Poet’s Corner
Fair Thee Well
By Christine G. Burke
No fair, no ferris wheel this year! Remember
the stomach turning shoot-the-shoot with the screaming children
hot dogs, funnel cakes, shoo fly pie, lemonade, cotton candy, soft ice cream,
Now the fair...
Poet’s Corner
The gardens are lush
The seas are warm and wavy
Our hearts are open
–Charles Silberstein, M.D.
Masks, masks everywhere
O my breath I cannot catch
Is this our new life?
–Jean Whitehead
Poets with an Island connection are welcome to submit...
Poet’s Corner
I am
By Ellie Bates
I am the bright orange butterfly weed
I survive with the poison ivy in sandy soil
I am a place of rest and nourishment
for the monarch’s long journey
I am brown spikes of wheat...
Poet’s Corner
Annette Sandrock is a member of Cleaveland House poets, and has a published book of poetry titled “Labyrinth” for sale at Bunch of Grapes, Edgartown Books, and two bookstores in Lisbon and Porto, Portugal,...
Poet’s Corner
Chocolate
By Laura D. Roosevelt
Dark, sweet chocolate — damned confection!
Always, you’re my cursed selection.
As for pears, or grapes, or melon:
I don’t want what they are sellin’.
Cocoa, you beckon me, compellin’
Me in the fattening direction.
On Blubber’s...
Poet’s Corner
Jetty
By Lucas Thors
Jagged boulders jutting out
endlessly into the opaque torrent
a red bell sings at the end, anticipating icy seaspray.
Waves dash upon the rocks
freely through cracks and crevices
a tern cries a mournful timbre, welcoming the...
Poet’s Corner
What am I
By Valerie Sonnenthal
I am the sun on the water's surface
a thin layer of warmth fading with day
a first memory growing in a warm liquid world
I am sky holding changing colors
a palette of...
Poet’s Corner
New Skills
By Clark Myers
we wash groceries
and bags with disinfectant
the bottoms of shoes
and maintain six feet
distant in a kitchen
only five feet wide
we’ve learned to be
OK with endless screen time
kids love us the more —
tortillas from...
Poet’s Corner: Haikus from coronavirus pandemic time
I miss you and you
And you and you and you and
You, in quarantine
–Theresa Holmes
Ticket in the sand
Symphony, Covid canceled
Just a lost bookmark
–Wendy Palmer
Lucy Vincent Beach
Rules for social distancing
And the cliff fell down
–Daniel Schlozman
Lucy Vincent...
Poet’s Corner: Haikus from coronavirus pandemic time
When a bud opens
Is it truly in flower
If no one is there?
–David Forbes
*
Gilligan's Island
Isolated family
Save me professor
–Theresa Holmes
*
empty main street in
Falmouth only things missing
are the tumbleweeds
–Michael Francis Oliviera
*
The Big Wave
I paddled out far,
I am...
Poet’s Corner
I Am A …
By Ivy Marcella
(June 29, 1985 – June 21, 2005)
I am a soul rebel, a wave
crashing, gliding across
my imagination. I am in
the dark alone, nervous of
the dark, but going off to
sleep. I...
Poet’s Corner: Haikus from coronavirus pandemic time
Beautiful Flowers
By Emery Fullin
Beautiful flowers
We play in the sun all day
I love the colors
Emery Fullin is in third grade, and lives in Vineyard Haven. She loves to go in the ocean all months of...
Poet’s Corner: Haikus from coronavirus pandemic time
Stuck in a vacuum
operating a vacuum
which really does suck
My wife chastened me
for not wearing protection —
emaskulated
Did Cinderella
hate the endless housework as
much as I do now
Hey COPD
looking good! No wonder you
took my breath away
My cat...
Poet’s Corner: More haikus from coronavirus pandemic time
Deadline was Friday
Saturday Sunday Monday
Will finish Tuesday
–Kate Feiffer
The streets are empty
No one playing on the beach
A new silent spring
–David Forbes
Masks masks everywhere
Are you smiling or frowning
I miss all the smiles
–Jill Freedberg
100,000
an ocean of tears...
Poet’s Corner: Haikus from Coronavirus Time
Pandemic book list
Grabbed from a healthier time
Still not compelling
–Nancy Aronie
Planting this season
Gardenia in the garden
Six eyes will see it.
–Kate Feiffer
First I lifted weights
But before long I was all:
“Mint julep sans pants!”
–Nicki Galland
Yesterday, zoom, zoom
Away...
Poet’s Corner: Corona
Corona
It’s
Everywhere
And
Nowhere
The kids gathering at sunset on East Chop
The ghosts shuffling through the shelves at the grocery
I see
Streamers
Wisps of what floating through the air
And cries
Of forgetting
And of
Loneliness
Everyone’s screaming in silence
Everything’s silence in your head
Jordan Wallace...
Poet’s Corner: The New Normal
Where we used to stop and share
we now shout six feet apart
or mime to one another
muted under heavy cotton
This is our new normal
Working from home,
teaching ourselves to bake bread,
planting our gardens, driving less
we find...
Poet’s Corner: Coronaikus
Coronaikus
By Michael Oliveira
upon reflection
that mirror guy is starting
to get on my nerves
heh heh heh heh heh
staccato delivery
helicopter laugh
the past behind me
yet the nagging feeling it’s
going to lap me
loved the Lone Ranger
when young: now I...
Poet’s Corner: Fridge Contents Writing Assignment
Fridge Contents Writing Assignment
By Nancy Slonim Aronie
I have reams and reams of paper
In case I write a book
But now with time and this assignment
My fridge
I'll take a look
Oy, all I see is heavy cream
Organic,...
Poet’s Corner: Out of an Abundance of Caution
Out of an Abundance of Caution
By Fan S. Ogilvie
I regret to inform you that life as it never was
is closed for repairs for cleaning for more agreeable
and compatible existence with all creatures of this...