Rori O Keeffe: 22 books

Friday the thirteenth earned its grisly reputation this November in France. As some leaders such as our own Justin Trudeau haven't woken up to the never-ending nature of this terrorist threat, others are starting to get real. Two poems, a paltry 200 words or so, is all I take to sum up my resolve...

It has taken a long time for democracy to come almost full circle in the United States, and now Americans face a four-year winter, hopefully not longer. I am firmly convinced that good things leave us when we don't think and act in good ways often enough. It seems that a large minority of American...

How can a tree stand when it is being eaten out from within? The hollowness of modern life, democracies without true leaders, the scapegoating of the weak and persecuted by the men of power and gold - all point to the futility of building a society where it is not the wise who rise to the top, but...

The Celtic queen who led a valiant fight against the Romans stirs romantic notions of female power in the present day. Whether you belatedly recognize the establishment backlash against feminism, or have seen it all along, one has to agree: We are at a crucial turning point in history, with the fates...

Gentle goes she who feeds; chaos follows he who pummels. So is the theme of these sixteen short poems that deride the brutish men that have brought humanity so very low and to the verge of extinction. What can be done by the good women and men of this world to change things before it is too...

A megalomaniac is on the rise in the U.S. and there's nothing a terrified world audience can do but soothe itself with assurances...the constitution of the country will hold back his worst propensities once he's in power; congress won't cooperate with him on his reform plans for domestic and international...

What would you do if you were young, inexperienced, troubled by a complicated life, and someone close to you threatened you? This is exactly what Annie faces in this short story, coming out to her homophobic family at the age of fourteen. Her sister Christine, a devout Christian, takes on a malevolent...

After a recent holiday in the Maritimes, I came home filled with images of the ocean, and felt the urge to pour my share of humanity's waters onto the page. Is well-designed participatory democracy what people are truly yearning for? I think so. Our leaders have the mind of the few, and override the...

These twenty-one poems turn on the theme of a life contemplated, from the point of view of the fool, comically and with ample tragedy to keep it all real. Nothing sullies life more than the cruel people who mock and disparage fools, with their own inner eyes shut tight. If we could only accept that...

Tunnels confine us, and confinements are traps. A person can find their vision narrowing on to the immediate, as though daily life becomes a distraction from a world that is becoming ever more harrowing. Inspired in part by "The Scream". 250 words.

The long sleep of change is upon us; can humanity make the necessary adaptations to survive and thrive in a future on this finite planet? If you need reason to hope, then you lose; the truth is, you need hope to find the reasons to survive. Crowded and resource-scarce environments bring out the worst...

A short poem about a lover I had long wondered if I would ever meet. I go into my memories and look for hope in order to find a happy ending. No adult-only content.

These three weird poems offer a different spin on the Dracula legend, this time with the Impaler as an aristocrat of sorts, who descends on the world in an age of darkness, and creates - then feeds on, the suffering of those under his dominion. No adult-only content. ~500 words.

After a long, long winter, what better way to start spring than with a few brief reflections on an increasingly troubled world. These six poems are intentionally alarm-sounding, as it seems that people are distracted from pressing issues by the perpetual distractions emanating from D.C. America's...