The Prayers of Trees
by Terri Hadley Ward
Give back to the world the soul that you feel.
Give back to the world the music that you hear.
In the raw night,
when the path I walk presses hard pebbles
into the tender skin of my feet,
and my heart overflows with life’s dark
and lonely ache,
I chase the ancient song of the river, return
to the wild earth who is my true mother,
and listen with my open soul
to the prayers of trees
rising in the sacred emptiness
of a new morning.
I breathe in the sunlight, fill this animal body
with the exhaled sighs of maples, willows, and pines,
and awaken again to the silent grace
of my precious life.
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Bio: Terri Hadley Ward is a writer and artist who gains her inspiration from being in nature. Her poems, "Wild She" and "Take Off Your Dress," appeared in the Winter 2015 issue of the Greensilk Journal. Terri lives in Hampshire County, WV, with her husband, Michael; sons, Zach, Kevin, and Connor; dogs Sadie and Frank, and cats Marco and Shadow. In addition to writing poetry, she nourishes her soul through yoga, meditation, painting, gardening, and hiking.
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Two lips
by Marianne Woeste
Bursting through spring’s soggy ground,
the tulip makes its showy debut.
Waving like a flag in the wind,
the tulip’s lipstick red blossom
catches the attention of passers-by.
Long ago, Turks named the flower
for its resemblance to their tall turbins.
But, when I see this flowering beauty,
I see only your two lips, parted
like curtains, in the April breeze.
Bio: After Marianne retired from teaching she began pursuing her passion for writing that had only been a pastime during her working years. Marianne’s poems have appeared in online journals such as Still Crazy, Greensilk, Green Hills Literary Lantern, Ascent Aspirations, and Bigger Stones. When Marianne is not writing, she can be found reading, hiking,or drinking coffee with friends in coffee shops around Dayton.
Starlit Seduction
by Eira Needham
Sun-spangles fade as twilight's cobalt sheet
unfurls a welcome shade from dog days heat.
She slumbers, drifting into dreams, where night's
seductive moonbeams dance in umbra light.
Beguiled by winking eyes she stirs
to flirt, caressing silver buttons on his shirt
and flaunts a galaxy of dazzling gems
on midnight's hand. He lifts her sequined hems
as stellar rays embrace the dark. Deep sighs,
when kisses scatter over sultry skies
and burst in supernova’s rising cloud;
the climax of the night -- she gasps aloud.
Nocturnal lamps are dimmed and there's a hush
until she wakes aglow in daybreak's flush.
Bio:Eira Needham is a retired teacher, living in Birmingham UK. Her poetry is eclectic and has been published in print and online. Her recent publications are in Voices from the Web 2015, Miller's Pond and Foliate Oak. She has also been Featured Writer in WestWard Quarterly.
Lonely Violin
by Robert L. Martin
My love, my woman, my angelic song
Your whole body holds a
Gentle sweetness destined for me
Your subtle waist a sculptor’s dream
And your strings woven from the
Sinews of the rainbow
Your music yearns for me in its lonely ways
Your sad eyes reach deep into my heart
And your tears sing lullabies to my spirit
And cast their nets into open seas
Where infinity materializes into holy places
You with your songs locked in your heart
Awaiting kind fingers and tearing eyes
Music to be guided up to the
Realm of the Gods with
Soft caresses and symphonic prayers
Either just the two of us or with
You and your friends together
Blended into a sweet mixture of beauty
Of soft harmonic passages and tearful chants
We will go to exotic places and
Enchanting forests together
And visit places where
The sage’s talk about
To paradises where
Heaven sings to the earth
You shall be sad no more
My lonely violin.
Bio:Robert L. Martin's works have been published in Mature Years, Alive Now, Wilderness House Literary Journal, Verse Virtual, Poetica, Green Silk Journal, Poetica, among others. He wrote two chapbooks entitled, A Sage's Diary and In Reverence to Life. He also won two Faith and Hope Awards from "In His Steps Publishers." He is a jazz pianist and the organist at First UMC of Wind Gap, PA for twenty two years.
