Poetry Commons^™

The Engulfed Cathedral, Joanne Viellieu

Manuscripts

"The Engulfed Cathedral" is one of Claude Debussey's most beautiful works of impressionism. Inspired by an ancient Breton legend, it tells its story simply but with the most gorgeous effects.

Headless Horsemen, Doris Colligan

Manuscripts

As I look around my room in this practical, unimaginative daylight, I can yet feel the terror and see the awful spirits which peopled it on moonlit nights long ago in my childhood imagination.

The moonlight, which must filter through the broad leaves of the sycamore outside my window and penetrate the draperies before it reached my bedroom, gave only a lukewarm illumination by the time it reached its destination, for each obstacle had captured a part of its strength.

The Circe, James Joyce

Manuscripts

"The new girl"-a term catholic throughout all grammar schools -was quite pretty. Naturally, being twelve and susceptible, I promptly fell in love with her. 'It was my first affair.

...Grandma O' Mine, Doris Campbell

Manuscripts

Tart as Vinegar, sweet as cider-that is Grandma. Despite having several Score blood relations, she includes everyone on the block in her list of "acquired" relations.

My Great-Grandmother..., Lilla Adams

Manuscripts

A few years back if you could by chance have visited a certain little town in Texas and walked a mile north of the town, you might have heard the Sound of song coming across to you from what seemed to be the middle of a big wood.

From Dogfight To Teamwork, Donald White

Manuscripts

A squadron of Fokker D-7's is flying along over No-Man's Land; the pilots in their open cockpits are alert, scanning the skies for Allied planes. Suddenly they find them, roaring out of the clouds above. Each Spad picks out a Jerry, breaks formation, and goes after him. From then on it is each man for himself, shooting one plane down and going after another. The only chance for survival lies in out-maneuvering the enemy and letting him have it with the single .30 caliber machine gun. When one side has had enough, it runs for home. This is an aerial …

Aftermath, Joseph F. Workman

Manuscripts

Monday morning when I awoke to find my head still hurting from the blast I had received Sunday, I remembered all too clearly that the Captain had ordered me to go back to the harbor to find the Mass Kit I had dropped during the attack. . As I approached the landing I could hear soft, rhythmic thuds. Looking over to my left, I could see the reason for the noise. Hundreds of sailors with sad, drawn faces were slouching along, their side arms gone and their clothes oil-soaked and torn. The many small boats coming and going were not …

The Fallacy Of Isolationism, Dorothy Ziegler

Manuscripts

Following the first world war, the majority of people in the United States became great believers in isolationism; that is, they wanted to avoid any foreign contacts other than those necessary to trade and certain business relationships. "Buy American" became the slogan; "self-sufficiency" was the goal. The American people were determined that their sons should not fight on foreign soil again. Today we are facing the result of our holding to the idea of isolationism.

"My Father's Business", Betty Jo Fark

Manuscripts

With an effort she pushed the iron over the last patch of wrinkled, white shirt, conscious of the stabbing pains in her back and shoulders. Force of habit made her gently slide the shirt off the end of the board and start to retouch the collar, pulling the collar after the iron to round it. She tilted the iron up on the board. It settled with a thud, and she rubbed her arm across her forehead, dotted with perspiration.

The Autumn Sun Slants Gently Down, Margaret Byram

Manuscripts

Have I ever seen so beautiful a sight As Butler in the autumn of the year! Today The browns and reds and golds are shimmering in the warming sun, And the greens, resistant yet, wave their bright memories of spring ...

Each Man's Soul, Mary Alice Kessler

Manuscripts

The Thought

She sat on a big chair with her head thrown back on its cold, shiny leather paneling, her feet pulled up under her. A small arc of yellow light from the bridge lamp shut her off from the darkness of the room, and she turned her head as if to listen to the stillness. There was no sound-only a thick whir of silence. On her lap lay a crinkled piece of dirty paper with a handful of words hurriedly scribbled across it.

Front Matter

Manuscripts

No abstract provided.

Please Inside-Out This, Tara S. Waudby

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Through poetry of witness, this thesis explores the idea of truth as perception. The poems explore the themes of family, expatriate life, and identity in order to give voice to an alternate perspective.

Volume 11, Issue 4: Full Issue

Manuscripts

No abstract provided.

Excerpts

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No abstract provided.

Spring, Marianne Buschman

Manuscripts

The gay voices of students quieted as the last bell rang and the professor walked into the room with her quick, jaunty step.

Reunion With The Family, Muriel Holland

Manuscripts

One custom which has outlived the passage of time, wars, petty differences, famine, and flood is the good old family reunion. This is a time when grandparents, grandchildren, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, aunts, uncles, cousins, all get together for a short period of time, perhaps a day, perhaps more.

Athletics' Place In Education, Robert R. Mundell

Manuscripts

The question asked by college students, college athletes, college faculty members, and the world at large is, "What is the place athletics should hold in our present (lay educational system, or do athletics belong at all in the college program?" The question is a natural one because there exist arguments pro and con. I believe the arguments for athletics far outweigh those listed against them.

A Nobody, Rosalie Elkin

Manuscripts

The little flag hanging in the window had turned dirty with age. Now it didn't stick out like a sore thumb as it had when it was new. The white field surrounding the gold star was a dingy gray, almost black, matching the color of the house to which it belonged. The house was like most of the houses in the Negro district of the city. It didn't have more than three rooms - two bedrooms and a kitchen that served both as a living and dining room. There was no wallpaper covering the walls and no carpet covering the …

Sam Vello, Lena Willkie

Manuscripts

Sam was a foreigner employed at the steel mill in my home town but no one seemed to know his nationality. He was one of the "wops" which meant that he was from one of those mysterious countries in southeastern Europe. This was obvious from his physical characteristics and his accent. Sam was short and stocky with the heavy shoulders of one who earns his living by manual labor.

Aesthetic Artiste, Norma Long

Manuscripts

"Hello there, Norma. Can you wait a few seconds while I finish?" asked Bomar Cramer, Indianapolis' foremost pianist, as he suddenly emerged from his studio into his reception room. He extended a firm, warm hand into which I meekly put my cold one, and then he quickly disappeared again into his studio as I faintly murmured, "Why, certainly." I had been waiting for Mr. Cramer for about five minutes, and during this time, I surveyed his outer surroundings. The room was rather dark and was entered from the outside through a heavily-draped glass partitioned door. Directly opposite the chair in …

Smokey, Jack Stauch

Manuscripts

"It won't be long now; the zero hour is approaching. Where can that crew chief of mine be? He is probably down at that pub with that O'Brien girl he met the other day. He should be here to supervise my feeding. Ah! here comes my dinner."

A Discourse On Cats, Dorothy Wilson

Manuscripts

A cat is an animal. Zoologically speaking, a cat is a Felis domestica belonging to the family Felidae of the phylum Chordata. According to Webster, a cat is a carnivorous domesticated quadruped. The encyclopedia exposes the fact that the cat receives its heritage from a long line of tigers, lynxes, pumas, leopards, and cheetahs. Sardonically speaking, a cat is a woman. To me cats are not discernable, and I find that in any size, shape, or form, cats annoy me. In the first place; cats make me sneeze. That is, the Felis domesticas make me sneeze; the Homo sapiens irritate …

Saturday In Downtown Indianapolis, Robert A. Darmer

Manuscripts

Saturday is an interesting day because it has a different meaning to almost everyone. To a few, Saturday is a day of rest and relaxation; to the majority of the public today, it is just another day of work; a young boy's definition of the last day of the week might be that it is n day to finish any chores which have accumulated through the week; still another definition familiar among women, especially, is that the day under discussion is a day to accomplish any tasks in the business district of the city. This last phase may be combined …

Clem Johnson's General Store, Virginia Coxen

Manuscripts

"I reckon that that there buildin' across the way jes' looks like a pile of old boards to you folks," the old man at the filling station said as he wiped the car windows. I looked across the road and saw what seemed to be a dingy, run-down loafing place for all the idlers and farmers of the community. "Well, it ain't what you're a-thinkin', ma'am. That store is Clem's whole life. See, you can tell it's Clem's store 'cause it says so right up over the door in big red letters, Clem Johnson's General Store. 'Course, now the sign's …

America Is Dancing, Carol Jarrett

Manuscripts

1. An Indian Ceremonial Dance, Dells City, Wisconsin. Rushing down to the docks and trembling with excitement, we are afraid that we might be late. Dells City is certainly a busy little town during the first two weeks in July when Indians from all over the country unite to hold their time-honored annual ceremony. It takes time and strength to elbow through the idle crowd that throngs the docks just before the launches shove off toward the Upper Dells, and we reach our seats by the big open windows none too soon.

Tangled Patterns, Janet Jarrett

Manuscripts

The woman pressed her body against the wall and leaned her forehead against its hardness. She tightened her body against the wall and beat upon it with her fists. The dull thud came through to her with an insistent beat, and the urgency she felt lost itself in the pounding of her own fists. She leaned against the wall and let herself become the pounding and nothing more. She wished the pounding could be inside the minds of all the people she knew in the next room. She wanted to beat against their heads until there was nothing left for …

The Window Glass, Joan Fuller

Manuscripts

The prep school dormitory was a long, white-painted room in which rows of brown wooden bedsteads were alternated with large brown dressers and separated from each other by white curtains on poles. The Sister told Janet these were called alcoves, gave her the corner one, and left her to unpack. It was ugly and very large and still, but when Janet had pulled her curtains she didn't feel alone. They worked just like the shower curtains in hotels. Then she opened both her windows. At least she had two. The other alcoves had only one window.

The Faces, Mary Alice Kessler

Manuscripts

No abstract provided.

Arrogant Dreamer, Betty Murnan

Manuscripts

In the highest mountains of the Alps there lies a tiny village, isolated and remote from the rest of the continent. Many legends weave themselves about the snow covered peaks and crags, a few stretching into the villages and tangling themselves in the minds of the people. But the village of which I speak is too self-contained even for legends. There, the people, protected by their environment, are secured against false imaginings and petty schemes. They go about their daily work oblivious to both the perils and the beauty which may lie on the other side of their mountains. Their …