3 APRIL 2024 – Fairy tales comprise a healthy part of the bookshelves in our home. Whether classic stories from long ago or today’s new plot twists, the fairy tale tackles important life lessons with messages of perseverance, bravery, and kindness, to name a few. What a relief to know reading (and writing!) fairy tales persists across generations. If you haven’t yet read them, I recommend Fredrik Backman’s My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry, a story of courage, commitment, and love threaded with an accompanying fairy tale. Also, author Kate DiCamillo creates a special and suspenseful fairy tale in The Puppets of Spelhorst—a delightful book to read aloud with those you love, no matter their age.
The ten new pieces in The Bluebird Word this April are not fairy tales, but they offer similar life lessons: stay strong and brave; enjoy each day to the fullest with the people and places you love; and be persistent in pursuit of your life passions. Thank you for reading!
2 MARCH 2024 – In like a lion. The early days of March can still appear drab, difficult, and gray with winter’s lingering. Yet this month’s arrival also becomes a reset, a shift toward something new. Renewal through exploration. Renewal through growth. Renewal from the gradual lengthening of days, the shift in trees awakening, the expansion of earth opening to reveal new life. This month, I am eager to capture more of Nature’s screentime, and lay eyes on the grasses, flowers, and skies outside. I am eager to zoom in on the no-need-to-rush outlook of the world coming alive as it hops and skips through the month. Ten new selections in The Bluebird Word accompany this pivotal and hopeful discovery in a March that will (optimistically) usher out like a lamb.
1 FEBRUARY 2024 – Imagine colorful balloons, sugar white birthday cake, and songbirds singing. This month celebrates two years of The Bluebird Word Literary Community! As Editor, I continue to enjoy the creativity and purpose of each piece I read. And each selection—whether poem, flash nonfiction, or fiction—gets special attention in preparation to publish. The published works are individual mini celebrations. I am grateful for each one.
The first pieces this month in our Feb/Mar Issue capture hope, resilience, and impermanence. Alongside this journal’s ever-present themes of brevity, calm, and unique delights, I hope you enjoy the first ten works in this birthday month of February. Look for new selections in March. Keep reading. Keep writing. And thank you for being part of our growing community.
1 JANUARY 2024 – This year, I propose we find more delights in the everyday. Savor the unexpected, the small joys in moments and scenes often overlooked. Recently, Kevin and I attended the Off Broadway musical Frozen where we experienced delight at the young girls wearing their magical dresses to match the musical’s main characters, Elsa and Anna. On an outdoor walk, water droplets reflected sun and blue skies on a lone leaf which delighted us. Another delight: a re-listening to Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade Suite drawing from the Arabian Nights. What delights will you savor this year?
There are also delights and moments to savor in this month’s selections on The Bluebird Word. Thank you for reading, reflecting, and being part of this literary community. Happy New Year!
For more on how to bring delight into your life:
- “When the World Feels Dark, Seek Out Delight” – Catherine Price, NY Times (31 December 2023)
- Ross Gay’s “Book of Delights” (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2022)
- Fabulous poetry comics by Grant Snider on Incidental Comics
1 DECEMBER 2023 – And then December happened. Suddenly, we find ourselves at the beginning of the final month of the year. This time of year can conjure reflection on past seasons. It can evoke joy, laughter, and camaraderie in the rituals of shopping, gift-giving, and bonding over warm meals with those we love. This final month can also recall heartache, longing, and sadness remembering the people, places, and things no longer present in our lives. In all of this, memories, written words, and spoken truths are what ground us and allow us to hold what we cherish close at hand. This is what I hope The Bluebird Word‘s annual Winter Holiday Reflection Issue offers its readers. The issue will publish in three parts on December 2nd, December 19th, and January 1, 2024. Throughout the next several weeks as we rush headlong toward the holidays of December and celebrations of a New Year, take a few minutes to read the selections that grace these pages. I hope they bring you joy, heartfelt reflection, and moments to pause and breathe easy — especially if that’s what you need this time of year.
18 NOVEMBER 2023 – Many years ago, I bought a pineapple cranberry mold and began the tradition of making my own unique cranberry sauce each year at Thanksgiving. I use a recipe that calls for orange shavings, orange juice, and sugar, combined with the deep red, vibrant and crisp cranberries. What I find so special about the mold is the pineapple that tops its shape. The pineapple is a symbol of southern hospitality. An image of warmth, happiness, and gratitude that I enjoy recreating every year. With the American tradition of Thanksgiving Day nearly upon us, any chance to pause, reflect, and express appreciation is a good one. May the hospitality of The Bluebird Word bring you moments of gentle reflection and thanks.
In only a couple weeks, the first round of pieces in the Holiday & Winter Reflection Issue will go live. We were fortunate to receive an excellent selection of poems, flash nonfiction and fiction stories, and plan to publish the nearly 30 chosen pieces throughout December and January. Thank you for reading, and best wishes for a gratitude-filled Thanksgiving, in whatever way you celebrate.
10 NOVEMBER 2023 – The Bluebird Word is currently reading the rest of submissions received for the Winter & Holiday Reflection Issue scheduled to publish beginning in December. As such, we are temporarily closed to new submissions as we prepare this final issue of the year. Thank you for your continued support of our online literary journal.
3 OCTOBER 2023 – We prefer the beach in October. Chaotic crowds of summer have dissipated, and a calm before Autumn reigns. Warm, sunny days lead to refreshingly cool nights. We take comfort in the ocean’s impermanence. Water rolls, changes shape, turns to a rush of emerald and white foam before blanketing the sand. A hypnotic, aquatic, and cyclic symphony of existence calls us back each year.
The first ten selections for the October/November Issue ease us into the reign of Autumn. Themes of family, self-reflection, nature, and water flow through our pages. Look for another ten pieces later this month. I hope you’ll enjoy all the selections of poetry, nonfiction and fiction, and that you’ll stay awhile. Thank you for reading and thank you for being here.
9 SEPTEMBER 2023 – This is a call to recall the calm. Fires in Canada. Flooding in Greece. Earthquakes in Morocco. Hurricanes threatening the East and West coasts of the United States. From the rubble, a calm does return. Perhaps you are facing your own personal hardships in work, school, or at home. Recall the calm. Look for it in the lonesome leaf on the sidewalk or in the dew-covered half-dollar-sized spiderweb sparkling within azalea bushes. See it in the perfect shimmering poise of a hummingbird as she dips to the feeder. Welcome it in the sunset casting orange-pink across an evening sky. Thank you for being here. And always, thank you for returning to recall the calm of The Bluebird Word.
13 AUGUST 2023 – The Bluebird Word released new selections for its August/September 2023 issue. We will now compile bimonthly (in this case, every two months) issues to mirror other online journals’ frequency. And just as other journals have noted, I have seen fewer submissions this past year. Maybe everyone is in a post-pandemic back-to-work and back-to-school focus. Maybe there are more online literary journals from which to choose. Whatever the reason, the changes are okay (and expected in life!). The Bluebird Word plans to adapt and press forward.
The ten new selections of poetry, nonfiction and fiction for Aug/Sept now grace the home page. They share stories of friendship, heritage, self, and as always, nature and wildlife. Enjoy reading as we move into the upcoming seasonal shift to autumn.
4 JULY 2023 – A recent article on lightning bugs and fireflies shed light on part of the reason for their decline: too much artificial light. As we look for lightning bugs, let’s welcome them by turning off the outdoor lights at night. They will then find each other and form their own new communities.
2 JULY 2023 – To mark the arrival of July, a lone lightning bug flickered within the small green leaves of the crepe myrtle in our backyard. And it struck me how no longer do we see the multitude of lightning bugs from 20 or 30 years ago. Is it because the number of people and homes has increased instead? No longer is there room—or woods or trees or land—for lightning bugs to fly. Change. Evolution. Passage of Time. These are themes threaded throughout the pieces to be published this first full month of summer. Thank you to the thirteen authors. Thank you to all the readers. This month, also look for the lightning bugs in your backyard. As a community across time and space, we can watch for and expand their numbers.
1 JUNE 2023 – On the U.S. East Coast in South Carolina, a short drive south of Myrtle Beach near Murrells Inlet lies Brookgreen Gardens, a vast stretch of foliage, fountains and tucked away earthly treasures. Paths labyrinth their way to an actual labyrinth—curved rows of gravel in a maze of separated stone. This low-lying labyrinth peers up in an open pocket of land next to water and marshes filled with alligators, yellow-bellied slider turtles, numerous bird species and other natural mysteries.
Walking the labyrinth in deliberate steps takes you inside, then out, around, and back again. The continuum reminded me of life: steady, sometimes slow, occasionally surprising, rewarding, then uncertain. I consider how the labyrinth—an unsure path within a known space—can instill calm reflection. Even within uncertainty, it is possible to rest in beauty.
May your passage through this month’s selections offer tucked away treasures and easy, early summer acceptance.
2 MAY 2023 – During a recent trip to Spring Lake, NJ, our stay at The Spring Lake Inn B&B afforded an opportunity to slow down, experience the calming roar of the Atlantic Ocean, and bask in a meditative quiet that circulated along tree-lined streets with colorful tulip-adorned lawns leading to character-filled homes. A short trip turned welcome refuge.
As we enter Mental Health Awareness month in the United States, wherever you are in the world, I hope you find quiet refuge in the thirteen authors to be featured throughout the month. Take time for yourself. Find daily silence. Seek moments of solace. And circulate within the distinct voices of the The Bluebird Word’s May selections.
1 APRIL 2023 – This month’s issue of The Bluebird Word features thirteen new pieces of poetry, flash fiction and nonfiction. Whether touching on themes of connection & family, persistence & perseverance, or memories & reflection, this month’s selections offer an eclectic array of the (sometimes) everyday.
On the US East Coast today, April arrived in winds and rain showers. Now, rose trees and tulips sparkle under sunshine. Bluebirds, woodpeckers and cardinals delight in sudden flight. Wishing you bright and delightful reading this month.
1 MARCH 2023 – Many of you may be uttering the same thing, but where did February go and how is it already March? And yet, March is a good transition month, particularly as we shuffle away from winter into the hopscotch of spring. March brings early yellow daffodils and pink & white cherry blossoms. It’s a mixture of nap-inducing chilly days to new adventures in earthy outdoor air. This month’s authors likewise represent a creative mixture of words and emotions through poetry and nonfiction. Soon, The Bluebird Word will shift to new postings on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Keep reading. Keep writing. And allow early Spring to bring favorable tidings your way.
1 FEBRUARY 2023 – It’s a special month for The Bluebird Word. February celebrates our one-year anniversary! As Editor, I have enjoyed reading your submissions and remain grateful you have joined this journey. We published over 200 pieces of new work this past year. Thank you.
This month, we’re featuring fifteen new pieces of writing. Three of the authors graced the pages of our inaugural issue in February 2022. All of the writers this month bring new fiction, poems and nonfiction essays in the short, impactful punches we admire in flash and poetry. Keep reading. Keep writing. And watch for more new work in the next year.
1 JANUARY 2023 – Walk with purpose and poise. Relish food’s smell. Be soothed by a pet’s soft fur or the silk of rain drops on your fingertips. Try a new hobby. Visit (and perhaps move to) a new city. Breathe in the tingle of tall pines, shiny bold magnolias or salty sea grass. Stop often to observe and absorb your surroundings. Read more books or writings in online lit journals. Write when inspired and consider refreshing something tucked away in the hard (or soft) copy files of your writer’s journal. It’s time for our fresh start. Wishing you a Happy New Year 2023.
21 DECEMBER 2022 – I don’t mind the rushing darkness and shorter days that have brought us to today. The Winter Solstice. It allows the Christmas tree lights to shine that much brighter, herald the evening that much sooner. Blue, pink, orange, red and green glow and soften the outdoors’ frigid midnight black. Daylight’s gradual lessening now transfers to a reflective, year-end lengthening. Life cascades, turns and shuffles forward. I welcome the colorful and comfy calm of this year’s remaining days. Wishing all The Bluebird Word’s contributors and readers a healthy, happy and hopeful holiday season.
1 DECEMBER 2022 – My fiancé and I are avid walkers, exploring trails and battlefields not far from our backyard. Birds grace our paths every time with their cheerful whistle or bright flash of blue, red, or yellow. And it is with surprising regularity that bluebirds zip past or perch in patient watch. Each time, we greet them. Each time, we tell them of The Bluebird Word. Each time, our spirits brighten. Flash. Surprise. Joy. Reflection. The bluebirds, like the pieces on The Bluebird Word pages, are steady encouragement. A reminder that serendipity and gratitude are ever the faithful companions.
This month’s issue rounds out Year 2022 with an eclectic selection of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction to capture the early holiday, winter, and Christmas season. Think of snow, Christmas trees, family, and food. Mix in a little comedy. Add heartfelt remembrance with a peppering of persistence. Flash. Surprise. Joy. Reflection. May this month create time for you to reflect, linger and refresh. Thank you for reading and Happy Holidays!
1 NOVEMBER 2022 – To be engaged: a state of active awareness and commitment—that’s where your Editor at The Bluebird Word finds herself this month. And it is with this engagement that we gather up the gratitude and purpose November brings. Eighteen selections focus on various forms of engagement, be it to a person, place or reflection in time. Enjoy!
15 OCTOBER 2022 – It’s mid-month and, in Virginia, the leaves are beginning to paint the landscape yellow, copper and maroon. Cool mornings and evenings are bookends to the day’s leftover summer warmth. As days shorten, drink up the moments of quiet and calm early evenings provide. Linger in the flash pieces and poetry of The Bluebird Word. There is no rush to read or scroll on these pages. Let your mind ease into autumn’s reflection.
1 OCTOBER 2022 – Let’s enter the month of October at the beach, a place of many forms. Whether shifting seashores, tumultuous tides or within a cool crush of waves, the ocean is impermanence. Movement and moments always changing. This month’s issue of The Bluebird Word spans many worlds of change. Reflection on life’s similarity, pain, mystery of music, delicate lines of nature, the essence of love and family, and the vitality of color. All pieces allow impermanence to cycle through again and again. Thank you for being here.
1 SEPTEMBER 2022 – And suddenly, we saunter into September. A month that carries summer’s souvenirs and fall’s freshness. The seventeen pieces this month reflect on themes of patience, perseverance and personal progress. May your September embolden you to embrace the change of season soon to arrive.
19 AUGUST 2022 – The Bluebird Word has selected pieces for its September and October issues. We are still reviewing submissions for November. Soon on Submittable, you will see a call for writing that explores the themes of holiday seasons, winter reflection and transitions into the New Year. These pieces will publish in December and January. Be on the lookout. Meanwhile, enjoy the rest of the August issue as it publishes over the next two weeks. And as always, thank you for reading and writing!
31 JULY 2022 – As we enter the long days of August, I reflect on how the month is like a warm stone bridge crossing from summer to early autumn. Sunrises and songbirds wake us early. Trips to see family in faraway towns fill our days. And if we’re lucky, lightning bugs brighten nightfall and usher us into contented sleep. By August, I am ready for Fall’s colors to cascade across our daily walking paths. I accept the passage to shorter days. This month, The Bluebird Word showcases 18 new authors who offer tender reflection and unique viewpoints, all while capturing the many colors of life and time’s passage.
8 JULY 2022 – A Friday evening haiku:
Today’s choice: boldness,
curiosity for more;
Baby wrens in flight!
How Mother must feel,
Father too. Birdhouse empties
into unknown world.
Yet, with awkward wings,
wrens sing, “Try to get me!”
Spur the chase into wild.
2 JULY 2022 – A hearty hello to July, a month of milestones for The Bluebird Word! This month begins our sixth month of existence. We are grateful to the writers who have chosen this flash and poetry journal as a possible home for their writing. We also cherish the number 100 this month. Mid-month marks one hundred pieces of new writing since our first February post. Finally, take a look at the seventeen new authors to be featured throughout July. The selections of flash fiction, flash nonfiction and poetry are like tasting a sip of summer–relish a little mystery, nostalgia and love.
And what about those tiny house wrens from June? A week ago, the back and forth from birdhouse to bushes increased in frequency. In their beaks, they carried morsels of insects and food. Could there be baby wrens? Stepping outside, there it was: a soft, timid chorus of chirps, tucked inside the wooden birdhouse.
20 JUNE 2022 – Summer solstice, the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, occurs at 5:13 AM on 21 June. Daylight triumphs over night. Writers embrace the promise of more time to find words to manifest the magic within the mind. Readers settle, snuggle and linger in the length of a sentence. And although the days which follow descend from this astronomical peak, they bring the bright and beating energy of summer. Thank you for resting a while with the midsummer magic and sparkling sentences of The Bluebird Word.
1 JUNE 2022 – A pair of tiny house wrens began this month building a nest in a new wooden birdhouse painted with the image of a bluebird. Their tenacity and persistence is to be admired. Twigs two times their size are held in their beaks and twisted, shifted, then turned into the small entryway to add to the nest. Ever steady, they do not give up. I’d like to think we can learn from these tiny wrens. Adversity and roadblocks are overcome by staying persistent and tenacious.
Thank you to the tenacity of the 18 authors who will grace The Bluebird Word’s June pages. Look for their pieces as they are posted throughout the month.
18 MAY 2022 – We are open for submissions through Submittable for late summer/early autumn issues. June and July are set; we are now reading for August and beyond. If you haven’t submitted to The Bluebird Word yet, please consider sharing your flash or poetry for review. We are pleased to be supporting the writing community with another platform for brevity and flash.
2 MAY 2022 – The Bluebird Word welcomes the flourish of Spring with its May Issue. Nineteen unique voices offer poetry, flash nonfiction and flash fiction to remind us of places, people and pensive passages across time. Travel through reflections of self, visit rivers and foreign lands, and recall moments that remind of home. May you enjoy these selections which will publish throughout the month.
15 APR 2022 – Recently, majesty at dusk appeared in the form of an owl. Silent and hidden until the hiss. She stood watch, perched high in the trees, talons grasping the long branch still breaking free from winter with small green buds. The last time I spotted an owl here, maybe two years ago, she was being harassed by crows and blue jays. And a red-shouldered hawk watched nearby, grateful for the reprieve. This time, there were no other feathered foes. The owl’s immobile survey of the land called to mind mystery and silent knowing. She reminded me of unexpected inspiration. She moved me to poetry.
Pieces for the May and June issues have been selected. The Bluebird Word is reading for July and August. We look forward to your flash prose and poetry.
1 APR 2022 – In recognition of National Poetry Month, the April issue of The Bluebird Word features diversity of poetry (with one poetic piece of flash nonfiction) capturing the wilds of nature, soft self-reflection and purposeful place. Look for this new work as we progress through the month. Take the time to pause and let each piece provide a space to roam, refresh and yes, reflect.
25 MAR 2022 – As The Bluebird Word prepares to close out its second month of submissions, we are excited by the recent selection of writing sent to our journal (we may not need to do an open call on Submittable!). The line up for April will be posted in the very near term, then published throughout the month. May’s issue is coming together with new writing. We are now reading for June, July and August. Thank you for supporting The Bluebird Word with your fresh flash nonfiction, fiction and poetry. And please enjoy the authors featured to date!
11 MAR 2022 – Do you see the change in season? Yellow-green tulip stems and tall daffodil petals reach up to join Spring’s march. Maroon buds tickle rose tree limbs. Let’s capture the new season in creative musings. Your submissions will be considered for our May and June issues. Thank you!
27 FEB 2022 – A writer friend recently referred to a feeling of a state of unknown. A place without answers or assuredness. And yet, in the unknown, there are moments to shift and tweak our present in new, and possibly more hopeful, directions. The Bluebird Word will follow its new direction with fresh writing from over 40 authors in March and April. We continue to accept new submissions via email (and later in March via Submittable). Thank you for being a part of this new unknown.
13 FEB 2022 – The image is not my desk but the idea of a dream is real. As editor, I entered this New Year with aspirations of creative writing pursuits and renewed purpose. This is the forum within which I hope we will fulfill that dream:
In a word resides a world. Winter birds flash by in anticipation of a storm or linger over spilled seeds. Their words are chirps and dips, calls and songs. I watch.
They wait; they watch.
I look for their story.
Chickadee dodges Woodpecker, flees to Azalea’s leaves. Sparrow rummages underneath, gleeful at the carelessness of Goldfinch whose turning head lets seeds fall to ground. Carolina Wren jumps, skips and dips along fence, across stones. While bold red Cardinal awaits his turn. But it is the dusty powder bright blue of Eastern Bluebird that wows. In a gasp, a flutter of wings seeks out seeds. In a flash, Bluebird departs.
Let us prosper together and see the world in a bluebird word.
