Poetry from Patricia Doyne

                INVASION

		I cannot play outside today.
		My Mom’s afraid.
		Maybe we will go away,
		find someplace safe.
		
		My best friend lives across the street,
		but he got hurt.
		I’ll never play with him again.
		He went outside.

		And when we heard the BOOM-BOOM-BOOM,
		my Mommy cried.
		She asks which bear I want the most.
		My suitcase zips.

		But since we don’t dare go outside,
		we watch the street.
		Here comes an ugly monster thing.
		An army tank.

		The soldiers look like movie guys,
		all dressed alike.
		Hear that?  Shooting!   Loud and close.
		Our window breaks.

		And Mommy falls. Her head’s all red.
		She’s not okay.
		My Mom needs help.  What can I do?
		It’s war outside.

Poetry from Mark Young

From the Pound Cantos: CENTO XXVIII

Poor old Homer, blind, blind.
A patron of the arts, of poetry, 
& of a fine discernment. All 
decked in green, with sleeves 
of yellow silk, saffron sand-
al so petals the narrow foot. 
Eyes of Picasso. Eye-glitter 
out of black air. A titter of 

sound about him, always. 
Here stripped, here made to 
stand. "It’s a straight ship," 
I said. The blue-gray glass of
the wave tents them. A black
cock crows in the sea-foam.

 
Some / comments on / the logistics of

She decided to paddle 
there, to join a meeting 
of opposing currents

engineered by a spiral 
laser beam. The brix 
levels were already good — 

cinnamon sticks & slices 
of apple. The local bikers
are joining on Saturday.

 
Even though

the jokes
weren't all
that funny

everybody 
laughed

because
it was The 
President

telling them.

Same old
same old

but with a
significant
difference.

This time
they were
laughing 
with him, 

not at him
like they 
did with 

the fuckwit 
who was the
previous 

POTUS.

 
to your scattered bodies go

This place is a rip off, a real
live example of campaign 
momentum in action, on the
downward slide. A year ago 
it might have been a ukelele
serenade, encouraging women 
to talk to their doctors for free
about the ineffectiveness of 

retention programs or fad diets 
or maybe something about Jam-
iroquai. Now the promises have 
no value, imagined or other-
wise. The candidate is bundled
up, the gifts have stopped giving.

Poetry from Michael Hough, Christina Chin – Haiku and Artwork

Dark of the moon... 

	Walking last night with my young dog along a deserted road,
	the stars were so clear we could see by them
	and the air so still we could hear stirrings
	of night creatures in the woods to either side...

			abandoned cemetery... 
			the wind sprites
			restless 
	We could hear the crackle of a neighbor's bonfire and the laughter 
	of a few rowdies... the skush sound of a can of beer and the snort of a joke.
	And off in another direction: the voices of a pair of Cranes
	speaking to each other in quiet tones less than a tenth of how loud a Crane can be. Jack the dog heard them too, and stopped with one paw lifted 
	as he listened carefully to them. I feel that they were just talking softly to each 	other in the dark as couples do.

		reincarnation... 
		as fate would have them
		meet again

	Jack was a city dog before being rescued, and all this is very new to him.
	He knows quite well that the world is a dangerous place, 
	but these new sounds and smells unnerve him 
	because he doesn’t know how dangerous they might be.

		pitch black... 
		the hickory path 
		a chuck-will's-widow

	Further along the road the weird call of the Screech Owl 
	gave me shivers as it always does. We decided to turn back.
	The Screech Owl's calls, a high lonely wavering wail... 
	continued until silenced by four gruff and peremptory woofs
	of a Great Horned Owl.  Those birds are the top of the food chain 
	in our area, and other Owls become very
	circumspect in their presence, for good reason.

		nervous expiration 
		steam mists
		the glasses

	The Horned Owl sent us home with another
	four low tones:  Hoot… Hoot... Hoot-Hoot.
	We walked back in companionable silence.

		under 
		the crisp light
		of stars

Poetry from Heller Levinson

SAY.  speak sundry.   from

well-up.   down under.   swell.  

                                                storm.

in(still(stigate) .   prick flame.

firmament.            flare  →       →

say = prong = prow = ______.

plunge bellow.       plumb breath blow     ges tic u late  .

gyre capacious.      decibel stew.               strew sonic.

slake.   infiltrate.    frond filigree

taut.

chamber

clamor

coruscate


 


PERCH

fend whip foil assuage go lively

          prosperity muck street hyperbole

          . position

          . loft

          . proprioception

contiguous babble courts fetches compliance

too many moons soil the siesta

by degrees, up slowly,

. . .

then hoist


 

CREVICE CURL

          cloy to

                                      abject

                                      inadmissible

       lull       a       by

frozen lute thaw

 


 

CROSSFELLING ENCOUNTER LADEN

with stone begins. unladen. ladling porous. punctuation free. curious come 

nightly timely & unsubscribed. low numbers constitute incline. flies the 

function. fiery fliers. over there then.

yonder.

 


 

Poetry from Loretta Siegel

 WHERE RABBITS RUN
  By Loretta Siegel

Come walk with me where the air is clean,
Come walk with me through hills of green.
Come walk with me where white deer graze,
Come walk with me through autumn's haze.
Come walk with me where fields of wheat
Shimmer and shine in summer's heat.
Come walk with me through snowy drifts,
We'll leave our footprints on the cliffs.
Come walk with me where rabbits run,
Come walk with me…
The best is yet to come.

Poetry from Gabriel T. Saah

A love story cut short

Wandering upon the sandy shores of the ocean,
Deeply in thoughts and anticipating a bright horizon,
I think of my love.

She molds my heart with peace,
She adorns my face with smiles,
That I can only glide,
The waves tossed and turn,
On my skin the sun burns,
But all I feel is her love.

Her love is a magic carpet,
Whose ride takes me beyond the moon,
Gently as she holds my hand,
My heart throbs beneath my ribs like an antelope
 that's running to a brook for a drink,

My Endocrine system becomes more active, releasing oxytocin,
Our hearts are locked in the dawn of real love,
Tender and kinder,
Purer and brighter.
The sand can't write our stories,
The moon can't capture our moment,
No camera man can either,

For our love goes deeper in the inner most part of our bones,
From the enamel in our mouths,
To the villi in our intestines,
To the marrows in our bones,
Our love goes down.
Forever and ever and always.
A Love story cut short.

© Gabriel T. Saah (The Marvelous Inker)

Poetry from Sarika Jaswani

Home

Here an era e c h o e s
An old song on slopes of silver and crimson descending hills

Where days rush blitz and hours ride turtle back, conversing
Erstwhile memories

The eyes that have cached my spring, my blooming, and colors of my dreams

The place I call home

Memories

Wakeful night
Underpins weight of unfallen tears
Silence shoulders
Gravity of emptiness on pinions of fleeting years

Away from flocking dust on shelves
Books, save your memories in
smudges, highlights
dog-eared text and pages

Places that speak of your presence— your absences


Solitude

Walk with me on a lane most forestalled
Lonely place where solitude caterwauls

I hide from me, my fear
Normalizes in buzz, fuss and throng

For once, I brave the librettos
Silence always sings

These ascetic hills and monastic trees, listen and grow 
astute and still

Singularity

Emptiness
Has a character
In your absence

The chasm
Has crushing gravity

Vacuity-a black hole
Floating in my universe

Its voracious appetite
Eats my suns

Your memories-an event horizon
Where days stretch in length

And tug with singularity of your reminiscences

Cityscape

A scalded cat- my City 
(mile a minute) changes 
Semblance on her face

Dumbfound child in me 
Looks for familiar curves and flecks

Measure for measure
Its once comforting scape
Mutates in the name of headway
(I think) she’s still bitter 
For when I had once voiced a rescript-
I have outgrown its crossroads, potholes and bends

Her urban facet stretches with lighted bridges
And well kempt suburban alleys
Gone are the similar faces
That had known with heart
The items on my grocery list by

Today when I come to her with wistful longing-

She hands me strangers on construction cones
Festering remorse on forking roads
Souring distances and divider lanes


Sorrow

Cadent, astronomic vastness of aging Cedar

Cannot call a halt, on zeal of a carpenter bee



Like sorrow – solitary, shortsighted

Blindly burrows where shame has softened the grove



Slowly hollowing out the years

Thickening stories written in the stars






Doctor by profession. Sarika Jaswani is a Crochet Artist, Art Tutor Writer of Children's Stories. Philanthropist. Poet. Published. Passionately reads & writes poetry. Art Lover. Bird lover. Dreamer and blogger.

        Published on 
        -'Tide Rises Tide Falls' 
        --On Medium with A Cornered Gurl @ACG @Scrittura @MoveMePoetry
-Fever Of Mind Poetry
-Silver Birch Press
-The Organic Poet
-SpillWords
-The Women Inc
-Trouvaille Review
-Antonym
-HeronClanPoems
--a frequent vss prompt writer on twitter. 

Her poems run on theme of love, reflection and philosophy of life.