Poetry

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Dragonfly Out in the Sun

Tracey Dean Widelitz

Hold On To Me,
Sunlit Beauty,
and Rose Petals and Golden Wings

Refugees DRC

Despair Paintings

Owen Brown

The world seems to carry on as if there aren’t a million reasons to be shocked. But because I don’t want to go numb, I try to paint them, at least a few. For these, I paint figuratively, as I was trained, even though now, often, my desires, and my output, is abstract. Still, how can we ignore the drought in Afghanistan, the strife in Sudan, the war in Gaza, the invasion of Ukraine? Or even what goes on in our own lives?

Finding a Pathway

Finding a Pathway

Mark Rosalbo

As an emerging artist, the art form I work with is primarily abstract painting and large-scale installations. My artistic process involves using various mediums and techniques to create physical manifestations of internal dialogues and personal judgments. In my abstract paintings, I use house paint, various tools, and textured canvases. The technique involves creating overconfident brushstrokes that mask my imposter syndrome, with multiple layers of paint partially hidden under the surface. The inner turmoil arising from self-doubt is expressed as geometric shapes woven together with texture.

In Between

Wholeness Through Fracture: Sculpting the Human Condition

Aleksandra Scepanovic

Three works in clay by Aleksandra Scepanovic.
Each of these works tells a story of the complexity and beauty found in life’s fractures, embracing the wholeness that emerges through resilience.

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Coastal Grey

Miki Simic

This series of photographs, titled “Coastal Grey,” depicts elements of summer themes. My goal was to capture a vibrant setting and allow the viewer to realize it remains vibrant even though color is lacking.

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Symphony in Green

Patrice Sullivan

I paint landscapes, interiors, exteriors, still life’s with figures interacting and posing for the camera displaying memorable moments with families, friends, and neighbors.

friends

Friends, Triplets, and Family Narrative

Tianyagenv Yan

Tianyagenv uses light clay to make miniature figures and wishes to capture the characteristics of femininity, vulnerability, and resilience in potential.

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Green Canyon Bridge 1993, Thrive, and Tarot Deck: The Moon

Robb Kunz

My paintings explore the abstract simplicity of ordinary life and the deductive impulse to see ourselves reflected back in art.

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Metamorphosis

Marianne Dalton

The photographs are from the series, Metamorphosis. Each painterly creation constructed from dozens of layered photographs is driven by my reaction to nature’s extreme seasonal change.

La Huasteca

La Huasteca, Roots in Nuevo Leon, and Frames

Tee Pace

La Huasteca, Roots in Nuevo Leon, and Frames

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Cherry Blossoms

Annika Connor

Cherry Blossom Forest

Les Femmes Mondiales Black and White

Les Femmes Mondiales Black and White

Janet Brugos

Les Femmes Mondiales Black and White
Hurricane
Chicago Ice

Sunset over the Pacific

Three Photographs

Lawrence Bridges

UNDER THE PIER, MALIBU CA
SUNSET OVER THE PACIFIC
and POOL, POST RANCH INN, BIG SUR

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Joshua Tree Project

Holly Willis

The images are part of a larger series created in the Mojave Desert around Joshua Tree in the fall of 2023 that explore the shifting state of the desert.

October Still Life

Chasing Paradise

Marianne Dalton

This series, Chasing Paradise, draws upon my work as a fine artist in painting, as I create stylized photographs of flowers and plants found in my rural environment.

Turtle Light

Ocean Sleep and Turtle Light

Maite Russell

Turtle Light and Ocean Sleep are works of multimedia and sculpture mediums, respectively, depicting the natural world with fantastical elements.

Poetry

Featured image for ““Old Bookstores,” “World,” and “Spoor””
Andrew Field

“Old Bookstores,” “World,” and “Spoor”

are sad places, where the dead wait to be loved.
A teenager in the poetry section
sits on a red milk carton,
her black lipstick like an opera,
pulling one book down after another
in a frenzy of polite quiet.

September 2023
Featured image for ““To the Dead Man Living Inside My Knee” and “What I Thought Was Pollution Was Really God””
Jamie L. Smith

“To the Dead Man Living Inside My Knee” and “What I Thought Was Pollution Was Really God”

A careless dictator, most days
I do not think of you

unless you protest, beating your fists
against the walls of my flesh

when I’ve danced you too hard
or damp February

clenches your teeth
into a knot of hot fury. Please

September 2023
Featured image for ““If These Walls Could Talk,” “Images of Night,” and “Overheard on a Train””
Russell Willis

“If These Walls Could Talk,” “Images of Night,” and “Overheard on a Train”

If only these walls could talk
we wonder
What might goad their reluctant tongues?

Wondered more often
by those who would be betrayed or wounded by the
small talk or gloating of these walls

September 2023
Featured image for ““Immortality in a Song,” “Meditation,” and  “Repose””
Hannah Baker

“Immortality in a Song,” “Meditation,” and “Repose”

The song begins—
the first beat calls forth
an aroma of strawberry syrup
from your vape as its smoke
dances with the music, past my nose,
and out through the windows
of your 2012 red Toyota Camry.

September 2023
Featured image for ““Farewell, My Lovelies,” “A Chameleon Named Silencio,” and “The Unwoke Wizard of Oz””
Robert Eugene Rubino

“Farewell, My Lovelies,” “A Chameleon Named Silencio,” and “The Unwoke Wizard of Oz”

Good riddance, alcohol.
Good riddance mary-jane.
Good riddance hashish and uppers and downers.
Good riddance Timothy Leary … we hardly knew ye.

Good riddance to
those bottles of quenching cold ice-cold cottonmouth-inducing beer & ale
and those steins of on-tap room-temp Guinness stout
— it’s good for you the billboard said and the billboard wouldn’t fib.

September 2023
Featured image for ““Cry of the People””
Michael McQuillan

“Cry of the People”

The netherworld’s sordid secrets, disclosed,
brook no remorse for the dead nor regard for
those barely alive. Brutal eruptions

punctuate detention’s boredom. Nor does night’s
darkened cell ease despair. With 6000 not 3000
confined to have a cell is rare.

August 2023
Featured image for ““Gothic Gloves,” “Pass on the Space Needle,” “Napping Bulldozers””
Sterling Warner

“Gothic Gloves,” “Pass on the Space Needle,” “Napping Bulldozers”

Romancing your looking glass reflection
northern lights pierce fractured windowpanes
frame my mirrors with supercharged
atoms displaying rhythmic finesse
each particle a proficient flamingo soloist
in step with a blinking star metronome

August 2023
Featured image for ““As Charged,” “My dad,” and “One Last Thing””
Steven Deutsch

“As Charged,” “My dad,” and “One Last Thing”

The jury found you guilty
in just an hour and fourteen minutes.
Long enough for bathroom breaks
and a single show of hands.

Your public defender
advised you to cop a plea,
but mom borrowed a suit and black shoes
and dressed you as an innocent man.

August 2023
Featured image for ““Plus Ca Change,” “Telling” and “About Last Night””
Julie Benesh

“Plus Ca Change,” “Telling” and “About Last Night”

That swagger-daddy  On the Red Line el
asks the auntie  if she’s Spanish
she’s Italian  he requests a sex act:
poor lady won’t muster  insult or outrage
and we roll our eyes  on her behalf.

August 2023
Featured image for ““Around the Final Bend” and “Lovely Scene””
Kate Adams

“Around the Final Bend” and “Lovely Scene”

Song, take these rhymes and carry them abroad.
Lift your little wings and beat and beat
like in some Disney film. The Greeks had gods,
the Christians, Christ. We moderns have the heat
of giants booming from the screen. Our stars
take close-up orbits, Venus kissing Mars.

August 2023
Featured image for ““4 + 18 = 5,” “Posse Comitatus,” “The Rape and the Lock””
Ailish NicPhaidin

“4 + 18 = 5,” “Posse Comitatus,” “The Rape and the Lock”

Gerald awakens to a shrill alarm
Gouging out his eardrums at 4:30 each morning
Rousing from a delicate slumber
He slinks into the bathroom to prepare his wan body for the day.

Rose arrives from work at 7:30 a.m. as she does six days every week
Like an invisible shroud of gossamer her soulless fragility moves…

July 2023
Featured image for ““First Morning in Town,” “Lake House,” and “Trail That Has No Name””
John Brantingham

“First Morning in Town,” “Lake House,” and “Trail That Has No Name”

In the morning,
I edge my Saturn past
the horse carriage.

I hear the hoofs clack
over the sound
of my engine.

July 2023
Featured image for ““Mural of the Aztec Market of Tlatelolco by Diego Rivera,” “Walking by Charles Henry Alston,” and “Untitled (New York Cityscape) by Charles Henry Alston.””
Ammanda Moore

“Mural of the Aztec Market of Tlatelolco by Diego Rivera,” “Walking by Charles Henry Alston,” and “Untitled (New York Cityscape) by Charles Henry Alston.”

I’ve always loved a crowded market, busy with comings and goings. In Peru, I craned my neck at the crowds of people, laughing and exchanging goods. I was zooming by in a van, but how I wished I could stop, buy an elote with large kernels to eat, and meander the stalls.

July 2023
Featured image for ““Creative Storm Watch,” “Tornado Warning,” and “The Cultivar””
Ashley Williamson

“Creative Storm Watch,” “Tornado Warning,” and “The Cultivar”

My hands crackle with electricity
And when it happens
my wrists start humming
Somewhere between
my eyes and nose tingles
And the neurons
direct that
sensation
(Anticipation before
lightning strikes)

July 2023
Featured image for ““Muscat of Alexandria,” “La Porte d’Enfer,” “Omar Khyamm’s Restaurant in the Sequoia Hotel””
Stephen Barile

“Muscat of Alexandria,” “La Porte d’Enfer,” “Omar Khyamm’s Restaurant in the Sequoia Hotel”

On Temperance Avenue,
Southeast of the city of Fowler,
Is a ten-acre vineyard
Planted to Muscat of Alexandria vines,
In the true sense of the old world.

Near the railroad tracks and old highway,
Raisin packing, and packaging plants,
And their chain-link fences.
Hundreds of solitary vines
Over one-hundred years old…

July 2023
Featured image for ““I Am Not My Father’s Dream,” “Song Dust,” and “Ricardo from his Adobe Says””
Mario Duarte

“I Am Not My Father’s Dream,” “Song Dust,” and “Ricardo from his Adobe Says”

counting smoke plumes
on the mesa horizon
while yucca spire buds
remain un-blossomed.

Between rocks guarding
the front door, a sunflower
stalk bends. I welt too.
Yellow flames wake the air.

June 2023
Featured image for ““Weather Whiplash,” “Thoughts and Prayers,” and “Sharp Edges””
Aurore Sibley

“Weather Whiplash,” “Thoughts and Prayers,” and “Sharp Edges”

Two trees came down across the neighbor’s lawn last night
with the rain, kissing the gutters along the roof, knocking over
patio chairs, but everyone inside, just safe. We are uphill
from the flooding, where the beachfront parade of restaurants
were washed away

June 2023
Featured image for ““Simon Baker’s Heart Attack””
John Horvath Jr

“Simon Baker’s Heart Attack”

Having played aces at the poker table in one dark
Corner of the bar and been accused, drank
Sloe gin fizz then kissed the girls (the music was just great;
The women naked danced demurely on tabletops slimy at Jake’s Bar-n-Grill
Whose neon sign announced “This Place Will Make Your Ladder Climb”)

June 2023
Featured image for ““Notes on the 21st Century,” “Reality,” and “Readings of a Seashore””
Kathi Crawford

“Notes on the 21st Century,” “Reality,” and “Readings of a Seashore”

It’s not the end of the world, though it could be, but the sun
came up today and I’ve had my morning coffee, while, at the same time,
Yellowstone stood rain-smothered, the Midwest roiled in the midst of a heat wave,
and millions across India and Bangladesh lost everything to raging floods and landslides.

June 2023
Featured image for ““The Greenhouse,” “Open Water,” and “Brotherhood of the Brotherless””
Amy Allen

“The Greenhouse,” “Open Water,” and “Brotherhood of the Brotherless”

On a corner lot
nestled among two story homes
wooden swing sets
and paved driveways
stands a glass greenhouse.

June 2023
Featured image for ““The Magic Hours: Tucson Mountains,” “Lacuna,” and “Cenzontle””
Susan Cummins Miller

“The Magic Hours: Tucson Mountains,” “Lacuna,” and “Cenzontle”

The universe lurks
in the magic of the hours:
the evening sun slides behind
the ruins of an old stone house

and the cholla thicket, strewn
with the wreckage of windblown leavings—

June 2023
Featured image for ““Stakes,” “Mount Nebo,” and “Time Pieces””
Michael Sandler

“Stakes,” “Mount Nebo,” and “Time Pieces”

A lump hammer propels me close
to buried root, each head-heavy swing
a blow at resistance. I want to lash
the stubborn vines to scaffolding

so they’ll grow upright, as we want
for our children—as I raised you, my child,

May 2023
Featured image for ““Linn Junction,” “Midwestern Blues,” and “Dear Capitalism””
Julie Benesh

“Linn Junction,” “Midwestern Blues,” and “Dear Capitalism”

My father built the cabin by the river
himself, and built me a treehouse
on the riverbank and two kinds of swings:
one with a tire you sit on and one to hang
on upright. We found a wounded duckling
near the pond, and nursed it back to health.

May 2023
Featured image for ““How to raise a child who loves herself,” “Blessing for the Prairie Plants,” and “Ode to the Waterwheel””
Rosalie Hendon

“How to raise a child who loves herself,” “Blessing for the Prairie Plants,” and “Ode to the Waterwheel”

To raise a child who loves herself,
remove the word “beautiful” from your vocabulary.
Replace it with brave.
Smart.
Creative.
Kind.

Instead of her hair, her eyes, her skin:
Notice her soul.

May 2023