A New Christmas Legend is a didactic religious allegory that reimagines the Nativity not only as a sacred historical event, but as the spiritual origin of a global movement toward social justice, democracy, and universal brotherhood. The narrative begins in the final years of Roman peace under Augustus Caesar, when the birth of Jesus is… Read More New Christmas Legend by John Pengelly
Songs of Labor and Other Poems by Morris Rosenfeld is a collection of Yiddish poetry centered on the lives, struggles, and aspirations of working-class immigrants and laborers. Rosenfeld draws on his own experiences to portray poverty, exhausting work, family hardship, love, and the hope for a more just society. Written with strong emotion and social… Read More Songs of Labor and Other Poems by Morris Rosenfeld
Naked Warriors by Herbert Read is a slim 1919 collection of war poetry drawn directly from the author’s experiences as a soldier in World War I. The poems present vivid, often stark snapshots of trench warfare—capturing fear, violence, exhaustion, and moments of uneasy humanity. Rather than glorifying war, Read strips it down to its psychological… Read More Naked Warriors by Herbert Read
The Masses was a socialist magazine published in America from 1911 to 1914. Its demise was brought on when the federal government brought charges against it for conspiring to obstruct conscription during World War I. To carry on its work, siblings Max and Crystal Eastman founded The Liberator. Max, an American writer, and his sister,… Read More Poetry From The Liberator Vol 1, No 2, April 1918
Why does love feel so conditional?Why do I seek others’ approval in their wordsAnd their tones?What wired me this way?Why can’t I just be myself?Yet what would that look like?Who or what is the real me?Is it too late for him to appear?Or have I been permanently destinedTo be this puppetControlled by strings of acceptance?If… Read More Conditional
Your voice is annoyingYour rhetoric is annoyingYour ego is annoyingHow can people continue to supportSuch an arrogant ass-hole?And just ignore the truth?Promises, promises, promises brokenFailed business venturesYet they fall in lineYou liken yourself to ChristYou portray yourself as a modern-day saviorYet you shit on the peopleWill there be a recovery?From what you have done?Or will… Read More AnNoYiNg
Two suspects exist – Two medium-sized fishThe season started with an assortment of large and medium aquatic vertebratesOne by one, the large expiredNone with wounds or traumaWhen they had all floated to the topThe mediums began to disappearWe purchased some smallsTo repopulate the pondSoon, 7 of 10 had gone to heavenLeaving 3 littles and the… Read More One of My Goldfish is a Serial Killer
Life should be full of adventureIt is what keeps the mind youngStimulation, exposure, awe, and wonderWill keep the grey cells firingYet life often fills with the mundaneThe same ole same ole day after dayFresh, new exposure sparks lifeBut what was the last first you had?I rack my brain and try to thinkOf something new, something… Read More Last First
My parents were a June-December romanceDad had three other childrenThis put me in a position of havingNieces and nephews near my ageMy brother’s children were little monstersDestruction and terror reigned in their livesIdle threats lingered as punishmentsMy sister’s children were to be religious zealotsGoodness and love were to control all they didThey never spared the… Read More My Parents
Life is full of firstsAnd these may be the moments that shapeThe rest of our lives.First friend – Mike Lynn, whatever happened to him? They moved away.First love – Kirstie, and still isFirst LP bought – Johnny Cash, Folsom Prison, so coolFirst foreign trip – Sarnia, “Hey, I’ve been to Canada!”First job – Radiator shop,… Read More Firsts
