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  Recent Origami Microchaps Published

...On Our Poetry Deck
(In whatever order we manage to present these collections - please be patient, we are leisurely readers)
Jerome Berglund, Beth Fournier, Anthony Bartolla, Matthew Friday, Jane Beal...
 
Next Newsletter: Winter 2024
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Coming Soon...
 

 Anthony Bartolla - Break Time on the Tallahatchie Bridge

Beth Fournier - I Dream in Colors

Jerome Berglund - Rock & Roll

· § ·

- When Printing Microchap, Set Print (%) Scale to 'Fit To Printable Area' -
 
March 2024
...Is it Spring, yet?
On the reading horizon...
 
Cover: Author's painting, 'The Meadow of Hope'
Each flower represents a neurological disease
 
Beth Fournier BioCVR I Dream in Color 2024

I Dream in Color

I woke up in inky darkness.
I had become blind,
devoid of color.
But my dreams
are alive with color.
I dream
in vivid and vibrant hues
of deep greens and blues
crimson and violets
yellows and oranges.
The colors are alive.
They drive my dreams
into swirls of pinks and purples,
curling around each image I see.
I thrive in the colors.
No black. No white.
Everything my mind touches
in my dreams
is in color.
The colors are wild-
bright lights and neons.
My mind cannot see blindness.
It can only see colors.

Beth Fournier 2024

Beth Fournier is a native of Massachusetts and a former high school counselor. At the age of twenty-six she was suddenly stricken and diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome, a severe neurological condition. This left her paralyzed and blind. She now lives in a long-term care facility in Dorchester, Massachusetts. She enjoys audiobooks, painting, and singing. Music and the memory of sunflowers lift her spirits.
 
Cover by Jerome Berglund
Jerome Berglund BioCVR rock roll 2024

distant shore —

gather on beach squinting,

signal with mirrors

 

trampled grass

past the ghosts

of lions 

Jerome Berglund © 2024

 
Jerome Berglund has published many haiku, haiga and haibun, most recently in bottle rockets, Frogpond, and Modern Haiku. His first full-length collections Bathtub Poems and Funny Pages were just released by Setu and Meat For Tea press. Micro-chapbooks of his can be downloaded from the Origami Poems Project and a mixed media eBook showcasing his fine art photography is available now from Yavanika.
 
Cover from ‘beutefullplacee’
Martin Willitts Jr BioCVR The Wisdom of Julian of Norwich 2024

Whatever I See Knows Joy
“The fullness of Joy is to behold God in everything.” 
 
What part of the earth, sky, air  
does not contain the essence of creation?  
None. 
 
Whatever I see knows joy of being created. 
All I know makes me sing praises. 
When I hold back singing, I am denying my awe, 
my reason for waking up. 
 
Why wouldn’t I want to share my praise everywhere? 
No reason.  
None. 
 
This morning-song will echo 
fullness of Joy to behold in God 
in everything

Martin Willitts Jr. © 2024

 
Martin Willitts, Jr., a frequently published Origami Poetry Project poet, has over 20 full-length collections of poetry. He has four books released in 2023, “Not Only the Extraordinary are Exiting the Dream World” (Flowstone Press, 2023); “Ethereal Flowers” (Still Point Press, 2023); “Rain Followed Me Home” (Glass Lyre Press, 2023); “Leaving Nothing Behind” (Fernwood Press, 2023).
-
Julian of Norwich was a 14th-century English mystic who wrote the first book in English by a woman, Revelations of Divine Love, about her visions of God's love.
 
Cover photo: Kanawa County, WV center
John Robinson BioCVR Kanawa 2024
 

Black Maple

I used to think this black tree
were diseased,
as if a fungus had taken hold
in the creases of its bark—
anomy, growing midst other trees.

So I thought.

Texture stands out,
blackened as natural as noon sun.
You can see it fifty yards away
growing in the green wall of summer,
what once appeared dead
lives now, even more, through me.

John Robinson © 2024

John Robinson is a mainstream, American poet from the Kanawha Valley in Mason County, West Virginia. His 165 literary works have appeared in 115 journals throughout the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, India, Poland, Germany and China. He is also a published printmaker with 101 art images and photographs appearing in forty journals, electronic and print, in the United States, Italy, Ireland and the United Kingdom. Recent Work; Pennsylvania English, Xavier Review, North Dakota Quarterly. Talking River Review, Revolution John and Language, and Semiotic Studies.
 
Cover: Mandala photo taken by author
Diane Elayne Dees BioCVR YOGIC TRUTH 2024 

Stretching Into Awareness

Sometimes, at the end of the class,
my teacher says, “Look what your body
let you to do,” and I realize that my body
lets me do all kinds of things—relax
in lizard pose, take long walks,
push a sled, do bicep curls, put sheets
on my bed, pick up dozens of limbs.
My body is old, my body is small,
my body hurts. But it lets me
roll out a mat and take it to a place
of possibility, where my mind—
an ill-behaved, unwelcome guest—
is not allowed entry.

Diane Elayne Dees © 2024

Diane Elayne Dees is the author of the chapbooks, Coronary Truth (Kelsay Books), The Last Time I Saw You (Finishing Line Press), and The Wild Parrots of Marigny (Querencia Press). Diane, who lives in Covington, Louisiana, also publishes Women Who Serve, a blog that delivers news and commentary on women’s professional tennis throughout the world. Her author blog is Diane Elayne Dees: Poet and Writer-at-Large.
 
Cover from web
Ronda Piszk Broatch BioCVR Lunch Date 2024

Dad and Charlie.

They plan the place
the hour. One o’clock.

Rib joint on Northern Lights Avenue.

Maybe Charlie pays.
Maybe they get some

extra ribs and sauce to go.

Ronda Piszk Broatch © 2024

Ronda Piszk Broatch is the author of Chaos Theory for Beginners (Moonpath Press, 2023), Finalist for the Sally Albiso Prize, and Lake of Fallen Constellations, (Moonpath Press). She is the recipient of an Artist Trust Gap Grant. Ronda's journal publications include Greensboro Review, Blackbird, Sycamore Review, Missouri Review, Palette Poetry, Moon City Review, and NPR News / Kuow's All Things Considered. She is a graduate student working toward her MFA at Pacific Lutheran University's Rainier Writing Workshop.
 
 •
February 2024
Cover from web.
 Jessie Raymundo BioCVR Memory with Water 2024

Memory with Water

 

For now, let's talk about sinking

cities, said my mother

who carries a pair of Neptunes

in her eyes & paints about phantoms

 

in the 21st century. Gravity is when

the psychiatrist assessed you

& heard a heart murmur like rain. 

In an instant, you were in the sea: 

 

a merman sticking his head

above the surface, swathed in salt

water, standing by for austere arms,

like a remembrance possessed by echoes

 

of phantoms playing on a record player.

Almost always, there are greetings— 

at sunrise, say hello to clouds, to sparrows,

to the maps of music you made in your mind.

 

& when the morning arrived as a Roman

god of waters & seas, you finally crawled on land.

• 

Jessie Raymundo © 2024
Jessie Raymundo is an educator and poet from the Philippines. His poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in TAB: The Journal of Poetry and Poetics, Failbetter, South Dakota Review, North Dakota Quarterly, Singapore Unbound's SUSPECT and elsewhere.
 
Cover design by author
Jennifer Ann Dennehy BioCVR Flirts with Bees 2024

a knuckle-like sprout
unfolds in near audible
silence towards the sun.

eager and wind-strong,
the burgeoning vine becomes
the night’s acquaintance.

wide parasol leaves
shelter flounce skirted blossoms
as they flirt with bees.

tendril-set-fruit keeps
the company of crickets,
care-worn vines persist.

frost-stitched with morning
dew, the old umbrella leaves
fall in brickle heaps.

Jennifer Ann Dennehy © 2024

Jennifer Ann Dennehy lives in Colorado with her family, cats, great horned owls, and the occasional fox. She spends a bit of time re-creating lawns as prairies and re-claiming starlight for migrating birds. Jennifer has had poems published in The Cold Mountain Review and the Raven’s Perch Review.
 
Cover design by JanK
Kelley Jean White UPDCVR Cracked Fortune Cookie 2024

new years day
forgetting time
snow always falling

January 3rd
icicles hang inside
the bedroom

 

winter storm watch
checking cancellations
for the morning

cranky morning
I stop listening
to your dreams

*

Kelley Jean White © 2024

Pediatrician Kelley White has worked in inner city Philadelphia and rural New Hampshire. Her poems have appeared in Exquisite Corpse, Rattle and JAMA Her most recent collection, NO. HOPE STREET is published by Kelsay Books. She received a 2008 Pennsylvania Council on the Arts grant.
 
Cover photo by author
Diane Webster BioCVR Fog Willingly 2024 

FOG RELUCTANTLY

 
I enter the fog
willingly
like a duck
lands on a pond
safe from shore
predators.

Deeper, deeper
I dive into vapor
and surface
on the other side
not even wet
from my journey.

I exit the fog
reluctantly
like a reflection
blurred by ripples.

Diane Webster 2024

Diane Webster's work has appeared in El Portal, New English Review, North Dakota Quarterly, Verdad and other literary magazines. She had micro-chaps published by Origami Poetry Press in 2022 and 2023 and was nominated for Best of the Net in 2022.
 
 January 2024
Cover art by Lauri Burke
John Grey BioCVR waiting out the storm 2024
 

NOTHING IS DIFFERENT

I have no need to pretend
that nothing’s going on.
Everything’s normal.
I’m not trapped in this vortex
of life and death.
There’s not something in the air
that has it in for me.

I stay in this house as much possible.
But that’s not a problem. I like it here.
And I don’t step outside
without wearing a mask.
But masks are the new fashion.
And my tastes in clothes
lean toward haute-couture.
I keep six feet away from people.
But when haven’t I?
We’re all at our best at a distance.
And I wash my hands a lot.
It’s in my nature.
I’ve washed my hands
of so much over the years.

So, despite what you might think,
I am not in quarantine.
I’m inside myself. There’s a difference.

John Grey © 2024

 John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident, recently published in New World Writing, California Quarterly and Lost Pilots. Latest books, ”Between Two Fires”, “Covert” and “Memory Outside The Head” are available through Amazon. Work upcoming in Isotrope Literary Journal, Seventh Quarry, La Presa and Doubly Mad.
 
Cover illustration:
‘Autumn Evening’ by Dawn Senior-Trask
B J Buckley BioCVR A Brief Ecclesiates 2024 

A Brief Ecclesiastes

Clouds cannot tell time,
nor do they count the days.

Hours or years,
minutes and eternities,
the moon is a light, like God,
that comes and goes,
that smiles,
then turns its face away.

Origami wind folds, unfolds,
enfolds the trees,
the leaves, the branches,
wind, tearing out sky
from its own
invisible paper.

B. J. Buckley © 2024

 
B. J. Buckley is a Montana poet and writer who has taught in Arts-in-Schools & Communities programs throughout the West and Midwest for nearly five decades. Her chapbook, "In January, the Geese", won the 35th Anniversary Comstock Review Poetry Chapbook Prize. Visit: https://wild4verses.wixsite.com 
 
Cover photo by author
Ken Gierke BioCVR Crossing Rivers 2024

How to Paddle Upstream

Consumed with your own thoughts,
always going it alone because
that’s the silence that comforts you,
there’s no easy way to get back
if you start paddling downstream.

So pull yourself along the bank.
The lee side, of course.
Why start now with the risks?
Stroke left, then right, head-on
into the current, meeting snags,
obstructions, knowing you can
always turn back to the beginning
by drifting along the easy course
you’ve followed all along.

Or face those challenges, solve
the problems you encounter.
Who knows? Maybe you’ll learn
something about life along the way,
learn to set your own course
once you rejoin the flow.

Ken Gierke © 2024

Ken Gierke writes poetry primarily in free verse and haiku. He has been published at Vita Brevis, The Ekphrastic Review, Silver Birch Press, Amethyst Review, and Eunoia Review. His poetry is in three anthologies from Vita Brevis Press, as well as in 'easing the edges: a collection of everyday miracles, an anthology' edited by D Ellis Phelps. Visit his blog: RIVRVLOGR
 
Cover photo by author
Mary Ellen Talley BioCVR Fresh Pollen 2024

1.
Clocks tick
as sunflowers
reach tall to blossom

Sun trails the fence line
while a season
makes changes

The oncology nurses
are pros
at what they do

 

2.
Bushy tailed squirrels
scamper fence posts
to find a moon of ripe seeds

Laden with rain
one sunflower
falls on a sidewalk

Protocol demands
clean non-latex gloves
for every procedure

3.
White streak
of geese
crosses blue sky

More sunflowers
engulfed in shadows
open to gold

A needle has long since
created
an aperture in the body

 

4.
Stalls of cut flowers
sprawl the length
of an urban market

Buskers sing
last songs
of summer

The nurse
closes the port
in the body

Mary Ellen Talley © 2024

Mary Ellen Talley's poems have been published in journals such as Banshee, Gyroscope, and Ekphrastic Review as well as in anthologies such as Raising Lilly Ledbetter and Sing the Salmon Home. Her poems have received three Pushcart nominations. A chapbook, “Postcards from the Lilac City” was published by Finishing Line Press in 2020 and a forthcoming collection to be published by Kelsay Press. Please visit her website for further updates: maryellentalley.com
 
 
Cover from ‘beutefullplacee’
Martin Willitts Jr. BioCVR The Two Duties Belonging 2024 Jan
Julian of Norwich was a 14th-century English mystic who wrote the first book in English by a woman, Revelations of Divine Love, about her visions of God's love.
 

“Two duties belong to our souls. One is to
reverently marvel. The other is humbly to
endure, always taking pleasure in God. He
wants us to remember that life is short and
it won’t be long until we clearly see, within
him, all that we desire.” - Julian of Norwich

   • To marvel

When you consider a raindrop,
see it as a small world bringing relief.
How many may fall before they end?
No one knows.
I would have to run around the land counting.
I could never count them all in time.
Even if I caught the rain in hundreds of buckets,
I could not separate them to count each one.

I cannot see this as impossible;
rather, I must know
searching for answers begins
with the heart
wondering.

 

 

 

 

I must be amazed with wonderment,
and guess with incurable curiosity.
I am not meant to know every secret
Instead, I am encouraged to try.

I watched a snail in the garden,
but I was called away to do some other tasks.
When I returned after supper,
it seemed to be in the same place.
Hardly a budge.
Just a thin trail of slime, drying behind it.

But to the snail,
it must seem to have been a long journey

When I consider how seldom I walk very far,
I know I never moved any real distance.
The shadows travel more than me
to places I cannot see or imagine.

All my trivial concerns trail far behind me.

Martin Willitts Jr. © 2024

 
Cover from ‘beutefullplacee’
Martin WIllitts Jr BioCVR In Gods Sight We Do Not Fail 2024 Jan
 

"We are in God and God
whom we do not see is in us.”

We are all a part of God.
This explains why we are so precious;
therefore, we must see God in other people.
This lack of understanding,
that we all are a part of God,
causes strife and war.
We cannot comprehend
we are made in God’s image.
If we do not find this extraordinary truth,
then we risk losing connection
to the most essential part of our existence

“In God's sight we do not fall:
in our own we do not stand.”

I tripped and fell.
We all do this eventually.

I did not watch where I was walking.
We all do not pay attention when distracted.

I was in a hurry. I can’t remember why.
We all forget what happened when
we recover.

I do recall the fleeting pain,
but not the urgency to ask for help.

We all stumble.
We all rise up, brush off, move on.

Practicing and living my belief has falls,
but many chances to mend.

Martin WIllitts Jr. © 2024

Martin Willitts, Jr., a frequently published Origami Poetry Project poet, has over 20 full-length collections of poetry. He has four books released in 2023, “Not Only the Extraordinary are Exiting the Dream World” (Flowstone Press, 2023); “Ethereal Flowers” (Still Point Press, 2023); “Rain Followed Me Home” (Glass Lyre Press, 2023); “Leaving Nothing Behind” (Fernwood Press, 2023). These latest microchaps are parts 3 and 4 of a series about Julian of Norwich, the 14th century English mystic writer.
 
December 2023
...Entering that last month of the year
On the reading horizon...
 
Cover: Clichy Glassworks (Cristalleries de Clichy), France.
Paperweight, ca. 1845-60. The Art Institute of Chicago
Keli Osborn BioCVR Breathing Lessons 2023 Dec
 

Breathing Lessons

I’ve been to Ketchikan
but never Denali,
watched a butterfly herd
on Santiam Pass,
caught a star
with my left hand
one late summer night.
Whenever my feet
slip the slopes,
I come back to the start.
Breathe in, breathe out.
Sometimes, the world
is too damn beautiful.

The Next Morning

Bright yellow soaked the hotcakes,
dripped from forks,
coated my tongue like canary blood.
It could’ve been morning
in another area code.
I don’t remember.

 

 

Keli Osborn © 2023

Keli Osborn lives and writes in Eugene, Oregon. Her poems have appeared in multiple journals and anthologies. When she’s not playing with words, she might be hiking, reading with kindergarteners, or researching election practices.
 
Cover photo by Ruby Saltbush
Holly Payne Strance BioCVR My Mums Singing 2023
 

My Mum’s Singing

I love my mum’s singing.
She has more enthusiasm
Than talent,
But to be fair, she has a whole lot of
Enthusiasm.

I’m convinced she has a tiramisu soul,
Rich with chocolate dipped wisdom,
Cultivated from a complex life.
Sweet as cream, zany with
An unstoppable, caffeinated
Brilliance.
Unconcerned with the finer points
Of hearing or sight
She knows she can handle it.

 

  So we dance around the kitchen
  Making cupcakes,
  Throwing in one too many eggs
  -Or perhaps not enough, it’s not quite clear-
  And I belt it out,
  Because she’s the one who taught me
  Not to care so much
  About how silly joy can look
  We are far too wild for that.

  •

  Holly Payne-Strange © 2023

Holly Payne-Strange is a novelist, poet and podcast creator. Her writing has been lauded by USA Today, LA weekly and The New York Times. Additionally, she’s given talks on podcast creation at Fordham University and The Player’s Club. Her English language poetry has been published by various groups including Quail Bell Magazine, Call me (Brackets), and Red Door, while her work in Italian has been published by We Have Food At Home. She would like to thank her wife for all her support.
 
Cover: Boardwalk photo taken by author
along local trail in Marbut Bend, AL
Sam Calhoun BioCVR Apogee 2023 Dec

Virga

once
driving home,
I missed the rainbow--

but then
100 blackbirds
landed
in the cool
puddle
of broken
concrete

as if they were shot
out of that orange
jewelweed sky.

Apogee

Last night the full moon
Streamed, raced away, cirrus
over fallow fields
waiting to be forgotten.

Come spring who lives
in the old house?
The one with the chimney
I cannot see--

Smoke climbs
like rose branches,
thermals through bones
bare of the world

settle on the edge
of fields, forgotten cotton;
advent calendar.

--crows dance,
the hiss of
each passing car--

Is there still room in the dark to howl?

Sam Calhoun © 2023

Note: "Apogee", "Insomnia", and "Meniere's" were technically published in May of this year by Stark Nights Lit, an online zine that has ceased publication.
 
Sam Calhoun is a writer and photographer living in Elkmont, AL. He is the author of one chapbook, “Follow This Creek” (Foothills Publishing). His poems have appeared in Pregnant Moon Review, Westward Quarterly, Offerings, Waterways, and other journals. Follow him on X or Instagram @weatherman_sam
 
Cover art by Julia Carrasquero
 
Andrena Zawinski BioCVR Starstruck 2023 CovR
 

Things That Come and Go

Wash of sea foam at low tide,
wind kicking in on a drift of waves.

Message in a bottle bobbing
about imaginary shores.

Sunny side of leafy trees
swathed in wings of shade.

Bee buzzing flower blossoms,
petals in the sidewalk cracks.

Canary’s song longing
for flight toward the sun.

Stars sparkling in the night sky,
earthshine of a crescent moon.

First breath, first kiss, first love,
lasting only as long as they exist.

Coming to these things that come
then go, moths to flames.

 

—Highland Park Poetry

my documents
(an excerpt)

…hold onto these memories,
they are my documents,
these words my guarantee
of sanity—
your cell, my cell
where near night everything teeters
but will not fall with you wild
as you were, startled crow
staggering the bridge rail
drunken with sky…

 

–from “Four Cells,” Santa Clara Review

Andrena Zawinski © 2023

Andrena Zawinski's fourth full poetry collection, Born Under the Influence, is recently released and can be found on Amazon. Her poems have received accolades for free verse, form, lyricism, spirituality, and social concern. She founded and runs the San Francisco Bay Area Women’s Poetry Salon..
 
November 2023
 
Cover design by JanK
John Dorroh BioCVR Gravity of the Situation 2023 Nov
Selections:

Repurposed

 

My grandparent’s house
is now a Kroger grocery
store. Their bedroom is
a coffee station. Their
kitchen is produce.

They’ve been gone too
long so it’s not so sad
any more. When they
cut the tress to build
their house, my grand-
ma said, “Who knows
how long we’ll last?”

Resurrection

 

There are lessons in bread.
Science principles, magic
in the way it all works out.
The rising like spirits,

proofing and rising again,
cold dough laid in metal
tombs, placed into an oven
for final rites of passage.

John Dorroh © 2023

 

John Dorroh may have taught high school science for several decades. Whether he did is still being discussed. Five of his poems were nominated for Best of the Net. Hundreds more have appeared in journals such as Feral, Wisconsin Review, River Heron, North Dakota Quarterly, Loch Raven Review, and Selcouth Station. He had two chapbooks published in 2022 – Swim at Your Risk and Personal Ad Poetry. He is a Southerner living in the Midwest.
 
Martin Willitts Jr - Every Soul Labors 
Cover from ‘beutefullplacee’
Martin Willitts Jr BioCVR Every Soul Labors 2023

"The more the soul sees of God, the more it desires Him."

I did not understand why I am wanting.
A piece of me always feels missing, absent,
always yearning for some more-ness.
Reaching and never arriving at a destination,
I see only distance but never how far I’ve been.
I never think to look back.
My heart only knowing wandering,
aiming for some place I belong,
longing, longing, longing for a restful place.

When I was not paying attention,
I arrived.
I was welcomed.
My wanderlust over.

I knew roots
attach to the soil, settle in.

I did, too.

Martin WIllitts Jr © 2023

This is his latest (2) microchaps, 'Pray Inwardly' and 'Every Soul Labors, are part of a series about Julian of Norwich, the 14th century English mystic. 
Martin Willitts Jr, a frequently published Origami Poetry Project poet, has over 20 full-length collections of poetry. He has four books released in 2023, “Not Only the Extraordinary are Exiting the Dream World” (Flowstone Press, 2023); “Ethereal Flowers” (Still Point Press, 2023); “Rain Followed Me Home” (Glass Lyre Press, 2023); “Leaving Nothing Behind” (Fernwood Press, 2023). These poems are a part of a series about Julian of Norwich, the mystic writer.  (See 'Pray Inwardly'.)
 
Cover design by author
Andrew Shillam Bio Cvr A MidnightTarot 2023

The Spanish Garden

Poets, shuffling stillness into words,

unfold again the lacquered night, and, where

a seated woman with dark braided hair

plays chess, the chamber rings with chirping birds…

Echoing through some recess beyond time,

the unfolding night reveals each facet

cut with the precision of a sonnet.

A fountain plays in a courtyard where lime

trees and oranges grow in an arrangement

until, cutting the cards, the night is spent.

Waking from enchanted sleep with dead sand

in our pockets, metal poles ringing down

the street, unloaded on the cold dawn, and

a smell of baking bread over the town.

Andrew Shillam © 2023

This collection is 'a sequence of six modern sonnets using the symbolism of archetypes and including traditional and made up tarot images with the title of each poem being the name of a tarot card.'
 
Andrew Shillam recently has had poems published in online journals including "Burrow" Old Water Rat Publishing, Paris/Atlantic 2018 and Studio La Primitive. His artistic background is mainly in the visual arts. He studied at Newcastle University in Australia in the 1990's and has exhibited regularly for over twenty years. He lives in Northern NSW Australia with his wife who is also a visual artist.
 
Cover photo from Pexels
EM Foster BioCVR Hallways 2023
 

Perimeter

Mundane slog,
September chill
Equals
Philosophic craving
(Eraser markings + whiteboard squawk)

Recluse charm,
Counterculture
Equals
Irrational asylum dwellers
(Heaving our souls behind us)

Slump, exile,
Braindead ideas
Equals
The small things we enjoy.

Roots

Spirit runs to body
As we finally escape.
Kiss the dirt.
Born in a flowering world
And returning to our spirits
When the bell rings.
Sentient beads of musing dew,
With graphs drawn on, all mouths.
Kindle the elements,
The unspoken word primordial.
Eternal ecstasy of flight loops up,
And we are baked to motherly perfection.

E. M. Fosters © 2023

E. M. Foster is a writer, poet, and graduate student at the University of Cambridge. Her work has been featured in Aurora Journal, 50 Word Stories, Sledgehammer Lit, and more. Her chapbooks can also be found at Origami Poems (2021), Yavanika Press (2022), and Ghost City Press (2023). You can find her portfolio and blog at fosteryourwriting.com.
 
 •
Cover image: 'Pixabay'
Karen P Gonzalez BioCVR Sightings 2023

Lightning quick

Under amber autumn moonlight,
I spread a fresh mound of bark
across the bush-stubbled yard.

Shreds of redwood tucked into place,
I smooth out rough spots
then look up to see Gemma

rising early in the Corona Borealis.
She watches me
pat down loose elder remains.

Her luminous tiara tilted,
the northern jewel nods.
Sapphire-white approval

travels seventy-five light years
to reach me. Her applause—
crackling thunder.

Icarus

Unlike you,
foolishly feathered with wax

too close to the sun,
I have learned

from failing
to soar

beyond nebulas,
bathe in Neptune’s cool waters

thread strands of distant light
into my skin;

tattoos hold me -
at bay, yellow-blue gases whistle.

Karen Pierce Gonzalez © 2023

 

Karen Pierce Gonzalez’s works include True North (Origami Poems Project 2022), Coyote in the Basket of My Ribs (Kelsay Books 2023), and Down River with Li Po (Black Cat Poetry Press 2024). Her writing and assemblage art have appeared in numerous publications. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
 
October 2023
 
Cover collage by JanK
Vishal Prabhu BioCVR a ball of ribbon 2023
 

equation

love is
a
two hulled boat

seek
ing
the

same

water

the sea

a
bud of
nostalgia

(wistfully
wished away

hometruth

a cat is not where
she appears

walking to and fro
the horizon; ask

ing---

 

• 

Vishal Prabhu © 2023

Vishal Prabhu - Educated as a chemical engineer, in Bombay, Cleveland, and for a while at Georgia Tech, Atlanta, Vishal Prabhu has since tried to escape writing a bio. He currently lives several fathoms up in the Himalayas, trying to string together the song of his heart.
 
 Cover art by Andrew Shillam, Australian artist
Daphne Milne BioCVR Dancing with Mr Dapperman 2023
 

Mr. Dapperman struts his stuff at 46 Henry Street

The women are waiting
for Mr. Dapperman
Panama hat white linen trousers
blue and white collarless shirt
softened with much washing
that brings out
the colour of his eyes
seafarer’s eyes the exact shade
of a June horizon
and as full of promise

He’s ready for anything
on this bright spring day
hungry for breakfast
croissants home-made jam coffee
They always bring the wrong coffee
but he’s too polite to complain
he’s here for the jazz
One day they’ll get it right
and he will dance
The women are waiting

A story yet to be written 

Hemingway’s up in the hills
on the edge of the bush
where life’s a little looser
a nothing-looking sort of place
dual carriageway runs straight through
road trains hurtle past on the way
to Kalamunda or points North
Behind a drab brown wall
blacked-out windows jazz erupts
saxophonist and friends
every Tuesday the food is good
the grog is better still
wine and cocktails not much beer
Mr. Dapperman eats apple pie
and at the bar a lady waits
in red stilettos and tyrolean blouse
Mr. Dapperman munches on
while the band goes wild

• 

Daphne Milne © 2023

Daphne Milne's poems, flash fiction and short stories are published in print and online in magazines and anthologies internationally. She has returned to the UK after five years in Australia. In Australia she discovered jazz and is delighted to find the jazz scene round Exeter and the South West is thriving. - A Katharine Susannah Pritchard fellow for 2021, she was nominated for the Forward Prize for 2022. Published by Indigo Dreams Press in 2019, her pamphlet The Blue Boob Club was selected as book of the month by Poetry Kit where Daphne was also invited to be a Contemporary Poet for 2020. Two new pamphlets are due to be published later this year.
 
• 
Cover from Instagram ‘beutefullplacee’
Martin Willitts Jr R2CVR Pray Inwardly 2023
 

“Pray inwardly, even if you do not enjoy it.”

We can enter prayer like opening a door,
never knowing what we will find.
We can place our hands on a prayer,
feeling the trembling of our words
we speak only to ourself
or speaking in a hushed whisper.
When I place my hand on a door handle,
I feel the presence of someone who entered.
If I am lucky, I will enjoy that company.
If I find the one that I seek,
I know I will have a great conversation
just by listening.
Opening and closing prayers can be this easy.
Seeking and finding can be this easy.
Today, I opened a door like it was a prayer
laying my finger on the right passage.

“Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance,
but laying hold of His willingness.”

Sunlight from my window finds me,
accepting me. I welcome the light back.
The breath of light tingles with expectation.
Willingly I enter into the light
chasing it as it moves across the room
like someone talking with good news
about the day, bringing psalms of joy.

I hold that music to never let it go,
when the light leaves my room reluctantly.
I hold onto that prayer fiercely.
Letting go never enters my mind.
Light can also be held that fiercely.

Martin Willitts Jr © 2023

Quotations from Julian of Norwich

 Julian of Norwich was a 14th-century English mystic who wrote the first book in English by a woman, Revelations of Divine Love, about her visions of God's love.
 
Martin Willitts, Jr., a frequently published Origami Poetry Project poet, has over 20 full-length collections of poetry. He has four books released in 2023, “Not Only the Extraordinary are Exiting the Dream World” (Flowstone Press, 2023); “Ethereal Flowers” (Still Point Press, 2023); “Rain Followed Me Home” (Glass Lyre Press, 2023); “Leaving Nothing Behind” (Fernwood Press, 2023). The above poems posted are a part of a series about Julian of Norwich, the mystic writer.
 
September 2023
 
Cover photo by author
Lorraine Caputo BioCVR Endless Rains 2023 Fall
 

SAVORING THE STORM

Suddenly the sky outside my room
grows dark, swift cloud shadows fall ‘cross
windows, deep thunder grumbles,
rattling panes … sharp lightning
flashes so near, I
can almost touch
it, I can
savor
it

ABIDING

someplace behind those clouds
of this too-long rainy season

the moon is slowly disappearing
soon to shine not upon our world

then she shall grow again
more full, night by night

her light growing brighter
illuminating our dreams …

unless those clouds hide her away
in this too-long rainy season

Lorraine Caputo © 2023

 
Lorraine Caputo is a documentary poet, translator and travel writer. Her works appear in over 400 journals on six continents; and 23 collections of poetry – including In The Jaguar Valley (dancing girl press, 2023) and Chaco Dreams (Origami Poems Project, 2022). She also authors travel narratives, articles and guidebooks. Her writing has been honored by the Parliamentary Poet Laureate of Canada (2011) and has been thrice nominated for the Best of the Net. Caputo has done literary readings from Alaska to the Patagonia. She journeys through Latin America, listening to the voices of the pueblos and Earth.
 
 Cover design by author
Kavitha Krishnamurthy BioCVR A Linguistic Ride 2023 
Selection:

My Journey

I see life as a journey.
A journey where I sit inside a train called life.
As I grow old, the train passes by a lot of
stations. I stop by a few stations
but I make sure I get back into the train
called life to continue my journey.

As the train moves, I get to see a lot of
scenery called life experiences through
my window. Few sceneries are beautiful,
few not so beautiful, few worth
remembering, few worth forgetting.

I keep the imprint of the good scenery
in mind, throwing away the ugly ones
out of the window.

But I ensure that I sit inside the train
called life and continue my journey.
At times the train slows down,
picks up pace, passes through a

dark tunnel, but I still sit inside the train
hoping that there is light at the
end of the tunnel.

 

As I travel in the train called life, I get to
meet a lot of people called passengers,
few get down in different stations
whereas a few travel along with me
and the journey continues.

Those fellow passengers who travel with me
till my destination, turn from passengers
to friends and then to family, for
we are friends and family not just
by chance but also by our choice.

From childhood to middle age to growing
older I prefer to sit inside the train,
travelling and enjoying my journey called life.
This is my life, my journey and
I enjoy my ride.

 

Kavitha Krishnamurthy © 2023

 
 Kavitha Krishnamurthy is a Project Management professional with a flair for writing. She lives in Chennai, India, and her work has appeared in Unlikely Mark IV magazine, Garfield Lake Review magazine, Dreich magazine, and The Journal of Undiscovered Poets. Please follow her on Facebook at Kavitha's Canvas or email her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for updates on her work.
 
 Cover design by author
Alexey Deyneko BioCVR Non Fungible Token 2023
Selections:
 

Non-Fungible Token

If your token is non-fungible,
It, by definition, is:

Non-yeastable,
Non-rustable,
Non-smutable,
Non-mildewble,
Non-moldable,
And non-mushroomable

At the same time.

If you want to add
Even more value to your token,
Make it non-oomycetable
As well, just in case.

Oomycetes are very fungi-like too.

Like a book

If you read me like a book,
Please read aloud.

I’d like to listen to
What I am.

 

Not this time

“Not this time,”
She whispered
And left me

With a long-lasting
Sense of her kiss
On my cheek.

Alexey Deyneko © 2023

Alexey Deyneko is a pacifist who lives and contemplates the interconnections between different art forms in Sydney, the city that inspires him in a variety of delightful ways. He holds a media degree from the University of New South Wales. His work has recently appeared in The Raven Review, Jersey Devil Press, New Note Poetry, dadakuku, and Quibble.
 
August 2023
 
Cover art: 'Sacred' by author 
Philip Brent Harris BioCVR Pieces and Parts 2023

What I Said

Mired in my mind maze,
lonely and lost,
as I wander around
inside my own head.
Wise words I uttered,
at too high a cost,
because, I cannot
remember what I said. 

I’m OK

I’m OK with being a cliché,
old enough now not to care.
Here many a year and a day,
I sometimes do what I dare.

Philip Brent Harris © 2023

 

Philip Brent Harris has written a dozen original screenplays and two adaptations solo and four with Stanford Professor, Jasmina Bojic. For over a decade, he served as a juror for both the San Francisco Film Festival and the United Nations Association Film Festival. The latter was founded by Professor Bojic, who also serves as the Executive Director. Harris was honored as the final poem in the print anthology: Humans in the Wild: Reactions to a Gun Loving Country, Mythic Picnic. He has two poems online with PoetryXHunger, and two with Silent Spark Press, one online and one in Amazing Poetry 4.

 
• 
Cover photo of moth by author
CVR Grass Basket 2023
Selections:

second-hand bookstore –
the musty smell
of the old cat

 

sirens in the night-
in the distance
coyotes sing along

modern plumbing-
the path to the old outhouse
overgrown with weeds

 

Risso Road-
beyond the locked gate
only grass

Sally Quon © 2023

 
Sally Quon is a poet and photographer living in the Okanagan Valley of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. She is an associate member of The League of Canadian Poets and a member of Haiku Canada. Her work has been published in numerous anthologies including The Heron’s Nest, Modern Haiku, and The Red Alder.
 
Cover design by JanK
Laura Sloan Patterson BioCVR Escape 2023 Aug
 Selections:

Fireplace Dolls

fireplace dolls
alert in the woodhole
watching our family
from the hearth in reverse
one wraps her leg
the other stand-jamming
what will they think
when they see we're alive?

Learning to Read

This is how you teach your child
to spell your lover’s name
This is how you wrap your hand
around a clump of snow
This is how you polish up your home:
in silver paint and glass
This is how you pack your things to go
This is how you move from house to house
This is how you coax the buds from snow
This is how you huddle close,
in blasts of winter night

Laura Sloan Patterson © 2023

Laura Sloan Patterson is an English professor at Seton Hill University in western Pennsylvania. Her poetry has appeared in Lines + Stars, Spry, Pittsburgh Poetry Review, WomenArts Quarterly, The Mom Egg, Rust + Moth, HOOT, The North Carolina Literary Review, and other journals. She was a finalist for the James Applewhite Poetry Prize awarded by the North Carolina Literary Review. 
 
 

• ♦ •

Plate Bowl Origami Books
 
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