Two Poems by Kristie Whittaker

You

Look into your eyes
I drown in blue
Your whisper so sweet
Like the morning dew.
Try to walk away
But then fall down
Your voice so soft
I cant hear a sound.
Streams of light
Flow through my veins
As your heart pours gently
Like the kiss of rain.
Your golden hair
And graceful smile
Soar through the skies
Outstretched for miles.
In a well I fell in deep
Memories and laughs
In the lock I will keep.
Don’t let this daylight
Fade to gray
And tell me oh tell me
You’re here to stay.


Presence

How great is your presence surrounding me
Like a gentle breeze blowing from the sea.
Your beauty shines like ten thousand suns
Drowning oh so many in your infinite love.
Oh your name your glorious name
No one can ever compare
Not even worldly fame.
Something sweet to say from one bitter tongue
And crisp clean air that fills each lung.
I stood at the bridge approaching my fall
But you came and rescued me
You heard my call.
The one who created the earth
And allowed me to hear
Is the light of my path
And the hope to my fear.

{Poetry by Kristie Whittaker}

Three Poems by Michelle Lacko

Flowers and Dust

gray dust dropping on red flowers
and hearts hang on thin thread
in the middle of blackest night
silently waiting for next minute to come
mother sits by a small crib
where breathing child slept yesterday
he is not there anymore
since the morning forever
he is flying around the Universe


Virginia Tech

and then the morning came
when rage approved by law
shattered peace into sand
and lives, which did not escape
entered the war

oh, damage in the brain
could not be erased
on that silent morning
it was so hard to love
so easy to hate


Lost Chapter

I loved you so much last night
you were near and I felt your touch
and I was happy
and the night was true in me
with your hand in my hand
I never wanted different man

if only loving lasted forever, my love
I could be brave again
in your eyes I would find my soul
heal my broken heart
and face the world with smile

but when morning came
we both slipped from bed
longing for someone else
not us

{Poetry by Michelle Lacko}

Two Poems by Jake Heller

A Chocolate Bar a Day…

It was raining pine needles the day our cat went missing
out and under the trout colored storm clouds
I searched and searched.
Mother stayed on the half finished half porch
(father took on yet another project to big for
himself that summer)
her back to the quiverings of adult voices and
the sitting room of our house
where the doctor was checking on Jimmy.
He had eaten one too many chocolate bars
‘a chocolate bar a day makes the doctor stay’,
the doctor said.

Checking under the shed and in the apple tree
gave me no luck.
But when
I went over to the ever creeping blackberry bush
in the far corner of the yard,
and stuck my hand in its center
I felt a lick
and out came our cat
with blackberry mush on his cat nose
and we ate blackberries until the doctor went home


Morning Dew

grass roots
long & holding
on tight
to clumps of dirt
in the morning dew

{Poetry by Jake Heller}

Three Poems by Mary Ann Eiler

Slush

Twilight - carpets of crystals.
Sunrise - the spit of slush.
You shoveled my heart
Afraid of falling in love.
Impervious to insult,
Snow re-births itself.
The heart tastes death but once.


The Meaning of Ashes

You ravished me unwittingly
then blithely left.
Consumed with rage and bliss,
Wild, irreverent, I lost myself
A refugee from your myth.
A moth deceived by light,
Gleaning the meaning of ashes
In the junkyard of my life.


August Turbulence

In nights of lost content,
I pitched my tent
Against the storm
Of your fierce beauty
And stalked the moon
To bless my solitary quest.
But you could not rest
Until your rabid eye
Saw my hungry thighs
Ride lightening.

{Poetry by Mary Ann Eiler}

Two Poems by Tri Tran

Bigotry of a Poem

Many years of hibernation,
Now, my quill longs to tango
On the blank pages
For the first Ses tinas
To shine in cyan joy.

Words peak out of their shells
To taste the chill of a winter morn,
Yearning to shimmer on papers.
And, I, a poet, gaze at the auburn crepuscule.
One gentle push, and a fetus is born.


Terrorism Within My Tiny Universe

My left femur explodes, promptly.
Crimson debris shoots into the bitter air
To mingle with the photons and atoms
Before vanishing into the freezing night.

There, I lie on the pavement;
Whispers of my corpuscles, audible,
And the wails of my veins, fading.
I yearn to sip the succulent dews;

I crave for the honey of the magenta moon
And long to see the orange sunrise.
My hummingbird with its weak chant,
And my soul with a long to escape this world.

I mumble the name of Love,
Knowing only her gentle kiss can rescue me.
I mumble the name of Venus,
Waiting for her to enter my tiny universe to heal my wound.

As the seconds whiz by--
Twenty, nineteen, eighteen, seventeen...
What will happen next?

{Two Poems by Tri Tran}

Two Poems by Michelle Lacko

Private Zone

swaying black light in the corner
secret entrance to secret room
shadow of mouse
dances to the rhythm she sings caged in
behind open window
storm gathers up to listen
and howl and cry and rage
if her words do not sound sane

in pink wardrobe modern shirts
sit untouched
silver dresses, see-through pants
hang patiently in darkened space
waiting for show to begin
in her head then on the stage

she is famous here
without live audience
light bulb and four walls listen to the very end
her words speak not of sanity
it sounds as if she just reinvented reality

for days she wears sleep uniform
drinks water someone brought
in hands she holds made up mask
and walks in circles
looking for a lock
she found the key to her private zone
and wants to lock the door


XXX…

we try to sleep in peace
but our hands
keep fighting
we try to talk to ears
but our words
are still

we move with eternity
like leaves
in the smooth rain
exposed to silence
fragile
like dreams in our veins

lungs don’t breath
and hearts bleed
never disconnected
from that timeless space
where our minds fill up
with one feeling
we do not dare to scream out loud

silence lifts us high
we both fall
hand in hand
into the same bed
we seek war and peace
always again

{Poems by Michelle Lacko}

One Poem by Rachel Chatham

Eighteen & Beautiful

eighteen and beautiful
and paid by the lifetime
what are you dreaming about?
what are you dreaming about?

a woman sits at a bar
smiles at a man
the prayer of skin against skin;
eighteen and beautiful

everyone needs a cause so they can touch greatness
so we pull off clothing
and draw each other close
a final act of faith
the trust in something immortal:

eighteen and beautiful
how old are you?
a million.
young enough to be surprised.
what are you dreaming about?

a woman sits at a bar
smiles at a man
because what are we if not people?
—the things men do to men—

I won’t go to hell for not moving
and you won’t go to hell for screaming
the road to heaven is paved with good intentions…

eighteen and beautiful
what happens when “be yourself” becomes “be just like me”?
when do you forget how to be lonely?
when do you learn how to hope?

a woman sits at a bar
smiles at a man
through crystal glasses and melting ice
and the prayer of skin brushing skin

everyone needs a cause to touch greatness
we’re all eighteen and beautiful
and what sinner or saint can script a final curtain
in a world that has none?

{Poem by Rachel Chatham}

One Poem by Cory Rowell

Untitled #1

In contemplative
cultivation, no soil should
stick to the shovel

{Poem by Cory Rowell}

An Excerpt by Holly Day

From In Summation

This is what your life amounts to—running out the back door and down the service stairs, so sane, finally. Are those sirens? Or are your ears still ringing from the reverb of metal hitting metal, gunpowder igniting, someone screaming next to your head? There has to be some way to make this right, and going to jail is not going to make anything right. You long for wide open spaces free of concrete, skyscrapers, glass, and noise, and so you get in your shiny red car and drive.

You drive. You just get in the car and drive. You take off your shirt while you drive, and your pants, and your shoes, until you are just wearing your pinstriped boxer shorts and a pair of socks, your blood-and-ink-stained clothes random markers on a life disappearing far, far behind you. You grab your sunglasses off the dashboard and slip them on, and now that it’s darker, you feel even more sane. You’re just going to drive until all this is behind you. There are thousands of miles of concrete between here and the ocean, and even more if you drive north/south instead of east/west. That’s the great thing about the Midwest, you think, because you can drive in any direction for a really long time. By the time you hit the ocean, you will have this all figured out.

{Excerpted Piece by Holly Day}

One Poem by Jeff Steinle

Obedience To My Siren

Obedient with crossed fingers,
crossed eyes, and a mind that lingers.
Not knowing trembling kisses,
but broken jaw wishes.
Hanging shadow, valentine rose
strait to your heart I propose.
A kingdom of our own
from which we can never be thrown.
The gifts you bring
with scope and singing.
Sirens call soul to drawl
me to you enthralling and new.

{Poem by Jeff Steinle}

One Piece by Kevin Boyle

Deficiency

When I enter the wild
I see a world of possibility
I think
Of all that mankind
Is missing
Huddled
Away in their mansion
Or their skyscraper
Pecking away at
their keyboard––
While I sit in this field
And listen to the birds
peck at their sustenance.
The robin begins a song––
nay, a cry,
To mankind to come forth
and bare witness to
the
untamed
Wilderness
The animal within needs to be un-caged
and released for lately it has become weak
and processed by the very
Machine it helps propagate.
I watch a leaf descend from a tree and
Succinctly witness the fall of man
––how sad for he reigned well.
In the distance,
I hear the shriek of a hawk
Can you hear him?
Do you know what he says?
Mankind must return
We must all
return

{Poem by Kevin Boyle}

Earth by Kenneth R. Fox

Earth

The fields are green and nurturing
The sea wet and alive
Forests densely wooded and beautifying
Mountains imposing
Lakes serene blue and nourishing
The air is ubiquitous, sustaining
The sun brilliant, warm, illuminating
The sky blue and alluring
The fire warms, and is commanding
Lo and behold, an awesome earth.

{Poem by Kenneth R. Fox}

The Battle by Steve Smock

The Battle

I do what I shouldn't do,
I battle with the flu
Pandemic coming soon,
The sun shines at high noon,
Trying to walk the path
Escaping God's wrath
A throwaway in the sun
When will it be done
I walk a path between
So it seemed
A moment or two,
In the spirit
In the flesh
The battle conquest
Seeking the door
Walking on the floor
Of temptation and restraint
In the flesh I become
Of this world,
Giving into temptation
At a certain station,
What is the relation,
The battle between
The flesh and the spirit,
Everyday anyway
Walking down
Life's journey around
The battle between the flesh and spirit

{Poem by Steve Smock}

One Poem by Ron Koppelberger

Steamy Misted

The gossip in delicate
Peculiars and tangled textures
That soothing summons call,
A visible aversion to the ancient
Dogma of clingy cause
And sated legends.
A steamy misted tear in the reflection
Of wine glasses and
Blood.

{Poem by Ron Koppelberger}