e c l e c t i c a
p o e t r y
e c l e c t i c a
p o e t r y
(These are excerpts—click on the title to view the whole piece!)
Poems containing the words translucent, sandal, dusk, and obsidian.
While we'd gotten soft and lazy,
the Russians snuck right past us.
Henry Stimpson
Orange pop in glass long necks
and Superior chips in bright blue bags
Greta Bolger
Tie messages to the ankles of pigeons. Reach through
the minutes cast off from generations of white kitchen egg timers.
Mary Jo Robinson-Jamison
We were miraculous
in isolation, and now I watch shoppers
tote bags of nothingness.
Rachel Dacus
A dozen toddlers and bigger small kids
pour from the Air B&B next door
to cartwheel on the sand.
Donna Hilbert
Silence tells us what mere sounds conceal
Stephen Lefebure
Disgrace begins with sounds
only dogs hear
Juan Pablo Mobili
I wavered at the door
holding the knob like it was his hand.
Alex DeBonis
The Poet Tries Not to Become a Rooster
I want to stay human long enough
to notice the small terrible things
J. Alan Nelson
Lenny,
you look like a dog sitting by my legs.
Go and play some baseball.
Kenneth Pobo
Is he calling his crow brothers
or is he talking to himself?
Penelope Moffet
Below the day-long patience of rain,
earth opens.
Sharon Rose-Kourous
She considers the lilies, knowing better than to pick.
Russell Rowland
I was
just idling until I could
slowly accelerate away.
Patricia Farrell
I snatched whatever I could—
charm bracelets, golf tees, rubber ducks,
mainly made in Japan.
Bill Ratner
I should have sheathed my Ozzie Smith
Edward Johnson
Actually it's not stretching, but
something else, something weirder.
Joseph Mills
Captain James Moore, twenty-four,
died in the Revolutionary War,
a hero, guilty of his heroics.
Richard Fulco
Readymade for you, boo: Bicycle Wheel (1913)
And no, we're not falling asleep
…looking at you kid
Stephen Bett
Three Poems
(Spotlight Runner-Up!)
When I was fourteen at a Confirmation retreat run by the Society
of the Divine Word, I lit the altar cloth on fire on purpose.
Sara Quinn Rivara
"And the moon," she says, "stood right over his shoulder
like he'd carried it all that way to me."
Bethany Reid
It is obvious that some sow bear
Has mistaken you for Bob Dylan
Bruce Morton
Moccasin bugs shout to calm themselves, like a cat purring.
Laurel Benjamin
How your whistle
soaks the air of an August sunset.
Danielle Hubbard
Tadpoles waste their youth in the creeping jenny
Rose Marie Boehm
How many brushed their foreheads
with water on their wedding day?
Sara Schraufnagel
However you calculate, Max is old.
When his snores gurgle,
or his breath catches, I worry it's his last
so I disturb him.
Sue Blaustein
