- Details
- Written by: Lorraine Haig
spinifex plain
a lingering mystery
in the land
we breathe quietly
lest we wake the serpent
a bower
that once held
a granite egg
rolled by the wind’s beak
warmed beneath the sun’s feathers
the wide circles
of a whistling kite
below
a frill-necked lizard
disappears in a crack
a huge rock
balanced on a finger
of stone
I reach down for a pebble
shaped like the moon
the sun
drops to the horizon
cameras ready
we are silenced
as rocks glow red
dingoes
howl into the night
silhouettes
and hushed voices
around the campfires
- Details
- Written by: Clayton Beach & Stephen Bailey
| winter galaxy— pricks of light through a forest of dark matter |
firing up the slings and arrows a matchstick |
| without number or purpose angels dance on a pinhead |
quickens with foxfire over the icy mountain |
| with unbearable lightness the cottonwood drifts far from the river |
snow flurries obscure visual markers of distance |
| beyond the chasms of sight a star goes supernova |
between desire and spasm a lengthening shadow |
| as consciousness blooms in ever expanding waves of time eternal |
engenders with a white rush the divine seed |
| out of the blue some creature blurts out a theory of everything |
the beauty of a thing in the shape of its absence |
| only it isn’t ever just quite the way we wanted it to be |
with a glance a thousand ships are launched into history |
| a stranded jellyfish spills over from its mould |
the sparkle of starlight in the vast's empty corners |
| the sum of all we thought we’d left behind roadside nettles |
the cosmos reduced to an artificial intelligence |
|
Clayton Beach |
|
- Details
- Written by: Stephen Bailey
in and out of
a dream
a double helix
overstays
dark strands
the night
- Details
- Written by: Xenia Tran
icy wind –
I pull the wool
over my ears
it’s been more than two years
without you
2 a.m. moonlight
the fairground sleeps
in the field
a traveller's dog
one ear up, one eye open
the fortune teller
closes her eyes
then opens them
green and gold flickers
while she spreads the cards
- Details
- Written by: Jo Balistreri and Wilda Morris
on the music stand
Bach's preludes and fugues
rock through our son's door
his cellphone
the new dinner bell
mealtime music
Sinatra on low
put your dreams away
teen siblings in the car
squabbling
over which music station
father looks over his shoulder
the sudden quiet in the backseat
before bedtime
at the piano…
a Chopin nocturne
Jo Balistreri and Wilda Morris
- Details
- Written by: Clayton Beach & Stephen Bailey
|
late spring— |
crushed grass a lover clung to in vain through winged dreams |
| murmurs of discontent from a distant rumble |
dreamers cross the magpie bridge stars scattered like petals |
| wind through dry pines, the terrible flash of a distant pyrocumulus |
in-flowing tide a fresh breath of life on the river |
| a lightning strike bootlegs its way into history |
the purl, the babble, the song, |
| rain falls at last disturbing the long silence of the mountain stones |
a thread pulled from Eliot's tapestry defies fate |
| cascading rivulets carve out a new covenant |
proof that people are crueler than any lingering season |
| in the wild irises stir the ancient enmities that marble desire |
the last post a lone bugler taps into a shared sadness |
| Laocoön and his sons writhe in relentless agony |
the wind's blue note colors the white cry of the wood duck |
| in the languid dust not a trace of Troy remains to be seen |
scudding clouds enter the vision and are gone |
|
|
|
- Details
- Written by: Scott Wiggerman, Claire Vogel Camargo & Janet Ruth
a dove and I
sip meager shade
desert willow [SW]
pink trumpet blooms
short-lived music [CVC]
virga promise
never touches the ground
tatter of rainbow [JR]
jackrabbit gulch
no jackrabbits, all gulch [SW}
sparse sagebrush
a whiptail scuttles
through rock crevices [CVC]
spiral petroglyph
the blazing sun [JR]
- Details
- Written by: Joanna Ashwell
stepping beyond
the starlight’s halo
a dream web
pulling me back
to infinity
didn’t you hear
the sonar bell
drifting inside
an open window
of coal light
there is only
this dome of night
slipping over
between every edge
of your body
snuggle in
this is the time
when everything shines
the long lost aurora
of love’s crown
- Details
- Written by: Roberta Beach Jacobson
retirement party
someone already eyeing
my desk
wrapped in crepe paper my old body
70th birthday
still practicing
duck-and cover
another hundred-year flood of worries
history repeats . . .
crystal ball collects
dust
dictator his soles trample souls
time change
a few seconds forward
on the doomsday clock
- Details
- Written by: Lakshman Bulusu, USA & Melissa Lemay, USA
first day…
the turn of colors
in dawn’s chorus
morning mist settles
dissipating birdsong
foliage makes
earth and sky one
my memories stir
sneezing
into the crook of
my elbow
my dreams captured
crackle by crackle
stepping on
cicada shells
i shed my skin
Lakshman Bulusu
Melissa Lemay
- Details
- Written by: Dennis Owen Frohlich
mountain dew
condensation on the can
summer morn
mountain summit
the pop and hiss
of the pull-tab
mountain frost
the click of ice
against glass
mountain lightning
fluorescent syrup
cracks the ice
mountain showers
a rush of bubbles
rise to the surface
mountain splash
the assault of citrus
on my tongue
mountain fury
coolness slips
down my throat
mountain explosion
energy floods
my brain
mountain lion
ready to
conquer the world
- Details
- Written by: Hashmi-al-Haseeb Faisal
Autumn’s withered leaf,
A spectre whispers of time—
Ash in the wind’s grasp.
Summer’s blazing heat,
A sacrifice made in faith—
Ibrahim’s Sunnah.
Lines on ancient scroll—
Your fate is sealed as it’s read.
The stars do not lie.
Ink on sacred leaf,
The oracle’s breath whispers—
Destiny unfolds.
Whispers in the dark,
A scroll unfolds to silence—
So your fate begins.
- Details
- Written by: Dennis Owen Frohlich
driving rain
along the highway
the window fogs
biting sleet
changing a tire
in the dark
sideways ice
a hot shower
washes away the cold
howling wind
dripping clothes by the door
tomato soup
winter storm warning
windows shaking
I draw the covers
swirling snow
no place to go
alarm clock shut off