that Christmas brings us? Things to buy and things to...

. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer---A Sonnet Poor Rudolph was a reindeer with a nose resembling a bulb of bright red hue. The other reindeer laughed and said, “It glows like Santa’s after knocking back a few.” They called him ‘Scarlet Schnozz’ and wouldn’t play or socialise with Rudolph till a...

X The play of the breeze brings the music of childhood, The tinkle of laughter as light and as clear As were our voices when singing in Wildwood The day before Christmas—the best time of year. The songs that we sang told of sleigh bells a-jingling, Snow-laden branches, and manger...

.   The hills that Joseph meditated on were black and just a bit like elephants, but if somehow they counterpointed dawn, there was no sign of its deliverance. “Beloved, my beloved, how?---and why!" Against her tenderly-appearing age, a crowd of raging thoughts must have cried out, though Joseph, being...

My day dredges through its habits like chicken wings that flop through flour, like tame lettuce-nibbling rabbits, so to say, lacking brainpower. Rote nothings wasting useful hours. I need to force feed, briefly sleep, skip the laundry and flush the shower, and pray the lord my mind to keep.  ...

. “Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.” ---Albert Einstein If I put forth a single vaccine questionAbout a jab that’s whipped up in a flash,And ponder on my shot-or-not position,Why should my reputation hit the trash? I’m called an...

In This Post Christian Era “For he nil falsen no wight, dar I seye, That wol his herte al hoolly on him leye.” ---Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Love Unfeigned” In this post-Christian era I believe; In this New Age, where One who rules the stars Does in the Seventh House the...

_ I How will I know you or will you know me?When every bird has hurtled to the ground,When every whale and every fish has drowned,And every beast, engaged in killing spreeHas eaten every one that cannot flee;When all our merchant ships have run agroundWhose crews, surviving tidal wave have...

. . The Rape of Lady Liberty In Memoriam: November 3, 2020 by Patrick Henry Redivivus They did the awful deed within the dark--- Brute men with beastly hearts, as black as coal, And blinded minds, like vicious dogs that bark Then bite the hand that fills their feeding bowl....

I set up my beloved theodolite And slowly, gently, aimed it at the moon, Then focused sharply on the lovely site, Which put its fragile eye piece well in tune. As always, it was truly great and thrilling; It tends at first to take away one’s breath. I’d even say...

. Still   “Many eyes go through the meadow,  but few see the flowers in it” ---Ralph Waldo Emerson  I aim and shoot with fierce alacrity   As artistry unfurls before my eyes  In all its charismatic clarity:  The  gauzy  glint of scudding dragonflies;A butterfly’s sartorial gaiety  Caught wafting in kaleidoscopic   skies.  I wonder at  God’s windfalls  on the wing  And...

  The corpses laid before your cast iron throne will never wake again. Their eyes alone accuse you from the veinous marble floor, but you dismiss their gaze and look once more to conquest: paring down the enemy, their slaughter sung by tongues of royalty, the footsteps of your soldiers...

The screen is life, The screen is king, The screen is now Our everything. The place we learn, The place we meet, The place we go When friends we greet. Our church on-line, Our school remote, Our office closed, Just emails wrote. What did they do In days long gone,...

. Dominion “No one but the enemy will tell you what the enemy is going to do.”  ---Orson Scott Card, Ender’s Game by Susan Jarvis Bryant Dominion is the despot’s aim Employed to zip loose lips and tame All sovereign thought then render blind The eye of the enlightened mind--- It’s chicanery’s chosen name....

The House of Life to Stephen Come in, my friend, and warm yourself; come in out of the cold! The night is dark, and icy winds blow harshly on the wold. Inside you´ll find a roaring fire to warm you as you stand Before its crackling flames, a cup of...

based on a true story My wife’s in bed with lowered head and even lower mood. Her chin’s on her chest and she’s not impressed though at least she’s eating her food. Her smiles are few (one’s way overdue), this downtime’s, I hope, but a blip. I’ll leave it at...

. The coziest wrap of a cuddle To wear under snow-swollen skies; The grin of a kith-and-kin huddle To glisten in sparkling eyes; A tipple of mistletoe kisses To quench my intemperate thirst; A feast of felicitous wishes To dine on till I'm fit to burst; A hand-in-hand stroll through...

. . Prince Hamlet Speaks About Election Fraud Prince Hamlet speaks about election fraud:"O villainy! Ho! Let the door be locked.Treachery! Seek it out." And this we laud:A voice half crazy yet all true that rockedA kingdom, laying bare the crimes withinThat had enwrapped the nation in a plotTo seize control...

  Why are many young persons so bad at writing formal poetry? Why do they struggle and labor and twist and turn when trying to compose formal verse? OK, I’ll grant you this: every beginning poet has to master his trade, and that takes time and practice. You can’t learn...

. Stages of Arrested Development __The lads who once had wet their beds __Adventured off in brand-new Keds, Exploring every corner of creation. __Age twelve or so, they raced on sleds __Down icy streets and risked their heads For flashes of adrenal coruscation. __Years later, callow newly-weds, __Their careless words...

_ On Your Marx If humans ran a Human Race, __Karl Marx would not be in it. The human depth that he could trace __would leach out in a minute. For he is neither man nor beast __but half-life near demonic, A few kneels from satanic priest __reversing good, moronic....

What is One to do with a Useless Man?: Philoctetes: A Myth Retold is a poetic play by Fr. Bruce Wren.   Act 5 Scene 2 Philoctetes alone (singing the first quartet softly, then soliloquy) If solitude comes knocking on your door, ____Accept her as a strange but lovely guest...

. Strange Election inspired by President Trump's speech on election fraud (below) by Evan Mantyk Strange numbers were appearing in the dead of night From ballot boxes As if foxes Crept there out of sight. Strange cases under tables Pulled out after hours Caught on tape--- Republic rape, Abuse of...

The Painting of the Virgin God, seeing in America a child Embracing Faith with jubilation meet, Took up His paints, and on a flowered sheet By His own hand a portrait deftly styled, For He intended Jesus' Mother mild To be that favored Nation's mercy seat, Whence He would issue...

Poet Susan Jarvis Bryant challenges her fellow poets to adapt a favorite joke into a poem with meter and rhyme. Enjoy her examples and then post your own joke-turned-poem into the comments section below. . Pony Tale My heart used to hanker for horses (that bright equine blaze of delight)...

  Oh, the joy of summer's fall, Tripping on her tassels tall, Laughing with such deep release The ombre maples blush. How she twirls through apple trees-- Such a brief, chromatic breeze That the blitheness of her pall Outdoes the spring-ing thrush.     Luke Hahn is a freshman at...

. That Day of Infamy ∼ December 7th, 1941 Zeros burst through bluest skies __Like stealthy birds of prey, Set to swoop and pulverize __Pearl Harbor’s soul that day; That day of scarlet rising suns __On warfare’s wicked wing; That day the blaze from bombs and guns __Unleashed the Reaper’s...