Robert Okaji: Something Felt
The way a wren’s cry at dawn
creases the air, then folds it
into a poem of comfort
Laure-Anne Bosselaar: Parentage
I’m from the ocean’s melancholy, dragging
its anchors back & forth, never quiet, never
still, waves so restless they can’t mirror the moon.
Michael Simms: A Conversation with Poet Robert Gibb
‘Having started out as a painter I’ve never lost the sense that I’m working on something that has a tangible existence, separate from my own, and that what matters most isn’t content but the expression of it.’
Ted Kooser: Dawn
All the trees’ shoulders are bowed
to the weight of big trash bags
of shadow as they drag them behind
to the edge of the light.
Kari Gunter-Seymour: Last Night the Chime Of Tree Frogs
Granny Woman dances
under breeze-shivering branches,
her skirts a waltz of wings,
mouth full of stories.
She has emptied her house of men.
Paul Laurence Dunbar: In Summer Time
‘Tis wealth enough of joy for me
In summer time to simply be.
Matt Hohner: Hearkening
Something in the calcium and cartilage
of her two dozen years began to ache and fray as she hurled
herself, meteoric, upside-down above earth, her celestial body
tumbling out of a history of performance and measurement,
Bhikshuni Chitta: On the Wind
At the top of the mountain, I spread my outer robe on a rock to dry, set down my staff and bowl, took a deep breath, and looked around.
Majid Naficy: A Little Girl’s Rebellion
At seven o’clock in the morning
As I pass by a green house
An automatic sprinkler
Suddenly goes off
And wets me head to toe.
Dawn Potter: Mother to Son
Always with the video games when you’re sad,
as if the gunshots are manna, or music,
which isn’t to say I think you’re planning
to shoot up a grocery store—no, no
Marco North: Of Fountains and Wells
water holds spirits…water can be holy, and sacred.
Elizabeth Romero: Strawberry Moon
The moon in her lopsided veil
like a hillbilly bride
her face round and pale pink
against the darkening blue.
Michael Gregory: This is your mind as green slime mold
mingling molecules and attitudes
sinews and desires platitudes and functions
nervous circuits and circadian rhythms pure crap
and masterful conceptions
