Poetry Commons^™

Plum Rains (梅雨), Claire Kuo

Bryant Literary Review

Tissue paper petals

wilt under the weight

I Drop Your Photograph In The Sea, Claire Kuo

Bryant Literary Review

But I am the sailor submerged

in your endless blue --

Submersion, Meg Peters

Bryant Literary Review

Before anything else, there is water.

God Spoke To Me Through The Car Stereo, Alexa O'Kane

Bryant Literary Review

I was twelve.

The woman with the crooked teeth

Told me I was a pearl,

I Have Felt For A While That..., Nichole Page

Bryant Literary Review

Time is passing too quickly again

and I have not had enough time to hold you

Why I Cry For Little Girls, Julia Raboy

Bryant Literary Review

I like working with little kids, and since I have been old enough to be employable, my main source of income has been from childcare: camp counselor, babysitter, nursery school “teacher,” etc.

La Escucho, Leah Ryan

Bryant Literary Review

When I started my career as a passionate photojournalist, I never expected it to be my demise. I was a naïve 20-something-year-old, ready to leave the United States and travel the world, capturing its majesty with the click of a lens. That was when there was beauty to capture…

The Clearest Night Sky, Carla Mcgill

Bryant Literary Review

The ending was glass breaking

stones falling from cliffs

The ending was a cat’s purr

the vanishing foam of waves

on all the shores he loved

The Flood, Elizabeth Underwood

Bryant Literary Review

I wake

and I am alive

but the wine in my glass

from the night before

is dead.

Let Go, Jane Flint

Bryant Literary Review

Ten minutes

to pack up all my things

like a pocket

turning inside out

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

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,

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

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