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Tag: joy (Page 2 of 2)

Reflected Light

Poetry by Wendy Bloom

I saw the light reflecting on a piece of something buried in the loamy soil
When I looked closely, I realized it was a piece of myself
That I had buried away for darker days

Filled with darkness and despair
In a world filled with the tragic
It had fallen out of me, and I thought it was gone forever
But it was lying right in front of me

I grasped it in my hand
This shiny piece of myself
I turned it over and over
And rubbed my fingers against its slick surface

I decided to swallow it
To bring it back home to the center of my emptiness
To fill this hole with something that glistened
And sang beautiful music to my heart

It became one with me once again
And I smiled as I heard it laughing
Because it had been seeking me for so long
And had finally made its way back home


Wendy Bloom is an emerging writer who has written numerous poems, short stories, and essays on a wide variety of topics since childhood. She has been published in her local newspaper and “Reflected Light” is her first published poem.

before the sky

Poetry by Ken Cathers

you sit on the handlebars
I’ll pedal like crazy

we’ll be a great fabled bird
on a dirt road journey

hang onto the wind
my little one, hang on

nothing can
catch us now

we will be home
long before

the sky can open
and crush our joy
          with thunder


Ken Cathers lives on Vancouver Island off the west coast of Canada and has spent much of his life working in the forest industry. He has been writing for several decades and has seven books of poetry. Several poems have appeared in Impspired (England) and the MacGuffin (U.S.).

The Greeting

Poetry by Leslie Dianne

I stop time
with words
and images
I shake
loose
sleepy syllables
and let them nudge
the atmosphere
I fill this space
with myself in another shape
and I am letting you know
that the
flicker of joy
that passes in the breeze
and tickles your memory
that gravityless pull that
makes you want to fly
is me
in a different form
greeting you
saying hello


Leslie Dianne is a poet, novelist, screenwriter, playwright and performer. Her work has been acclaimed internationally at the Harrogate Fringe Festival in Great Britain, The International Arts Festival in Tuscany, Italy and at La Mama in NYC. Her poems appear in Noctivant Press, Moida, Treouvaille Review, Constellate Magazine and elsewhere.

Guidebook for Heart Protection

Poetry by Kersten Christianson

Eat your greens: Spruce tips,
kale, fiddleheads; Bead berries
picked straight from the bush:

Salmon, blue, huckle,
rasp, black. Critical stretching,
mandatory, deep

breathing, proof of pulse.
Yoga, meditation, plant
seeds, cultivate blue

poppies. Frenetic
chase, two tiny juncos flit
from cedar branch to

hemlock. Give yourself
space to smile when he calls you
sweetie. Pursue joy.


Kersten Christianson: Alaskan Poet, Moon Gazer, Raven Watcher, Northern Trekker, Teacher. She is the poetry editor of Alaska Women Speak, authored Curating the House of Nostalgia (Sheila-Na-Gig, 2020), What Caught Raven’s Eye (Petroglyph Press, 2018), and Something Yet to Be Named (Kelsay Books, 2017). Kersten lives with her daughter in Sitka, Alaska.

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