The Blue Church
You may think they are gone for good, or in the sky above, but no. Underground now, members solidify those differing directions of their arguments, slanting ideas to win. Bickering is eternal. Joan Leotta This poem was written in response to the surprise challenge, ekphrastic poems on Canadian art. Joan Leotta has been playing with words on page and stage since childhood in Pittsburgh. She is a writer and story performer. Her Legacy of Honor series feature strong Italian-American women. Her poetry and essays appear or are forthcoming in Gnarled Oak, the A-3 Review, Hobart Literary Review, Silver Birch, Peacock, and Postcard Poems and Prose among others. Her first poetry chapbook, Languid Lusciousness with Lemon, was just released by Finishing Line Press. Joan's picture books from Theaqllc, Whoosh!, Summer in a Bowl, Rosa and the Red Apron, and Rosa's Shell celebrate food and family. Her award-winning short stories are collected in Simply a Smile. You can find more about her work on her blog at www.joanleotta.wordpress.com
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Ukrainian Pioneer's First Winter Slogging through snow so deep, so deep Like the waters crossed to come To this new land so deep, so deep Like the snow in Ukraine it is deep, so deep. As they struggle toward nearest neighbour's house, do they recall their struggles crossing watery depths? Or do they think at all trying to survive snow that's deep, so deep. Joan Leotta This poem was written in response to the surprise challenge, ekphrastic poems on Canadian art. Joan Leotta has been playing with words on page and stage since childhood in Pittsburgh. She is a writer and story performer. Her Legacy of Honor series feature strong Italian-American women. Her poetry and essays appear or are forthcoming in Gnarled Oak, the A-3 Review, Hobart Literary Review, Silver Birch, Peacock, and Postcard Poems and Prose among others. Her first poetry chapbook, Languid Lusciousness with Lemon, was just released by Finishing Line Press. Joan's picture books from Theaqllc, Whoosh!, Summer in a Bowl, Rosa and the Red Apron, and Rosa's Shell celebrate food and family. Her award-winning short stories are collected in Simply a Smile. You can find more about her work on her blog at www.joanleotta.wordpress.com Onion Soup Autumn fills the kitchen – golden onions and Ma’s copper kettle warm the dimming light. Chopping onions makes me cry, she says, but I know other reasons. Soon the savory aroma deepens. Carmelized onions turn the broth a beefy brown. She adds thyme, a splash of apple cider, starts the slow simmer. Our noses feast long before our tongues. The memory makes my eyes water. Alarie Tennille This poem was written as part of the 20 Poem Challenge. Alarie Tennille was born and raised in Portsmouth, Virginia, and graduated from the University of Virginia in the first class admitting women. She became fascinated by fine art at an early age, even though she had to go to the World Book Encyclopedia to find it. Today she visits museums everywhere she travels and spends time at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, where her husband is a volunteer guide. Alarie’s poetry book, Running Counterclockwise, contains many ekphrastic poems. Please visit her at alariepoet.com. But Is It Art?
In 1928, Brancusi’s Bird in Space stood trial. U.S. Customs refused to call it art, taxed it as kitchenware. They looked too hard for feathers and claws. Gone are the wings, but not the flight. It swoops – sharp beak, flared tail – part missile, part dolphin – yet still so very bird, bronzed in sunlight. Brancusi captured what mattered – even your reflection. Alarie Tennille This poem was written as part of the 20 Poem Challenge. Alarie Tennille was born and raised in Portsmouth, Virginia, and graduated from the University of Virginia in the first class admitting women. She became fascinated by fine art at an early age, even though she had to go to the World Book Encyclopedia to find it. Today she visits museums everywhere she travels and spends time at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, where her husband is a volunteer guide. Alarie’s poetry book, Running Counterclockwise, contains many ekphrastic poems. Please visit her at alariepoet.com. These Women Artists
Kay Sage painted this weird picture called The Answer is No Yoko Ono wrote YES on a high ceiling for some weird reason These damn these weird these women artists Yes No What’s the question anyway The answer is who the hell knows Tricia Marcella Cimera This poem was written as part of the 20 Poem Challenge. Tricia Marcella Cimera will forever be an obsessed reader and lover of words. Look for her work in these diverse places: Buddhist Poetry Review, The Ekphrastic Review, Foliate Oak, Fox Adoption, Hedgerow, I Am Not A Silent Poet, Mad Swirl, Silver Birch Press, Stepping Stones, Yellow Chair Review, and elsewhere. She has a micro collection of water-themed poems called THE SEA AND A RIVER on the Origami Poems Project website. Tricia believes there’s no place like her own backyard and has traveled the world (including Graceland). She lives with her husband and family of animals in Illinois / in a town called St. Charles / by a river named Fox. Hail to Thee, Blithe Spirit*
In Memory of Percy Bysshe Shelley Your heart still burns within your poems, but would not burn upon the pyre. Like you, it chose to rail at Fate, to cling to earth as you desired. Alarie Tennille *From “To a Skylark” by Shelley This poem was written as part of the 20 Poem Challenge. Alarie Tennille was born and raised in Portsmouth, Virginia, and graduated from the University of Virginia in the first class admitting women. She became fascinated by fine art at an early age, even though she had to go to the World Book Encyclopedia to find it. Today she visits museums everywhere she travels and spends time at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, where her husband is a volunteer guide. Alarie’s poetry book, Running Counterclockwise, contains many ekphrastic poems. Please visit her at alariepoet.com. The City Life for Me Some enjoy living in the middle of nowhere. I’d be as lonesome as a bale of hay, stranded in a snowy field, waiting for something, anything to happen. Alarie Tennille This poem was written as part of the 20 Poem Challenge. Alarie Tennille was born and raised in Portsmouth, Virginia, and graduated from the University of Virginia in the first class admitting women. She became fascinated by fine art at an early age, even though she had to go to the World Book Encyclopedia to find it. Today she visits museums everywhere she travels and spends time at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, where her husband is a volunteer guide. Alarie’s poetry book, Running Counterclockwise, contains many ekphrastic poems. Please visit her at alariepoet.com. Sisters, Hear Me
Men write our myths. Watch out for yourselves. Only Helios himself believed he was the sun. I was never blinded by his light. He abducted me. The dry air chafed my skin. It was easy to slip back into the sea, stay hidden. Time let his lies die. Not many people talk of sirens or water nymphs these days. We still flourish in the ocean’s womb. Fishermen sometimes catch a glimpse, swear we have tails like porpoises. Men lie. Like Pandora, like Eve, like you, I have curiosity. I think for myself. Men hate that. Blame you for their failings. Alarie Tennille This poem was written as part of the 20 Poem Challenge. Alarie Tennille was born and raised in Portsmouth, Virginia, and graduated from the University of Virginia in the first class admitting women. She became fascinated by fine art at an early age, even though she had to go to the World Book Encyclopedia to find it. Today she visits museums everywhere she travels and spends time at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, where her husband is a volunteer guide. Alarie’s poetry book, Running Counterclockwise, contains many ekphrastic poems. Please visit her at alariepoet.com. One Thing Leads to Another
Every stray thought sets off a slide show – each frame a collage of random association. A smell, a twinge, even the word “horse” excavates hidden ore from the gray matter. A horse, if not a dozen, will appear along with acrobats from the same circus, a runner rounding the track. Stamps, even wallpaper may surface. Impossible to catch or sort it all. Alarie Tennille This poem was written as part of the 20 Poem Challenge. Alarie Tennille was born and raised in Portsmouth, Virginia, and graduated from the University of Virginia in the first class admitting women. She became fascinated by fine art at an early age, even though she had to go to the World Book Encyclopedia to find it. Today she visits museums everywhere she travels and spends time at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, where her husband is a volunteer guide. Alarie’s poetry book, Running Counterclockwise, contains many ekphrastic poems. Please visit her at alariepoet.com. Cold Dreams Come whispering up from the deep trenches undersea, exhaled like poison gases feeding the strange lives that can live nowhere else- Oddly luminous, blue-white beautiful, their songs a dark music, rising like the voices of the drowned who have swallowed the moon and wonder why there is no light. They use up all the oxygen making it impossible to breathe the leaden air, impossible to avoid infection by the burden of despair, unsolvable, a crushing weight keeping you down until a new sun rises strong enough to melt an age of ice. Mary McCarthy This was written as part of the 20 Poem Challenge. Mary McCarthy has always been a writer, but spent most of her working life as a Registered Nurse. Her work has appeared in many online and print journals, including Earth's Daughters, Gnarled Oak, Third Wednesday and Three Elements Review. She is grateful for the wonderful online communities of writers and poets sharing their work and passion for writing, providing a rich world of inspiration, appreciation, and delight. |
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