The veil slides off and the marbled irises behold,
The brilliance shafts into depths long dark,
Pain, sharp and cleansing, severs the murky cold,
The crackling blackness ignited by the spark— Continue reading . . . “Conrad Stoltzfus: Behold”
Lynn Michael Martin: Blessed Is He Who Cries Out in the Night
Blessed is he who cries out in the night,
Who sees and is not satisfied with peace,
Who will not sleep amid the world’s caprice,
Who knows that darkness does not disprove light. Continue reading . . . “Lynn Michael Martin: Blessed Is He Who Cries Out in the Night”
What ember sparks,
Alights your eyes?
It harks to mine and
Begs to hold
My eyes and warm them. Continue reading . . . “Anita Yoder: Hearth”
I take this walk.
Affection cold, corroded steel—
Company unnecessary—
Solitude an uncanny, joyful occasion. Continue reading . . . “Joella Wadel: Ill Gaiety”
Jeremy Troyer: After an Ice Storm
Outside my window, branches fall
from the ice of a long day.
The winter rains did not nourish them,
and now in the darkness, I hear them cracking Continue reading . . . “Jeremy Troyer: After an Ice Storm”
Tired ankles creak from the weight of the week
where we have toiled in an Eden gone mad with grief.
And now we sit on the rim of the night,
stretched bleak as the highway roads, Continue reading . . . “Phoebe Anthus: Friday Night”
Look at the pad of your thumb
magnify the size, round it some,
harden the print, trace
and duplicate in rough Continue reading . . . “Daniel Hess: Mack”
Etymology of Glamour:
From Scots glamer, from earlier Scots gramarye (“magic, enchantment, spell”).
Go, gilded flag of goldenrod—
Announce the autumn guest
Perform in haste my bright command
Make genial request Continue reading . . . “Joella Wadel: September Baby”
a whisper on a shallow breath
drifting to a gentle death
the leaf, it falls without a sound
to join his fellows on the ground Continue reading . . . “David Shafer: Autumn Leaf”
Like Obi, I want the confrontation of words;
the solid smack, the concrete slapping and fact
inhabiting onslaught of meaning and sound.
Like Mr. Bultititude, my good friend Jer, and maybe you, Continue reading . . . “Daniel Hess: Enough”
We wake to sleep, we breathe to cry.
Our mothers dreamed and brought us forth to die;
For every cradle opens up a grave,
And every child is one we cannot save. Continue reading . . . “Kyle Lehman: We Wake to Sleep”
I knew a man once
(not fourteen days ago)
who went down into Jordan, rain falling
down and down, the dirty water Continue reading . . . “Christopher Good: The Flood”
Abigail Heatwole: Days of Rain
Chill, bleak, despairing.
Weeks of it.
Rain taps unceasingly on the roof,
rain slides tirelessly over the window panes, Continue reading . . . “Abigail Heatwole: Days of Rain”
Who are you—I want to know—
under the arched brow?
I could have passed by minutes earlier
and never experienced now. Continue reading . . . “Joella Wadel: Neighbor”
Shannon Blank: This Is Pressure, Not Erasure
This thing I have not in my mind
but body
and not a thing but place I have
here knotted uptight oddly. Continue reading . . . “Shannon Blank: This Is Pressure, Not Erasure”
I’m waiting for the moon to top the trees.
I can’t abandon her just yet, so please
let me remain here with the whippoorwills.
The moonlight mesmerizes. Continue reading . . . “Grace Hertzler: Captivated”
Watchman what of the night?
Watchman what of . . .
Watchman what?
Watchman . . . Continue reading . . . “Josiah Peachey: Watchman”
I’m leaning, once again determinist
Digesting, once again a pot-luck meal
Maybe luck has missed or, doubly,
Demigods have doomed my paper plated will Continue reading . . . “Daniel Hess: Pot-luck”
Last night I read scripture to the waters
feeling the sounds of open vowels with my mouth
and sunfish came in on hooks of children’s
delight, to lie by my side and die. Continue reading . . . “Lily Eby: Sunfish”
