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