Morning of November 20, 2022

cockroaches, the vanishing act

~Sreenath

maggots all in good health

~Sreenath

he stands with houseleeks in his palms and collarbone

~Richard Magahiz

restless spirits lifting your phone charger
 

~Kelly Moyer

November crow and I resigned

~Keith Evetts

one dream dead

another floundering

Chernobyl rain

~Anna Cates

 

only the flower garden left

and only half a flower

the war

~Anna Cates

       dark, cold painful dawn

line at emergency dental clinic

~Steve Van Allen

the tickman garners all the headlines

~Richard Magahiz

snow blossoms another version of myself

~Kelly Moyer

time is eternity cut into pieces

~Sreenath

Afternoon of November 19, 2022

Creatives Need Each Other

Sometimes they need each other & wine

& cheese & warm bread & meat & smoked salmon dip & Flamenco guitars

& conversations in the dining room

& on the porch with the ghosts of deviled eggs.

~Keith Snow

wind shear pruning her whispers

~Kelly Moyer

linen napkins untucking her tail

~Kelly Moyer

home on the range of ICBM

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

nirvana a straight shot on the turnpike

~Kelly Moyer

gin-bottle green

the patience of

the blowfly


~John Pappas

Why Did God Make Blowflies?

Little maggots wriggling on fresh meat

The blowfly has laid her babies

Now isn’t that so sweet?

God intended all his creatures do

Go forth and multiply

That is his golden rule

~Gaye Hemsley

cheese sandwich

my death poem

cheese sandwich

~Keith Evetts

two front orange teeth

crooked they're overlapping...

eclipsed beaver moon

~Pat Geyer

        verandah edge

      a slug, poor chap

      pressing forward

  push-press-push-press

~Rupa Anand

if you're not expecting

a headful of snakes

well well

~Keith Evetts

~Sébastien Revon

 

Afternoon of November 16, 2022

hospital hallway

the difference between

a wish and a prayer

~John Pappas

stuck at the bottom

he tries cutting corners

square peg

~Robert Witmer

 

time salts our pulled hare

~Robert Witmer

we grow togather then to meat
 

~Robert Witmer

 

her work involves measuring coronal mass ejections   you two should get along
 

~Patrick Sweeney

 

family matters

mowing down

the faerie ring

~Kelly Moyer

 

looking both ways before crossing is not good enough anymore


~Patrick Sweeney

memoir writing the perspective of a survivor heroine
 

~Kelly Moyer

 

he always came home with rain on his shoulders


~Patrick Sweeney

 

pebbled clouds

a map as good

as any

~John Pappas

fall showers

that old sitcom

theme song

~John Pappas

Morning of November 15, 2022

Quantum Existence


Like a quantum system

you only become real

when you are observed

Until then

you are but a wave of thought

A supposition

waiting for acceptance

of your existence

~Norman Cristofoli

Pick and Choose


Uneasy when I can’t define,

unsettled by these creeping taunts,

I cannot pick forever itch -

so I’ll just have to leave them be -

a complement to take of course -

and I must let them live on me,

shinbone and ankle, seeping calf

but hope that they’ll not take the knee.

~Stephen Kingsnorth

flash flood —

nervous fire ants

walk on water

~C.F. Tash

crab grass

the urge to itch

her new tattoo

~John Pappas

No Sex Poem

There is nothing sexual about this poem

All the orgasms were fake

The perspiration was sprayed on

The moans of ecstasy were pre-recorded

The only ejaculation was in our imaginations

Nobody had to take any pills for prevention or erection

All foreplay came directly from the liquor store

 

There is no sex in this poem,

but it sure fucks around with words

~Norman Cristofoli

eleven plus two

same letters

twelve plus one

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

between victim

                 and survivor

the absence of vowels

~Kelly Moyer

Evening of November 14, 2022

You are a misguided

missile, target lost

or simply vanished.

you are a lost

soul aboard a bus

that wanders midnight

streets in search of

heaven or hell.

~Nolcha Fox

in a gnaw

from dusk til dawn...

beaver moon


~Pat Geyer

muscle memory

this listless pull

of Ravel

~Mariel Herbert

cobwebs–holding onto the family secrets


~Mona Bedi

five elements the dichotomy of control

~Mona Bedi

matrimony the snap of a garter snake

~Kelly Moyer

monogamy all the missed chances

~Mona Bedi

acts of the apostles the color of sunlight


~John Pappas

metrognomic

~Mariel Herbert

oblivious

of the beauty of the world

the cockroach

~Françoise Maurice

nowhere

in the dream dictionary

kangaroos on the bus

~John Pappas

Evening of November 11, 2022

plunging into the gravity well of another holiday season

~Patrick Sweeney

hollow words echo well

~Robert Witmer

old marble quarry

I leap into

the unknown

~John Pappas

bad poetry implementing the contingency plan

~Kelly Moyer

 

made in the image I poem a moon

~John Pappas

engine english where does the kigo

~John Pappas

 

 

Anatomy of Poetry

A poem is not a structured creation of words

Words are not a defined compilation of letters

Letters are not the strokes of pencil on paper

Pencil and paper are not a composition of molecules

Molecules are not the organic formation

     of atomic building blocks

and atoms are not the result of compounded energy . . .

 

Nevertheless, energy is the consequence of the poetic mind

 

~Norman Cristofoli

there’s

no money in poetry

they warn

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

 

iambic however suggestible in somniloquy

~Kelly Moyer