A Poem by Michael Lee Johnson

Moon Sleep

I stick

my hand

out toward

the sea,

roll out my palm.

I offer a plank,

a trail for you to follow

into the salty stars,

where you stretch out

and give your heart

to this final moment

of the glass night sky;

draw me in—

sketch my face

on the edge

of a wave—

over ages of celestial

moon sleep and dust.

Michael Lee Johnson is a poet, freelance writer, photographer, and small business owner of custom imprinted promotional products and apparel:  www.promoman.us, from Itasca, Illinois.  He is heavily influenced by:  Carl Sandburg, Robert Frost, William Carlos Williams, Irving Layton, Herman Hesse, Krishnamurti, Charles Bukowski, Leonard Cohen, and Allen Ginsberg.  His new poetry chapbook with pictures, titled From Which Place the Morning Rises, and his new photo version of The Lost American: from Exile to Freedom are available at:  http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/promomanusa.  The original version of The Lost American: from Exile to Freedom, can be found at: http://www.iuniverse.com/bookstore/book_detail.asp?isbn=0-595-46091-7.  New Chapbook:  Challenge of Night and Day, and Chicago Poems, by Michael Lee Johnson:  http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/challenge-of-night-and-day-and-chicago-poems-%28night%29/12443733?productTrackingContext=search_results/search_shelf/center/2.  Michael has been published in over 25 countries. He is also editor/publisher of seven poetry sites, all open for submission, which can be found at his Web site: http://poetryman.mysite.com.  All of his books are now available on Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=michael+lee+johnson.  Borders:  http://www.borders.com.au/book/lost-american-from-exile-to-freedom/1566571/.  Barnes & Noble:  http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s?store=ALLPRODUCTS&keyword=Michael+Lee+Johnson

Three Haiku by Ronny Noor

breaking the silence
of New Year's morning--

an owl's song

 

 

winter morning

brighter in my yard

white camellias

 

 

the snag in the bog

taken by a kingfisher--

end of winter

Ronny Noor teaches English at the University of Texas-Brownsville. His essays and stories have appeared in numerous journals around the world. His haiku have appeared in paper wasp, the Aurorean, and World Haiku Review. He is also the author of a novel, titled Snake Dance in Berlin.

A Poem by Steve Klepetar

Homecoming, Minnesota

Falling through a hole in the clouds, floating like a thick-veined

leaf, I skimmed hard crusted snow, came to rest at the foot

of an oak. My fingers scraped against gray armored bark.

Nothing in my green dream-life had prepared me for this thrill of cold.

Mine was the breath of frogs in summer morning mist, mine

the buzz of insects on still nights, sun lingering with its last kiss

in the western sky. But now my breath is milk and frost, my own

cloud rising to branches heavy with snow…

and then I waited in silence: your hand leading me home.

Steve Klepetar’s work has received several nominations for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Flutter Press has recently published his chapbooks “My Father Teaches Me a Magic Word,” and “My Father Had Another Eye.”

A Sample from your Editor, A.J. Huffman

I Dream of Living

Christmas trees, thirt-foot pines
lightly tipped in pristine white, morning
snow, delivered daily.
Cardinals and chipmunks flit
through branches, barely visible.  Flash
hints of color, feather and fur
for added flare.  Resting
beneath the brightest star, golden halo,
radiating sun.



A.J. Huffman is a poet and freelance writer in Daytona Beach, Florida. She has previously published six collections of poetry all available on Amazon.com. She has also published her work in numerous national and international literary journals. Most recently, she has accepted the position as editor for four online poetry journals for Kind of a Hurricane Press ( www.kindofahurricanepress.com ). Find more about A.J. Huffman, including additional information and links to her work at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000191382454 and https://twitter.com/#!/poetess222.

A Poem by Martin Willitts, Jr.

Unexpected Irises

Based on Irises, by Van Gogh, 1889

 

 

The untended ground knows just what to do,

for here is the undisturbed

with something special to say.

The humble always keep to themselves.

They are always the ones worth listening to.

It is the simple breath that creates the wind.

What is the emphasis here?

 

Among this resting,

are marigolds, red earth patches,

green leaves cutting irises

into breathtaking memories

of things we should not change.

 

The humble never need to speak up to be heard

in order for me to know

they have important things to say.

I watch as they keep quiet to hear what is not said.

I wait to learn something to keep to myself.

Like the untended ground, I will know what to do.

 

 

 

Martin Willitts Jr retired as a Senior Librarian and is living in Syracuse, New York. He is currently a volunteer literacy tutor. He is a visual artist of Victorian and Chinese paper cutouts. He was nominated for 5 Pushcart and 3 Best Of The Net awards. He has three full length books "The Secret Language of the Universe" (March Street Press, 2006), and “The Hummingbird” (March Street Press, 2009), and “The Heart Knows, Simply, What It Needs: Poems based on Emily Dickinson, her life and poetry” (Aldrich Press, 2012). His forthcoming  poetry books include  “Waiting For The Day To Open Its Wings” (UNBOUND Content, 2013),  “Art Is the Impression of an Artist” (Edgar and Lenore's Publishing House, 2013), “City Of Tents” (Crisis Chronicles Press, 2013), “A Is For Aorta” (Seven Circles Press, e-book, 2013), and “Swimming In the Ladle of Stars” (Kattywompus Press, 2013).

 

A Poem by Nathan J.D.L. Rowark

Snakes Dance

 

Empire of the snake that sheds its skin for the unraveling,

Is not as you'd suppose, for their unmoved by feet led travelling.

Scaly walls that slither show a rapier folk of tongue,

That leaves you far and well alone from a tree top dominion hung.

 

But if you have the audacity to seek their lair for sport;

To poke and prod this cousin of a Jurassic span left short,

You'll see their power rising, then from your corpse they'll slip away;

To look for something warmer in a much more present pray.

 

 

 

Nathan J.D.L. Roward is a poet, horror novelist, and founder of Horrified Press.  His latest work, Hilltop Manor -- Gale's Story, is available now from Kobo, Amazon, Smashwords, and Lulu.com.

 

 

 

Three Poems by Felino A. Soriano

in the dragonfly of rhythm

blur, begins

nascent reinvention of the unseen alphabetic

miracles

as

or

when

each turquoise ring wears

fingers of angled oscillating

memories

then, into an absence a

halo involves sacred explanations

of orated silence

in the storage of a shadow’s

undulated expand

in the butterfly of rhythm

altruistic hover hardened

to the onlooker of disabled intuition:

realized relic of past

temporal invention the

black/gold silhouette

sliding into silvered

examination of age and

adage’s clichéd commonality,

unabridged

in the crow of rhythm

self places itself

across the rising edge of a wing’s

numerical order

Felino A. Soriano has authored 56 collections of poetry, including In the parallel of pursued occurrences (Fowlpox Press, 2012), Quartet Dialogues (white sky ebooks, 2012), and Of language|s| the rain speaks (quarter after press, 2012).  He publishes the online endeavors Counterexample Poetics and Differentia Press. His work finds foundation in philosophical studies and connection to various idioms of jazz music. He lives in California with his wife and family and is a case manager and advocate for adults with developmental and physical disabilities. For further information, please visit www.felinoasoriano.info.