near Writing Haiku Watching for a haiku moment is a real joy. Japanese haiku, which I like to emulate, includes two images in juxtaposition often with a reference to the seasons or nature. Each poem needs to leave the reader with a “moment of ah.” The following sequence is from my chap book Early Freeze, 2010, Finishing Line Press. Changing Seasons… Read more »
If you don’t have plans this Sunday come out and enjoy the talents of: John Peterson, Alarie Tennille, Lisa Daly, and Jack Kline at Naomi’s Hallmark. Kansas City Voices has scheduled a reading from 4-6 pm at the largest Hallmark store in the US. (Not only do you get to hear some great literature you can also save a little… Read more »
(Excerpt from a nonfiction manuscript in progress.) “She wanted to go into the corn,” I would write decades later, forgetting the night my sister and I had done just that. We had walked into the July corn tall as an elephant’s eye – with apologies to Oscar Hammerstein – fireflies electrifying the green gloom, and parted rustling cornrows until we… Read more »
I saw the last of them: Men of little flesh, they faded like pages and at last became paper, and one or two, painted in oils, were hung among their books. They taught the use of The Readers Guide to Periodical Literature, taught The Canterbury Tales from thirty-year-old notes, sent us to study manuscripts on microfiche, and took sabbaticals,… Read more »
Trees bloom our town into being. Forsythia crown our elbows in gold and redbuds lance our eyes. The hulking sheriff blows kisses to ladies aged past his own grandmother, and you take your shirt off in the yard until I kiss the last snowy remnants of your skin into last week. When a thunderboomer piles in, your rake your teeth… Read more »
It was late fall when the clouds came in from the mountains, and brought the rain that scattered the tourists and forced the shopkeepers to unfurl awnings and open the umbrella’s out on the patio overlooking the piazza. “You should seek cover,” the headwaiter said, turning to the old man sitting in the wicker chair in front of the Hotel… Read more »
The young woman in this acrylic/collage is the paternal grandmother I never met—Sophie Eigles. She was nineteen and filled with life. Her beauty parallels that of the “Hagia Sophia” (Istanbul) in the middle of a sunlit day. A few years after my grandparents married and began their family, Sophie began struggling with mental illness. After the birth of her… Read more »
What I Did on My Summer Vacation by Alexander Silver My Daddy came home for his summer vacation. Mostly he stays in a quiet place with his pair of noids, which are bad things. They make him act weird. The doctors try to help him, but they can’t. I asked Mommy why they don’t send the pair of noids home…. Read more »
I know why the Rapture didn’t come off Saturday, May 21. I’ve reached an understanding with God. She didn’t want to start without me. I’d never believed, but God said, “Get over that crap. You need me. I need you. I’m giving you five more months to get ready.” “The Mayans are offering nineteen months.” “Mayans, Shmayans. Be ready when… Read more »
Do I want to know what you saw? You smile slightly in a three-quarter view,here in this photo taken during the war,This is one of two pictures I’ve seen of you. You smile slightly in a three-quarter view,perhaps thinking it was the last image they’d see.This is one of two pictures I’ve seen of you.You who fathered my father, my legacy…. Read more »