—
Debbie Strange is a widely published tanka and haiku poet, as well as an avid photographer. Her current passion is for creating tanshi (small poem) art. You are invited to see more of her work on Twitter @Debbie_Strange.
Love Tortures Me Like the CIA
That winter I walked and walked through the frozen, dreary streets as if I might outwalk my sadness. I missed you and your gentle strokes, your iridescent glance. What we once said would last forever lay toppled inside us. I searched everywhere there was to search, but had to settle for the knowledge that geologists who don’t predict a deadly earthquake aren’t killers.
—
All proceeds from Howie Good’s latest book of poetry, Fugitive Pieces (Right Hand Press), go to the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley. Visit Right Hand Pointing Books to learn more.
Some Notes toward an Ode to Yarn
YO
means yarn over,
a maneuver
used to create a hole
surrounded by a strand.
Dear one, the impulse
to poke
a stick
in a hole
is irresistible.
Delay tying off the knot,
a foreplay of thread
whereby the linear
becomes a plane
length becomes breadth
Some people do it to relax.
I’m not sure Dickens understood knitting—
Mme Defarge, nemesis in sabots
with a clicking of needles—
but he knew how to string
us along, make us yearn
for the yarn
to go on,
how to build our expectations
to a climax.
Dear one, I don’t know how to gauge you,
so I ply you with wools and acrylics,
rayons and cottons, worsted weight
and fingering,
play you with hooks,
but you know which string
to pull to unravel all the knots,
leave me stranded with a box of yarns.
—
Sherry Chandler’s second full-length book of poems, The Woodcarver’s Wife, celebrates the cycles of life on her small farm in Kentucky. She has been nominated three times for a Pushcart. She has been published in a number of online and print publications, most recently in the Blue Fifth Review, Kestrel, and the Louisville Review. She posts micro poetry on Twitter as @Bluegrass Poet.
all your broken promises
all your broken promises cactus flowers
—
Olivier Schopfer lives in Geneva, Switzerland, the city with the huge lake water fountain. He likes capturing the moment in haiku and photography. His work has appeared in The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2014 as well as in numerous online and print journals. He also writes articles in French about etymology and everyday expressions: olivierschopferracontelesmots.blog.24heures.ch
silver birch
silver birch
throwing gold coins
to the winter sun
everything about you
makes me smile
—
Caroline Skanne, Rochester, UK, is obsessed with anything wild and free. She is the founder of hedgerow: a journal of small poems. Find her @ facebook.com/
Rise Above
—
Michele S. Cornelius spent years chasing clouds on the back roads of the west, but is now settled in Southeast Alaska where she wanders in old-growth forests, admires the sea, and works to capture ephemeral bits of nature. Her website is michelescornelius.com.
Spiders
(Watch “Spiders” on Youtube)
—
Carolyn Guinzio is a poet, photographer and occasional filmmaker. Her books include Spoke & Dark (Red Hen, 2012), Quarry (Parlor, 2008), West Pullman (Bordighera, 2005) and the forthcoming Spine (Parlor, 2015). Find her online at carolynguinzio.tumblr.com.
A Poem by Cardboard Suitcase
One day
I will be torn to pieces
By a pack of dogs
At the train station
Next to the man
Stenching of slaughtered
Pigs’ blood
They will pull
My intestines out
Plastered by the rain
To the city’s pavement
In the horridness of mud
And smell of ground
A voracious raven
Will land on me.
I have been hounded
By the curse of the right hand
Of the thumb that fingers
The handle by
An unfelt sorrow
It carries me away and away
Without counting border crossings
Searching for secret paths
To my old home.
Oh, when gray shadows of fog
Let go of me, I shall open my heart
Overwhelmed by blood
Among roses
Of my former garden
And build a nest out of birds’ bones
Let it sing…let it sing…
Don’t take me
To the abandoned room
Where black, woodworm infested
Closets reign…
Life is not just a heartless
Train station.
—
S.Eta Grubešić of Croatia is an ex-journalist, short story writer, poet and photographer. Her works have been published in various books, literary e-journals and portals, including: Bones Journal 5, Under the Basho Journal 2014, Hedgerow, Sonic Boom journal, Brass Bell, Newsletter, Silver Birch Press…
motionless
Note: ‘motionless’ is a found/erasure haiku from Elizabeth Bishop’s “Large Bad Picture”
—
Shloka Shankar is a freelance writer residing in India. Her work appears in over two dozen international anthologies including publications by Paragram, Silver Birch Press, Minor Arcana Press, Harbinger Asylum, Kind of a Hurricane Press and Writing Knights Press among others. Her poems, erasures, haiku & tanka have appeared in numerous print and online journals. She is also the editor of the literary and arts journal, Sonic Boom.
night jasmine
night jasmine
for a few days I forget
about the moon
—
Laura Williams has been studying and writing short form poetry since 2012. She lives in Southern California where it never rains. Visit her at Look for A Lovely Thing.