Humana Obscura Issue #9 (Summer 2024)

ANTIQUE LACE, MJ OKAWA

POETRY

Erich von Hungen.

Maria Provenzano

Joshua St. Claire

C.X. Turner

Stephanie Stein

Anna Maughan

Luke Levi

Tammy Greenwood

D. Dina Friedman

Rhiannon Scray

Robbin Farr

Di Slaney

Phillip Sterling

Nicholas Olah

W. Luther Jett

Alison Granucci

Shane Coppage

Gary Young

Miriam Calleja

Alex Dawson

Jennifer Perry

Debbie Strange

Thomas Francis O’Donnell

Elise Chadwick

Jennifer Browne

Alex Prince

Hannah Rodabaugh

Erin Benton

Anja Mujić

Joyce Brinkman

Listening 9 The Shadow of Bones 21 The Night Was Hot 96

Early Morning Still Dark 10

Haiku 11

Haiku 33

Haiku 76

Tanka 12

They Ask Why the Flowers 15

M5, Late Summer 16

Two Haiku 19 Haiku 87

Lighthouse in the Desert 20 Freefall 37

The Dead 22

To Take a Moment 25

Garden Notes: Crêpe Myrtle 26

Two Yews Talking 29

Snowdrop Clearwing 30

Summer Daydream 31

Starvation 36

Death Enters the Garden 39

Haiku 40 Haiku 88

A Warbler Stopped at the Feeder 41

Don’t Be Mad 42

The Great Egret 44

Calling 48

Haiku 49

The Water 51

Early Morning Paddle 52

Double-Crested Cormorant 53

Listen 54

Call Me By My Name 57

Ásbyrgi 58

Deer Creek 60

Dancing with Deer 61

SUMMER 2024

ISSUE # 0 9

ISSN: 2693-5864 (Online) ISSN: 2693-5856 (Print)

©2024 Humana Obscura, an imprint of Bri Bruce Productions. All Rights Reserved. All rights to all original artwork, photography, and written works belongs to the respective owners as stated in the attributions. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system or transmitted in any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and publisher.

Front Cover: Restore by Amber Lauder

Back Cover:

Detail of Awakening by Elle Bruce

Patricia Hemminger

Mary Ann Larkin

Vanessa Napolitano

Sally Zaino

Sally Anderson Boström

Chris Dahl

Victoria Hewitt

Patrick Kitchen

Garrett Stack

Bill Anderson-Samways

Alexander Etheridge

Shannon Cates

Bel Wallace

Midsummer 63

A

Lock of

Patrick’s Mother’s Hair 64

Fossil 67

Water 68

The End of Summer...70 Seaflower 77

Afterwards 71

Ocean’s Breath 73

Three Haiku 80

On Karst Farm During a Downpour 83

Dusk Clouds in August 84

Back to the Garden 91

Eclipse 92

Nightfall, Arnos Vale Cemetery 95

PROSE

Jeffery Allen Tobin

ART

Amber Lauder

Elle Bruce

A Life Alone 74

ABOUT HUMANA OBSCURA

Humana Obscura is an independent literary magazine that seeks to publish the best of new, emerging, and established writers and artists in what we like to call the “nature space.” As our name suggests—”obscured human”—we focus on poetry, short prose, and art where the human element is concealed but not entirely absent, aiming to revive the genre of nature-centric creative work in today’s modern world.

MJ Okawa

Elica Sue

Joseph Howse

Tiara Safic-Martin

Eileen Begley

Krista Glavich

Restore FRONT COVER No Worries 75 Wondrous 85

Awakening BACK COVER

Coastal Forest Reverie 28 Great Lake Vespers46 The Precious Quality of Being Alone 56 Effervescence 62 Enliven 78

Antique Lace INSIDE FRONT COVER Wishing 86

Sunny Side Up 8 Late Bloomer 13 Komorebi 24

Montmorency Cherry Blossoms 14

Summer Colors 17

Calendula 18

Lumen No. 4 23 Solargraph No. 2 93

Humana Obscura’s mission is to publish and promote the best nature-focused work of today’s voices and talents, seeking work that is unexpected, real, evocative, yet subtle, with strong imagery and sense of place. The publication’s intention is to inspire readers and enrich their lives while providing an inclusive space for elevating the voices and creative work of its contributors.

Founded in 2020, Humana Obscura is published online and in print four times yearly, and features work by artists and writers from around the world.

Debbie Strange

Kimber Devaney .

Sarah Garland

Michael Kunzinger

Anne Kulou

Taylor E. Sloan

Jaimie Ladysh

Sarah Hewitt

Rose-Marie Keller-Flaig

Maggie Lerum

Linda Briskin

Rick Bogacz

Bri Bruce

INTERVIEWS

Kimber Devaney

Alex Dawson

The Way of Windflowers 27 Impending 94

Pluto in Aquarius 32 In the Beginning 35 Yours Truly 38

Every Time I Think of You 43

The Thread 50

Daydream 55

Blur 59 Ternion 66

Through the Meadows to the Sea 65 Rainy Summer Day 82

Amager 69

Infinity 72

Reflection 81

Web 89

Lone Birch Tree 90

White Hot 97

SUBMISSIONS

Humana Obscura accepts poetry, prose, and art. Submissions are considered on a quarterly basis and can be sent through the publication’s online submission manager at www.humanaobscura.com/submit.

INQUIRIES

For questions regarding submissions, or for general inquiries, please see the FAQ page on our website or please contact: editor@humanaobscura.com

CONNECT

X: @humanaobscura

Instagram: @humanaobscura Facebook: @humanaobscura

cover artist

AMBER LAUDER

Amber Lauder is an experimental photographer currently based in Pennsylvania. She primarily shoots 35mm film, 110 film, and instant film. Much of Lauder’s work combines nature’s beauty with the whimsy of experimental photography methods. You can expect dreamy landscapes, surreal compositions, vibrant color, and a whole lot of magic in her work. Lauder is all about bringing dreams to life, one frame at a time. For more information, check out amberlauder.com. You can also find Amber posting regularly on Instagram @amberlauderphoto.

FEATURING INTERVIEWS WITH:

featured artist

ELLE BRUCE

Elle Bruce is a Canadian artist and photographer. Hailing from a family of passionate sailors, Bruce frequently explores the subjects of water and weather, infusing their essence into her art. Working from a studio near the shores of Lake Ontario, she is best known for her minimalist abstract style that uniquely captures her profound appreciation for nature’s ethereal beauty. More of her work and information can be found at ellebruce.com or on instagram @elle_bruce

featured poet ERICH VON HUNGEN

Erich von Hungen is a writer from San Francisco, California. His writing has appeared in The Colorado Quarterly, The Write Launch, Versification, Green Ink Press, Sage Cigarettes, Brave Voices, The Hyacinth Review, Fahmidan Journal and others. He is the author of four poetry collections, the most recent being Bleeding Through: 72 Poems Of Man In Nature. Find him on X @PoetryForce.

INSIDE THE FRONT COVER: ANTIQUE LACE, MJ OKAWA

MJ Okawa, a Tempe-based multidisciplinary artist, creates vibrant silk paintings and multimedia works inspired by nature and the cosmos. With over two decades of experience in visual and performing arts education, Okawa nurtures creativity in students of all ages. Her dynamic and intricate pieces and award-winning designs have been showcased in scores of productions, captivating audiences with their energy and beauty. Passionate about pushing the boundaries of artistic expression, Okawa continues to explore new techniques and mediums, inviting viewers on a journey of wonder and discovery through her captivating creations.

KIMBER DEVANEY ALEX DAWSON

letter from the editor

Dear Readers,

As the vibrant colors of summer spread across the landscape, I am delighted to welcome you to the latest edition of Humana Obscura

In this issue, we invite you to immerse yourselves in the splendor of nature through the eyes and words of our contributors. From the delicate dance of wildflowers to the silence of a hunting egret to the intimacy with water that comes with living life at sea, each piece invites us to pause and appreciate the natural world that surround us.

Our featured artists have skillfully crafted works that not only depict the physicality of nature but also evoke the emotions and memories it stirs within us. Through their paintings and photographs, they invite us to explore the play of light on water, a moment in a forest, and the ever-changing hues of the sky.

Likewise, our poets have woven words into tapestries that transport us to serene lakeshores and ocean tidepools. Their verses resonate with the rhythm of the seasons, reminding us of the eternal cycles of growth, decay, and renewal that shape the world around us.

As we turn the pages of this magazine, may we find inspiration in the beauty of nature and the boundless creativity it inspires. Let us cherish the moments of wonder and awe that remind us of our connection to the earth and to each other.

Thank you for joining us on this journey.

Happy reading,

Bri Bruce Founding Editor-in-Chief

about the editor

BRI BRUCE (who writes under the pseudonym B. L. Bruce) is an award-winning and two-time Pushcart Prize nominated poet living and writing along the California coast. Her work has appeared most recently in The Sunlight Press, Riverstone Literary Journal, Bivouac Magazine, Blue Heron Review, and The Lakeshore Review, with haiku widely and internationally published. Bruce is the author of four books, The Weight of Snow, 28 Days of Solitude, The Starling’s Song, and Measures. Her fifth book, Blue California Sky, was released in June of 2024 from Finishing Line Press. Connect with her on Instagram @b_l_bruce and on X @the_poesis.

humana obscura

ELICA SUE is an educator, writer, and hobbyist photographer based in Southern California. She is enchanted by the natural world and the connections between everything in life.

SUNNY SIDE UP, ELICA SUE

LISTENING

ERICH VON HUNGEN

Morning. Early. Not a breeze, not a shadow moving, not a bird, not a cloud even.

Silence dances, dances there. And there, silence listens.

EARLY MORNING STILL DARK

MARIA PROVENZANO

the dead rabbit offers its open body back to the crow to the fox lurid nourishment glowing yellow pollen vulgar flowers

airing themselves to the cold-washed morning without apology full bold moon opposite hot wound of sunrise possum scurry full bird chorus I want to be more animal than human more decay and return to live this moment without apology earth-held

MARIA PROVENZANO lives by the southern New Jersey shore with her best friend (a phenomenal writer, professor, and human) and their three small and furry children: Sweet Potato Pancake (rabbit), Peregrin Took, and Midnight (guinea pigs). She often writes about rocks, animals, and trains. Find her on Instagram @maria.writes.poems.

HAIKU

JOSHUA ST. CLAIRE

dawn hits a stand of red pines chiaroscuro

JOSHUA ST. CLAIRE is an accountant from a small town in Pennsylvania who works as a financial director for a large non-profit. His haiku and related poetry have been published broadly including in Humana Obscura, The Asahi Shimbun, Modern Haiku, The Heron’s Nest, and Mayfly.

TANKA

C.X. TURNER stretching the perfumed dawn inside a tulip a bumblebee slowly wakes

C.X. TURNER is a social worker, manager and writer, living and working in the UK. Her poetry and artwork have been widely published in a range of international journals and anthologies. She enjoys experimenting with Japanese shortforms and collaborating with other poets. Co-Editor of the Wales Haiku Journal, Turner is the author of evergreen: a collection of haiku, senryū and tanka, anemones: a mini haiku chapbook, and co-author of Building Sandcastles: a book of short poems. Find her on social media @lover__poetic.

LATE BLOOMER, ELICA SUE

MONTMORENCY CHERRY BLOSSOMS, JOSEPH HOWSE

JOSEPH HOWSE is a Nova Scotian writer, photographer, and computer scientist. His debut novel, The Girl in the Water, has won the 2023 Independent Press Award for Literary Fiction and the 2023 IAN Awards for Outstanding Multicultural Fiction. Most recently, his work has also appeared in Litbreak, Microfiction Monday Magazine, and CommuterLit. He is working on his second novel, The Circus and the Atom

THEY ASK WHY THE FLOWERS

STEPHANIE STEIN

as if I hadn’t stepped out of your home in your very green sweater and seen impossible so late in the season: the peach tree out looking over the lake with all its blossoms on

STEPHANIE STEIN is a poet and software engineer who lives in Northern California with her dog. Her work has been published in Red Wheelbarrow and Porter Gulch Review. She is a reader for the Red Wheelbarrow poetry contest. Stein also previously volunteered with Monstering Literary Magazine as a reader and staff member. Find her on social media @stephanotisLeaf.

M5, LATE SUMMER

ANNA MAUGHAN

Wildflowers growing around the barrier in the centre of the motorway— beauty will take hold anywhere, given the sliver of a chance.

Even if they are missed by almost everybody speeding past, still they blaze— golden as sunlight, persistent as hope.

ANNA MAUGHAN has been writing poetry since discovering the Liverpool Poets at school. She believes in the redemptive power of hope and the importance of open and honest discourse around the subject of mental health. Her writing is informed by her own struggles with C/PTSD as well as chronic pain and illness. It is incredibly important to talk about these things when so many people are fighting just to stay alive. Maughan’s two children have saved her life more times than she can count. She has been published by Apricot Press, Wildfire Words, and Ink Sweat and Tears

TIARA SAFIC-MARTIN is a Bosnian American artist who specializes in watercolor, acrylic, and pen landscapes. She has showcased her work in group exhibitions in the US and in Bosnia, has participated in several art festivals, and enjoys live painting at events. She loves traveling and uses her adventures as inspiration for art pieces whenever possible. Through her paintings, she hopes to reawaken the lost daydreamer in all of us. When not painting, Safic-Martin is also a chess coach. She enjoys a good competitive game, as well as reading, baking, and spending time outdoors.

SUMMER COLORS, TIARA SAFIC-MARTIN

CALENDULA, EILEEN BEGLEY

TWO HAIKU

LUKE LEVI

despite this forest of sparse light wildflowers grow

how short is life this flower’s shadow as tall as my own

LUKE LEVI is a poet and photographer. His poems can be found in Presence, Tiny Seed Journal, Humana Obscura, Haiku Commentary, Akitsu Quarterly, and elsewhere. His latest book of haiku is Windswept Leaves. You can find him on Instagram @lukelevipoet and at lukelevi.com. He currently lives in the Texas Hill Country and enjoys taking photos of nature elements in the region.

EILEEN BEGLEY is a multidisciplinary artist from California currently working in experimental scanographic photography.

LIGHTHOUSE IN THE DESERT

TAMMY GREENWOOD

The sun rises in the same place as yesterday. I look to her for solace, but she smiles and nods, leaving me craving. Summer’s farewell laid out before me like ghost ships marooned in a mirage, Russian thistle withers, waiting to become tomorrow’s brambles.

But today the agave stands as a lighthouse in the landscape, blooming only once— sending its life-ending mono-bloom thirty feet high. Arched leaves straighten, thrust the stalk upwards, micro-blooms unfold, bottom to top—dying in succession, leaving the tip glowing like a lit matchstick, bees swirling as smoke overhead.

Feeling as though I’ve touched mortality, witness to its one lifetime anchored in stillness, I stand open-armed, lifelines caught, tongue laid out— receive communion of this minor encounter, knowing only of grace. So much grace.

TAMMY GREENWOOD is a Louisiana native residing in California. A poet and printmaker, her work is heavily influenced by the varying landscape and culture of both states she calls home. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee and her work appears or is forthcoming in Rattle, Whale Road Review, SWWIM, Door is a Jar, ONE ART, Hyacinth Review, Rust & Moth, Orange Blossom Review, San Pedro River Review, Santa Fe Literary Review, Poetry South, Emerge Literary Journal, FERAL, and elsewhere.

THE SHADOW OF BONES

ERICH VON HUNGEN

Summer’s heat. The water in the metal drum evaporated, dried out in the sun.

Only a ghost remains, a mineral shadow, of water seared away.

A scar, a memory, a grief that will not give up or leave?

The sun, the heat, a line encircling me.

THE DEAD

D. DINA FRIEDMAN

Sometimes, on a windy day, I’ll feel my grandmother grazing my shoulder, warning me to steel myself against slipping, as currents suck the leaves off piles blowing them across the hill

to settle in the grass’s indentations before they slowly slime into dirt.

All part of the cycle: the cat who died under the piano resurrected each year in the sunflowers.

D. DINA FRIEDMAN has published in many literary journals including Salamander, Rattle, The Sun, Mass Poetry, Chautauqua Journal, Crab Orchard Review, Cider Press Review, Hawaii Pacific Review, Cold Mountain Review, Lilith, Negative Capability, and Rhino and received four Pushcart Prize nominations. She is the author of two books of poetry, Wolf in the Suitcase (Finishing Line Press) and Here in Sanctuary, Whirling (Querencia Press). Friedman’s fiction includes the short-story collection Immigrants (Creators Press) and two YA novels, Escaping Into the Night (Simon and Schuster) and Playing Dad’s Song (Farrar Straus Giroux).

KRISTA GLAVICH was chosen by photography over 25 years ago, and after taking a several-year hiatus, has reunited with the medium and become smitten with alternative processes, particularly of the cameraless variety. She has been experimenting with lumen prints and solargraphs, and is looking forward to seeing where it takes her next. She resides with her family in the Sierra foothills of Northern California. Find her musings at @revelriearts on Instagram and Facebook.

LUMEN NO.4, KRISTA GLAVICH

KOMOREBI, ELICA SUE

TO TAKE A MOMENT

RHIANNON SCRAY

I dance through the trees, my head tilted back, spinning, as I look through all the leaves forming their own constellations in the sky.

RHIANNON SCRAY is a recent UCSD graduate and an aspiring poet living in San Diego, California. Her work often points to the difficulties of growing up, even as an adult, but also the resilience of the human mind and heart. She looks to artists such as Carmen Maria Machado, Maggie Nelson, and Sara Borjas as inspiration for her work. She is also inspired by her friends and family, her home in sunny San Diego, and, of course, iced coffee.

GARDEN NOTES: CRÊPE MYRTLE

ROBBIN FARR

Myrtales : lythraceae

This ecstatic blooming. These flowers. This fuchsia field leaps outward. Blooms spring forth on arched limbs as if their only purpose is to mesmerize bees, their buzzing, a song one enters slowly like one enters a cathedral. In stilly reverence. Where nature is altar, is statue, is nave. This holy sound, a chorus in busy flight honored among the petals, among the flowering, a joyous hymn in summer’s magenta air, where to stand in awe where to stand in prayer.

ROBBIN FARR writes short forms: poetry and lyric non-fiction. In addition to writing, she is the editor of River Heron Review. Farr has been published in numerous journals including Citron Review, Corvus Review, Panoply, 2River View, Atlanta Review and others. She is the author of Become Echo (2023) and Transience (2018).

THE WAY OF WINDFLOWERS, DEBBIE STRANGE

DEBBIE STRANGE is a chronically ill short-form poet, visual artist, and photographer from Canada whose creative passions connect her more closely to the world, to others, and to herself. Strange’s work has received multiple awards and thousands of her poems and artworks have been published worldwide. Her most recent book, The Language of Loss: Haiku & Tanka Conversations, won the Sable Books 2019 International Women’s Haiku Contest and Haiku Canada’s 2022 Marianne Bluger Chapbook Award. Her award-winning haiku collection, Random Blue Sparks, is forthcoming from Snapshot Press in 2024. Please visit her publication archive at debbiemstrange.blogspot.com for further information.

COASTAL FOREST REVERIE, ELLE BRUCE

TWO YEWS TALKING

DI SLANEY

ten metres apart, a spray of creamy dustcloud left to right, the male blowreaching his love, sweeping across the lawn, the hill, the neighbours, the field, heavy branches lighter now but still sagging from all this effort, his once yearly huff and fluster, her arils such flirtydirty reds, openmouthed, begging for it, kiss me, kiss me

DI SLANEY lives in Nottinghamshire where she runs livestock sanctuary Manor Farm Charitable Trust and independent publisher Candlestick Press. She was the winner of The Plough Poetry Prize 2022 and Slipstream Open 2023. Her poems have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4, widely published and anthologised, and highly commended in the Forward Prize 2016 and Bridport Prize 2020. Her collections Reward for Winter and Herd Queen are available from Valley Press, with third collection Hard Graft and pamphlet January conversations, with dogs due early in 2025, also from Valley Press. She is Poet in Residence at Nottinghamshire Local History Association.

SNOWDROP CLEARWING

PHILLIP STERLING

Neither bird nor wildflower the hummingbird moth mimics its namesakes in a way that fails to capture the way it hovers the purple cloud-like clusters of verbena as if something astonishing will be found there a delicacy beyond light

PHILLIP STERLING’s books of poetry include Local Congregation: Poems Uncollected 1985-2015 (Main Street Rag, October 2023), And Then Snow, Mutual Shores, and five chapbook-length series of poems, most notably Short on Days (February aubades). Sterling’s collection of essays and memoir, Lessons in Geography: The Education of a Poet, can be ordered from Cornerstone at a pre-sale discount until August 15th.

SUMMER DAYDREAM

NICHOLAS OLAH

So I count my hopes. The stars hold still as I name them; my eyes mold clouds into any shape my imagination is craving.

A double emergence of cicadas arrives as forecasted. We crack windows to let summer in and don’t curse the sound that comes with it—

lest we forget to be grateful for the gift of hearing at all.

NICHOLAS OLAH has self-published four poetry collections,  Where Light Separates from Dark, Which Way is North, Seasons, and You Are Here. Olah’s work has been published in Humana Obscura, Free Verse Revolution, Querencia Press, Wild Roof Journal, and more. Check out more of his work on Instagram at @nick.olah.poetry or visit his Etsy shop at https://www.etsy.com/shop/nickolahpoetry.

PLUTO IN AQUARIUS, KIMBER DEVANEY

KIMBER DEVANEY is a Brookyn-based visual artist, curator, and healer inspired by nature, science, time, and memory. Her artistic process involves working with double exposures shot on 35mm film which layer light, texture, and pattern to express emotive spaces. For DeVaney, film photography is a form of magic that captures true essence. She uses her camera as an artistic tool, striving to push the boundaries of visual communication by creating cinematographic portals that interplay with different realms of reality. By combining various elements into a single frame, the multi-compositions invite the viewer to decode hidden stories. DeVaney enjoys New Orleans jazz, forest bathing and is an aspiring beach bum.

HAIKU

JOSHUA ST. CLAIRE

noon heat the sun glints off the pistil of a daylily

interview with kimber devaney

Tell us a little about how you got started with photography.

My artistic journey began with a black and white photography class at Pratt Institute in Manhattan. I was captivated by the tactile process of developing prints in the darkroom, which became my sanctuary. Photography allowed me to explore the city solo, express myself freely, and find my state of flow.

Can you describe your preferred medium(s) and artistic style, and what do you hope viewers experience or feel when they encounter your artwork?

Most of my art is experimental fine art photography; my artistic style is deeply rooted in the realm of the unknown. I am inspired by quantum physics. My ongoing series of double exposures on film delves into the concept of stacked time, where every moment is interconnected and influences the others. I aim to transport viewers to a realm where past, present, and future converge, encouraging them to question the boundaries of reality.

How do you typically find inspiration for your artwork, and are there any recurring themes or motifs in your pieces?

Nature and flowers, particularly roses, have been a significant source of inspiration for me. I find solace in capturing their beauty at every stage, from peak bloom to decay. This process has become a meditation on growth, change, and the fleeting nature of life. I’m drawn to the en-

ergy within these moments, which I tap into, transmitting my own vibration and seeing what emerges. This theme has been a recurring motif in my work, symbolizing the cycles of life and the beauty in impermanence

Could you walk us through your creative process while shooting?

My creative process embraces the playful element of surprise and spontaneity that is present in film. I have been working exclusively with double exposures, which gives me the freedom to shoot freely without overthinking shots. I let the overlapping of images merge organically creating their own unique pattern and structure.

Can you discuss any collaborations or projects you’ve been involved in that have been especially meaningful to you?

Being part of the photography collective, Camera of the Month Club, has been a vital aspect of my artistic journey. Sharing my work and being vulnerable with like-minded individuals has been incredibly hopeful and inspiring. This community has provided a platform for me to express myself and pushes me to continue growing as an artist.

What’s next for you? Any upcoming exhibitions, projects, or goals you have?

I look forward to curating more art exhibits this coming year in the New York City area! I am also excited to explore alternative photographic processes such as chemigrams, as

well as liquid photographic emulsion and analog collage techniques in my upcoming projects. These new mediums will allow me to further push the boundaries of my art, continuing to explore the depths of human experience and the mysteries of time and reality.

IN THE BEGINNING, KIMBER DEVANEY

STARVATION

W. LUTHER JETT

The world tilts. We only imagine we stand still. Swifts remain in flight most of their lives, even as they sleep. At dusk, they soar beyond clouds. No-one understands why. If humans were content to stay in one place, eventually they would starve. There are many ways to starve. One swift may eat ten thousand insects in a day. Planets circle dying stars. Seasons go and return. In the evening we make a wish and do not know if it will ever land.

W. LUTHER JETT is a native of Montgomery County, Maryland, and a retired special educator. He survived the pandemic by getting outside and going for long walks in wild places. His poetry has been published in numerous journals as well as several anthologies. He is the author of five poetry chapbooks. A full-length collection, Flying to America, is scheduled for release in the spring of 2024, from Broadstone Press. He can be found on social media as Luther Jett.

FREEFALL

I don’t know what made the baby barn owl jump from the owl box last summer.

The midday sun creeping over 110 degrees, the mother left to find shade in nearby trees, leaving two offspring to fend for themselves. Half his body still covered in flightless feathers, like a torn parachute, he hurled himself from twelve feet above the ground.

I waited to see if the sibling would follow. As temperatures grew, three ravens gathered on the box, their shadows cloaking the exit. Sometimes fear is warm and familiar,

you don’t realize it’s slowly cooking you. The grounded owlet made his way under the split-rail fencing, almost camouflaged under dense manzanita. Today the owl box sits in silence as I stand in the safety of the foothills. The day grows hotter as ravens circle overhead.

TAMMY GREENWOOD

YOURS TRULY, KIMBER DEVANEY

DEATH ENTERS THE GARDEN

ALISON GRANUCCI

I. MAY

Walking at dusk, I came upon a robin dead on a stone: neck broken, head twisted to the west, red-smudged breast set heavenward. I thought to bury the body at dawn. At sunup I found the bird again—strangely, in a watery grave: as during the night the body had been lifted & placed in the small bronze birdbath standing next to the stone. With his feathered spine curled tight against the chaliced curve, I wondered: What creature of the wood would have thought to so carefully compose the end of this newly flightless thrush? From such an odd baptism into death there was no robin rising. Yet, like a million wings all at once, the leaves on all the trees were fluttering.

II. JUNE

A severed fawn’s head lay perfect in its beauty along the garden path, at rest under the azalea (crimson petals already falling). The rest of the fawn was gone: body dragged off, I guessed, by mother fox teaching her kits to hunt & catch & cache their kill. Out of the fawn’s ragged neck, flies clustered & flew & buzzed & flew, circling their own bit of fawn up to the blue—leaving behind small white eggs.

II. JULY

From the floor of heaven, a cardinal simply descended: small, noble seraphbird of the spheres above. Scarlet as his namesake’s robe, the bird fell fast despite his faith in flight. Held aloft by a briar upon his landing, the feathered red was just-so juxtaposed amidst the garden’s myriad green. Seen in such stark repose, both God & I almost mistook him for a rose.

ALISON GRANUCCI is a poet and naturalist living in the Hudson Valley. Founder of Blue Flower Arts literary speaker’s agency, Granucci began writing when she retired. Her work is published or forthcoming in RHINO, Tupelo Quarterly, Terrain.org, About Place, Ecotheo, Plant-Human Quarterly, Subnivean, Crosswinds, phoebe, Dewdrop, and Great River Review. She reads for The Rumpus, serves on the board of Hellbender Gathering of Poets for environmental writing, and is co-editing an anthology of new bird writing with J. Drew Lanham.

HAIKU

SHANE COPPAGE

midsummer’s eve magpie on the post sings twice

SHANE COPPAGE is a poet and artist. His poetry has been published in Humana Obscura, Red Branch Review, Prune Juice, Wales Haiku Journal, Trash Panda, Five Fleas, Modern Haiku, The Wee Sparrow Press, Hintology, dadakuku, and Cold Moon Journal, among others. Coppage lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, with his growing family.

A WARBLER STOPPED AT THE FEEDER

GARY YOUNG

A warbler stopped at the feeder, then disappeared into the ferns. The spotted towhees have returned, and though I haven’t seen one yet, I’ve heard them singing like happy drunks from the redwoods and oaks. Plum blossoms, white with a pink blush, fall from an aging tree beside my studio. I don’t remember the blossoms ever being so large, but after fire and drought, the spindly tree knows this may be its last chance.

GARY YOUNG’s most recent books are That’s What I Thought, winner of the Lexi Rudnitsky Editor’s Choice Award from Persea Books, and Taken to Heart: 70 Poems from the Chinese. Other books include Even So: New and Selected Poems; Pleasure; No Other Life, winner of the William Carlos Williams Award; Braver Deeds, winner of the Peregrine Smith Poetry Prize; The Dream of a Moral Life which won the James D. Phelan Award; and Hands. A new book, American Analects, will be released this summer. He teaches creative writing and directs the Cowell Press at UC Santa Cruz.

DON’T BE MAD

MIRIAM CALLEJA

I drew outlines of each cloud ready to commit them to memory but they drifted off and I was left with strange art. I stuck my hands in dung and recalled my previous lives when I’d have never dreamed of it.

I didn’t want to pull out weeds. They looked pretty and as though they might make flowers. I didn’t stick with the plan and anything that grows will grow out of chaos. Don’t be mad one mockingbird can teach me every cry.

MIRIAM CALLEJA is an award-winning Maltese bilingual freelance poet, nonfiction/fiction writer, ghostwriter, workshop leader, and translator. She is the author of three poetry collections, two chapbooks, and several collaborative works. Her poetry has been published in anthologies and in translation worldwide. She has recently been Highly Commended for a translated poem by the Stephen Spender Trust. Her latest chapbook is titled Come Closer, I Don’t Mind the Silence (BottleCap Press, 2023). Her essays and poems have appeared in platform review, Odyssey, Taos Journal, Tupelo Quarterly, Modern Poetry in Translation, and elsewhere. Read more on miriamcalleja.com.

EVERY TIME I THINK OF YOU, SARAH GARLAND

SARAH GARLAND is a photographic artist based in England, UK. The drive behind her practice is the search for beauty and “essence” in the hidden jewels of the natural and urban world around her. Her hope is to create images that inspire people to think and feel deeply, and that connect them to what is beyond themselves. Her work has been published by Humana Obscura and Open Shutter Press, and will be exhibited at PhotoPlace Gallery, Vermont, USA, in July. Find her gallery on Instagram @sarahheartsoul.

THE GREAT EGRET

ALEX DAWSON

I never tire of seeing the white temple of your body, silent as a prayer and so still against the river. You stand, for hours, aware of every ripple. Anticipating, as you do, the taste of all that silver. I guess sometimes blind faith is rewarded by the wait.

ALEX DAWSON is a writer, wildlife photographer, and adult ESL teacher from Toronto. She received her Bachelor of Arts in English and Theatre from the University of Guelph and is an avid international backpacker. She writes (and lives) with constant curiosity and with a desire to examine the threads of connection between nature, culture, and identity. You can find her photography and poetry on Instagram @alexdawcreates.

interview with alex dawson

Tell us more about your work.

I write poetry (often nature-centric) and I’m a wildlife photographer. I’m really passionate about conservation, ecology, and about sharing my encounters with wild animals through photography and writing.

Tell us a little about how this piece came to be. Did it start with an image, a voice, a concept, a dilemma or something else?

Most of my poetry starts with an image! I’m a really visual person. Lately I’ve been using my wildlife photos to inspire poetry. This poem came from a photo I took of a Great Egret fishing in our local river. Great Egrets are one of my favourite birds to see here every summer. I think they have a lot to teach us about patience.

How does your faith life/ethical outlook inform your writing?

I believe that anything we need to learn in our personal lives, we can learn from nature, because we are nature. So, I go to the forest as often as I can, and I study the birds, the animals, and the plants. How everything co-exists, how everything is a piece of a greater puzzle. We have totally lost touch with the fact that we are part of that puzzle, too. We have created a hierarchy where we are on top. If more people spent real time in nature, instead of all our ego-centric man-made systems, there might be hope for us yet.

What life experiences have shaped your writing most?

Growing up, it was hard to be at home a lot of the time. I would take my bike and ride with my sister down to a little waterfall. We would write there. The forest was therapy. So was the poetry.

How many unpublished and half- finished books do you have?

I’m working on a book of naturecentric poems and corresponding wildlife photos that’s due to come out this summer! Other than that I’ve been writing a young adult dystopian sci-fi with a conservation message, for the last maybe . . . seven years? Yes, I’m a card-carrying nerd, and proud of it. Maybe one day I’ll finish it, but my attention span is better suited to poetry right now!

What’s next for you?

I’m currently on maternity leave with my own little wild creature, baby Theo, so I will go back to work as an adult ESL teacher in September. This is work I’m also really passionate about, especially working with refugees. I know I will find the time to keep writing and taking photos when I can. In the meantime, my book All These Living Things, with wildlife photos accompanied by poems, is coming out in July!

Connect with Alex Dawson on Instagram @alexdawcreates

GREAT LAKE VESPERS, ELLE BRUCE

CALLING

JENNIFER PERRY

the loons are calling to each other across the lake i am here, where are you if I could ask that beautifully would you answer

JENNIFER PERRY is a mother, teacher, and poet. She lives in rural Ontario with her family. Perry enjoys writing about nature and is particularly interested in female perspectives.

HAIKU

DEBBIE STRANGE

solar eclipse the loon’s call echoes then fades

THE

THREAD, MICHAEL KUNZINGER

MICHAEL KUNZINGER took up photography as a teenager on Virginia’s Middle Peninsula, drawing inspiration for his work from the waters of his home area. His work explores art in nature, with emphasis on that created by water. He has been featured in numerous solo shows, exhibits, and publications, including the Quick Center for the Arts (NY) and others. He is currently president of Arts in the Middle, a nonprofit which promotes the arts locally through an annual fine arts festival and pop-up events. Learn more at mfkunzinger.wixsite.com/home and connect with him on Instagram @michaelkunzinger.

THE WATER

THOMAS FRANCIS O’DONNELL

I want what the water wants, a bed to lie down in, a comb of grass, to go where the yielding goes, following contours, inclinations, paths, where dammed means rising deeper, brimful, a bowl of sky, a looking-glass.

THOMAS FRANCIS O’DONNELL has worked as a bookseller, actor, and librarian. He lives in Providence, Rhode Island.

EARLY MORNING PADDLE

ELISE CHADWICK

If we rise early enough on a long summer day when the tide is high and the wind is low, we can put in at the mouth of Stockport Creek.

Once we scrape over the sludge, swish past the lily pads and float beneath the graffitied trestle, we have the Hudson to ourselves.

Moon still high. Damp of fog on our forearms. We stroke through mist dancing on the surface of the water.

We can’t see the trees that line the banks or the farmhouses up ahead. We can’t see the mountains. Or the eagles nesting in trees.

So we hug the rocky ledge and hope we don’t come up fast on another boat or a buoy tethered in the channel.

Stay out on the river a while. Startle to the burble of the striped bass rising or the splash of a blue heron plunging.

Stay out on the river long enough to feel the rumble of the tracks. Heed the whistle of the train heading north to Montreal.

Rest snug in the well of your kayak. Drift. And drift some more. Drift until your stillness within rises to surface.

ELISE CHADWICK taught English at Horace Greeley High School in Chappaqua, New York, for 30 years. She lives in NYC but draws much inspiration for her poems from the time she spends upstate in her 200-year-old home coexisting with the deer, groundhog, fox, bats, rabbits and squirrels, who got there first. Her poems have been recently published in The Ocotillo Review, Healing Muse, Naugatuck River Review and The English Journal and others.

DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT

JENNIFER BROWNE

Nannopterum auritum

A cormorant slips with a sound like a kiss through the surface of the river, rises at a distance. Voracious, she swallows fish head-first, no resistance in fins, in scales. She dives again, and I count her seconds underwater in a kind of desperation, admire her leaving’s speed and silence, her propulsion toward hunger, her appearing anywhere else.

JENNIFER BROWNE falls in love easily with other people’s dogs. She has some poems in chapbooks—Whisper Song (tiny wren publishing, 2023) and The Salt of the Geologic World (Bottlecap Features, 2023)—and journals, including Steel Jackdaw, Gargoyle, and Humana Obscura. She lives in Frostburg, Maryland.

LISTEN

PRINCE

to the silence where the river deepens, only a crow declaring morning instruction:

“bow at the foot of a tree” it says, “marvel at its elegance, strength, how it reaches past you to the sky

flatten yourself at the base of a hill, feel stones beneath your knees, look up at the wonder of all you have not created

be silent beside rushing water, hear how it fills your mind, washes away doubts, ambition, greed

pray to the clouds, remember that you are small, worship the stars, the light that birthed you the beginning and end of everything”

listen

ALEX PRINCE is a poet and novelist. She lives in Shropshire, UK, with her two children, across the river from her girlfriend and her cat Henry. She is currently completing her Master’s in Creative Writing at Sheffield Hallam University. Through her poetry and storytelling, she examines complicated relationship dynamics, the uncomfortable canvas of “behind closed doors,” and the wonder of the natural world.

ALEX

ANNE KULOU is a self-taught neurodivergent artist, starting to write poetry in childhood as a means to express her rich imaginative mind and her non-dualistic experience of the natural world, deeply intertwined with her inner (sensory, cognitive, and emotional) processes. A few years ago, she discovered photography as a new medium for creative expression, as another way for her to say the unfathomable. She lives in Germany and works as a forensic psychologist (MSc) and trauma sensitive Gestalt therapist.

DAYDREAM, ANNE KULOU

THE PRECIOUS QUALITY OF BEING ALONE, ELLE BRUCE

CALL ME BY MY NAME

HANNAH RODABAUGH

We forgot to listen to the names of things, the names things call each other: the hawksbeard’s trailing whiskers, the grosbeak’s slanted song, the lapping of the river (green trees muzzled to buzzy reflections). Each river has a name—unpronounceable, each moment another syllable, each bend a different name. You’d share it your whole life. Still, you’d be unfinished. Your punctuation would be—kingfisher, reedy-wet fish, sinewy membranes of cottonwood, veery in the brush (high above, orchestral canopy). You’d say its name & say its name. Each hour a golden light would drop. Clouds of ferns would breeze. Each day, you’d say its name, replenished by the river, standing over the river, mouth open to the sky.

HANNAH RODABAUGH holds an MA from Miami University and an MFA from Naropa University. She is the author of the forthcoming collection Lost Cathedral (Cornerstone Press) and four chapbooks of poetry. Her work is featured in The Indianapolis Review, Camas Magazine, Glassworks Magazine, and Berkeley Poetry Review. She is the recipient of a Literature Fellowship from the Idaho Commission on the Arts and has twice been an artist-in-residence for the National Park Service. She lives in Boise, Idaho, where she teaches at Boise State University and The Cabin Literary Center.

ÁSBYRGI

ERIN BENTON

shelter in the step of green, the warmth cascading down the sharp cliff to the willows below, each leaning to drink from the water—older than a thumbprint pressed to the earth or the hoof of glaciers that bared down greedily on stone

ERIN BENTON was born and raised in the southwestern United States, and is currently based in the northeast of Scotland, working on a PhD examining disability in the Old Norse sagas at the University of Aberdeen. She is interested in historical poetry, the supernatural/natural world, and the construction of the body in medieval texts. Her poetry has appeared in The Bangalore Review, Scribendi, and Conceptions Southwest

TAYLOR E. SLOAN is a photographer native to Jacksonville, Florida, who uses her business, TES Photography (@tes_photography_), to capture Florida’s natural worlds and lifestyles. Many of Sloan’s works are featured in literary arts journals such as 3Elements and The Aquarian. Sloan is currently enrolled at Jacksonville University studying visual design.

BLUR, TAYLOR E. SLOAN

DEER CREEK

ANJA MUJIĆ

At Deer Creek, trees filter light as if the world is ending, engulfed in oppressive heat and relentless cicada song. Pink lizard tongues and placid leech bodies hang unsatisfied, eucalyptus trees play host to moths—scribbly gum letters on ashen bark; old fire lines the path to shallow water rippling over iron ore—a shot deer bleeding out, two pink tongues get close but never touch—in this light sand becomes snow; fool’s gold forecasts a lonely summer.

ANJA MUJIĆ is a Bosnian/Australian writer, dance artist, musician, yoga/meditation facilitator, and avid traveller currently based in Berlin. Her work has appeared in publications including TravelMag, Visual Verse Anthology, Dancehouse Diaries, and Be In The Know Berlin, as well as for exhibition, theatre, performance, and film. Her first collection of poetic prose love letters to places… (Leschenault Press 2022), was a number one bestseller in its preorder period and has since been released in Kindle and audiobook forms. She is currently working on her follow up to be released in the not too distant future.

DANCING WITH DEER

JOYCE BRINKMAN

Each night as I step into the drape of darkness that settles on the scene outside my window,

like Sandburg, I want to ask a shadow to dance.

I look for the foraging deer, harboring an ache within to join their run, white tails waving, across green and browning fields.

Like Po, I want to embrace the moon.

To cross the creek and glide between the oak and elm.

To leave only a white trace of exit.

JOYCE BRINKMAN believes in poetry as public art. She creates public poetry projects involving her poetry and the poetry of others, often featuring wildlife. Brinkman thinks she would be frightened by dinosaurs, but otherwise she pretty much loves all the wild living things of Earth, both flora and fauna. She feeds both feathered and furry creatures while capturing them in poetry. She knows that a weed is simply a plant that humans don’t know how to put to some use. Besides several public art pieces that she collaborated on with artists working in glass or another medium, Brinkman has collaborated on printed work with international poets. The latest of which is Catena Poetic: An International Collaboration by Finishing Line Press (2022). She has also co-edited books, including The Polaris Trilogy, a world anthology that will be sent to the Moon on a NASA flight to be part of the Lunar Codex for millions of years.

EFFERVESCENCE, ELLE BRUCE

MIDSUMMER

PATRICIA HEMMINGER

Sunlight lingers, shimmers on the lake’s face. Mirrored branches thick with leaves swirl

like dancers round the maypole, green ribbons braided—the promise of fertility.

Pink petals hold tight buds, strawberry moon climbs the horizon, rides the sunset, the time between childhood and becoming. Clambering the oak at dusk, church bells, the call of the mourning dove echoes from the sycamores that surround our neighbor’s farm, the stone house. Their pony spooked by distant thunder, bucked and threw me. I can still feel the ache in my shoulder, the longing.

PATRICIA HEMMINGER‘s poetry is informed and inspired by her science background, love of nature, and the experience of growing up in rural North Yorkshire, UK. Her poems have appeared in a number of journals including Spillway, Streetlight Magazine, and Peregrine Journal, and in her chapbook, What Do We Know of Time? She holds a Ph.D. in chemistry and is a graduate of NYU’s Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP) and of Drew University’s MFA Poetry and Poetry in Translation Program. She is currently producer of a documentary on green chemistry: Safer Stuff: Green Chemistry Gets Down to Business.

A LOCK OF PATRICK’S MOTHER’S HAIR

MARY ANN LARKIN

Dark with a little silver, curved like a crescent moon in a box just a bit larger than the lock itself. It’s 2019 now, the lock 30 years old. Patrick has kept it all these years, even before I knew him. Now he will part with it. When I try to fathom how he made this decision, I see a kind of flow chart of small angles and dotted lines pointing to paths leading to the marsh behind our cottage, where the lock will go—sometime soon. Patrick wants a redwing to make a nest of it. We are waiting for a good day, the two of us, an unhurried day. Misty would be all right or sunny and dry with a breeze. I’d like to read a poem beside the marsh—a poem about hair and grief, with a little hope in it. But, somehow, I keep picturing the way oxen, patient and silent, stand by a gate.

MARY ANN LARKIN is the author of That Deep and Steady Hum (Broadkill River Press) and six poetry chapbooks. Her work has appeared in The Greensboro Review, Poetry Ireland Review, New Letters, and other journals. She cofounded the Cleveland-based Big Mama Poetry Troupe in the 1970s, which performed from Chicago to New York City. Larkin has taught writing at a number of colleges, most recently at Howard University, and written for NPR, NIH, Foundation News, and others. She attended Yaddo and the Jentel Foundation. A co-founder of Pond Road Press, she published Jack Gilbert’s Tough Heaven: Poems of Pittsburgh

JAIMIE LADYSH is a lens based interdisciplinary artist. Her work is rooted in place in a spiritual way within the natural world. She explores different themes but the ideas throughout are connection to the universal through nostalgic appeal to a place. There is a comforting solidarity and peaceful longing about the past and a photograph is already in the past. Currently exploring digital with edited and some composited images, she prints the images on archival papers, then further manipulates with hand-coloring, painting, and sometimes encaustics. The results are often described as ethereal.

THROUGH THE MEADOWS TO THE SEA, JAIMIE LADYSH

TERNION, TAYLOR E. SLOAN

FOSSIL

VANESSA NAPOLITANO

Pearl hands in dead water, the way of mud to suck, spitting up misfired shrapnel, worn soft and strange through immersion.

It’s strange how we don’t long for it until the bones come up and then we haunt the ghost of it with our probing, we wrap it up in the soft bag and take it home, imagining flesh.

Are you my treasure? Like a fiend possessed, my dirty hands fish time and again. Tell me the story of objectivity. Surely, you are science, a lonely fragment, buried deep.

VANESSA NAPOLITANO obtained an MA in Poetry from MMU in 2006, but it took her a while to gain confidence in submitting work. In recent years, and particularly since writing with more intensity through the pandemic, she has been published in places such as Poetry Wales, Mom Egg Review, and Free Verse Revolution. She has had work in anthologies such as Bent Key’s Ey Up Again and the Leeds Poetry Festival anthology. She was nominated for a Pushcart Prize for a poem last year by Black Cat Poetry Press who will be publishing her debut pamphlet this summer. She also has a further pamphlet due out with Kelsay Books later this year.

WATER

SALLY ZAINO

It knows the moon better than any of us. It has a deep understanding of gravity, and a practiced response to the wind. It rocks itself to sleep without a mother. The whitecap, reaching past itself, knows exactly when to spill. It makes long mirrored tunnels to somewhere and to nowhere.

Having a mercurial relationship with light, it toys with truth, first transparent, then reflecting, hiding everything that lies beneath.

SALLY ZAINO’s poetry has appeared previously in Cider Press Review, Avocet, Flycatcher, Snowy Egret, Watershed, Poetry Takes Wings (editor’s choice) and others. Her chapbook, Hard Frost, was the winner of the Finishing Line Press New Women’s Voices competition in 2013. Essays have appeared in Flycatcher and The Ecological Citizen (Rewilding). She co-edits the online and print poetry journal Earthshine. She has focused for many years on land protection, land use, and natural history, and is now directing that energy towards poetry and writing.

SARAH HEWITT is a designer from Colorado. She loves the color blue, the great outdoors, and exploring. More of her photography is available at sphotojournal.com

AMAGER, SARAH HEWITT

THE END OF SUMMER—OR—MEETING AN OLD LOVER IN MORAVIA

SALLY ANDERSON BOSTRÖM

It is hot. We leave the city for where you swam as a child. You are still so tall and slim; I watch your limbs lead the way through the birch. It is strange to undress here, on a crowed beach after so many years. We wade in together then you retreat and I swim out deep.

There is a clenching in this lake, as if I am trying not to lose my grip. On what, I’d like to know— the shoreline, the muddy sand my feet left long ago. I don’t know who I am here, in a dam in South Moravia, my children far to the north. But who cares. I continue to swim, suddenly aware of how beautiful I must be as the sun beams through an oak tree.

I feel you watching as I wade back to shore, waist above the waterline. But no, your back is turned as I climb out and dry off slowly in the sun.

All day today, I am thinking of a poem I wrote years ago, but can only remember one line, the line about your wife.

In the car, I try not to look at your thighs, how your shorts have slid up and the hair there curls and is golden.

There was one leaf floating in the lake. It was yellow. It is only July.

SALLY ANDERSON BOSTRÖM, PhD, is the author of the chapbook Harvest (2021) and numerous poems, essays, and short stories. Her creative work dances on themes of motherhood, desire, ancestral inheritance, and blindness. Originally from California, she has spent the last decade living in Sweden and Czechia. She is currently working on a novel based on her ancestors from the Jizera Mountains. You can find her on Instagram @when_sally_writes and see a list of her recently published work on her website www.sallyandersonbostrom.com.

AFTERWARDS

CHRIS DAHL

Soft as a butterfly settling down, the towel floats over the twin petioles of his legs. Against the artificial white of looped terry his skin appears luminous, throbbing, a wing caught and backlit in early summer. We are surrounded by placid, afternoon humming. Over and over the honeyed flower trumpets its fragrance into the still, perfumed air. At the open window, a faint breeze unfurls then closes the sheers with a slow and tender pulse. I lean and kiss the inner petal of his thigh. The moon, the ghost moon, is rising, that whisper of love, over the pollen-hazed horizon.

CHRIS DAHL hopes to cup a handful of murky pond-water and reveal another world half-hidden in this one. Her chapbook, Mrs. Dahl in the Season of Cub Scouts, was published after winning Still Waters Press’ “Women’s Words” competition. Her poems have been placed in a wide variety of journals—most recently in Cirque and About Place Journal—and she has had poems nominated both for Best of the Net and a Pushcart Prize. She lives in Olympia, Washington, where she serves on the board of the Olympia Poetry Network and edits their newsletter.

INFINITY, ROSE-MARIE KELLER-FLAIG

ROSE-MARIE KELLER-FLAIG lives in the south of Germany. Nature is a natural part of her life. The optical limitation of macro photography enables her to direct the viewer’s eye to what is essential for her in the photographed object. Her aim is always to trigger feelings and associations in the viewer of these objects that she herself felt when taking the picture. To intensify this effect, she sometimes abstracts the forms and structures found in nature so that only color and light remain to create feelings. Check out her work on Instagram @blendenglueck.

OCEAN’S BREATH

VICTORIA HEWITT

on the sand under a quarter moon before the break of dawn my breath mixes with that of the ocean’s— inhale, exhale in, out in, out In, out

VICTORIA HEWITT is a poet and short story creator who writes for herself and hopes to touch others with her words. Her family and the sea give her inspiration. She gets giddy when in the presence of both. The family includes her hubby, two adult children (out on their own), along with two cats which are polar opposites and a sweet dog who tolerates feline moods, just grateful to be a part of something.

A LIFE ALONE

JEFFERY ALLEN TOBIN

Living on the sea, one finds a rhythm, a sway that syncs with the soul—a motion, both cradle and crypt, that rocks the days into nights, nights into days. The horizon, a constant line drawn between two blues, becomes a companion as faithful as any heart could wish for, and just as distant. The gulls cry, their voices the strings of this maritime symphony, where waves provide percussion against the hull, a beat steady and sure.

Each morning, the sun lifts from the ocean, a slow emergence, bright and burning, heralding a day where time is measured in tides and tasks. The nets are cast, silver threads catching gold; fish, shimmering like stars pulled from another sky, are the currency of survival. Hands, rugged and real, work with the weave of the water, pulling, taking, giving back what can’t be kept, what won’t be sold.

Life here is a series of breaths inhaled with the salt air, each one a mixture of freedom and isolation, a flavor as rich as it is bitter. The solitude of the sea is a double-edged sword, it slices through the noise of

crowded streets, cuts away the clamor of city life, but it also carves deep into the crevices of the mind, where thoughts echo like footsteps in an empty hall.

The deck beneath feet becomes a part of the body, planks and pulse woven together, moving as one. The stars at night are not just seen but felt, a celestial canopy so close, so clear, it seems a hand, stretched high enough, could trace the arcs of their travel. But the beauty of this boundless view comes with the bite of knowing, the chill of understanding that all this vastness can swallow you whole, leave you as lost as a whisper in the wind.

Storms, when they come, are titans of twist and tumult. They rage with a passion, unbridled and unbound, turning the world to water and wind. Survival is a dance, a desperate art— dodging blows, bending low, holding fast to what can be held. After, the calm returns, deceitful in its depth, pretending peace, but always, always keeping one eye open, watching for the next upheaval.

Nights are the hardest, when the dark is deep and full, and the sounds of water against wood are the whispers of a restless lover. Memories of land, of those left there, drift like flotsam, unreachable but visible, floating on the edges of dreams. There’s a feeling, sometimes, in the vast black blue, of being untethered from the world, a solitary speck amidst infinite washes of salt and wave.

Yet, there is love here, in the depths, in the vast. Love for the endless wash of waves, for the cry of the wind, for the embrace of the horizon that holds you to the earth while promising the sky. This love is a quiet thing, spoken not in words but in the steady gaze upon the water, in the silent standing at the helm, in the gentle touch of the tide that guides you, ever back, ever forth, home in the heart of the sea.

JEFFERY ALLEN TOBIN is a political scientist and researcher based in South Florida. His extensive body of work primarily explores U.S. foreign policy, democracy, national security, and migration. Currently affiliated with Florida International University, he contributes to both the academic community and policymaking sphere. He also maintains a deep appreciation for the arts. A voracious reader, he enjoys classic literature, with a particular fondness for the works of Thomas Hardy, Dylan Thomas, and Wallace Stevens. Follow him on X @run4roses.

NO WORRIES, AMBER LAUDER

HAIKU

JOSHUA ST. CLAIRE

a blue crab shedding her shell dark side of the moon

SEAFLOWER

SALLY ANDERSON BOSTRÖM

We search for anemones, my hand opening the sand. I stick my finger in, just to show you how she closes.

ENLIVEN, ELLE BRUCE

THREE HAIKU

PATRICK KITCHEN

thunderheads the words we can’t take back

there then gone summer rain

just enough light the long way home

PATRICK KITCHEN writes words that explore the interdependence of a single moment in time, its phenomena, and our subjective inner experience. From the American backcountry, small towns, and highways in between, these poems seek to capture the brilliance, depth, and mystery found in the common, everyday occurrences of life, just as they are.

REFLECTION, MAGGIE LERUM

MAGGIE LERUM will stop for a photo of anything that catches her eye, usually something she stumbles upon outdoors, when she is not writing, rifling through books at the library, or rock climbing. She has yet to capture a non-blurry animal. Her flash fiction piece “Nightlight Wargames” was featured in Issue #19 (Winter 2022) of Sky Island Journal.

RAINY SUMMER DAY, JAIMIE LADYSH

ON KARST FARM DURING A DOWNPOUR

GARRETT STACK

It’s raining again and the last tree in the chisel plowed field is hoarding so that I alone stay thirsty but it’s nice here below the final oak dry and free to observe the bunting blue as xenon take shelter and feast on the tent caterpillars feasting on the great green tree feasting on the sky. Can’t you see it? The wet ribbon of distant highway, the laser flash of wing, the dusty breath of sweet grass dying despite the drowning rain. Go on. Sit. Clap with me.

GARRETT STACK‘s first book is Yeoman’s Work (Bottom Dog Press, 2020). His poems were most recently published in Blue Earth Review, The Pinch, and Dunes Review. He lives, works, and will die Middle Western.

DUSK CLOUDS IN AUGUST

BILL ANDERSON-SAMWAYS

I try to rub some words between my thumb and forefinger but what can I do before that great smoky meaninglessness in the sky? Like a far-off dust-storm, the colour of peaches, it blazes and blazes against the softening blue. The gulls and planes are tiny white crosses. Houses blush and dip their brows into shadow. The light soaks into the rest of the avenue like water filling up a groove. You said, it looks like a beautiful evening. And closed the door behind you.

BILL ANDERSON-SAMWAYS is originally from Ipswich and now lives in London. He holds an MPhil in Anthropocene Studies, and spends his day job thinking about ways the world might end. He hopes that his poems are a little more grounded.

WONDROUS, AMBER LAUDER

WISHING, MJ OKAWA

HAIKU

LUKE LEVI

last light— rain is dark blue as the hills

HAIKU

SHANE COPPAGE

cowslip spider’s web catches the moon

LINDA BRISKIN is a writer and fine art photographer intrigued by the juxtaposition of objects and reflections, the permeability between the remembered and the imagined, and the ambiguities in what we choose to see. The fluidity between the natural and the constructed, and the authentic and the fabricated fascinates her. She has a passion for nature and seeks light, texture, lines, shadows, and reflections, images that may last only a breath. Her work is informed by the premise that landscape is invented through our gaze. She exhibits widely and her photographs have been published in many venues. Learn more at www.lindabriskinphotography.com.

WEB, LINDA BRISKIN

RICK BOGACZ is a Canadian fine art photographer who splits his time between Toronto and Lake Vernon near Huntsville, Ontario. He specializes in black and white minimalist landscapes that incorporate—for the most part— long exposure techniques. He has recently branched out into color imagery but with the same simple esthetic that he hopes will evoke a sense of calm and tranquility.

LONE BIRCH TREE, RICK BOGACZ

BACK TO THE GARDEN

ALEXANDER ETHERIDGE

Twilight. The trees welcome me in again. Immense, centuries old— I walk under their windy crowns. I bring them my grief, my gratitude. And every time I’m here I sense something deeper, a kind of shifting glow from the blue numen of Eden. Thank you for showing me the way home.

Soon, I’ll be there to see it, to be taken by it at last.

ALEXANDER ETHERIDGE has been developing his poems and translations since 1998. His poems have been featured in The Potomac Review, Museum of Americana, Ink Sac, Welter Journal, The Cafe Review, The Madrigal, Abridged Magazine, Susurrus Magazine, The Journal, Roi Faineant Press, and many others. He was the winner of the Struck Match Poetry Prize in 1999, and a finalist for the Kingdoms in the Wild Poetry Prize in 2022. He is the author of God Said Fire and Snowfire and Home.

ECLIPSE

SHANNON CATES

should i write about the iris, the eye that stayed gaping, wept spark & flame? should i tell you about the imperfect circle, about truth & lies & other things that can’t be long hidden? should i speak about stars crossed, love that blinds bare sight, two cosmic hearts & the curse of wanting to be touched but not to be obscured? should i tell you of endings & beginnings , the black wolf, the crown, the way the soul leaves crescent scars when it lets go? if you want, i can tell you i was there when the moon stuck in the sun’s throat

SHANNON CATES, a UX designer by trade, finds her creative spark in the world of words. Her poems have been published in Dark Entries (2023) and Outlander Zine (2024) among other publications. When not crafting seamless digital experiences, she delves into writing, merging her love for design’s structured creativity with the enchantment of storytelling.

SOLARGRAPH NO. 2, KRISTA GLAVICH

IMPENDING, DEBBIE STRANGE

NIGHTFALL, ARNOS VALE CEMETERY

BEL WALLACE

that metallic smell as damp falls on dry earth tree tops sway a slow dance the flit of a bat to the north a strip of tangerine sky still glows under dark clouds midsummer grass lush green leached into night the birds silent now we are on the edge of rain

BEL WALLACE started writing in earnest after walking 560 miles of a pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostela. Her writing has been short-listed for the Bridport Poetry Prize, nominated for the Pushcart, and published in a range of journals. She is trying to finish her first novel, but keeps getting distracted by poetry. Find her on Instagram @belwallace_writer.

THE NIGHT WAS HOT

ERICH VON HUNGEN

The night was hot. The lightning came. The sky split like a great dark jar breaking. Then everything was silent, even the rain stopped.

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