"Go away, ugly birds,
so some pretty birds will come!"
my lover rattles at the sparrows
feeding outside our window.
The pretty birds have all flown south.
Only we plainer sorts will survive this winter.
Bio:
Louie Crew, 70, is the author of 1,845 published poems, essays and other
works. He is an emeritus English professor at Rutgers: The State
University of New Jersey. He and Ernest Clay, his husband of 33 years, live
in East Orange, NJ. I would like to also mentions, this gentleman plus Ernest Clay have assisted would be poets by supplying a website devoted to a list of publishers accepting email submissions, their contribution to small press is beyond words: http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~lcrew/pbonline.html
This wonderful little poem has appeared in Amelia 3.2 (1986): 90.
Expressive Spirals May 1998: 15
Midnight Lessons. Samisdat Press, Richford, VT, 1987. Page 12
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I AM MY DADDY'S POETRY EDITOR-BE CAREFUL!
But All Good Trees Are Willow Trees!
Editor/Poet: Michael Lee Johnson, Itasca, IL. We are now accepting submissions.
POETRY: ACCEPTANCE OR REJECTION
I AM MY DADDY'S POETRY EDITOR-BE CAREFUL!
Books, Valued Links, Sites, By Michael Lee Johnson
- A look at Michael Lee Johnson on You Tube, 4 poems.
- A Slideshow: Poetry, Michael Lee Johnson
- Amazing Grace: Tell Me A Story
- Amazon.Com: Buy books Michael Lee Johnson
- An Introduction to Michael Lee Johnson on You Tube
- Another Look, Michael Lee Johnson, 2 poem You Tube
- Audio poem by Michael Lee Johnson
- Audio Poem, If You Find No Poem
- Audio Poems, Ladies & the Nights: Michael Lee Johnson
- Australia: Their Poets Their Lives
- Australia: Their Poets Their Lives
- Because We Write
- Chapbooks by Michael Lee Johnson
- From Which Place the Morning Rises Lulu.com
- Gail Taylor, New Book, Tornado & Others Seasons: A Collection of Short Stories
- Itasca Illinois Poetry & Willow Tree Dreams
- Jesus Walks, Audio Podcast, Michael Lee Johnson
- Promotional Apparel With Your Custom Logo!
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- Snapshots of Life, Poetry Book by Casey Quinn
- The Lost American: From Exile to Freedom
- The Lost American: From Exile to Freedom Lulu.com
- The Taylor Trust: Poetry & Prose
- Wizards of the Wind & Other Strange Places
About The Editor, Publisher, Poet
- Michael Lee Johnson
- Itasca, Illinois, United States
- Michael Lee Johnson lived ten years in Canada during the Vietnam era and is a dual citizen of the United States and Canada. Today he is a poet, freelance writer, amateur photographer, and small business owner in Itasca, Illinois. Mr. Johnson published in more than 1037 publications, his poems have appeared in 37 countries, he edits, publishes 10 different poetry sites. Michael Lee Johnson, Itasca, IL, nominated for 2 Pushcart Prize awards for poetry 2015/1 Best of the Net 2016/and 2 Best of the Net 2017. He also has 169 poetry videos on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/poetrymanusa/videos. He is the editor-in-chief of the anthology, Moonlight Dreamers of Yellow Haze: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1530456762 and editor-in-chief of a second poetry anthology, Dandelion in a Vase of Roses which is available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1545352089. Michael is also editor-in-chief of Warriors with Wings: the Best in Contemporary Poetry, a smaller anthology available now: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1722130717
“If You Find No Poem,” audio poem Michael Lee Johnson
- A Tender Touch And A Shade Of Blue
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- Rising Star In The Illinois World Of Poetry
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- The Lost American: From Exile to Freedom
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- Wizards in the Wind & Other Strange Places
- You Tube: Poetry Reading Michael Lee Johnson
- “If You Find No Poem,” audio poem Michael Lee Johnson
Not All Trees Are Willow Trees
But All Good Trees Are Willow Trees!
New Poems Wonderful Poets
WATCH WITH SHELLS
By Joanna M. Weston
a twenty-year-old watch
bought at a closing-out sale
worn through jam-makings
meetings services poems
that tell grief laughter
by the minute hour
three oyster shells
welded by sand and tide
roughly indented outside
smoothly pale shining within
they keep an up-Island beach
rippled by small waves
where you and I walked
as hearts stirred toward
these forty years of hands
held one in each
SQUARE-RIGGERS
By Joanna M. Weston
these small ships
sailed the earth
through Doldrums
around the Horn
scurvy-ridden
hard-tack full of worms
brackish water rationed
today, safe on shore
I admire their hulls
billowed sails
remember the courage
of long-gone sailors
ORAL TRADITION
By Joanna M. Weston
a fable told
under an ancient oak
heard by a wren
and sung
to the bees
a tale of hands
and lips
years apart
I listened
and whispered
the story to you
the evening
we kissed
THE MUSIC MAN
By Joanna M. Weston
a stranger passed me on the street
a pied piper kind of man
in motley suit of red and green
with yellow socks and purple cap
he held a flute in his right hand
but not a single tune he played
and yet and yet I wanted to follow
where his wordless songs might lead
how I wish I’d gone with him
and the melodies that trailed
in the purpose of his stride
as he swiftly swaggered past
JOANNA M. WESTON. Married; has two cats, multiple spiders, a herd of deer, and two derelict hen-houses. Her middle-reader, ‘Those Blue Shoes', published by
Clarity House Press; and poetry, ‘A Summer Father’, published by Frontenac House of Calgary. Her eBook, ‘The Willow Tree Girl’ at her blog: http://www.1960willowtree.wordpress.com/
Indigo Blue Night
By Dawnell Harrison
The sky blackened with crows
As the night dissolved bit by bit
In an indigo blue light.
My breath lay vaulted in the spring
Air as the street lights lit up blocks
Inch by inch, corner by corner.
Bio: Dawnell Harrison has been
published in over 100 magazines and journals. She also has 3 books of poetry published through reputable publishers titled Voyager, The Maverick Posse, and The Fire Behind my Eyes.
Triumphant Day
By Joanna M. Weston
stride down the skies
in march-time
across hours tuned
to electric guitars
I’ll arabesque into auto-shops
take spare-tyres
roll them down Main Street
in squadrons
with bands blaring
my personal victory parade
as I cross the finish line
in a personal best marathon
JOANNA M. WESTON. Shawnigan
Lake, B.C. Canada Married; has two cats, multiple spiders, a herd of deer, and two derelict hen-houses. Her middle-reader, ‘Those Blue Shoes', published by Clarity House Press; and poetry, ‘A Summer Father’, published by Frontenac House of Calgary. Her eBook, ‘The Willow Tree Girl’ at her
blog: http://www.1960willowtree.wordpress.com/
Editor Note:
The word "tyres" is a Canadian usage; in the United States it
is "tire."
A Wintry Fever
Dawnell Harrison
I feel the chill of winter
In the white marrow of my bones –
A wintry fever.
The cold winds steers through ice
Like an ax to wood.
I lay on the bed,
My pallor as bleached as death –
No respite from the long, wide
Cold of the night.
The love’s run dry but the moon
Cradles me like a great white Madonna.
Reflection
Dawnell Harrison
The reflection of garnets
Darkens in the sullen night
Of your eyes.
Once they were little crushed
Diamonds of light.
Your body is a stream
That leave me holding
Emptiness.
Your eyes are winters
Glazed in ice.
The world whitens
Under the ashes
Of your memories.
Bio:
Dawnell Harrison,
has been published in over 65 magazines and journals including The Endicott Review, Fowl Feathered Review, The Bitchin' Kitsch, Vox Poetica, Abbey, Iconoclast, Puckerbrush Review, Nerve Cowboy, Mobius, and many others. She has 3 books of poetry published through reputable publishers titled: Voyager, The Maverick Posse, and The Fire Behind My Eyes.
Other Places
By Joanna M. Weston
we took separate roads
from joined beginnings
you went grey-eyed
into uniform and regiment
I tossed out diagrams
and went haywire across an ocean
you criss-crossed the map
parleying villages into exhibitions
I took cities and strewed them
over mountains one railroad at a time
we met briefly to find ourselves
sister-brother talking still
JOANNA M. WESTON. Has had poetry, reviews, and short stories published in anthologies and journals for twenty five years. Her middle-reader, ‘Those Blue Shoes', published by Clarity House Press; and poetry, ‘A Summer Father’, published by Frontenac House of Calgary.
A SUMMER FATHER - poetry - Frontenac House
2006 ISBN: 1-89718105-1 $15.95
THOSE BLUE SHOES for ages 7-12
http://www3.telus.net/public/west34/
Editorial Comments: Joanna M. Weston is one of my favorite poets. I suppose poets who write similar styles like each others work. The story telling in just a few lines, coupled with imagery, sets a poem out to travel.
Heavy Brass
By Andrew Baer
I walk with heavy feet down these city streets
Pounding my thoughts down fired brick throats and into cement hands
With fat soles, worn soles,
And I close my eyes, let the wind ballet across my skin
And it’s the closest I’ve come, being so far away
To feeling you again.
Bio: AE Baer is a recent graduate of George Mason University currently teaching the English language in South Korea. He has previously published nonfiction pieces in DC-based think tank political publications.
Editorial Comments: Andrew is new to my circle of poetic friends; he enters with this brief but imagistic poem.
Distilled
Tobi Cogswell
I’m not afraid
I’m angry. I want you to know
I don’t want to be that kind of mother.
Tonight I write.
Look outside,
imagine butterflies,
hear the sound of pencils.
Bio: Tobi Cogswell is a Pushcart nominee and the co-editor of San Pedro River Review. She has three chapbooks and her full-length collection "Poste Restante" was published by Bellowing Ark Press. Her work can be read in Illya's Honey, Penumbra, Spot Lit, Loch Raven Review, Decanto (UK) and others.
Ice Boat
By Joanna M. Weston
wind-shrill
rigging
skim and lift
of violins
blades
G sharp high
ice-crystals
bite
pierce
my half-shut eyes
speed
in treble cold
oh … … swift
thin music
On A River
By Joanna M. Weston
these nights slide like beads
on the rosary of time
colored pearl-soft
each passionate hour moves
past me, afloat in sleep
where dreams fill
with your presence
The Return
By Joanna M. Weston
the wall thins
between my dreams
doors vanish and I go
from one room to another
green furniture in one
purple fish in the next
I flirt with lizards
fly canoes among planets
fit shoes to tigers
cut roads with scissors
turn and hear voices
that call call my name
they pull walls down
open windows to a world
of dancing stars
Bio: Joanna M. Weston. Has had poetry, reviews, and short stories published in anthologies and journals for twenty five years. Her middle-reader, ‘Those Blue Shoes', published by Clarity House Press. And poetry, ‘A Summer Father’, published by Frontenac House of Calgary.
Editorial Comment: I have a fixation with Joanna M. Weston; I love her poetry and I’m addicted.
By Joanna M. Weston
a twenty-year-old watch
bought at a closing-out sale
worn through jam-makings
meetings services poems
that tell grief laughter
by the minute hour
three oyster shells
welded by sand and tide
roughly indented outside
smoothly pale shining within
they keep an up-Island beach
rippled by small waves
where you and I walked
as hearts stirred toward
these forty years of hands
held one in each
SQUARE-RIGGERS
By Joanna M. Weston
these small ships
sailed the earth
through Doldrums
around the Horn
scurvy-ridden
hard-tack full of worms
brackish water rationed
today, safe on shore
I admire their hulls
billowed sails
remember the courage
of long-gone sailors
ORAL TRADITION
By Joanna M. Weston
a fable told
under an ancient oak
heard by a wren
and sung
to the bees
a tale of hands
and lips
years apart
I listened
and whispered
the story to you
the evening
we kissed
THE MUSIC MAN
By Joanna M. Weston
a stranger passed me on the street
a pied piper kind of man
in motley suit of red and green
with yellow socks and purple cap
he held a flute in his right hand
but not a single tune he played
and yet and yet I wanted to follow
where his wordless songs might lead
how I wish I’d gone with him
and the melodies that trailed
in the purpose of his stride
as he swiftly swaggered past
JOANNA M. WESTON. Married; has two cats, multiple spiders, a herd of deer, and two derelict hen-houses. Her middle-reader, ‘Those Blue Shoes', published by
Clarity House Press; and poetry, ‘A Summer Father’, published by Frontenac House of Calgary. Her eBook, ‘The Willow Tree Girl’ at her blog: http://www.1960willowtree.wordpress.com/
Indigo Blue Night
By Dawnell Harrison
The sky blackened with crows
As the night dissolved bit by bit
In an indigo blue light.
My breath lay vaulted in the spring
Air as the street lights lit up blocks
Inch by inch, corner by corner.
Bio: Dawnell Harrison has been
published in over 100 magazines and journals. She also has 3 books of poetry published through reputable publishers titled Voyager, The Maverick Posse, and The Fire Behind my Eyes.
Triumphant Day
By Joanna M. Weston
stride down the skies
in march-time
across hours tuned
to electric guitars
I’ll arabesque into auto-shops
take spare-tyres
roll them down Main Street
in squadrons
with bands blaring
my personal victory parade
as I cross the finish line
in a personal best marathon
JOANNA M. WESTON. Shawnigan
Lake, B.C. Canada Married; has two cats, multiple spiders, a herd of deer, and two derelict hen-houses. Her middle-reader, ‘Those Blue Shoes', published by Clarity House Press; and poetry, ‘A Summer Father’, published by Frontenac House of Calgary. Her eBook, ‘The Willow Tree Girl’ at her
blog: http://www.1960willowtree.wordpress.com/
Editor Note:
The word "tyres" is a Canadian usage; in the United States it
is "tire."
A Wintry Fever
Dawnell Harrison
I feel the chill of winter
In the white marrow of my bones –
A wintry fever.
The cold winds steers through ice
Like an ax to wood.
I lay on the bed,
My pallor as bleached as death –
No respite from the long, wide
Cold of the night.
The love’s run dry but the moon
Cradles me like a great white Madonna.
Reflection
Dawnell Harrison
The reflection of garnets
Darkens in the sullen night
Of your eyes.
Once they were little crushed
Diamonds of light.
Your body is a stream
That leave me holding
Emptiness.
Your eyes are winters
Glazed in ice.
The world whitens
Under the ashes
Of your memories.
Bio:
Dawnell Harrison,
has been published in over 65 magazines and journals including The Endicott Review, Fowl Feathered Review, The Bitchin' Kitsch, Vox Poetica, Abbey, Iconoclast, Puckerbrush Review, Nerve Cowboy, Mobius, and many others. She has 3 books of poetry published through reputable publishers titled: Voyager, The Maverick Posse, and The Fire Behind My Eyes.
Other Places
By Joanna M. Weston
we took separate roads
from joined beginnings
you went grey-eyed
into uniform and regiment
I tossed out diagrams
and went haywire across an ocean
you criss-crossed the map
parleying villages into exhibitions
I took cities and strewed them
over mountains one railroad at a time
we met briefly to find ourselves
sister-brother talking still
JOANNA M. WESTON. Has had poetry, reviews, and short stories published in anthologies and journals for twenty five years. Her middle-reader, ‘Those Blue Shoes', published by Clarity House Press; and poetry, ‘A Summer Father’, published by Frontenac House of Calgary.
A SUMMER FATHER - poetry - Frontenac House
2006 ISBN: 1-89718105-1 $15.95
THOSE BLUE SHOES for ages 7-12
http://www3.telus.net/public/west34/
Editorial Comments: Joanna M. Weston is one of my favorite poets. I suppose poets who write similar styles like each others work. The story telling in just a few lines, coupled with imagery, sets a poem out to travel.
Heavy Brass
By Andrew Baer
I walk with heavy feet down these city streets
Pounding my thoughts down fired brick throats and into cement hands
With fat soles, worn soles,
And I close my eyes, let the wind ballet across my skin
And it’s the closest I’ve come, being so far away
To feeling you again.
Bio: AE Baer is a recent graduate of George Mason University currently teaching the English language in South Korea. He has previously published nonfiction pieces in DC-based think tank political publications.
Editorial Comments: Andrew is new to my circle of poetic friends; he enters with this brief but imagistic poem.
Distilled
Tobi Cogswell
I’m not afraid
I’m angry. I want you to know
I don’t want to be that kind of mother.
Tonight I write.
Look outside,
imagine butterflies,
hear the sound of pencils.
Bio: Tobi Cogswell is a Pushcart nominee and the co-editor of San Pedro River Review. She has three chapbooks and her full-length collection "Poste Restante" was published by Bellowing Ark Press. Her work can be read in Illya's Honey, Penumbra, Spot Lit, Loch Raven Review, Decanto (UK) and others.
Ice Boat
By Joanna M. Weston
wind-shrill
rigging
skim and lift
of violins
blades
G sharp high
ice-crystals
bite
pierce
my half-shut eyes
speed
in treble cold
oh … … swift
thin music
On A River
By Joanna M. Weston
these nights slide like beads
on the rosary of time
colored pearl-soft
each passionate hour moves
past me, afloat in sleep
where dreams fill
with your presence
The Return
By Joanna M. Weston
the wall thins
between my dreams
doors vanish and I go
from one room to another
green furniture in one
purple fish in the next
I flirt with lizards
fly canoes among planets
fit shoes to tigers
cut roads with scissors
turn and hear voices
that call call my name
they pull walls down
open windows to a world
of dancing stars
Bio: Joanna M. Weston. Has had poetry, reviews, and short stories published in anthologies and journals for twenty five years. Her middle-reader, ‘Those Blue Shoes', published by Clarity House Press. And poetry, ‘A Summer Father’, published by Frontenac House of Calgary.
Editorial Comment: I have a fixation with Joanna M. Weston; I love her poetry and I’m addicted.
Looking For Custom Imprinted Apparel, Tee-Shirts, Advertising Specialties?
Looking For Custom Imprinted Apparel and Tee-shirts?
Attention: Publishers and Editors, and all others. If you need apparel (tee shirts, caps, jackets, uniforms, sweat shirts, etc) custom imprinted with you sites logo or name be sure to visit Michael Lee Johnson business website(s):
http://www.promoman.us/
http://www.promowear.us/
http://advantagemarketing.blogspot.com/
We also so a full line of advertising specialties i.e. mugs, cups, calendars with your site or company logo on them. Anything that needs to be custom imprinted on an item is what we do. Special rates for publishers and authors.
Attention: Publishers and Editors, and all others. If you need apparel (tee shirts, caps, jackets, uniforms, sweat shirts, etc) custom imprinted with you sites logo or name be sure to visit Michael Lee Johnson business website(s):
http://www.promoman.us/
http://www.promowear.us/
http://advantagemarketing.blogspot.com/
We also so a full line of advertising specialties i.e. mugs, cups, calendars with your site or company logo on them. Anything that needs to be custom imprinted on an item is what we do. Special rates for publishers and authors.