October by Robert Frost O hushed October morning mild, Thy leaves have ripened to the fall; Tomorrow’s wind, if it be wild, Should waste...

As usual (although not always), this week's prompt takes its cue from today's blog poem, Middle-Aged Karaoke by Timothy Houghton. But you...

Middle-Aged Karaoke by Timothy Houghton Published in SNReview, Spring/Summer 2008 A big woman jumps out of a booth deftly, avoiding...

The Fury of Beautiful Bones by Anne Sexton (from The Complete Poems, Houghton Mifflin, 1982) Sing me a thrush, bone. Sing me a nest of...

Two choices this week . . . or combine this two things for more of a challenge! Choice one: describe the end of a storm as Jean Toomer...

Storm Ending by Jean Toomer (from his 1923 poetic novel, Cane) Thunder blossoms gorgeously above our heads, Great, hollow, bell-like...

A Dirge Melody: Don’t Let the Humans Know We Contain Souls by Elizabeth Upshur published in Mistake House (2017) If you want the pearl...

Philosophy is a school subject that is relevant in our everyday lives, whether or not we realize it. (They all are, of course, but some...

Shirt by Robert Pinsky (published in his book, The Want Bone) The back, the yoke, the yardage. Lapped seams, The nearly invisible...

My Children Asleep on the Chest of September by Ariana D. Den Bleyker (published in The Mantle, Issue 6, November 2018) It’s an alluring...

"I would not like them here or there. I would not like them anywhere. I do not like green eggs and ham. I do not like them, Sam-I-Am."...

Dearborn North Apartments Chicago, Illinois by Lola Haskins Rows of rectangles rise, set into brick. And in every rectangle, there is a lamp. Why should there be a lamp in every window? Because in all this wide city, there is not enough light. Because the young in the world are crazy for light and the old are afraid it will leave them. Because whoever you are, if you come home late but it looks like noon, you won’t tense at the click when you walk in which is probably afte

In Praise of Gray by Jay Rubin (published in The Summerset Review , Summer 2011 ) Gray hair is a crown of splendor —Proverbs 16:31 O how I wish that my wife, just once would not slip through that bathroom door to dye her hair that ungodly brown O how I wish that my wife, just once would let her fallacious hair rinse clear allowing her argent age to shine If only she would, I'd gather each strand some threads white as winter rain others dark as clear champagne O how I'd rej

Mad Libs gave me and my brother a lot of silly fun as we sat in the backseat of the blue Plymouth Fury with my parents up front. More...

Forgive My Dearth of Quietude by Praise Osawaru (published in Feral, Issue 3, August 2020) Instead of dreaming, I translate my whirling...

Purgatory by Carolyn Martin (published in The Opiate, August 2016) can’t be much worse than this: sitting in the second row while the...

Anniversary Alert: Phillis Wheatley's book of poetry, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, was published on September 1, 1773....

On Virtue by Phillis Wheatley O thou bright jewel in my aim I strive To comprehend thee. Thine own words declare Wisdom is higher than a...

Our Idea of Nothing at All by Alice Duer Miller “I am opposed to woman suffrage, but I am not opposed to woman.”—from an...

Using the Ed Ochester poem posted today on my blog as inspiration, write a poem (or write some prose, or paint, or sculpt, or draw, or...