Poetry Issue #15: Harmony October 15, 2024 Two Poems by Jill McGrath After An Illness I have come back to life, and the heady joy won't leave me, an at-last at-last mingles with every bird's cry, the insects themselves parading and humming delight. I have the all of it, the sensuous bliss of it, body again body, free to move, delighting in the motion, mind unfogged to leap around an old jazzy thinking that flickers and enchants me. Spirit unchained, I emerge from all darkness, jump into this beautiful fire ...
Read MorePoetry Issue #15: Harmony October 15, 2024 Crossing the River Styx by Maureen Martinez Crossing the River Styx Can I talk to you for a minute? My student asks standing still as a tree in a snow globe forest framed by my glass office door with festive Christmas decorations backlit by hallway fluorescents. I don’t know how to say it. He says after seconds of silence, tears streaming fast, time slowing, eyes downcast as he contemplates the liminal space between us. Sit down, take a breath. ...
Read MorePoetry Issue #15: Harmony October 15, 2024 epitaphs and eulogies by Ajibike Lapite epitaphs and eulogies flowers belong on tombstones but I never found the courage to see yours: I bought three bouquets from CVS and I pulled out the twigs, the flowers who had forgotten to bloom, and the ones that did not deserve to be yours – I tossed them off the balcony without fanfare and trimmed the stems of those that remained I have wondered if my posture is different when I am ...
Read MorePoetry Issue #15: Harmony October 15, 2024 I Need a Poem for Tomorrow by Jen Lailey I Need a Poem for Tomorrow I need a poem for tomorrow. The day my sister and I exchange writing. Sometimes, overflowing, I cram what I have to share into the parameters we have set. But today I have nothing. Sure, I could dip a ladle back in to depression soup, soggy tissues for garnish. Serve up the same old mess. But that’s been the menu for months now. It’s ...
Read MorePoetry Issue #15: Harmony October 15, 2024 Three Poems by Bobby Bradshaw Slipping Away I can no more slip into my car, pull out of our driveway and never come back any more than the moon can slip its tethers and drift away. Depression runs in my wife's family like banks along a river, the chance of being overwhelmed always there. She lists between clarity and paranoia. She sits all day on the edge of the sofa, iPhone in hand, watching videos. Her hearing nearly lost, sometimes I feel like an auctioneer always raising my ...
Read MorePoetry Issue #15: Harmony October 15, 2024 Three Poems by Paul Hostovsky Practice You can’t even let go of the blue casserole dish— how in the world are you going to let go of the world? I ask myself, standing in my kitchen in the late afternoon sunlight which is turning everything to gold. Everything, that is, except the blue casserole dish, which isn’t here because my stepdaughter borrowed it without asking me. And it pisses me off because I love that casserole dish. Because it belonged to my mother. Let ...
Read MorePoetry Issue #15: Harmony October 15, 2024 Three Poems by Ron Riekki We walk around the pond this patient, diagnosed with schizophrenia, and he feels he doesn’t have schizophrenia, and I tell him right now we’ll just walk around the pond, that it’s that simple, no worries about diagnoses or mis- diagnoses or missed goals or hopes or dreams, or mistakes, just this soft fog, these cute ducks, this slight mist, a bounding squirrel to our right that jumps onto a tree trunk and sneaks ...
Read MorePoetry Issue #15: Harmony October 15, 2024 A Symphony by Alex Andy Phuong A Symphony A theory of musicality In a life that is theatrical Playing a role of a lifetime Focusing on being at peace As a way to release Shame and regret And then marvel at the Wonderment of finding Harmony within reality Through the acceptance Of all that is real While allowing oneself Time to heal Stephen Granzyk reads “A Symphony” on behalf of Alex Andy Phuong: Alex Andy Phuong earned his Bachelor of Arts in English ...
Read MorePoetry Issue #15: Harmony October 7, 2024 Two Poems by Kitzia Esteva-Martinez Pero nosotros podemos con las manos platicar We can talk through our hands I always have seven thoughts running in my head at once. Maybe it’s my head, maybe it’s my wholeness that speaks to itself I am often lonely in this endeavor, speaking to the void inside my brain as if a void was an oasis And am often over-accompanied; by the many voices, universes and lives within The voices of my characters ...
Read MorePoetry Issue #15: Harmony October 15, 2024 Two Poems by Suzanna C. de Baca Aspen Grove White beams of light, slender trunks like arms, reaching, rising in an invocation to the sky, a congregation of lovelies, slim and graceful, your pale papery bark so delicate, your sharp, dusty scent enveloping me, round leaves, lemonish green, rustling like pages of a hymnal in the breeze. White beams of light, each of you unique and separate, a family, a flock connected by blood, roots seen and unseen, you are one. You ...
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