TABLE OF CONTENTS - POETRY, page 3

Zen of Life - Mark Norman
Rainy and Wet - Ngoc Nguyen
Examinations - Ngoc Nguyen
Light and Heat - Robin Hammer
Darkness - Ryan Sloan
Two Roses - Ryan Sloan
For Henry - Thomas Hadley
Frozen - Thomas Hadley
Consciousness - Thomas Hadley
Solace - Thomas Hadley
Scattered - Thomas Hadley
Winter Night - Karin Lindgren
Ego I - Karin Lindgren
Ego II - Karin Lindgren
Money Really Is - Paul Nachbar
A Soaring IQ - Paul Nachbar
When Everything Fails - Paul Nachbar
The Clearest Answer - Paul Nachbar
Early to Bed And - Paul Nachbar
Great Expectations - Paul Nachbar
Meaningful Company - Daniele Pinna
The Wait for College Admission Decision is Killing Me... - Daniele Pinna
Darkness - Daniele Pinna
Fluid - Daniele Pinna
A Dot - Daniele Pinna
Ser - Jorge González
Tree Spirit's Circle: - Thomas (Torg) Hadley
Great Simplicities - Maria C. Faverio
Purple Kaleidoscope - Maria C. Faverio
Dimming with Loss - Maria C. Faverio
Kinship - Mark Norman
Empty Man - Ed Glomski

Zen of Life - Mark Norman

In the Zen of life
which is truly chosen, when
all wilt in the end

back to top

Rainy and Wet - Ngoc Nguyen

When rainy and wet,
earthworms rise to the surface—
what prompts their struggle?

back to top

Examinations - Ngoc Nguyen

Examinations—
Calculus, psychology…
etc. Help!!

back to top

Light and Heat - Robin Hammer

Light and heat follows sun
if gravity ceased at night
we'd still be cavemen?

back to top

Darkness - Ryan Sloan

Darkness surrounds me,
but, when my eyelids do close,
at last, I can see.

back to top

Two Roses - Ryan Sloan

Two roses blooming,
yet only one is chosen
while the other wilts.

back to top

For Henry - Thomas Hadley

I nuzzled me Scottydog
coalcurly blackbearded cocoa eyes
all bandtight muscley furry tankbuilt doogie
behind his ear
wi' me nose 'n' cheek
an' scruffed me beard upon his pate
him all ironrusty scently
a bra'e doggyman
my guardian spirit's he
fearing No Thing
save my displeasure with mischief
he has only Love an' Courage
for me
He hummed, began to deepbreathe
Dog Ommmmm Dog Ommmmmm.

back to top

Frozen - Thomas Hadley

frozen senryu
corporeal polaroid
grimdark versed autopsy

back to top

Consciousness - Thomas Hadley

consciousness awaits, abides
i see when i shut my eyes
words, snippets of sight

back to top

Solace - Thomas Hadley

solace is Present
thy gift speaks of life bonded
it speaks to thy child

back to top

Scattered - Thomas Hadley

my words just scattered
fallen from palm, collected
friends' gifted pebbles

back to top

Winter Night - Karin Lindgren

Winter night finds face -
black and blue skin, white bruises -
negativity ...

back to top

Ego I - Karin Lindgren

Of course it's black and blue! Nothing so great
can endure a brush with wind unbruised.
It's like a tire: Do not overinflate,
lest for a graver injury you cruise.

back to top

Ego II - Karin Lindgren

The doctor tells Ego to lose some weight:
Indulge not in conceit, fat for the soul.
Snack on modesty. Each day, jog eight
miles on a humble track to reach your goal.

back to top

Money Really Is - Paul Nachbar

Money really is
The root of all our problems;
And the solution.

back to top

A Soaring IQ - Paul Nachbar

A soaring IQ
Plus winning the lottery
Will get you somewhere.

back to top

When Everything Fails - Paul Nachbar

When everything fails
Try some psychotherapy
This gives people jobs.

back to top

The Clearest Answer - Paul Nachbar

The clearest answer
To complicated questions
Is sometimes an "ouch".

back to top

Early to Bed And - Paul Nachbar

Early to bed and
Early to rise makes a man
Healthy, wealthy and dull. (oops one too many syllables).

back to top

Great Expectations - Paul Nachbar

Great expectations
Or claiming there's none at all:
Highly suspicious.

back to top

Meaningful Company - Daniele Pinna

The clock tics and time rolls by;
a herd of entities carry life's brings.
All people tend to their chore's cry
and all puppets tend to their strings.

A drop which the sky has greedily released explodes fiercely on my cheek. I awake to the terror of the avalanche of water that suddenly rips through the murky puddle that struggled to reflect the surrounding objects. As the fallen water polishes the tarnished mirror and aids my vision, the weeping sky leaves me with a splendent ensemble of mixing colors I've never noticed before. They appear to be a crowd of violets, distorted by the multitude of ripples nervously bouncing off the confines of their niche. I stare anxiously at the undulating screen. My heart implodes as my eyes work harder to detect a piece of the liquid surface, calm enough to permit a glimpse of the chromatic matrix. As all my tries fail, the more I concentrate on the task, the more the image blurs. There is no water, there is no turbinous mud, nothing appears to be anything anymore. I am surrounded by false images that repel me away. No reference points, no orientation, nothing but the crashing feeling someone has while falling. My body stirs as I try to regain control of myself. The puddle swirls faster and my head explodes. The colors fade to the impossible and become imperceptible as they sink into the abyss around me. The blasting anxiety takes over, blows me to infinity and I collapse.

"Thank you."

I am caressed; slowly released of the weight that compressed me. A whisper-like touch cradles me slowly back to my senses. I am weightless as the soft breeze cuddles me. Slowly my eyes regain focus and manage to make out the still revolting puddle. No tint apart from the smoggy, brown hue now being lifted and mixed by the relentless ripples. I am relaxed. No objects, no flowers, no anxiety. The air around me had felt my distress and came to my aid releasing me from the gathered tension. I am not suppressed anymore. The useless search had choked my feelings and my senses revolted. The immaterial brushes now flood my nostrils and I become conscious again. My existential sanity does not depend on what surrounds me anymore. A flash. My delicate eyes are blinded by the rushing input. There, in the midst of the that murky caldron, something had exploded so forcefully as to burn my pupils. There it floats so helplessly; pushed by the same tender breeze. The excruciating eruption of such a pure color slowly turns to an enveloping warm front. My senses are spoiled and I give in to sublime feelings. I am completed; peace finally takes me over as I, enchanted, shrink upon that object. The perfection is admirable. All my senses awake and I finally embrace what the ripples would have forever hid from me. I gather myself on the floating petal and, swept by the breeze, embark on a journey of endless ecstasy.

A man alone can only attempt to grasp the impossible around him, in society he fools himself with false temporary images, but in loving union, he steps away and lets the essence of life come to him.

back to top

The Wait for College Admission Decision is Killing Me... - Daniele Pinna

Watching out the window,
assertive all around;
caring to each brush and whisper:
every sneaky little sound.

Feeling all about me,
every subtle shake.
To each stir and-every sway
my senses burst awake.

What's a piece of paper?
What's it to a man?
Could it matter ever so much
in-my living span?

Could it be the sender?
I'll tell you what's the key.
The only certain problem here
is the very troubled me.

A letter is a letter,
lengthy as you want;
a letter is a timid missive,
not a cruel haunt.

What's then in the meaning
(hidden deep inside)?
What could bend a man so much
and demolish all his pride?

What if really up there,
fixed upon the stake,
lies the solemn, grave decision:
life to him will give or take.

He is forced to suffer,
to-fate's will he's bound.
His agony depends on his huffy senses:
each smell, each single sound.

back to top

Darkness - Daniele Pinna

Among these silent rocks,
encompassing,
darkness all about;

I'm a butterfly in a box,
struggling,
fluttering my way out.

back to top

Fluid - Daniele Pinna

Waterfall of doubts
splashing on the misty shore.
Ripples cradle me.

Tempest on the rise,
shakes the sailboat nervously
for all minds to see.

Dew drops on a petal,
glint on a crispy morning:
outburst of beauty.

Water runs and spills;
rocks and shakes our anxious souls,
flooding life's debris.

back to top

A Dot - Daniele Pinna

I am a dot,
a tiny dot,
occupying this lonely spot.

I am dust,
gagging rust,
gathering on a tarnished pot.

I am a tear,
a long-wept cheer,
smudging a poetic plot.

I am a boy,
a useless toy,
analyzing a lonely dot.

back to top

Ser - Jorge González

Servir de luz
a un cuadro gris
que ya no nace.

Abrir la boca
como volcán
que vomita hambre.

Servir de estéril acusado
a un rombo negro
que nos señala.

Dominar la ira
con la lengua apagada.

Curtir montes
con las manos horadadas.

Recibir el bien
como tumba que se cierra.

Apagar la luna.

back to top

Tree Spirit's Circle: - Thomas (Torg) Hadley

so achingly poignant, this, your beloved Wreath
a holding onto of Life, of memory, of Love
treasured, made more beautiful with time's patina
of times remembered, some so lost now,
so far, far away

'tis not for naught, tho', I feel I'd like to say
when we gather anew, when smiles come,
when we are born again when love wells up
and secretly secretes a tear of joy
reaching out to remember, to forgive, to give
a token of our compassion, our fondness...

pack the wreath carefully, as I know you shall do
now with blessings to your house, peace to your brow
and the assurance that
bidden or unbidden
love is present
only waiting to be seen, to be heard, to be spoken...

anew, ever-ever anew....

back to top

Great Simplicities - Maria C. Faverio

Great simplicities
reveling in pools of sunshine,
molten ice-cream.

back to top

Purple Kaleidoscope - Maria C. Faverio

Purple kaleidoscope
at dawn, only the nightingale
notices, hot breakfast.

back to top

Dimming with Loss - Maria C. Faverio

Dimming with loss,
winter spreads like a white silence –
in and out of trance.

back to top

Kinship - Mark Norman

We know each other.
Consciously, we avoid looking.
We do not want to find each other‘s
eyes.
Because the eyes
can show the tension of need.
We know that look all to well.
They can show the ecstasy of being sated,
we know that look too.
But, when they show the stark
realization of riding the downward
spiral, we cringe in horror,
because we see ourselves.

back to top

Empty Man - Ed Glomski

I know an empty man!
He doesn't see his own
God-shaped-void.
And he floats down
A river of alcohol,
Spouting out absurdities,
About a dead god.
Perhaps, with love and luck,
He'll find sanctification
in a church basement!

back to top