Holding On Oh, but I am not about death. I am not about rejection or letting go. I want to open my soul like a pair of arms and embrace it all– the beauties of this world– to gather them in like lovers or little lambs. To hold on, to hold on, to the sun-kissed […]
Read more "Dr. Peter Scheponik – HOLDING ON"Chameleon* I’m a Chameleon, Changing my colors to match my surroundings, I’ll make you feel comfortable. * Trauma like armor, I’ll blend in, so you don’t hurt me. * I can tell your mood in your footsteps, the set of your jaw, the tiniest tells; a twitch at the corner of your eye screams danger. […]
Read more "Angela LaVere – 3 POEMS"5 Years ago Remember as the sun set on James island Tired Together Fading into the coming nightAnd how after heading back to our camp An old man to show the pictures he had taken of Our silhouettes together encircled by Fiery dusk How he asked for our emailsIn effort to send the photos to […]
Read more "TOM PESCATORE – 5 Years Ago"Forgive My Mom For all the things you did for Marie and IWhen you would smoke cigarettes andHow you always slept in and never really hung out with us in the morningsAnd all the times you only hung out with us in the afternoonsI forgive youFor all the time’s Marie raised me when you were […]
Read more "FORGIVE MY MOM – RUBY MUNOZ"New Year’s Poem Hardly any movement but the windshaking banana-shaped brown seedpodson the locust trees. So many seeds,so little space to burrow in, so few birdsarriving for the year’s last birdseed,though tomorrow, the year starts over,just like magic. People will pretend to be re-born,new resolutions, a new pageto turn, wanting so muchto try again, to […]
Read more "Joseph Somoza – NEW YEAR’S POEM"Light So many postcards. So much to say. “Dear Elaine,” she writes to herself. “Almost Christmas. Can you tell? It’s the reindeer. They’re everywhere. Their antlers rising from car windows. Tiny Christmas trees. Those too. On these windows. These cars. Antlers and Christmas trees sprouting from the same window sometimes. Insane, I know. And wreaths. […]
Read more "LAURA STAMPS – LIGHT"The Let it Be Rock at Williamson River The campsite is guarded by a rim of lodgepole pine with a break through the bushes allowing a meandering path littered with sunboiled needles, and a saggy swarm of gnats, and deer flies. I escape the detritus of the campsite, strewn with cooler, coleman stove, coleman lantern, […]
Read more "Barbara A Meier – The Let it Be Rock at Williamson River"Last Rites of a Shook Monkey for the Wharf Rats If this is preaching, it’s from the pulpit Jerry builtin rehab before his last breath. If this is preaching, it’s for those who reachedbetween the feetto pull the plugfrom Jim Morrison’s tub. If this is preaching, it’s for the familiesof the six who diedeaths of […]
Read more "TIM STALEY – LAST RITES OF A SHOOK MONKEY"NICE HAT, THANKS was originally published in 2002 by Verse Press. A few of the short, collaborative poems are being posted here for educational purposes. The 2 poets took turns writing lines. This book is extremely rare and expensive. I use these poems as generative prompts in all my Creative Writing classes as it’s a […]
Read more "8 SCENES FROM NICE HAT, THANKS – JOSHUA BECKMAN & MATTHEW ROHRER"Within This Tree Within this tree another tree inhabits the same body: within this stone another stone rests, its many shades of grey the same, its identical surface and weight. And within my body, another body, whose history, waiting, sings: there is no other body, it sings, there is no other world. This poem was […]
Read more "JANE HIRSHFIELD – WITHIN THIS TREE"
Cacti Fur 