For Julia
by Sheila Petre
Poets have been silent
On the salty theme of cheese.
They prefer to bend the rhymes
Of mysteries such as these: Continue reading . . . “Sheila Petre: For Julia”
Pentecost
by Richard Stoltzfoos
What if – when Christ ascended through the clouded sky
His frame was sown as particles of dust – Continue reading . . . “Richard Stoltzfoos: Pentecost”
The Tree
by Michelle King
Upon a summer fleece of woodland’s best,
I lay beneath a spiderweb,
Myriads of atoms all tumbling one on top of another
Reaching for the blue dawn’s spectrum and a midnight moon. Continue reading . . . “Michelle King: The Tree”
Lynn Michael Martin: The Anabaptist Garden
The Anabaptist Garden: Jacques as a Core Sample of Candide
by Lynn Michael Martin
One surprising part of Voltaire’s Candide is its treatment of Jacques the Anabaptist. Jacques appears and takes a part of the stage just beyond the limelight Continue reading . . . “Lynn Michael Martin: The Anabaptist Garden”
Sheila Petre: Upon Encountering God
Upon Encountering God
by Sheila Petre
The key to comprehension is reduction.
If a thought has got beyond you, tug it back
Lest its gist be lost in vastness
Or your spirit swung from fastness, Continue reading . . . “Sheila Petre: Upon Encountering God”
Lynn Michael Martin: And So We Sleep
And So We Sleep
by Lynn Michael Martin
And so we sleep, forgetting all that harms;
our sleep itself a praise to him who stands
a promise in the night, whose ageless hands
caress the children cradled in his arms. Continue reading . . . “Lynn Michael Martin: And So We Sleep”
Christopher Good: Eulogy for a Poet
Eulogy for a Poet
by Christopher Good
These words will end in dust, as all things die.
Their paltry lines will crumble all apart—
Pray thee preserve them, artless though they lie. Continue reading . . . “Christopher Good: Eulogy for a Poet”
Grace Martin: Reading Middlemarch for Meaning
Reading Middlemarch for Meaning
by Grace Martin
Middlemarch is a bit of an enigma to me because it takes what might otherwise be cliché characters, piously canting through detail-dense scenes Continue reading . . . “Grace Martin: Reading Middlemarch for Meaning”
Leonard Nolt: The End of the Day
The End of the Day
by Leonard Nolt
Let the day end
Let the shadows lengthen
Let the birds sing their last songs
As the wind slows Continue reading . . . “Leonard Nolt: The End of the Day”
Alana K. Asby: Poems I Can Contemplate
Poems I Can Contemplate
by Alana K. Asby
What a surprising thing the author of Hebrews says about faith!
Kierkegaard would have us think that faith is what you use when there’s no evidence, no certainty, nothing to go on. Continue reading . . . “Alana K. Asby: Poems I Can Contemplate”
Against Hope
by Sheila Petre
I reach through the dark for the door,
Unsure
If it stands ajar, the edge too near my nose, Continue reading . . . “Sheila Petre: Against Hope”
Kenneth Godoy: Like a Brick Upon Everything
Like a Brick Upon Everything
by Kenneth Godoy
perhaps in the wither of the mother’s hand
now that she had taken cancer again,
or the silent scream of three birds Continue reading . . . “Kenneth Godoy: Like a Brick Upon Everything”
Lynn Michael Martin: I Saw the Daughters of Joy
I Saw the Daughters of Joy
by Lynn Michael Martin
I saw the daughters of joy today,
Dancing in the dew.
They shout and they tumble as they play Continue reading . . . “Lynn Michael Martin: I Saw the Daughters of Joy”
Unforsaken
by Lori Hershberger
Light bleeds from the evening sky, and I know
Somewhere the morning dawns. The wind rises
Rustling the skirts of the brittle drought. Continue reading . . . “Lori Hershberger: Unforsaken”
Sheila Petre: Happily Ever Before
Happily Ever Before
by Sheila Petre
One summer, my lover made for me
A bicycle built for two.
Oh, the things that man can do! Continue reading . . . “Sheila Petre: Happily Ever Before “
Rebecca Weber: Arrival of Summer
Arrival of Summer
By Rebecca Weber
I thought that it would take me by surprise:
A certain flash of knowing this is it.
It came in slow degrees of shimmered skies. Continue reading . . . “Rebecca Weber: Arrival of Summer”
Fair Ellen
by Hermann Miller
Fair Ellen was my love, her hair
as gentle as a summer sky,
and I dared not look on her, or there Continue reading . . . “Hermann Miller: Fair Ellen”
Rebecca Weber: Lullaby to a Wide-awake Mind
Lullaby to a Wide-awake Mind
By Rebecca Weber
It’s bedtime. I repeat: It’s time for bed.
High time to settle down to blessed sleep.
Oh, frowsy brain, do not lift up your head
But nod off gentle in the shadows—keep Continue reading . . . “Rebecca Weber: Lullaby to a Wide-awake Mind”
Roger Biehn: Dream of the Airy Mob
Dream of the Airy Mob
by Roger Biehn
Every generation will see its ending days
and some will fancy them the end of the end
and kindle on altars mounded of brick chunks
and concrete lumps one gasoline soaked tower of flame Continue reading . . . “Roger Biehn: Dream of the Airy Mob”
Dale Cottingham: Fruit In Season
Fruit In Season
by Dale Cottingham
Well darlings, morning again.
Time to get up and try some new steps.
We distaste the old way, the emulated way,
those lines we read that were elegant, intelligent Continue reading . . . “Dale Cottingham: Fruit In Season”