Just off a country road a balding… Reclines in spring upon a pinkish… Of dogwood, which on any better da… Supports, at least in poems, a “fe… Or, worse, that “lifts to God its…

(George Meredith advised Thomas Hardy to fill his novels with bizarre and exciting people and events. Subsequently, Hardy in an early novel had a person following a person following a ...

Ms. Dickinson’s TV Western for… A cone of force, perspective sharp… pricked with gleams from sabers si… moves out at dawn to cross the pla… and save the souls at the distant…

Miniver Cheevy Rides Again or You’ve Got a Problem with That? I sew women’s gingham bonnets. I assemble covered wagons.

The role itself arouses smirks. I picture mine in a doorway, slightly stooped, worry-faced, hands wringing an apron, peering at the thing she hatched,

Poetry Editors To Poets Don’t send us dull pentameters; That stuff’s for Keats and other… Submit no rhyme, but heaven knows We hate a poem that sounds like pr…

“St. Chris’s statue on my dash Will surely keep me safe,” he said… But then one day he struck a pole And hit the dashboard with his hea… Oh, woe! Six-inch St. Christophe…

Jesus’ Brother Perturbed by earthly crimes, God… “Your brother’s failed miserably;… Have only caused more may mayhem,… Involving ugly beanies, callouse…

Savage Customs Dakota Indians placed a seed insi… The mouths of those they buried, a… A small but sturdy seedling gratif… The tribe, new life ascending from…

Concealed, disguised, deceptively… These mists are slowly cleared by… Across a playground, thrilling tru… Or theorized through older sibling… Of differences beneath the corduro…

Leda Lays an Egg One morning Leda, sitting on the… Saw Zeus appear transmogrified to… She heard too late the honks and w… And so with godly force he conquer…

The Computer Cometh A shiny joint is rasped across the… And swiftly followed by a bulging… And other iridescent joints that h… Themselves across with creaks and…

Schadenfreude (Misfortune Joy) We English-speaking folk don’t ha… To match the German “Schadenfreud… Denotes your pleasant feeling havi… Your hated boss has fallen in a di…

Football: This Sport is Too Muc… (With Apologies to Wordsworth) This sport is too much with us; da… Cheering and moaning, we cater to… Little we see but plays and then r…

On the podium the sternest of tyra… Yet a dead one’s manic puppet, Claiming now inspired compliance. His baton a thrashing rapier, Forcing eyes to see the fire