THE CONNECTION No, I’ve never come across a dead human on one of my walks in Golden Gate Park, but the other day I came upon a dead squirrel that was being ravaged by insects that no doubt heard the news and couldn’t pass up an easy meal. And as I watched the mini-spectacle I […]
Read more " Jeffrey Zable – 2 poems"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"The Unprintable Word Beckons Me to Take a Seat the first call is very nicestretched out over the stratosphereshe beckons me into her earI listen to the sound of myselfrubbing up against my legspurringhummingthe song I always wanted to hear*somewhere inside of the telephonetrembling in fearits jacket coming off the sleeves*“I’ve never been inside here” […]
Read more "Robin Wyatt Dunn – The Unprintable Word Beckons Me to Take a Seat"“The Elenore” The Eleonore is secretly a bitter enemy of the male. She is a great betrayer of tenderness, she will crack open any egg, reveal its yolk, and then devour it. Without remorse she will lay waste to the infrastructure of romance— nature’s most fragile and beautiful invention. She is an agent of chaos, […]
Read more "CLAUDIA WYSOCKY – “The Elenore”"AN ABSENCE
Read more "MARK J MITCHELL – AN ABSENCE"because he can This morning he touched my cheek with tenderness where he had bruised it last night. Didn’t notice the purple mark left by his rage. Then he gently closed the door. Each day I move ever deeper into my mind space, hug myself with insubstantial arms intent on healing the wounded me, build […]
Read more "Rosmarie Epaminondas – because he can"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"
Cacti Fur 