Category Archives: Poetry

ANNE CATHERINE VASSALLO: A feather and a boy

Artistic, Poetry, Submissions, Top Stories, , ,

The shuddering wind
plays strange music,
____carrying away the feather
________fallen off that seagull.
____________Unaware
it glides
____following the currents
________like it drank too much wine.
A pale, gracile boy
picks up the feather
in its dance,
looks at it,
smiles
and puts it away in his box of treasures.

Anne Catherine Vassallo was born in Malta but lives in Tuscany, Italy. As a child she dearly wanted to paint but seeing that her efforts were all in vain, decided to “paint with words”. She teaches English in a private language school and writes with a group of poetry-writing friends, all expats.

JENNIFER L FREED: Clothesline

Artistic, Poetry, Submissions, , , ,

She knows the length of air
will stiffen towels, shirts, jeans,
but doesn’t care.

She likes watching, from the kitchen window,
how sunlight pushes shadow
along draping cloth.

Later, folding sheets against her chest,
she inhales. How do you name this? The balm
of this scent, fresh
off the line.

Jennifer L Freed mostly writes poems, which appear or are forthcoming in various journals and anthologies. Her website is jfreed.weebly.com

LYDIA CHAPMAN: Autumn’s Arrival

Artistic, Poetry, Submissions, , , ,

Upon nearing Autumn’s arrival,
I see Nature’s last hoorah of vivacious manifestation,
A proclamation of her time in youthful fervor
the bassoon’s bellowing croak
amidst a once booming symphony
now all coming to a diminuendo in variance
Like the savory peck of a spry elder
Even still, muffled by prospect.

Lydia is an emerging writer from the Midwest who enjoys long nature walks

PATRICK YU: A Lost Moment

Poetry, Submissions, Top Stories, Touching, , , , ,

A bright morning
The blue skies and waves
Toes in the sand
I sip coffee
As two children
Search the shore
“Hey dad look”
They call out all the marvels they explore
Dad oblivious with cellphone to ear
Smiles and nods
A moment
Absorbed
With warmth
From a casual stranger

Sometimes life’s moments get lost.

DAN BROOK: Anti-Racism Haiku

Artistic, Poetry, Submissions, Top Stories, ,

there’s no art in hate
and no joy in ignorance
no racist haiku

we have to uproot
racism, sexism, &
homophobia

stand up to fascists
resisting all racisms
whenever they rear

sweet, gentle being
cops killed him nevertheless
Elijah McClain

racism is wrong
we must have racial justice
to thrive together

Dan Brook teaches in the Department of Sociology and Interdisciplinary Social Sciences at San Jose State University.

MONICA PEREZ NEVAREZ: Minimalism, Unwillingly

Poetry, Submissions, , , , , , ,

You are my past, and Oh, how I cherish you.
The artwork, the books; the fine furniture saturated with memories.
You showcase five decades of my successes.

But once I could not pay, none of that mattered.

The storage company will auction you off, breaking my retirement heart,
without regard.

Monica Perez Nevarez is a sustainability consultant during the day and a writer by night, bearing witness to Covid’s ever-expanding collateral damage.

VIVIAN LEUNG: When Night Falls

Artistic, Poetry, Submissions, , , ,

Sitting on the grassy hill,
the day goes by slow.
Then night falls.

I reached for stars in the sky,
wanting troubles to
end and die.

Only at night can the soul
and body and mind
take a rest.

So, I pray that in its splendor,
the night is long.

Vivian Leung lives in Scottsdale, Arizona and has always held a love for music and writing. One of her goals in life is to land a career in healthcare. There are few things that are more rewarding to her than helping others.

RAN WALKER: Beaufort

Poetry, Submissions, Touching, , ,

They had the kind of love
that camped out in cotton shirts
Damp with perspiration from
Morning gardening
Afternoon lovemaking
Evenings with her back pressed against his chest
As they looked into an endless sky
And pondered how the love they shared
Felt bigger than the entire universe before them

Ran Walker is the author of 21 books, including the 50-Word story collection THE STRANGE MUSEUM. He teaches creative writing at Hampton University in Virginia.

CATHRINE GOLDSTEIN: Starting Over

Artistic, Poetry, Submissions, , ,

“I will make this bad week good,”
she says with the tenacity of a teenager
clinging to the lie of a broken curfew—
the tire flat; the phone dead.

Hunting and pecking key after key,
certain each stroke will not just create
a new world,
but wash away the old.

Cathrine Goldstein writes a whole lot of gritty, real-feeling “stuff.” Most of it takes place in NYC. She also eats boat loads of chocolate pretty much every day. To find out more about her bestselling novels, award-winning plays, and other writings including articles, short stories, and poetry, please visit CathrineGoldstein.com

ERIC PERSAUD: Kneel

Artistic, Poetry, Submissions, Top Stories, , , , , ,

Towering above
stands a man
clad in iron skin,
sheets of copper
draped over shoulders,
taint of green eyes
barren of thought

Below
I am
told to kneel
before the man
who once
would have had me in shackles
and as empty in thought
as the monument
standing before me

Eric Persaud fights for public health.