By Kenneth Purscell Ball Field and Stream For just a moment Pause and smell the popcorn, Chocolates, gum, chips, The hot dogs in their coats Of bread and chili and cheese. The last remaining breaths Of winter hang in the shadow Of the wall. The first Promises of spring fruit Are only wisps in the … Continue reading Four Poems from Appalachia, Virginia
Ode To Stewed Rutabagas – From The Depths Of A 3-Grader’s Heart and Other Poems
By Nan Corbitt Allen Ode To Stewed Rutabagas - From The Depths Of A 3-Grader’s Heart Oh orange root Thou foulest stench Pungently permeate morning walls of this primary school. How shall I think? How shall I learn? When I know I must face the teacher’s three-bite rule? Oh, lunchtime bell Delay…delay Or child-sized desk … Continue reading Ode To Stewed Rutabagas – From The Depths Of A 3-Grader’s Heart and Other Poems
Audacity and Love Will Come
By Pete Mladinic Audacity Courage to say after this, nothing, blank, maybe. Imaginable also unimaginable—on, on, on with no me. I sparrow-chirp dewy buds, light on walls, the head of foam on the tall draft are once only. Then, nada of lime and worms. Down there, no party. That’s for diggers, for openers of the … Continue reading Audacity and Love Will Come
ICD-10 F43.1 and Other Poems
By E Kerr ICD-10 F43.1 chronic. you see through me like an X-ray machine— too much ionizing radiation can make a person sick. Nuclear Motherland my mother will always be a mother, even if she’s not my mother by choice; I am native to her science, formed in matrical manners, meant to be, and my … Continue reading ICD-10 F43.1 and Other Poems
Pupils and Other Poems
By Stephen Kingsnorth Pupils I’ve noticed, despite forty years, how scene in seen by different eyes; whatever episode we share, attention’s paid from other lists. I note the old, sway hardboard walls, the makeshift stairs, strained bannisters, while she absorbed, how cast decked out - the clothes as worn, not battered props. I listen hard … Continue reading Pupils and Other Poems
After the Picnic and The Paisley Corduroy
By Susan Van Pelt Petry After the Picnic The sandwich bones left, the falling tide sucked through the gut, the wind snapped southeast, deep Atlantic blew in and the fog arrived. All lilt and laughter turned trembling, wet, dropped below deck, a halyard slacked, the genoa flapped, and a loon cried. Sounds from the shore … Continue reading After the Picnic and The Paisley Corduroy
What Is Eternal?
By Mike Turner Our time here is but a moment A transitory existence on an uncertain plane We quest for things with no meaning Wealth, power, influence All fictions of the corporeal sphere Holding no permanence There is but one thing eternal: Love Manifested in our art expressing it Echoed in the memories of those … Continue reading What Is Eternal?
Woodbine Beach
By Terry Trowbridge The women of Woodbine Beach do not make eye contact with an out-of-shape 37-year-old man with long hair and a The Cure t-shirt. But if they did the Sun would reflect off their eyes and their voices would sound of the waves where seagulls swim past knowing and not caring about The … Continue reading Woodbine Beach
Kaleidoscope and Other Poems
By Michael De Rosa Kaleidoscope We look at life The world through A lens In sharp focus A singular view Better To see the world Through a prism In all its Many-sidedness Panoply of views Seeing not just What we believe Or want to believe But what is there Before our eyes In all its … Continue reading Kaleidoscope and Other Poems
Morning Light
By Frances Leitch Morning Light It flows across the sky and dances on pine needles and coats meadows in light and brings a smile to flowers budding in their time of morning light. And with it comes the gift of birth, and sunshine mirth. Morning Sunlight In the chilly morn When sun rises up to … Continue reading Morning Light
Academy of the Heart And Mind 