reading and writing a life
Interstate Sonnet, by Carl Marcum A cigarette kiss in the desert. The wind-proof arc of flame sparks inside the speeding Buick. Menthol: a break from the monotony of highway nicotine— most intimate of drugs. Make this mean sorrow or thermodynamics, whatever small gesture there is time for. Light another one, the vainglorious interstate dusk and […]
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Dreamwood, by Adrienne Rich In the old, scratched, cheap wood of the typing stand there is a landscape, veined, which only a child can see or the child’s older self, a poet, a woman dreaming when she should be typing the last report of the day. If this were a map, she thinks, a map […]
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Tulips, by Sylvia Plath And it asks nothing, a name tag, a few trinkets. It is what the dead close on, finally; I imagine them Shutting their mouths on it, like a Communion tablet. The tulips are too red in the first place, they hurt me. Even through the gift paper I could hear them […]
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To the Boys Who May One Day Date My Daughter [with Adendum] by, Jesse Parent In spite of the abuse You Tube has suffered over recent years, I think it’s possibly the greatest invention since the PC, because, You Tube can bring presentations such as this directly into my home! Jesse Parent’s slam […]
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Hamlet’s Soliloquy “To Be Or Not To Be” [excerpt], by William Shakespeare To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep; No more; […]
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Solitude, by Ella Wheeler Wilcox Laugh, and the world laughs with you; Weep, and you weep alone. For the sad old earth must borrow it’s mirth, But has trouble enough of its own. Sing, and the hills will answer; Sigh, it is lost on the air. The echoes bound to a joyful sound, But shrink […]
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The Moment, by Margaret Atwood The moment when, after many years of hard work and a long voyage you stand in the centre of your room, house, half-acre, square mile, island, country, knowing at last how you got there, and say, I own this, is the same moment when the trees unloose their soft arms […]
Read More…Valentine, by Carol Ann Duffy Not a red rose or a satin heart. I give you an onion. It is a moon wrapped in brown paper. It promises light like the careful undressing of love. Here. It will blind you with tears like a lover. It will make your reflection a wobbling photo of grief. […]
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Entries are due for the first annual Artists & Writers Mini-Contest by 11 p.m. EST, tomorrow. Watch your news feed tomorrow afternoon for the April Week One Topic Post, and get ready for another month of competition! Meanwhile, check out the community About Page. We’re always looking forward to meeting new members and friends!
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Kathy Boles-Turner 