Winter 2010

Journeys and Destinations

To My Only Lover

Writer who molds lost clouds

into tiny poems across the sky,

above windswept seeds disseminating

throughout the meadow soon to be full

with flowers in the coming spring--

writer, I love you, I am yours

for the asking, my limbs unfolded,

my heart a song of flutes and strings,

beautiful as an eight-voice choir,

one mellotronic happening, exposed

as the ripest pomegranate hanging

from a blossoming tree, pick me!

I am certain you’ll be pleased; there’s

an ease about knowing you’re listening

out there, somewhere, contemplating

our rendezvous, my soon to be midnight

climax; where are you?

--Carol Lynn Grellas



Outgrown

My life is too small for me.

It pinches at the waistband like

an outgrown pair of jeans.

My ankles knob below the cuffs,

sampling the air outside, reporting

journeys and adventures boarding

every minute, and I standing there

saying I have nothing else to wear.

--Erin Marissa Russell

Meditation 21

A straight path

And an open sky

To the horizon

Is what I’m promised

But the road I walk

Is lined with trees

And the secret, seductive whispers

Of the wood

 
--Anne Brooke

Berlin Senryu From A Tourist

Grand castle rebuilt,

 just as it was in ‘40.

People are still dead.

Double line of bricks

marks toppled barrier’s path.

Divisions remain.

Shish kebab and wurst

fill hungry tourists’stomachs--

at different meals.   

Traveler’s Ode

These shoes are too old for walking.

The claims are too high for staking.

The words are too many for talking

and apologies too late for the making.

The sun is too late for the sky,

the moon too early for night,

the question too late for asking why--

the wrong is too late for the right.

These shoelaces hang by a thread

and my shoe has a hole in the sole.

My heart will betray my head

and the aim will betray the goal.

God grant me grace; I have a heavy load

and a limited time to make my way.

Await for me, when night moves on day--

all I have is a heavy conscience, and this traveler’s ode.

About the poets:

Social media expert Lynette Chiang, a/k/a Galfromdownunder, is an award-winning author, advertising copywriter, multimedia storyteller and solo bicycle adventurette. You can see, and hear, a slightly different version of this song, along with other down-loadable songs, here: http://www.galfromdownunder.com/otherstuff/

Carol Lynn Grellas is a three-time Pushcart nominee and the author of A Thousand Tiny Sorrows, soon to be released from March Street Press and two chapbooks: Litany of Finger Prayers, Pudding House Press and Object of Desire, Finishing Line Press.  She is widely published in magazines and online journals including most recently, The Centrifugal Eye, Oak Bend Review and deComp, with work upcoming in OVS and Saw Palm Florida Literature and Art. She lives with her husband, five children and a little blind dog who sleeps in the bathtub.

Erin Marissa Russell is a 26-year-old who studies art and writing in Dallas, Texas. She is the founder and co-editor of Moulin Review, a literary journal staffed by students at Brookhaven College. She is managing editor for the Brookhaven Courier and junior editor at Open Heart Publishing. Her short story That's What It's All About won first place in the 2009 National League for Innovation in the Community College Contest. In addition to writing and making art, Erin sings and plays piano in The Lewis Family Singers, The Republic of Texas, and 3 Women.

Anne Brooke writes novels and poetry. Six of her novels have been published, including the GLBT romantic thriller, The Bones of Summer, published by Dreamspinner Press and available from Amazon in the UK and US. In addition, the gay crime novel Maloney's Law is available from Amazon UK & US, and A Dangerous Man is available from Flame Books - http://www.flamebooks.com - or from Amazon UK.  “Meditation 21” is from Salt and Gold, poetic meditations on the Book of Exodus and St. Luke, also available from Amazon.

Anne Rettenberg is Editor of Eat a Peach: A Poetry Journal. She is a psychotherapist in New York City and formerly was a journalist. She has been published at protestpoems.org.