Poet’s Corner: Christmas Neighborhood
Christmas Neighborhood
By Amarylis Douglas
December rain taps the streets of the city.
A cat runs out from under a stoop, where
someone has left him a tin of food.
Outside the bar on 21st, two girls
sit on two...
Poet’s Corner: Before Christmas
Before Christmas
by Clark Myers
Early December now
and dark by three.
Let’s toboggan the weeks
to the shortest day.
The snow will raft
over the curved prow
and sting our faces
through scarves and
pulled down hats.
And cake on Bedouin eyes
slit against...
Poet’s Corner: Knowing Leaves
Knowing Leaves
By Jeffrey Agnoli
The oak leaf cycle
surrounds us like
an aura from springing
pink buds to singing green
orbs to browning wings
all phases complete
and visible to all
a lesson freely
offered in that
classroom outside
human walls
the living sanctum
students enter by
reading...
Poet’s Corner: Shrouded Moon
Shrouded Moon
by Liz Splittgerber
Shrouded moon
In the dead of night
Stars obscured
Breath caught in light
A sleepy child
Awakened from dream
Sees there above
A blurry beam
All is still,
Night waits for day
Damp air so chill
Quiet mice at play
Shrouded moon
Lordly and...
Poet’s Corner : A Grim Tale
A Grim Tale
By Jeffrey Agnoli
The ogres and warlocks
now crawling out of the dark
are not new but countless
centuries old and still necessary
to this realm of duality we spirits inhabit
so to experience earthly ascendance
and so the...
Poet’s Corner: A snag
A snag
By Don Ogden
An owl in the night
down the road in dark
moonless night in a
snag perhaps with
knotholes and rough
bark out there in the
dark like here in a bed
pushing back dread
for a sound like hope
but...
Poet’s Corner: Last Summer’s Ferry
Last summer's ferry from the Vineyard
By Linda Comstock
summer's diffusion, its fading end, is
pulled tightly into one resigned crowd,
an otherwise convivial throng
whose farewell sigh lingers
with the smoky exhaust receding, as the island.
as buck-eyed campers sob
teary...
Poet’s Corner : My September Sea
My September Sea
by Laura Margosian
As the tides change
I will hunt you down
return to you, my lover —
the sea …
To let go and get lost
in your world —
is to find myself again.
Appreciating even more —
being...
Poet’s Corner: As the Derby Begins
As the Derby Begins
By Amarylis Douglas
For Hawkeye
when the spring winds
blow warm
and the striped bass return I will think of you.
When I tie my knot
And wet my line
I will think of you.
I remember my back...
Poet’s Corner: Mood: Petrichor
Mood: Petrichor
By Winonah Harrington
Skin to skin
Magnetic Chalice,
Love
In the dawn
Silvery spells
Autumnal waves
The beauty of letting go …
Nostalgia — Harvesting moon beams
Autumn’s saffron aura
Emanation bodies
Above and below
Mind to mind
Heart to heart
These sacred flames
Dancing between us
Casting six...
Poet’s Corner: A day in the world
A day in the world
By Cecily Bryant
Liberty and Justice sat down to talk under a shade tree close to the river.
My crown is drooping from the state of this world, a sadness my heart...
Poet’s Corner: “The Wanting Window” by Amarylis Douglas
The Wanting Window
By Amarylis Douglas
You came into my dream last night for the first time in so many years. You were a little girl again, tumbling yellow curls, eyes washed clean with clemency....
Poet’s Corner: What’s Worth Saving?
What’s Worth Saving?
By Deb Dunn
The sea
Butterflies
Bees
Ziploc baggies, washed out and dried
Rubber bands holding kale and collard bunches together
Hugs for the ones I love
Kisses for when I really mean it
Birds
Bananas, bruised and browned, frozen for...
Poet’s Corner: Live Oak
Live Oak
By Jeffrey Agnoli
Like the great oaks
of the Vineyard
our consciousness grows
deeper and farther
than we know
each time
we choose to follow
the oneness
our hidden
magnetic roots
pull the light closer
our spreading branches
touch new truths
our selves like unfolding
leaves brush against
the...
Poet’s Corner: ‘Ode to My Mother’ by Luisa Matarazzo
Ode to My Mother
By Luisa Matarazzo
I want to go back to 1947.
Tell my mother, It’s OK, she was
too tired with seven kids
to never have sung me a lullaby,
Never went to a PTA meeting.
Never signed...
Midnight Taco hosting community poetry nights
You know that saying about assuming things (“It makes an a__ out of you and me”)? Theoretically I agree. But I’d be willing to bet that for most people, poetry isn’t the first thing...
Poet’s Corner: ‘Five Haiku’ by Joshua Sabatini
Five Haiku
By Joshua Sabatini
6.
Tern hovers above
Joyous silver fish flashes
Breakfast tastes so good
10.
Monarch wings in wind
Observer takes note from beach
Soul takes flight to it
39.
Kayak moves along
To the rhythm of the strokes
Outgoing tide helps
40.
The crickets’ day...
Poet’s Corner: ‘Stefan’ by Laura D. Roosevelt
Stefan
By Laura D. Roosevelt
Because my “Sometimes salad
makes me sad” socks gave him
the giggles, I wore them a lot.
But now, how to thank
someone who’s gone? I mean dead,
but I hate naming it with Stefan,
whose hands...
Poet’s Corner: ‘Ocean View’ by Sharisse Scott-Rawlins
Ocean View
By Sharisse Scott-Rawlins
Inhale —
like the sea rising to meet the shore.
Let the air drift in,
cool and clean,
as if the sky cracked open
to pour calm into your chest.
The breeze
weaves through your hair like silk,
brushes...
Poet’s Corner: ‘Augustan Sunset’ by Fan Ogilvie
Augustan Sunset: The Masters; A Homage to Marianne Moore
By Fan Ogilvie
I too dislike it
Reading it however
With a perfect contempt for it
One discovers in it
A place for the comma,
A genuine pause in the verse
Borrowed from...