Spring Bride
by Eira Needham
Radiant, as sun-kissed sky
she arrives astride a cirrus horse
to a fanfare of daffodils.
A gown sown with snowdrops
covers her terrains; primrose
laced tendrils shimmer
with aurora’s dew.
Avian choirs warble in the dell,
their harmonies reverberate
with tinkling bluebells.
Scarlet robed, robin trills
solo on a hedgerow stage,
twiddle-oo, twiddle-eedee.
Westerlies tease --
cherry blossoms tremble
-- tumble to confetti
sweet grass avenues.
Peacock butterflies
flitter among posies
of forget-me-nots,
their large eyes flutter
on russet wings.
All creatures rise in salutation:
hedgehogs abandon crumpled beds,
as squirrels scurry along oak arms,
lambs dance on daisy studded meadows;
joyful celebrations.
Sun ascends to crown her;
she whispers Au Revoir
-- throws a rose bouquet towards
summer’s outstretched hands.
Bio Eira Needham began life in Seven Sisters, a small mining village in South Wales. However she has lived most of her life in Birmingham UK, where she lives with her husband and Dalmatian Max (plus a number of reptiles) Her poetry is eclectic and has been published in print and online. Recent acceptances for publication includes Touch, the Journal of Healing, Leaf Garden & Cyclamens and Swords.
The Sun so Bright Covers the Land
by James G. Piatt
Tis summer and west winds are warm and bold,
Colorful downy birds glide ever so still: And
The sun so bright covers the land.
In flowered meadows now painted gold,
The mottled frogs’ voices sing loud and shrill:
Tis summer and west winds are warm and bold,
Summer always so beautiful to behold,
The brooks are clear and sunny is the hill:
The sun so bright covers the land.
I long for more time to hastily unfold,
Like the gently flowing of a tiny rill:
Tis summer and west winds are warm and bold
I enjoy the beauty of the flowers that unfold,
I smile daily that there is no icy chill:
The sun so bright covers the land.
The warmth of summer was foretold, and
To the heat of the sun I do thrill:
Tis summer and west winds are warm and bold,
The sun so bright covers the land.
Bio: James G. Piatt earned his B.S. and M.A. from California State Polytechnic University, and his doctorate from Brigham Young University. He is a retired professor. Two of his books of poetry are forthcoming this year by Broken Publications. Unbound Content will publish a third poetry book, in 2013.
James was the featured poet in Word Catalyst Magazine in 2009, and Contemporary American Voices in 2010. Long Story Short selected one of his poems for the poem of the month in 2011; Phati’tude Literary Magazine in their spring 2011 issue featured an interview with him. He has had over 200 poems published in over four-dozen magazines and anthologies during the past two years.
Carry the Spirit Forth
by Dan Hedges
Out among the ptarmigan,
we debunk attention from the
moustachial stripe. Suddenly,
the mind goes blurry and with
shifting abstraction, pixels
shift to Hyocinth MaCaw,
dizzying the mental storm, and allowing for
moments of Albatross to enter the visual pitch.
In our sublime encounters with field-guide
aesthetics, we carry the spirit forth.
Bio: Dan Hedges currently teaches English in the Sir Wilfred Laurier School Board of Quebec. He has also taught English at Sedbergh School, and the Celtic International School. His degrees are from Trent University and Queen's University. He has lived various international locales, including Spain and Mexico. His poems and flash fiction have appeared or are forthcoming in The Monarch Review: Seattle’s Literary and Arts Magazine, Haggard and Halloo Publications, Wildflower Magazine, Poetic Diversity Quarterly , Wilderness House Literary Review, Blink Ink, Kenning Journal, Marco Polo Arts Magazine, Inertia Magazine, Retort Magazine, Touch Poetry, Short-Fast-and-Deadly, The Maynard, Ditch Poetry, Crack the Spine Literary Journal, The Rusty Nail, Fortunates, Jones Avenue Quarterly, Certain Circuits, The Camel Saloon, and others .
*Dan describes his word-smithing as subversive, literal, aesthetic, personal, universal, spiritual, intense, and hopeful. For him, poetry is a created texture, best experienced in the agrammatical mind. In his view, the power of poetry has a lot to do with archetypes, and allowing mind-scapes to form beautifully, by force of words. Like music, or visual art, he believes there to be many healing qualities invoked and evoked through mindful poetry. Native American tradition and world-view has certainly affected his life and writing in a huge way, which often alludes to animal spirits colliding with 'humanimal' realities. He is also intrigued by an aesthetic paradigm that he calls 'field guide aesthetics' which attempts to reconcile new world nomenclature, with complex spirit worlds that span greater epochs.
