Category: Poetry
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Schiller contra Schmitt
Freude, Schöner Götterfunken, Tochter aus Elysium, Wir betreten feuer-trunken, Himmlische, dein Heiligtum! Deine Zauber binden wieder, Was die Mode streng geteilt; Alle Menschen werden Brüder, Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt. Joy! A spark of fire from heaven, Daughter from Elysium, Drunk with fire we dare to enter, Holy One, inside your shrine. Your magic power…
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Shakespeare on Lust
Sonnet 129: Th'expense of spirit in a waste of shame Th' expense of spirit in a waste of shame Is lust in action; and till action, lust Is perjured, murd'rous, bloody, full of blame, Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust, Enjoyed no sooner but despisèd straight, Past reason hunted; and, no sooner had Past…
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Out of Sight, Out of Mind
Out of sightOut of mindOut of range Of the illWill and thoughtOf others.
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Word of the Day: Triolet
Here: An eight-line stanza having just two rhymes and repeating the first line as the fourth and seventh lines, and the second line as the eighth. See Sandra McPherson’s “Triolet” or “Triolets in the Argolid” by Rachel Hadas. Return The taste is strong as ever, figs and cheese and wine. I recall each savor; the taste is…
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Edith Bone (1889-1975)
A brief Stack post in memory of one whom Communism sucked in and spit out. In the measure that leftists work to erase the historical record, we must work to preserve it.
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My Angelic Wife
One indicator of her angelicity is her support of my chess activities — in stark contrast to the wives of two acquaintances both of whose 'better' halves destroyed their chess libraries in fits of rage at their time spent sporting with Caissa. "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned," wrote old Will. I'm no…
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A Little Learning
by Alexander Pope A little learning is a dangerous thing ;Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring :There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,And drinking largely sobers us again.Fired at first sight with what the Muse imparts,In fearless youth we tempt the heights of Arts ;While from the bounded level of our mindShort views we take,…
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To be Alone is Bliss
Your invitation's kindSo I hope you won't mindIf your party I miss.To be alone is bliss. Your friends are such a boreAnd idle talk's a choreThey will be good to miss.To be alone is bliss.
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And Then Along Came the ‘Sixties
I can easily seeHow Merton lost his wayBy exposing himselfTo events of the day.
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17 Syllables
All seek pleasure.Your measure, however,Is the type of itYou seek. Originally I wrote: All seek pleasure.Your measure, howsoever,Is the pleasure You seek. Which is better? The original sounds better, but is less clear.
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Abiding in Adobe
Would that I could abide in adobeIn the ghost town, BodieWith the shades in the shadowOf Boot Hill. (I do not say that this is a good poem. But it amuses me. If it doesn't amuse you, double your money back!)
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Jack Kerouac on Robert Lax
During his years of unsuccess, when he was actually at his purest and best, an "unpublished freak," as he describes himself in a late summer 1954 letter to Robert Giroux, living for his art alone, Kerouac contemplated entering a monastery: "I've become extremely religious and may go to a monastery before even before you do."…
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A is A: Monism Refuted
This from The Collected Poems and Epigrams of J. V. Cunningham, Swallow Press, 1971, p. 118, epigram #47: This Monist who reduced the swarmOf being to a single form,Emptying the universe for fun,Required two A's to think them one. Notes 1. The title is Cunningham's own. 2. Poetic license extends to use-mention confusion. 3. It was…
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For My Divorced Friends
A little poem by Dorothy Parker: Comment Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song,A medley of extemporanea;And love is a thing that can never go wrong;And I am Marie of Roumania. (From the front matter of Joseph Epstein, Divorced in America: Marriage in an Age of Possibility, E. P. Dutton, 1974.)
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Recognition, Attention, William Wordsworth, and Samuel Alexander
As social animals we have a legitimate need for recognition by others. This need is not a mere desire for attention. Parents and teachers harm a child when they dismiss the legitimate need for recognition and respect as a bid for attention. A child so maligned may father a man who is more monster than…