By Laura Denny Wildflowers The rain came down in sheetsthe winter before my husband died.He was very thin. His face a closed book. For two years he had sufferedthe scalpel, the staples,the poisonings. The radiationburns blooming like fire on his tender neck.In the midst of all that wreckagelike a purple crocus singing herselfthrough darknessour daughter … Continue reading Wildflowers and Other Poems
Thoughts on a Stormy Night
By James G. Piatt Splintered raindrops splashed on the remnants of mydreams as the sky filled with the haunting sounds of nightfall’s cold winds. A storm thrown against the last days of March breathed its last gasp and I struggled through the cold hours of the night with thoughts of a sunnier tomorrow. A sense … Continue reading Thoughts on a Stormy Night
Isolation
By Diana Becket Silence is heavy in the living space. She speaks aloud and jumps to hear her voice in an empty room lit by sunlight filtered through blinds thick with dust and grease. Mottled shadows merge the outline of the stairwell and throw patterns over photos of people she once knew, no longer remembers … Continue reading Isolation
A Wing-stroked Spectacle
By Daniel Moreschi Previously published by Society of Classical Poets Segmented sets of starlings sharply elevatetowards candescent skies, suspend, then circulate in sync. Their wingspans whisper sunset symphonieswhile manifesting silhouetted symmetries.With poise, finesse and swiftness, they transform the airinto an ever-changing scape; this canvas whereeach turn and swirl unfolds a painterly display:a moving mural, rendered … Continue reading A Wing-stroked Spectacle
Planting
By Daniel W. Brown We trowel in moist brown earthmist holds dawn to the green leaves of seedlings we plant placed just soin improvised fashionby annual practiceour knees ache when planting peppers,early arrivers, ripening green maturing as cathedral red bellsa geography of purplegreen Italian and Thai basilsfor colorful spiced August pestojourneys of Japanese tri-colored and … Continue reading Planting
Wordsmith
By Mehreen Ahmed Water and oil don’t mix. Not much use trying to fix. Determined, not to form a new word out of a suffix. To create a poem seamlessly; a poet is to transcend, from the mundaneness most likely; wordsmithing may take place to one’s fancy.In a poem contrarily;the poet then must blend in … Continue reading Wordsmith
Uncommon Valor and Song from Heaven, Piercing Hell
By Douglas J. Lanzo Uncommon Valor “Uncommon valor was a common virtue.” Admiral Chester Nimitz of our men who fought on Iwo Jima Standing before the flagraised atop Mount Suribachia marine did ask mewhether I had any questions:I nodded, and heard sounds, saw scenes,of men and carnage, primal screams,of death and valor, heroes downed,marines cut … Continue reading Uncommon Valor and Song from Heaven, Piercing Hell
The Decision
By Brian Connelly “What am I doing?” he thought to himself as he peered aimlessly out of the bus window. The bus rattled its way across the dusty road, crawling across miles and miles of desert. He wondered, at times, whether the bus had taken a wrong turn and, rather than inform everyone and backtrack, … Continue reading The Decision
The Deluge
By Brenda Mox Dark skies full of lightningflashing like a strobeas clouds blinkand rain runs in sheetsagainst window panesthen drips to puddles that sinkin sandy loamwhere grass blades holdthe deluge.Gale force winds,strong and unwavering,wield bent lances clashing like thunderthrough strobe blinking cloudsdropping blankets of rainin a banshee danceover hills and plains. Brenda Mox is a … Continue reading The Deluge
Lost Footage
By Hannah Andrews In the summer that followed the summer of loveSweet Chicago smoldered, Ensconced in ashesLeft dreamless over a lost KingHopeless after another lost KennedyAnd yet, amidst a seeming apocalypseIn that slow-broiling chaos of ‘68Boy met girl as they are prone to do And together Tumbled intoSomething akin to, in the neighborhood, of love. … Continue reading Lost Footage
Academy of the Heart And Mind 