“wakeup,” “Popular,” and “Landlocked Lament”
Julie Beneshwith a hodgepodge pile of stuff
to make a bouillabaisse or salad of leaves
build a mansion or lean-to shack
protect from elements and enemies
fashion a tiara or a sassy sash
so as not to scare the children
“when the barn owl hoots no more,” “no trace,” and “again”
Christa Lubatkinwhen the night’s
dark eyes won’t lift their lids
the sun
won’t cheer the day awake
storms
lose their breath
oceans
forget their flow
“Clauses,” “Complements,” and “Moods”
John DavisThe subordinate clause clattered to the asphalt:
Because I didn’t want to be a house flower.
He fluttered his fingers like a hitchhiker. He hoped
to thumb a ride from a dependent clause,
“dep sesh,” “sadhu,” and “Missus Oxygen Kisses Mister Dynamite’s Heart”
Gerard Sarnatloci of suffering’s
my measly attempt
to lower stress level
a crying need warns
me off phantasmagoric
pathologist’s post-mortem
“labyrinthia,” “laestrygonia,” and “ogygia”
Michele Evanswhen i was a child,
momma told me:
sticks and stones
may break my bones
but words
will never hurt me.
“Hineini” and “Lover Found/Lost (Renée)”
Lisa Delani am neither the seed
nor the fruit –
You water
me in the in
between;
between love and
the weeds
where i hide,
“Grief,” “Clouds in the Sky,” and “Recalculating”
Cindy BuchananA month after our daughter was born,
we planted a white dogwood. I didn’t know
the legend of the crucifixion wood.
I just liked the symmetry
of the four-petaled flowers, plump white crosses
with bright green pistils in the middle.
“Coming to Freedom,” “Noguchi,” and “Gypsy”
Dorothy Johnson-Lairddressed in white
your deep eyes pierced the daylight
*Araminta, defender of the people
when you crossed the line to freedom, the stars opened up all around you
something in your heart made you pause, turn around, breathing
“Cantúa Creek,” “Joaquin,” and “Mustang Running”
Stephen BarileFirst explored by Spanish Army troops
From Mission San Juan Baptista,
Led by Jose de Guadalupe Cantua,
Son of a prominent Californio Ranchero
In the 19th-century Mexican era
Of early California history
“In the Tidal Pool,” “Weathering,” and “A Vespa Ride”
Oanh NguyenFirst at sunrise,
Then at sunset
You ebb away
leaving me suspended.
My kaleidoscopic charms
laid bare at the altar
of jumbled cowries,
flowers of the sea,
“Rambling Rose,” “Jake: The Best Dog in the World,” and “Truly Madly Deeply”
Debra Rose BrillatiThe car I grew up in
Was a 1960 Pontiac Star Chief
Four-door sedan hardtop
In a color my Crayola 64 box called Flesh.
Even at a time when most cars
Came in a wide variety of vibrant colors,
This one stood out.
“Aut Pax Aut Bellum,” “Three Sisters,” and “Quiet the Celebration”
Michele Parker RandallMother needles & threads her way into conversations,
as she does with everything,
tacking here
& there, piercing
the cotton weave of our family, her place secure.
“I will not die,” “Wednesday,” and “calendar”
Esme DeVaultlast Wednesday night
on the phone
you said
I want my kids
to know you
as you leaned toward
the darkened future
“Death Means Not Sleeping,” “Ghazal from a Bottle,” and “On Tuesdays”
Fran AbramsHow do you keep on getting out of bed each morning?
A bed that is half empty since the day your husband died.
A life that seems like a flight of stairs missing a step
and you always seem to trip on that one.
“The Long March,” “Sunday Sunday,” and “Marie”
Jack D. HarveyBound on some skillful retreat,
a long march
north and west;
cut off from the rest
we end up foraging
in some scanty orchard,
the two of us.
“Duncan’s Point Along Highway 1,” “A Poem Without Poetry,” and “Nightfall”
Nick VasquezI.
Purple delosperma frozen on stone cliffs
windswept granite.
Permanent calligraphy on blue canvas
only tides change.
II.
Carved into a driftwood bench
three names now forgotten.
“oh physics,” “Messages,” and “Elfie’s Quantum Thoughts”
Malcolm Glassoh physics
of warped gluons in the matrix chromosomes
molding children with necks and knees
disjoint and attenuate physics of the transport
of chlorophyll far more certain
than law or reason
and the stopped blood of embryos
“Self Portrait as Poet,” “Work Friends,” and “Now Playing”
Julie BeneshPoet, you mama’s girl, so bad at volleyball, first dates, job interviews, your albatross of asymmetry flung floorward like an eloquent glove, ironic as that yellow pedestrian yield sign on Chestnut Street, permanently pavement-flattened.
“Early Envy (1956)” and “Fantasy Football”
Robert Eugene RubinoWhen he’s eight he envies neighbor/buddy Bobby his airline pilot father
who drives his eye-popping harlequin Ford Thunderbird
with gears-a-poppin’ engine roarin’ to and from Idlewild
before and after taking off into the wild blue yonder.
“Abduction on the Canyon Rim Trail,” “Hair Stylist,” and “Martin”
Kathy PonI don’t expect
a soupy river to steal you away.
White blood cells explode into whitewater,
filaments of breath sweep
downstream.
A confounding disappearance into
the thundering confluence.
“Windsong: Solo Flute,” “The Dig,” and “Sudden Gasp”
Russell WillisThe flutes of those
who live
with,
not just in,
nature,
mimic windsong.
Even accidental noise
blown by untrained lips
echoes the haunting, ethereal
whistle of wind
through limbs and grass, crops and structures.
“By Saturday,” “Aqualung,” and “Tumble and Fall”
Melody Wilsonsomething settles. Next week’s
oatmeal eases into simmer,
the wide slow mouths of the first
few bubbles no longer startle
and pop as the surface smooths,
heaves with the humility
of normal mornings. It’s a chore—
the boil, filtering through
what I know, what is new.
“Traveling with Natalie,” “Subjunctive Mood,” and “We Walked Three Miles in Snow”
Joan MazzaPropped on three pillows, another
under my knees, I am following
Natalie Goldberg as she travels
to Japan and France, sits zazen
with her students, through walking
meditation, writing longhand
in a café, always in a spiral notebook
with a pen that lets me write fast…
“thirty days after,” “Pivot,” and “Sour”
Margaret Sayersthe time for grieving ends
grief does not
so I unfurl what is no longer and smooth out the
wrinkles
my soul loosens and leans in to the unwanted hereafter
the before murmurs just beyond my hearing
my heart skips in a dissonant rhythm
comfort strikes a truce with disquiet