The New Verse News
4,776 FOLLOWERS
The New Verse News presents politically progressive poetry on current events and topical issues.
The New Verse News
1h ago
by Gordon Gilbert
In the not-so-distant past,
genocidal acts, a holocaust,
distant from our shores,
rumoured only, but for most unseen,
finally revealed in retrospect
indelibly to soldiers’ eyes,
brought home in photographs,
not to be denied.
Ah, we said, if only… If only…
But we did not know
at the time, only later,
and alas, too late to do
what we surely would have done
had we only known…
But now this genocide comes to us live,
like a fog slowly lifting, revealing
the landscapes of barbarity:
bombs falling; the destruction of
homes & neighborhoods ..read more
The New Verse News
22h ago
by Jim Burns
Riots broke out in Philadelphia after Nativists burned down a Catholic church in May 1844. This lithograph shows the Know-nothings (in the top hats) clashing with the state militia.
Out of the vapors
of the past
I come
to sing you a song
of the poor and huddled masses
who have gathered at your gates.
I am the inscrutable Chinese,
one of 20,000 from my land
who for a dollar a day built your
grand railway of the golden spike.
I am the drunken Irishman,
the mobbed-up Italian,
the ignorant Pole
who sweated and died
to forge the iron and erect
your palaces of steel.
I am ..read more
The New Verse News
2d ago
by Suzanne Morris
...is how I chose,
in the end,
to remember her name
on the prayer list
to be read aloud
in Sunday worship.
Not Catherine,
Princess of Wales
or Kate, as she is
familiarly known,
but rather, simply, Catherine.
Not because I
wanted to avoid
raising the ire of anyone
who disapproves of
the British monarchy’s
continued existence, or
starting a dialogue
in hushed tones
about how shabbily the Royals
had treated poor Meghan.
Not to put aside the question of
whether or not
anyone outside
the royal family
and the healthcare professionals
ministering to he ..read more
The New Verse News
3d ago
by Donald Sellitti
Goodbye, Kyiv and thank you
for the chance to stand in solidarity
with you at safe remove to
write of you with passion and with
anger in my slanted rhymes.
I cared a lot, I really did, and bared
my heart in lines I broke in
unexpected places, taking
risks you wouldn’t
understand.
You’re not a poet.
I was just as brave as you.
The moving zeitgeist though
has moved and left you
far behind as winds of war
have blown again and lauded us with
new and fresher outrage for the
dead and dying. My anger needs
new tinder, not the charcoal
of your cities ..read more
The New Verse News
4d ago
by Julie Steiner
“Choir Boys 2” by Christina Clare
Charles Spencer says he was sexually and physically abused at elite boy’s boarding school (The Independent, 12 March 2024)
Former Mormon bishop highlighted in AP investigation arrested on felony child sex abuse charges (AP, March 1, 2024)
Nearly 500 victims of church sex abuse in France have received financial compensation (AP, March 14, 2024)
Quiet on Set Uncovers Abuse Allegations at Nickelodeon, Raises Deeper Issues (Vanity Fair, March 14, 2024)
Middlesex County jury awards $25 million in ..read more
The New Verse News
5d ago
by Kathy Conway
For a month, we’ve noticed
tender green sprouts—
too early not to freeze or
be trampled, often poking
out of dried-brown leaves
of last fall. Do you hear
their crinkle in
the breeze?
On our walks, we’ve created
a game—are they crocus,
jonquils, tips of hosta? We’ve
savored forsythia and lilac buds,
the red tint of oaks, the pale
green of maples.
I have always loved early
Spring’s pops of color, signs
of growth and new life to come;
births and passings of loved
ones, of this year’s departed
and a ye ..read more
The New Verse News
6d ago
by Bonnie Proudfoot
Next Year in Jerusalem is said at the end of the Passover Seder. It is an ancient tradition that was first recorded by Isaac Tyrnau in the 15th century. Above art by Caren Garfen.
Oh, Israel, if my love is a suitcase, when I get to your house
I won't unpack, even though my mother and her mother,
my uncles and cousins are buried in pine boxes beneath
a star of David and our Rabbi wept for victims of the Holocaust,
cried for a homeland for the children of Zion. Yes, I used to feel
my chest swell open when I heard Hatikvah, yes, you've suffered,
people ..read more
The New Verse News
1w ago
by Juditha Dowd
AI-generated graphic by Shutterstock
Once again we’ve let ourselves be taken in by spring.
Words we haven’t spoken for months come tumbling
from our mouths. Tulip, soil, survival.
Fools that we are to trust a tease so early in the season,
we need it like we need the cat to see ourselves
in a rosier light—young and more attentive—aspiring
to the better selves we seem to have forgotten.
We need it like we need the moon to make the universe
believable. I’ve been thinking about how hard it is to write
a poem w ..read more
The New Verse News
1w ago
by Steven Kent
So listen, sheep: The earth is flat
(There's video to prove just that).
Each contrail you can see today
Was put there by the CIA,
While climate change is just a ruse,
A trick the Bilderbergers use
To dupe us now and gain control.
What's more, they mean to steal your soul
Through wicked work like plant-based meat,
Electric ovens for your heat,
Those 15-minute city plans,
And semi-auto rifle bans.
In fact, the Feds will take all guns,
Emasculate our manly sons,
Then bind us up with UN clamps
And ship us off to FEMA camps.
Bill Gates, we know, has killed a lot
Of ..read more
The New Verse News
1w ago
by Ron Riekki
“If you expect nothing
from somebody
you are never disappointed.”
  ..read more