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A List of Upcoming Classes

 

October 1, 2024 – L404 Silk Parachute – John McPhee

Course Description: Students will read John McPhee's Silk Parachute, participate in weekly topic discussions, and write a short response paper with a focus on using the crafts of writing personal essays.
Course Length: 4 weeks
Difficulty (1-5): 3
Required Text: Silk Parachute by John McPhee
 
 
October 3, 2024 – MFA03 Writing the Memoir Essay

Course Description: Recommended for bloggers, essayists, and nonfiction writers. This workshop is part of the MFA Nonfiction Series. Courses may be taken in any sequence, though we recommend taking MFA01 first, either with a scheduled class or by independent study.
Course Length: 2 weeks
Difficulty (1-5): 3
Required Text: Crafting The Personal Essay: A Guide for Writing and Publishing Creative Non-Fiction by Dinty W. Moore.
 
 
October 3, 2024 – MFA252 Emotions and POV

Course Description: Explore the relationships between POV, emotions, and body language.
Course Length: 2 weeks
Difficulty (1-5): 3
Required Text: Wired for Story by Lisa Cron (This is the 3rd of 12 independent MFA courses using Wired for Story.)
 
 
October 10, 2024 – MFA 165 Flash Fiction - Getting the Lead Out

Course Description: Flash Fiction - Getting the Lead Out
Course Length: 2 weeks
Difficulty (1-5): 3
Required Text: The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction: Tips from Editors, Teachers, and Writers in the Field
 
 
October 17, 2024 – MFA253 What Protagonists Want

Course Description: Everyone—real and fictional has a goal. What your protagonist wants dictates how she reacts to everything that happens to her. In stories, all other considerations bend to the protagonist's external and internal goals. This course shows how to put this into practice.
Course Length: 2 weeks
Difficulty (1-5): 3
Required Text: Wired for Story by Lisa Cron (This is the 4th of 12 independent MFA courses using Wired for Story.)
 
 
October 17, 2024 – MFA04 The Classically Modern Essay

Course Description: Recommended for bloggers, essayists, and nonfiction writers. This workshop is part of the MFA Nonfiction Series. Courses may be taken in any sequence, though we recommend taking MFA01 first, either with a scheduled class or by independent study.
Course Length: 2 weeks
Difficulty (1-5): 3
Required Text: Crafting The Personal Essay: A Guide for Writing and Publishing Creative Non-Fiction by Dinty W. Moore.
 
 
October 24, 2024 – MFA367 Music and Metaphor

Course Description: This is the second workshop in a series of four courses. Each includes notes on craft, examples of model poems, and exercises as ways to encourage you in beginning to shape your own experience, language, and insights into poetry. The courses in this series can be taken in any order.
Course Length: 5 weeks
Required Text: In the Palm of Your Hand, Second Edition: A Poet’s Portable Workshop
 
 
October 24, 2024 – MFA166 – Flash Fiction – Prose Poetry

Course Description: Flash Fiction - Prose Poetry
Course Length: 2 weeks
Difficulty (1-5): 3
Required Text: The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction: Tips from Editors, Teachers, and Writers in the Field
 
 
October 31, 2024 – MFA254 Protagonist inner Issues

Course Description: New material is crafted first and foremost with an eye toward how it will fit into what's already there because our unconscious allegiance is to what we've already written, rather than to the story itself. Outlining can be an intuitive, creative, and inspiring process, often surprisingly shorter than you might think.
Course Length: 2 weeks
Difficulty (1-5): 3
Required Text: Wired for Story by Lisa Cron (This is the 5th of 12 independent MFA courses using Wired for Story.)
 
 
October 31, 2024 – MFA05 The Contemplative Essay

Course Description: Recommended for bloggers, essayists, and nonfiction writers. This workshop is part of the MFA Nonfiction Series. Courses may be taken in any sequence, though we recommend taking MFA01 first, either with a scheduled class or by independent study.
Course Length: 2 weeks
Difficulty (1-5): 3
Required Text: Crafting The Personal Essay: A Guide for Writing and Publishing Creative Non-Fiction by Dinty W. Moore.
 
 
November 7, 2024 – MFA167 Flash Fiction – Put Yourself in Danger

Course Description: Flash Fiction - Put Yourself in Danger
Course Length: 2 weeks
Difficulty (1-5): 3
Required Text: The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction: Tips from Editors, Teachers, and Writers in the Field
 
 
November 7, 2024 – MFA356: Shaping Forms

Course Description: MFA356, Shaping Forms, is the second in a series of 2 courses that introduces traditional poetic forms. This course includes Blank Verse, Heroic Couplet, the Elegy, the Pastoral, the Ode, and Open Forms, and a two-week workshop. Each week focuses on one form and includes reading its history and its contemporary context, and a "close-up" of an individual poet. The writing assignment is to write one poem using its formal characteristics.
Course Length: 8 weeks
Required Text: The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms
 
 
November 7, 2024 – MFA102 Sentence Structures: Propositions, Subtext, and Syntax

Course Description: “Proposition” is a familiar term to students of logic or rhetoric. It simply means an expressed thought put forward for the receiver to accept or not accept. Every individual idea, concept, action, emotion, and description we communicate through a sentence is a proposition, a thought represented by a sequence of words. Some sentences have a single proposition, some have many.
Course Length: 2 weeks
Difficulty (1-5): 3
Required Text: Reading material provided
 
 
November 14, 2024 – MFA255 Story is in the Specifics

Course Description: Learn how to make generalities specific. Abstract concepts, generalities, and conceptual notions have a hard time engaging us. Because we can't see them, feel them, or otherwise experience them we tend to find abstract concepts boring. This course will help bring your stories to life.
Course Length: 2 weeks
Difficulty (1-5): 3
Required Text: Wired for Story by Lisa Cron (This is the 6th of 12 independent MFA courses using Wired for Story.)
 
 
November 21, 2024 – MFA103 Creativity and the Cumulative Sentence

Course Description: The basic unit of thought is the sentence, and from these grow the paragraph, the short story, and the novel.
Course Length: 2 weeks
Difficulty (1-5): 3
Required Text: Reading material provided
 
 
November 28, 2024 – MFA168 Flash Fiction – Flash in a Pan

Course Description: Flash Fiction - Flash in a Pan
Course Length: 2 weeks
Difficulty (1-5): 3
Required Text: The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction: Tips from Editors, Teachers, and Writers in the Field
 
 
November 28, 2024 – MFA256 Conflict and Change

Course Description: Learn why conflict and change in different in fiction than in real life, and how to use this understanding in your stories.
Course Length: 2 weeks
Difficulty (1-5): 3
Required Text: Wired for Story by Lisa Cron (This is the 7th of 12 independent MFA courses using Wired for Story.)
 
 
December 12, 2024 – MFA169 Flash Fiction – Expose Yourself

Course Description: Flash Fiction - Expose Yourself to Flash
Course Length: 2 weeks
Difficulty (1-5): 3
Required Text: The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction: Tips from Editors, Teachers, and Writers in the Field
 
 
December 12, 2024 – MFA257 Cause & Effect

Course Description: Learn how to create a story the reader will care about by following an emotional cause-and-effect trajectory.
Course Length: 2 weeks
Difficulty (1-5): 3
Required Text: Wired for Story by Lisa Cron (This is the 8th of 12 independent MFA courses using Wired for Story.)
 
 
December 26, 2024 – MFA170 Flash Fiction – Load-bearing Sentences

Course Description: Flash Fiction - Load-Bearing Sentences
Course Length: 2 weeks
Difficulty (1-5): 3
Required Text: The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction: Tips from Editors, Teachers, and Writers in the Field
 
 
December 26, 2024 – MFA050 Flash Nonfiction: Form

Course Description: MFA50 is the first in a series of flash nonfiction workshops (works under 2,000 words). Each of the eight courses in the series will use The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Nonfiction. Courses in the series may be taken in any sequence, though reading the text's Introduction is recommended for those who haven't taken MFA50 yet.
Course Length: 5 weeks
Required Text: The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Nonfiction: Advice and Essential Exercises from Respected Writers, Editors, and Teachers
 
 
December 26, 2024 – MFA259 Setups to Payoffs

Course Description: Learn how to satisfy readers with setups and payoffs.
Course Length: 2 weeks
Difficulty (1-5): 3
Required Text: Wired for Story by Lisa Cron (This is the 10th of 12 independent MFA courses using Wired for Story.)


December 30, 2024 – MFA700 Narrative Design

Course Description: MFA700 Narrative Design is an in-depth study in story evaluation with an emphasis on form.  The first 13 weeks of the course works with example stories and evaluations. The course concludes with a 3-week short story workshop. Study includes General Story Analysis, Plot, Character, Tone, Time Management, Dialogue, Suspense, Point of View, Imagery, Description, Design, and Symbolism.
Course Length: 16 weeks
Required Text: Narrative Design: Working with Imagination, Craft, and Form by Madison Smartt Bell

 


Tachinomiya

by

Julie Bissell

We were exhausted by Tokyo. Exhausted from the excitement of having finally arrived, from steering through the crowds and having our ears rattled by the strident chatter all around us, jetlagged, sand-bagged by the sauna heat of the city’s streets. Exhausted above all by the people of Tokyo. ...

Read more: Tachinomiya

 

 

 

Walter’s Last Model

by

Willy J

It was 3:25 when Walter walked into Bongart's Cleaners on Eighth Street. He approached the counter and dinged the silver bell. By the time he got the claim ticket from his wallet, Sally came out from the back room through the curtained doorway.

Though Sally was middle aged...

Read more: Walter’s Last Model

 

 

 

We Can Be Friends

by

Brigitte Whiting

“Hey, fatso,” someone shouts, awakening Petticoat, the hippopotamus, from her snooze.  She shakes her great head and bares her teeth and tusks. “I wouldn’t do that,” she says. “I'm unpredictable, you know, when I'm frightened.” She squints her tiny eyes looking for the culprit.

“Here, here!” A small...

Read more: We Can Be Friends

 

 

 

To Humor a Lunatic

by

Nitin Mishra

The lunatic was not a lunatic previously in his youthful days. He used to be a young, handsome student with a very genial nature and an ever-charming smile always hung on his oval plump face. His eyebrows were so perfectly aligned over his twin eyes that sometimes his...

Read more: To Humor a Lunatic

 

 

 

Autumn Winds

by

Patrick Curran

My eyes closed, moments from sleep, I hear a voice. I hold my breath for a moment, my heart racing in protest.

“Bill, is that you?”

Other noises follow. I’m as still as the bed beneath me.

At last I realise it’s from the TV downstairs. I feel...

Read more: Autumn Winds

 

 

 

Resolve

by

Brigitte Whiting

One spring afternoon, you watched the neighbor kids playing with a spotted puppy. They had company so maybe it was theirs. If they brought the dog into your yard, you’d shoo them off.

You certainly didn’t want to raise a puppy. Or a dog to run your...

Read more: Resolve

 

 

 

Safe

by

Brian Hunt

Everyone wore a mask now, but why they did was no longer a question. Those who asked either disappeared or, after a suitable period of re-education, joined their faceless colleagues. The masks kept us free not just from airborne threats to health but from the complexities of signalling...

Read more: Safe

 

 

 

Eagles’ Run

by

Sandra Niedzialek

Sarah Jensen works at the county morgue. It’s the only job available, her probation officer tells her. She’s a lousy thief, it seems. Gah, she hates scrubbing stainless steel. She’s the only one in the morgue because her shift is from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. As she...

Read more: Eagles’ Run

 

 

 

How Horrible the Moon

by

Brian Hunt

How horrible the moon. How horrible the pale light it cast upon my grave as it called me to my duty.

In a few short hours I would leave the comfort of my grave to walk among the living. I scared most of them, but now after over...

Read more: How Horrible the Moon

 

 

 

The Woman in the Mirror

by

Miriam Manglani

Jack pulled the comforter over his head and clamped his hands over his ears, but it did
little to block out his parents’ screaming. If it got any worse, he would hide in his closet.

“I told you I wanted shrimp for dinner,” Amit, Jack’s father, scowled and...

Read more: The Woman in the Mirror

 

 

 

To the Moon

by

Brigitte Whiting

"How terrible the moon," Mr. Abrams said each time there was a full moon. "There's sadness with beauty."

At first, when the future Mrs. Abrams met him, she thought it was odd. When he was young, he'd wanted to ride on the back of his older brother's motorcycle...

Read more: To the Moon

 

 

 

Eight Ball

by

Maggie Mevel

Morgan smiled at the barista taking her cappuccino order. The coffee a small indulgence to celebrate a fantastic day. Two job offers. The gods were smiling on her, finally. She set her purse on the counter, and a rack of keychains beside the cash register tinkled at the...

Read more: Eight Ball

 

 

 

One Precious Day

by

Paul K. McWilliams

“We love those who know the worst of us and don’t turn their faces away.”
                                                                                                                     -Walker Percy

                                                                   

Mike Hanlon, an old childhood friend of mine, had cultivated the pot, not for kicks or profit, but expressly for relief.  He was a poor and suffering soul growing...

Read more: One Precious Day

 

 

 

A Day to Remember

by

Brigitte Whiting

Annie had dreamed of her wedding day since she was six years old and received a bride doll. She'd even planned and revised how the day would unfold a hundred times. Her mother had read the notes and lamented how she didn't remember her own wedding. Annie vowed...

Read more: A Day to Remember

 

 

 

Thanksgiving Thought

by

Dub Wright

Oily rags covered her toes and loose leather straps ran around her heels. A hint of blood seemed to darken each step she took through the falling Thanksgiving snow.

“Hav ye ah pence, kind sir?”

A single coin flew through the cold air, and a rag-covered hand suddenly...

Read more: Thanksgiving Thought

 

 

 

Dashing Past

by

Paul K. McWilliams

He recalls an old mill pond. He sees with ease the boy he was, a child smoking while watching the small red and white bobber he has cast out to the edge of the lily pads, hoping mostly for a bass or a pickerel while expecting a perch, ...

Read more: Dashing Past

 

 

 

Coulda

by

Paul K. McWilliams

Jim Keohane drops his razor into the basin of hot soapy water as his body slumps suddenly with the news coming over the radio.  Bobby Kennedy was fatally shot at the Ambassador Hotel just after midnight in Los Angeles, just after 3 AM, Eastern Standard Time. Alone, no...

Read more: Coulda

 

 

 

SkippyGraycoat

by

Peter Mancusi

Skippy Graycoat woke up early to the chirping of birds. It had been a long night for the young squirrel. He spent hours fixing up his new apartment, a fancy little hollow inside of an old, maple tree, and he was happy to finally have some privacy. No...

Read more: SkippyGraycoat

 

 

 

A Pot Full of Beans

by

Brigitte Whiting

Clara Beth didn't remember that she'd promised to fill the cast iron bean pot for the Smithville Annual Bean Hole Bean Pot supper until late Friday afternoon when she received the call that the bean hole was prepared, the embers hot and ready. "Almost ready," she lied. What...

Read more: A Pot Full of Beans

 

 

 

How You Can Go Wrong

by

Lisa Benwitz

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Angelina scoffed at Sam, her husband of sixty years. “You’re not leaving. You won’t last a day without me.”

“I can’t deal with you anymore,” he said as he walked out the door. As if she’d been the one to disappoint, to betray.

Angelina’s sagging...

Read more: How You Can Go Wrong

 

 

 

Emerson

by

Paul K. McWilliams

He hurts, body, mind, and soul. Death has made its introduction and he has given it a knowing nod. At this moment he’s in a hospice unit. The head of his bed is elevated and he’s in the consoling company of his dog, Emerson. The dog proved quickly...

Read more: Emerson

 

 

 

The “Ely Kay”

by

Paul K. McWilliams

It’s my boat yard, and I don’t much care for the look of her. It’s a point of pride. You should be able to take a level to a boat up on lumber. Every day with her list, she stares me down. She looks guilty and sad with...

Read more: The “Ely Kay”

 

 

 

What We Long For

by

Cyril Dabydeen

Creating an imaginary garden
                            with real toads in it.
                                    --Marianne Moore


Frogs circle the yellow-and-black snake in the trout stream by instinct, no less. Mr. Yorick, tall, but roundish, ...

Read more: What We Long For

 

 

 

The Piano

by

Nitin Mishra

The old grand piano sat in lonely corner of the room. Dust covered the piano body, and insects crept in through the keys. For the house’s inhabitants, the grand piano was merely a dead wooden sound-making device mechanically operated. No one ever tried to infuse life into the...

Read more: The Piano

 

 

 

Makers and Takers

by

Kim Bundy

Jake dropped the baby off at daycare early that morning and replaced three water heaters by lunch. There were two HVAC systems left to service, so he wolfed down a sandwich as he drove between jobs. When he got back to the shop that afternoon, his boss called...

Read more: Makers and Takers

 

 

 

Paper Wasps

by

Brigitte Whiting

I'm sorry, but you’ll need to go. I'm afraid to step out on the deck now after the morning before yesterday when you swarmed out of your nest and hung like a large black shadow, angry looks on your faces. We could have lived together, me on my...

Read more: Paper Wasps

 

 

 

Leaving You

by

Miriam Manglani

It was a morning in December of 2006 when we left you there. You could still walk then with help; someone had to hold your shaky right hand and wrap the other arm around your waist to steady your wobbly body. I helped you put on your white...

Read more: Leaving You

 

 

 

RICK'S CAFÉ

by

Cynthia Reed

We’re in Casablanca. I’ve been here before but Derek has not. “It would be beyond belief to go to Casablanca and not go to Ricks Café,” he famously said when we planned this trip – and here we are. ‘Casablanca’ is his favourite film of all time, no...

Read more: RICK'S CAFÉ

 

 

 

On HelenR and Writers’ Village University

by

Zurina Saban

I cannot tell you why I decided to write. Perhaps circumstance nudged me or perhaps curiosity or perhaps a desire to find the words to process the world, the human condition. Perhaps I wanted to find out how I feel or how my eyes see the world. Perhaps...

Read more: On HelenR and Writers’ Village University

 

 

 

Milkweed and Monarchs

by

Brigitte Whiting

Each fall, Maine’s monarch butterflies migrate two thousand miles to spend the winter in Mexico. Then the following February, the butterflies begin their trek north. It will take three to five generations—the adult monarchs laying eggs, the caterpillars growing, forming themselves into chrysalises and metamorphizing, and new butterflies...

Read more: Milkweed and Monarchs

 

 

 

Bibliosmia

by

Penny Camp

My love for reading started early. I traveled the world and rode dragons, fought knights, stormed castles, stole treasure with pirates and rescued kidnapped princesses. I floated down rivers in the deepest regions of unexplored lands. I climbed trees and mountains and flew on clouds.

Mom read to...

Read more: Bibliosmia

 

 

 

To Thwart a Wild Turkey Hen

by

Brigitte Whiting

A flock of wild turkeys has wandered in and out of my yard for years. I have a raised deck so my birdfeeders stand ten feet off the ground and the turkeys graze under them. They are timid birds, and typically when I step out onto the deck, ...

Read more: To Thwart a Wild Turkey Hen

 

 

 

Lessons Learned

by

Sandra Niedzialek

I joined a writing critique group in the spring of 2019. I wanted to learn how to write both fiction and nonfiction. I was rather confident that I wouldn’t have any problems. How hard could it be after writing business letters and lesson plans for thirty years? Plus, ...

Read more: Lessons Learned

 

 

 

Home

by

Penny Camp

What makes a place a home? I grew up on a small farm in Sunnyside, Washington, where my dad raised sheep and my mom took care of the house and yard. For almost twenty-two years I called this place home. But home wasn’t the location, Sunnyside. It was...

Read more: Home

 

 

 

The Style of No Style

by

Frank Richards

I must be the Charlie Brown of writers because I’ve never been able to figure out what “style” is all about. What does that word, ‘style,’ mean? I’ve always had a problem with it. If there were such a thing as “styleblindness,” a disease like colorblindness, I’d be...

Read more: The Style of No Style

 

 

 

To All Recovering Wrecks

by

Paul McWilliams

Like the many millions that have come before you, and like the still many millions around you, you may find yourself facing both a troubled past and an uncertain future. Initially and unavoidably, both your past and your future need to be faced concurrently. In so doing, you...

Read more: To All Recovering Wrecks

 

 

 

Corona Clean

by

Fran Schumer

The Corona virus presents new challenges. Stuck at home, and with more of us sleeping, eating and working here, and a dirtier house, I was finally going to have to figure out how to use my new vacuum cleaner. Ordered a year ago, it mostly sat in its...

Read more: Corona Clean

 

 

 

Enjoy the Ride

by

Penny Camp

Get up early. You can’t ride all day if you sleep in. Braid your hair tight — you don’t want it flapping in the wind. Make sure you don’t wear the undies with the seams down the back because after a long day of riding they will make...

Read more: Enjoy the Ride

 

 

 

Occasional Neighbors

by

Brigitte Whiting

I understand a little bit about wild turkeys. They're on a constant hunt for food, drifting through the neighborhood scrounging what they can. But I don't know how it happens that a few will either be left behind by the flock or leave it. This past fall, I'd...

Read more: Occasional Neighbors

 

 

 

Cocoa and Biscuits

by

Penny Camp

Saturday mornings were special occasions at our house when we were growing up. My friends begged to spend the night so they could be part of the Saturday morning ritual.

Mom would take out her green plastic bowl and splash in a little water, a little cocoa powder, ...

Read more: Cocoa and Biscuits

 

 

 

Livin’ the Dream

by

Holly Miller

When I was a child, my mom and Aunt Leona would pack us six kids into our blue Chevy Belair and drive to a local mobile home dealer (they were known as trailers back then). We would walk through the new homes, just for something to do. How...

Read more: Livin’ the Dream

 

 

 

Fall in Maine

by

Brigitte Whiting

Autumn is falling in Maine, harder this year than I remember over the last few falls. We've had two nights of close to freezing temperatures, not enough to ice over the birdfeeders or kill any of my plants yet, but cold enough to turn the furnace on. My...

Read more: Fall in Maine

 

 

 

Best Laid Plans

by

Penny Devlin

Every year shortly before spring, the Gurney’s Seed & Nursery Co. catalog shows up on my doorstep. The cover is plastered with a WARNING label in big black letters informing me that if I don’t order now, this will be my last catalog. It also has coupons: $100...

Read more: Best Laid Plans

 

 

 

One January Morning

by

Brigitte Whiting

Mornings, I like to have a Kindle eBook open on the dining room table so I can read and look out into the backyard to see what might be happening. 

I live in a raised ranch with an attached two-car garage. My deck, which is off the kitchen...

Read more: One January Morning

 

 

 

The Ruins and the Writing Technique of Negative Space

by

Sarah Yasin

A book club I’m part of recently discussed The Ruinsby Scott Smith. It’s not a book I would have finished reading based on the first 50 pages, but sticking with it afforded me insight into what a narrative voice can do. The story is about a group...

Read more: The Ruins and the Writing Technique of Negative Space

 

 

 

A River of Words

by

Penny Devlin

Go to work every day. Do your job. Do it well. Always learning, getting better every day. Soaking in the letters that become words, that lead to success.

Meetings, instructions, to-do lists, directions — the words start to drown like a river of brown muddy water rushing through...

Read more: A River of Words

 

 

 

Canada, Marty, and The Exorcist

by

Jen Lowry

On our homeschool adventure today, we dreamed aloud of the places we would travel to if we could. My kids and I agree: Ireland and Scotland are our top two places to visit. We played music from Spotify and sang aloud to the merry tunes of the Irish.

...

Read more: Canada, Marty, and The Exorcist

 

 

 

Truth

by

Angela Hess

I am twisted, bent, and deformed on every side. Everyone trying to use me to serve their own purposes, to justify their own beliefs and actions. Their eyes constantly sliding away from my pure, unaltered form, too brilliant and painful to behold without their chosen filters to dim...

Read more: Truth

 

 

 

A Monarch Chrysalis

by

Brigitte Whiting

The monarch caterpillar couldn't decide where to turn itself into a chrysalis. He wandered across my front stoop so many times I was afraid I'd step on it so I stopped using the front door. One time, he'd be crawling up a post of the front railing. Another...

Read more: A Monarch Chrysalis

 

 

 

Monarch Butterflies

by

Brigitte Whiting

I had no idea what milkweed looked like because I'd never seen it, but I'd always wanted it to grow in my yard so I could see the monarch butterflies.


For the longest time, I've hoped the patch of wonderfully fragrant plants with pale purple flowers growing...

Read more: Monarch Butterflies

 

 

 

For Meno

by

Glenda Walker-Hobbs

Dedicated to my sister Marilyn Anne Walker Potoski

When I was little,
You were my protector.
I called...

Read more: For Meno

 

 

 

Overheard

by

Glenda Walker-Hobbs

as I ride the elevator, the door opens,
two men, one grey-haired, the other red-haired,
dressed in immaculate...

Read more: Overheard

 

 

 

A Haibun

by

Louise E. Sawyer

In our Japanese Poetic Forms class, we studied the haibun form. It is an inspiring event in the...

Read more: A Haibun

 

 

 

The Guardian

by

Glenda Walker-Hobbs

The lone poplar tree has watched over
the back yard for fifty years.
It has been a haven...

Read more: The Guardian

 

 

 

Stranded

by

David Yerex Williamson

Airport runway lights
smashed again
we wait
for the sun
cold coffee in paper cups
torn night
draped...

Read more: Stranded

 

 

 

Kisikisotowaw Awasisak

by

David Yerex Williamson

breeze over empty shoes
whispers stories from those
who the land gave
lowered flags on stone buildings
hush
...

Read more: Kisikisotowaw Awasisak

 

 

 

Septembering

by

David Yerex Williamson

Half-way through
the old argument I study the recipe
on the Pacific Evaporated Milk can
harvest milk and...

Read more: Septembering

 

 

 

The Living

by

David Yerex Williamson

If you want to learn to live
     truly  
fall in love
with one who is dying.
...

Read more: The Living

 

 

 

March 1st at Lochside Drive

by

Louise E. Sawyer

I crunch my boots into the snow,
stare at the daffodil shoots,
which struggle to bloom soon,
attempt...

Read more: March 1st at Lochside Drive

 

 

 

Sonnet for Yanni

by

Glenda Walker-Hobbs

Yanni’s my black and white tuxedo cat.
He’s christened after Uncle John, our friend.
He supervises birds from...

Read more: Sonnet for Yanni

 

 

 

Springtime in the Valley

by

Frankie Colton

When it’s springtime in the Valley
Here is my advice to you
Stay inside, the wind is blowing
...

Read more: Springtime in the Valley

 

 

 

The Hundred Stairs

by

Glenda Walker-Hobbs

The practical reason for building
the Hundred Stairs
was to create a shortcut
between Third Avenue and uptown...

Read more: The Hundred Stairs

 

 

 

Why Can’t I Be Happy With How I Look?

by

Gerardine Gail Esterday

Why can’t I be happy with how I look?  
    
Why do I wish for her...

Read more: Why Can’t I Be Happy With How I Look?

 

 

 

The Cat Days of Summer

by

Daniel Novak and Gerardine Gail Esterday

The long, slow climb to the highest branches stretching into an open sky.
Focusing on the ground, a...

Read more: The Cat Days of Summer

 

 

 

Lynn’s Tree

by

Glenda Walker-Hobbs

Lynn’s maple tree
was always the last to emerge
from winter’s sleep,
when it burst into leaf,
the...

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The Scream That Is Also a Song

by

Enza Vynn-Cara

Free verse on the page that
is my tongue; raw flesh,
smooth and thin, dipped
in blood-tinted ink—

...

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The Moods of McCorquodale

by

Glenda Walker-Hobbs

Our very first visitor was a cat.
Corkie came for a day, adopted us.
He soon had his...

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Haunted House

by

Glenda Walker-Hobbs

a grey woodsy coloured house
stands abandoned
in the midst of a haunted wood,
its windows are broken,
...

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Déjà Vu

by

Enza Vynn-Cara

She went into the woods to find
the wolf that haunted her

She went to the brook to...

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Be Leery Of What Falls From Above

by

Gerardine Gail Esterday

My forest dances on the wind, swirling above the green and brown copsewood. Above, branches split, held up...

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ARS Poetica

by

Glenda Walker-Hobbs

I paint with words

I see
the pink tinge of fluffy white clouds
at sunset

I see
my...

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Lake Katherine

by

Glenda Walker-Hobbs

turquoise water of the lake
stretches for miles,
as far as the eye can see

two spruces wave
...

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Neighborhood Walk Meditation

by

Lina Sophia Rossi

Vultures gather on the old man’s neighbor’s barn,
‘decorated with ravens and barren trees.
A small cottontail stirs...

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Dream Metaphor

by

Glenda Walker-Hobbs

I shiver in the darkened room,
stretch, try to pull the covers higher,
suddenly I am floating near...

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A Whitmanesque Inventory: Spring

by

Phebe Beiser

So glad it rained last night. Now, late morning, sun shines,
an unexpectedly warm early March. What a...

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Solitary

by

Malkeet Kaur

For eons now, the very core of my being
has become inaccessible.

Solitary.

Once it used to be...

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The Blanket Hugs Me

by

Louise E. Sawyer

I’m grateful that I have a daybed
downstairs where I can rest during the day
with my Guinea...

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On Love and Dreams

by

Miriam Manglani

1.
Love is a beast and angel and dream on fire.

2.
Your soul wakes in your dreams.

...

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The Writer’s Breastplate

by

Louise E. Sawyer

…apologies to St. Patrick


Creative Spirit with me,
Creative Spirit before me,
Creative Spirit behind me,
Creative Spirit...

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The Sweater

by

Malkeet Kaur

As I rummage through the clothes,
I spot it, the well-worn white sweater
that now had aging spots...

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The Holly Tree

by

Nolo Segundo

We have a large holly tree
in our backyard—
is it foolish to say
you love a tree?

...

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waiting on an email

by

Gerardine Gail Esterday

rain beats against the metal awning.
winds whipped up against two storms
racing each other over the Mississippi
...

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You Talkin' to Me?

by

Alberto Rodriguez Orejuela

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Kitten Wonder Full

by

Alberto Rodriguez Orejuela

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Off the Pier

by

Alberto Rodriguez Orejuela

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Capturing the Balloon Launch

by

Alberto Rodriguez Orejuela

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Cooper in the Sun

by

Alberto Rodriguez Orejuela

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Flores Para Los Muertos

by

Alberto Rodriguez Orejuela

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Post Modern Totem

by

Alberto Rodriguez Orejuela

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Raccoon Delight

by

Alberto Rodriguez Orejuela

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Constructing a Crew

by

Alberto Rodriguez Orejuela

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Moth in the Mirror

by

Alberto Rodriguez Orejuela

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Cat's in the Cradle

by

Alberto Rodriguez Orejuela

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A New Day Begins

by

Bob Hembree

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Angst

by

Alberto Rodriguez Orejuela

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The Fly on the Wall

by

Bob Hembree

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Glancing Vulnerably

by

Alberto Rodriguez Orejuela

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Fowl Squabbling

by

Bob Hembree

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A Mid-Photo's Daydream

by

Alberto Rodriguez Orejuela

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Solar Reflection

by

Bob Hembree

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Being Held Up

by

Alberto Rodriguez Orejuela

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Reflections

by

Paula Parker

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Jack

by

Gerardine Gail Esterday

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Hollister

by

Alberto Rodriguez Orejuela

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Evelyn

by

Gerardine Gail Esterday

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Curiosity

by

Alberto Rodriguez Orejuela

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Rebecca

by

Gerardine Gail Esterday

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