Category: poems
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John Bolton’s Wars (a poem)
If Rudy* is a “hand grenade”*Why did Bolton* send his aideTo disarm the whole charadeWhile Bolton lounges in the shade? Well, that is how his wars are made:From the safety of Bolton’s brain. Note: *Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of NYC serving as President Trump’s personal attorney and covert diplomat in Ukraine. *John Bolton was the […]
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As If a Cell Can Bar a Soul (a poem)
In honor of World Poetry Day Couplets for those who don’t betray The verse of stars, the vow of stones And meet the sinking sun alone– As if a cell can bar a soul … As if a whale can hide the whole.
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Couplets: “It Was a Dark and STORMY Day”
Within the White House the forecast is “Stormy.” But the president swears that NOTHING porny Ever happened with that woman hushed With money that had NOTHING to do with slush. Lawyers pay off porn stars all the time Right before elections . . . with their own dime Without the knowledge of the one was […]
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Rumple Oxbridge: “Twitter Totter”
By Rumple Oxbridge, liberal lyricist I’ll say this much for Twitter: It’s Tr——p’s Achilles’ Heel. Eventually he’ll tweet something so far beyond the pale, almost every Republican will admit the news is real. They will stand before a mic to boldly, angrily reveal— “Hillary hacked the president with a scandalous e-mail!” For evidence they will […]
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William Blake: “Auguries of Innocence”
[JK: An augury is an omen and this is a political poem because . . . today is Blake’s birthday and the poem details connections, relationships ecological and human we too often, especially in the halls of power, fail to acknowledge. The first four lines are famous but we often neglect the rest of this […]
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April: Poetry & Mud
A poet in a bad mood can ruin a reputation, as T.S. Eliot did for April when he called it “the cruellest month”, adding an extra letter l for emphasis. I prefer what Robert Frost had to say about April in is his poem “Two Tramps in Mud Time.” Mud time is what rural people […]
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“The Poem to End All Cruelty”
The Poem to End All Cruelty For many years she wanted to write a poem To end all cruelty. But always she failed to start Or finish because she thought: Who am I To try to change what many holy people Failed to do? And how could one poem Accomplish what entire books Said to […]
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“A Banished Sound”
A Banished Sound by John Kaufman Banishment has this benefit: Art becomes your argument. You’re free To dabble in the resistance of language, Rebel in babble, decorate the walls With something human that will last or have To be furiously, futilely erased. Exhausting to elaborate the facts, Explain thisness of this, thatness of that […]
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“There Is”
There Is by John Kaufman There is injustice . . . There is tragedy . . . And there is a woman utterly frank laughing as she unbuttons her blouse. And there is an ocean far to the west where whales and sea otters dine lying down.
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“What We Must Preserve”
(This poem of mine first appeared in the last issue of Verse Wisconsin, Issue 113, in April 2014.) What We Must Preserve by John Kaufman To hear each other, what we must preserve is the dignity of trees, obstinacy of rock, the patient way a book occupies space, its voice less than […]
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American Life in Poetry Column 498 by Ted Kooser
Welcome to American Life in Poetry. For information on permissions and usage, or to download a PDF version of the column, visit www.americanlifeinpoetry.org. ****************************** American Life in Poetry: Column 498 BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE Here’s a lovely poem for this lovely month, by Robert Haight, who lives in Michigan. Early […]
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New Poems by Rebecca Kylie Law
[Today I’m pleased to present three new poems by Australian poet Rebecca Kylie Law. The poems were submitted to The Afternoon Journal and are published for the first time. Please note the copyright: All rights reserved.] For St Francis of Paola, Hermit In the afternoon becoming night, noticing small ribbed shells the […]
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For Earth Day: “Beauty and Truth”
Beauty and Truth Windows let in spring’s bare light, the early drab before leaf and petal glamorize the season. I must refrain from reason now– this art a beautiful indirection that gets somewhere somehow, that lets virtue bloom, crocuses gaudily there. To be moved by presence made excessive, a thing come true. John Kaufman
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“On Humpty Dumpty”
On Humpty Dumpty Tyrants of egg-headed ambiguity raise walls of anti-prose, well-trained indecipherable code down which readers will fall and fail like an egg shattered after a spectacular crash. A spectacle for sure, and yet no way to put them whole with horses or men. The impulse is to make the barrier too dense— an art of self-offense. […]
The Pacific 