Creative Writing Commons^™

Fantasy, Joseph Murphy

Bryant Literary Review

When I hear the mountain’s voice, words rise from a burnt page and a door in my heart swings open.

The Music Box, Cliff Saunders

Bryant Literary Review

Sing the gap between food and electricity

into a spirit unlike any other.

Bedside Vigil, Catherine Jagoe

Bryant Literary Review

Because each night when I was pregnant

my husband rubbed my aching feet

and still does, when I’m grieving or in such pain

Red Fox On Zaleski Trail, Deborah Fleming

Bryant Literary Review

Vinton County, Ohio

On the trail through hillsides

twice shorn of woodlands

Borders, Mary Makofske

Bryant Literary Review

Drawn in ink or blood,
they unspool from history
to split mountains and valleys,
meander in rivers that twist

Rattlesnake Religion, Sarah Morgan

Bryant Literary Review

We tried to trap rabbits
lit ants on fire with matchsticks

Ode To A Lobster, Joshua Gage

Bryant Literary Review

Here, between thick-cut filets
and a sheet of crushed ice
bearing slabs of cod and salmon,
a tank of frothing water
and a lone lobster.

The Ventriloquist Toasts Her Teddies, Rikki Santer

Bryant Literary Review

Here’s to my set-up like so many before me—
To the vice grip of acne maps & stammering

Weeds In Her Curly Hair, Hareendran Kallinkeel

Bryant Literary Review

“I need a dagger,” Shiva says, “double-edged…and razor-sharp.”

The blacksmith turns from his furnace and stares at him in
surprise. What the hell is a renowned writer doing here? he thinks as he
stands up and walks towards Shiva.

Chemo, Carolyn Adams

Bryant Literary Review

As you turn to the oncoming magic,
what subsumes?

Because everything can’t stay
at the surface, what is forgotten?

Silent Elegy, Anna Leigh Morrow

Bryant Literary Review

What I want to say is

there are no words.

The Missing You settles beneath my ribs like

After Blake’S Songs Of Innocence And Experience, William Derge

Bryant Literary Review

(on a work of art by Lisa Sheirer entitled Water Stories – Lilypons 2)

I.

Things were pretty clear then,
the pencil thin lines of reeds, curved like the hairs on a stevedore’s arm,
the sculptured reflections of clouds,
scabbing bark of sycamores or
rust scars on seasoned machinery,

Dreams Of Flight, Beth Paulson

Bryant Literary Review

A man with wings large enough and duly attached might learn to overcome the resistance of air. Leonardo da Vinci

No Icarus, you knew pulleys and winches would keep a man tethered
to earth though he rise high above a stage for a duke’s entertainment.
In your fabrico you built mechanical birds of wood and bright-dyed
linen, then raised men up on ropes to fly and float, angels with dark
curls, gilt-edged wings.

Mud Minor Mass, Kevin Walker

Bryant Literary Review

Even Johann Sebastian Bach
had to fake it through the mirk
on merciless days,

Grief, Be My Coverlet, Mohja Kahf

Bryant Literary Review

Grief, be white daisies

Charcoal Nude, John Sibley Williams

Bryant Literary Review

Roughed-up: edges indistinct: body

softly black & blending with all this white

If The Stars Had Voices, Buff Whitman-Bradley

Bryant Literary Review

If the stars had voices
They would surely sound
Like cricket song

Brutality, Laurie Lessen Reiche

Bryant Literary Review

I.

There is something I want to say about brutality.

It comes out the lips of the hateful

mother, the beautiful mother.

My Father’S Loaves And Fishes, Lennie Hay

Bryant Literary Review

In his soft throaty voice he speaks of rice—

washing and rinsing hard kernels,

how hands knock them on the side of a pot

until water runs clear. How it will rise

That Thing, Susan Taylor Chehak

Bryant Literary Review

My pap’s eyes are bad. It’s not the books or the computer, not the
peering at small letters on a page or on a screen. And it isn’t just a
consequence of age either. His peepers went bad a long time ago, when
he was young.

When Death Comes, Carol Tyx

Bryant Literary Review

after Mary Oliver

When death comes

like the dentist,

sticking her hand

into your mouth,

Gunn Hill, Pat Daneman

Bryant Literary Review

Given time, a place becomes a thing

small enough to hold in memory’s grip,

strong enough to struggle free. Frightened

When I Think About The Funeral, I Find I Can Taste The Mints, Nichole Page

Bryant Literary Review

I can hear the crinkle of the wrapper, the sniffling and speeches

My fingers push it from the plastic casing giving me something to do

Raul, Paul Lamar

Bryant Literary Review

On the twelfth day of his new job as a security guard outside of S–, one of M–’s finest men’s shops, Raul B– stumbled upon a unique answer to the question of store security, though he was never to be aware of his particular gift or its profound impact on crime in M–.

Fragments Of Mother, Sheree La Puma

Bryant Literary Review

daughter, i rock your empty

cradle & ask myself,

how long will we

make war?

Could We Be Coyotes, George Longenecker

Bryant Literary Review

who howl all night behind the house,

whose ancestors mated with wolves?

Our Tiny Somewhere, Martina Nicholson

Bryant Literary Review

a description of Earth from Maria Popova

The speck in the last

Voyager photograph

was Earth,

Amends, Renay Costa

Bryant Literary Review

Quinn searched the chalkboard menu of the café deliberating what the appropriate beverage would be. What does a soon-to-be-divorcée drink while composing a letter to the man she separated from about a month ago? Wine would be the obvious option, but she was now a member of Alcoholics Anonymous, and the letter was part of the ninth step, which required her to “make direct amends” to those she had harmed, and tonight she was attempting her amends to Gil, her soon-to-be ex-husband. A pumpkin spice latte, her regular order, seemed too saccharine and sentimental.

When Fall Arrives, David James

Bryant Literary Review

Fall in four days and another year

winds down to a grinding stop.

The apples ripen in the sun

while the serrano peppers implode.

Saudade, Lisa Russo

Bryant Literary Review

Now that you're gone, you've left me longing.

I smile softly because you were here