Blog Posts

Dry Tears, by Candace Arthuria Williams

12/3/2021

They are the tears nobody sees, Invisible to the naked eye.
Life-threatening dehydration, hardening arteries unmoisturized
Thick and tangible under the knowing scope.

Crystallized stones Destroying internal organs, Depleting stamina, Fortifying aggression, Unleashing dementia
Poisoning temperament and cognition, Birthing dizziness, confusion, Wreaking havoc upon body and mind.

Yet nobody knows they are there, these dry tears
Hiding behind the smile of facial facades
that exist to deny their existence. Sclerosis of the soul.
If the world could only know they are there.

Break open the hardened crystals, Allow the babies to cry.
Free the glacial waters that they might rush and nourish.
Bathe in your long-stifled tears
You need their fluidity to survive.

5 Comments

Searching for Diamonds, by Mary Wallace

12/3/2021

10 Comments

Weighted by worries, pelted by stones
Still searching for diamonds

My world is much smaller, cluttered with things I never imagined I would need
The same person who raced through countries carrying as little as possible now packs a bag to leave the house.
Walking stick, hearing aids, glasses and a suitcase filled with embarrassment.
The reflection in the mirror has lost something, her spark, her fire, her dream.

Yet today I choose to gather those stones, thrown to hold me back and build a foundation for another life, a life not less, just different.
And while sifting through those stones, I may find enough diamonds to decorate a crown.

10 Comments

Room 73, by Guy Fletcher

12/3/2021

4 Comments

Gone, gone the old photographs
one showing her wedding day
in glorious black and white.
How she must have studied it in the silent hours
transformed back to happier times.
Now this transient room will be bare
and the new occupant quite unaware

of the long history of the predecessor.
They too are sure to admire the maple tree
resplendent with scarlet leaves on azure days
but at the moment there's a ghostly presence
before new photographs arrive
and the visitors who once came here
just like the old lady...will disappear.

4 Comments

Golden Valley, by Alex Andy Phuong

12/3/2021

4 Comments

City of Gold
Never getting old
Valley of Amazement
Wonderful wonderment
Wandering around
Finding and then found
Surround and surrender
No need to fear the thunder
For the celestial place
Is not lost without a trace
For here it is

4 Comments

To Nana, by Helen Watson

12/3/2021

3 Comments

I want to hug you with my words
To take your fragile hand in mine
To skim your skin paper thin
To trace your bones, your risen veins

I want to breathe the air you breathe
To sense your out breath slow but true
To run my thumb across your palm
To feel your pulse, your light, your life

I want to stroke your glass white hair
To pull each strand towards my heart
To meet your eyes piercing blue
To gaze, to dream, to sense, to know

I want to hug you with my words
To give you what I cannot give
To bridge the invisible divide
To reach, to touch, to feel, to love.

3 Comments

Outer Spit Buoy, by Adrian McRobb

12/3/2021

3 Comments

Wallowing into the next trough with a lazy warning
bell clanging in its dizzying arc, and rusted bracket
red and white paint mottled by salt slowly dissolving
tugging at its chain whose hollow clanks echoes the depths

How lonely yet inspiring, its only visitor the eternal gull
whose evidence of years passing has splashed its sides
'Outer Spit Buoy' the sign read by no-one but its creator
the shifting current which persuades another lopsided waltz

Vessels pass and noting its position avoid to Starboard
as to Port the safe passage blocked by underwater reefs
the white-caps to the experienced eye, signal danger
and by night its lamp winks out the same message

"I am here, have no fear, the way is clear..."

3 Comments

Lost, by Marjan Sierhuis

12/3/2021

7 Comments

high winds blow--
snowy owls hoot
and lose their way

7 Comments

Darkhouse, by Miya Yamanouchi

12/3/2021

1 Comment

You were supposed to be a lighthouse,

the sanctuary from life’s storms,

the radiance to guide me to safe shores.

But you were always cold,

frozen over,

motionless,

trapped in the ice.

I used to tread carefully not to disrupt,

the fragility of your thin,

precarious layer of icy skin.

A fool could wait forever,

longing for the day

you might shine the light

you’re supposed to, onto me.

But I was never lost.

And I could always see in the dark.

1 Comment

The Andrew Siderius Memorial Writing Contest

6/3/2021

0 Comments

We Are All Complicit, by Sankar Chatterjee

5/3/2021

3 Comments

TRAVEL

We let little Vivian drowned, while crossing mighty Rio Grande River with her dad
We let little Jose and his friends snatched away from their Parents’ arms
Placing them in guarded camps
Little children, looking for better futures, while traveling to rich America.
Desperate strongman began to erect fences on the border
But we remained silent, we never protested, we were all Complicit.

Now losing the power in a democratic election,
The strongman instigated his henchmen
To attack the “Capitol”, the temple of modern American Democracy
He then escaped to his gilded palace,
While followers, believing him, march towards prison
But we remain silent, we never protest, we are all complicit.

3 Comments

Snail Trail Tale, by John Hancock

5/3/2021

2 Comments

FOOD

Does it matter if I am not very tall....................at all
I eat vegetarian fresh and pure........................for sure
And mostly I only go out at night......................too right
My friends do the same I would say….............by the way
However when the evening is clear.................we fear
That is the time we should hurry......................and worry
But excessive speed leaves trails....................from snails
And the slipstream of silver left behind.............we find
Brings the Bluetongue lizard out.......................and about
To make a meal of me and of friends...............quick ends

2 Comments

Golf on the Moon, by Guy Fletcher

5/3/2021

1 Comment

TRAVEL

I study the impervious winter moon
covered by a thin luminous cloud
thus creating a golden halo.
My imaginings conjure Alan Shepard
in a white spacesuit 50 years ago
hitting a golf ball on that eerie place
although it's just a small step into space.

Trapped in this silent house
and staring into the darkness
speckled with doomed stars I realise
how totally insignificant I am
yet contemplate how wonderful it would be
hitting a golf ball on that eerie place
although it's just a small step into space.

1 Comment

The Flight, by Ana Marie Dollano

4/3/2021

1 Comment

TRAVEL

Through immeasurable space of
Hallowed heights tranquil is that moment of flight across
Endless skies

Flying fluid past boundaries, pirouetting
Lofty cruising the distance to reach the stars, gliding
In the air journeying through milky clouds
Graceful against gusts of wind,
High above hills and valleys, virescent treetops and in between.
Through the heavens soaring with ease, I am peaceful under His watchful eye.

1 Comment

Coriander by Juliet Wilson

2/3/2021

3 Comments

FOOD

Today I want to praise my coriander plants:

How they poked through second-hand soil after just two days
rather than the two weeks I was told to expect.

How they glow green on the summer window ledge
giving off a heady aroma every time I brush past.

How they transform my hurried cooking
into something that tastes like real curry.

How they make me imagine
feast days in the tropics.

3 Comments

Wandering, by Sandra James

1/3/2021

11 Comments

TRAVEL

Sun rises over a glistening sea
sand sticks between the anaemic toes
of feet released from their leather prison
a greedy crab
hungrily eyes the scarlet tip
of the little piggy who went to market
and vigilant foam covers my tracks

Like Robinson Crusoe
I explore virgin territory
until a minnow filled rock pool
shatters my illusions
vertebrates dart
beneath a wayward coke bottle
man has crossed this path
before

11 Comments

Where You Take Me, by Miya Yamanouchi

1/3/2021

6 Comments

TRAVEL

His ceaseless sadistic sensuality is my portal,
thrusting me into a different time and space.

A place of delicate delirium,
blanketed in perverted proclivities,
where nothing else exists but He.

A setting of serene sacrificial servitude,
where my one purpose, is his bliss.

A world of slaughterous promises,
prettily packaged as tenderly love.

A domain where neck and hand prove exhaustedly inseparable,
where oxygen is but secondary to desire.

A realm where my pain is his lustful compulsion,
and I, the merry masochistic enabler.

A land of merciless messy madness,
where his deranged sentiments,
tuck me in to sleep at night.

6 Comments

If Only You Had Left Me Alone, by Candace Arthuria Williams

1/3/2021

11 Comments

FOOD

It is the custom to crack

Open the shell

And eat of its fruit.

But what if you are inside

Cocooned in a fetal position

And along they come with sharpened picks

To hack at your security

Plucking you out into chaos.

If only you had left me alone

Safe and warm from the teeth of the external

Why did you crack open the safety of my domain?

To cut me to pieces and devour me.

I am ravaged by your gluttony

Exposed to a multitude of sins

Yet too broken to return.

If only you had left me alone

11 Comments

Romanticizing Paris, by Swati Moheet Agrawal

1/3/2021

2 Comments

TRAVEL

One, two; one, two,
the heart beats in excitement, in joy,
in a trance of ecstasy.

Now I’m filled with delight,
now the exhilaration has seized me with its fangs.

Delicious mouthfuls of madeleines,
past my palate, down my gullet, into my tummy;
quaint villages and neighborhoods, museums and cafes;
a visit to the legendary Shakespeare and Company
frequented by Fitzgerald and Hemingway; a walk along river Seine, scuffling and giggling,
locking lips under the Eiffel Tower.

On the other side of the world,
Paris beckons,
hoarder of moments,
how I love to travel.

2 Comments

It's The Louvre, Baby1, by Cindy Patrick

28/2/2021

5 Comments

FOOD, TRAVEL

At the Bellagio fountains, a jaunty stream of water sprays
extraordinarily high. Not programed to be a little squirt
What is to notice? Coloured lit water
Off the farm, away from the cubicles or the children,
this noise is exciting. Mona Lisa exhibit. At Las Vegas. Culture shock.
Do people have tee shirts saying, It’s the Louvre, Baby!?
The engorged shrimp from unknown origins taste dirty to me
But off the farm, seafood is exciting
Wandering. Gawking. With people who instantly befriend us because we are from Canada, too!
Mobsters created a façade of decadence. Sin away!
On the plane ride home, we’ve gotten away
with something. From something. Vegas tourism thanks us
for our patronage. We don’t feel dumber, but we don’t feel smarter either.
As we stare at the Visa statement. I think of the Bellagio fountains. The water
streams all fighting for more height, more colour.
More attention. As we all are.

5 Comments

Terminus, by Adrian McRobb

28/2/2021

5 Comments

TRAVEL

He walked on wet streets coat collar up against the buffeting wind of his mind
hands thrust deep into the small universe of his pockets where secret things hide
crossing pathways of the silent city complicated girder patterns chase his passing
avoiding those who would threaten conservation by crossing diagonal trackways
peddling the shoe leather of tomorrows heel-bar in puddles of yesterdays dreams
headlamps light up hopeless faces as they try to escape their blue screen TV lives
the nearly men squeezed by the lemon juicers of hot offices and endless numbers
lives glimpsed through curtain gaps promise better times and quickly snatched away
trying desperately to break through the glass ceiling of self imposed hopelessness
faceless in their crowds who fill trains and cross bridges merging into singularity
walking until daylight looms crows of conscious reality trapped in a beggars dream...

5 Comments

Flight Path Towards Heaven, by Krystyna Fedosejevs

28/2/2021

5 Comments

TRAVEL

Our flight must have been blessed
to Munich from Madrid.
At least six priests on board
and one nun in habit.

Soaring higher than birds,
like angels we glided.
Of religion or not
together we travelled.

Our fate predetermined
before boarding the plane.
With rotating staff strikes,
it could have been insane!

But safely we took off
and the same we landed.
Different ways we went
though clergy stayed banded.

5 Comments

Longing, by Mary Wallace

27/2/2021

12 Comments

TRAVEL

There was a year
Where the world was spread before me
An 'all you can eat' buffet
Of land and sea

There was a time
When I chose countries with my heart
Savored mountains and cities
Music and art

There was a day
When I conquered the world alone
And knew that my hardest task
Was going home

There is an ache
An insistent need to explore
To step outside my daily life
To roam once more

12 Comments

Under the Sun, by Andrew Carter

27/2/2021

8 Comments

TRAVEL

ultraviolet

light navigation system –

bee under the sun

8 Comments

Strike Three, by Marjan Sierhuis

27/2/2021

12 Comments

SPORT

The bases are loaded
The bat swings. Strike three
A seagull screams

12 Comments

Travel Along, by Alex Andy Phuong

27/2/2021

4 Comments

TRAVEL

Take a journey,
And venture into the
Unexpected,
For only some aspects
Of reality
Contain unpredictability,
Yet the people who take
The initiative
To avoid certainty
Can change themselves
Certainly

4 Comments

<<Previous

Forward>>

Dry Tears, by Candace Arthuria Williams

Searching for Diamonds, by Mary Wallace

Room 73, by Guy Fletcher

Golden Valley, by Alex Andy Phuong

To Nana, by Helen Watson

Outer Spit Buoy, by Adrian McRobb

Lost, by Marjan Sierhuis

Darkhouse, by Miya Yamanouchi

The Andrew Siderius Memorial Writing Contest

We Are All Complicit, by Sankar Chatterjee

Snail Trail Tale, by John Hancock

Golf on the Moon, by Guy Fletcher

The Flight, by Ana Marie Dollano

Coriander by Juliet Wilson

Wandering, by Sandra James

Where You Take Me, by Miya Yamanouchi

If Only You Had Left Me Alone, by Candace Arthuria Williams

Romanticizing Paris, by Swati Moheet Agrawal

It's The Louvre, Baby1, by Cindy Patrick

Terminus, by Adrian McRobb

Flight Path Towards Heaven, by Krystyna Fedosejevs

Longing, by Mary Wallace

Under the Sun, by Andrew Carter

Strike Three, by Marjan Sierhuis

Travel Along, by Alex Andy Phuong

Poetry

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