Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer: The Grand Quilt
I don’t believe we can stitch together
only scraps of beauty, squares of light.
Yongbo Ma: Midway Stop
It was an autumn long ago
I was still young then, still in love with something
Donna Hilbert: Two Poems
You are the rosemary I add to the soup:
how you pressed pungent bristles
between thumb and finger
James Crews: Choosing the Light
Relentless
as the urge that also blooms in us—
to find the things that bring us alive,
and open ourselves fully to them, never
giving up
Michael Simms: A note to our readers concerning Vox Populi’s coverage of the war on Gaza
I’ve received a number of complaints that Vox Populi’s coverage of the current conflict in Gaza is one-sided, and I have to admit it is true.
Barbara Hamby: Ode on Killing Sadness
the emcee said at the start
of the evening, “Here we are killing
sadness,” and the music did take the sting
out of the night
Howard Zinn: Thoughts on Civil Disobedience
They’ll say we’re disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war.
Laure-Anne Bosselaar: Brief
It happens so often: there — somewhere
in a line, waiting room or store — I see you,
& it’s something about your work-wrecked
hands, cow-lick, the perfect curl of your lips
Naomi Shihab Nye: Bees Were Better
I studied bees, who were able
to convey messages through dancing
and could find their ways
home to their hives
Emily Suzanne Carlson: Motherhood
I want
the officers to hang their shields
like wind chimes from the plum tree’s
branches.
Alice Friman: Puddles
As if overnight, the flowering pear tree
is flowering. A froth of white.
James Crews: We Are Constellations
So much coexists in the heart’s container,
as in a carved teak bowl on the table.
Phyllis Bennis: Why False Accusations of Anti-Semitism Are So Harmful
Bad-faith smears of Rep. Ilhan Omar and many others are being used to crush Palestinian rights, undermine social movements, and divert attention from real anti-Semitism.
Barbara Hamby: Ode to My Younger Self
You were so beautiful and stupid though you thought
you were smart, and in a way you were,
because you loved poetry and Beethoven and apples
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