Only now, as what I treasure about Thanksgivingis no longer possible,only now do I realize that the important aspect of celebratingthis holiday has always been changing,year after year, decade after decade.As a child, it was to have playtime with my cousins.Then as a teenager in love, it was to spend time with mysweetheart and her … Continue reading November “The Thursdays” Contest: Gold Winner: “We Gather Together” by Clarence Heller
Feathery Hope
By Manoela Torres This silly little heartBeats and breaks for youNever learning when to stop Forever figuring what to doWhether you go Whether you stay This heart will grow wideDay after dayLoving and losing Was never the gameA heart doesn't survive on loveIt's feathery hopeThat has us jump off the cliff Flying then fallingAgain and … Continue reading Feathery Hope
“Dear Imposter”
By Luisa Mays I blame youFor the dreams that always sleptAnd for the story never told.I blame you. For the lesson never learned,And the space never filledYouI blame.For the busted something that I never fixed.The memories I never switched.The cobwebs I never cleaned And the hours of sleep I missed.I blame youFor the plans that … Continue reading “Dear Imposter”
Five Fall Colors Haiku
By Jim Bates Sumac leaves changingShades of orange and burgundyColors of pure joy.Gunmetal grey skyBlazing red maples stand proudFall’s splendorous show.Autumn wind blowingGolden leaves racing madlyTrees becoming bare.Along the lakeshoreTrees fiery orange and redAutumnal delight.Man with cameraBlue aster and honeybeeCaptured for all time. Jim lives in a small-town twenty miles west of Minneapolis, Minnesota. His … Continue reading Five Fall Colors Haiku
Blue Heron Lake
By John Ziegler I woke at dawn.Still beneath the musty quiltI cranked the tall window open,smelled the moist air coming off the lake.I stretched and stepped from the bed,put on sneakers and jeans,the green flannel shirt over his white tee shirtand crept down the stairs to avoid waking the adults.I grabbed a muffin and an … Continue reading Blue Heron Lake
Surrealist Woman
By Brenda Mox Surrealist woman in a serious room,a long bodied, emaciatedModiglianiwatched with great wonder.No tennis playing, surf riding dollof the west was she.Just a bag of bones,a floppy broken stick,a maniac.Her sweet smile glowed in neon rednessyet grew solemn among the flushedfaced fools drunkenness.Tears of sorrow in her brown eyesabsorbed his soul into her … Continue reading Surrealist Woman
Bridge Lessons
By Ben Macnair The inscription reads,To Laura, may the lessons of this bookstand you in good stead, love Dad, Christmas 1985.It is a book of bridge lessons,written before the internet,when mistakes had to be learnt,in the singular.No-one offering advice on a you-tube video,no forums saying what needs to be done, and in what order.The book … Continue reading Bridge Lessons
Visit Rita’s Winery
By Daniel de Culla Isabel’s photo By the legitimacy of my epistolary friendshipWith Moradilleva EjidhovaAnd Votijova Cotarronova21-year-old students at the Facultyof Philology and Artsof Urgench State UniversityIn Uzbekistan, in Central AsiaOn the Silk RoadI wanted to show myself generous and nobleInviting them to my town for gazing in loveMoradillo de Roa, in BurgosWith all expenses … Continue reading Visit Rita’s Winery
I Have Some Questions for God
By Hossein Hakim (An Abecedarian Poem) Another day starts in this town of minebeautiful tall trees are all around chasing each other, two baby squirrelsdogs running around, joy in their eyesEverybody seems so happy in this townfeather of a bird is on the ground, passage of timegirls are in the playgroundhugging the colorful butterfliesIn the … Continue reading I Have Some Questions for God
La Serenissima: on the way to Dorsoduro
By Jessica Ursell streaming out of Santa Luciathe steps of the station are slick from the soles of the soulsnewly arrived in this watery Eden collars up hoods onpacked tightly wind cold and crisp washing wavelets from the lagoon we waitto boardthe Venetian vaporetto as it bobs and brushes along the dock"baggage below" bellows the … Continue reading La Serenissima: on the way to Dorsoduro
Academy of the Heart And Mind 