By Jim Bates The summer when I was eight years old a new highway began being built about a mile from our farm. My older brother Lewis and I were fascinated by the huge, noisy machines: road graders, dump trucks and bulldozers. When our chores were completed, we’d ride over to the creek, go for … Continue reading Oxygen
Tongi
By Mehreen Ahmed Tongi It was a glass room, Tongi. Literally, a room which was made of glass built on stilts in the far shade of a village pond. The pond's algae reflected its green on its glass walls. On rainy days, slanting rains fell on it and left its droplets to slide down the glass. Tongi … Continue reading Tongi
Esme
By Wendy Taylor It sat on a shelf in Dad’s wardrobe and each time I went in to grab a jacket to put on him when we went out for a walk, I saw it there. A bible. I had never really given it a second thought assuming it to be a family bible which … Continue reading Esme
Loneliness and Other Poems
By John F. Zurn Loneliness Sometimes loneliness wins out, and nights feel like forever. Then my faith begins to doubt that God is really present. In the morning in the light, my fitful thoughts recede. Yet loneliness does not seem right If love is all I need. Weathering Storms When the storms of life begin, … Continue reading Loneliness and Other Poems
from Icicles this Abstraction and Other Poems
By A.J. Huffman from Icicles this Abstraction Vision equals illusion. What cannot be seen often retracts, refracts into brilliant array of perceived mobility. Angles hang, vacant vases of possibility. Look closer. Infinity dangles just below the light. I Am Staircase spiraling towards nowhere I will ever reach. Archaic, I am kept in appreciation of past … Continue reading from Icicles this Abstraction and Other Poems
The Hum of Silence and Other Poems
By Bobbi Sinha-Morey The Hum of Silence In the sweet idleness of my home, the hum of silence all around me, a pale scent of wood smoke is in the breeze outside my half open window while I sit by the hearth, awaiting my breakfast being cooked over the fire when the silence was broken … Continue reading The Hum of Silence and Other Poems
Dementia and Other Poems
By Alan Ford Dementia I am in mourning. I have lost you although you are still here. I see your bewildered look, your confusion. We are separated by the death of thought. You resemble a closed book so I cannot turn the pages. There are no notes, no explanations in your margin. Our life together … Continue reading Dementia and Other Poems
Sanctuary and Other Poems
By Stephen Kingsnorth Sanctuary Altar surround, the sanctuary - it’s holy ground, bared soles, atone, for I have trod with loosened thongs, where even angels fear to tread, and souls exposed, by spirit fed a sentinel, saint sentry point. Yet killing field those turbulent - Becket, Luwum, Romero, priests, for shame exposed, unwelcome voice, seed … Continue reading Sanctuary and Other Poems
Ruins
By James Moran When the sun set I went to the ruins. When mother and George fought I went to the ruins. When George convinced the village mother should be executed I went to the ruins. When mounted nomads attacked the village I went to the ruins. Even when a pair of bears inhabited the … Continue reading Ruins
Stilling the Ripples
By Earl Smith One of the core ideas of Buddhism centers on the first steps on the path to self-knowledge. Here are some thoughts that might help you start on that journey. We’ll go together. *** Let your imagination transport you to a small pond somewhere within a leafy wood. Let’s say the time is … Continue reading Stilling the Ripples
Academy of the Heart And Mind 