Category Archives: Uncategorized

David and Ken have moved Poetry Post and Riposte to Substack. Please join us there, and subscribe. Thanks. The London post . . . Li Po in Devonby Kenneth Durham Smith Thirty five years agoI bounded up this hill,full pack, pouring rainNow I stop and restunder a dark canopy,trees interlinked overhead,your poems open in myContinue reading “Books”

The Seattle post . . . The Power of Sympathy — from Persephoneby David Keith Johnson The low sun was a beneficial handThat stretched above the lane I walked forlorn,When I saw at a distance on the land,Ceres wand’ring the field of broken corn; Her eyes were downcast — with an aimless paceShe stumbled, weary,Continue reading “Equinox”

The London post . . . The Hackney Weddingsby Kenneth Durham Smith The bright light splashesagainst the white facadeand showers down on the wedding parties arrayed in phalanxes along the ritual pitted steps – the wedding couple flanked by parents,grooms and maids, next extended family,then friends and jilted and forgotten loves,and around the edges the scurry of children, girlsContinue reading “Epithalamia”

The Seattle post . . . The Kilnby David Keith Johnson The literate leaning is not a pen of pens,it is a matter of matters.      Excavating shards — one assembles them,             assembles and resembles them.One wets the clay to work it again,and kneads it firmly as the wheelContinue reading “Pottery”

The London post . . . Psalm 2by Kenneth Durham Smith The first thing createdwas a mind, and she campedin the middle of the darknessand sang to the darkness of what was yet to come She was the first Otherbut she was not afraid,possessed of patiencefrom before time,full of all the songsthat would ever be writtenContinue reading “Music”

The Seattle post . . . Lazarusby David Keith Johnson His heart jolts and he starts up bolt upright;  The atmosphere, pitch dark and stifling hot,forces him stumbling to fresh air and light;  He gropes, then squeezes through a narrow slotto sunshine that at first strikes him stone blind,  as roaring voices stun him withContinue reading “Reawakening”

The London post . . . Mirandaby Kenneth Durham Smith … Feet firm on the gravel of the beach, just beyond the furthest reach of waves, the dark blue dress billowed by the wind – you follow her eyes to the ship that has just breached the wall of mist that has cut the islandContinue reading “Portraits”

The Seattle post . . . CrepusculeA Failing Father’s Unfailing Loveby David Keith Johnson His fog bound heart grows heavy with the wordsOf stark affection; They fall in a floodOf maudlin expression, over-rich,An inundation of thick sentiment;We step away, recoiling from the gush —Too much! Too much! we think, perhaps we say,And so the rainContinue reading “Fathers”

The London post . . . In Their Separate Roomsby Kenneth Durham Smith My children asleep, 7 years apartEach is all for the otherHis face explodes with light when he sees herShe cannot leave him aloneAnd their faces, so similarTheir hair, so alikeSpread on her pillow and his sheetTheir breathing, a quiet conversationFlowing between theirContinue reading “Children”

The Seattle Post The Last Act by David Keith Johnson _____ Because even he couldn’t walk forever   one day          the clown slumped at the roadside,                    food for crows. They found him delicious. The clown was not really in a positionto resentContinue reading “Crows”