To Sea by Martin Zakovski
Out at sea on a sailboat as winds stop to blow the small craft ceases to move and in the deserted expanse fishes provide us company they listen to our serious chatter and understand something is wrong unlike humans who are ignorant to all our tears and agonies I think I’ll spend my life here […]
To Dorothy by Marvin Bell
To Dorothy by Marvin Bell You are not beautiful, exactly. You are beautiful, inexactly. You let a weed grow by the mulberry And a mulberry grow by the house. So close, in the personal quiet Of a windy night, it brushes the wall And sweeps away the day till we sleep. A child said it, […]
The Dreadful Has Already Happened by Mark Strand
The relatives are leaning over, staring expectantly. They moisten their lips with their tongues. I can feel them urging me on. I hold the baby in the air. Heaps of broken bottles glitter in the sun. A small band is playing old fashioned marches. My mother is keeping time by stamping her foot. My father […]
The Dragon and The Unicorn by Mary Etta Metcalf
the dragon sat complacently looking at the unicorn as it grazed ‘tell me little unicorn how your golden horn upon your head doth work?’ raising its head chewing thoughtfully he finally turned to the dragon wisdom comes unto the dragon and the unicorn as they talk ‘a good question to ask oh mighty dragon but […]
They Thought Her Crazy by Mary Etta Metcalf
she danced around the room…a lonely figure in the dark dancing to a tune only she heard…only she wished for people would enter the room…shake their heads…then walk away they thought her crazy…only she knew it was them she had suffered much throughout her life…yet she was happy her world was full of kindness and […]
These Green-Going-to-Yellow by Marvin Bell
These Green-Going-to-Yellow by Marvin Bell This year, I’m raising the emotional ante, putting my face in the leaves to be stepped on, seeing myself among them, that is; that is, likening leaf-vein to artery, leaf to flesh, the passage of a leaf in autumn to the passage of autumn, branch-tip and winter spaces to possibilities, […]
The Last Wolf by Mary TallMountain
The last wolf hurried toward me through the ruined city and I heard his baying echoes down the steep smashed warrens of Montgomery Street and past the ruby-crowned highrises left standing their lighted elevators useless Passing the flicking red and green of traffic signals baying his way eastward in the mystery of his wild loping […]
The Homeless Man by Mary TallMountain
After I read I prop myself up on a book and try to write. Yesterday as I left the BART station I saw a man acting as if (as we say) at war with himself, commandeering without wit, the opposite staircase by the nightmare of his appearance. He rocked his knees up in the air […]
The Story Of Our Lives by Mark Strand
1 We are reading the story of our lives which takes place in a room. The room looks out on a street. There is no one there, no sound of anything. The tress are heavy with leaves, the parked cars never move. We keep turning the pages, hoping for something, something like mercy or change, […]
Telescope by Mark R Slaughter
Telescope by Mark R Slaughter Why? Frozen fingers fiddled on the focus Dew dripped Dark hindered Constellations laughed – Not least that I was daft – And made me wonder: “Why?” As nostrils dripped, charts rung damp, I tripped across the tripod, Swore – either that or cry! You’d HAVE to question: “Why?” The once-hot […]
The Self and the Mulberry by Marvin Bell
The Self and the Mulberry by Marvin Bell I wanted to see the self, so I looked at the mulberry. It had no trouble accepting its limits, yet defining and redefining a small area so that any shape was possible, any movement. It stayed put, but was part of all the air. I wanted to […]
Sunflowers by Martin Willitts Jr.
Sunflowers by Martin Willitts Jr. Based on the Van Gogh painting “Sunflowers” he made while waiting for Cezanne to join him I want to decorate my room with color from sunflowers that all I can imagine sharing the arbitrary orange and yellow I selected from the field of my imagination placed them on a table […]
The Room by Mark Strand
It is an old story, the way it happens sometimes in winter, sometimes not. The listener falls to sleep, the doors to the closets of his unhappiness open and into his room the misfortunes come — death by daybreak, death by nightfall, their wooden wings bruising the air, their shadows the spilled milk the world […]
Speaking the Language of Deer by Martin Willitts Jr.
Speaking the Language of Deer by Martin Willitts Jr. She heard a thumping sound behind her house, turned on the back porch light to a small herd of deer startled by the suddenness of light, frozen and indecisive as a letter of regret “don’t worry, it’s just me, I won’t harm you,” she coaxed, a […]
The River Has Its Memories by Mary Etta Metcalf
sitting on the shore of the river… i watch as the barges pass they travel in either directions with various destinations there is a calming affect upon me as soothing waves pass the river has its memories…as do i i think about what the river has seen…the secrets it holds as it slowly floats by […]
Some Say by Mark Miller
Some Say by Mark Miller We never know, Some say When time severs our earthly Glow Eminence of lively decay Obedience by radiate deviant Some say I was Relic’s relative rumination Of fanatic’s latent personification Lantern-jawed Some say I chose turn pose Savant’s defiance Polarized face tuned Grace Pernicious duality Some say I am Status […]
The River by Mark Olynyk
The River by Mark Olynyk in the river of ideas flowing in the data stream cascading in a sequence of logical links arriving at the principal belief experience an exponential growth of understanding the objective is the future forged by the outcome of choices founded on reason the primary motive anchors the system individual followers […]
So You Say by Mark Strand
It is all in the mind, you say, and has nothing to do with happiness. The coming of cold, the coming of heat, the mind has all the time in the world. You take my arm and say something will happen, something unusual for which we were always prepared, like the sun arriving after a […]
Slag by Mark Base
Slag by Mark Base Yesterday morning I woke up late, Lying in your bed, God, what a state. Too many drinks the night before; Stumbling out through your front door – I had fun, hope you had fun, too. I had to work and you were dead; Too many vodkas go to your head. Quickly […]
The Remains by Mark Strand
I empty myself of the names of others. I empty my pockets. I empty my shoes and leave them beside the road. At night I turn back the clocks; I open the family album and look at myself as a boy. What good does it do? The hours have done their job. I say my […]
The Poetic Principle by Mark Olynyk
The Poetic Principle by Mark Olynyk I walking on the edge of a slice of life. cultivating words from a field of dreams. a cross section of experience provides the inspiration for productions in verse. letting loose a torrent of connections spilling on the page. a single drop is an atom of knowing. ideas on […]
She and Drugs by Mark R Slaughter
She and Drugs by Mark R Slaughter Freshly spawned, Brain dumps Bleeding grey: Reflections of a mind That wavers thin Along the line That savours pain – A pond of skin Devoid of breast – The pad a feign: The nothing Underneath your bra At best Is your imagination Spread across a narcoleptic world Suchlike […]
The Other Side of Panic by Martina Reisz Newberry
The Other Side of Panic by Martina Reisz Newberry It begins with the desert’s hot sky, mendacious as always, alchemizing grief and loathing into love stories. Here is the other side of panic: a dug-in-deep lethargy that makes your marrow itch. Anyway, the desert underwrites your soul’s story. You become untethered from yourself which may […]
Sculpture of Debris on the Waterfront by Martina Reisz Newberry
Sculpture of Debris on the Waterfront by Martina Reisz Newberry I’ve come to know the way the details of love are a prayer or maybe a polite demand that sets God’s teeth on edge. We most certainly did that: set God’s teeth on edge. Our prayer became fetus and I shed it—dough—before it could become […]
Question mark remarks by Mark Miller
Question mark remarks by Mark Miller Remnants all shame remained, Woven reflections disillusionment, Humility’s existence sanctioned- Nor I or he states present fear, Toil tirade penciled paper, Benevolent creator of hate, Grace in place, grace in stance- Home’ outside times space, Stranger’s being fakes face- Nobody welcomes the Judas, Of lucid transcendence He, Lies in […]
The joyful things in life by Martin Smith
I found out for shore just the other day, It’s a boy our baby boy is on his way. At 35 weeks and only 4 to go with all the excitement and joy my heart run’s with overflow. What more can i ask for out of life soon to be two beautiful kids and a […]
The Frantic by Mark Miller
The Frantic by Mark Miller Glazed eyes betray masks hidden dwellers awareness Colors distortion follow behind actors lied performance Substance of emptiness gravely transforms presence in trance Identity’s in flux erects fragile panic a cognitive disturbance Vessels lot of absence, a vacuous state of emotional detachment Creeper of rose abasement seeks placement being embodiment incarnate […]
Postures by Martina Reisz Newberry
Postures by Martina Reisz Newberry I had a friend who said this: “The only thing that you can count on is loss.” I never quite bought that. I’ve counted on other things: The uncontrolled appetite of Guilt the disarray of Wisdom the long thirsty threads of Desire the short streets of Love the blank stare […]
The End of the Argument by Martina Reisz Newberry
The End of the Argument by Martina Reisz Newberry Adam’s torso, it is said, was made from earth taken from Babylonia. That may be, but it’s all-fall-down time there now; it’s watch-out- the-sky’s-on-fire time. The burquas are burning, Ogals and gutrahs are birds escaping flames, escaping smoke and gunfire. Kaffiyeh fly as well, but not […]
My Father’s Hats by Mark Irwin
My Father’s Hats by Mark Irwin Sunday mornings I would reach high into his dark closet while standing on a chair and tiptoeing reach higher, touching, sometimes fumbling the soft crowns and imagine I was in a forest, wind hymning through pines, where the musky scent of rain clinging to damp earth was his scent […]
The Dreadful Has Already Happened by Mark Strand
The relatives are leaning over, staring expectantly. They moisten their lips with their tongues. I can feel them urging me on. I hold the baby in the air. Heaps of broken bottles glitter in the sun. A small band is playing old fashioned marches. My mother is keeping time by stamping her foot. My father […]
The Dragon and The Unicorn by Mary Etta Metcalf
the dragon sat complacently looking at the unicorn as it grazed ‘tell me little unicorn how your golden horn upon your head doth work?’ raising its head chewing thoughtfully he finally turned to the dragon wisdom comes unto the dragon and the unicorn as they talk ‘a good question to ask oh mighty dragon but […]
Please Don’t Judas Me by Mark Miller
Please Don’t Judas Me by Mark Miller Night’s wind o’ whisper Strangled sleep o’ slumber eternal Burned scars by hidden marks Thy Mirrors thought lies feral In quests last stance we reason for circumstance Blank stairs craze vision of virtue- Castaway – hell’s permanent burden Obscure Reflection points portrait of misfortune Platitude uprising life over […]
Never Sure Which You Are by Mary Etta Metcalf
Never Sure Which You Are by Mary Etta Metcalf light and dark…each having failed us at a time of need…only one is true reaching toward the sky…begging for answers…only to be denied it is your quest…you must succeed to know the truth…to be yourself child of the light…child of the dark…never sure which you are […]
The Last Wolf by Mary TallMountain
The last wolf hurried toward me through the ruined city and I heard his baying echoes down the steep smashed warrens of Montgomery Street and past the ruby-crowned highrises left standing their lighted elevators useless Passing the flicking red and green of traffic signals baying his way eastward in the mystery of his wild loping […]
Nestling by Mark R Slaughter
Nestling by Mark R Slaughter When to summon the sky Little nestling? When to summon the sky? And suffer the risk – abscond in dread – The knowledge of sort that you’ll be dead Upon a calamitous fall; Or taken in flight – a hawkish pounce – Demolished as prey; your fate pronounce You gone […]
The Homeless Man by Mary TallMountain
After I read I prop myself up on a book and try to write. Yesterday as I left the BART station I saw a man acting as if (as we say) at war with himself, commandeering without wit, the opposite staircase by the nightmare of his appearance. He rocked his knees up in the air […]
My Words Embrace by Mary Etta Metcalf
come close to me hear my thoughts feel my words let them create the mood for our encounter shall we be friends lovers of the word or strangers let my words embrace you fill your every need i sense you needs feel your loneliness your emptiness take my words to fill you ease your pain […]
Telescope by Mark R Slaughter
Telescope by Mark R Slaughter Why? Frozen fingers fiddled on the focus Dew dripped Dark hindered Constellations laughed – Not least that I was daft – And made me wonder: “Why?” As nostrils dripped, charts rung damp, I tripped across the tripod, Swore – either that or cry! You’d HAVE to question: “Why?” The once-hot […]
My Mother On An Evening In Late Summer by Mark Strand
1 When the moon appears and a few wind-stricken barns stand out in the low-domed hills and shine with a light that is veiled and dust-filled and that floats upon the fields, my mother, with her hair in a bun, her face in shadow, and the smoke from their cigarette coiling close to the faint […]