Vita Poetica | Poetry
The river that cuts a country in two
by Jeannine Marie Pitas
1.
I met a man who walked beside it every sunrise
taking pictures of lacy ice in December, red-winged
blackbirds in May, flaming leaves in October.
During the Sixth Extinction
by Jeannine Marie Pitas
A woman walks a thousand miles
along the coasts of England and Ireland
telling people about curlews.
We have seven years left
to save them. “These birds mean
Rave Haiku
by Rose Knapp
Sleek skittering silver sharp metallic ice hi hats
Sink, ricocheting ping pongs of dance until dawn MDMA
Enlightenment underneath the aglow red epileptic strobes
‘Love’s Radiant Play’ Cento
- William Matthews: Cento*
by Kathleen Gunton
Music’s only secret is silence. It’s time
Weeping as you go on in, through
Energy, the speed of light, the universe
Love’s radiant play and refraction
Whole and Entire
by Matthew J. Andrews
(after Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
Instead of consolidated on heaven’s throne,
the multiplicitous body of Christ
fractures: the dour one with closed
‘Putting Words Next to Silence’ Cento
-Marvin Bell: Cento*
by Kathleen Gunton
I didn’t die. There must be nourishment in the air
And this is why I have come to believe
All that is beneath us that is not light has stopped
By putting words next to silence—
Perhaps in a fit of ecstasy—
Morning Anointing
by Rachel Grandey
Forest matins:
in the canopy a sudden brilliance
of sun-breathed air.
A squirrel leaps, light-hung
Father to Son
— from the French of R.M. Rilke
Translated by James Owens
Keep yourself free from the over-complicated.
Look at your hand on the table, beside the bread:
on this clean cloth, the two things could not be clearer—
from father to son and son to father.
The Desert Prophets
by James Owens
A hollow in the nubbed lacework
of seconds, the centuries' lens
has focused you here, burning
a beginning in the breathturn,
a shift of silence toward word
Far Out Space Capsule Hygiene to Avoid Primal Screams
by Gerard Sarnat
Trying to preserve equanimity
in our Coronad twosome,
when spousal abuse
is rapidly rising
worldwide
Eavesdropping on Absence
by Laurie Klein
Begin with the wound—
a seeping willow, post-squall:
the tree in its wisdom conceives
an outgrowth, enveloping
harm, each burl singular
The Beginning in My Hands
by Karen Neuberg
I’m invited to ride a bandicoot rat
on the way to getting what I want.
A wildness taps me on the shoulder
and whispers remember me.
Secular Comedy
by Mark J. Mitchell
A cool moon chimes softly in the winter sky,
swelling like a bell in an empty church.
The stars twinkle as soft as some nun’s sigh.
Tonight is lousy with liturgy. I search
for secular symbols, untouched, unglossed
He Attempts to Explain His Religion
by Mark J. Mitchell
That the mystery is masked
is given. Names are tried on and discarded.
No one name will answer.
A breeze might brush your face,
just after sunset on the equinox, say.
It leaves a mark, a scar.
God Not Only Did I Walk
by Lauren K. Carlson
I frolicked with fire and flames: the fire, transgression. The flames: forbidden, did not set me ablaze, I invited the heat. With tenderness asked for tinder, wanted touch but would not reach.
You’ve Got Our Ear
by Marjorie Maddox
“Whimper or bang? And when
will the world end?” we type
into the small god we pretend
we don’t believe in but still pray
to daily—CNN and the Times
Tell Me 사랑해
by Melanie Hyo-In Han
Have you eaten? I’ll make you 순두부 next time you come home.
Make sure you pay your 집세 on time.
You should read this article about happiness. You’ve been looking 우울해 lately.
After My Grandmother Died
by Christine Valters Paintner
my mother opened her dresser
drawer and found it full of pills.
she had reason for despair,
growing up in the great
depression, a schizophrenic
sister, giving up the teaching