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...
Poet’s Corner: ‘Early Spring’ by Warren Woessner
Early Spring
By Warren Woessner
I think I have spotted a new sparrow.
Until the wind shows me
It’s a brown holdout oak leaf
That almost made it through the winter
The wind tips it over
And it’s a brown bowl
Ready...
Poet’s Corner: ‘Glory’ by Cecily Bryant
Glory
By Cecily Bryant
As uncertain as the days may seem, the spring rains do come
The pinkletinks chorus on Parsonage Pond is as full-bodied as ever it was
And with it the renewed energy of the winter...
Poet’s Corner: The Rip
The Rip
By Jeffrey Agnoli
We thought we knew this sea
we all swim within
but the sudden and fierce grip
of a rip current seized
even the most adept swimmers
churning the water sickly green
and pulling all into dark depths
where...
Poet’s Corner: Waiting for Spring
Waiting for Spring
By Liz Splittgerber
Cozy near the hearth
I muse, while storm still rages
Winter, like ponderous book
Lasts long — hundreds of pages
Thoughts take root within me —
Thoughts of sunshine warm and bright
Tender things fighting earth...
Poet’s Corner: Down for the count
Down for the count
By Jim Feiner
Mucous making
sputum spewing
I don't know what my body is doing
coughing rasping grasping hacking
This darn cold keeps on attacking
my nose is runny, red and sore.
I’m not sure I can take...
Poet’s Corner: Moon on Snow
Moon on Snow
By Jeffrey Agnoli
The full moon finds
those patches of snow
left by the day’s shadows
sending silvery flames
across the night ground
like breaths made visible
by the cold or whitecaps
on a black sea
the eons old contrast
of dark...
Poet’s Corner: Goosefeather Snow
Goosefeather Snow
By Liz Splittgerber
Slow at first
Freely falling
Lighter than air
Cartwheeling down
Chilled to the bone
Arctic wind blowing
Soft to the touch
Goosefeather snow
Mint green bamboo
Listing and swaying
Freshly dusted
Standing alone
Grace and beauty
Each other greeting
On midwinter's day
New wonders abound
Liz Splittgerber...
Poet’s Corner: Into January
Into January
By Amarylis Douglas
It comes to almost a monochrome
the island, off-season.
We walk back home from the Chop
into the snow’s beginnings.
Dry leaves spin mischief
inside the log-bordered yard.
The chickadees, discreet at the feeder
until audacious bluejay comes.
Salty...
Poet’s Corner: Sweet Nothings
Sweet Nothings
By Valerie Sonnenthal
a hazy night sky
mutes blinking red lights
etched into the horizon
silent lambs sleep
in a heap of sheep
under a beetlebung tree
dogs lie in wait
curled across limbs
breathe as one
sand in every pocket
stuck in creases
soles...
Poet’s Corner: December Traditions
December Traditions
By Amarylis Douglas
My mother could hear Christmas songs
on distant piano keys
I remember my own little girl
learning to walk again after she broke her ankle
crutch under one arm, violin under the other
into her first...
Poet’s Corner: Pond song
Pond song
By Linda Comstock
vineyard sweet momma girl
broad starlight, myriad pearl
late night’s gift looks me in face
dark flat pond my arms embrace.
smooth silk skin cohesion break
diving in Menemsha lake
plunging depths with arms swayed back
breathing bubbles...
Poet’s Corner: Medici Wanted
Medici Wanted
By Gregory Mone
Island writer seeking patron to provide inspiring, light-filled
studio on hill, free of charge. Ocean views through rustling
pin oaks preferred but not essential. Author is generally sunny
but willing to appear despondent from...
Poet’s Corner: Mothers
Mothers
By Cecily Bryant
We hear you mothers,
with your babies clutching your skirts
We hear you mothers,
when you exhaustively beg for food
We hear you mothers,
when you weep silently into the violent nights
The world you once knew and...
Poet’s Corner: What it’s like to be an American
What it’s like to be an American
By Valerie Sonnethal
yesterday a photographer asked, “what’s it like
for you, to be an American?” complicated
no longer sure guilty lucky … for now
so many distracting directions
one...
Poet’s Corner: Gone
Gone
By Cecily Bryant
We scrape their lives from tents and tarps
as if they were the very refuse themselves
Gone are the scraps of love once present in photographs
and items of past comforts
Now those criminalized for being...
Poet’s Corner: The Grave
The Grave
By John F. Kriscenski
The grave.
A silent place the grave.
Canals and gutters washed bodies decay; the living stay away.
The worms.
The germs.
Once burdened horses tread, now long and buried also dead.
The spirit moves but never...
Poet’s Corner: New Eyes
New Eyes
By Cecily Bryant
I gaze into her empyrean eyes
and wonder if she still remembers life before her birth
The mystery we all hold with wonder
answers pieced together with religious and philosophical debate
But she knows
Her eyes...
Poet’s Corner: Sometimes
Sometimes
By Bradford Rowe
I was born with wings
Folded up inside my veil
Premature, jaundiced
Given someone else's blood
Like a chick kicked out of the nest
Too soon but just right
I could fly instinctually
The only way to find my...