By Monica Schley I am so pleased to be included in Lakewold Gardens’ 2025 Poetry in the Gardens. Each year, Lakewold invites local poets to submit original poems to the Winter Garden Poetry competition. My poem, “An Edible Garden” was accepted and is now installed in the Garden’s self-guided tour. You can listen to the…
By Claudia Hollander-Lucas March 2025 This poem originated from a call from King County for the Poetry on the Bus project in 2023. The theme was “Landings”. My very short poem was designed to touch the everyday commuter with a message of hope to play the long game rather than being overtaken by politics and…
By Nova Berger There’s an orchestra on the Island, hidden deep within the wood.And if you have a whimsy mind and eager ears, go out and find it. (For nearly everyone really should.) It’s a show for those who stop in ponder,Who, like gulls, follow the wind of their wander. For the breath of the…
By Claudia Hollander-Lucas This poem is inspired by a train ride I took from New York City to Washington, DC in early April last year. The seasons morphed in the frame of my window from bare limbs on budding shrubs to fragrant huge blooms on the evergreen Magnolias that line many streets and yards –…
By Laura Jones Introduction from Jane Valencia Recently, my friend Laura Jones shared with me some comics she had created for an online Haiku Comic class with David Lasky. I was captivated and charmed, and asked if we could print one. Though traditional haiku has three lines containing 5-7-5 syllables, not all haikus stick to…
By Jo Ann Herbert I live under giant sequoiaswith deer grazing by moonlight I watch thoughts rush tangleand lead me to anger and despair. I count warm memoriesI see wrongs the world over I cuddle animal sweetnessthat calms the bitter themes I live under giant sequoias.
By Jane Valencia Quiet nightblue snowhidden moon twirls a skein of light Snow fallssoft woolen coinsspinning between antler branches A Christmas rose unfurlsfrom her clouded petticoatShe dyes petals within silent ponds Moon! Your footfallson the new-woven snowreveal patterns in this winter grove
By Jane Valencia Download a pdf of the poem set to music Years ago, in the dark of the year, a friend shared with me a dream she’d had. I quickly forgot the nature of her dream, but a phrase she spoke sparked my imagination: “Take, for what is given.” I set to work on…
By Claudia Hollander-Lucas Two poems in tribute to poet-songwriter Leonard Cohen, who died shortly before the 2016 Presidential election. “Outlaw” takes creative license to an excerpt from ”A Street” and “No Halleluias” is my poem in response to the 2016 and 2024 elections.
By Marc J. Elzenbeck It’s true that when you travelyou’re never free of Woody Allen.Every sidewalk artist knows himand four score more sketchable actorswho’ll ambush you from here to Thailandicons of the monoculture from which we come. Such harbingers. It reminds me how the prophetssaid the ends of earth express a single sum.Some foretell of…