Afternoon of April 9, 2025

 

Live and Let DEI Anthology:

Submit one poem this month to Winning Writers

 

 

            at the door

            a quartet of gargoyles

            new neighbors

            ~Stephanie Zepherelli

            changing the world

            children turn a map

            upside down

            ~Stephanie Zepherelli

            final ascent

            the inconvenience

            of falling flat

            ~Stephanie Zepherelli

bones bones bones

the creaking bones

I still call mine

~Robert Epstein

how apropos

after cleaning the kitchen

sponge cake

~Robert Epstein

discipline

discipline

midnight

~Robert Epstein

afterlife

but I am such

a homebody

~Robert Epstein

grandpa navigates
 
market change

one meme stock at a time

~Douglas J. Lanzo

sand

in my slippers

I dream of the ocean

~Jiel Narvekar

counting my blessings …

grateful even

for the odd

~Kelly Sargent

roses on clearance

how men no longer

look me in the eye

~Kelly Sargent

after much thought

I RSVP Mars

. . . no thanks

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

The cat-surf laps

At the milk-bowl beach.

~V. Grout

spring brings new neighbors…

unpacking curiosities

~Sarah Mirabile-Blacker

at the playground

birds talk

children screech

~Sarah Mirabile-Blacker

crows at dusk

pirates

pilfering snacks

~Sarah Mirabile-Blacker

 

 

Both journals now open:

                                                  Darkly Beautiful & Joyfully Wondrous

Morning of April 6, 2025

 

diagnosis

an unanticipated

shift in the wind

~words and image Kelly Sauvage Moyer

Monday morning mood Ctrl+Alt+Del

~Maria Tosti

ember leaves

beneath the ice

still flames

~Gareth Nurden

all the ways to say

Hands Off

I’ve lost count

~Jennifer Gurney

An invitation from a morgue

An invitation from a grave

And I accept it

for my resurrection.

~Partha Sarkar

from behind

the stone wall

incoherence

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

starving plants

guzzle moonlight

empty calories

~Nick De Marino

fractals uncurl

skyward

on ancient arms

~Nick De Marino

on the sidewalk

a lizard overtakes me

and leads me ahead

~Tejendra Sherchan

Frosted sugar

On suspended ice—

Life, and afterlife.

~Laila Brahmbhatt

peace treaty

one with nothing left to give,

one with no urge to take

~M. R. Pelletier

Planting flowers

Suddenly my backyard

Is botanical

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

Surprising

Fondness for ghosts

Memory lane

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

throwing

shade on trade

guess who

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

deep

in the software

inedible bugs

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

ARE YOU THERE SPECTRUM?

 

Twosome concrete slabs

Regimen walloped by strike

Mutism deluge.

~Zoé Mahfouz

triptych

driving home

from a double shift

flat tire(d)

school bus(t)

dealer arrested while

copying homework

white trash(ed)

their klan robes now gray

from fiery cross smoke

~John J. Dunphy

fishing report

I ask the blue heron

what he’s biting on

~AJ Johnson

mattress sale

we pay our respects

to George and Abe

~AJ Johnson

piece work

the robot hands me

another missed weld

~AJ Johnson

our lives – nothing more

than yesterday’s newspapers

caught in a hedgerow

~Malcolm Highfield

my anger

nibbling time

from the edge of life

~Malcolm Highfield

pants optional

sunbathing

with the skinks

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

 

dominion

the delusions

of bipedal mammals

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

 

mimicking

the orbit of my pancreas

rogue stars

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

art . . .

I crawl through the frame

to breathe

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

 

Morning of April 5, 2025

 

https://theheronsnest.com/awards/awards_2025.html#pwl

rocketdude

attractiveness

negative

offscale

~Rich Magahiz

aggressive

Stage III mass

the third one out from Sol

~Rich Magahiz

the dark pub

all faded suits and

rocket exhaust

~Rich Magahiz

autocompleting the magnolia may rain

~John Pappas

snowy magnolias along a quiet side street, I'm in a painting I want to take home

~Patrick Sweeney

a skywide summer the royal we

~John Pappas

in this dream of wings a firefly becomes me

~Joanna Ashwell

wisps of data in the cloud

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

with another story i wait for me afar

~Vijay Prasad

as the dead watch us falling petals

~John Pappas

go on 'til whichever way you turn there are zinnias

~Patrick Sweeney

only here and now the river’s laughter

~John Pappas

paper clipped back to back with regret

~Joanna Ashwell

campfire stories the past passed around

~John Pappas

arriving before me

and yet

                leaving so soon

~Joanna Ashwell

whiskey eyes

the cat, the bartender

the stranger

~Joanna Ashwell

allegory of the cell

talking to people

who are not here

~Patrick Sweeney

eighty-four thousand dharma doors

and through one I shook

Yevtushenko's hand

~Patrick Sweeney

I heard him say

at the end he wanted to

 'Name names'

~Patrick Sweeney

The Tariff

Soon the penguins

will regret their role

in addicting Elon Musk

to ketamine.

~Noah Berlatsky

I'm the old fogey

telling him to treasure

the difficult

~Patrick Sweeney

announcing the first dandelion

to myself and

to you

~Patrick Sweeney

eyes closed

beating the glitter

out of the sheets

~Patrick Sweeney

drought

my overwatered plants

die anyway

~Anne Fox

by any other name

he mansplains her poetry

in prose

~Anne Fox

Seussian clouds over Pittsburgh

when a man gets tired

of being a stranger

~Patrick Sweeney

Spinoza's God

and a cup

of jasmine tea

~Patrick Sweeney

intensive care —

the room’s corners

collecting shadows

~John Pappas

years now and all I've done is whistle to the catbird

~Patrick Sweeney

getting the nerve to talk to God

~Patrick Sweeney

 

 

Morning of April 2, 2025

 

one love  . . .

a carbon-based

practice of compassion

~words and image Kelly Sauvage Moyer

I decide

to keep the typo

digital lotus

~Joshua St. Claire

wedding rice

weevils

an expiration date

on everything
 

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer/Agnes Eva Savich

squeegee cake batter

freeway exit

the starving artist’s

just desserts

~Heidi McIver/Kelly Sauvage Moyer

mushrooms, like dreams, appear after the storm

leaf litter

a lone sunbeam

finds the forest floor


~J. J. Penniman/Kelly Sauvage Moyer

taking pride

in a job well done

wrecking crew


~Keith Evetts

no strings attached spring moon

~Keith Evetts

all the flowers fallen stars

~Tejendra Sherchan

ceasefire breeding a thornless rose

~Keith Evetts

Myanmar

buried in the papers

footnotes

~RJ Humbl’

spring equinox

the church bells ring

a change

~Keith Evetts

Easter Sunday

church ladies fussing

over fake lilies

~Joshua St. Claire

the offertory

to re-gild

the cathedral

~Keith Evetts

Monday train...

among the commuters

ever more nose rings

~Keith Evetts

year of the snake

coiled round a stick

the dollar sign

~Keith Evetts

eau de chlorine

specks of red in ceiling corner

above the tub

~Jerome Berglund

Pitch In!

the receptacle

advises

~Jerome Berglund

rest area

sponsored by

your name here

~Jerome Berglund

progress!!

...a foot pull on

the lavatory door

~Jerome Berglund

keep right law

preparing

for a left turn

~Jerome Berglund

I have not lost my philosophy

I have lost my glasses.

But Thank God

I have not lost my philosophy.

~Partha Sarkar

the line

for the airplane toilet

is an endless journey

~Noah Berlatsky

on the riverbank

the man in the moon

floats downstream

~Melissa Dennison

begging for scratches

the cat that knows

I have to go to work

~Joshua St. Claire

saving the world

or---something---apparently---

venture capitalist

~Joshua St. Claire

shouldering responsibility

he listens carefully

to his parrot

~Robert Witmer

teaching Pinocchio

Morse code

Geppetto’s woodpecker

~Robert Witmer

dusk a cuckoo’s call deepens with the darkness

~Tejendra Sherchan

time travel

the Swiss watch

the evolution of the cuckoo

~Robert Witmer

ginormous moon

the years he took

to notice

~Joshua St. Claire