“Thank you all for coming, like dogs, again today. And thanks for agreeing to purchase and wear my latest campaign hat with the slogan, “Making Media Grovel Again.”
Three Satirists Walk into a Daily White House Press Briefing
Three Poems of Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Here are three poems by a neglected (some would say deservedly so) Wisconsin born and raised American poet– Ella Wheeler Wilcox, whose late 19th and early 20th Century verse is full of […]
The Human Wall (a poem)
Because no one will pay to build His WALL– Not Mexico, not Congress, not even the Wall Street Journal or Faux News, not anyone— The PRESIDENT will send soldiers with guns To […]
Introducing Rhymed Couplets in honor of the Trump Administration . . .
“Tough Love” Trump will issue tariffs in “a very loving way.” (He thinks that we will love him even when we lose our pay.)
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, […]
Robinson Jeffers: “Be Angry at the Sun”
[JFK: Here’s a poetic perspective on politics some may call cynical, some may say stoic. Jeffers referred to his philosophical distance from people as “inhumanism.” This should not, however, be confused with […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
“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 […]
Rumple Oxbridge: “In Ignorance We Cannot Trust”
By Rumple Oxbridge (imaginary rhymer-in-residence) What Gov. Walker learned, at last, is this: ignorance is only bliss if ignorance is all there is — “In God We Trust” will soon go bust if you […]
Poem for the International Day of Peace
“International Day of Peace (“Peace Day”) is observed around the world each year on 21 September. Established in 1981 by resolution 36/37, the United Nations General Assembly has declared this as a […]
Reflections on “postmodernism” upon the death of Professor Ihab Hassan
Though perhaps only of interest to students of American literature, the death this past week of former UW-Milwaukee English professor Ihab Hassan made news because he is credited for creating the term […]
Riverboat Sam: “Robot Love Not Worth It”
By Riverboat Sam, The Pacific’s technical specialist/digital skeptic In my quite distant prime, if a man wanted to buy a woman for a while or longer there were cultural institutions he could avail himself […]
Rumple Oxbridge: “Ode to Jack, My Apolitical Dog”
(Photo by Jocelyn Augustino (This image is from the FEMA Photo Library.) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons) By Rumple Oxbridge (The Pacific’s imaginary rhymer-in-residence) My dog is apolitical as dirt. Jack licks anyone whose […]
Rumple Oxbridge: “Wit is Eros”
By Rumple Oxbridge (imaginary rhymer-in-residence) Without a witty lover sex is just a spasm, a reflex too clinical and brief, the climax prelude to a sleep or flight . . . This […]
“The Chancellor of Football State U.”
“We used to pay for education But it don’t pay to graduate A thinker now. No jobs, anyhow. When you think of us you think Of watching football on TV. A national […]
Rumple Oxbridge: “Breasting Men”
By Rumple Oxbridge (The Pacific’s purely imaginary in-house rhymer) Breasting Men To get it off their chests some women bare their breasts. But looking so arresting can get them arrested because it’s men they’re breasting. [A […]
“Becoming Our Enemy”
Becoming Our Enemy Sometime we’ll have to risk Becoming our enemy. It will take some warming up, Eyes and teeth offered Shyly, arms unarmed. No words at first to blur The strange exchange, […]
“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 […]
“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 […]
