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...
Poet’s Corner: She Remains Silent No Longer
She Remains Silent No Longer
By Louise LoCascio Matarazzo
She Remains Silent No Longer
Being raised to please others
It was difficult for her to ask
for what she wanted.
Being reprimanded for not doing things Right.
She silently walked around...
Poet’s Corner: Morning Glory Corn
Morning Glory Corn
By Michael West
If you told me
I could have only one ear
It would have to be
Morning Glory corn
I’d shuck it clean
Smear butter
Wrap in foil
Heat at 425
And eat —
Are you a typewriter
Or a rotary...
Poet’s Corner: Not More/More
Not More/More
By Jeffrey Agnoli
Not more profits
not more outrage
not more products
not more cages
not more choices
not more thoughtlessness
not more noises
not more selfishness
not more indulgence
not more division
not more ignorance
not more exclusion
not more deals
not more woes ...
Only
more meadows
more...
Poet’s Corner: after the downpour
after the downpour
By Valerie Sonnenthal
frogs hop across the road
springing forward as my husband swerves
front wheels spin a mid-August splash
these are the first frogs of summer
torrential hours passed
sheets of rain obliterate
landscape a blur of grey
some...
Poet’s Corner: There’s a war going on
There’s a war going on
By Nancy Slonim Aronie
There’s a war going on (actually two)
and we’re debating whether Gray Barn Boule
or Orange Peel hot cross buns are better for French toast
There’s a war going on...
Poet’s Corner: so this happened
so this happened
By Michael Oliveira
first light rain of acorns
knocked on the forest floor
summoned summer forward
towards autumn's yet unopened door
cold umber light spread
as the sea upon the shore
i took no comfort there
so turned to quickly...
Poet’s Corner: Autumn
Autumn
By Cecily Bryant
The singing of crickets in unison
herald the coming of the waning light,
Daddy long-legs do their push-ups on my
door frame, and the Joe-Pye weed stand like
tawny sentinels daring the fall to come
I am...
Poet’s Corner: Sometimes
Sometimes
By Dave Plath
I think, I think and I think and
sometimes I can't think at all,
and sometimes I think that the thoughts that I think
aren’t worthy of thinking at all
and sometimes I wonder, I ponder,...
Poet’s Corner: At the Water’s Edge
At the Water's Edge
By Eloise Jones
You stand by the water’s edge
Close enough to feel the slap of salty water against your knees
Smell the brine in the air
Hear the steady tempo of the waves
And you...
Poet’s Corner: Swim
Swim
By Valerie Sonnenthal
today writing a poem
feels like an imposition
my mind wanders
after a swim
pond to myself
under cover of hazy gray
held by the mother spirit
back in the womb
each afternoon
in tune with old strokes
restrictions melt away
pleasure in...
Poet’s Corner: You Know What I Mean
You Know What I Mean
By Seán McMahon
Walking up Music Street
In West Tisbury
All is good in the hood
And if I could, then I would
Kiss all the cute little fat babies I meet
‘Cause I feel like...
Poet’s Corner: Island Roads
Island Roads
By Jeffrey Agnoli
Beamers, rovers
beaters, dreamers
twenty-first century
machines roam the roads
across this piece of radiance
amidst the Atlantic.
Paths once traversed
by much earlier humans
nobler and saner
walking in lines
of earth energy
the Mother laid out
before time.
Multidimensional
roads that still remain
offering...
Poet’s Corner: Times of conflict
Times of conflict
By Cecily Bryant
I think such hard times tend to
draw the succor from the breadth of souls
Spread from those with everything
to those with nothing
For what human being can not imagine the
bleeding of a...
Poet’s Corner: I hear America crying
I hear America crying
By Valerie Sonnenthal
I hear America crying
tears that cannot be wiped
away on television screens
monitors emphasize
what is magnified
lies on display
like a hit parade
who can top this
does anything matter
anymore anything
not death or deploy
let others...
Poet’s Corner: Writing Workshop
Writing Workshop
By Beki Test
they say the moon doesn’t belong in a poem
you have written The moon is sometimes male
no one knows what you mean
its grad school and everyone feels superior
they roll their eyes and...
Poet’s Corner: Mr. Bumblebee and Me
Mr. Bumblebee and Me
By Liz Splittgerber
I had a happy visit
Of the most unusual kind —
A bee came to my house today
And that I didn't mind
He was quiet, he was sad
I didn't ask him why
I...