Angele Ellis: In Lebanon, 2000 June
It was the summer the Israelis withdrew, leaving
behind
a landmined no-man’s-land of phosphorus orange groves,
blighted with white like the kingdom of the Snow Queen.
Majid Naficy: Fatherly Advice
Live every moment of your life
As if you are just born
Bertha Rogers: What Want Brings
Gray rain seeps through the fall
of played-out clouds, loops among hills,
ragged mountains; flexes and thins cut, contoured fields.
Michael Simms: Oh God She Says
Oh God she says
The dog has learned to spell
Alexis Rhone Fancher: Listening to Bill Evans Play Stella By Starlight
. “I listen to Stella by Starlight and shiver deep in a nameless place.” – Gary Lemons Side tracked, hijacked, The words unnecessary, but Each syncopated Lyric, each … Continue reading
Robert Frost: The Need of Being Versed in Country Things
Now the chimney was all of the house that stood,
Like a pistil after the petals go.
Doug Anderson: Green Fire
When the captain got old
and sick, he had the same
nightmare every night
Laure-Anne Bosselaar: So, how are you?
So, how are you? friends ask, all kindness & concern,
heads cocked, eyes locked in mine.
&, just like that, I’m his again:
his wife, his widow
José Alcantara: The National Association of Information Destruction
I bet you think I made that up,that this is some dystopian anti-elegy,
and that I am another Cassandra, bemoaning
a distant, inevitable future, but I saw it,
not ten minutes ago…
Karen Friedland: Tattered Curtains
they’re taking down
all the big trees in his back yard,
and next the shrubs, and now the small house itself
Henry Beston: A Year of life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod
The three great elemental sounds in nature are the sound of rain, the sound of wind in a primeval wood, and the sound of outer ocean on a beach. I have heard them all, and of the three elemental voices, that of ocean is the most awesome, beautiful and varied.
John Clare: The Thunder Mutters
The thunder mutters louder & more loud
With quicker motion hay folks ply the rake
Gerry LaFemina: All These Lamps and Yet —
I used to believe in enlightenment, in an age of it coming. I believed, too, in love with a capital L, believed in the upper case abstractions, believed I could list the capitols of Europe where I believed I’d visit. At least I got that last one right.
Joan E. Bauer: The Sisterhood of Buddleias
Sarah plants a butterfly bush
for the purple, nectar-rich splendor in a pot.
Hannah wants some pink extravagance
to beckon hummingbirds.
