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WINTER 2021

the bird we know

by its thud on the feeder. . .

lifting mist

 

Kristen Lindquist

 

 

clouds pass

only the rattle of

late season corn

 

Erin Castaldi 

 

 

wisps of fog
my breath
adding your name

 

Kristen Lang

 

 

 a saguaro’s shadow

    reaches across the dry wash …

          evening cool

 

paul m.
 

 

morning stillness

what’s left of the mist

shines in the pines

Ben Gaa

deer paths

a portion of each day

braided

 

Jonathan Humphrey

 

 

farm dog’s howl

reimagined

in the summer wind

 

Kelli Lage

 

 

inky river

a platypus somersaults 

under stars

 

Lorraine Haig

 

 

creek thinning

to a trickle

spindly daisies

 

Laurie Greer

 

 

sip of tea

with a thumbscent of celery

rising fog

 

Bill Cooper

 

 

amid September's falling leaves

. . . kingbird fluttering up

to catch flies

 

Wally Swist

 

 

conger eel thrashing in the creel this hunger 

 

Lew Watts

 

 

tablelands

nothing left to catch

the wind

 

Debbie Strange

 

 

cherry petal rain

the mobile morgue departs

the hospital

 

Kevin Valentine 

 

 

gathering crows
the berried smile
of the snowman

 

Mike White

 

 

winter bulrushes

an alligator drags its tail

into the pond

 

paul m.

 

 

urban twilight

a fox cry tips over

into the dark

 

Richard Tindall

 

 

summer orchard

tufts of foal down

in the barbed wire

 

Michael Baeyens

 

 

sand where the stray lay . . .

this handful of hermit crabs

huddles together

 

Kyle Sullivan

 

 

masked fishmonger

mirrored

in every maw

 

Helen Buckingham

 

 

rain-soaked ground

a worm emerges from

dad's grave

 

John J. Dunphy

 

 

in for the winter

a snail down

the aloe folds

 

Bryan Rickert

 

 

sage in rain

tombs sit out

river floods

 

Richard Manly Heiman

 

 

sunset shadows pool behind the dunes

 

Bob Lucky

 

 

coregated rust

the old silo’s 

leftward lean

 

Erin Castaldi 

 

 

bedside radio

we switch off

another war

 

John Rowlands

 

 

old yearnings...

pink blossoms frame

a distant sky

 

Jay Friedenberg

 

 

first sun
night rain lighting up
in the stringybark

 

Kristen Lang

 

 

Saigyō’s poems...
a slow rain fills
the wagon ruts

 

Randall Herman

 

 

sleet clings

to a tractor’s gear stick

idle herds

 

Jonathan Humphrey

 

 

grey woods

a heron lengthens

a charred stump

 

Michael Baeyens

 

 

burial trees

how long

before they hollow

 

Helen Buckingham

 

 

autumn frost

in its upper reaches

the robin's song

 

Richard Tindall

 

 

my father’s wake...
a movement of branches
under the snow

 

Goran Gatalica

 

 

tomcat’s howl
at the edge of sleep
hunter’s moon

 

Lorraine Haig 

 

 

marsh cattails

splashing ducks

release the mist

 

Brad Bennett

 

 

distant shots 
over the border 
blood moon 

 

David He 

 

 

crematorium 

the bone white of

styrofoam cups 

 

Bryan Rickert

 

 

Advent Sunday

down the lanes the ticking sound

of leafdrop

 

Amanda Bell

 

 

knitting a cap…

my grandsons chuckling

by the casement

 

D. V. Rozic

 

 

first snow   fieldfare strip the haws

 

Clive Bennett

 

 

skipping stone     the pressure

 

Mike White

 

 

subway echo –

the one-man band

counts himself in

 

Richard Tindall

 

 

freeing myself 

from myself 

a mountain breath 

 

Jenny Fraser

 

 

slowing train . . .

a gleam of moonlight 

on the reeds 

 

Hemapriya Chellappan

 

 

quiet park 

a bubble   shuffles along 

the stream of rain 

 

Owen Bullock 

 

 

morning coolness—

drops of dew sparkling over

a freshly hayed meadow

 

Wally Swist

 

 

sleepless night

the shrike's call

to nothing

 

Aaron Barry

 

 

winter solstice
a left-out teacloth
crackles with rime

 

Marietta McGregor

 

 

in every direction
mountain poppies
spill last night's rain

 

Carol Raisfeld

 

 

autumn trail

among the shadows

a former life

 

Terrie Jacks

 

 

twilight sky
migrants in single file
through the farm gate

 

Chen-ou Liu


 

penumbral eclipse 

the shades of light 

on a moth’s wing 

 

Laurie Greer

 

 

empty highway

coyotes crossing

their old trail

 

Cynthia Anderson

 

 

fumbling with the lid

of my yoghurt pot

Mam's tremors

 

John Rowlands

 

 

plump orange 

spurts out

last spring's rain

 

Rolf W. Jacobson

 


where once a field
offered a shortcut
megachurch

 

Mike White

 

 

frozen rail-tracks

a stallion pumps

wisps of mist

 

Pitamber Kaushik

 

 

camp fire my piece of the stars

 

Agnes Eva Savich

 

 

visiting mom's gravesite – 

another three-count

from my flask

 

Dan Salontai

 

 

border stones

loosened into heaps                                                                 ghost meadow

 

Barrie Levine

 

 

shortest day

a swan pair eases

along a melt channel

 

Hannah Mahoney

 

 

depression

birds checking

the empty feeder

 

David Oates

 

 

colorless summer

a passing shadow of a butterfly

behind the shutters

 

Alvin Cruz

 

 

Taking out the trash—
A cat asleep
On the warm hood of my car

 

Jacob Hess

 

 

summer dawn

the cuckoo returns

muezzin's call

 

Gurpreet Dutt

 

 

father’s fist—

a tarantula crawls 

across the gravel road.

 

Sarah Jones

 

 

crisscrossing 

the slow bend of a whale

gull shadows

 

Bill Cooper

 

 

tide water

laps the marshy Inlet

of tern nests

 

Erin Castaldi 

 

 

winter china town
the couple shares a hot bun
in its steam

 

Keiko Izawa

 

 

rainy nights

baby sow bugs crawl 

up the bannister

 

Bruce H. Feingold

 

 

old village pond

the smell of moss

in the washed clothes

 

Lakshmi Iyer

 

 

breaking the dam

one tadpole

now two

 

Jeffrey Ferrara

 

 

dewdrop
the world
housebound

 

Deborah P Kolodji

 

 

tumbling leaves

catch the sun

new death stats

 

Ben Oliver

 

 

muffled by the greenery

of trees in gray dawn light . . .

the June rain

 

Wally Swist

 

 

the way a cloud

b e c o m e s  n o t h i n g—

still water

 

Laurie D. Morrissey

 

 

dog day heat 

a turtle slips 

into the river’s meander 

 

LeRoy Gorman

 

 

neighborhood willow

the blackbird pecks out

summer larvae

 

Radostina Dragostinova

 

 

rainstorm

overthinking myself

to sleep

 

Tomislav Sjekloća

 

 

an old farmer

tweezes off a tick

dog days

 

Anna Cates

 

 

peace bell

in grandma's eyes

a glimmering prayer 

 

Richa Sharma

 

 

wind to come
with cold fingers
i pull the last beetroot

 

Tony Williams

 

 

bearded eucalypt

the shadows within

wrinkled bark

 

Marilyn Humbert

 

 

low sun 

a deer-print puddle

freezing over

 

Hannah Mahoney

 

 

snow falling

inside and outside

the prison wall 

 

Larry Gates

 

 

lingering cough
clumps of plum petals
speckle the mud

 

R. J. Swanson

 

 

mother's last breath the silence after moonrise

 

Meg Arnot

 

 

insomnia
an alley dog barks
at its echo

 

Chen-ou Liu

 

 

december moon

what we know

about loneliness

 

Eufemia Griffo

 

 

snowbound

   the scent of Kahlua

        fills each kiss

 

Ed Markowski

 

 

at day's end the moon waxing eloquent

 

Kala Ramesh

 

 

Christmas eve

kids throwing snowballs

at a stray

 

Tomislav Sjekloća

 

 

city sunset
the shoeblack blackens 
one last pair

 

Keiko Izawa

 

 

the stillness 

of a heron's nest 

winter moon

 

Agus Maulana Sunjaya 

 

 

grazing in the rough

the horse wears

a crown of burrs

 

David Gale

 

 

moon

imperceptibly

dawn

 

David Käwika Eyre

 

 

February meadow

a sparrow fills

the distance

 

Roberta Beach Jacobson

 

 

laundry day
rainbow-bubbles burst
on the washing stone

 

Srinivas S

 

 

reading obituaries 

the bird's imprint 

on the pane

 

Ben Oliver 

 

 

a nuthatch
upside down at the feeder
end of year

 

Marilyn Ashbaugh

 

 

spring burial 

only the small child notices

geese overhead 

 

Larry Gates

 

 

my hair cut

and gray beard trimmed—

the day lengthens

 

Lenard D. Moore

 

 

evening sun

I follow my shadow

into the bar

 

Joanne van Helvoort

 

 

covid fatigue –
from the garden the sound
of mating cats

 

Manoj Sharma 

 

 

near winter

the snail retreats

into itself

 

Mona Iordan

 

 

between 

my world and yours

a gravestone 

 

Maria Concetta Conti

 

 

lone white hibiscus
aglow in the morning sun
— still windchimes

 

B.A. France

 

 

filling in the blanks fresh snow

 

Denise Fontaine-Pincince

 

 

granny's crooning

awakens the baby

winter sunshine

 

Neena Singh

 

 

my hair grey
wingbeats
of a pigeon

 

Guliz Mutlu

 

 

Buddha's smile

up and down on his back

rows of ants

 

Mirela Brăilean

 

 

folding

into the marsh

grouse wings

 

Joanna Ashwell

 

 

coins

thrown at wishes

the fountain drains

 

Robert Witmer

 

 

ice on the windscreen
sliding off to the highway
once the sun hits it

 

Laurinda Lind

 

 

before dawn…
a new songbird joins
the chorus

 

Earl Livings

 

 

festive evening

recalling

your other side

 

Nadejda Kostadinova

 

 

tiny moon bridge

down feather floats an inch

over the ripples

 

Kath Abela Wilson

 

 

falling snow
how wrinkled
my hands are

 

Réka Nyitrai

 

 

the television perpetually on autumn deepens

 

Antonietta Losito 

 

 

just as we are

upon soft grass

among wildflowers

 

ayaz daryl nielsen

 

 

this year

I need more layers

in the winter wind

 

David Watts

 

 

shadows tremble 

to the tune of quakes

starry night

 

Suraj Nanu

 

 

cusp of winter my lover’s pull

 

Lori A Minor

 

 

snow smell 

from the northern wind…

my son’s smile 

 

Daniela Misso

 

 

disembodied. . .
I awaken to crows
in the fog

 

Jeanne Cook

 

 

rain season

mud rising through our toes

on the farm path

 

Tunde Adesokan

 

 

burbling stream

in the valley

the tinkle of sheep bells

 

Mike Moule

 

 

roadside puddle... 

water striders float

on passing clouds 

 

Adjei Agyei-Baah

 

 

wetlands stretching wide the wingspan of a goshawk

 

Marisa Fazio 

 

 

lockdown

her dancing shoes

gather dust

 

Nika

 

 

outside the window
a derecho blows
the world sideways

 

Gary Hittmeyer

 

 

pacing the path –

rows of apple trees

my offspring might see

 

Helen May Williams

 

 

an empty porch

frost and moonlight

in the old spider web

 

Bo Jaroszek

 

 

full blown sail

a sloop turns

into the sun

 

Tom Staudt

 

 

I trace blue     

bulges on my hand –

winter’s nip

 

Neera Kashyap

 

 

lightbulb
in my room
harbours dust

 

Charlie Ulyatt

 

 

clear night 

inhaling 

the stars 

 

S.M. Kozubek

 

 

preschool playground

baby swings stilled 

by caution tape

 

John O’Connor

 

 

dawn

slow pull

into yellow

 

Lisa Espenmiller

 

 

waving fronds –
amongst the bracken
antlers

 

Dorothy Burrows

 

 

heat haze…

mirage on a hot highway

always far away

 

Rob McKinnon

 

 

Siamese cat

filling the landscape

of my arms

 

Meik Blöttenberger

 

 

behind zoo bars

polar bears spellbound ...

first snow falling

 

Natalia Kuznetsova 

 

 

moss covered stones

how time 

changes time

 

Nisha Raviprasad

 

 

forest rain...

slug on a mushroom stem

carries on

 

Matt Olechnowicz

 

 

winter wind –

the smell 

of homemade bread

 

Julia Guzmán

 

 

november

days become translucent 

on the page 

 

Elodie Barnes

 

 

I guess Dad's
spilled his wine again
fuchsia sunset

 

Maxianne Berger

 

 

drizzle on rails

stretching into distance

my train draws in

 

Carl Walsh

 

 

an ice fisher's

hole in the lake

hunched eagle

 

Nola Obee

 

 

first rain . . .

the dust–ladened blue roof

gaining its colour 

 

Oluwasegun Oluseyi Adesina

 

 

pumpkin seed –

the desire to be 

a mother again

 

Carmela Marino

 

 

riverbank willow

the whistle and plop

of a kingfisher

 

Robert Davey

 

 

the sunrise bleeds

horizons...

a burst capillary

 

John Newson

 

 

winged seeds
pecking at the snow
a lone crow

 

Marta Chocilowska

 

 

incense stick
another winter day
is gone

 

Oscar Luparia

 

 

waves of frost

roll across the garden

steel magnolias

 

Bisshie

 

 

The echo of the cold
White snowflakes
on the holly

 

Antonella Seidita

 

 

pieces of the evening,
moths entering
through the open window

 

Michael Battisto

 

 

lifting fog
a black swan pushes
from the shallows

 

Gavin Austin

 

 

brushing webs
off the bike spokes
scent of lilac

 

Tom Bierovic

 

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