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| willsantt |
Poetry of Love and Light
Rumi Said
be a lamp
or a lifeboat
or a ladder
illuminate the dark
row to safe haven
climb out of the muck
become the lotus
Surrounded
I want to be that wild bee,
drunk on peony nectar.
I want to be the Java sparrow,
sitting in the backyard cherry tree.
I want to be the porcelain crab,
tucked in a left-behind conch shell.
I want to be wrapped in fondant,
soaked in the juice of a dragon fruit,
anointed with the scent
of stargazer lilies.
I want to be the morning sky.
I want to be on fire.
Seeds and Stardust
Earth nudges her seeds.
Sky grabs a fistful of stars.
Seeds reach, though shyly.
Stars run wild in the dark.
Two mothers, two kinds of love.
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| Shaun R. Pankoski |
Shaun R. Pankoski (she/her) is a poet, most recently from Volcano, Hawaii. A retired county worker and two-time breast cancer survivor, she has been an artist’s model, modern dancer, massage therapist, and an honorably discharged Air Force veteran. A 2024 Pushcart Prize nominee, her poems have appeared in ONE ART, Quartet, SWIMM, Thimble, Mackinaw Journal, and MockingHeart Review, among others. She was selected as a finalist by Lefty Blondie Press for her chapbook manuscript, Tipping the Maids in Chocolate: Observations of Japan, and as a first runner-up for their Editors' Choice Broadside Series for her poem, Lupine.
