Creative Writing Commons^™

Weaving Hands, Victoria Berrios

The Peregrine Review

These are the hands God uses to knit my life together.

Each new thread added is another person who enters,

Every twist a new experience,

A journey woven carefully,

My threads of existence being pulled into a tapestry.

Joy In New Beginnings, Abby Morgan

The Peregrine Review

If you would have told me my world was going to be flipped upside down in aisle B9 of a furniture store, I wouldn’t believe you, but I should.

Wilding, Olivia Bardo

The Peregrine Review

You miss the garden.

The snow peas and carrots and zucchini,

The crab apple tree

And each time the morning glories

Opened up against the chipped barn.

The Last Goodbye, Autumn Miller

The Peregrine Review

If there would be one thing I regret,

In this long life

It would the way our last goodbye had ended.

We both did not know this would be the last

And I had said nothing.

Discontentment, William Stowman

The Peregrine Review

Discontentment must be accepted and appreciated

For the tremendous gift that it is.

This unsettled, unhappy, underlying anxiety

That crushes the spirit and suppresses joy

Footprints In The Snow, Christopher Mundis

The Peregrine Review

I walked through a forest

as snow fell gently.

Each branch was robed in white.

The ground was cloaked

with its frozen frosting.

Gazing At Doll’S Constellations, Kaitlin Merlino

The Peregrine Review

Out of the cacophony of shoes clacking

She wants a moment alone...

The silence is wonderful. Her eyes welcome the image

Of blue streaks speckled with stars and soar across

The light brushstrokes of astrological arteries

Carrying lifeblood of turquoise and aquamarine.

Stages Of Suzanne, Jacy Seltzer

The Peregrine Review

When you left me again that day last fall I went through the five stages of grief- no, to clarify, the stages of Suzanne as my therapist so kindly put it, stages that included sobbing on the floor when your scent finally left out the door, going through your things with mascara staining my cheeks

Moose Released, Emma Spronk

The Peregrine Review

young moose

followed the river

into the city

lost

three

days

concrete

chain link

cars

attempts to corral

The Teacher, Will Labossiere

The Peregrine Review

With overflowing exuberance, he hops

from square to square, on the green quilted carpet

of our classroom.

Conspiring against our imaginations with

penetrating gaze, and absolute certainty in his speech.

The Kneeling Savior, Victoria Berrios

The Peregrine Review

My story is one that is still questioned, still situated in the divisive crosshairs of mostly malereligious leaders and translators. I am unnamed, yet my fate is still being decided; the memory of my story is an unclaimed echo in time. Its validity in the canon of scripture is still disputed. The faith to which we all belong is still caught in that ancient warfare between Grace and Law. May I offer, since it is my story, that this adds to the validation of its message, its eternal truth? I want to tell the story from my perspective, if you …

2021 Full Text Issue, Olivia Bardo

The Peregrine Review

The Peregrine Review, Messiah University’s literary journal accepts poetry (50 lines or fewer), prose (10 pages, double-spaced, or fewer), and art/photography. We welcome submissions from all Messiah students, faculty, and staff.

FRONT MATTER

• Cover Art
• Peregrine Review Staff
• Table of Contents

CONTENTS

• Wilding 1
• Feminine Divinity 2
• Untitled 3
• Missing Pieces 4
• Night Music 5
• Fate 7
• Home, Again 9
• Unlocked Childhood 10
• craving simplicity 11
• Smoke 12
• September Asters 13
• The Coronation 14
• Comm 105 15
• Weaving Hands 17
• I 18
• THIS LAND 19
• Untitled 21
• Thoughts I Had… 22
• Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder 23
• Prism …

Untitled, Molly Mckim

The Peregrine Review

young poet,

watch over the words

as if they are your children

or growing a garden.

Night Music, Emma Spronk

The Peregrine Review

The streetlights buzz mindlessly

But in the semi shadow, I look up--

The sky is deep

And the stars are humming.

I stop at the darkest point between two street lanterns,

And listen.

Home, Again, Christina Lamoreux

The Peregrine Review

Re-adjusting. Re-learning to be with family. To mom’s slippers outside my door at 7 A.M. like sandpaper wearing down a path in the walnut wood. Morning after morning, in this Frankenstein house, making the same breakfast for different cats year after year. Mom telling dad not to burn the pancakes. Coffee out of a cup that is from 1982, the black flowers never wilted, the rim never chipped. How did it ever make it out without a scratch, through seven children and an Army lifestyle?

Attention Deficit And Hyperactivity Disorder, Anonymous Anonymous

The Peregrine Review

Cracked, dry, tortured skin

And blood

Not dripping

But dried and scabbed

Clinging to my skin

In a hundred tiny spots

Advocating Love, Corinne Reed

The Peregrine Review

Pro-choice,

because how can we live in a world where a man controls a woman’s body.

Her body, YOUR body, MY BODY.

My body, my choice,

to make love in between fresh sheets

if I want to,

when I want to,

and with a man who also wants to.

To The Wicked, Death Speaks, Daniel Wright

The Peregrine Review

Under the ground, or under the sea,

Somewhere, somewhen’s waiting for thee.

There’s a room you won’t leave, or a bed you won’t flee,

For somewhere, somewhen is waiting for thee.

Know Names, Andrea Burden

The Peregrine Review

I don’t know every victim’s name

Can’t remember what they did or didn’t do to get killed

I didn’t protest

I even wondered why he just didn’t do this

Or he should’ve knew better

It is just a few bad seeds

Rising Morning, Megan Hamilton

The Peregrine Review

As the sun touches the tips of trees,

And a smooth grey light gently

Wakes up the natural world,

The early morning whispers

To my restless soul.

The Weaver’S Tale: A Mythical Retelling Of Arachne And Minerva, Julianne Long

The Peregrine Review

There was no honor in Hypaepa.

A poor town, with poorer people. My father, with no wife to feed the mouths of my brothers, married me off as soon as I was able. Fortunately for myself, my husband was only a handful of years older than I; I know of many girls my age nursing children born from the seed of a man older than their fathers. Unfortunately for all of us, my husband was poorer than even my father. And with a ring and a vow, so was I. Famine, plague, storm, every ailment the gods could hurl upon …

Fate, Taylor Keckler

The Peregrine Review

We were eighteen,

When you dropped me off

At my door,

For the first time.

September Asters, Zoe Leininger

The Peregrine Review

There are three moments when star flowers grow:

When goddess’ tears turn to stardust

Which scatters over all the earth,

When powerful kings spill their own blood In sorrow wrought from their sins,

When an innocent child finds danger

And longs for a safe place to hide.

Blurry Eyes, Noah Musselman

The Peregrine Review

Have you ever looked into the world with your blurry eyes?

To look around and see the world less clearly than before?

My blurry eyes look into the world and see trees.

I don't see leaves connected by various branches,

though I know they're there.

Comm 105, Laney Kuczmynda

The Peregrine Review

superficial smatterings of truth,

the suggestion of frailty.

it is difficult to live fully,

or at least fully aware.

And Yet, Josh Murray

The Peregrine Review

Woah, wait a minute,

I need a second,

An hour or two at most.

To catch my breath,

Ignore the noise,

Trying to find joy.

Time is ticking,

Running and racing,

Without a care in the world.

It won’t pause for anyone,

And yet...

This Land, Sierra Archer

The Peregrine Review

There’s this feeling that’s taken up residence inside my soul. It’s a desperate, passionate tugging of the heartstrings, full of yearning and excitement; tinged with melancholy and pensiveness. It runs it’s roots so deep that it feels as if I was born with it and only now it has awoken.

Feminine Divinity, Jenna Becker

The Peregrine Review

What would I give to bathe in the Nile?

Toni Morrison will baptize me under the moonlight

She tilts me backwards in the water

On the other side

Cleopatra tells me all her secrets

Missing Pieces, Camryn Wimberly

The Peregrine Review

the way i feel

when i think of how things could have been

is nothing compared to the way i feel

when i remember how they were.

sometimes

the past feels sweeter than the future and

the present feels harsher than i’d hope.

Craving Simplicity, Courtney Kehler

The Peregrine Review

oh, to be a duck

floating in a placid stream

sunlight winking on its surface