framed in stone

crescent moon

 Competition HERE

Helen Farrell Simcox Has poems published in Revival, Stony Thursday, Haiku Ireland, U.S. anthologies and several e-zines.

to the dark,

Because the sun

burns inside us.

For what are our lips

But the dew-crossed moss,

And our breath

But the rustle of slender leaves,

Or our tongues

But the silent bird

Which longs to sing,

But only flutters to the heart?

What out of this kiss

Can open a heart’s deep root,

But the curl of dangerous smoke

Rising from below?

Competition HERE

R.K. Wyrick is a graduate of The University of Missouri. He lives and works and consumes massive amounts of coffee in Kansas City.

More junk mail on the doormat.

Competition HERE

Ian Williams  was born in Lancashire but has lived in Northumberland for over 15 years.

He has been partaking in the rather solitary occupation of poetry writing for many years, inspired in his youth by the Mersey “beat” poets. Ian writes in a variety of style inspired by the people and places around him and the feelings and emotions that they generate. His background in mental health also comes through in his work.

Also a photographer, in recent years Ian has undertaken joint poetry/ photo exhibitions across the North East and Scotland including: Alnwick, Darlington, Peebles, Selkirk and others. Ian’s work has been used by the Northumberland Tourist Board. Ian also performs regularly on the North East spoken word circuit.

the umpteenth time in a million years

her crown fallen behind her, not looking back.

She’s heard that pillar of salt story and tonight

it’s all you can drink

all you can conjure

Ignoring the wicked glint of a comet,

a little streak of time in the back corner of the eye,

Aphrodite’s graceful kiss

buzzes her with forgotten magic

as she reaches out a resurrected hand

to the smiling gentleman who tells her

with words that dash and sparkle

behind his brown eyes

that he can love both sides of her

her fresh green dress

her flame-red hair

Competition HERE

Michael Pacholski was born in 1968 in Wisconsin but has spent most of his life in Illinois where he attended Illinois State University, receiving a Master’s Degree in English (emphasis on Creative Writing) in 2000. His poems have been published in Comstock Review, Karamu, Retort, and 63 Channels.

 Competition HERE

chill wayward sprinkles lit

through cracked clouds, sun oblique

and sneaky—though denied

full glory, still she lights

this concrete plaza, says

these blocks shall not reflect

a gray, amorphous sky,

but flame in sharp relief.

Bright banks of craggy light

become a summer space,

where winter’s echoes melt

and trickle earthward, catch

fire, seed the air with scent

of baptized clay.

 Competition HERE

C G Olsen teaches Norse Mythology and studies Viking poems about pictures on shields, among other things. In his free time he writes, draws, plays guitar and takes his friends hiking in local parks. He has had work published in Fables e-zine and the Rose and Thorn journal, and upcoming poems in Ideomancer and Everyday Poets. You can read up on his adventures on his wordpress blog Vikings, Books, etc.

he has trapped her in parts

left lying around the house

in the living room

her leg is tied to the bookcase

toes tap tap tapping

in time to the

interminable sounds of the evening

her mouth lies in the hallway

nagging

let me up

and where do you think you’re going

down the pub with your mates again

look at me when I’m talking to you

in the bathroom

she stares wide-eyed from the peeling mirror

scrunches up her nose when

she sees him

her arms plunged and scalded in the

kitchen sink and her bottom below them

curving

tantalising

untouchable up against the cupboards

he lingers

considers

longs then turns away and goes upstairs

where in the bedroom

one breast lies exposed amongst the sheets

it is cold beneath his hand

he stops a moment in the hall

where she is

forever reduced to a pair of angry lips

he shouts I’m off out love

then closes the door gently behind him

Competition HERE

Rachel Hawkins has been writing poetry since she was a young child. Then she grew up, got a “real job” and couldn’t find the time. She just got started again recently and loves trying to use words to connect with other people, past and present, through shared experience.

beat of hooves
plays bass to birdsong
country music

Competition HERE

Rachel Sutcliffe As a youngster, Rachel Sutcliffe had a great imagination and loved story and poetry writing. For a while, her creative writing took a back seat as she discovered the joys of foreign language learning. However she remained an avid reader despite not writing as much herself. Personal circumstances have led her to really concentrate on her writing again. She finds it a great form of therapy! Rachel is an active member of a writing group and is pleased to have seen several of her poems and short stories published recently in various anthologies and magazines.

In his suicide note
he joked that his Irish blood
had been at war with his English blood
and that if the note wasn’t
crumpled, discarded,
and thrown away by morning,
his attempts to negotiate a peace
had been disastrously in vain.

Competition HERE

Robert W. Booth  is a gentleman-bastard, poet, scoundrel, scholar, and thief. Though he typically works full time in his home state of Maine, Robert is currently cut adrift on an open ended road-trip with no set destinations or return date and very well may be the scraggly-bearded man bending an elbow two bar stools down.

cold winter evening

on a distant balcony

a firefly

 Competition HERE

Matthew Christian Borkowski is from the Southeast U.S. originally, but for the past nine years has been living on Shikoku in west Japan. He is slowly working on completing the 88 Temple Pilgrimage of Kukai.