Poets in this issue — click a name to read
- Barney, Cary
- Barnhart, Samuel
- Castaldi, Erin
- Clasky, Jillian
- Cottrell, Suzanne
- Deal, John
- Decker, Laurie
- Depaul, Maria
- Dickson, Julie
- Dodson, Steve
- Drozda, Natalie A.
- Flanagan, Michael
- Gaines, James
- Gentry, Susan
- Hanlon, James
- Hartwell, Richard
- Hedman, Angela
- Iannucci, Nancy
- Iuppa, M.j.
- Jackman, Diane
- Lilley, Scott
- Lynn, A.m.
- Malik, Vyomi
- Melton, Bill
- Metzger, Stephanie
- Morris, Sabina
- Orlando, Justin
- Pal, Sunayna
- Piatt, James
- Powell, John
- Proulx, Michael
- Robinson, Jackie Maugh
- Rossi, Patricia
- Sacco, Linda
- Scott, Claire
- Segundo, Nolo
- Sheff, Jake
- Simpson, Ken
- Smith, Michael
- Spencer, William
- Spitzenberger, Ray
- Teague, Heather
- Tristram, Hannah-rose
- Wasilewski, Nells
- Waters, Ryan
- Werner, Erin
- Wright, Abigail E.
- Young, Cynthia
- Zempel, Rachel
Bill Melton
the white racing clouds
skip from puddle to puddle
never getting wet
Julie Dickson
legs thick as tree trunks on concrete
wonder how freedom might feel
gray beast sways in sorrow
Justin Orlando
Shadow's shadow
cut from the wall,
split by candle flame.
Natalie A. Drozda
Morning dove perches, silent
in unconfessed darkness
I am a stranger to myself.
Suzanne Cottrell
Winding road lined with memories
Risks involved in retrieving
Some better left behind
Michael Flanagan
childhood memory…
a red flame in the darkness
and a dog’s wet nose
James Hanlon
tonight I saw a god
not a man
in the moon
Sabina Morris
the brackish water underneath the bow
the oars clicking, your breath hot
the pelicans still, watching our death
Heather Teague
Sitting at the computer
Mocked by that ever beating ebony bar
Words confine hearts seeking liberation
Jackie Maugh Robinson
candle flames
adding weight and time
to chiffon cake
Hannah-Rose Tristram
Branches heave with wet
red fruit. Fecund cider scent
comforts orchard air.
Laurie Decker
Scarlet lips kiss a song
Fingers tickle ivory
Whiskey pours, lovers drown
Michael Proulx
bells in the background
sound of the river flowing
covering the sound in my heart
M.J. Iuppa
winter’s foggy gloom—
the flower shop’s door opens:
wholly daffodils
Erin Castaldi
chasing altitude
droplets pelt the glass
in-flight jitters
Ray Spitzenberger
blots on rice paper
freshly cut bamboo, new ink
words no longer flow
Claire Scott
circling and spinning sticky silk
waiting for a fly or the careless hand
of God wiping his forehead
Diane Jackman
summer river flows
implacable to the sea
sadness ebbs away
William Spencer
Hard spring wheat lay
In golden sun. An ocean grows:
Red Fyfe tsunami.
Cynthia Young
Children perched like Hitchcock's birds
on steel playground bars at Recess,
looking just as innocent.
Richard Hartwell
Flattened frog, wafer thin road toad,
dried, sprung free of the pavement,
lifted by wind, floated to the berm.
Susan Gentry
Buried treasure fantasies
and sand castles by the sea
contaminate reality
Vyomi Malik
Ocher humps
The camels and the hillocks
Drink in the indigo lake’s breeze
John Powell
Though you are a thousand miles away
This is our space
And you saturate it
Angela Hedman
thoughts unraveling
tangled knots of fragile threads
catastrophic mess
Jake Sheff
The caterpillar’s
vision flies away. Good false
targets find good aim.
Samuel Barnhart
Dead earth holds answers
Who will ask it a question?
In snow, memories
Ryan Waters
Traffic jam
Red light drishti
Breathe...
Scott Lilley
What the moon sees
I capture in a mason jar
and leave it rotting, labelless
Heather Teague
Perhaps the sky is only blue
because we declare, nodding our heads
in fallacious approval, "It must be."
James Piatt
My mind reaches out
Finding bits of absurdness
In the emptiness
Sunayna Pal
Separated by distance, Heart
doesn't meet the cherished
but in desires and dreams.
John Deal
the cold smell of fear
punishes the blackest night
to warn of the one
Steve Dodson
running to the top
even as the top is falling
even as you say your last prayer
Patricia Rossi
blank canvas perched on easel
palette strewn in freshly squeezed color
waiting for inspiration
Nolo Segundo
Solitary bird,
why sing you only of spring
outside my window?
Nancy Iannucci
Women cower to his will
A hurricane blows
Palm trees bend
Maria DePaul
Steam rises from the blacktop at midday
Children dance through sprinklers
Laughter greets the butterflies
Erin Werner
Episodic schizophrenia:
Grandma needn't strain
to hear the voice of God.
James Gaines
We watch wrestlers rant and pose
Blue veins like excited snakes
Writhing beneath their skin
Nells Wasilewski
sparkling sapphire eyes
flash of long forgotten love
sunlight on water
Cary Barney
boots propped on tables
hats pulled down over tired eyes
flight delayed again
Abigail E. Wright
hand picked roses
sunday evening
garden of truth
Michael Smith
A tarnished mirror,
Casting all of my complaints.
Oh, why do you lie?
Stephanie Metzger
It was the distance
between the head and the heart
that kept us apart.
A.M. Lynn
Swirling suds drown old worries
Clearing the streaming mind, but
All the world falls in droplets
Jillian Clasky
Charcoal-threaded skies
rampage through the sunlit fields,
purging Earth of virtue.
Linda Sacco
Atop a spindly-armed tree,
waving to indifferent cars.
Last autumn leaf.
Ken Simpson
The autopsy showed
truth died of neglect
many years ago.
Rachel Zempel
brush strokes capturing
the taste of his lips; painting
art and love as one