When You Make Holy the Verb, You Emily by Selma Martin

 

Photo by Wendy Maeda/The Boston Globe via the Poetry Foundation 

When You Make Holy the Verb,
You Emily

I will strip back everything as I loaf here

let the rest be absorbed like osmosis
with inner eye, I will Emily the backdrop
document till the effort is grounding

Free from forged manacles to adhere
to, will inhale deep every color I notice
focus how they penetrate my scent top
until the very tip of my head is exploding

I will Emily and avoid all entanglements
of metaphors and the foolish need to focus
on their strength to take me over the top
—the last doom of folly in speechifying

I will strip back everything as I loaf here
I will inhale deep every color I notice
focus on their strength to take me over the top
focus on Emily—who scarcely deigned to lie
—and aim to overtake creases without sermonizing

©️ Selma Martin

Selma Martin

Selma Martin is a retired English teacher with 20 years of experience teaching ESL to children. She believes in people’s goodness and in finding balance in simple living. She lives in Japan with her husband of 35 years. In 2018, Selma participated in a networking course that culminated in a final lesson to publish a story on Amazon. She completed the course and self-published her short story, "Wanted: Husband/Handyman," in 2019. Later, collaborating with peers from that course, she published "Wanted: Husband/Handyman" in "Once Upon A Story: A Short Fiction Anthology." Selma has published stories on Medium for many years, in MasticadoresUSA, The Poetorium at Starlight, Short Fiction Break, Lit eZine, and Spillwords. In July 2023, she published her debut poetry collection, In the Shadow of Rainbows (Experiments in Fiction). You can find Selma as selmawrites on Instagram and Twitter, and on her website, selmamartin.com.

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Cowboys Don’t Wear Red Hats by Mary Kipps

 

Виктория Билан

Cowboys Don’t Wear Red Hats

The gifts you said we’d love.

My disappointment when

you gave the black one 

to my brother,

who was more interested

in baseball.

The gift you said I’d love,

pushed to the bottom of the toy box,

unable, there, to lend truth

to the lie

it was only pretend.

Now that I’m older,

red hats still look silly on me,

but I wore one yesterday

in the garden

while, three thousand miles away,

your family buried you.

© Mary Kipps

Mary Kipps

Mary Kipps enjoys composing in traditional forms as well as in free verse. A former Pushcart Prize nominee, her poems have appeared regularly in journals and anthologies across the U.S. and abroad since 2005.

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Salvation by Toyer Fahie

 

Artem Podrez

SALVATION 

All of us kneel

Needing grace 

The grains of sand 

Burn our knees

While we wait for pardon

We do not look alike 

Our needs differ

Yet we come together 

Searching for salvation

As we encircle the same cross

A cross that sees no colour

A cross that knows no creed

A cross which represents hope

So, as we lament from our breast

While we face the harshness of the sun

We will kneel

We will wait 

For redemption

© Toyer Fahie

Toyer Fahie

Toyer Fahie was born and raised in the Virgin Islands. Toyer began writing poems in her mid-teens. Her favorite type of poem to write is free verse —she writes directly from her heart. Toyer has entered local poetry competitions, which yielded winnings. She currently writes for several online journals.

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Piano Lesson by Carol Barrett

 

Pavel Danilyuk

Piano Lesson

Music never failed to move my father

who would lift his baritone and hold

a note until breath was out, and sound,

a memory of notes he took in hand

to show his love of life, his care

for all of us who touched his heart.

He urged me to let my heart

dictate the piano score. My father

would sing the lines to show his care

for how a simple melody could hold

joy or sorrow in the same hand,

could make of notes an angelic sound.

For him there was nothing so sound

as a phrase spun by the heart.

The upright shook in my hands

as I leaned with the song. My father

would listen as I practiced, holding

his face uplifted with gentle care.

And as I played, Beethoven’s careful

lineage of notes rang out. The sound

of love in triumph would hold

me transfixed on bench, my heart

in fullness, grateful to my father

who showed the way to glory’s hand.

There’s always a chord to take in hand

to echo the true musician’s care

for what passes understanding. My father

would yield his voice to the sound

of truth, of life, of love. The heart

must sing to release its treasured hold.

© Carol Barrett

 

Carol Barrett

Carol Barrett began writing poetry to support the widowed women she was counseling. Her most recent book is READING WIND. Currently living in Oregon, Carol supervises creative dissertations for students at two universities.

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REVEALING By Danica Milić

Photo Art © Carl Scharwath

REVEALING

How can I not thank
Life for having you now?
How can I not think of you
if you are the owner of my mind?
How can I forgive time for not
allowing me to discover you before?
How can I not understand that
the past is the same present?
How could I know that you were hiding
behind a star and this universe
had not revealed your shadow yet?

Blue universe where I shine
because you give me your light,
deep universe as deep as your love...
How can I not reveal myself to you,
if you are me and I am you?
With your love you do magic
from nothing and nothing
becomes everything
in your presence!

© Danica Cvieta Milić

Danica Cvieta Milić

Danica Cvieta Milić is a Dutch-Peruvian poet born in Lima, Peru, to a Croatian family. She has lived and worked in various countries. Her experiences have shaped her perspective and inspired her writing, which she crafts in English and Spanish.

A bilingual poet, Danica has been recognized for her cultural work, receiving the World Prize for Cultural Excellence from the Hispanic World Union of Writers (UHE) in 2016 and 2017. 

At the core of her work is the belief that "understanding how passion transmits emotion to the senses is related to the constant flow of universal energy that is part of life." Her poetry and writings aim to capture the essence of the senses, inviting readers on a journey through the magical world of literature.

She is currently working on her first poetry book.

Carl Scharwath

Carl Scharwath has appeared in 175+ journals worldwide, selecting his writing or art for publication. Carl has published four books of poetry and photography. He was nominated for four Best of the Net Awards (2022-25) and two different 2023 Pushcart Nominations for poetry and a short story.

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What No Longer Works? by Amrita Skye Blaine

 

Eva Bronzini

What No Longer Works? 

Why keep it? Send

It’s on its way

that thought, trinket

white elephant

Especially thoughts

Mean-spirited,

chuck it. Smoother,

softer ones will come

If they don’t, ditch

those, too.

No space for rude,

unfriendly,

that bucket’s filled

overflowing

flooding

© Amrita Skye Blaine

Amrita Skye Blaine

Amrita Skye Blaine develops themes of aging, disability, and awakening. She received a PocketMFA in poetry in 2024. She has published a memoir and a three-novel trilogy, and her work has appeared in fourteen poetry anthologies and numerous literary magazines. Two poetry collections, every riven thing and strange grace, were released in Spring 2025.  

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You think you live alone by Michael Braswell

 

RDNE Stock project

You think you live alone

You think you live alone

But you don’t

You live in one house

with many rooms

Open the door

Walk outside

See who lives next door

© Michael Braswell

Michael Braswell

Michael Braswell has published books on ethics, justice issues, and the spiritual journey, as well as four short story collections. His poems and stories have appeared in several publications, including Foreshadow, Mobius, and Literary Heist. His most recent books are When Jesus Came to the Cracker Barrel (2024) and Gracious Plenty (2025).

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First Night by Laura Rodley

 

Cup of Couple

First Night

Oxygen whistling, pumping moist air

to a cup clasped over my husband’s mouth,

monitors beeping, flashing his vital signs,

an IV taped to his wrist slowly pumping saline

into his veins, in a private room on

the critical cardiac care unit,

one nurse to every two patients.

Just this noon, surgeons inserted

a stent to open his blocked

left descending artery, a heart attack

often referred to as a widow-maker.

It’s two in the morning, and I’m holding

an emesis basin below his mouth

as he retches. The night nurse, Nancy,

enters, says, “The doctor left an order

for an anti-emetic, but let’s see

how he does. His body is adjusting

to the medicine, and the after-

affects of anesthesia.” She goes out,

returns with a heated half-blanket

that she lays down over him,

covering his waist to feet.

“He’ll love that,” I say. I must have sighed

because she offers, “I can get you one.”

“Really? Yes, please.” She returns

with a heated blanket, wraps it around

my shoulders, sets the blanket in place

as she squeezes my shoulders from behind

as my hands are full, holding the basin.

“Thank you,” I say, “All better now.”

She leaves to attend to her other patient.

© Laura Rodley

Laura Rodley

Pushcart Prize winner Laura Rodley's latest books are Turn Left at Normal by Big Table Press, Counter Point by Prolific Press, and Ribbons and Moths Poems for Children, winner of the Children's Nonfiction International Book Award and medalist for the Moonbeam Book Award for Children's Poetry. 

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You See the Familiar Dead by Yongbo Ma

cottonbro studio

You See the Familiar Dead

You see a familiar dead man

on the crowded subway, dressed in red,

sitting heavily, leaning forward slightly,

as if apologetic for crowding into the next seat.

You catch sight of him through tangled limbs,

your eyes meet, then drift apart,

as if strangers catching each other’s gaze.

You watch him bow his head in thought at times,

wearing a habitual weariness,

you wonder where he is bound for.

This subway heads toward eternal rest,

or a deeper river,

the carriage flickers dim and bright,

hissing with the sound of leaking air.

You know it is him,

you know he is in disguise,

look, he steals a glance at you again,

then quickly turns his eyes away,

pretending he has not recognized you at all.

© Yongbo Ma

Yongbo Ma

Ma Yongbo (Ma, Yongbo) is a Ph.D., representative of Chinese avant-garde poetry, and a leading scholar in Anglo-American poetry. He has published over 80 original works and translations since 1986, including 6 poetry collections. He focuses on translating and teaching Anglo-American poetry and prose, including the works of Dickinson, Whitman, Stevens, Pound, Williams, and Ashbery. He recently published a complete translation of Moby Dick, which sold over half a million copies. He teaches at Nanjing University of Science and Technology.

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