“Tough Love” Trump will issue tariffs in “a very loving way.” (He thinks that we will love him even when we lose our pay.)
Poetry
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… Read More ›
Rumple Oxbridge: “The More War Sonnet for Afghanistan”
By Rumple Oxbridge, liberal lyricist Trump has a plan to fix Afghanistan: more war will do what war has not before. It is a plan not hard to understand his “war cabinet” advises–War fails? Try more. Eventually this war… Read More ›
Rumple Oxbridge: “Ode About Not Missing Statues of Racist Generals”
By Rumple Oxbridge, liberal lyricist It’s sad to see, the president said, knocking down our metal-molded racist generals green with age. Once such men were all the rage, killing to keep owning slaves. You gotta admit, they looked brave… Read More ›
Rumple Oxbridge: “Liberal Verse is No Crime”
By Rumple Oxbridge, liberal lyricist A journalist of the conservative type has branded my satirical prayer “a crime against the idea of verse.” Well, well. I plead guilty in this literary sense: my verse lacks the sort of literariness that isn’t… Read More ›
Rumple Oxbridge: “House GOP Prayer to Cut Health Care”
By Rumple Oxbridge, liberal rhymer Dear Lord on this National Day of Prayer help us give freedom from health care. Too long the wealthy have been bothered keeping their sisters and their brothers alive and healthy with their taxes. Dear Lord, help us… Read More ›
Poem: “Death of a Journalist”
By John Frederick Kaufman Sick of screens that blind with light, I’ll sing myself to sleep and let all facts arrive to you undeniably as night. I watch the snow fall silently and do not care to count. I don’t… Read More ›
Rumple Oxbridge: “Trump’s ‘major, major’ getting tough with the Koreas”
By Rumple Oxbridge, radical rhymer The president says diplomacy is “very difficult” so we may have a “major, major conflict” [war] (lots of majors, lots of gore) with Koreans of the North. As for Koreans of the South, Trump… Read More ›
Rumple Oxbridge: “The Mother of All Bombs”
By Rumple Oxbridge (The Pacific’s unreal radical rhymer) How many mothers can it kill, this “mother of all bombs?” It’s only dropped on terrorists we’re certain have no wombs. What is the mother of this bomb– fear, or hate, or profit?… Read More ›
Rumple Oxbridge: “On Pornography”
By Rumple Oxbridge, The Pacific’s radical rhymer, sometimes referred to as “rhymer-in-residence.” I was going to say a little goes a long way but if I may be so bold why should any sex be sold? Watching nakedness cavort suggests it’s just… Read More ›
The “Human Rights Poetry” of Yevgeny Yevtushenko Very Relevant Today
By John Frederick Kaufman Speaking of his poetry, here’s what Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko, who died yesterday in Tulsa, Oklahoma at the age of 84, told the Associated Press in an interview back in 2007: “I don’t call it political… Read More ›
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… Read More ›
Rumple Oxbridge: “The Death of Old King Coal”
By Rumple Oxbridge , imaginary rhymer-in-residence at The Pacific Old King Coal was a polluted old soul And a sick old soul was he. He called for his pick, and he called for his shovel And he called for his draglines three…. Read More ›
A Poem: “Fists and Flags”
By John Frederick Kaufman Fists and Flags “America first!” the president cried and raised his fist to punch the sky while someone punched a fascist in the head: the fist is first of many lies, grip of welcome weaponized…. Read More ›
Rumple Oxbridge: “Playing the Trump Card”
By Rumple Oxbridge (imaginary imaginer at The Pacific) House Speaker Paul Ryan spoke Donald Trump “is not conservatism.” Thus many Repubs are chumps because they think the Donald is the purest for of all the raving ranters he’s the… Read More ›
“Is public virtue dead?”: Shelley’s “Poetical Essay on the Existing State of Things”
By John Frederick Kaufman What better poem to turn to than one recently discovered in England, a poem written by Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1811 when he was just 18 and a student at Oxford University. No copy of the poem existed in… Read More ›
The Pacific 