Literary Yard

Search for meaning

Poetry

close up photograph of shot glasses

She-pirate and the tavern

By: Paweł Markiewicz It’s a late and warm autumn.The wind gathered leaves up on the roofof the marvelous tavern.The seagulls heralded a memory – an initiation.The old pensioner-captain drank the intoxicant,like the ambrosia of the life.The female pirate Mary mentionedher…

woman in black hooded down jacket covering her face with grey fingerless gloves

Winter Haiku

By: Jim Bates Winter’s frigid songCold wind howling through bare treesWindswept melody. Clear cold winter nightDome of stars bright and immenseStarlight streaming bliss. Out comet huntingSaw instead a soft sunsetMagic in the sky. Winter afternoonSunlight hanging suspendedAlmost whispering.

turned on red and blue merry christmas neon sign

Four Christmas Haiku

By: Bruce Levine Christmas festivalsYuletide games and mistletoeEggnog and rum punch Christmas sights and soundsOrnaments hung on a treeLaughter in the air Christmas tree lightingsGatherings in the town squaresStores and streets festooned Riding through the snowSleighs festooned with Christmas bellsTinsel…

Hate

By: James Aitchison (A reflection on the Bondi Massacre,Sydney, 14 December 2025) It waits outside your door.Let hate in and it spreads itstendrils, reaching intoevery word you speak,into every thought you have.Like a snake, hate spreadsits venom with skill,striking down…

purple petal flower

‘In Silence’ and other poems

By: Benjamin Thorne In Silence (Quaker Worship) In the silence of the Meeting,a settled stillness falls;push aside the sounds of shifts in seating;heed your leading when it calls.Sink into that deeper feelingof solitude and unity,thresh over those thoughts wheelingthat threaten…

In a Paris Cemetery

By: James Aitchison (Cimetière du Père Lachaise) Come climb the hills and wander throughthis labyrinth of death. Alleyways of tombs,forbidding mausoleums, tenements of the dead,Molière, Gertrude Stein, graves nudging graves,Chopin, Bizet, Edith Piaf, wedged like sardines,the poplars reaching the sky…

serene winter night scene with snowfall

Four Winter Haiku

By: Jim Bates After the snowstormWinter’s soft gentle beauty…Snow on evergreens. At the skating rinkHappy folks spin and swirlA winter ballet. Sunlit snow fallingTiny flakes frosting the groundSparkling and gleaming. Clear crisp winter nightCrescent moon shining brightlyStars igniting dreams.

sad mature businessman thinking about problems in living room

The Tired Sheriff

By: Brent Yergensen Young, hopeful—gun unneededPlayed the role of sheriff, newspaper and coffee for styleMost his career, empty of worryBut now burdened, chasing a killer’s hurry Aging and wondering, why men so violent?Became a voiceover, of control less certain‘Take evil’s…

Tristan Tzara’s paper bag 

By: James Aitchison (a dada pantoum) tristan tzara cut words from a newspaperdid he use a compass when he explored nothingnesspoems don’t need to have meaning he saidas he shuffled words in a paper bag did he use a compass…