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THE POETRY OF BRETT RUTHERFORD


Version 1.7. September 18, 2024.


NEW POEMS POSTED AS WRITTEN


AUGUST 2024

JULY 2024

  • Moscow Was Burned, So Why Not Paris. "The Terror is here again. How far will it go?". Adapted from Victor Hugo, l’Année Terrible, “May 1871, Paris in Flames.”
  • A World Without Paris Is Unthinkable. "Without Paris, the world goes back to a cold and reptilian future." Adapted from Victor Hugo, l’Année Terrible, “May 1871, Paris in Flames, Part 2.”
  • The Judgment of Paris. "Some problems are golden fruits that may be full of ash." Adapted from Victor Hugo, l’Année Terrible, “May 1871, Paris in Flames, Part 3.”
  • Hag of the Past. "Stand here at the bar where I accuse you, Poverty" Adapted from Victor Hugo, l’Année Terrible, “May 1871, Paris in Flames Part 4.”
  • But When the Louvre Caught Fire. "Oh, the cry of the evil ghosts" Adapted from Victor Hugo, l’Année Terrible, “May 1871, Paris in Flames Part 5.”
  • Is It Night? Is It Day? "The horror comes at twilight" Adapted from Victor Hugo, l’Année Terrible, “May 1871.”
  • A Night in Brussels. "Here at my house, someone came to kill me" Adapted from Victor Hugo, l’Année Terrible, “May 1871.”
  • Weehawken Cinderella. "Home by midnight!"
  • Expelled from Belgium. "Mr. Hugo is enjoined ... to leave the Kingdom of Belgium" Adapted from Victor Hugo, l’Année Terrible, “May 1871.”
  • Fear of Falling (Revised). "The man who would be king."

JUNE 2024

  • The Two Monuments, Part 1. The rebellious Paris Commune threatens to destroy the Arc de Triomphe and the Napoleon column at the Vendôme. Adapted from Victor Hugo, l’Année Terrible, “May 1871.”
  • The Two Monuments, Part 2. "Why do I see this horror even when my eyes are closed?" Adapted from Victor Hugo, l’Année Terrible, “May 1871.”
  • By the Number. Thirty four verdicts!
  • The Frailty of History. "No! Just ruins. Nothing." Adapted from Victor Hugo, l’Année Terrible, “May 1871.”
  • Look Away. A narrow escape.
  • Making Puppies. In the 1950s, nobody knew where puppies came from.

MAY 2024

  • The Invisible Man. I want to watch a horror movie; my mother wants to have an affair.
  • The Secrets of Life and Death. Some ten-year-olds discover a 1950s "Marriage Manual."
  • A Cry from Afar. Adapted from Victor Hugo, l’Année Terrible, “April 1871.”
  • No Reprisals. A powerful moral statement made as a civil war was breaking out. Adapted from Victor Hugo, l’Année Terrible, “April 1871.”
  • The Room. In Soviet Russia, they had ways of dealing with people like you.
  • Stay Back! "There is a solitude so deep that other solitudes are lost in it." Adapted from Victor Hugo, l’Année Terrible, “April 1871.”
  • They Rise, to Fall Again. "The future is made on the anvil of the present." Adapted from Victor Hugo, l’Année Terrible, “April 1871.”
  • While the Sea Roars. "Armies heard his pleas, and paused." Adapted from Victor Hugo, l’Année Terrible, “April 1871.”
  • A Birthday. "amid the merriment of clanging bells".
  • The Exiles. "to dwell unwelcome where even the sky is unfamiliar".

APRIL 2024

FEBRUARY 2024

JANUARY 2024

DECEMBER 2023

  • Christmas, Don't Ask. What was your Christmas like? ... I changed the subject.
  • Prowess of the Prussians. Adapted and translated from Victor Hugo, l'Année Terrible. "December 1870"
  • The Forts of Paris. Adapted from Victor Hugo, l'Année Terrible, "December 1870"
  • To France, Abandoned. Adapted from Victor Hugo, l'Année Terrible, "December 1870"
  • Our Dead. Adapted from Victor Hugo, l'Année Terrible, "December 1870"
  • The Warning. A howling madman in downtown Pittsburgh
  • Family, Anglo-Saxon Style. "They watch for one another's death notices"
  • Who Is the Ultimate Victor? Adapted and translated from Victor Hugo, l'Année Terrible, "December 1870." Attention, Teutons! We have a thing or two it seems we need to teach you!
  • The First of January. Translated from Victor Hugo, l'Année Terrible, "January 1871"
  • The Jumbo Sandwich. Childhood memories of bologna in Scottdale, PA.
  • Letter to a Lady, Carried by Balloon. Translated and adapted from from Victor Hugo, l’Année Terrible, “January 1871”
  • The Stupidity of War. Adapted from Victor Hugo, l'Année Terrible, "January 1871"
  • No! No! No! Adapted and translated from Victor Hugo, l'Année Terrible, "January 1871" "The King of Prussia, here and lording it over Paris! No!"
  • Summation. Adapted and translated from Victor Hugo, l’Annee Terrible, “January 1871.” A denunciation of Louis-Jules Trochu (1815-1896), President of the Government of National Defense, who resigned from his post January 22, 1871.

NOVEMBER 2023


OCTOBER 2023


SEPTEMBER 2023


AUGUST 2023


JULY 2023


JUNE 2023


MAY 2023


APRIL 2023


MARCH 2023


FEBRUARY 2023


JANUARY 2023


DECEMBER 2022

NOVEMBER 2022

OCTOBER 2022

SEPTEMBER 2022

AUGUST 2022

BRETT RUTHERFORD POEMS POSTED BY TOPIC

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