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A Journal of High Culture

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From this Desert by Robert Funderburk 

A cloudless day holds no promise, all earth etched in temporal clarity. Night gives a glimpse of eternity, that snow-clad land beyond the burning stars. Rain, my rarest friend here,  turns back demands of day, whispers peace with its cool, grey breath. You are the clouds, the night. You are the rain.  

Piu di me lieta non si vede a terra by Francesco Petrarch

There is no other happier than I,Neither shipwrecked who finally reached land,Washed up and shivering, ready to die,And humbled on his knees by heaven’s plan;Nor happier the man who felt the nooseWound tight around his neck moments before,Than I who see Love’s sword finally sheathedAfter so many days and nights of war.And all of you…

Radiance by Daniel Platt

A half-life passes, others come and go,But no clairvoyant eyes can find the dayWhen what we’ve shared will finally ebb away.Our palette lacks the muted indigo,A shade to quench the incandescent glow—Our cataclysm’s radiant decay—And time provides no twilight to allayThe swelter as the burnished memories flow.Our sin was unoriginal, and yetThere was a bonding…

Poetry by John H.B. Martin

Romantic figures stalk the desolate streetswhose actual lives are scarcely that romantic.How can they be? No life is that ideal!(Reality must catch up at long last).Leave dreams to adolescents and their ilk:romanticism is a bitter fruitwhose peel is more enticing than its pithcan ever prove, it’s such a devious poison.Affect the classic pose. It’s not…

Pigeon Keepers by Paul Gallagher

Pidgeon keepers, when I was a boy,  Would coop their birds on rooftops, far above  The noise of New York streets, masters ofThe glowing heights at sundown. It was joyThat drew them up through skylights to deploy  Their waiting flocks in sudden lift and move;  Two hundred birds together soared and doveIn air serene that…

The Sea by Rowland Hughes

You are my lonely place,my quiet thoughts,your gift of moments of lightand dark, calm, evocative,yet and unpredictable. What hides beneath yourlandscape of shattered light?I am of the sky, looking downat your tallest mountains,where your secret caves allowmy imagination to pry. At night,you bring your moon path,inviting me to walk its brittle glasswithout the fear of…

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