Read Poem: The Beholder by Darienne K. E. Jordan

We are taught that

Beauty is in the

Eye of the Beholder

We always assume

This means eyes

Outside of our own

Someone not us

Is supposed to approve

Using some arbitrary standard

We seek validation

From every passerby

And shrink into ourselves

When we aren’t deemed worthy

Beauty is in the eye

Of the Beholder

But wouldn’t it be

The loveliest thing

If the only Beholder

We cared about

Was ourselves

What if the only

Standard we had to reach

Was our own

Would we finally

Understand self-love

And honor our unique beauty?

What a wild thought.

Read Poem: An Adult Fable for the Modern Day by Cindi Walton

Way up high on the seventeenth floor lived a selfish young princess dressed in Dior.

“My nail is chipped and my hair is a mess.” Where is that maid, I need to get dressed!”

“Bring me my dog, now take him to pee. Run me a bath and bring me my tea!”

She clamored and bellowed, bullied and such that her maid up and quit, she’d had just too much.

Now alone and frightened on the seventeenth floor, there came a knock on the Princess’s door.

Not sure what to do without hired help, the knocking kept knocking, her little dog yelped.

Knocking and yelping the neighbors could hear, so they called the cops and one was quite near.

“I think she’s in danger, I think she is dead,” “I really don’t care” one neighbor said.

So the cop took the stairs to the seventeenth floor, stopping in front of the Princess’s door.

And there in plain sight was the Princess’s maid, knocking because she forgot to get paid.

“Why did you quit? What did she do?” asked the cop of the maid who was stomping her shoe.

“She’s a witch and a tyrant, a bully that’s why…she never says thank you, I really do try.”

“I come when she beckons which often than not. Wash all her undies and hankies with snot.”

“I am a person and she treats me so bad, I’ve just had enough and I really got mad.”

“I see, said the cop as he saw the door crack. She treated you badly so you’re not coming back.”

“Aye, a please and a thank you never received, I totally get it, your thoroughly peeved.”

Now a light went on in the Princess’s head, nobody liked her, some wanted her dead.

Was she a bully as the maid had proclaimed? “Oh my, I am selfish and totally ashamed!”

So she opened the door and let the cop in, offered him tea, admitted her sins.

The maid got a raise and a miracle you see, she even took the dog out to pee.

She cleaned up her act and acquired some class, became a lady and not a spoiled ass

So the moral is as morals go, be ye a princess or be ye a maid, the fact of the matter you never can trade

For kindness and class goes hand in hand, spreading good will throughout the whole land.

Read Poem: CLOUDS by Gary Bertnick

Clouds of doubt tumble about
As temptations and deception parade with false motives,
Though the Surveyor’s line runs straight and true
Still men rationalize Absolute Truth
Women compromise what they know
Even Sovereign and Holy Words written and spoken-
All out of nothing
In he Book of Genesis from the Father’s will
Creation through the Hand of His Son, the Ancient of Days;
And the Holy Spirit still moves over the entire Earth
Sky above and depths below
Nothing hidden from God’s touch;
A pool of crystal waters set before the Throne
And the Lord humbles Himself to gaze into it.
Falsehood rules and has become more than pandemic
Grounded in the “father of lies”
Rooted deeply in human nature
A man’s selfish motives, a woman’s base desires,
Even the best fall short as “self consumes self”
And both remain empty, spiritually dead
Lost in “nothingness”, forever!
Fog drifts continually across the city
Blocks the early morning sunshine
Carries pollution, chemicals and worse
Darkens the eyes of the soul
Dirties the body, suffocates the human spirit;
But Spirit Truth rises above
Cannot be held back
Stands high above the dark clouds of deceit
And self-destructive poisons of humanity.
A Savior stands True with most powerful deliverance
Always seeks the one who is lost
Who cries out at last with her heart needs laid bare,
His emptiness revealed in Heaven’s honesty;
Salvation for them both waits at their door
Yeshua’s Voice calls in faithful Truth as He knocks!

Read Poem: A Certain Infinity In Brevit by Christopher Kenneth Hanson

You knew as I knew;
The deep red balloons that blew via hazy cloud
Filled skies, struck inept via our deepest lullabies

You knew as I knew, of the birds which flew
Throughout the aged yew trees, and stellar

Abatement of the skies, reigning in their deathly ilkOf
lost candidates gone dry. Balloons will pop, and pop they
May through the winds & showers of April and into
The realms of times forgotten.

Thus, relinquish me not –
And forbid me no warm welcome- for you knew as I knew
When the tables will turn
When the doors shall be perceptibly perceived

A stoned parchment to alleviate the guilt
The dearest notion of this wielder’s split persona now

You knew as I knew
And yet we fought & warred
Once we passed
Each other through the gates of hell

he’ll be forlorn & castigated
they whom smelt us for spliffs
Worn to the airs
Which do not dare imprint

Thus,relinquish me notAnd
forbade me no warm welcome
You knew as I knew
And yet you knew me seldom-.

Read Poem: PINK by H.E. Grahame

If beginnings were a color
They’d be pink.
Like the familiar stone-walled frame
I dragged boxes and bags into.

We cluttered the corners with
Inside jokes and vivid tales
And postered the blank walls with
Memories and forget-me-nots

Within the blushing pink
We became a “home”.

If endings were a color
They would be gray
Like our common rose-colored frame
They bathed in a sticky dark paint

They emptied littered corners
Blooming with black mold and dust
And undressed the flowered walls
Exposing all our cracks and breaks

Outside the sullen gray
We became “unknown”

Read Poem: WE ARE FOREVER IN LOVE by David P. Carroll

We Are Forever In Love.

Her smile is truly beautiful
As I feel your love I see your beauty your smile touches my lonely heart as my heart beats
For your forever love
Your soft gentle touch so loving
It melts my heart in true love
As I feel your forever love
Your heart comforts my lonely heart whenever I’m feeling blue
A love song that makes our hearts dance forever in love tonight
When we come together our
True love smiles forever
Words could never express
My utter love for you
So take my hand and never
Walk alone sweetheart
Our hearts resting together
In peaceful love
A smile a kiss a song a gentle
Whisper,

We are forever in love….

Read Poem: AN ODE by Asanda

“repeat often”

All is loss, when all are lost
Beyond reason and doubt we cling to life
Few sit and ponder the truth of frost
Hence reasonable doubt compounds strife
Few remain that let loose the reigns
When war and famine bring forth dark
Non understand the true power of fate
When its death that brings forth life with a spark

“reinforce often”

I cling to a loose understanding of life
I’m lost in loss, understanding nothing at all
The gift we all share, yet from it we hide
How is it we live and yet are destined to fall?
Under the covers, like babes of kangaroos
Dark is a man’s soul who listens not to children
Its darkness we love when truth seekers are few
The light is forever lost when non revere women

“invoke often”

Kneel before him, the great I AM
Lay your love and life for her, mother of all
Worship his image and likeness in your life span
For she is the miracle in which all are in awe
Meditate on his wisdom so you can learn truth
Dedicate your life to her and be without doubt
He is not above or around, for he is you
She is the essence of your soul, which is within and without

Read Poem: ADAM MINUS by Jack Belck

He steps over white coat bodies,
out to corridor–two long walls.
There, another white coat yells,
“You can’t leave without…”
“Hello, my name is Adam.”

He steps over white coat body,
heading to where noises are
and–strange, strange–
no walls around him
or over him!

He had been taught
how to talk to those
with clothes like his
and those in white coats
always with him.

But too many people.
He veers right to quiet
shade-speckled parkway.
50 feet ahead, dark suited
man approaching, casually
scanning left and right.
Closer, slim red-dressed woman
coming, pushing baby carriage.

Front wheel bounces over
some small cast off thing,
jarring swaddled content
which suddenly screams
annoyance.

Screams mean danger!
He hurls carriage 100 feet,
baby flying out noiselessly,
colliding with distant oak.
He speaks to red dress,
“Hello, my name is Adam.”

Dark suit shouts, “Freeze!”
Something black pointing at him,
he grabs red dress’s arm,
from 30 feet, flinging
her at dark suit.

Shield showing
in breast pocket, he ducks,
jumping over now prostrate
red dress, gun barking
one shot to man’s left leg.
No affect.
Next shot to chest.
No effect.
With two hands holding,
gun barking again.
An eye explodes,
bullet burrowing deep.
A hideous, unworldly ,
“Hello, my name …”

Dead, though never really alive.

Dark suit squats anxiously
by red dress flat on her back,
one arm oddly twisted, temple raw,
eyes closed, but a pulse.

“Friggin’ robot,” he mutters
to the sounds of loudening
sirens, angry, plaintive
background music for
Putnam Science Center
white coats and
ordinary business suits
closing in on unordinary
business gone rogue.

“Make them if you must,”
he says sadly to space,
“But for God’s sake,
make them humane-
or we’re done for.”

Half saved, red dress weeps
for her loss and our anxiety.

Read Poem: Night Wandering by Eliza Rae

golden sandals with tiny
white shells, blistered heels,
pattering down a cracked
sidewalk with bright lights
gazing upon wandering eyes
greasy from the humid sun
as whiskey air fills the sky;

black lace dress like a toxin
with short leather jackets
galloping in the midnight wind,
dancers with heels to high
corners rock with pounding bass
drum beats with sticks on tubs
shouting gospel and blues

trumpets scream as the tired painters
plaster oil, slick, with putrid stench
of sulfur, piercing oiled noses
senses transfixed upon towering
buildings with marble stone, crumbling
gargoyles staring in rafters;
illuminating the masquerade
below as the golden clock
ticks two o’clock.