lilies in the moon
wild behind an empty barn
safe from zealous hands
Posts By: Tim Lepczyk
John L. Gronbeck-Tedesco
John L. Gronbeck-Tedesco’s poetry, translations and plays have appeared in a variety of publications and theatre venues, including “Outsider Poetry,” “Madness Muse Magazine,” the Kansas City Fringe, the Cleveland Public Theatre and Karamu House Theatre.
Lay of the Land
I know that you felt stunted
in the landscape of your youth,
Refugee’s song
The size of this lounge
makes me feel dirty
leaving as a stranger, coming back as a son
It may take 963km & 39days of hiking
two countries
native
All those rights I was taught about
never apply in airports.
The Tilted House
We lived in a tilted house
Where our bodies compensated for the uneven floors
My Home
You see, a place is a home
when your heart is at peace and harmony with it.
Enough
I don’t know her name. I don’t know
what she gathers of life
when she stands
in the morning
Winter
If nothing else, Chingis needed hope.
My Splendid Catch
is not the size of a hand
but is the size of shards flung in natural patterns
Story
This child, born of foam.
This child,
How to leave home
If you must leave,
then let it be on the most quiet night,
The Settler’s Son Is Leaving
Where’s your vest, your tzitzit?
Why do you come at me in jeans and a T-shirt you got
Gush Etzion Settler Speaks
On this road, this blessed packed dirt under our feet,
you can walk straight into Jerusalem.
Knot
a beautiful gesture, saying both go and hello:
one knuckle, a faint bristle of a hand
Language as a Wall
I said “äiti,” which starts with a diphthong that sounds a bit
like a drunk friend’s hello and ends with a terse request for tea.
For Lydia
n blue floral dress, she
sighs. Hands, plump,
rest from their labor.
We Move Forward
The floor is sticky, the lights dim
A familiar Latin beat taps out the soundtrack
Life into Stone
I must move the stone, she says,
though it is a mountain with no footholds,
Orange Snow
In a small town in Russia
the snow has turned orange.
It smells of rotting feet.
Celery Street
I dream of the house often.
Square white with a large porch,
plain wooden floors.
1/1/2018
it’s a white sheet
off white
maybe grey
Hideaway
I come from a place
where flowers are celebrated
by being crushed between
City Sea Change
The minute you leave
I summon the sea,
homecoming
I am a settler of ancient ground
washed in the earth
By the Roadside
It comes upon you
as you draw
the curve.
Where the Waters Meet
Let the river
flow
into you.
Learning to Tell
His earliest childhood years were
in battles and refugee camps,
no rocking chairs or playgrounds.
Lost Habitat
He tallies the twenty dollars
he borrowed for his uncontested divorce.
Naming the Stars
When I was little, I used to think that when the sun went down it would take the clouds with it, clearing the sky for the stars.
Red Flecks on a Veneer of Black
Sitting in traffic: slowly moving, the cars’
brake lights run rampant. Individually, we’re
A Weary Pattern of Dissolved Shell
Where knees and kettles impress soapstone,
black and cracked and smooth, the fire’s heat
The Theory of Everything
We sailed from our homeport at Charleston Naval Base in June of 1999 en route a three-month deployment to the Eastern Mediterranean Sea
Anne Visser Ney
Anne Visser Ney is a Coast Guard veteran whose work has appeared or is forthcoming in Brain, Child; Fourth River, and Crab Orchard Review; Potomac Press anthologies It’s My Country, Too: Women’s Military Stories; and Red, White, and True: Stories from Veterans and Families. She teaches writing to combat veterans through the local Veterans Center,… Read more »
Asylum
A loud rumble drew Marisol Flores to the window of the second floor apartment. Her chest tightened when she peeked between drawn curtains to see a steel gray armored truck stopped directly in front of the building in which she had lived for the past two years.
Karaoke Blues
Then the door parts. If this is a western, he’s the lone cowboy drifting in on a gritty breeze.
Introduction
My inspiration for The Patterns of Place: Seeking Shelter; Finding Home came from the refugee crisis in the Middle East and across the Mediterranean Sea, specifically, the image of Alan Kurdi, a three-year-old boy who drowned and whose body washed ashore.
Special Thanks
First, thank you to the Hendrix-Murphy Foundation for supporting creative writing in the community and helping to cover the costs of Scintilla. Secondly, thank you to all the writers who have been patient and gracious as I’ve moved through this year of grief. It’s been a difficult time and I’ve felt the love and support you all have shown.
Michael Anthony
Michael Anthony is a writer and artist living in New Jersey. He has published fiction, poetry, illustrations, and photographs in literary journals and commercial magazines. Most recently these include El Portal, Lit-Tapes, Camas Magazine, and Gremlin Creative. The American Labor Museum exhibited Michael’s photojournalism essay, “Mill Ends,” on the waning textile industry. Website: michaelanthony.myportfolio.com
Danielle de Corcho
Danielle de Corcho is an English as a Second Language teacher, poet and creative nonfiction writer. Her poetry has appeared in HEArt Journal Online and on the Submittable Blog. She lives just outside of New Orleans, Louisiana with her husband, two young children and two dogs.
Lauren Yaffe
Lauren Yaffe is a novelist, screenwriter and picture book writer, and holds an MFA from Warren Wilson College and a Master Screenwriter Certificate from ScreenwritingU. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including Alaska Quarterly, Cottonwood, Calliope, Willow Review, and Fiction Weekly (Pushcart Prize-nominated). She lives in Brooklyn, NY. www.LaurenYaffe.com Twitter: @LaurenYaffe
Skaidrite Stelzer
Skaidrite Stelzer lives and writes in Toledo, Ohio. Growing up as a post-war refugee and displaced person, she feels connected to the world and other stray planets. Her poetry has been published in Fourth River, Eclipse, Glass, Baltimore Review, Flock, Storm Cellar, and many other literary journals.
Mathias Knight
Mathias Knight studies history at Portland State University and lives in Portland, Oregon. That said, he has more interests, academic and otherwise, than can fit within one major and this leads to that occasionally being subject to revision. In these interests is a love of poetry, history, strategy games, losing at chess with more skilled… Read more »
John Grey
John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident. Recently published in the Homestead Review, Poetry East and Columbia Review with work upcoming in Harpur Palate, the Hawaii Review and Visions International.
Mary Newell
Mary Newell lives in the lower Hudson Valley. Her poems have been published in Dispatches from the Poetry Wars, BlazeVox, Spoon River Poetry Review, Hopper Literary Magazine, About Place, etc. She has also written essays, including “Shades of Melancholy” in Melancholia: Hinge as Innominate Limina. She studies transitional zones, as between exurban and natural environments,… Read more »
e. smith sleigh
E. Smith Sleigh was educated at the universities of Delaware and Michigan, taught at the college level, and has traveled extensively. She now lives in Robert Penn Warren and Edgar Cayce country where she draws inspiration. She won finalist designation in several literary and academic competitions including Eastern Kentucky University’s academic journal Nine Patch: A… Read more »
Paula Rodriguez
Dr. Paula M. Rodriguez is a high school teacher in Los Angeles. She started her literary career in Spain, where she won first award on the prestigious poetry prize Francisco Nieva, but focused thereafter on academic publications that deal with different aspects of the literary experience, from Shakespeare to Henry James. Her first poem published… Read more »
Jan Rog
As a teacher of composition and literature at MCC-Longview, I delight in seeing students embrace hard questions, challenge themselves to grow, and take leadership in helping others. Active in the Greater Kansas City Writing Project and the Prairie Lands Writing Project, I seek ways to grow as an educator and a writer.
Les Bares
Les Bares is a retired high school English teacher living in Richmond, Virginia. His poems have appeared in The Cream City Review, The Evansville Review, Stand Magazine (U.K.), Spillway, Pinyon, The San Pedro River Review, Red Earth Review, Offbeat and other journals. He was one of the winners of the 2015 Streetlight Magazine poetry contest.
Tamara Coleman
Tamara Coleman is an undergraduate student at the University of Houston. Her writing revolves around diaspora and humanity.
Sarah Kohrs
Sarah E N Kohrs is an artist and writer, whose poetry also can be found in Poetry from the Valley of Virginia, Crosswinds Poetry Journal, From the Depths, Virginia Literary Journal, Horn & Ivory, Colere, Raven Chronicles, Claudius Speaks, Gone Lawn, and Adelaide Literary Magazine. SENK has a BA from The College of Wooster and… Read more »
Eric Odynocki
Eric Odynocki is a teacher and writer from New York. He is a first generation American of Mexican, Ukrainian, and Jewish descent. Eric’s work has been published or is forthcoming in Acentos Review, In Layman’s Terms, Obra/Artifact, and the Westchester Review.
Terry Hall Bodine
A graduate of the College of William & Mary, Terry Hall Bodine works as housing coordinator at University of Lynchburg. Recent publication credits include Roanoke Review, The Tishman Review, and Typishly. Terry lives with her husband Bill in Virginia.
Horia A. Pop
I drift from one place to another, live on petty jobs and keep on writing because I can’t do otherwise.
K. Eltinaé
K. Eltinaé is a Sudanese poet of Nubian descent whose work has appeared in World Literature Today, The African American Review, Xavier Review, Muftah, Jaffat El Aqlam, Sukoon, Solidago, Rigorous, New Contrast, Poetry Potion, Word Fountain, Baphash Literary & Arts Quarterly, TRACK//FOUR, Paperbark, The WAiF Project, Illya’s Honey, Elsewhere Literary Journal, The Ofi Press, NILVX,… Read more »
Margaret King
Margaret King is a Wisconsin writer who enjoys penning poetry, short stories, and young adult novels. In her spare time, she likes to haunt the shores of Lake Michigan, similar to many of her fictional characters. Her recent work has appeared in Unlost Journal, Moonchild Magazine, Verdancies, The Writer’s Cafe Magazine (UK), Mystic Blue Review,… Read more »
Chinua Ezenwa-Ohaeto
Chinua Ezenwa-Ohaeto (@ChinuaEzenwa) is from Owerri-Nkworji in Nkwerre, Imo state, Nigeria and a lover of literature. He has won the Association Of Nigerian Author’s Literary Award for Mazariyya Ana Teen Poetry Prize, 2009; Speak to the Heart Inc. Poetry Competition, 2016. He became a runner-up in Etisalat Prize for Literature, Flash fiction, 2014 with I… Read more »
Carl Boon
Carl Boon lives in Izmir, Turkey, where he teaches in the American Culture and Literature Department at Dokuz Eylül University. His poems appear in many magazines, including Posit, Diagram, and the Maine Review. A Pushcart Prize nominee, Boon recently edited a volume on the sublime in American literature.
Erin Jamieson
Erin Jamieson received an MFA in Creative Writing from Miami University of Ohio. Her writing has been published or is forthcoming in After the Pause, Into the Void, Flash Frontier, Mount Analogue, Blue River, The Airgonaut, Evansville Review, Canary,Shelia-Na-Gig, and Foliate Oak Literary, among others.
Liberty Heise
Liberty Heise’s poetry investigates and records what is missed or will soon become missing in our natural and personal worlds due to climate change and memory loss. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Horseless Press, Coconut, Crate, The Fourth River, Ecopoetics, Phoebe Journal, Grain Magazine, Poetry Motel and other journals. Liberty received an… Read more »
John Rodzvilla
John Rodzvilla teaches in the Publishing and Writing programs at Emerson College in Boston. His work has appeared in Harvard Review, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, gorse, and DecomP.
Soonest Nathaniel
Soonest Nathaniel is a Poet and spoken word artist. He is the author of “Teaching My Father How To Impregnate Women,” selected as winner of the 2017 RL Poetry Award. He was poet Laureate for 2014 Korea Nigeria Poetry Festival. His poems appear or are forthcoming in Rattle, The Pedestal Magazine, Praxis Mag, Raven Chronicles,… Read more »
Joy Arbor
A human rights advocate and the granddaughter of a captain in Israel’s War for Independence, Joy Arbor joined the Compassionate Listening Project’s citizen delegation to Israel and the West Bank in order to listen to people from a variety of perspectives. Poems about her experiences have appeared in Crab Orchard Review, HEArt Journal Online: Human… Read more »
Angela Gabrielle Fabunan
Angela Gabrielle Fabunan is an MA Creative Writing student at the University of the Philippines Diliman and a graduate of Bowdoin College. She has appeared in Cha Journal, Eastlit, New Asian Writing, and Asymptote, among others. She lives in Olongapo City, Philippines. Her work Homecoming of Age is forthcoming from Platypus Press.
Jennimaria Palomaki
Jennimaria Palomaki is a Finnish-American Brooklyn-based linguist and writer.
The Man Who Decided To See
And so he began. And for the first time saw
the boy whose bicycle sped by his porch,
then the yellowing leaf on the back step.
The Frequency of a Periodic Function
Silence won’t stand
for itself. It won’t
Municipal Pool
We could get away by ourselves when we turned twelve,
could necktie beach towels, corsage the octagonal badge, the
get-away made on flip-flops if we lived closed enough.
In the Kingdom of Perpetual Night
where all their lost, original songs
squeeze the bellows of death,
sing with mouths of sun & flint
such lullabies of dread
Six Days: A Creation Myth
The markings of the world:
disc of desert blur,
concentric sphere imagining itself
divided and conquered.
A man’s rusted compass,
a woman’s hint of blue shadow.
Mixing Your Legends
After the wedding, as bride
and groom depart, you muddle
your legends and turn yourself
into a pillar of salt. A glimpse
Cosmological Sonnets
An impact of two black holes is said to produce more energy
than all of the suns in the universe. And we may observe
Wreck
in tender onyx,
under pressure,
cooking,
the sun spits
it’s splits onto
the ship that
peels like
a croissant.
Alive or Dead
You are either alive or dead
one or the other
there is a clear boundary
distinct like the River Styx
Separate Vacations
She’s away from home,
but won’t say for how
long. Her husband is out
The Has Been, The Dancer, The Invader
Daphne’s left rib glistened with aquasoft, a thin layer over her fresh tattoo, an outline of a maple tree.
How The World Does Not Work
Isn’t this what we all do, sooner or later,
try to take back the mistakes, the words said
in anger, the sins that haunt our dreams?
Old Cadillac People
The first thing on Jane’s mother’s list was the UPS store. There was always something to send back. Not all items passed muster. “Too yellow,” Margaret had said, handing the opened box to Jane. “And I sincerely doubt there is one natural fiber in that blouse. Silk, indeed!” Jane printed out the return form, bundled… Read more »
Primrose Hill
as they link in
70s raincoat logic
D.S. al coda
Love is a melody
that in the silence
Love Potion
Deep fried everything, buttered biscuits, hot grits with syrup,
black-eyed peas, corn bread,
bacon drippings collected in coffee cans
The Very Short Life of Andrew Norton
The child never stood a chance, born in a thunderstorm in the back seat of a mid-sized sedan.
The Ballad of Natsumi-Lynn
It was hot the day my wife came back to me from the dead.