Vita Poetica | Poetry
compass my eyes to speed of light
by Kathleen Hellen
We need each other as we need the earth we share.
—Maya Angelou
like barnacle geese
migrating
the robin ent-
ang-l-ed —how
Praise as Acrostic
by Ellis Purdie
Looking for snakes with an old man, a recent friend
about my father’s age save for one
month, who also drove a GMC truck but red and rickety. Horse-
A Sonnet for Freshman Year
by Claude Smith
Dear Lord: You know how hard it is for me
to pray. The classes here are killing all
the things I thought were true. How can it be
Three Poems
by Gale Acuff
I love everybody but I'm only
ten years old, I haven't had enough time
really to learn how to hate although I
can say that I hate English peas, and beets,
Born Blind
by Libby Kurz
We were born blind, but God
has kissed our eyes
with the mercy of His mouth
and the dry dirt of the earth.
Notes on Borrowed Wisdom
by Ken Hines
Birthday
Every year she makes a fancy cake, as though the child
were still here. She can see him even now, wide-eyed in the dining room
Garlic Lover
by Peter Bankson
Garlic – my guide, my muse, my love . . .
It’s cold in the refrigerator where the garlic lives,
and dark.
The bulb that I’ve kept stored there since September
has been in isolation,
A Reading of Revelation
by Devon Balwit
after Flannery O’Connor
Turpin from turpitude, perhaps, though the Mrs. was shocked
to be shown so, always having done right
Reading Flannery O’Connor While Trapped under the Heat Dome
by Devon Balwit
Angry and red, the writer’s sun bloodies
her endings, a Divine spectator of Revelation,
Satsang with Guruji
by James Hannon
Can’t you see that flight
is disloyalty to one’s higher self,
that fight is a lack of humility,
and fear the sad absence of faith?
Ars Poetica, Obstetrics, Painting, and the Rough Draft
by Sean Sexton
Is it like helping a calf to be born—poem-writing,
and if you believe in fate, perhaps you believe
such things already exist and only need deliverance.
Falling Star, by Romare Bearden
by Jenna K. Funkhouser
She is the only one left
in the world
and the left arm, unhurried,
wise in the way
it anticipates the miracle
