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# The RavensPerch

Adding Breath to Words

## Sitemaps

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## Posts

- [MUSIC BURST FORTH BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/music-burst-forth-by-jennifer-gurney/) - I wheeled you over Placed your hands on the keys and Gently encouraged "I can't play....." You demurred, a bit confused "Yes you can," I smiled After A moment or two you took A deep breath At first I thought You were done, ready to go But no Music burst forth From the keyboard like
- [MOUNTAINS BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/mountains-by-jennifer-gurney/) - I climbed mountains today As I hugged fifth graders Leaving for middle school I climbed mountains today As I danced and sang one last time With my fourth graders I climbed mountains today As I said farewell to colleagues Retiring after being family I climbed mountains today With my heart and soul I'm weary, but
- [THE POSSIBILITY OF SUNSHINE BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/the-possibility-of-sunshine-by-jennifer-gurney/) - I grow sad when I Close the blinds each time At the close of day Like I’m closing out The possibility of Sunshine and outdoors It comes with winter And passes in a moment But each day occurs It’s funny because I love the evening time Just as much as day Settling in for Cocooning
- [MARK BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/mark-by-jennifer-gurney/) - So, for the longest time, I’ve always thought of Mark As my brother in our school family. Or one of my brothers, at least. But today I had a realization, While we were cleaning out his room From 33 years of teaching. Mark is my favorite cousin. You know, The one you always wanted to
- [BOOKSHELF BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/bookshelf-by-jennifer-gurney/) - I used to think that I chose books, based on what I wanted to read. Now I know that books Choose us, based on what we Surely need to read. There is no other Explanation I can see For how it happens. I’m reading a book That I thought I chose and it’s Exactly pertinent.
- [LIGHT SKITTERS BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/light-skitters-by-jennifer-gurney/) - Light skitters across, Dancing on the surface of My sweet little lake. A single egret, Oblivious to the magic, Fishes for its lunch. I stand watch on shore - Observant, watching, transfixed - Soaking it all in.
- [VAGUE BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/vague-by-jennifer-gurney/) - Restlessness should be A synonym for that vague Sense of yearning-ness That emptiness of The spirit that wants something … As yet undefined A peaceful searching A leaning in - to something Not yet in focus Leading us forward To a place we’ve never been And yet feels like home
- [HOUSE GUEST BY ANNE E. BEALL](https://theravensperch.com/house-guest-by-anne-e-beall/) - "Where is my underwear? I can't find it!" Our weekend houseguest, Captain, grew increasingly agitated as he frantically searched our apartment. Doug, my then-husband, scratched his head and turned to me, "Have you seen his underwear?" "Nope." Captain, aptly nicknamed for his insistence on always controlling the TV remote, wasn't exactly my favorite person and
- [ONE MIDNIGHT, BY JENNIFER ANN DENNEHY](https://theravensperch.com/one-midnight-by-jennifer-ann-dennehy/) - Edith Piaf was lie down drunk in the Bois de Vincennes when she lost a skeleton key. And though she was unsure as to what the key unlocked, she was certain she must recover it. The mist was low, the morning smelled of mushrooms, when Edith returned to the forest. As she searched through the
- [SET A SPELL BY JENNIFER ANN DENNEHY](https://theravensperch.com/set-a-spell-by-jennifer-ann-dennehy/) - Hum. Keep time by the sun and the summer dandelion. Throw fern seed from your pocket. Witness murmurations. Consider mycelium. Align yourself with the night jar, the bat, the scrub oak and screech owl and with the fierce, gentle, unseen wind.
- [CARRIED WATER BY JENNIFER ANN DENNEHY](https://theravensperch.com/carried-water-by-jennifer-ann-dennehy/) - for Sean and Jordan Late summer, generous and merciful in shady hours, a hike with my brother. The trail was a stegosaurus backed knoll, steep, warm and always a little farther. We lost our carried water and we watched as it fell, tumbling over rocks, slipping through the yellow hands of the rabbit brush. We
- [FILMSTRIPS BY JESSICA LETTENEY](https://theravensperch.com/filmstrips-by-jessica-letteney/) - When I was in grade school in the 1960s, we watched stories on filmstrips about things like menstruation and the Leni Lenape people, on whose land we lived. The filmstrips came in stout metal cans, and we competed for the chance to align the perforations at each edge onto sprockets, twist a knob, and wind
- [TO MADDIE, WITH LOVE FROM YOUR FIRST/SECOND/FOURTH GRADE TEACHER BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/to-maddie-with-love-from-your-first-second-fourth-grade-teacher-by-jennifer-gurney/) - On the Eve of Your High School Graduation The first day we met My heart grew a new chamber Just for you When you were six You wanted to be a mermaid I encouraged you When you were seven You started to grow wings As we hatched butterflies When you were 10 You spread your
- [I’M NOT READY BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/im-not-ready-by-jennifer-gurney/) - Only seven more days of the school year till summer. I’m not ready to say goodbye to you just yet. I want more time with you before you go. More time to learn, be, grow together. It's not fair that just when it gets really good the year ends. I feel this way every year
- [HOME IS WHERE THE OGDENS LIVE BY KATHARINE VALENTINO](https://theravensperch.com/home-is-where-the-ogdens-live-by-katharine-valentino/) - A wonderful bird is the pelican His bill can hold more than his belly can He can take in his beak Food enough for a week But I’m darned if I can see how the heck he can That’s Mama reciting a poem she always says she copied from Ogden somebody. She says
- [THIS WINTER WHITE BY DANIEL EDWARD MOORE](https://theravensperch.com/this-winter-white-by-daniel-edward-moore-2/) - tiptoes like grief up the stairs of summer’s hot spine, witnessing autumn’s addiction to color, like mysterious gestures from a preacher’s hand training the young to worship the sky by leaving the body behind. In the story they wrote their own version of, there were no words for moments like this when love’s lips, waxed
- [FACE TURNED, ALMOST AWAY FROM US BY DANIEL EDWARD MOORE](https://theravensperch.com/face-turned-almost-away-from-us-by-daniel-edward-moore/) - It was kind of you Lord letting ghosts use bones to make suffering’s silhouettes that from earth might be renegade clouds, agitated formations of abandoned sky nursing on god’s latest grief. Isn’t this why men do dangerous things like sleep as small children with dead fish in bowls fade like sheep on a barbwire fence,
- [TYRANNY OF THE DEAD BY GREGORY CIOFFI](https://theravensperch.com/tyranny-of-the-dead-by-gregory-cioffi/) - Unmarked. Unknown. Unnamed. Unrecognized. Unfamiliar. Unexplained. Lacking is the marker The Headstone The Nameplate Lacking is any such indication Others Have Monuments To Commemorate To Remember To Respect Others Have Those Who Celebrate But Not We For We Are Those Who Don’t Comprehend We Are And Always Shall Be The Forever Forgotten Bound To An
- [RAINBOWS WITHOUT RAIN BY GREGORY CIOFFI](https://theravensperch.com/rainbows-without-rain-by-gregory-cioffi/) - Is it truly impossible to see Rainbows without rain? Hope stems from the storm, we decree Is it truly impossible to see Beauty without debris? I wonder, as I look out my windowpane, Is it truly impossible to see Rainbows without rain? Gregory Cioffi (SAG-AFTRA, AEA) is a professional actor and published writer. Many of
- [ANY WAY, DANA BY STERLING WARNER](https://theravensperch.com/any-way-dana-by-sterling-warner/) - Dana styled her hair like a stellar jay’s feather crest—pointed, royal, elegant, bold; as free as a gamehawking falcon, she escaped social tethers & conformity’s gloves defied inhibitions, opened arms to embrace a disjointed universe balance the yang & yin, recapture memories long forgotten, establish an eternal awareness of unexplored avenues, unrequited love affairs, &
- [PURDY CREEK COUNTERPARTS BY STERLING WARNER](https://theravensperch.com/purdy-creek-counterparts-by-sterling-warner/) - Flora trickled down snowy mountains like an ice queen, virgin arms melting while I extracted myself from a mudslide. We came together in swirling eddies she embraced all my imperfections treated mundane flaws like proud battle scars. Linking limbs, we jumped into Purdy Creek cast a medieval spell over dashing white water converted churning rapids
- [MAD LITTLE SCIENTISTS BY STERLING WARNER](https://theravensperch.com/mad-little-scientists-by-sterling-warner/) - We discovered my uncle’s chemistry set in a shelve recess above a water heater covered in minerals cascading from the top sparkling like a fountain of white volcanic lava. Cracking open metal caps of chemicals rusted from damp basement storage, we took boric acid salt, mixed it with water stirred our concoction biting our tongues
- [POET’S PREIEN (AND HIS ALTER EGO’S TAKE) BY DAVID SAHNER](https://theravensperch.com/poets-preien-and-his-alter-egos-take-by-david-sahner/) - The blood of all their noteless number / Ran red like mine. - A.E. Housman I. Preien: from the Middle English to beg. Like his forbears the minstrel prays amid the swish and rustle of white albs for what, exactly? For the dregs of absolution: his words. How otherworldly those dumb beliefs. The bray of
- [INHALING THE SCENT BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/inhaling-the-scent-by-jennifer-gurney/) - Inhaling the scent of malt vinegar while I'm stirring my first batch Of Branston pickle I am transported back to An old English pub A Ploughman's lunch… My first taste of this delight Nineteen eighty-eight Thirty-odd years past I'm finally making it On my own this year Jennifer Gurney lives in Colorado where she teaches,
- [MEAT BY R. NIKOLAS MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/meat-by-r-nikolas-macioci/) - The Sunday afternoon I refused to eat meat, Mom had gone to work in the confectionary below the apartment in which we lived on Barthman Avenue. My father's tyrannical shadow loomed behind my seven-year-old back as I stared at the slice of pot roast. He insisted I eat the meat. I hated meat, but had
- [INCIDENTAL SORROW R. NIKOLAS MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/incidental-sorrow-r-nikolas-macioci/) - My dad finally died today after false starts, finished for real, unlike his frequent, fabricated lies about his own death that often followed Mom and me into hiding. Eyes stuffed with fear, we would huddle together, try to fold into ourselves and disappear, but he always thrust back into our lives, bloodshot eyes blistering our
- [THE ICE ODOR OF BONE BY R. NIKOLAS MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/the-ice-odor-of-bone-by-r-nikolas-macioci/) - The pilot swallows a gutful of fear. The Boeing 777X burns downward. Fire started smaller than a fingernail, splintered to a handful of brightness June white. He’s frantic, drunk on disbelief, the moment, a mockery of order. He thinks of death, the yellow dust of cremation. Everything checked out on takeoff: auxiliary fuel pump, flight
- [PERCHANCE TO HAIKU BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/perchance-to-haiku-by-jennifer-gurney/) - Although I resist Sometimes haiku will not do The poem demands more More words, more space to Exit from the hearts’ chambers To be seen and heard Shouting fervently In angry poignant phrases See me, hear me, now It is not tranquil With scenes of nature's beauty And seasonal words It is authentic Raw emotion
- [I WANTED TO WAKE BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/i-wanted-to-wake-by-jennifer-gurney/) - I wanted to wake to this new year with joy and lightness of being but instead tears slide unbidden down the cheeks of another morning why did I think that a calendar page turning would change anything I'm tired of grief this sadness and loneliness all weighing me down I want to wake with a
- [SOMETIMES A MEMORY BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/sometimes-a-memory-by-jennifer-gurney/) - Sometimes a memory Surfaces during a good episode of a TV show that I’m Binging over time and it Triggers deeper grief I let out the tears For the characters as I Grieve my life anew And then it subsides And I’m back into the show I’m lighter for it I’m grateful for the Opportunity
- [IN THE FINAL HOUR BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/in-the-final-hour-by-jennifer-gurney/) - In the final hour Of a year trodden by grief I open my heart To what the new year Might possibly bring on its Tender wings of hope
- [STORM BY MARA ADAMITZ SCRUPE](https://theravensperch.com/storm-by-mara-adamitz/) - The morning is full of storm in the heart of summer. – Pablo Neruda morning breaks & wildflowers – butterfly weed & goldenrod & paintbrush & bloodroot – rejoice as though forever is evanescence/ just a tug a pull away our day comes muscular beside such pinkish splendor: bystanders our young unblemished backsides/ a blush
- [MISSIVE FROM A LAND OF PLAY & PLEASURE BY JACQUELYN SHAH](https://theravensperch.com/missive-from-a-land-of-play-pleasure-by-jacquelyn-shah/) - Not a ljósálfar, I live in no proximity to gods and not a døkkálfar, I don’t live underground* I am not good, I am not wicked My(s)elf is middle-of-the-road but like a certain kind of toad** has its fire-in-the-belly Not girly-girl or busy-bo(d)y I have a shifting of shape that affords me escape from all
- [AN ELFISH THEREFORE BY JACQUELYN SHAH](https://theravensperch.com/an-elfish-therefore-by-jacquelyn-shah/) - No one will ever paint or saint me, so I’ll live as freely as I wish without a fear that haughty pundits might bestow denunciations that could carry clout. As Nobody-who-are-you, I celebrate (s)elf-governance and nonalignment, while adhering now and then to rules first-rate–– the sonnet’s meter, rhyme and form and style (Shakespearean, Spenserian, Petrarchan).
- [A SONNET, A RABBIT BY JACQUELYN SHAH](https://theravensperch.com/a-sonnet-a-rabbit-by-jacquelyn-shah/) - So many rules for Sonnet sound and shape. I want to try to make a perfect one, Petrarchan-style. At least I have begun . . . but now I’ll need a wand, top hat, and cape, as I encourage Rabbit to escape the hat, while spouting HOCUS-POCUS . . . Done! Some magic and the
- [FENCE HOPS BY CATHY PORTER](https://theravensperch.com/fence-hops-by-cathy-porter/) - The smell of chlorine takes me back to our pool days – the midnight fence hops, well after closing -- cheap beer and the innocence of summer nights we thought would never freeze. Jumps off the third tower, the splash of water louder in the night air. Humid dreams; fireflies and mosquitos that somehow found
- [DUMB TURKEYS BY CATHY PORTER](https://theravensperch.com/dumb-turkeys-by-cathy-porter/) - On the drive to work, I see turkeys on the side of the road. They seem pissed that I’m in their way. They were here first, so I politely stop and let them cross. What I do not understand is why can’t they just wait their turn -- or get out of the way until
- [NO DESSERT BY CATHY PORTER](https://theravensperch.com/no-dessert-by-cathy-porter/) - On your birthday I think about calling, but I go for the text message -- and nothing comes back. No surprise; you never showed any sense of urgency, or was on time for anything -- like on the night you ended us, you were an hour late for what was our last dinner together at
- [THE STORY OF HER BY CATHY PORTER](https://theravensperch.com/the-story-of-her-by-cathy-porter/) - she leaves at 2AM, no note or text tops the tank, takes the back roads out of town his words on her brain, bruises on her face gets pulled over 75 miles out of town tells the cop her story; he writes the ticket she can come back and fight it, or mail in the
- [NEARLY ONE YEAR GONE BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/nearly-one-year-gone-by-jennifer-gurney/) - phone call today asking to speak with you I'm not even sure why I answered my heart pinged at your name spoken I replied there's no one by that name here I toyed with saying more but decided against after hanging up all sorts of things ran through my head and heart all the things
- [KITCHEN DANCE PARTY BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/kitchen-dance-party-by-jennifer-gurney/) - you were here just now kitchen dance party your laugh as you stood still and I twirled around you as you asked (in my memory) does this count? just so you know it all counted it counts, still you were here just now kitchen dance party as real as if you’d taken human form versus
- [IN RELATIONSHIP WITH BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/in-relationship-with-by-jennifer-gurney/) - at my annual physical last month, my doctor asked me who I live with after pausing to think, I said just me later in our conversation, I mentioned my amazing one-whiskered, otherwise all-black cat I was telling some anecdote about how affectionate she is my doctor smiled, chuckled and said hold on a minute I
- [RAVENS’ LAY BY ANN MILLER](https://theravensperch.com/ravens-lay-by-ann-miller/) - Bitter is the bite of memory and wisdom is a skein spun by sorrow. Odin made us, plucked we two ravens from sky where we flew sun-sated in morning. With names he ensnared us, with god-spelled runes he compelled us to speed his bidding. Our minds he shaped to see warp and woof of future
- [WILLA CATHER’S CRICKET BY ANN MILLER](https://theravensperch.com/willa-cathers-cricket-by-ann-miller/) - Warmly held in Antonia’s hands The cricket opens its wings and sings, bravely thinking summer has come again Thus the writer shows how, long past a season of regretted decisions, We bravely start over again
- [BACH’S LAST FUGUE BY ANN MILLER](https://theravensperch.com/bachs-last-fugue-by-ann-miller/) - That summer, a week before he died the streets filled suddenly with clouds of small, white moths. Flying, seemingly at random, they would alight with the chance of a petal falling on a shoulder or the sweaty neck of a horse passing to breathe their wings a little.... They vanished as quickly as they’d come.
- [REMEMBERING HANNIBAL BY ANN MILLER](https://theravensperch.com/remembering-hannibal-by-ann-miller/) - The light between three and four in the afternoon is so intense that it makes the mesh on the screen door disappear in haze. Every sound is precise and distant like the voices of rowers across water, and you know that, that slap of a broom against a dusty rug, and the oarsome creak the
- [SPROUT BY PRANA JOY MANDOE](https://theravensperch.com/sprout-by-prana-joy-mandoe/) - Huelo, Hawaiʻi My father taught me to give young shoots space— Choose the thigh-high baby banana, slide the blade of the shovel down the side of the mama, lift rootlets, soil, the whole being, out. We fed the world that pink & white sprout, tucked her into ground, pressed cool earth down with bare feet.
- [DARKNESS IS A RUDDER BY PRANA JOY MANDOE](https://theravensperch.com/darkness-is-a-rudder-by-prana-joy-mandoe/) - Mogollon, New Mexico My father speaks of a darkness of ravens circling, contemplating the next wild fire. While wind croons and keens in burnt-out pine he cuts wood for winter— A jet-black bird banks on the diamond rudder of its tail, buzzbombs the standing dead tinder. My father’s square fingers grip the chainsaw handle and
- [BORN IN 55: FRAGMENTS OF MY SISTER’S LIFE BY SHERRI WRIGHT](https://theravensperch.com/born-in-55-fragments-of-my-sisters-life-by-sherri-wright/) - “Born in 55,” my sister’s voice is thin and raspy when I ask her how old she is on her birthday. She doesn’t mention her new nursing home. In her little wooden rocking chair, tears running down her cheeks, in a sweet soprano she sings “Tammy’s in Love” to our dog, Tammy. Little is known
- [SHRINK BY JAMES HALL](https://theravensperch.com/shrink-by-james-hall/) - Small things can penetrate private places larger items don’t fit. That’s the secret of an electron microscope’s superiority to light. It offers a better way of seeing than sight. Poets can work this way also, if they let themselves be small enough to slip in among the letters, snip the tethers that hold so many
- [PERSONALITY BY JAMES HALL](https://theravensperch.com/personality-by-james-hall/) - Imprisons music in a cage of teeth. From behind the smile comes the word-barrage. Not a parakeet’s sweet melody or a parrot’s nonsense chatter more like a monkey in a zoo Hurling excrement to discourage curious onlookers and intruders and in his underhanded way To demand the cage be covered curtains pulled, shades drawn. Then
- [CARCASS BY JAMES HALL](https://theravensperch.com/carcass-by-james-hall/) - What does this old carcass have to do with you, who used to be so young and cute? Whose skin is this they wrapped you in? When does the funeral begin? The tall, ceremonial mirror suggests a great occasion awaits. Let it wait. Who wants to lie in state? I still don’t understand why my
- [THE ROOM OF SMALL ILLUSIONS BY JAMES FLEET UNDERWOOD](https://theravensperch.com/the-room-of-small-illusions-by-james-fleet-underwood/) - Of course you called for things most soothing, in that echo chamber between your hands, a megaphone of hope that carried your entreaties to the dusty other world flattened behind the blinds. You’d get there yourself if you weren’t so Three-dimensional, given to decay and eventual fossilization, a form your own voice wouldn’t recognize if
- [SHADOWS OF THE FRANGIPANI BY JAMES FLEET UNDERWOOD](https://theravensperch.com/shadows-of-the-frangipani-by-james-fleet-underwood/) - My family didn’t recognize me when I knocked weakly on the door, aspect hidden in the dark, repeating silently names I wasn’t sure I could still pronounce. But after relaxing to my presence at the table, my wife extended her hand to squeeze my elbow and dragged her gaze across my forehead as if searching
- [THOSE MORNING RITUALS BY MELANIE PERISH](https://theravensperch.com/those-morning-rituals-by-melanie-perish/) - After Robert Hayden Awake I’d hear her uneven steps on linoleum the limp a gift from polio during the Great Depression. Then the clink of bowls and spoons, the fridge door that swung open and closed like judgment. Girls were girls and boys were boys and I was expected in the kitchen to pour milk,
- [AWAKING IN RENO, NV BY MELANIE PERISH](https://theravensperch.com/awaking-in-reno-nv-by-melanie-perish/) - After Maya Angelou Light forces its will over the Carson Range between my wooden blinds. Keys on hooks, on a laptop all nap in anticipation of fingers, of jingle and tap. The city stretches itself awake foothills to mountains. The Biggest Little City stirs on stolen land with gold, and silver, and Nevada lithium north
- [MECHANICAL BEE WHERE IS THY STING BY DAVE SETER](https://theravensperch.com/mechanical-bee-where-is-thy-sting-by-dave-seter/) - Problem solved, Doctor Science? Honeybee die-off a thing of the past? I’ve seen your prototype drone bee, size of a pack of cigarettes, four propellers, horse hair bristles coated with gel. It seems— cumbersome—a polite word for another. Can you replace 3.5 trillion (real) bees? Instead, can we program drones to doctor the living bees?
- [WE DRINK FROM RIVERS IN PIPES BY DAVE SETER](https://theravensperch.com/we-drink-from-rivers-in-pipes-by-dave-seter/) - Upstream of this human playground, the Russian River runs free, sometimes deep, sometimes gravelly. To drink we place it in pipes. One pipe turns into two turns into three turns into et cetera. A multiplicity of pipes. A river of pipes running beneath streets and sidewalks. But here in Healdsburg Plaza the river’s water surfaces
- [MURMURATION BY DAVE SETER](https://theravensperch.com/murmuration-by-dave-seter/) - My cardiologist, my leaky valve, I’ve known all along about the starlings in my heart. They should be no secrets between us. When will they make ready to fly? In bed I ponder seasons of sickness and health, and finally rise up into a winged sleep until awakened by non-iambic song. I take a few
- [FLYWAY ABOVE THE ABANDONED COPPER MINE BY DAVE SETER](https://theravensperch.com/flyway-above-the-abandoned-copper-mine-by-dave-seter/) - When I climb a hill of discarded ore to admire a dead-gorgeous blue-green pond, I’m channeling the thoughts of migrating grebes and mallard ducks who cross the Great Basin Desert seeking refuge. Surprise—this pond is man-made—the desert scraped away to form a hollow filled with bright goo, acidic and salty with mining residue left by
- [CTHULU WAVES BY MATT DURANTE](https://theravensperch.com/cthulu-waves-by-matt-durante/)
- [SUMMER SWING BY MATT DURANTE](https://theravensperch.com/summer-swing-by-matt-durante/)
- [THE GAME BY ELIZABETH B. MORSE](https://theravensperch.com/the-game-by-elizabeth-b-morse/) - “Your resume looks like you’d be a good fit for our senior developer role.” Diana shifted in her chair and held the phone close to her ear. This was Kat Cates from Glitter Games calling. Cody would be thrilled about the call. After all, they were the developers of his favorite video game. “Let’s set
- [CONFRONTING ART BY BRENT YERGENSEN](https://theravensperch.com/confronting-art-by-brent-yergensen/) - A son scrolls through reels, as his father wants to share the power of narrative The son seeks a fast laugh, as his father cries 'plot imperative!' It takes a year of persuasion to watch film series, will the son invest? Time together, finally the son's mind can be blessed They sit together, watching three
- [BONNIE AND CLAUDETTE BY SANDRA MARILYN](https://theravensperch.com/bonnie-and-claudette-by-sandra-marilyn/) - Bonnie gave the new silver Lexus the reins and it moved faster and faster up the straight highway, pulling ahead of the freight train next to them, shooting them up through the Texas Panhandle, where speed limits were barely even a suggestion. This was the best, and possibly the last, of the stolen cars that
- [WHEN THE PAIN SLITHERS BY F.S. BLAKE](https://theravensperch.com/when-the-pain-slithers-by-f-s-blake/) - when the pain slithers dream of skipping with new breath carved without conflict F.S. Blake is a Bronze Star decorated U.S. Army Veteran and Pushcart Prize nominated poet. His chapbooks are available from Finishing Line Press, and his full-length poetry collection, Forever or a Week, is forthcoming from Kelsay Books. His poetry career began
- [DON’T LOOK SO LONELY BY F.S. BLAKE](https://theravensperch.com/dont-look-so-lonely-by-f-s-blake/) - Don’t look so lonely frost for the first time this year freezes half of us
- [LONGING BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/longing-by-jennifer-gurney/) - waking up with you on a Saturday morning with no plans letting the day unfold looking forward to almost anything cooking dinner together that feeling where I can’t tell where my skin ends and yours begins my head in your lap your fingers in my hair as we watch one of our shows your feeding
- [WILL IT EVER STOP BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/will-it-ever-stop-by-jennifer-gurney/) - I stumble upon an article or picture that I know you'd like and the thought runs through my head that I should text it to you and my eyes tear up when it hits me that I can't and won't ever be able to will it ever stop or will my mind forget from time
- [ABSTRACT 1 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-1-by-jennifer-gurney-11/)
- [ABSTRACT 2 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-2-by-jennifer-gurney-11/)
- [ABSTRACT 3 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-3-by-jennifer-gurney-11/)
- [ABSTRACT 4 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-4-by-jennifer-gurney-11/)
- [ABSTRACT 5 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-5-by-jennifer-gurney-10/) - Jennifer Gurney lives in Colorado where she teaches, paints, writes and hikes. Her paintings have been featured in several magazines, she was the artist of the month for GloMag and her art provides the cover of her 10 poetry books.
- [MY MEMORY BEGINS IN THE SUBURBS (THOUGH MY HEART WAS NEVER IN IT) BY TINA POSNER](https://theravensperch.com/my-memory-begins-in-the-suburbs-though-my-heart-was-never-in-it-by-tina-posner/) - My parents knew nothing of the land, raised in tenements on sepia avenues, chock-a-block with lantzmen. In the family way, they nested on a tree- lined street, in a house that was set sideways, on a narrow lot, with a steep driveway up and the city line passing through. We lived on that border, a
- [MY FATHER SAYS HE’S GOING TO HEAVEN TONIGHT BY TINA POSNER](https://theravensperch.com/my-father-says-hes-going-to-heaven-tonight-by-tina-posner/) - My mother tells him he can’t go yet. Remember what Pop always said, “It’s written in the book.” My father repeats, It’s written in the book. My mother beams, You remember! And he snaps back, How could I forget?
- [POETRY PROMPT BY SUSAN H. ROBBINS](https://theravensperch.com/poetry-prompt-by-susan-h-robbins/) - You’re asking me to tell the world. You’re asking me to undress in the face of a monsoon. You’re asking me to find words in a single song - of a wound. Not possible. I’m a banana with black spots, a contrapuntal to Bartok, a winter pruning of Bizet’s Carmen, Stravinsky’s Firebird, Daphnis et Chloe’
- [THAT’S WHEN THE MURDERS BEGAN BY SUSAN H. ROBBINS](https://theravensperch.com/thats-when-the-murders-began-by-susan-h-robbins/) - when the women in white cowgirl hats were too thin, too blond in those Arizona Highways ads arriving monthly at my mother’s porch steps. I was just a frizzy-dark-haired Round-faced child who attempted to iron her hair on a well-used ironing board and starved to a purposeful death hours I had poured into borrowed western
- [MOMENTS BY SUSAN H. ROBBINS BY SUSAN H. ROBBINS](https://theravensperch.com/moments-by-susan-h-robbins-by-susan-h-robbins/) - . . . doubtful of daylight, on the verge of the wood, how do I bless this ritual? this waking of the house to silences between silhouettes of spruce, birch and sparrow, where the music lies, where I fall into a suspended surrendering in the midst of a morning coffee, a dance on the day
- [GOD IS A WAFER BY DAVID SAHNER](https://theravensperch.com/god-is-a-wafer-by-david-sahner/) - Frost changes nothing in Oklahoma. Sickles cut through wheat. The work remains despite a fragrance of death in the fields where color leeches from yellow stalks. Eyes like red coals watch for your errors as you wield the scythe. God is a wafer with no taste but you take his body. Anything for protection.
- [HOW MEN AND WOLVES SUP BY DAVID SAHNER](https://theravensperch.com/how-men-and-wolves-sup-by-david-sahner/) - Cronos, which, as it brings an end to all things which have had a beginning, may be said to devour its own offspring. - Footnote from Bullfinch’s, The Age of Fable Baffled by tips of sharpened steel pointed this way and that by ravening men a moral and contemplative sap takes instead wolves as his
- [SERIOUS ABOUT TOAST BY ROBERTA GOGANIAN](https://theravensperch.com/serious-about-toast-by-roberta-goganian/) - Steadfast in the kitchen, solid as the formica counter where he stood and ate toast in a serious manner, pressed bright oranges on an electric juicer, then yelled upstairs, “fresh squeezed orange juice!” Handsome in tennis whites skin like coffee, medium roast. He could have been Egyptian, think Omar Sharif: charcoal brows with almond eyes,
- [PUEBLO MAN BY FORD WEISBERG](https://theravensperch.com/pueblo-man-by-ford-weisberg/) - Through an image he incised on a half-sheared cliff-face, in a tongue not supposed to be known by us, he speaks not to me, not to who succeeds me. I wonder if he guessed no one would fathom it—art, or the desire to be? With or without a mission, didn’t he perish?
- [MOTHER EARTH MONOLOGUE BY FORD WEISBERG](https://theravensperch.com/mother-earth-monologue-by-ford-weisberg/) - Upon me the sun still glares yellow, though 8 billion brown and drown; who’s left will scramble south to north, clawing this fray of earthly hernia mesh that holds back my inguinal sobs. Though I’d hate to watch my kids die before me, I can take the heat as you—like Orpheus head, still singing—float away.
- [A TEAR IN THE EARTH BY CLAIRE DIETRICH RANNA](https://theravensperch.com/a-tear-in-the-earth-by-claire-dietrich-ranna/) - A Mother Ponders Rimbaud’s, Le Dormeur du Val Eighty-four times the hours lapped upon shore before she split me, soft flesh mangled, a ripe and tender plum. I lay there, riven, no river to sing me to sleep, the chirp of an alarm tethering me to that mossy room and its fluorescent sun. my sister
- [THE MINNOW BY CLAIRE DIETRICH RANNA](https://theravensperch.com/the-minnow-by-claire-dietrich-ranna/) - He steps out of the shower, soft skin steaming, nose stuffed, and offers a plaintive, “Mom?” It’s such a thin, pathetic plea, awakening the breathless love I’d thought reserved for younger years but, wow, knees weak, I stumble into the warm cloud of our bathroom. He’s been old enough to dry himself for years now
- [FEBRUARY BY CLAIRE DIETRICH RANNA](https://theravensperch.com/february-by-claire-dietrich-ranna/) - greyscale morning the shroud of the sky hangs low bare branches twist with sinister intent thorny tendrils pricking the ghastly gloom like the spindle of some timeless wheel cursed bush a knot of beastly brambles it is only when I risk the dread approach that my wintry gaze softens and barbs morph silently oh to
- [INK SPILLED BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/ink-spilled-by-jennifer-gurney/) - when I lift my pen and touch the tip to paper healing flows thoughts leak from my heart through the pen to the paper in one seamless motion ink spills onto the page alongside grief with it my pain bleeds out soaking the paper there is relief in the speaking pain unclothed bared to the
- [SINGULARNESS BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/singularness-by-jennifer-gurney/) - there is a poem in the dawn my heart opens its eyes to the quiet of daybreak to the taste of hot coffee bitter on my tongue to the stillness of night tipping toward day to the memory of you floating in with the clouds to the realization of my heart in its singularness one
- [THE SKEIN OF JOY BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/the-skein-of-joy-by-jennifer-gurney/) - what will it take to feel indelible joy again the kind that doesn’t go away the instant it arrives or when the next tidal wave of grief crashes over it what will it feel like when that undying joy bubbles up again, inside will I still be able to feel it or will this shield
- [INSIDE THE HOLLOW CHAMBER OF MY HEART BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/inside-the-hollow-chamber-of-my-heart-by-jennifer-gurney/) - so many things move me now the touch of my cat’s paw gently in the morning to wake me her soft trill-meow greets me such kindness the air itself filled with the aroma of hazelnut coffee and layers of memories the pop of the toast in what used to be your toaster, then ours butter
- [ABSTRACT 1 BY ELLEN JUNE WRIGHT](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-1-by-ellen-june-wright/) - Ellen June Wright’s unconventional watercolors have graced the covers of SCARS Anthology, Long River Review, Abstract Magazine TV, Kelsey Review and West Trestle Review and were included in the 2024 and 2025 Newark Arts Festival and featured at the Hackensack Performing Arts Center in NJ. To see more visit: https://8-ellen-wright.pixels.com/
- [ABSTRACT 2 BY ELLEN JUNE WRIGHT](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-2-by-ellen-june-wright/)
- [ABSTRACT 3 BY ELLEN JUNE WRIGHT](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-3-by-ellen-june-wright/)
- [ABSTRACT 4 BY ELLEN JUNE WRIGHT](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-4-by-ellen-june-wright/)
- [ABSTRACT 5 BY ELLEN JUNE WRIGHT](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-5-by-ellen-june-wright/)
- [EMILY AS IN THE BLOOD BY DARREN DEMAREE](https://theravensperch.com/emily-as-in-the-blood-by-darren-demaree/) - Let the blushing be a river that drowns us both because we opened our mouths & assumed escape would come the deeper we chased the rushing sounds. We’re here, carried & caring, elbows tucked in daring the light to spill us into a new purple.
- [EMILY AS FINGER & SMIRK BY DARREN DEMAREE](https://theravensperch.com/emily-as-finger-smirk-by-darren-demaree/) - She’s the reason, dear outsider, they keep improving cameras. It takes something beyond real to understand what she’s doing beneath the simple countdown of our life together. I study her because I’m still learning what she might be. You study her because the chaotic regularity of her want is better than drugs. The art is
- [A HEART ONCE LOVED BY PATTY SOMLO](https://theravensperch.com/a-heart-once-loved-by-patty-somlo/) - I cried off and on through each of the long episodes about the climate crisis and what smart, dedicated folks around the world were doing to restore whatever had been destroyed or lost. When I finished streaming the last of the series, I cried my way through a Nature program on PBS, about the heroic
- [THE CONSOLATION OF DONUTS BY SALLY ZAKARIYA](https://theravensperch.com/the-consolation-of-donuts-by-sally-zakariya/) - You bring me donuts when I’m poorly—not what the doctor ordered but they go down smooth and sweet, and I feel better for your nurture. It’s a long-time thing. We indulge each other, have done so for years but now I wonder who would rub my back, bring me treats
- [COFFEE SHOP GRAFFITI BY SALLY ZAKARIYA](https://theravensperch.com/coffee-shop-graffiti-by-sally-zakariya/) - Who writes reclaim yourself on a bathroom wall up there with declarations of undying love misspelled insults and bad jokes scrawled on the scratched paint broken tiles underfoot harsh light overhead Maybe you with your briefcase and latte, foam blowing like sea spume, or you there with the newspaper and frown— is it the headlines
- [THAT FAR BEACH BY SALLY ZAKARIYA](https://theravensperch.com/that-far-beach-by-sally-zakariya/) - Sometimes the sands rush down sometimes they trickle as though the hourglass has control of time this much for you a little more for me It's a distraction to watch too closely to match your breath or time your heartbeat to the erratic sands Better to leave a mark on that far beach for waves
- [THE SIXTH GOOD-BYE BY THERESA MORITZ](https://theravensperch.com/the-sixth-good-bye-by-theresa-moritz/) - Riding the subway can be a party if you’re with someone, as long as you’re getting off at the same stop. Your station is coming up, though, and you’re in the middle of an excellent comment, but you’re losing your concentration. You can’t help wondering whether a graceful exit is possible from where the two
- [BREATHE BY DANA ROBBINS](https://theravensperch.com/breathe-by-dana-robbins/) - In Silicon Valley, dominion of the mighty lords of virtual reality, the end of the world is at my doorstep. The west is burning burning burning. Even in the flowered suburbs, beneath an orange sky, garish as bad hair dye, smokey air fills my nose. It’s 2020. All over America, people can’t breathe, in hospitals
- [SLEEPLESS BY DANA ROBBINS](https://theravensperch.com/sleepless-by-dana-robbins/) - All over the world, mothers are awake; in Tel Aviv, Kahn Unis; Texas; praying that the children they must send out into the world return home to them; and are not bombed to bits in the town square; not captured and held in tunnels in Gaza; not arrested in LA; not sent in shackles to
- [WHAT COULD SHE DO BY EVE RIFKAH](https://theravensperch.com/what-could-she-do-by-eve-rifkah/) - at the farm store big leaf spinach just-picked tomatoes and garlic at the market ricotta and noodles made of split peas busies herself with pots and pans chopping and simmering enough to feed a small army drives to the underpass where the unhoused curl in sleeping bags surrounded by their lives stuffed in plastic she
- [FARMERS MARKET, CANAL DISTRICT BY EVE RIFKAH](https://theravensperch.com/farmers-market-canal-district-by-eve-rifkah/) - Saturday morning in her wellies skirting puddles wide as lakes hunting wild apples, honey and eggs. Signs of spring – new rhubarb garden plants waiting for homes tomatoes, basil, beans. The baker offers bread, croissants next to the local coffee brewer. The Cambodians offer the green of desire tiny lettuces, lemon grass, and plants she
- [TODAY AT THE FARMERS MARKET BY EVE RIFKAH](https://theravensperch.com/today-at-the-farmers-market-by-eve-rifkah-2/) - air a damp blanket hanging overhead in a long line that gets longer by the second, I stand behind a woman holding a toddler, a large-for-his age boy maybe 10 or 11 stands next to his mother with a lid of sweet black curls over the shaved sides with fancy design edging his plump face.
- [A TINY ACT OF FAITH BY EVE RIFKAH](https://theravensperch.com/a-tiny-act-of-faith-by-eve-rifkah/) - I just ate a mandarin orange rind cupped on the table pale pith a slip removed my hands clothed in scent I eat from a migration of fruit one hand plucked another packed my own passes bills, coins exchanged many times over I eat what’s bought my hands clean of soil dirtied by paper passing
- [PERHAPS THIS IS WHAT HEALING FEELS LIKE BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/perhaps-this-is-what-healing-feels-like-by-jennifer-gurney/) - the moment upon waking before remembering was longer today and gentler somehow perhaps this is what healing feels like Jennifer Gurney lives in Colorado where she teaches, paints, writes and hikes. Her poetry is widely published, two of her poems have won international contests and one was turned into a choral piece. Jennifer has
- [YOUR LIGHT REACHES ME BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/your-light-reaches-me-by-jennifer-gurney/) - Mom died over five years ago only now is the light of her memory beginning to reach me fully across the years from my childhood when she was the bright sun in my tiny solar system kissing away my hurt showing me the world opening the doors of books of learning of music of love,
- [TRYING TO MAKE SENSE OF IT ALL BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/trying-to-make-sense-of-it-all-by-jennifer-gurney/) - we interpret the events of our life to try to make sense I will never understand why you had to go so young it will never make sense to me you had so much more living to do we had so much more loving to do
- [THE BLUE HOUR IN THE GARDEN BY RALPH MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/the-blue-hour-in-the-garden-by-ralph-macioci/) - I live in a brick ranch that I inherited from my parents. French doors in the dining room lead to a mostly neglected garden. I'm not officially an insomniac, but there are nights when I reach for sleep that is beyond my grasp, so I prowl the garden. Tonight is such a night. Maybe I
- [PERILS OF A PLAYGROUND PERFORMER BY RALPH MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/perils-of-a-playground-performer-by-ralph-macioci/) - My career as a tightrope walker ended one September afternoon when I was a second grader in the 1940s at Reeb Avenue Elementary School. I returned to school grounds after going home for lunch break. None of the playground equipment, swings, monkey bars, sliding board, interested me. I was bored with their mediocre challenge, wanted
- [FRAME BY FRAME BY KATHLEEN CHAMBERLIN](https://theravensperch.com/frame-by-frame-by-kathleen-chamberlin/) - I’ve heard that at the moment of death, Our lives flash before us. If this is so, Let those traumatic and painful moments Pass quickly Be a blur The mind unable to apprehend or recall Let them flash for the briefest nanosecond, Then vanish like smoke in the wind But let those moments of joy--
- [BLACK HOLE BY KATHLEEN CHAMBERLIN](https://theravensperch.com/black-hole-by-kathleen-chamberlin/) - Deep within the universe A momentary moan, barely a whisper, Hardly noticeable A sudden spasm Begets a pulsating ripple That quickens and divides, Rubs against itself, incensed. Aching, it spreads, inexorably A white-hot surge, ill-defined, cloaked in a dark blanket, Puzzling and devouring the worlds within reach. In the stillness of space it grows Sucking
- [TREES BY KATHLEEN CHAMBERLIN](https://theravensperch.com/trees-by-kathleen-chamberlin/) - November leaves have given way To the nakedness of December trees Bare branches sway with sultry charm Amid the swollen air Or claw the bleak grey skies. Those loose limbs dance wildly While battling shrieking gales Of sleet and rain They stand solidly, embracing the blizzard of falling flakes Dressed in pristine white, a forest
- [GOD’S LAUGHTER BY CATHERINE MORRISON](https://theravensperch.com/gods-laughter-by-catherine-morrison/) - The world is burning And still it is turning Maybe God’s laughing upstairs Who am I kidding? He doesn’t care He’s not there His fist goes through the door Mama says she can't do it anymore Her bruises, now mine to bear. I look into his eyes, but he doesn't care. He’s not there His
- [GONE WITH THE WIND BY CATHERINE MORRISON](https://theravensperch.com/gone-with-the-wind-by-catherine-morrison/) - Ashes to ashes and dust to dust Seventy-six years of worry to wind up the earth’s crust Though if dust is our beginning and also our end Perhaps we are born wherever we end up in the wind And death is simply where we begin it all again
- [SANCTUARY BY JEFF SOMMER](https://theravensperch.com/sanctuary-by-jeff-sommer/) - To what safe harbor will we sail What sanctuary; if the dam should break Letting loose a raging flood To the howling wind I’ll raise my voice The broken branch won’t break me Where then does the fault lie? If upon myself I look, I look to all Each governed by the pride That comes
- [SIGNS OF SPRING BY JEFF SOMMER](https://theravensperch.com/signs-of-spring-by-jeff-sommer/) - To celebrate the day I go looking for the sun Fresh as the morning air Spring has just begun A gentle breeze Has come my way To brush my hair And blow my cares away Spring is in the air The sun is breaking through Pushing away the winter clouds Making room for me and
- [SEEING BETTER BY JEFF SOMMER](https://theravensperch.com/seeing-better-by-jeff-sommer/) - A face well-painted May catch the wandering eye Causing the heart to stumble Brushing the words aside How different beauty looks When love is but a game The eye most easily fooled Sees better through the pain Therein lies a devout wish To be caught in Love’s embrace For the wandering eye to close To
- [RIDE THE WIND BY JEFF SOMMER](https://theravensperch.com/ride-the-wind-by-jeff-sommer/) - The great golden eagle Sails the endless sky To feed the nesting young A long but loving ride Naked are the trees Until spring turns winter green To the cold barren branch Life is but a dream It will toss and turn So goes the restless sea But what calm it brings As the waves
- [BLUEBERRY PAIN BY MATT DURANTE](https://theravensperch.com/blueberry-pain-by-matt-durante/) - There's a blueberry bud on the second bush. It doesn't seem like a big deal, but it is a BIG deal. That bush hasn't produced a blueberry in four years. When Steve’s oldest was six, the little scamp took a stick, and he beat the bejesus out of that bush. You wouldn't believe the aggression
- [BREAKFAST BY SUE BLAUSTEIN](https://theravensperch.com/23897-2/) - Miss Bulldog was the best. To see her exit her house, trot down the ramp from the porch and huff at the fence. To observe her ears move when the back door opened; see her turn and run back for all she was worth! Breakfast! Breakfast! A woodpecker hammered on
- [THE GLASS CHILD BY LYDIA GANSEN](https://theravensperch.com/the-glass-child-by-lydia-gansen/) - The leaves were changing along with the weather. There is only one thing that meant…school was starting. I was going into my sophomore year of high school; my brother was in seventh grade. From personal experience, seventh grade is the most dreadful grade. It feels like you’re being held captive in the depths of hell.
- [THE SWEET GIFT OF NANA BY ELAINE SORRENTINO](https://theravensperch.com/the-sweet-gift-of-nana-by-elaine-sorrentino/) - She was meticulous─ all four foot eleven of her tidy and compact. In her kitchen, every dish and utensil stood at attention, drying towels hung in uniformity. Looking back, I suspect I may have upset her perfectionist apple cart with my plus-size frame, chaotic penmanship, untamed strands that escaped every hair clip; but she never
- [CALM BEFORE THE DINNER RUSH BY ELAINE SORRENTINO](https://theravensperch.com/calm-before-the-dinner-rush-by-elaine-sorrentino/) - With a quick flick of the wrist he snaps the crisp tablecloth into place and smooths the white linen's creases. This is his favorite time of day─ the lull before he greets throngs of famished guests who care less about wrinkles in a covering than the speed with which wine flows and food arrives, steamy,
- [UNBOUND BY ELAINE SORRENTINO](https://theravensperch.com/unbound-by-elaine-sorrentino/) - No modification necessary I was born perfect. My size nines do not fit in my husband’s palm but he never asked me to crush my bones and bind my feet for his pleasure, a past tradition of control. I could never erase the me I was conceived to be, witness my distinctive features slowly fade
- [BLACK SHEEP BY ELAINE SORRENTINO](https://theravensperch.com/black-sheep-by-elaine-sorrentino/) - One of three poults he spurred our sympathy with his nightly limp across the lawn, always the last in a chorus line of five. We found his challenge endearing, his mother's patience merciful as she hung back while siblings romped free, splashing in the creek chasing each other through grass and field. We hardly recognized
- [ABSTRACT 1 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-1-by-jennifer-gurney-10/)
- [ABSTRACT 2 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-2-by-jennifer-gurney-10/)
- [PEEK-A-BOO BY SUSAN ROBBINS](https://theravensperch.com/peek-a-boo-by-susan-robbins/)
- [ABSTRACT 3 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-3-by-jennifer-gurney-10/)
- [ABSTRACT 4 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-4-by-jennifer-gurney-10/)
- [ABSTRACT 5 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-5-by-jennifer-gurney-9/)
- [A TREE THAT’S LOST ITS GREENERY BY MARK KATRINAK](https://theravensperch.com/a-tree-thats-lost-its-greenery-by-mark-katrinak/) - Trauma defies the strongest adjectives, a verse unworthy of our lexicon. There’s history maneuvering behind the eye, a tree that’s lost it greenery, silhouettes heightening upon the evening grass, birds perching on the edge of life and as beloveds close their eyes and reach to kiss the birds ascend to voluntary cries. Man can’t survive
- [SEASIDE BY MARK KATRINAK](https://theravensperch.com/seaside-by-mark-katrinak/) - On nights a cloud would cover up the stars an autumn rain would spell out s-o-l-i-t-u-d-e on vacant windows, shadows looking out and taking note of you, their attitudes much sharper than the shifting shapes they took. The heavy tides extended past the sand, potentiating weeds between the stones, but yet they smoothed further blacks
- [WHAT KEEPS ME HERE BY MARK KATRINAK](https://theravensperch.com/what-keeps-me-here-by-mark-katrinak/) - What keeps me here could be the morning birds, five pairs of wings ascending toward the sky without an explanation, trees now dumb without their cries or songs, a bird-less yard imprisoned with its August silences. What ties me to the world’s a yellow finch or cawing crow, its darkest strategy, or just hawk shadows
- [BABY, HOLD ON BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/baby-hold-on-by-jennifer-gurney/) - baby hold on I didn’t tell you you could go I need you here with me just a little bit longer to look in those eyes and know just what you’re thinkin’ to tell you one more time how much you mean to me baby hold on I didn’t tell you you could go I
- [HOLD ON TIGHT BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/hold-on-tight-by-jennifer-gurney/) - I hold on, tight leaning in arms wrapped around you your hand on my thigh squeezing my leg in that way you do and I hear you laugh and let go coasting down no handed and as my head screams “Hold on!” my arms lift to float, too and in that moment of free fall
- [YOU NEVER PROVED ME WRONG BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/you-never-proved-me-wrong-by-jennifer-gurney/) - memories float in unbidden like the one just now of when we’d lie on the couch, together feet to head and head to feet and you’d read to me from White Dragons I loved it most when the words made you cry because they touched your heart so deeply you tried to pull off acting
- [BE BRAVE ENOUGH BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/be-brave-enough-by-jennifer-gurney/) - please be brave enough to step into the tender space that grief creates and walk beside me these fragile days do not ask me what I need I do not know I only know that my heart is shattered and it's lonely trying to knit it back together on my own so just come and
- [LOST RAPTURE BY PAULA GOLDMAN](https://theravensperch.com/lost-rapture-by-paula-goldman/) - “Love is born into every human being; it calls back the halves of our original nature together; it tries to make one out of two and heal the wound of human nature.” ― Plato, The Symposium What is the magic that draws two people together? Antony and Cleopatra, no beauty, but a clever
- [THE REIGN OF SECRET THINGS BY PAULA GOLDMAN](https://theravensperch.com/the-reign-of-secret-things-by-paula-goldman/) - I’d send you out of this world into the gallery of night in jujube wood, sycamore and cedar like a pharaoh in a solar boat, but it was broad daylight as you embarked in your coffin, plain pine, marked simply with the star of David. On that breezy, unseasonably hot vernal equinox, we watched your
- [HOW BY PAULA GOLDMAN](https://theravensperch.com/how-by-paula-goldman/) - my love has grown so deep as the snow banks outside this window. Just now I scared a deer close to the glass. Helping you with your shirt collar, buttoning your cuffs, pulling down your sweater, who knew life would come to this? How I trust you, all you’ve done these years, a lifetime of
- [THE SACRED AND THE PROFANE BY PAULA GOLDMAN](https://theravensperch.com/23846-2/) - Cathedrals, mosques, mosaics, stained glass windows, stones, ruins, paintings, statues, blend and blur, or disappear. Was I ever here? There? Did I ride a camel before the Great Pyramid of Giza? Did I see completely covered Turkish women
- [LAST LIGHT ON THE LAKE BY PATRICIA WALLESVERD](https://theravensperch.com/last-light-on-the-lake-by-patricia-wallesverd/) - Across the lake, birch leaves crown the red pines— bright gold. The lake— an old mirror shattered by wind— holds them upside down, wavering in its broken surface. Days like this— we don’t notice, we even forget, already turning toward winter— snow and ice, frozen lakes, bare trees the long cold coming. Patricia Wallesverd
- [AUTUMN AFTERNOON BY PATRICIA WALLESVERD](https://theravensperch.com/autumn-afternoon-by-patricia-wallesverd/) - Like hammered silver, the lake shimmers. Clouds—white handkerchiefs thrown across a blue sky. Leaves and needles twirl in the air— a careless dance to mosaic the lake. Pine trees on the far shore fade into moss green while poplar and birch, maple and oak flare in reds and yellows, oranges and browns. Water laps the
- [INTERRUPTION BY PATRICIA WALLESVERD](https://theravensperch.com/interruption-by-patricia-wallesverd/) - You’re reading a good book when the dog barks. You startle— a jolt of adrenaline, then gone. She darts to the window, back and forth, head high, A low growl. A half bark. A yawn. She grabs a ragged toy. You find your place. She settles under the table. The wind quiets. You read, aware
- [BEYOND ESPERANTO BY SHARON SCHOLL](https://theravensperch.com/beyond-esperanto-by-sharon-scholl/) - Pain is the universal language spoken across time and space without accent or regional distinction. Socrates would recognize mine instantly and reply with equal understanding. A Polar Bear would catch my visible conditions, and a moan is a moan from whatever mouth it comes. Pain is the great chorus sung by war, by plague, by
- [IBIS FEAST BY SHARON SCHOLL](https://theravensperch.com/ibis-feast-by-sharon-scholl/) - Vast lawns sprawl before them, thick and juicy after summer rains, but a dozen white, feathered diners have chosen a five-yard square to display their gluttonous intentions. Their choice is lost in avian mystery – how they flap aloft serenely, scanning all the while for some gustatory clue. A color, shape, movement, something signals food
- [MUDDLING THROUGH BY SHARON SCHOLL](https://theravensperch.com/muddling-through-by-sharon-scholl/) - There I was at 21, an adult who didn’t know how to be one. Then a bride, thrilled, of course, but ignorant of protocol. I became a mother baffled by a howling foreign species, Then yet another transition from student to professor. My life is a maze of transformations, unseen beginnings and uncertain ends. No
- [WINTER COWARD BY SHARON SCHOLL](https://theravensperch.com/winter-coward-by-sharon-scholl/) - I’m hiding here in Florida watching the thermometer descend to 30, bounce, and head toward 60. Enough to shed my heavy sweater, bask in a morning pool of sun, even to venture a foot outside. There was a wind that blew itself clean through my bones, damp and icy as a childhood memory, but it
- [ON MEMORY & LOSS BY GEORGE LOONEY](https://theravensperch.com/on-memory-loss-by-george-looney/) - Say you’re desperate to believe in anything other than the accusation light is as it makes it impossible to deny the body of the woman, asleep, half-covered by the disarray of damp sheets that seem a message written in cursive by a mad composer who only wanted to be sure his music wouldn’t be forgotten.
- [HESITANT TO SAY MUCH BY GEORGE LOONEY](https://theravensperch.com/hesitant-to-say-much-by-george-looney/) - So it’s not light at all you want to sing the praises of or find yourself indebted to. The allure of sleep doesn’t make you long to accept anything, not even that this woman, who seems to be sleeping, might be a death bed portrait missing the mourners who are in the next room sharing
- [OF RAGGED HOLINESS BY GEORGE LOONEY](https://theravensperch.com/of-ragged-holiness-by-george-looney/) - No one will ever be articulate enough to translate this particular light into words & set those numinous words into a sentence whose elegant structure could provide the timelessness light grants the form of this sleeping woman, the sheets a rumpled halo suggesting a kind of ragged holiness to this bed bathed in light that
- [A WORD YOU BELIEVED BY GEORGE LOONEY](https://theravensperch.com/a-word-you-believed-by-george-looney/) - If such a thing as perfection were said to have been found, it wouldn’t be in this singular moment that can’t ever change just before this profoundly naked woman opens her eyes to a light that’s never been named or articulated in any way, not with the most avid mixing of pigments in any century.
- [ODE TO THE HORIZON BY SUSAN ROBBINS](https://theravensperch.com/ode-to-the-horizon-by-susan-robbins/)
- [FALL COLORS REIMAGINED BY SUSAN ROBBINS](https://theravensperch.com/fall-colors-reimagined-by-susan-robbins/)
- [DIGITAL ENCOUNTERS IN FLOWERED BOOTS BY SUSAN ROBBINS](https://theravensperch.com/digital-encounters-in-flowered-boots-by-susan-robbins/)
- [SUNSET REFLECTIONS BY SUSAN ROBBIBS](https://theravensperch.com/sunset-reflections-by-susan-robbibs/)
- [ROAD RAGE BY PETER F. CROWLEY](https://theravensperch.com/road-rage-by-peter-f-crowley/) - The van’s windows reflected the starless sky. Logan staggered toward the vehicle, wondering if someone inside could help. Blood streamed down his right leg and there was a gash on his temple. He clutched his lower abdomen, where a bullet had struck, to slow the bleeding. As he got closer, he saw feet pressed against
- [ON THE INSIDE OF MY WINDOWS BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/on-the-inside-of-my-windows-by-jennifer-gurney/) - some days I sit on the inside of my windows grief calling to me, loud other days I venture out into the world grief a quiet whisper some days it’s a blur with grief calling and me covering my ears saying la, la, la, la, la I wish grief had a mute button I want
- [HOW CAN I FILL THIS PAGE BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/how-can-i-fill-this-page-by-jennifer-gurney/) - how can I fill this page when the only words that come freely to mind are hollow I walk through the page as if it isn’t there as if I am not here but truly it is you who are gone
- [LEARNING TO EMBRACE THE AND BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/learning-to-embrace-the-and-by-jennifer-gurney/) - I read a grief tip today learn to embrace the and I can hold two truths at the same time and this is 100% me I miss you so much and you are everywhere I am struggling to accept that you’re gone and I’m flattened by the depth of the pain at your being gone
- [SPEAKING CROW BY WAYNE HEBB](https://theravensperch.com/speaking-crow-by-wayne-hebb/) - CAWWWW, CAWWW I heard the crow call out Several times during the night It woke me from my sleep Though only momentary And I was dreaming again CAWWW, CAWWW It woke me again Annoying crow, Black in the blackness Keeping me from my sleep Shut up! I shouted and I Closed the window to Mute
- [THERSITES, AFTER THE TROJAN WAR ENDS BY ROBERT COOPERMAN](https://theravensperch.com/thersites-after-the-trojan-war-ends-by-robert-cooperman/) - Return to Ithaca after the war? Not bloody likely, with Odysseus beating me like a mired mule when I dared question the wisdom of our oh so lofty kings and princes grabbing all the booty at war’s triumphant end, when we squaddies did the ox-share of the fighting and dying, but bards sing only of
- [BUYING CLOTHES FOR OUR GREAT NEPHEW BY ROBERT COOPERMAN](https://theravensperch.com/buying-clothes-for-our-great-nephew-by-robert-cooperman/) - Because Baby Bruno’s parents are Deadheads, we buy him Dancing Bears tops: laughing bruins tumbling all over each other. We imagine Bruno resplendent in the new shirt he’ll most likely outgrow in a few weeks, so we can buy him something as whimsical: good natured as Jerry before heroin and the heart attack finished him.
- [GOOD RIDDANCE TO OUTSIDERS BY CAROL KANTER](https://theravensperch.com/good-riddance-to-outsiders-by-carol-kanter/) - A fly has dared to intrude upon our home though we live eleven stories high and what’s a crazy fly doing elevating itself so? Every now and then it buzzes by, quieter than a mosquito’s dive-bomb whine, less threatening but pesky. Just as annoying. Besides, we could make the public case that it brings nasty
- [BAMBOOZLE BY CAROL KANTER](https://theravensperch.com/bamboozle-by-carol-kanter/) - A fun word to say, to play around with Tom’s clever way to paint that fence Gullible pals taken under sway while we readers Hooray! But let’s not cheer when brazen leaders prey on compatriots use bald-faced lies, bribes—such blatant sly bamboozlings— and where those fail, stoop to reign through all-out terror. Carol’s poetry
- [JUST BEFORE ELECTION DAY BY TONY REEVY](https://theravensperch.com/just-before-election-day-by-tony-reevy/) - slant sun where a road cuts through the forest leaves burnished brown and falling warm today but cold awaits us and the trees will be gaunt again and bare Tony Reevy’s previous publications include poetry, non-fiction and short fiction, including five non-fiction books and the full books of poetry, Old North, Passage, Socorro, and
- [PACIFIC INCIDENT BY TONY REEVY](https://theravensperch.com/pacific-incident-by-tony-reevy/) - My own morality; my own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me. A small plane drifts overhead, gentle on the breeze. Then, revs up, soars high, dives— guns blaze. Fiberglass fishing boat shatters to shards, chunks of what were men scattered to the sea. Another dive, cannons blare, the last flotsam sinks. The
- [AT THE NEW MONUMENT BY TONY REEVY](https://theravensperch.com/at-the-new-monument-by-tony-reevy/) - Diamond Hill Cemetery still too much wind in the trees gleaming new obelisk at the entrance— Love Hope the old talisman stones are gone but fresh ones cluster at the signpost’s base some pleas the same—cancer and some new— my sanity a mourning dove calls across the humid- thick air from the heavy scrub
- [MYSTERY OF THE LIGHTS BY JOHN GANSHAW](https://theravensperch.com/mystery-of-the-lights-by-john-ganshaw/) - Mystic colors strike my naked skin Beams of warm light penetrate me The power of this unconditional love overcomes me. I’m emboldened to rise and set myself free. Free of the chains that imprisoned me. I now dance to the light emitted by the chandelier hovering over me. The beauty lives and brightens the night.
- [BANGKOK BY JOHN GANSHAW](https://theravensperch.com/bangkok-by-john-ganshaw/) - A blanket of heat and humidity swaddles you like a cold, snowy, wintry night. Holding you so tight that you begin to sweat, pores opening to release the burdens and absorb the new life. The metropolis's skyscrapers, alleyways, and little hidden paved paths surround you. A maze of the unknown, dark, and eerie, invites you
- [AMY BY JOHN GANSHAW](https://theravensperch.com/amy-by-john-ganshaw/) - Times of hardship, when life is far from unknown, I rush back to black. I seek out Amy, my comforting belle. Hearing her voice calms me, with a bourbon in hand, I can breathe again. I don't know why. Brightness always comes in the darkness, and I can’t understand. I tumble farther down the well
- [THE HAPPIEST I’D BEEN IN QUITE A WHILE BY JEFFREY ZABLE](https://theravensperch.com/the-happiest-id-been-in-quite-a-while-by-jeffrey-zable/) - There’s nothing like having a tail wagging, bouncy little dog come up to me on the street, put its legs up on mine and look at me with an adorable, trusting face. And if it could speak, I’d hear it say, “Hi there! I can tell you’re a nice person. You’re welcome to pet me
- [IN MY OWN WAY BY JEFFREY ZABLE](https://theravensperch.com/in-my-own-way-by-jeffrey-zable/) - Neither of my parents were crazy, mean, or bad people but if I had to do it over again, I likely wouldn’t choose either of them. I’d want a more patient, accessible, understanding father, who supported me— was less critical, and accepting of how I was. For my mother I’d choose similar qualities, but in
- [A WALK DOWN MEMORY LANE BY JEFFREY ZABLE](https://theravensperch.com/a-walk-down-memory-lane-by-jeffrey-zable/) - Stopping in front a hair salon that was owned by a woman I had met at a party around forty years ago, and asked for her phone number— who responded, “Sorry, I have a boyfriend!”— I looked in through the window to see if I could recognize her. And sure enough, standing behind the first
- [TALK TO ME BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/talk-to-me-by-jennifer-gurney/) - if you need someone to talk to today talk to me if you’re grieving and the body-blow of loss has flattened the air from your lungs talk to me if you’re confused and seeking clarity from indecision talk to me if your heart is bursting with good news and there’s no one around to toast
- [TURNING IN BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/turning-in-by-jennifer-gurney/) - last night turning in after a very full day I tried to identify this new feeling it seemed familiar yet unique like a childhood sleepover mixed with the start of something exciting tinged with sadness of patina-ed grief, loss noticing how you’re alike and uniquely you and myself as well the same, yet somehow different
- [FALLING IN BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/falling-in-by-jennifer-gurney/) - with the sun on my skin and my thoughts in the clouds I round the bend shifting my gaze to the surface I fall in your serenity seamlessly gliding across only gentle ripples in your wake mesmerized transfixed besotted time suspended a minute a day my heart, my mind, my soul swims with you on
- [THIS MORNING I WANT ANOTHER CUP OF COFFEE BY PENELOPE SCAMBLY SCHOTT](https://theravensperch.com/this-morning-i-want-another-cup-of-coffee-by-penelope-scambly-schott/) - I want the sun to come out. I want world peace. I want my father. I am pouring another cup of coffee. The sun may come out this afternoon. Given the nature of human beings, we will never have world peace. My father is dead, cremated, buried. I will always have my father. We are
- [PHILOSOPHY SEMINAR: FINAL EXAM BY PENELOPE SCAMBLY SCHOTT](https://theravensperch.com/philosophy-seminar-final-exam-by-penelope-scambly-schott/) - What’s all this fuss about death? The common octopus lives only a year or less, and nonetheless, the neurons in her eight legs can sense all she needs for success. Discuss.
- [DECADES AFTER READING A CHILD’S BIG BOOK OF EXPLORERS, THE NO-LONGER-YOUNG WOMAN SAILS TO CAPE HORN](https://theravensperch.com/decades-after-reading-a-childs-big-book-of-explorers-the-no-longer-young-woman-sails-to-cape-horn/) - Here in the Southern Ocean where waves of the Atlantic and Pacific crash, a great albatross circles and circles with its twelve-foot wingspan. This woman who won’t believe in immortal souls discovers she’s willing to believe that the spirits of dead mariners rise on the black-rimmed wings of the albatross, this bird who resides in
- [EGG HUNT IN DUFUR PARK ON THE SATURDAY BEFORE EASTER BY PENELOPE SCAMBLY SCHOTT](https://theravensperch.com/egg-hunt-in-dufur-park-on-the-saturday-before-easter-by-penelope-scambly-schott/) - Today the sky is writing a poem about blue. Today the mountain is writing a poem about white. Today the lawn is writing its poem about green and yellow and pink and turquoise and lavender as toddlers toddle over grass hunting for plastic Easter eggs to plop into buckets and baskets, and even if a
- [ABSTRACT 1 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-1-by-jennifer-gurney-9/)
- [ABSTRACT II BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-ii-by-jennifer-gurney-2/)
- [ABSTRACT III BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-iii-by-jennifer-gurney-2/)
- [ABSTRACT IV BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-iv-by-jennifer-gurney-2/)
- [ABSTRACT V BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-v-by-jennifer-gurney/)
- [IMPRECISELY PARALLEL BY HEATHER HALLBERG YANDA](https://theravensperch.com/imprecisely-parallel-by-heather-hallberg-yanda/) - How humble this task, stacking wood. I lay the foundation row, make the imprecise logs imprecisely parallel. Light splays across my shoulders, when the windows splice sunlight and sunlight. I love the order, nest log atop log, my actions precise. I love the weight in wrist,
- [FROM A ROOT, AN ERRANT SEED BY HEATHER HALLBERG YANDA](https://theravensperch.com/from-a-root-an-errant-seed-by-heather-hallberg-yanda/) - How gratifying, the good work of splitting wood: all of the muscles in the shoulders’ globes making their proper rotations; all the body’s woven fibers doing their tag-team work from the upper arm to lower arm, wrist, and hand. A sort of tinder exists as the body moves, heating up, owning the time, till the
- [WHAT I WOULD TELL YOU BY DON MONAGHAN](https://theravensperch.com/what-i-would-tell-you-by-don-monaghan/) - Is that the heart is aimless; a bare place until it’s filled, and how some of us simply won’t be fooled by the intermittent magic of happiness. Admittedly, this is a poor start to a love poem, but I wanted to explain first how things go wrong, that there is no way to keep cruelty
- [CLEAR DARK BY DON MONAGHAN](https://theravensperch.com/clear-dark-by-don-monaghan/) - It's the absence of city lights and haze that allows the night to take everything but the soft din of the lake, yet scatters the sky with more than only the brightest celestial bodies; it's like that, though I admit wishing a full moon hung rather than a waning crescent, believing it's cast, even in
- [NOON SUN STUCK IN TREES BY RALPH MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/noon-sun-stuck-in-trees-by-ralph-macioci/)
- [LIGHTNING THE CLOUDS BY RALPH MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/lightning-the-clouds-by-ralph-macioci/)
- [ESCAPING SUNSET BY RALPH MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/escaping-sunset-by-ralph-macioci/)
- [DOGWOOD BLOSSOMS BY RALPH MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/dogwood-blossoms-by-ralph-macioci/)
- [THE WINDOWPANE BY K.D. BARAKAT](https://theravensperch.com/the-windowpane-by-k-d-barakat/) - A single windowpane called to me, Through a velvety furniture maze In the fancy living room Do not touch Do not sit on those fine things Swirls about my busy mind I ignore this voice Floating to the soft wingback chair. The heavy, expensive curtain drapes down A king’s curtain to the floor The trauma
- [SEND IN THE CLOWNS BY K.D. BARAKAT](https://theravensperch.com/send-in-the-clowns-by-k-d-barakat/) - Judy Collins did you pass today? Why must the indie radio play your sorrowful tune? As I drive under dreary New Year Day’s skies, Along the Connecticut shore. My sister was that clown Was she eight? In a hand -ewn costume The little pointy hat on top Face paint much too grown up for her
- [A FATHER REACHING THROUGH THE SPACE CONTINUUM BY K.D. BARAKAT](https://theravensperch.com/a-father-reaching-through-the-space-continuum-by-k-d-barakat/) - This was father… I said, Reach! Reach further! Through the thick space and time The continuum. You can reach us! But over the years, He retracted his enormous hands, He curled his index finger back And turned Walking thoughtfully in the flowering garden, Touching the fragrant, yellow jasmine vine that I gave him on Father’s
- [NIGHT-LONG DREAM BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/night-long-dream-by-jennifer-gurney/) - night-long dream my plane's fate unknown surreally, I waited for news wakening to this new day grateful when awake obvious it was a dream in the night, so real now I'll remember for future dreams the dead don't wait only the survivors long for the hope of a miracle Jennifer Gurney lives in Colorado
- [BADASS BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/badass-by-jennifer-gurney/) - When I was a kid I felt like a badass Riding my bike no-handed When I was a teenager I felt like a badass Getting my license When I was in college I felt like a badass Riding on the back of my boyfriend’s motorcycle When I was a parent I left like a badass
- [THOUGHTS OF YOU GREET ME BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/thoughts-of-you-greet-me-by-jennifer-gurney/) - thoughts of you greet me with each new day one day further from your presence here yet, missing you grows stronger with each day passed thoughts of you hover near as each day draws closed one day further from your presence here yet, with each day passed missing you grows stronger thoughts of you fill
- [A VOICE IN THE CHOIR BY RICHARD ERIC JOHNSON](https://theravensperch.com/a-voice-in-the-choir-by-richard-eric-johnson/) - start with silence all eyes on director begin and blend horns strings drums organ sing sing sing Allelujah Chorus maybe Battle Hymn sing sing sing sweat beneath the robes heart rate rising oxygen levels depleting sing sing sing keep singing rhythm tempo crescendo decrescendo ignore distractions concentrate sweat sweat sweat heart pounding oxygen screaming sing
- [ABOUT REMAINS BY RICHARD ERIC JOHNSON](https://theravensperch.com/about-remains-by-richard-eric-johnson/) - after catastrophe some say there are no words soul maybe we turn Allah Lord Jesus Buddha etcetera time is a propellant moves us forward reluctantly or with fortitude can take us back as well maybe we find a semblance of grace and we survive in silence spoken words or song while memory remains Richard
- [BREASTS BY PAT OWEN](https://theravensperch.com/breasts-by-pat-owen/) - My little sister said you’re getting hair down there. Flushed, I said I know hoping she’d disappear. How unfair and beyond my control. My body had become full of so much I had to hide-- explorations in the dark. I imagined pounding my small breasts to make them disappear. I didn’t want to become my
- [A PIROUETTE POEM TAKES A TURN BY NANCY HASKETT](https://theravensperch.com/a-pirouette-poem-takes-a-turn-by-nancy-haskett/) - The president dances beside the microphone the war is going well, no reason to doubt him, while people wave their signs while people wave their signs cars honk in loud support, in thousands of cities millions of protesters attend No Kings rallies to save democracy A retired educator, Nancy Haskett’s work has been seen
- [IT SEEMS SO FAMILIAR BY NANCY HASKETT](https://theravensperch.com/it-seems-so-familiar-by-nancy-haskett/) - It was a neighborhood street scene, something that might have been an illustration in Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn, large houses set back from a dirt road lined with trees, picket fences, a narrow brick sidewalk, a scene from the late 19th century, but it looked so familiar to me I couldn’t stop staring at
- [GRATITUDE BY NANCY HASKETT](https://theravensperch.com/gratitude-by-nancy-haskett/) - Lost passports in Dublin, found by a stranger, taken to a Garda station, placed in a safe, handed back to us with smiles. A young man in Glasgow, approached us from behind, picked up our too-big suitcases, smiled, then flew down the long flight of stairs, deposited them at the bottom, never said a word,
- [THE INVISIBILITY OF SCARS BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/the-invisibility-of-scars-by-jennifer-gurney/) - to you my scars of being a two-time survivor were invisible yes you knew my story and you loved me through it all and incredulously to you my scars were invisible you truly saw me as I was before 42 years ago free brave whole your death last summer left a hole in me not
- [REFLECTING ON THE DAY IN MY OWN TENDER HEART BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/reflecting-on-the-day-in-my-own-tender-heart-by-jennifer-gurney/) - every time we’d host a party afterward, we’d reflect after the food was stored the dishes were done the house was tidied we’d sit on the couch to reflect together sharing the parts we’d enjoyed the most we’d bask in the glow of shared friendship and family and soak up the lingering warmth yesterday after
- [BEAUTY WAITS FOR ME BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/beauty-waits-for-me-by-jennifer-gurney/) - looking in the mirror I catch a glimpse of beauty, forgotten when I am smiling at the lyrics to a favorite song forgetting for a half-second that you are gone and my smile reaches my eyes again and those crinkle lines appear beside my eyes and the joy that lives, still deep in my heart
- [MATCH MEETS WICK BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/match-meets-wick-by-jennifer-gurney/) - the scent of pine as match meets wick sends me to Christmases of childhood at Grandma’s house into the canyons on the Harley with you into the forest on the way to the lake pine wafts upstairs with me after the candle is snuffed pulls down the covers and tucks me in safe, secure pine
- [HOPEFUL HINTS (2026) BY WILLIAM S. KILGORE](https://theravensperch.com/hopeful-hints-2026-by-william-s-kilgore/) - Eyelids shut tightly, squeezing eyeballs hungry for dominant cavern blackness, gradually crawling forward, the absence of light. [anticipatory
- [EIGHT LEGS (2026) BY WILLIAM S. KILGORE](https://theravensperch.com/eight-legs-2026-by-william-s-kilgore/) - Sudden silk lightly engulfs a face engulfed in darkness, known, even absent light, what is transpiring. Horrific strands rapidly ripped away, seconds like an eternity, a fearful question inspired: Where's it at? Sometimes, I think maybe it's an inside joke among arachnids, leaving webs hanging in attics and basements, snickering whenever humans run into them,
- [SKIPPING ROPE (2025) BY WILLIAM S. KILGORE](https://theravensperch.com/23634-2/) - I recall girls' chants while skipping rope, while we boys played ball on the lawn, angering wasps as we'd abscond, simple pole-fishing, simple field ponds. Then ... someone waved a magic wand, a spell with concrete trucks and wires, in theaters with Indy and Mike Myers, suburban homes, for new home buyers. Burgeoning changes began
- [LINES WRITTEN IN SPRINGBY LUCIA HAASE](https://theravensperch.com/lines-written-in-springby-lucia-haase/) - Oh…the wonder of it- this robin’s song… a testament of rebirth all day long. In measured notes and morning lighted eyes, the world needs to know this under blossomed skies. Cherry blossoms starlike in a winded glow capture fragrances branched, swinging low. Awesomeness to mark his trilling way midst each zephyr drifting this bright day
- [SCIENCE LESSON BY PHYLLIS MANNAN](https://theravensperch.com/science-lesson-by-phyllis-mannan/) - Alone next to the sidewalk, the gooseberry bush with iridescent, teardrop fruit, protected by thorns, doesn’t need a partner. The Fuyu persimmon in our garden flaunts orange globes on its bare limbs, brilliant in October. If you cut off the tomato-like top, scoop out its soft flesh, and plop the sweet goodness into your mouth,
- [OUTSIDE THE WINDOW BY PHYLLIS MANNAN](https://theravensperch.com/outside-the-window-by-phyllis-mannan/) - Dry snowflakes swarm like bees around a trellis of bare grape and wisteria vines. The white frenzy could stir any thoughts, but it brings back memories of my first boyfriend: We run through a field after a friend’s party, holding hands in moonlight … He smiles across the band room, takes up his drum sticks.
- [THE PAST IS A LATE-WINTER GARDEN BY PHYLLIS MANNAN](https://theravensperch.com/the-past-is-a-late-winter-garden-by-phyllis-mannan/) - Which is to say, old mistakes and disappointments lie buried under layers of leaves or brown snow. It doesn’t matter that the boyfriend who dropped you after sophomore year of college didn’t love you. Or that the plaster Indian head you bought at the county fair that looked so perfect in the shadowy light, at
- [FREED BY DISSONANCE BY TRACY AHRENS](https://theravensperch.com/freed-by-dissonance-by-tracy-ahrens/) - I saw heaven in the habitat before me. In stillness I surveyed scenery. Soundly, you slept. Uneasy, I explored with soft eyes. Studies enlightened me. You sensed it; tectonic plates shifted. My fingertips crept up mountains and into valleys. They wove through paper white birch stubble; a ghost forest, echoing lacerating verbiage. My lips scraped
- [WHEN CHERRY BLOSSOMS BLOOM LUCIA HAASE](https://theravensperch.com/when-cherry-blossoms-bloom-lucia-haase/) - Into the new-born light they sing amidst a dawning sky of blue. Into this morning’s ease they ring, winded bells of blushing hue. Let not a mortal word be said. Just savor every bloom instead. Now breathes a symphony this hour, a world awakened in quiet song. There is the power of each flower that
- [IN TIME WITH YOUR OWN BY TERESA A. PANAGOS](https://theravensperch.com/in-time-with-your-own-by-teresa-a-panagos/) - The future is in the depths of your dark brown eyes Each success, stumble, stop and start takes my breath away Like the wind moving a leaf, I am carried to each high Each low. You are strong and fierce. Your unwavering loyalty to friends sets you apart Your gentle heart, buried all too often,
- [TOP SECRET BY MARK THALMAN](https://theravensperch.com/top-secret-by-mark-thalman/) - Travis has already been moved at the semester and third quarter from two other teachers on the English staff. Now, administration thinks it’s my turn to give him a “fresh” start. He comes to school to take up space and see his friends. He is unprepared and doesn’t care. He has no intention on bringing
- [BLUETS BY ALAN CATLIN](https://theravensperch.com/bluets-by-alan-catlin/) - 1- Drinking tea outdoors beneath a blue umbrella 2- The blue hour before nightfall and the rain 3- Café doors open: inside someone sings the Blues Alan Catlin has a recent full-length book of poems out from Roadside Press: Work Anxiety Poems and another on he way from Shelia Na Gig Editions: Still Life
- [WHAT THE INDUS RIVER DOLPHIN HEARS BY YVONNE HIGGINS LEACH](https://theravensperch.com/what-the-indus-river-dolphin-hears-by-yvonne-higgins-leach/) - Look at how the Indus River dolphin brought itself back from extinction. It can happen. They live in sound. Nearly blind, they hunt the murky river waters, echolating day and night, a sonic existence, blissful, in an audio way. They ask: Where, again. Where, again. Where. Bats and whales, companions in sound— echoes of space,
- [THE PSYCHIC RUINS MY BELIEF IN THE AFTERLIFE BY YVONNE HIGGINS LEACH](https://theravensperch.com/the-psychic-ruins-my-belief-in-the-afterlife-by-yvonne-higgins-leach/) - The candle sweats between us. The psychic names the dead I once loved as if reading anonymous obituaries. My high school friend Joe who often won the 400 in the track meet after a night of partying — flung like a rag from the Volkswagen Bug outside Cle Elum now paces the seam between worlds,
- [ALLEGIANCE BY YVONNE HIGGINS LEACH](https://theravensperch.com/allegiance-by-yvonne-higgins-leach/) - To throw magic around hunters: the fox knows the forest better than fear does, double back tracking its trail to confuse the blood-thirsty hounds, to outsmart the tracker’s own feet. Deer zigzag escape routes, wildly turning the hunter’s map into a maze. In the shadows and moving slowly, the bear crosses pines where the footprints
- [A CONTEMPLATION OF WORK AND COURAGE BY DR. JOHN A. WILDE](https://theravensperch.com/a-contemplation-of-work-and-courage-by-dr-john-a-wilde/) - Having recently turned 79, and as a survivor of 11 surgeries (including two kidney transplants, a brace of knee replacements, a cardiac bypass, and a spinal fusion procedure), this seems a propitious time to reflect on the adventure that has been my life. (It seems unwise to delay much longer!) And in the tranquil and
- [SOUR TASTE BY LORRAINE JEFFERY](https://theravensperch.com/sour-taste-by-lorraine-jeffery/) - My arms were enough when you were afraid, to save you from the big dog and his bite. Small hurts could be healed with sweet lemonade. I walked you to school and saw that you stayed, when fearful, comforted you through the night. My arms were enough when you were afraid. Soon grown, you strode
- [NEW WORLD BY LORRAINE JEFFERY](https://theravensperch.com/new-world-by-lorraine-jeffery/) - Jarred by the harsh sounds of English; she was confused by unknown smells and the touch of a new caretaker. Critically ill in the Korean orphanage, she had struggled, but now, in our home, her fevered cheeks had cooled. Some mornings when I reached for my tiny new daughter, she cooed and smiled; but other
- [THE DRAMA TEACHER READS POETRY BY LORRAINE JEFFERY](https://theravensperch.com/the-drama-teacher-reads-poetry-by-lorraine-jeffery/) - The Congo - Vachel Lindsay Drowsy Oregon drizzle fogs classroom windows as Arnold slinks to the back for a morning nap and Sandra’s crinoline leg-brushes the hot guy, as she sashays through the jungle of desks and giggles, sitting with the cool clique, pretending to feel less awkward than the rest of us. Mr. Zimmerman
- [RELIVING BY HANNAH RYDER](https://theravensperch.com/reliving-by-hannah-ryder/) - Joe has a penchant for disappearing. This makes the employees at the places he frequents in Roscommon uneasy. He has no family and is nearing his mid-eighties. More paranoid people fear he’s tripped over his monstrously furry cats and has broken a hip. But he always shows up to the Sunny Spot for lotto, the
- [ONE ROOM BY BRANDON CURRY](https://theravensperch.com/one-room-by-brandon-curry/) - As I sit in a café not far from home, A divided nation sharing one room. In a world that lets skin color define us, My heart grieves for those who would divide us. What I see are faces — unburdened by borders. What I hear are voices — unpolluted by poison. I see a
- [BEE’S GOLD BY BRANDON CURRY](https://theravensperch.com/bees-gold-by-brandon-curry/) - What is honey? Ask young, ask old. What is honey, if not the bee’s gold? But honey is never something so simple. It is the full moon on an October night. The sudden blessing of empty space on a crowded flight. It is warm sand when the wind forgets its bite. The taste of defeat
- [STRIKE THE MATCH BY BRANDON CURRY](https://theravensperch.com/strike-the-match-by-brandon-curry/) - There comes a moment when even the strongest frame begins to confess. After enough pressure, enough hidden fractures, the beams begin to bow, the foundation shifts — first slightly, then all at once. You can brace the walls, patch what shows, paint over the cracks and call it repaired. Or you can strike the match.
- [STAR CROSS (1953) BY LAURENCE CARR](https://theravensperch.com/star-cross-1953-by-laurence-carr/) - Mona stood behind the linoleum-covered counter cutting the strawberry rhubarb pie into eight perfect wedges that reminded her of moist linen. It was yesterday’s pie and just beginning to shift its color from tired dusty rose to an even more unappetizing dusty gray that would slide so easily into Mona’s black and white world. To
- [B&W 1 By JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/bw-2-by-jennifer-gurney-3/)
- [B&W 2 By JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/bw-2-by-jennifer-gurney-2/)
- [B&W 3 By Jennifer Gurney](https://theravensperch.com/bw-3-by-jennifer-gurney-2/)
- [B&W 4 By Jennifer Gurney](https://theravensperch.com/bw-4-by-jennifer-gurney-2/)
- [AND STILL IT SNOWS BY STEVE DEUTSCH](https://theravensperch.com/and-still-it-snows-by-steve-deutsch/) - My ancestors prayed their faithful hearts out in a little shul in the Steppes. Prayed to their god of gods in a language as old as the civilization they hoped their prayers might heal. And still it snowed. Snow over the roof and through a window they could no longer close. It covered the floor
- [CONTRAST STEVE DEUTSCH](https://theravensperch.com/contrast-steve-deutsch/) - I wake long before dawn. How is it only bad habits grow old? Icy windows groan, and it is almost as cold inside as out. A few lights flicker on in this tiny town we once made prosper— small needs ministered by a cluster of shops around a single traffic light, that might as well
- [THE NEPHILIM BY KATIE FARLEY](https://theravensperch.com/the-nephilim-by-katie-farley/) - We turn and walk away from the casket. We never thought it wise to gaze on the face of someone who is no longer there. There’s no stopping it now. The betrayal has passed as a fistful of coin from one woman’s hand to another. Silence falls like a cloak around them, heads bent as
- [SHAPESHIFTER BY KATIE FARLEY](https://theravensperch.com/shapeshifter-by-katie-farley/) - Your duties were light, you were spoiled a little, but the holes in the soles of your shoes told me you were willing. Dark nights on watch for mornings that came and never soon enough. We’d break up the fire scatter the dirt and ash. You fear the dragons and I tell you, “They can’t
- [THE MOTHER BY ANDREW PELFINI](https://theravensperch.com/the-mother-by-andrew-pelfini/) - The yellow Formica table with the silver rim and matching chairs looked almost new because that was the way she kept her house. She dished out a ladle of broth, the same ladle she brought from San Francisco to the suburbs in 1948, thirty-one years now in her home. Even the soup pot, with a
- [HAVE A GREAT SUMMER BY JOANNE JAGODA](https://theravensperch.com/have-a-great-summer-by-joanne-jagoda/) - I clutched the stupid cotton gown that never closed he entered in a whoosh, his assistant hovering in his familiar khakis and suede shoes he checked me quickly listened and tapped squeezed and felt my breasts and under my arms asked a few questions, mumbled my stomach roiled fighting back tears that wanted to fall
- [DOES ANYONE REMEMBER MARGO? BY JOANNE JAGODA](https://theravensperch.com/does-anyone-remember-margo-by-joanne-jagoda/) - A Sunday Outing, 1929 A photo tucked in an old album, a moment preserved in time, like an insect set in amber… a youth group outing, in the busy Hamburg harbor— quiet, sleepy, a summer Sunday afternoon. The girls with bobbed hair in the latest flapper style tanned arms in charming sundresses. Sporty boys in
- [WHERE’S THE STRIKE ZONE? BY GIL ARZOLA](https://theravensperch.com/wheres-the-strike-zone-by-gil-arzola/) - Before a softball game a coach instructs his team of six to nine-year old girls. He has gathered them at the field an hour and a half before the game hoping to solve one of the many problems he’s had the first two games of the season. It is a town league in northwest Indiana
- [FIRE IN IPSWICH BY NIALL MCGRATH](https://theravensperch.com/fire-in-ipswich-by-niall-mcgrath/) - (Alice Driver, executed, November 1558) A fortnight before the unfortunate woman’s passing a defiant pair knelt on a bundle of kindling and prayed until bailiffs insisted they have done. Alice showed the same courage when they placed a chain around her neck as when she stood in the dock and scolded university cocks who had
- [MUSINGS OF YOU AROUND AN EMPTY HOUSE BY MARY E. MITCHELL](https://theravensperch.com/musings-of-you-around-an-empty-house/) - You are the unnecessary pillow I cram into a pillowcase. Who needs four pillows for one head? You are the head of cauliflower left too long in the refrigerator. Eventually it must be let go. You’re the egg I scramble, Cracked open, whipped, Messed around with until you Coagulate into something else. You are the
- [WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU’RE FACING DEATH BY MARY E. MITCHELL](https://theravensperch.com/what-to-do-when-youre-facing-death-by-mary-e-mitchell/) - Morning Joe is a good place to start. Turn it on and listen to him describe politicians as men banging on their highchair trays. Bang on your highchair tray. A tantrum is in order when you’re spitting up blood, when they tell you your killer is now in your lymph nodes. Eat pizza and yell
- [BARBERTON DAISY BY ZECHEN DUAN](https://theravensperch.com/barberton-daisy-by-zechen-duan/) - I come from Madagascar. My pedals burn with sunrise gold, blush with sunset’s crimson fold. My stem priming with heat of equator, in the sun’s glamour my pistils glow. I dwell in valleys deep and wide, greeting dawns and dusks with pride. Clouds gathering -- I bloom instead, for petals rise like suns ahead. Rain
- [TELESCOPE FOR SALE BY JENNA BEEBE](https://theravensperch.com/telescope-for-sale-by-jenna-beebe/) - Telescope for sale – Orion ED80 refractor – $200 – Reduced price Great condition. I always took good care of it. I’ll throw in the travel bag I got for it plus the solar filter my wife got me for my birthday last year. Only used the filter once so it’s in good shape too.
- [COURTYARD IN SEPIA BY RALPH MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/courtyard-in-sepia-by-ralph-macioci/)
- [IT'S SPRING IT'S NO APRIL FOOL BY RALPH MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/its-spring-its-no-april-fool-by-ralph-macioci/)
- [HYDRANGEA SOLITUDE BY RALPH MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/hydrangea-solitude-by-ralph-macioci/)
- [STARING OUT THE WINDOW BY RALPH MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/staring-out-the-window-by-ralph-macioci/)
- [FULL BLOSSOMS BY RALPH MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/full-blossoms-by-ralph-macioci/)
- [FROSTY’S FIRST BUCK BY DR. JOHN A. WILDE](https://theravensperch.com/frostys-first-buck-by-dr-john-a-wilde/) - October 8, 2011, was the coldest opening day of any Illinois Youth Deer Season I’ve hunted. And as a then sixty-five-year-old father of four and grandfather of nine, with all kith and kin living within forty miles of me, I’ve experienced many. Throughout the four generations of family I’ve known—my grandfather, my father (who harvested
- [ALL WE HAVE IS OUR SOUL BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/all-we-have-is-our-soul-by-jennifer-gurney/) - as we endeavour to live in a world quickly filling with hate and injustice when each day’s headlines stick in our craw and the present and future look bleaker and bleaker because they are and demonstrations swell while laws are enacted stripping basic rights and dignity along with it and it is all-too-tempting to give
- [I MISS LIBRARIES BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/i-miss-libraries-by-jennifer-gurney/) - I miss libraries you know when it was quiet and you could think versus now when it’s like McDonald’s playland with screaming children and checked-out parents scrolling on their phone instead of reading to their kids what’s weird is that even the librarians shout to each other I miss libraries you know when it was
- [THE PATH STRETCHES OUT BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/the-path-stretches-out-by-jennifer-gurney/) - the path stretches out in front of me and all I need to do is walk solid earth beneath limitless sky above all between is life your teal blue surface from shore to shore to shore mirroring the sky hillside on your shore I remember walks to you as we became friends I sit silently
- [WHAT’S SO HARD BY CYNTHIA FAUST](https://theravensperch.com/whats-so-hard-by-cynthia-faust/) - The stack of last year’s greeting cards shifted under the clutter of sales receipts and bank statements and slid toward the edge of Jane’s desk. Reflexively her right arm swept forward to catch the pile of papers as it had done years ago to prevent whichever child was riding shotgun from going through the windshield
- [HOME BY LAUREN WIENER](https://theravensperch.com/home-by-lauren-wiener/) - Drip, drip, drip the sound of waste our natural resources depleting have we squandered our thoughts of endlessness we have taken this little blue globe for granted not giving ensuring imploring her due process only our own she is finally speaking up her voice no longer subdued by the weight of humanity the littleness of
- [LATELY BY LAUREN WIENER](https://theravensperch.com/lately-by-lauren-wiener/) - Loose cannons flood the ether barrage with no breaths unraveling of wayward threads tugging with uncertainty manifested mayhem no one at the helm rudderless misaligned priorities misguided notions perpetuates free wheeling dealing that dictates a spiraling into dubious quagmires.
- [WINTERS’ RIGHT BY LAUREN WIENER](https://theravensperch.com/winters-right-by-lauren-wiener/) - Dankness hangs in a heaviness that foreshadows our ivory sojourn rotund menacing figures intending to bruise our fragile interiors her chill pierces our knowingness weaving her imposing intentions blanketing us with numbing white erupting winds play in fortissimo we witness her intense velocity boldly declaring her visibility constructs of freshly fallen pearls of conformity icicles
- [STATE OF MIND BY LAUREN WIENER](https://theravensperch.com/state-of-mind-by-lauren-wiener/) - Talk talk talk and talk some more what policy coherence whereabouts meanderings misheard what is demonstrably true lies flow with abandon underbelly of distraction unable to make the deal of the century fragmented scraps of unjust reasoning make sense to the only one lacking in our commonality trust that lost its arrow in the sling
- [HELD IN THE EMBRACE OF MOONLIGHT BY R. NIKOLAS MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/held-in-the-embrace-of-moonlight-by-r-nikolas-macioci/) - It's 3:00 AM, another sleepless night. I twist to a sitting position on the side of the bed, leave a tangle of bedsheets and blankets behind me. Shuffling through a dark hallway to my study, I flop onto a cushioned chair, face my walnut, spinet desk on which an open journal lies. A shaft of
- [STREETS BENEATH THUNDER BY R. NIKOLAS MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/streets-beneath-thunder-by-r-nikolas-macioci/) - I longed for a season without a storm, because one always brewed within our house when I was a child on Hinman Avenue. Even at six years old I sensed tension between Mom and Dad, but I didn't realize their struggles would end in divorce. We owned a very successful confectionery on Barthman Avenue, deep
- [THE JUKEBOX AMONG THE TREES BY R. NIKOLAS MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/the-jukebox-among-the-trees-by-r-nikolas-macioci/) - Edgewater Park seemed a hundred miles away when I was eight years old, and would travel there with my mom and dad to attend our family reunion. Located along the banks of Big Walnut Creek, the park was situated in a woods with a few open spaces and a playing field. As an adult, I
- [ABSTRACT 4 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-4-by-jennifer-gurney-9/)
- [ABSTRACT 1 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-1-by-jennifer-gurney-8/)
- [ABSTRACT 2 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-2-by-jennifer-gurney-9/)
- [ABSTRACT 3 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-3-by-jennifer-gurney-9/)
- [ABSTRACT 5 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-5-by-jennifer-gurney-8/)
- [LAST FACEBOOK STANDING BY RACHEL REMICK](https://theravensperch.com/last-facebook-standing-by-rachel-remick/) - Yorkie Stoddard was my most recent friend, but I’m not sure she counts in the real world. Listen to me, “in the real world.” Or should I say IRL. Like reality matters. The same folks who use such initialisms believe their online lives are the only ones that mean anything. What I’m saying is she
- [BROWNSTONE FUNERAL BY KATHY RAYMOND](https://theravensperch.com/brownstone-funeral-by-kathy-raymond/) - At first it felt eerie to celebrate the life of a friend whose photo was on a heavy slab of brownstone from a nearby quarry. Two other slabs were engraved with dinosaur paw prints. The place looked like a vandalized graveyard instead of a park. By hand we wrote our favorite memories on strips of
- [POETS IN THE SWAMPS BY KATHY RAYMOND](https://theravensperch.com/poets-in-the-swamps-by-kathy-raymond/) - I see pungent skunk cabbage all the way down the boardwalk. Layers of feelings stink. Mosquitoes rub wings next to my ears; I want my pen to bite back. Cattails are lined up like microphones. Red-winged blackbird rants and then I remember reading how Robert Frost ran away to the Dismal Swamp to confront his
- [ANOTHER POEM FOR MY PROFESSOR BY KATHY RAYMOND](https://theravensperch.com/another-poem-for-my-professor-by-kathy-raymond/) - There’s a memorial bench with your name on it in a park teeming with roses. If I found it and sat there I’d probably work myself into a dry drunk by recalling our long lunches together and the stacks of poems you inspired me to write and then patiently read. I was as hooked on
- [MY PRAYER FOR UKRAINE BY KATHY RAYMOND](https://theravensperch.com/my-prayer-for-ukraine-by-kathy-raymond/) - Plant rows of sunflower seeds instead of randomly shot bullets in the fields You crafted in Ukraine. Stop screaming missiles and smoke so the sun at its brightest yellow can silently reign in a clear blue sky. Feed the hollow bellies of children with heaps of hearty pierogis. Don't let anymore grownups know the taste
- [SPACE CAPSULE BY CHRIS DAHL](https://theravensperch.com/space-capsule-by-chris-dahl/) - Not a receptacle but still we can use it to hold a certain construction of memories, the year the word roadie became official, the year we landed a man on the moon and countdowns became famous. After Woodstock, after the riots and assassinations of ’68, we were ready for an excuse to cheer. Some of
- [CPR BY CHRIS DAHL](https://theravensperch.com/cpr-by-chris-dahl/) - I exhale into the body. I blow again, more forcefully. I chase down the corridor of breath but the chest does not rise. I try tipping the forehead back and pinching the nostrils shut. My hands are too small. Desperately, I will the lungs to inflate. Perhaps I’ve been given an imperfect mannequin. Am I
- [AS CLOSE AS I COME TO CONSOLATION BY CHRIS DAHL](https://theravensperch.com/as-close-as-i-come-to-consolation-by-chris-dahl/) - Two nursery catalogs and a condolence arrive in today’s mail— a good ratio: two peachy-purple promises of spring to a single inky rendering of water suggesting eternity. Why do we assign pleasure to only certain of nature’s forms, wisteria and windswept stretches of beach? Why do we believe these things beautiful and value them above
- [COMPOSITION IN UNDERSTORY BY CHRIS DAHL](https://theravensperch.com/composition-in-understory-by-chris-dahl/) - For Thomas A. Thomas Thomas posts his photo of two fern fronds, matched, with corners angled, almost touching. They form a small spade of emptiness at the center of the image. A spade that pierces and digs. Light and shadow, light and shadow, clamor the professionals. There’s plenty of that in the green sheen on
- [LENNY'S STORY BY DAVID SUMMERS](https://theravensperch.com/lennys-story-by-david-summers/) - After an hour in that little chapel, its air conditioning going full blast, being outside was a relief. The day was warm and sunny, so we stopped at this cafe on a quiet street with outdoor seating. It was almost noon, but nobody was hungry. All we wanted was a place where the three of
- [DISGUISE BY CLAIRE SCOTT](https://theravensperch.com/disguise-by-claire-scott/) - I wear a disguise that looks just like me that’s the point no one can tell I am a person trying to imitate a person that left long ago Claire Scott is an award-winning poet who has received multiple Pushcart Prize nominations. Her work has appeared in the Atlanta Review, Bellevue Literary Review, New
- [TWO WORLDS BY CLAIRE SCOTT](https://theravensperch.com/two-worlds-by-claire-scott/) - She faded away not because he turned to look the myth has it all wrong she didn’t walk behind him out of deference or misplaced misogyny but out of ambiguity pulled by both worlds the bounteous world of grains and flowers and the stygian world of wandering shades where she walked with her ancestors she
- [A NEW LANGUAGE BY CLAIRE SCOTT](https://theravensperch.com/a-new-language-by-claire-scott/) - Do we need a new language words perverted by politics misused, tinged with dark bruises like rotting apples weaponized, like the word woke slicing our country in two words used as dog whistles communicating in code such as the number 88 (H the eighth letter of the alphabet HH referring to Heil Hitler) the sting
- [SAY A CHILD BY CLAIRE SCOTT](https://theravensperch.com/say-a-child-by-claire-scott/) - Say a midnight owl hoots a helicopter hovers a coyote slinks past headstones in a night of PJs and false promises say a mother drains scotch to forget her heart’s holler say she leaves contrails of hurt no hugs, no sandwiches for school a knife on the counter a paddle in the drawer Say a
- [THE LIGHT THAT DRAWS ME BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/the-light-that-draws-me-by-jennifer-gurney/) - I close my eyes and see a blackened doorway with light bursting through the edges I am drawn toward the light pulsating with energy with the single question beckoning what life lies behind that single darkened doorway what joy would reveal itself if I were to turn the doorknob would the two dancing flames be
- [I LONG FOR THE DAY BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/i-long-for-the-day-by-jennifer-gurney/) - I long for the day when each morning can begin with meditation and writing with no alarm to rise no schedule to follow no clock to wind just the longings of a single heart falling onto the page drip by drop alongside my tears cleansing my soul
- [DREAMING OF SPRING BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/dreaming-of-spring-by-jennifer-gurney/) - right about now in mid-February I start dreaming of spring the first crocus harkening new growth new life the birds beginning to make their nests in the nearby trees for their eggs about to be laid the trees starting to bud with the hope of new life the smell of rain in the air even
- [BONFIRE’S EMBERS BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/bonfires-embers-by-jennifer-gurney/) - writing in the dark morning by candlelight and shadows the mysteries of life are somehow closer at hand pixie dust conjoined with fireflies rising from the bonfire’s embers
- [LIVING COLOR BY CHRISTINE ANDERSEN](https://theravensperch.com/living-color-by-christine-andersen/) - My father brought home the first color TV on the block in 1959. It was a monster of a thing— a square, heavy wooden box on thick legs with a relatively small screen— flat on the top, curved on both sides— and a row of round knobs to adjust the volume and change channels. Rabbit-ear
- [THE CORPSE FLOWER BY CHRISTINE ANDERSEN](https://theravensperch.com/the-corpse-flower-by-christine-andersen/) - Amorphophallus titanium: The Corpse Flower, dormant for 10 years, opens its eight-foot petals, blood-red on the inside, green without, a single phallic-shaped leaf rising 20 feet from the center, stench of rotting flesh in the 48-hour bloom to attract pollinators. A queue along the sidewalk shuffles into the campus greenhouse all day and evening at
- [THE MASCOT BY CHRISTINE ANDERSEN](https://theravensperch.com/the-mascot-by-christine-andersen/) - Isadora Duncan. Pioneer of Modern Dance. Survivor of an impoverished childhood. A bohemian, feminist, Darwinist, communist, an advocate of free love with two children born out of wedlock. She loved her oversized red scarf, danced with it, tossed it over her shoulders, let it trail behind her like a banner of courage for a woman
- [AMELIA’S BONES BY CHRISTINE ANDERSEN](https://theravensperch.com/amelias-bones-by-christine-andersen/) - First they were her bones, then they weren’t, and now they are again. Found in the Pacific on the island of Nikumaroro in 1940, said to be the remains of a man instead of the first woman to fly across the Atlantic in ‘32, gone in ‘37 while attempting to circle the globe, a long-legged
- [ARMOR BY K. CATHERINE CASTLE](https://theravensperch.com/armor-by-kevin-by-catherine-castle/) - I am the only woman. I don't want to appear weak. So I learn to wear their armor, the armor they wear that says I am tough, I can take anything, I don't need a union, or it's safety rules. The dirtier I get the better. The attitude that work is an athletic event, not
- [THESE HANDS BY K. CATHERINE CASTLE](https://theravensperch.com/these-hands-by-catherine-castle/) - These hands, gnarled now from the sacks and cartons, ship- borne, weighted with apples, filled with nails, hard onions and beans tilted and thrust upon the stacks below deck, the juncture of thumb and forefinger that grasped and twisted the dirty, grease-lathered ten-pound turnbuckles, that turned shackle pins and carried pike poles, grasping, screwing, coiling,
- [CRANE OPERATOR: THE CLIMB BY K. CATHERINE CASTLE](https://theravensperch.com/crane-operator-the-climb-by-catherine-castle/) - Each stair she climbs is a latticework of steel with a view to the dock and water below. As she pulls herself up the ladders and steps, the sounds of semis and strads charging to life are farther and farther away. The grumble of gears changing, the smell of diesel fumes and the blue clouds
- [CRANE OPERATOR 2: THE DRIVE BY K. CATHERINE CASTLE](https://theravensperch.com/crane-operator-2-the-drive-by-catherine-castle/) - She enters her cab and smells last night’s driver. the Old Spice, the sweat. Cigarette ashes swirl inside the glass gondola as she pushes the steel door closed, folds herself into the hard cup of her seat and prepares to boot up the machine that crouches at the edge of the bay. Beneath her forearms,
- [FEBRUARY IN THE MIDST OF OPERATION METRO SURGE BY REBECCA SURMONT](https://theravensperch.com/february-in-the-midst-of-operation-metro-surge-by-rebecca-surmont/) - Winter like a gnawing beaver, our marching, pulpy legs almost giving out. The stark, cold landscape straps like a whip. Dreaming of spring dreaming of color, longing for cherry blossoms fruit plump and flavored, crimson dense, only because they steeped in ice so long, branches full because roots are steadfast under the surface. Red skies
- [IF THERE HAD BEEN AN OWL BY REBECCA SURMONT](https://theravensperch.com/if-there-had-been-an-owl-by-rebecca-surmont/) - There might have been several drinks more than a teenager should the summer skin around us, temperatures orange and red, life cruising fast. We were all about a dare -- bottle high out the window my arm poised for a pitch, glass smashing against a bright red STOP. Stop. Stop. A tape flipping in the
- [THE DAY I MET THICH NHAT HANH AT UNIVERSAL STUDIOS BY REBECCA SURMONT](https://theravensperch.com/the-day-i-met-thich-nhat-hanh-at-universal-studios-by-rebecca-surmont/) - I meet Thich Nhat Hanh between the Terminator and Backdraft. His robes blazing orange, moving like a mobile bouquet of poppies with his tightly formed entourage. When he enters into the que, our eyes meet and my belly jumps like a soft fish in water, scuttled, provoking laughter in me as if to a punchline
- [MOVING FORWARD](https://theravensperch.com/moving-forward/)
- [REACHING](https://theravensperch.com/reaching/)
- [WHAT STILLNESS KNOWS](https://theravensperch.com/what-stillness-knows/)
- [SNOW & SKY](https://theravensperch.com/snow-sky/)
- [ABSTRACT 3 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-3-by-jennifer-gurney-8/)
- [TODAY IS MY PEACEFUL DAY BY LOIS PERCH VILLEMAIRE](https://theravensperch.com/today-is-my-peaceful-day-by-lois-perch-villemaire/) - inspired by the Buddhist Monks Listen to the rain melt the icy snow Watch puddles glisten with each droplet Think about the grace of kindness compassionate listening Sunday morning yoga Roast carrots Bake corn muffins Quiet victory of a jigsaw puzzle Company of a book Comfort of a journal Day turns to dusk thoughts turn
- [SIMPLE JOYS BY LOIS PERCH VILLEMAIRE](https://theravensperch.com/simple-joys-by-lois-perch-villemaire/) - After ullie-kaye Manicured bushes beds of annuals backyard with a garden of green beans and tomatoes Black shutters on white frame curved cement steps leading to a wrap-around porch edged by rows of spindles I have recollections of the house called home windows views of my childhood world Now I look forward to watering and
- [ASH BY STEVE WILSON](https://theravensperch.com/ash-by-steve-wilson/) - somber, breathless as shadows, settles again into each prayer – suggestive, the way cold and color through long winters implicate themselves miles deep into memories, or old ambitions murmur behind a tumbledown barn. From that distant someone who sits and only listens, pleased at the entreaties, we’ve asked for understanding, set aflame such desires –
- [MY BAD: IN 67 WORDS BY DAVID JAMES](https://theravensperch.com/my-bad-in-67-words-by-david-james/) - Lake Superior State University has released its annual list of banished words, celebrating the 50th anniversary in 2026. This year the words are: 6-7, demure, cooked, massive, incentivize, full stop, perfect, gifted, my bad, reach out. WXYZ News Nothing’s perfect. We all know you can reach out and touch no one, come to a
- [ONE THOUSAND CRANES BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/one-thousand-cranes-by-jennifer-gurney/) - folding one thousand cranes my wish is for world peace we will string them together and wrap the cross with them this Easter my vision for a way to make a difference Jennifer Gurney lives in Colorado where she teaches, paints, writes and hikes. Her poetry is widely published, two of her poems have
- [NEW YEAR BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/23352-2/) - the New Year is coming I am not ready to let go of this one for this one held you for nearly half of it and yet the other half held the deepest chasm of grief I’ve known two halves same coin love and loss I am not ready to let go of this one
- [I LONG TO WAKE BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/i-long-to-wake-jennifer-gurney/) - I long to wake with a heart unencumbered by grief and sorrow I long to greet the day with the exuberance I once knew when you were still here I long to be the me that was me when you were still you I long to turn to you bed head and all and kiss
- [VIGILANCE BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/vigilance-by-jennifer-gurney/) - my cat stands watch as I lie curled in a blanket on a lazy Sunday afternoon my furry citadel guarding me from the perils of the living room alert, she watches twitching her tail in vigilance as I drift off for an afternoon nap safe in her care
- [ABSTRACT 1 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-1-by-jennifer-gurney-7/)
- [ABSTRACT 2 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-2-by-jennifer-gurney-8/)
- [ABSTRACT 4 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-4-by-jennifer-gurney-8/)
- [ABSTRACT 5 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-5-by-jennifer-gurney-7/)
- [FAIRY TALE 4 BY DAVID RADAVICH](https://theravensperch.com/fairy-tale-4-by-david-radavich/) - What would it be like to be kissed awake after a long sleep— sleep of turmoil, sleep of care— and be transformed? What was the dream about? The world interrupted? And what is this life promising romance? Will this same body understand the difference? Somehow the day is new. Somehow you are asked to put
- [ON A COLD NIGHT BY DAVID RADAVICH](https://theravensperch.com/on-a-cold-night-by-david-radavich/) - They are so small, these poems. So inhabited by darkness even the night shines through its many stars. No wonder love seems so far away. No wonder nature deems to rustle, already gone. Somewhere God is on an escapade, saving a lost soul. And the wind seems like a poem, small and surrendering.
- [NO REASON BY DAVID RADAVICH](https://theravensperch.com/no-reason-by-david-radavich/) - After Georgi Gospodinov Why does death love us so much? It sings like an angel inviting and golden, but as Rilke declared, always terrifying. Birds, trees, rocks carry on without death, are not ever lured beyond being. Air does not know ending, only passages, tunes, cries in the night. Every poem ends in dissolution, in
- [AWAKENING BY DAVID RADAVICH](https://theravensperch.com/awakening-by-david-radavich/) - A new day. Not a new life. Not the same thing. Our wild apple tree beside the road is still here opening again this year a bit taller perhaps, hanging over the asphalt, one of the earliest of fruit trees to blossom, starting a new season which wakens us all to what’s coming, another dance
- [ACEDIA BY AMELIA DIAZ ETTINGER](https://theravensperch.com/acedia-by-amelia-diaz-ettinger/) - (Triversen Poem) I often look at birds, any bird, land on telephone wires and feel the bounce in my skin. Ageing into wire instead of feather and beak, while I long for hollow bones instead of time passing by. I want to jump somewhere to a center, that deplumes this lethargy that tastes of ash,
- [YELLOW MOTHS BY AMELIA DIAZ ETTINGER](https://theravensperch.com/yellow-moths-by-amelia-diaz-ettinger/) - This child asks, “Why do you write poems?” I answer in quiet phrases that move like a brush in watercolor. “You see, words are seeds planted in the moonlight and in the heat of day. Dormant below the surface of a rock like lichen or moss to a string of bark.” His smooth brow frowns
- [MY CHILD THE POET BY AMELIA DIAZ ETTINGER](https://theravensperch.com/23309-2/) - Every child is a poet and for that I rejoice. Imagine the silence if no one listened to the bridges of children’s words that swish and swoosh, making confetti out of leaves, the Titanic from a stick in a gutter, bellows full of petals, even diamond whispers in the throes of loss. Yes, imperfect adults
- [AMBER SEASON BY AMELIA DIAZ ETTINGER](https://theravensperch.com/amber-season-by-amelia-diaz-ettinger/) - the yellow sights of autumn always made me feel womanly not this year, this year they call my name and seem to say— you lost your luster that overwhelming sense of fullness, I had when the amber hues of my hair played naturally against the change of season the green yielding to the flaming demand
- [Those You Least Expect Know You Best](https://theravensperch.com/those-you-least-expect-know-you-best/) - When I went to fill out my very first profile on a dating app, I froze at the prompt: “I’m happiest when…” My mind went blank. I struggled for words to end the sentence, the way you struggle for a memory that’s just at the edge of your brain but you can’t quite get hold
- [CLASSICAL HUES & MYTHIC MUSINGS BY STERLING WARNER](https://theravensperch.com/classical-hues-mythic-musings-by-sterling-warner/) - For John William Waterhouse The Lady of Shalott hangs above my headboard reminds me that marveling in pre-Raphaelite mirrors has its price since living in reflections drains the imagination…cripples one’s character; each night I weave fanciful imagery in my head empowered by intensity sustained by longing urged on through an acute appreciation of details, metaphors,
- [SIMURGH BY STERLING WARNER](https://theravensperch.com/simurgh-by-sterling-warner/) - “Nights in White Satan” played on your phonograph we moved to the rhythms of Moog synthesizers, Moody lyrics, and social revolution, touching each other’s minds with words of our own: promises, confessions, lipped gestures and second chances. Our red lava lamps morphed into shapes and designs befitting imaginations bent on progression, certain that lasting renewal
- [NATURE’S FOURTH QUARTER BY STERLING WARNER](https://theravensperch.com/natures-fourth-quarter-by-sterling-warner/) - When cottonwood fibers windsurf on the breeze And smoldering August night curtains close Scarlet-yellow scars brush maple leaves Butterflies couple, geese migrate in rows. Wolf packs howl at the blood moon overhead Grey squirrels gather and bury their nuts Black bears grow fat, sleep in winter cave beds Humans polish shotguns to hunt pheasants. September
- [NOBODY’S MATE BY STERLING WARNER](https://theravensperch.com/nobodys-mate-by-sterling-warner/) - Elsa Lanchester, the Bride of Frankenstein. hung above my bed next to a crucifix the former my chosen heartthrob as ten-year-old peers invested a growing interest in women via popular culture, crushing hard on Anne Margaret, Shelly Fabares, Brigitte Bardot or Natilie Wood. Beauty lurk behind her scars, I recognize her pain and she’d visit
- [SAPPHO SPARGANARUS BY PAMELA BUTLER](https://theravensperch.com/sappho-sparganarus-by-pamela-butler/) - The absolute messiness of indecision, the absolute messiness of dirt on the floor, the absolute messiness of how I got here. I carry the landscape, generations of hopes and desires, in this thin china cup that has lasted several centuries. My daughter from China does not dip into the tea of my ancestors, she frees
- [How to Enjoy the Terrible Truth By Sara Vlahos](https://theravensperch.com/how-to-enjoy-the-terrible-truth-by-sara-vlahos/) - I once saw the face of God. A vast and sudden slice of radio silence, among the noisy heavens. That evening I dreamed that I listened to one side of a conversation I never should have overheard. And so I do not watch the skies anymore. I do not look up. It’s carrying the mass
- [SAFFRON RAIN BY RALPH MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/saffron-rain-by-ralph-macioci/) - Nikolas Macioci earned a PhD from The Ohio State University. Nik is the author of twenty-three books. He was twice nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, nominated five times for a Pushcart Prize, and twice for a Best of the Net award. His poems have appeared in numerous magazines.
- [SNOWBALL IN A VASE BY RALPH MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/snowball-in-a-vase-by-ralph-macioci/)
- [SILVER FEATHER GRASS BY RALPH MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/silver-feather-grass-by-ralph-macioci/)
- [SUNSET AFLAME IN A FIELD BY RALPH MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/sunset-aflame-in-a-field-by-ralph-macioci/)
- [FIVE PROMINENT ROSES BY RALPH MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/five-prominent-roses-by-ralph-macioci/)
- [SO MUCH DEPENDS BY PHYLLIS FRAKT](https://theravensperch.com/so-much-depends-by-phyllis-frakt/) - why am I staring at a computer screen in a pale blue room? he joked about my weight (sensitive subject) I joined a gym you smiled at me from the next bike I smiled too soon so in love we couldn’t eat I lost weight, forgot about him but not his joke it’s why I’m
- [REFLECTION BY PHYLLIS FRAKT](https://theravensperch.com/reflection-by-phyllis-frakt/) - You gaze into the mirror in the morning, skin blotchy and lined, curly hair turned to frizz dyed to its original blond. You won’t fool anyone. As you turn from the mirror, a doppelganger takes your place – a straighter spine, smoother skin, brighter smile, slimmer waist, faster pace. You gaze into the mirror in
- [TREES MAKE GOOD NEIGHBORS TOO BY PHYLLIS FRAKT](https://theravensperch.com/trees-make-good-neighbors-too-by-phyllis-frakt/) - It’s not about creating distance. But my neighbor’s nostrils flare in defensive annoyance when I tell him our plan. On bright days his south-facing wall casts a white-hot glare through our living room windows. Instead of hanging heavy drapes, we’ll plant trees between our houses. I point to the bare place in the lawn. We’ll
- [ADDRESSING THE CREEK BY PHYLLIS FRAKT](https://theravensperch.com/addressing-the-creek-by-phyllis-frakt/) - poetry makes nothing happen --Auden You’re nothing. Travelers scramble by over bridges and culverts without a pause for your obscure babble. Only the road matters. It pushes you out of the way as if your rolling rhythms over mossy rocks and roots obstruct the day’s mad rush. Still something happens— a presence in an absence,
- [THE MOTHS ATE IT ANDREW PELFINI](https://theravensperch.com/the-moths-ate-it-andrew-pelfini/) - Black Friday, how absurd, Jacob thought. Sheep following a train of advertisements. Every day was Black Friday for him. He shops as if there are no restraints, often forgets what he already has in his closets, his dresser, his amour, his hope chest, and woolens inside cotton pillowcase, where moths don’t penetrate. He learned that
- [MAYBE SOMEDAY BY STEPHEN BRAYTON](https://theravensperch.com/maybe-someday-by-stephen-brayton/) - Emerging from the trees, they saw the granite dome of Kaaterskill Mountain rising before them. Surprisingly, the normally crowded summit was devoid of hikers on this September Saturday. “Can it be? We’ve got the top to ourselves,” exclaimed Tori . “Talk about luck!” Greg added. Inside, he hoped it was something more: a good omen
- [THE THRESHOLD OF THE SPIRITUAL IN ART BY KIMMO ROSENTHAL](https://theravensperch.com/the-threshold-of-the-spiritual-in-art-by-kimmo-rosenthal/) - Art …is the means to recapture something entirely invisible, wholly interior, and possibly inconspicuous: a healthier and more integrated state at the center of one’s own being. Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters on Life. Prelude to a dawn As I sit on the couch shortly after 4 A.M., the final chords have just resounded from the
- [THE BIG APPLE BY ANDREW SHATTUCK MCBRIDE](https://theravensperch.com/the-big-apple-by-andrew-shattuck-mcbride/) - Madeline asked if I would go with her to Radio City Music Hall for a show. I was naïve and young; she was pretty. We left New Haven by train, were deposited on Manhattan’s bright, teeming shore one crisp winter’s night. In the crowd’s crush I was on edge, fought an urge to bolt. Madeline
- [DO IT AGAIN ROAD BY ANDREW SHATTUCK MCBRIDE](https://theravensperch.com/do-it-again-road-by-andrew-shattuck-mcbride/) - Puna District, Island of Hawai‘i Dad drives a stretch of roadway with dips and rises. He accelerates, and his Datsun hatchback leaves pavement and earth briefly, and my stomach backflips through delight. Laughing, I urge Dad, do it again! Not good for tires or suspension, but fun. He turns the car around if only to
- [ALL OUR TOMORROWS BY ANDREW SHATTUCK MCBRIDE](https://theravensperch.com/all-our-tomorrows-by-andrew-shattuck-mcbride/) - The human challenge, in brief— our world ends in fire. Some choose grief. All our tomorrows start now. Let’s not choose despair or a row. One simple, elegant fact: It’s never too late. Choose to act. Set a person free. Plant a tree.
- [THE GODDESS OF SECOND CHANCES PROMOTES LIBATIONS BY ANDREW SHATTUCK MCBRIDE](https://theravensperch.com/the-goddess-of-second-chances-promotes-libations-by-andrew-shattuck-mcbride/) - Libations, by all means. Entreat me with a treat—stout, Anchor Steam beer, Jim Beam bourbon, an IPA, or another civilized beverage. Homemade mead or coffee liqueur. Perhaps a smooth Scotch whisky. Maybe a bottle of the finest wine or even a discounted, knock-off blend. Something for the ages, or not. Vintage doesn’t matter—it’s only time.
- [ALMOST WINTER BY CATHARINE QUILLEN DORNIN](https://theravensperch.com/almost-winter-by-catharine-quillen-dornin/) - The Long Arms of our Maple Tree Stretch imploringly up to the sky, Palms held open- Waiting for the gentle first Descent of Snow And Perfect Peace. I sit in my Winter Chair by my Window And think how incredible it is to be at Peace. I feel the Fluttering of my Heart And Know
- [VALENTINE’S DAY FOREVER BY CATHARINE DORNIN](https://theravensperch.com/valentines-day-forever-by-catharine-dornin/) - This morning, as I lay in my Love’s Arms, The Purity of the newly Fallen Snow Swept Past our Bedroom Window And Whispered Softly and Gracefully to us. Its Lovely White Wings, Spreading over our Entire Long Yard, and Disappearing into the Dark Evergreen Forest, Reminding us this is our Valentine’s Day Forever House And
- [THE ONGOING BY CATHARINE QUILLEN DORNIN](https://theravensperch.com/the-ongoing-by-catharine-quillen-dornin/) - My Mother Told me on one Long, Hot Summer Afternoon When she was Gravely Ill, “You and Your Children are The Ongoing of my Life.” She Tipped her White, Beautifully Coiffed Head Back into the Wing Of her Favorite Armchair and Fell Into a Gentle Sleep. I Whispered, so as not to Disturb her, “I
- [POETRY HOUSE BY CATHARINE DORNIN](https://theravensperch.com/poetry-house-by-catharine-dornin/) - Mysterious house, poetry house, House fingered by the early morning light, feathery, fluffy- Sparkling, sifted and sorted by the fingers of the wind, House hugged by the long arms of time- Remembering the voices of the past. Spring comes in on little snowy white feet- Soft, mysterious and sweet.
- [ALMOST SPRING SHOWERS BY ANONYMOUS](https://theravensperch.com/almost-spring-showers-by-anonymous/)
- [SELLING THE WOODS BY GENE HYDE](https://theravensperch.com/selling-the-woods-by-gene-hyde/) - The forest once reached to the sea, before trees were products but rather a reliable source of sustenance. These oft-trod woods, crammed between roads and houses, overwhelmed by poison ivy, have become a commodity, a box of trinkets from the five and dime, a Maserati in a stockbroker's garage, a small but waning planet for
- [FIGHTING THE CHILL WITH A MANDOLIN PILL BY GENE HYDE](https://theravensperch.com/fighting-the-chill-with-a-mandolin-pill-by-gene-hyde/) - We've been iced in for three days when the sun finally peeps out, at first shyly, then with unkempt glee, tossing bright rays off the ice and snow, protons and waves sparkling on our eager eyelids, dazzling to see. Logs yet unhauled, the stove awaiting its daily task, but first things first. Coffee perked, steaming
- [WAGGING SHADOWS BY GENE HYDE](https://theravensperch.com/wagging-shadows-by-gene-hyde/) - When sunlight shines on Ellie’s tail, casting wagging shadows through the kitchen door, when clouds of woe slowly drift apart, surmounted by paws on the hardwood floor scurrying, grinning, barking with glee, the entire world is a squeaky toy, another lovely reminder that in just a second you can be filled with joy.
- [LIGHT SHINES THROUGH #1 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/light-shines-through-1-by-jennifer-gurney/)
- [LIGHT SHINES THROUGH #2 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/light-shines-through-2-by-jennifer-gurney/)
- [LIGHT SHINES THROUGH #4 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/light-shines-through-4-by-jennifer-gurney/)
- [LIGHT SHINES THROUGH #3 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/light-shines-through-3-by-jennifer-gurney/)
- [LIGHT SHINES THROUGH #5 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/light-shines-through-5-by-jennifer-gurney/)
- [PAINTING THE BRUISES GOLD R. NIKOLAS MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/painting-the-bruises-gold-r-nikolas-macioci/) - Where did my dark sense of humor come from? It started when I found the punchline was only funny to me. So, I polished my jokes until they shone like buffed Aluminum, waiting for someone to laugh back with the same desperate recognition. You see, during preschool years on Hinman Avenue, once I stepped off
- [A SLOW-MOTION DIARY R. NIKOLAS MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/a-slow-motion-diary-r-nikolas-macioci/) - For over a week, weathermen predicted an inevitable snowstorm, used words like blizzard and ferocious until the sky finally made good on the threat. In Groveport, yardsticks vanished under twelve inches of white. The town came to a standstill. For seven days, I have not crossed the threshold. At Level 3, the law says roads
- [A YEAR OF THISTLES R. NIKOLAS MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/23195-2/) - I often walk in the woods by my house, and I'm used to thistles sticking to my clothes, but not to my life. I find the path home by sunset that dissolves below the horizon like a piece of orange candy. Each night sky bleeds, staining the tall grass gold. I reach the end of
- [THE FUTURE BY WILLIAM WALDORF](https://theravensperch.com/the-future-by-william-waldorf/) - for the future during a future time you’ll feel alone unloved, unwanted, try to remember how special you are, our precious gemstone unique in every way not a doubter. take a deep breath, focus on the future all lives have rain, step out of the puddle shake off the water, become a fighter you are
- [I AM MY FIRST FRIEND BY WILLIAM WALDORF](https://theravensperch.com/i-am-my-first-friend-by-william-waldorf/) - repeat as needed I am my first friend, I will protect me only I control my thoughts inside me In the morning light, hope begins to show as I try to learn with each tomorrow I begin the day with these words to say: with life there is hope in every day. When I breathe,
- [CRAFT ROOM VOICES BY WILLIAM WALDORF](https://theravensperch.com/craft-room-voices-by-william-waldorf/) - She talks to her love every day, she said. From her craft room she hears him move about the bedroom. I think there are only four rooms. nightly here, they talk. Married for more than thirty-seven years they sit without any words spoken, know what each is about to do next. She prepares his meals,
- [A DREAM BY WILLIAM WALDORF](https://theravensperch.com/a-dream-by-william-waldorf/) - when a cinema arrives incomplete a cacophony of melodrama A farce begins to unfold while you sleep picture a roller coaster twist and sweep on a helicopter’s panorama when a cinema arrives incomplete time and reality will overleap clarity’s confusion has no helper A farce begins to unfold while you sleep a puzzle to unravel
- [WAITING FOR THE SNOWSTORM BY MICHAEL CARRINO](https://theravensperch.com/waiting-for-the-snowstorm-by-michael-carrino/) - I find a smooth white stone on the lake beach close to the water's edge A thin crack marks its surface like a thread as the lake hums low while a south wind rises It will surely make a fine worry stone No sense to worry or regret let's say a thin mistake turned thick
- [BEES IN THE SAND, IN THE GRASS BY MICHAEL CARRINO](https://theravensperch.com/bees-in-the-sand-in-the-grass-by-michael-carrino/) - Near the granite steps to the beach, and close to the lake, close to a child building a wet castle, a dog fetching a red ball, a woman trying to read a thick book lying on a red blanket, bees are close to a man coffee cup in hand, kneeling to examine a large piece
- [ALVY FINDS TIME TO WRITE AT FIRST LIGHT BY MICHAEL CARRINO](https://theravensperch.com/alvy-finds-time-to-write-at-first-light-by-michael-carrino/) - waiting for coffee on the stove to brew The window hums with light too soft to judge while memory stirs the letter he must shape He breathes the bitter steam like borrowed strength turns his thoughts to that one regret long kept The page awaits the truth he's never told a silence heavier than any
- [BE CAREFUL BY MICHAEL CARRINO](https://theravensperch.com/be-careful-by-michael-carrino/) - Be careful of the person you meet and speak with in a cafe any day while the sky is gray when the gentle conversation slants to words blind with heavy sentiment hesitant smile closed eyes More sugar more cream stirred into the cup
- [CONFESSIONAL SELF-PORTRAIT: ARMADILLO BY ELLEN PECKMAN](https://theravensperch.com/confessional-self-portrait-armadillo-by-ellen-peckman/)
- [CONFESSIONAL SELF-PORTRAIT: BEAST BY ELLEN PECKMAN](https://theravensperch.com/confessional-self-portrait-beast-by-ellen-peckman/)
- [CONFESSIONAL SELF-PORTRAIT: JEWELED BY ELLEN PECKMAN](https://theravensperch.com/confessional-self-portrait-jeweled-by-ellen-peckman/)
- [CONFESSIONAL SELF-PORTRAIT: POET BY ELLEN PECKMAN](https://theravensperch.com/confessional-self-portrait-poet-by-ellen-peckman/)
- [MONDAY LUNCH POEM BY SUZY HARRIS](https://theravensperch.com/monday-lunch-poem-by-suzy-harris/) - My mother would eat cottage cheese and fruit —berries or a cut up apple—for lunch. Or a bran muffin with yogurt. She liked grapefruit, had special spoons for sectioning, saved the peels to dry and candy. Saved all those cottage cheese containers. Saved the letters we wrote from camp, from college. Saved her own typed
- [PRAISE SONG FOR THE HEART BY SUZY HARRIS](https://theravensperch.com/praise-song-for-the-heart-by-suzy-harris/) - Let us praise the heart, how it persists despite fluster. Our rugged heart, broken and healed many times over, and yet its daily work continues. Today is a day for cleaning out the garden bed. Already we wake in darkness, wrapped in November, our heartbeat buried under extra layers of wool, but no secrets hide
- [MY BLUES BY SUZY HARRIS](https://theravensperch.com/my-blues-by-suzy-harris/) - My father comes every day, looks through the glass at me, in the incubator, so we can be together in our aloneness, later holds me in the palm of his hand where I gaze into his blue eyes, though I have no word for it. Our ocean a swimming pool, in the six and unders,
- [SUNDAY IN NOVEMBER BY SUZY HARRIS](https://theravensperch.com/sunday-in-november-by-suzy-harris/) - The black walnut tree stands naked against an unseasonably blue sky. Migrating birds gone south, we are left with this: a rake, a shovel, a shift in time. Fig leaves, yesterday drooping like surrender flags, drop all at once, paper the sidewalk several layers thick. Apple leaves litter themselves on top like an afterthought. At
- [A TRANSPLANT SAVED MY LIFE BY DR. JOHN A. WILDE](https://theravensperch.com/a-transplant-saved-my-life-by-dr-john-a-wilde/) - Over my seventy-nine years, I have survived eleven surgeries. Two of these were kidney transplants; and without these miracles, I would have died over two decades ago. To say I’m grateful is woefully inadequate, but my existence since receiving those donor organs has involved numerous challenges. The aftermath of an organ transplant is unique to
- [AS TIME GOES ON BY JEFFREY ZABLE](https://theravensperch.com/as-time-goes-on-by-jeffrey-zable/) - Yes, I do wonder if there is some sort of consciousness after we are gone. And as I just revisited a photo on my Facebook page of a long-time friend named Ray who passed away around three years ago, I’m wondering if he has any sort of awareness and longing to still be a part
- [FINAL WORDS ON THE SUBJECT BY JEFFREY ZABLE](https://theravensperch.com/final-words-on-the-subject-by-jeffrey-zable/) - Pulling into my driveway about 30 seconds before Ester— my 97-year-old neighbor—comes up pushing a basket with a grocery bag inside, I get out of my car and start a little conversation with her, and around two minutes in, she points to my car and says with a smile, “Are you still willing to sell
- [INSPECTED BY NO. 37 BY ZAN BOCKES](https://theravensperch.com/inspected-by-no-37-by-zan-bockes/) - You pluck my slip from the pocket of a new suit. You find “Inspected by No. 37” in your fresh linen blouse. You causally glance at my trademark, then toss it into the trash with the stickers, tags, and the little plastic ties that never fail to require scissors to remove. And then you don
- [OF RIVERS AND PRECIPICES BY LEE TRUER](https://theravensperch.com/of-rivers-and-precipices-by-lee-truer/) - Ah mighty beloved Mississippi, first glimpsed flashing past in newly green youth. Your aubergine waters flex curvaceous lithe muscles, like a sylvan sinuous snake, Moving, ever moving, to the sea. Standing I, now on precipice of beyond fragile flickering. Dappled sunlight suffuses me, darkness enfolds, transforms me. River moves from light to dark, time moves
- [NAMING OF PARTS BY LEE TRUER](https://theravensperch.com/naming-of-parts-by-lee-truer/) - (In remembrance of Henry Reed’s poems about WWII 1914 -1986. And for my many relatives who have served in the armed forces) Identity’s DNA fragments, swirling spirals of life shape-shift into naming And claiming of parts. Miasma, elixir, madness, Is this my destiny? Good, bad, indifferent We are here at naming And claiming of parts.
- [MONKS ARE WALKING BY LEE TRUER](https://theravensperch.com/monks-are-walking-by-lee-truer/) - A whisper of saffron a flash of burgundy corded together spirit. The monks are walking A fine line along a freeway The monks are walking. From Austin to Washington 2,300 miles, foot by foot sneakers slide, bare feet slap. Whisper the monks are walking a fine line on main street. The monks are walking here.
- [SILENT NIGHT BY LEE TRUER](https://theravensperch.com/silent-night-by-lee-truer/) - A large hungry beast, lurking shadows stealthily wait to pounce. A split second only you let down your guard. The silent stalker waits, it is eerily silent like covid/Floyd times. Icy snow sparkle white streets empty. Even the wind has ceased to shriek. Heavy like the hush right before the storm. Spare medieval times, when
- [THE REPOSING ROOM BY RICHARD ERIC JOHNSON](https://theravensperch.com/the-reposing-room-by-richard-eric-johnson/) - after midnight a lone silence mellow soft light and floral aroma beneath soft silk blanket on satin-shine pillow slumbers into destiny a long love memory this tranquil seclusion feels like the very next moment in our history of time Richard Eric Johnson lives and writes poetry in Arlington, Virginia. He has authored five full-length
- [FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! BY DAVID SAPP](https://theravensperch.com/fight-fight-fight-by-david-sapp/) - Most all the boys my age watched Big Time Wrestling on Saturday afternoons, the Sheik and Bobo Brazil, their oiled, sweaty bodies colliding in the ring. I feigned an interest but couldn’t see the point – one person demolishing another – even if it was fake. And, as a family in 1971, we watched Ali
- [WHAT SHALL YOU DO TONIGHT? BY PAMELA SCOTT](https://theravensperch.com/what-shall-you-do-tonight-by-pamela-scott/) - There is a window you could look into To a door you could walk through To a crack in the night where you could disappear To the streets Where the black carpet is rolled out To take you turn after turn By the houses with the closed gates And the dangling keys And when you
- [EARLY MORNING BY PAMELA SCOTT](https://theravensperch.com/early-morning-by-pamela-scott/) - In the early morning hour, it is still. The fireplace, though gas, makes little popping noises. The clock on the wall ticks its rhythmic progression of the hands around the circle. The coffee pot creates little sounds as it keeps the liquid warmed in its glass surroundings. The walls of the house creak slightly as
- [SUNSET BY PAMELA SCOTT](https://theravensperch.com/sunset-by-pamela-scott/) - I walked out to look for Sunset But I had just missed her She left her light on though For my quick walk up the hill Backlighting the clouds And the hills and the dam Lending her air to the peace And tranquility of dusk. Good night radiant Sun. Good night beautiful prairie.
- [DEMONS OF ANGELS BY PAMELA SCOTT](https://theravensperch.com/demons-of-angels-by-pamela-scott/) - Is it possible to heal And discover angels fight with demons too? Their salve gently Cleansed your wounds While their own bleeding Was allowed to slowly stain The finest tapestry. As the mud is washed from blinded eyes The damage to the royal treasure is now seen more clearly Can cooling water Slowly soak away
- [TOO MANY OTHERS BY CYNTHIA LAMB FAUST](https://theravensperch.com/too-many-others-by-cynthia-lamb-faust/) - On October 26, 2025, 19 Vietnamese Buddhist monks from the Huong Dao Vipassana Bhavana Center in Ft. Worth, Texas, began a peace pilgrimage on foot, to Washington, D.C., a trek of approximately 2,300 miles. I caught up with them on Day 77, as they crossed my consciousness through YouTube and took me with them across
- [Timestamps by Brent Yergensen](https://theravensperch.com/timestamps-by-brent-yergensen/) - Youth and boredom, so much energy to burnDreams of athleticism, so sure the resultDays spent daydreaming, fame was his yearnBut the process of ache began the body’s revolt His life became weary, tired’s unstoppable yawnBy thirty, his youthful spry was a memory now numbThe timestamp of youth once near, now goneHe looked into the abyss
- [A Teacher’s Tension by Brent Yergensen](https://theravensperch.com/a-teachers-tension-by-brent-yergensen/) - A teacher’s tension Driven by growth, choosing life in a classroom Passion for a subject—arts, science, drama, math Passing on passion, knowing students move on Is it naïve to expect they will adopt her passion? A teacher’s tension Love for a subject, words come natural Energy, stories, all that rich history But questioned by students,
- [ABSTRACT 1 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-1-by-jennifer-gurney-6/)
- [ABSTRACT 2 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-2-by-jennifer-gurney-7/)
- [ABSTRACT 3 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-3-by-jennifer-gurney-7/)
- [ABSTRACT 5 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-1-by-jennifer-gurney-5/)
- [ABSTRACT 4 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-4-by-jennifer-gurney-7/)
- [REFLECTIONS ON A SUNNY SUNDAY MORNING 11 DAYS FROM CHRISTMAS BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/reflections-on-a-sunny-sunday-morning-11-days-from-christmas-by-jennifer-gurney/) - reflections on a sunny Sunday morning 11 days from Christmas heart heavy from grief from the world's tragedies yet trying to find the joy of Advent this morning cognitive dissonance meets a purring cat on my lap and joy or at least a moment's contentment manages to land Jennifer Gurney lives in Colorado where
- [I KNOW BY JENNIFER GURNEY BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/i-know-by-jennifer-gurney-by-jennifer-gurney/) - all those times when I said “I love you” and you replied “I know” I thought you were just being you sarcastic New York you but today I heard it referenced on This is Us which was one of our shows and it hit me that all those years you were quoting Han Solo
- [THIS SIDE OF THE WINDOW BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/this-side-of-the-window-by-jennifer-gurney/) - wish I could stay on this side of the window today cold December Monday morning does that to me
- [THINGS PARENTS HAVE SAID BY MARK THALMAN](https://theravensperch.com/things-parents-have-said-by-mark-thalman/) - While addressing a classroom full of parents on back-to-school night, a woman obviously drunk, informs everyone that her daughter doesn’t have to do the homework. Talking on the phone with Mrs. Smith, she tells me it’s my job to make her son complete his work. I say have you heard the old adage, You can
- [DENTYNE, JUICY FRUIT, BUBBLE GUM BY MARK THALMAN](https://theravensperch.com/dentyne-juicy-fruit-bubble-gum-by-mark-thalman/) - The first week of class, we go over classroom rules. One of the most important is I don’t allow gum. When some students complain, I tell the class to look underneath their desks. Many of the student’s heads disappear like they dove under water and just came up for air. Their faces wear expressions of
- [CHALLENGES BY MARK THALMAN](https://theravensperch.com/challenges-by-mark-thalman/) - For twenty-five years, I’ve taught in a room with no windows. In the winter, I drive to school in the dark and go home in the dark. I call it submarine duty. Because the air-conditioning is broken, the thermometer on my desk reads 82 degrees. I gather temps from four other teachers and e-mail the
- [ANOTHER DAY BITES THE DUST BY MARK THALMAN](https://theravensperch.com/another-day-bites-the-dust-by-mark-thalman/) - Some of my students can only tell time if they have a digital clock. For them, there is only “now”, no indication of how many hours have past, or when the future will happen. Tell them to move clockwise or counter-clockwise and they don’t know what you are talking about. Looking at the analog clock
- [CANDY HEARTS BY VICTORIA TWOMEY](https://theravensperch.com/candy-hearts-by-victoria-twomey/) - Victoria Twomey is a Pushcart-nominated poet and an award-winning artist.
- [THE DREAM BY VICTORIA TWOMEY](https://theravensperch.com/the-dream-by-victoria-twomey/)
- [THE INWARD EYE BY VICTORIA TWOMEY](https://theravensperch.com/the-inward-eye-by-victoria-twomey/)
- [WILDFLOWERS BY VICTORIA TWOMEY](https://theravensperch.com/wildflowers-by-victoria-twomey/)
- [THE TWO MUSES BY VICTORIA TWOMEY](https://theravensperch.com/the-two-muses-by-victoria-twomey/)
- [WE’LL NEVER FORGET BY LAVINIA KUMAR](https://theravensperch.com/well-never-forget-by-lavinia-kumar/) - For C. Though she looked almost too gaunt, too ill, she was maid of honor for her sister determined to join, no matter she was frail — talked in a whisper. When, once, the chronic fatigue lifted, she played the flute, sang for us all – in full celebration
- [17TH CENTURY CATHOLIC NOT PROTESTANT BY LAVINIA KUMAR](https://theravensperch.com/17th-century-catholic-not-protestant-by-lavinia-kumar/) - Irish from Cork County indentured — chattel like livestock, like slaves, with slaves — shipped to Barbados by Oliver Cromwell, their white legs sunburned to “red legs.” Remember his head on that pole? Did it shed tears of regret? Or — was that rain? Today, find rusted ‘red legs’
- [ANCIENT FARMLAND BY LAVINIA KUMAR](https://theravensperch.com/ancient-farmland-by-lavinia-kumar/) - Now they can only see in their memory three hundred fine olive trees, grey-green leaves shaped like pea-pods near translucent in sun. They see green fruit hanging after being gifted by four-petal white flowers. They recall young trees, others with greyed gnarled knees of older men, men who can remember their Nablus fields, family fields,
- [BEHIND THEIR SONGS BY LAVINIA KUMAR](https://theravensperch.com/behind-their-songs-by-lavinia-kumar/) - Based on Irish myth & Mayan and Cherokee legend. Again he woke me. That mocking bird on the telephone line outside my window. His selection is long, one mimicked song, another, another. Phrases in echo of our local orchestra — of robin, cardinal, titmouse, wren. He is proud of his singing, proud his song collection
- [YOU’RE OKAY BY GREG MOGLIA](https://theravensperch.com/youre-okay-by-greg-moglia/) - You see it when the grandkids begin to grow Death is around the corner Why put on a facade? Aren’t we all at least a little afraid to die? You can prepare as if you’re a big shot The old expert about life It’s a nice costume to put on But it we can no
- [WAFFLE HOUSE BLUES BY JOHN BONANNI](https://theravensperch.com/waffle-house-blues-by-john-bonanni/) - Heavy metal for breakfast with a side of banging plates. A 50-ish brassy blonde blurts out orders with the ire of a marine drill sergeant. Cooking oil creates it’s 70th pair of “over easy.” “Mother” and “Grateful” inked on the arms of servers, grits bleeding with whipped spread. Beards everywhere. A waitress named Shirley Boo.
- [I YEARN BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/i-yearn-by-jennifer-gurney/) - I yearn for the next windstorm on a morning I’m home for the sun’s rise so I can see the light dancing on the walls, floor and know you are here because we made an agreement you and I your last day, before you left I asked you to come to me in the light
- [I HOPE BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/i-hope-by-jennifer-gurney/) - I hope I haven’t shattered the new trust that we’ve tentatively forged just three days home from the shelter you and I for some reason I had thought you were ready for a visit to the vet but I was ever so wrong after a lengthy game of hide and seek meets tag you won
- [THE BRUISE OF YOU BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/the-bruise-of-you-by-jennifer-gurney/) - today when I touch the box that holds your ashes that sits on the piano beside the box that holds your sister I hear gentle foot fall upstairs as my new cat-love adopted three days ago leaves the window perch to come downstairs for breakfast and it is in opening my heart to new love
- [I TOUCH BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/i-touch-by-jennifer-gurney/) - I touch your ashes in a wooden box atop the piano beside your collar and tufts of your hair in a small jar and a pawprint with your extra toes but it is the touching of the box that now holds you that I am lost and the tears silently, effortlessly fall it has only
- [THE BUREAU BY THERESA MORITZ](https://theravensperch.com/the-bureau-by-theresa-moritz/) - Customer: You weren’t here yesterday. Clerk: I was. Were you? Customer: Let me get at it another way. You weren’t the one I spoke to. Clerk: Perhaps you were at a different window. Customer: He told me to come back to this window, and to speak to him. Clerk: Sometimes at night the maintenance workers
- [FOR JANE GOODALL, 1934-2025 BY NANCY HASKETT](https://theravensperch.com/for-jane-goodall-1934-2025-by-nancy-haskett/) - Thank you for your curiosity, commitment to conservation, animal sanctuaries, reforestation, six decades of research and discovery thank you for showing us how apes use tools, form social bonds, hug, kiss, and tickle thank you for giving me three lyrical words from your life’s work to include in this poem: Tanzania Tanganyika and, of course,
- [LOCKERBIE BY NANCY HASKETT BY NANCY HASKETT](https://theravensperch.com/lockerbie-by-nancy-haskett-by-nancy-haskett/) - I. Four days before Christmas, the 747 fell out of the sky, exploded into four million pieces scattered over hundreds of square miles, fragments as tiny as a piece from a circuit board, some so heavy and large they formed an impact crater, like an enormous scoop of earth carved by the hand of a
- [MOCCASINS BY NANCY HASKETT](https://theravensperch.com/23020-2/) - Looking closely at the photo, I would say I was about seven or eight, my head tilted far back to see the top of a tall redwood tree. My dress, red and sleeveless, is tied in the back with a large bow, but what interests me now are the moccasins on my feet, beaded at
- [REFLECTIONS AT THE REENACTMENT BY NANCY HASKETT](https://theravensperch.com/reflections-at-the-reenactment-by-nancy-haskett/) - I. Night sky filled with stars, difficult to discern the Big Dipper among such glittering abundance as I stand in an empty field, look up, turn in a circle, surrounded by jewelled vastness, an offering rarely seen, until I remember that the stars are always there, that this spectacle appears every night, but I have
- [COMFORT ZONE BY AGATHA TAITT](https://theravensperch.com/comfort-zone-by-agatha-taitt/)
- [IT COULD’VE BEEN LIKE THIS BY ROSKO ILIEV TZOLOV](https://theravensperch.com/it-couldve-been-like-this-by-rosko-iliev-tzolov/) - Andrey often dreamed of flying. He would stand on the ground, spread his arms, and take off. Other people longed to dream of flying, but he had the same dream again and again. He worked as an engineer at a small company, had a wife and two children, and a small house—too small, really. His
- [NERVE OF LIFE BY BRENT YERGENSEN](https://theravensperch.com/nerve-of-life-by-brent-yergensen/) - My nerve, my nerve You gave me the joy of touching her face And to feel the soft palms of my children You gave me warning from burn and cold And assured my life of the world to know My nerve, my nerve You aged and bent Or so did your intruder A blood vessel
- [THE ARTIST’S HANDS BY ALAN CATLIN](https://theravensperch.com/the-artists-hands-by-alan-catlin/) - Hepworth’s hands when young: a study in black and white like Georgia O’s, supple and lean, fine lines in plaster, later cast in bronze. Alan Catlin has published dozens of chapbooks and full-length books on a wide variety of topics. He is especially fond of attempting to find art and beauty in unlikely places.
- [A MISTING RAIN BY ALAN CATLIN](https://theravensperch.com/a-misting-rain-by-alan-catlin/) - A misting rain conceals the difference between night and day
- [ROMANCING THE WAITRESS BY JAMES WASHINGTON](https://theravensperch.com/23002-2/) - She is at your favorite diner, & Denny’s & Steak Haus, & 99 Restaurant, enthusiastic, scritch-scratching an old-school note pad with a smile at every request. Subtly Estée Laudered, she leans in tight and says, Hon, let me warm up that coffee for you. A fourth cup, even though jitters set in by the usual
- [IINCREMENTS BY ALLISON JENSEN](https://theravensperch.com/iincrements-by-allison-jensen/) - I learned to count my breath instead of years, to live by increments the body keeps— a pulse, a pause, the courage to stay here when silence hums too loudly to be sleep. The world prefers a cleaner narrative: the healed, the faithful, those who never break. But I have lived in margins, tentative, where
- [TRUE WINTER BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/true-winter-by-jennifer-gurney/) - last day of November only 21 degrees out sweater over flannel over pajamas two space heaters pulled in from the garage got coffee blanket cat on my lap what will I do when true winter descends Jennifer Gurney lives in Colorado where she teaches, paints, writes and hikes. Her poetry is widely published, two
- [27 IS EVERYWHERE BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/27-is-everywhere-by-jennifer-gurney/) - on a day when I'm looking for signs 27 is everywhere on street signs the entire drive home from my grief support group and the temperature has been exactly 27 for literally all day I see you I hear you I feel you it makes me smile through tears to see our day all day
- [KEY LIME PIE BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/key-lime-pie-by-jennifer-gurney/) - I can still taste the last key lime pie I made for us the crunch of the crust the tang of the filling the sweet in each bite like you sweet with the salty if you know what I mean will I ever make another key lime pie without you you will be in every
- [PERSIFLAGE BY LOIS MARIE HARROD](https://theravensperch.com/persiflage-by-lois-marie-harrod/) - Light as light bantering milkweed feather brushing kettle drum parakeet nuzzling cuttlebone that afternoon in St. Mark’s Square and no one recognized us no, no one noted or noticed our chaff. Lois Marie Harrod’s l9th collection of poetry, The Bed the Size of a Small Country, is appearing in September 2025. Dodge poet, life-long
- [THE DULL EDGE OF HUSBANDRY BY LOIS MARIE HARROD](https://theravensperch.com/the-dull-edge-of-husbandry-by-lois-marie-harrod/) - . . . and borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. Hamlet She lent him her night but he kept it in the unfinished garage with the tin cans of rusty screws, the empty Mason jars bequeathed by his mother and the hedge clippers too dull to trim the forsythia. She knew when she asked for
- [I HAD A HARD TIME IDENTIFYING MYSELF DROWNED BY LOIS MARIE HARROD](https://theravensperch.com/i-had-a-hard-time-identifying-myself-drowned-by-lois-marie-harrod/) - The body changes so when the river sucks it in. I thought I was Orpheus’s head floating down the Hebrus still singing, but I was not singing— my sweet wrist pale and swollen and the hand that held the pen gone. For a tongue, a mouth of tiny fishes. I could count them. I counted
- [ST. CAEDMON AT THE OPEN MIC BY LOIS MARIE HARROD](https://theravensperch.com/st-caedmon-at-the-open-mic-by-lois-marie-harrod/) - Last night the Angel came again and demanded as he had long ago, Write, Caedmon, write the Creation, and what could the old cowherd do but sign up next to last, 32 of 33, and slide onto the one empty metal chair and watch his watch inch towards 8:15. Perhaps some hairy sonneteer would crown
- [MAYBE I AM CLUELESS BY DAMON YEARGAIN](https://theravensperch.com/maybe-i-am-clueless-by-damon-yeargain/) - She said I was obtuse. “That’s not fair!” I snapped. I wasn’t sure what it meant, but based on past arguments, my guess was it was her fancy-schmancy way of calling me clueless. “You can walk into the bathroom right now and check,” I said. “The bar of soap is in its tray. All toothpaste
- [HEAVEN’S WAITING ROOM BY BROOKS C. MENDELL](https://theravensperch.com/heavens-waiting-room-by-brooks-c-mendell/) - “Mom and I decided to buy a condo here in Tucson,” I said, sitting across the table from our kids at the vacation rental. Katina glanced up from her phone; “Why? What happened to ‘keeping things simple’?” “Right, well, after our trip here, Mom and I agreed we really enjoyed the Southwest.” “Jesus, take it
- [ABSTRACT 2 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-2-by-jennifer-gurney-6/)
- [ABSTRACT 3 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-3-by-jennifer-gurney-6/)
- [ABSTRACT 5 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-5-by-jennifer-gurney-6/)
- [ABSTRACT 4 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-4-by-jennifer-gurney-6/)
- [THE AWAKENING BY DICK ALTMAN](https://theravensperch.com/the-awakening-by-dick-altman/) - Morning, after election eve, November 8, 2028 As I break out of sleep, I hear in my mind, the throb of Hauser, my favorite cellist, crashing his rendition of Sway, as if he were setting the world afire in dance, an historic whirlwind of glee. The New York Times headline, copied across the globe, says
- [ON A SAGEBRUSH SEA BY DICK ALTMAN](https://theravensperch.com/on-a-sagebrush-sea-by-dick-altman/) - Northern New Mexico Hummingbirds, bees and I share waves of intense purple. Hummers and humming, at my fingertips. Tears of gem-like blossoms, at my feet, fallen. Musical notes of amethyst, to replay over and over— lullaby, turning restless nights, into seas of calm.
- [LIBERTY TO CHATBOT: I’M SO TIRED OF STANDING STILL BY DICK ALTMAN](https://theravensperch.com/liberty-to-chatbot-im-so-tired-of-standing-still-by-dick-altman/) - As her back bends, and her pelvis tilts, I imagine I feel, in every muscle and bone, her pain. In my mind, Libby and Chatty hit the court to duke out an answer— Perhaps it’s time you get into the game. To give up, for tights of red, white and blue, gown and crown. Your
- [What Have We Become/Who Can I Even Ask? by Dick Altman](https://theravensperch.com/what-have-we-become-who-can-i-even-ask/) - And at what risk? Whenever I hear my first generation parents talk of America— the great wars, Vietnam, the Nixon years, civil rights and other seismic moments— I never detect anything but a deep, yet sometimes despairing, love of country, they call home. Now, I doubt, thirty years since their passing, they’d recognize what we’ve
- [THE WHOLE BLESSING BY JAMES T. STEMMLE](https://theravensperch.com/the-whole-blessing-by-james-t-stemmle/) - it’s best to realize that most or many believers at least evangelicals believe scripture literally contains a lot of truth instead of the more realistic view that the scribes who wrote it were giving their best flawed take on god and other spiritual matters as seen in the events of their day constituting a good
- [WHEN MOM DIED BY JAMES T. STEMMLE](https://theravensperch.com/when-mom-died-by-james-t-stemmle/) - in joining the poor and dispossessed in downsizing preparing to move to a senior campus in cleaning out files deciding what to toss I found memories of when my eldest moved to Bogotá and apparently I don’t remember we corresponded and I kept copies and on a certain October twelfth Mom died and by chance
- [SEVEN STEPS BY JAMES T. STEMMLE](https://theravensperch.com/seven-steps-by-james-t-stemmle-2/) - to the morning ritual step one gather equipment paper pencil pen notebook booklet clipboard step two walk naked striving to hold yourself vulnerable to truth and beauty step three prepare your place of meditation step four sit straight ever mindful of posture and comfort or at least absence of pain step five close your eyes
- [THROUGH THE PANE BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/through-the-pane-by-jennifer-gurney/) - through the pane the world walks by oblivious
- [FIRST DAY OF ADVENT BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/first-day-of-advent-by-jennifer-gurney/) - first day of Advent I listen to hear the stirring of hope in my heart
- [SLOWLY CLEANING MY HOUSE BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/slowly-cleaning-my-house-by-jennifer-gurney/) - slowly cleaning my house making room for Christmas
- [EACH NEW SEASON BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/each-new-season-by-jennifer-gurney/) - each new season life turning over without you
- [BUOYANCY BY DANIELLE MONZO](https://theravensperch.com/buoyancy-by-danielle-monzo/) - You had a thought a realization a feeling a knowing that your path would be marked by overturned and uneasy stones that would lose your footing after they promised to keep you safe. They let you sink, without a tree limb in sight, into the murky water, your saved breath vanished to vapor. And then
- [THE WALKER'S PATH AND THE WEIGHT OF AGE BY R. NIKOLAS MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/the-walkers-path-and-the-weight-of-age/) - I experienced a profound scene today at TAT, an eighty-year-old, Italian restaurant in the east end of Columbus, now deteriorated into an area in which it would be wise to wear a bullet-proof vest. Slouched in a booth, eating angel-hair pasta, I sensed oncoming movement in the aisle to my left. An old woman appeared,
- [FILLING YOUR POCKETS WITH PROMISE BY R. NIKOLAS MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/filling-your-pockets-with-promise-by-r-nikolas-macioci/) - Birds of Ohio that hover at night tear the moon apart with haunted claws. Strips of white light from cratered surface hang over bare, winter-tree limbs like strips of ermine. By looking into the sky, I seek the infinite signal that things on earth will soon become more beautiful, that people's lives will weep less
- [AMARYLLIS BY TIM LOUIS MACALUSO](https://theravensperch.com/amaryllis-by-tim-louis-macaluso/) - Scarlet flute a spy as red as ruby floods the room like gunshot it’s a bloody mess. We’ve become expert liars scholars of deceit; convinced you to stay it was never right after that, sort of like seeing the sunlight from a crack in the living room wall. Amaryllis hisses red of a thousand apologies
- [CHRISTMAS ‘75 BY TIM LOUIS MACALUSO](https://theravensperch.com/christmas-75-by-tim-louis-macaluso/) - Counting quarters at the laundry mat on Park Avenue foam circling spinning machines stare back 5 four-cycle Speed Queens
- [WAITING FOR JOHN IN THE METROPOLITAN BY TIM LOUIS MACALUSO](https://theravensperch.com/waiting-for-john-in-the-metropolitan-by-tim-louis-macaluso/) - Holding Rembrandt’s eyes his hands distilling water The great seam of human interference is to reproduce nature Christmas tree studded with twilight the hive of soaring angels to be heard Christ in the foil star shaking tapestry and marble pillar Lay down your tabernacle of doubt my peace I give you Overtures of light, amulets
- [WINTERFIELD BY LOIS MARIE HARROD](https://theravensperch.com/winterfield-by-lois-marie-harrod/) - Lois Marie Harrod’s l9th collection of poetry, The Bed the Size of a Small Country, is appearing in September 2025. Dodge poet, life-long educator and writer, she is published in literary journals and online ezines from American Poetry Review to Zone 3. More info at www.loismarieharrod.org
- [OMG BY LOIS MARIE HARROD](https://theravensperch.com/omg-by-lois-marie-harrod/)
- [STONE IMAGE BY LOIS MARIE HARROD](https://theravensperch.com/stone-image-by-lois-marie-harrod/)
- [FERRY BEACH BY LOIS MARIE HARROD](https://theravensperch.com/ferry-beach-by-lois-marie-harrod/)
- [CONEFLOWER WINTER BY LOIS MARIE HARROD](https://theravensperch.com/coneflower-winter-by-lois-marie-harrod/)
- [NOTHING IN PARTICULAR FOR A CHANGE BY JIM TILLEY](https://theravensperch.com/nothing-in-particular-for-a-change-by-jim-tilley/) - Not fretting about someone armed with a shotgun taking direct aim at free speech; not pondering the imminent demise of democracy—no, just admiring a big bird of prey on the electric wires overhead, and not any old raptor, but rare in these parts a red-shouldered hawk with prominent black-and-white markings on its back, staring across
- [I’D WANTED TO ARREST ITS MOTION BY JIM TILLEY](https://theravensperch.com/id-wanted-to-arrest-its-motion-by-jim-tilley/) - The distinctive knocking gave away the woodpecker, but it took several minutes to locate its position high up in the tree. The pileated kind, from the Latin pileatus meaning wearing a cap, in this case red like a cardinal’s in the Catholic church, the cleric and the bird continually seeking what’s harder to grasp than
- [A SEMIFINAL 45 YEARS LATER AT THE OLYMPIC ARENA BY JIM TILLEY](https://theravensperch.com/a-semifinal-45-years-later-at-the-olympic-arena-by-jim-tilley/) - —for my granddaughter, Kennedy It has since become known as “The Miracle on Ice,” the U.S. hockey team at Lake Placid in the 1980 Winter Olympics beating the Soviet Union, four-time defending gold medal champions, 4-3 in a semifinal game that took place in what is now called the 1980 Herb Brooks Arena, named after
- [NOW THAT THE WORDS ARE SPOKEN BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/now-that-the-words-are-spoken-by-jennifer-gurney/) - now that the words are spoken the prayers prayed the hugs exchanged now that the cookies are eaten the tears dried the stories shared now that the chairs are folded the cars are loaded and we’ve gone home it is slowly seeping in that you are really gone I breathe and try to open my
- [EMPATH BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/empath-by-jennifer-gurney/) - my cat keeps a close eye on me since you’re gone she notices things like tears and a broken heart they say dogs show empathy and cats are aloof which may be true in general but mine is the sweetest empath I’ve known purring now and making biscuits while I write this poem these are
- [WORDS OF CHILDREN BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/words-of-children-by-jennifer-gurney/) - the words of children spoken at memorials always get me so earnest and raw such fresh innocent grief
- [DRIVING HOME BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/driving-home-by-jennifer-gurney/) - driving home from your Celebration of Life today I thought of so many things I could have said like the time on our first date when you pulled out the trilogy of White Dragon Books that we had talked about before we met and you said “No matter what happens here, these are yours.” you
- [HOW WE MEASURE BY GARY GROSSMAN](https://theravensperch.com/how-we-measure-by-gary-grossman/) - and what, defines us. A universe to quantify, two cups to a pint, two pints a quart, four quarts a gallon. Fetal age is weeks, lifespan decades, while kids race months to years. Track's run in fifty-meter increments, till one endures the hundreds. Vehicle speed, kilometers per hour. Our national past time, success − three
- [MAGENTA BY GARY GROSSMAN](https://theravensperch.com/magenta-by-gary-grossman/) - A month early, Noah arrived 5lbs. 6 oz. but testing out of the NICU. He is a tiny man, and like all men, rages when his stomach pains, skin transmuting from ivory translucence to hot magenta in seconds − so small the circulating volume of his blood. Noah’s like that Hoplolatilus tilefish on the internet
- [CONJUNCTIONS BY GARY GROSSMAN](https://theravensperch.com/conjunctions-by-gary-grossman/) - This year the cherry blossoms in Athens, Georgia, burst like white novas, every branch popcorned — bark, a secret. Thirty-eight days of hard frost lit the fuse of these floral firecrackers. While somewhere in Patagonia a guanaco accidently stepped on a female silverdrop butterfly, sending the province into recession. Walking home from the bakery I
- [TO THE HOUSEKEY BY NANCY KAY PETERSON](https://theravensperch.com/to-the-housekey-by-nancy-kay-peterson/) - If I found you, never knowing what you were, I wouldn’t know how much you were nothing without a lock and wouldn’t know that before you everything
- [LOCKING THROUGH BY NANCY KAY PETERSON](https://theravensperch.com/locking-through-by-nancy-kay-peterson/) - Boats bob like ducks above the dam for hours, waiting. Flashy red speed boats with bikini-clad babes rock between john boats with trolling motors and wells full of walleye, and houseboat renters sipping cocktails, anticipating. Someone yells green. A motor growls. Eyes focus on the
- [HUNTING WILD GINSENG BY NANCY KAY PETERSON](https://theravensperch.com/hunting-wild-ginseng-by-nancy-kay-peterson/) - On a cool early autumn morning we prowl the northern slope trail looking for camouflaged three-leaved trillium, jack-in-the pulpit, or glossy Soloman’s seal, lurking near sugar maples. We hunt for five-leaf spreads, three big, two small, that betray the rare herb that takes five years to mature and can only be harvested by murder. Because
- [BAR HOPPING BY NANCY KAY PETERSON](https://theravensperch.com/bar-hopping-by-nancy-kay-peterson/) - Friday night go to favorite bar see who’s there have a drink wait to see who comes in decide to try somewhere else another drink stranger strikes up conversation, about not much, weather, prices, another drink say goodby one more place spot some friends another drink good conversation about not much weather, prices, feeling better
- [CORN SEASON BY SUZANNAH DALZELL](https://theravensperch.com/corn-season-by-suzannah-dalzell/) - I wade through high brown grass hot sun burns my scalp grasshoppers hurl their hard bodies hit my skinny girl chest. Tall mean thistles sting bare arms and legs, but I am singing, twining a melody around the whine of locusts. With a fistful of mint from the stream in one hand, in the other
- [SUMMER VACATION BY SUZANNAH DALZELL](https://theravensperch.com/summer-vacation-by-suzannah-dalzell/) - No dead rich white men’s houses, proclaims the sixteen-year-old. No museums, no museums, no museums, chants her younger sister. I scrap the itinerary, pass out guidebooks and together we plan the drive from Baltimore to North Carolina, bracketed by aunts. In-between? History I thought, but now cross-off Mount Vernon, Williamsburg – with much eye-rolling they
- [JANUARY THAW BY SUZANNAH DALZELL](https://theravensperch.com/january-thaw-by-suzannah-dalzell/) - Wind from the east, moist, fresh. January thaw. All week snow softened, stuck to sled runners, ski edges, slid off roofs. Whump! Downspouts gurgled, icicles dripped, trickled, splashed on sidewalks. In front yards snowmen slumped. A hole appeared in the lake ice, widened, swallowed a hockey cage, a lawn chair, a rake. Late Tuesday night
- [SLOW WALTZ BY ANGIE KINMAN](https://theravensperch.com/slow-waltz-by-angie-kinman/) - Sugar Maple, do you still listen for the whistle of White-Throated Sparrow? Autumn Blaze, will you miss the shock of Cardinal escaping fiery branches? Black Tupelo, are you ready to release your coral leaves and give in to time? Gold Leaf Ginkgo, is there beauty in dying— so you can begin again? Red-Tailed Hawk sweeps
- [SKY TREE BY ANGIE KINMAN](https://theravensperch.com/sky-tree-by-angie-kinman/) - goldfinches chatter of magical star seeds to come and of downy snowflakes falling on green, green grass a golden chandelier flutters an autumn aria ballads of birdsong tell of stars escaping bare branches in winter seasons of wisdom, centuries of spirit prayers, bridge to heaven shining light on my journey all along make fast towards
- [SYCAMORE BY ANGIE KINMAN](https://theravensperch.com/sycamore-by-angie-kinman/) - I am a Sycamore, stripped bare shedding all that I knew Raw flesh exposed to the light Afraid of what is there starting anew Losing me losing you Falling away yet finding a part of me just beneath Roots holding steady reaching toward the river Come sit under the canopy and tell me your story
- [UNDER THE PINK MOON BY ANGIE KINMAN](https://theravensperch.com/under-the-pink-moon-by-angie-kinman/) - The nightingale sings of springtide under the pink moon. Mountains speak, the sun settles— a pale evening primrose. Angel’s trumpet, jasmine and moonflowers light my way. Barred owls glide and lunar moths float to a nocturne. God created the glow and the melody in the night garden. Ask the animals, the birds, and the earth—
- [SONG OF HANDS BY PEPPER TRAIL](https://theravensperch.com/song-of-hands-by-pepper-trail/) - There is a poetry of hands, these human things, clever, never idle, good for anything, tying and also untying, both fist and palm, the blow and the caress. Whether we will or no, they make, they do, they
- [PRUNING BY PEPPER TRAIL](https://theravensperch.com/pruning-by-pepper-trail/) - Up and down the street, we are at work. We neighbors, no longer young, balancing on ladders, awkwardly wielding pruning poles, dodging falling limbs, obeying the city's order, pruning our trees. So we did our work as parents, now past. We complained about the rules, but followed them, tried to do the least harm, to
- [THIS POEM DID NOT ASK TO BE BORN BY PEPPER TRAIL](https://theravensperch.com/this-poem-did-not-ask-to-be-born-by-pepper-trail/) - What can you say to that? Such cold words, from one so young. This poem has feelings, too many feelings. It feels like it just might explode. All you can say is – Oh, poem, wait. Someday, you will understand. And reach out your hand, but this poem shrinks from your touch. So you go
- [102 DEGREES, OR HOT LOVE BY PENELOPE SCAMBLY SCHOTT](https://theravensperch.com/102-degrees-or-hot-love-by-penelope-scambly-schott/) - Q: May I have one of your potato chips? A true love story. We sit at the kitchen table eating Saturday lunch. Too hot to eat outside. Watermelon. And later in our double bed, skin to skin. But it’s still too hot. So all we’ll do is kiss. Thrice. And then we’ll laugh. You are
- [TO LOVE THE GLORY OF THIS HARD WORLD BY PENELOPE SCAMBLY SCHOTT](https://theravensperch.com/to-love-the-glory-of-this-hard-world-by-penelope-scambly-schott/) - 1 Incontrovertible evidence: the leathery bottom lip of a horse, the stiff ridge along the edge of a calloused human heel, the lung-shaped yellow fungus tucked in the fork of a cottonwood. 2 Use your thumbnail to carve a heart in the tough hide of the fungus, run your palm over the dead skin of
- [WINTER FOG BY PENELOPE SCAMBLY SCHOTT](https://theravensperch.com/winter-fog-by-penelope-scambly-schott/) - Blank sky, invisible hills, gray road, pale fence, at the feeder by my window, crimson rump of a house finch. Thank you, dear Mister Finch - I’d almost stopped believing in color.
- [THERE ONCE WAS A WOMAN WHO HAD A MOUNTAIN BY PENELOPE SCAMBLY SCHOTT](https://theravensperch.com/there-once-was-a-woman-who-had-a-mountain-by-penelope-scambly-schott/) - Her mountain was tall and steady with wide shoulders and white hair. She would watch how sunset made the edges of her mountain glimmer. She loved her mountain like she had loved her old father, but the high white mountain, her very own mountain, is still here. She often feels weepy when writing about her
- [JEMEZ SPRINGS NEW MEXICO BY RICHARD ERIC JOHNSON](https://theravensperch.com/jemez-springs-new-mexico-by-richard-eric-johnson/) - at Eden’s birth you weren’t Jemez at Gethsemane’s death maybe your evolving canyon walls chiseled by wind and spring waters valleys of antiquity beckoning rattlesnakes spiders lizards Pueblo Indians and pioneers a creation of every tomorrow’s bleached bones adobe walls missionary crosses this hot blue sky dry day road runners play in tumbling weeds escape
- [SOLDIERS SEEK EDEN’S ASYLUM BY RICHARD ERIC JOHNSON](https://theravensperch.com/soldiers-seek-edens-asylum-by-richard-eric-johnson/) - out of their caves igloos or yurts thatched roofs adobe walls seeking direction searching for seasons over tundra or mountain through valley or forest crossing rivers and oceans feast and famine place of birth depth of death pacing time and space pausing here maybe there mapping locations meeting leaving feasting for thought fasting for meditation
- [ABSTRACT 2 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-2-by-jennifer-gurney-5/)
- [ABSTRACT 1 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-1-by-jennifer-gurney-4/)
- [ABSTRACT 4 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-4-by-jennifer-gurney-5/)
- [ABSTRACT 3 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-3-by-jennifer-gurney-5/)
- [ABSTRACT 5 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-5-by-jennifer-gurney-5/)
- [TODAY BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/today-by-jennifer-gurney/) - today I turned an age you’ll never turn Jennifer Gurney lives in Colorado where she teaches, paints, writes and hikes. Her poetry is widely published, two of her poems have won international contests and one was turned into a choral piece. One of her poems was recently long listed for the Elizabeth Royal Patton
- [OH FOR THE DAYS BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/oh-for-the-days-by-jennifer-gurney/) - oh for the days when we all thought… stages of grief had a progression and an end
- [THESE EARLY DAYS BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/these-early-days-by-jennifer-gurney/) - these early days my shell is newly cracked my wings are drying, still I have not found my way
- [WHAT WILL IT FEEL LIKE BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/what-will-it-feel-like-by-jennifer-gurney/) - what will it feel like to sit on your bench watching the sun set and our old life without you
- [THE DARK MATTER BY CORBETT BUCHLY](https://theravensperch.com/the-dark-matter-by-corbett-buchly/) - as I lumber through the astronomy of years objects within my gravity drift farther away perhaps the mass of my persona has weakened much as the ligaments in my knees perhaps even I as entity sentient and foolish am spreading out into the cosmos and the connections I once felt between me and others have
- [SEVENTY-NINE BY CORBETT BUCHLY](https://theravensperch.com/seventy-nine-by-corbett-buchly/) - this planet stone and iron and boiling blood does ten billion seem long does it feel the years in the grating of its blistered plates when like restless limbs it shifts its mountains and its seas the immortal jellyfish makes itself young again reacting to hurt or hunger with quiet surrender falling down to the
- [THE CHILD GOES AHEAD BY CORBETT BUCHLY](https://theravensperch.com/the-child-goes-ahead-by-corbett-buchly/) - the child is wild sprout a vine bomb exploding across the habitat probing a thousand paths before you can martial up the texts call on Jesus or Buddha or other docents you imagine might shape this beast of blossom but the child is at work faster than you can rise and rub away the sleep
- [LOVE AND LOATHING BY KRISTINE ALESSI](https://theravensperch.com/love-and-loathing-by-kristine-alessi/) - Only you and I carry that October night that smelled like burning leaves and hot cider when Dad wrapped his face in Ace bandages and put on sunglasses and a leather jacket. He walked all over the neighborhood. No one knew who he was. Only you and I are left. Only you remember walking to
- [A HUNDRED YEAR OLD BOOT BY RALPH MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/a-hundred-year-old-boot-by-ralph-macioci/) - Nikolas Macioci earned a PhD from The Ohio State University, taught for Columbus City Schools for thirty years. OCTELA, the Ohio Council of Teachers of English, named Nik Macioci the best secondary English teacher in the state of Ohio. Nik is the author of twenty-three books.
- [FROSTY FOREST BY RALPH MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/frosty-forest-by-ralph-macioci/)
- [THE WORLD ON FIRE BY RALPH MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/the-world-on-fire-by-ralph-macioci/)
- [MOON PATH 1 BY RALPH MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/moon-path-1-by-ralph-macioci/)
- [URIAH BY GREG CHAIMOV](https://theravensperch.com/uriah-by-greg-chaimov/) - After Marie Howe’s Isaac I went though I knew I wouldn’t come back. I carried the letter that ordered my doom. On account of a woman I thought I could trust. I told her not to bathe where others could see. It’s said she mourned me. I can’t blame her for wanting to improve her
- [SHUTTERED BY GREG CHAIMOV](https://theravensperch.com/shuttered-by-greg-chaimov/) - To the neighbors, the derelict farm’s a ghost ship, adrift on a sea of brown and green. To the memories trapped inside, the home’s a hulk. They’re soldiers waiting out a war, not caring which side wins so long as the end comes before a pestilence, waiting for the chance to cross the fallow ground,
- [ALL SONGS FALL SILENT COME THE RAIN BY GREG CHAIMOV](https://theravensperch.com/all-songs-fall-silent-come-the-rain-by-greg-chaimov/) - After Marianne Boruch’s Aubade Moon vine fragrance eggs the mockingbird to sing: stealing as an incubus with whatever voice it needs. Pity the bird with just one song. No whistle, no bell--a stark trill only another of its kind can tell. Listen to the wind worry the pane the way a cuckoo empties a neighbor’s
- [HOME FROM OKOBOJI BY GREG CHAIMOV](https://theravensperch.com/home-from-okoboji-by-greg-chaimov/) - For Jenny Schulz White pines, bark the burnt clay of the chapel bricked together sabbaths after second service, served as lodestar to the kin who’d knelt before the stones of their departed, crowns above the corn leading the way sight of a steeple quickens the pace of a peddler heading to town. Then, roots began
- [BLIND SPOTS BY DEBORRAH CORR](https://theravensperch.com/blind-spots-by-deborrah-corr/) - I wear this car like skin, cinched in by a belt, sure of my place in the stream of daily traffic, lulled by the sound of inflated tires on pavement. To switch lanes is simple. Until the SUV I didn’t see fills the space I want to claim. So close I
- [VISITING THE PARENTS BY DEBORRAH CORR](https://theravensperch.com/visiting-the-parents-by-deborrah-corr/) - Dry grass stubble scratches at our ankles. Gray stones lift their heads as if to say, “Please, stop here. Are you seeking me?” And though some names scrape at memory, they’re not the ones we want. We walk and search and read, until my brother waves success. We stand at their graves. Roses in a
- [WHEN MY BROTHER BECAME AN ACOLYTE BY DEBORRAH CORR](https://theravensperch.com/when-my-brother-became-an-acolyte-by-deborrah-corr/) - Anything that you want, anything that you need I’ll send it along with love from me to you. The Beatles We needed a lot, my big brother and I: a mother who wasn’t depressed, a father who wasn’t dying. My brother craved the Fab Four who flew over the Atlantic and sang into an ocean
- [AND COUNTING…. BY DEBORRAH CORR](https://theravensperch.com/22684-2/) - Summer’s thermometer rises over foothills numbered by degrees of climb. Climate’s loose change clatters on our counters. Are we counting? How many days until the burn? How many hours ‘til we can’t drink the water? I’m thirsty. I sip a forest. Enchanted Nightshade, border of white flowers, eulogizes the trail.
- [GRAND MAL BY KRISTINE ALESSI](https://theravensperch.com/grand-mal-by-kristine-alessi/) - (They called it the sacred disease for a while until they didn’t.) I live inside the seizure, post-ictal, consciously sleepwalking, watching myself in a movie reel full of desire and loss. I gleefully resurrect the dead, always in color. Effigies no longer, they come to life, as animated marionettes from the crypt, while I remember
- [HOMAGE TO MEMPHIS BY RICHARD LEBOVITZ](https://theravensperch.com/homage-to-memphis-by-richard-lebovitz/) - DeSoto stood here, and the Chickasaws buried their dead. And burly stevedores wrestled bales of cotton from the cobblestones on the levee to the steamboats bound for New Orleans. Now, buoy lamps, tiny red beads seen from the high bluffs, mark the channel, and a necklace of bridge lights spans the dark, muddy water. As
- [GRANDMA'S STRUDEL BY RICHARD LEBOVITZ](https://theravensperch.com/grandmas-strudel-by-richard-lebovitz/) - Grandma followed grandpa to Philadelphia from Bălți* between world wars and before the horrors unleashed upon her people in that embattled Romanian city. She arrived with the 2-year-old version of our mom in tow and generations of recipes harbored in her head. Our favorite was apple strudel, from a recipe she never recorded, and we
- [LITTLE LEAGUER BY RICHARD LEBOVITZ](https://theravensperch.com/little-leaguer-by-richard-lebovitz/) - First time I swung, the ball hit my wrist, but I hid my hurt as I jogged to first. The next time up, I shied from the plate, swatting the air as balls barreled past. I struck out then, and again and again. We didn't always lose, only that time we did, and I pedaled
- [FISHING WITH DAD BY RICHARD LEBOVITZ](https://theravensperch.com/fishing-with-dad-by-richard-lebovitz/) - As I rummage for a lure in Dad's old tackle box, I relive the grand adventures our fishing trips were. Only now I realize the ways he put my enjoyment of the sport before his own. How else to explain my seat in the best spot in the boat to troll or cast, or to
- [I HAVE SAT BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/i-have-sat-by-jennifer-gurney/) - I have sat in the front row at memorials far too many times for my liking today was by far the hardest (I say that every time) Jennifer Gurney lives in Colorado where she teaches, paints, writes and hikes. Her poetry is widely published, two of her poems have won international contests and one
- [THE HUGS BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/the-hugs-by-jennifer-gurney/) - the hugs are tighter now at every funeral so many of us have been there…
- [WHY DOES BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/why-does-by-jennifer-gurney/) - why does it feel like a sin to laugh at a funeral even when the joke is funny
- [TO ROBERT FROST BY MARY CROSBY](https://theravensperch.com/to-robert-frost-by-mary-crosby/) - How many miles did you have to go? Did you get back when it was still dark? And after bringing the horse to the barn and wading through deep snow to the farmhouse did you find yourself alone again with no one awake and the fire in the woodstove turned to ash? Did you climb
- [ODE TO RAINY DAYS BY MARY CROSBY](https://theravensperch.com/ode-to-rainy-days-by-mary-crosby/) - Praise the steady rainfall Praise the gray day that won’t brighten with birdsong calling me outside Praise the empty square on today’s calendar Praise the kettle’s whistle the afghan on the couch when I curl up with a cup of hot tea Praise the pile of papers to be graded the stack of bills to
- [FRAGMENTS FROM AN OLD JOURNAL BY MARY CROSBY BY MARY CROSBY](https://theravensperch.com/fragments-from-an-old-journal-by-mary-crosby-by-mary-crosby/) - Mary, you were born for a reason in April, the month of rebirth where the earth shows over and over how beauty returns like birdsong from what’s long been buried tulips in all hues on long stems your brother in your son’s smile, his wry humor your Uncle Jim flies once again in the small
- [THE TIP BY PINKI MISHRA](https://theravensperch.com/the-tip-by-pinki-mishra/) - If cow-face Jackie wanted to get married in the dead of winter, that was Jackie’s business, her bovine business, and there was an end. Mrs. Tom Collins allowed the leather pedicure chair to envelop her. She sat on it, sat in it, resting with the unease of a ruler on a throne. Mrs. Tom gazed
- [DOS TACOS BY DAMON YEARGAIN](https://theravensperch.com/dos-tacos-by-damon-yeargain/) - “You know,” I said, “We’ve been drinking since we got off the plane, and I really don’t feel that drunk.” “Same here,” Joe answered, pausing like his mouth was still waiting on his brain. “Maybe it’s this heat.” “It’s suffocating,” I agreed. It had been a few years since I’d been to Cabo. It was
- [A NEW COUNTRY BY CATHARINE QUILLEN DORNIN](https://theravensperch.com/a-new-country-by-catharine-quillen-dornin/) - My soft and velvety first born, I look down on you lying across my newly flattened stomach. You are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. We both have washed back up from the shores of death and lie utterly spent and strangely, and remarkably, still alive. I would go to the Doorstep of Hell
- [SHAKER LADY BY CATHARINE QUILLEN DORNIN](https://theravensperch.com/shaker-lady-by-catharine-quillen-dornin/) - I remember a quaint and chilly fall afternoon When the Sun was beginning to lie a little low, and I decided to go exploring with my infant daughter in my Arms. There was a strange old Shaker Barn with rotting timbers on its stairs and in its high loft. I wove my way in and
- [DOILIES BY CATHARINE QUILLEN DORNIN](https://theravensperch.com/doilies-by-catharine-quillen-dornin/) - I Watch her Weaving and Wandering Fingers Creating Beautiful and interwoven Paths of white Thread with seemingly no Beginning or End. Is this how God weaves Light and Stars into an Endless Spin of Space and Time? Universe with no end or beginning. Who put this Desire to create such Doilies in my Mother? I
- [PENTECOST SUNDAY BY CATHARINE QUILLEN DORNIN](https://theravensperch.com/pentecost-sunday-by-catharine-quillen-dornin/) - It is Pentecost Sunday, The Day of the Holy Spirit and The Descent of the Red Cardinal onto the Bird Feeder. His Presence Blesses our Whole Garden. He Tilts his Bright Red and Joyous Plumage like a Flame In the Noonday Sun. He Dances brilliantly And momentarily atop the Feeder, Then exits with one Quick
- [GOOD GIRL BY ROBERTA MARSTELLAR](https://theravensperch.com/good-girl-by-roberta-marstellar/) - My letter to Santa is taking forever. I’m pretzeled on the couch, so close to the Christmas tree I can watch the tinsel dance. One quiet puff and the shaggy silver strands flutter and twinkle. Red light, blue light, green light, yellow. Bubble lights peep through the tinsel. Dad says it’s magic that makes the
- [TREASURE HUNT BY PATTY SOMLO](https://theravensperch.com/treasure-hunt-by-patty-somlo/) - Of all the games I played as a child, I loved none more than one we played the first summer my family lived in a development of new houses that all looked alike. Our street had attracted families, with plenty of kids to gather outside, after dinner on long summer nights. In addition to my
- [THE FAMILY BY JEFFREY ZABLE](https://theravensperch.com/the-family-by-jeffrey-zable/) - My uncle Maury has been dead for close to sixty years and yet I can still picture him in my mind—at the moment he’s smoking a pipe and tapping the ashes into an ashtray on the table. My mother said on numerous occasions that he was truly great— a self-made man who escaped from a
- [GRIEF SHARE BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/grief-share-by-jennifer-gurney/) - in this circle of love where everyone around the table understands I am free to be my authentic self as my shield comes down the tears freely flow an offering of my love here my grief mixes with yours and we heal each other your wisdom and perspectives astound me each one of you is
- [GRATITUDE SPILLS OUT BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/gratitude-spills-out-by-jennifer-gurney/) - sitting amidst the splendor of nature’s beauty my words reform from heart to pen to page they speak through them my gratitude for life spills out
- [6-29 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/6-29-by-jennifer-gurney/) - typing the date: 6-29 I remember do you know that I still have the chopstick wrapper from that sushi dinner the day you told me you love me the first time ten years ago, now you know it took you nearly a year to say it the first time I love it that you used
- [WHISPERING LOVE BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/whispering-love-by-jennifer-gurney/) - I text you pictures each day, now of our best times together to brighten your dark I gaze into your eyes in each picture I send whispering my love
- [ALMOST BUT NOT BY DION FARQUHAR](https://theravensperch.com/almost-but-not-by-dion-farquhar/) - everyone after Darwin celebrated the rhythms glacial extinctions (making the bad news good) imagine: the
- [ICE BY TIMOTHY L. RODRIGUEZ](https://theravensperch.com/ice-by-timothy-l-rodriguez/) - Finnish believe Ice does not forgive Americans add nor Does it forget How to whet a threat It took this cold age Only one election Cycle to creep. Many argue its ice Has deep, deep roots Burn this coldness learns Is the standard price Of a cooling culture Freezing scrolls Of rules and rights Acting
- [WINNOWING BY TIMOTHY L. RODRIGUEZ](https://theravensperch.com/winnowing-by-timothy-l-rodriguez/) - Don’t bother Clutching your pearls Just deliver us From nada Solon musty skulls Empty but huffing To declare there must Be a winnowing of nothing A reflection thoroughly Bandied then tossed high An attempt to separate What can’t be discrete Prinking themselves in new clothes Unaware they aren’t there They deem gauzy outfits Renegade and
- [THE SECRET BY TIMOTHY L. RODRIGUEZ](https://theravensperch.com/the-secret-by-timothy-l-rodriguez/) - How to leak the secret Stony all these years And for it, all the stronger? But is forcing it forth No more than natter? For so long it has made Privacy its career Hiding in many compartments In a name, a sorrow, a photo In plain sight, in every vice But virtue seldom accepts
- [A LANE BY TIMOTHY L. RODRIGUEZ](https://theravensperch.com/a-lane-by-timothy-l-rodriguez/) - Some learn slowly Most never understand History can’t wait To see what’s next However it unfolds Most fail to get What is happening Resorting to live In a make-believe Where a bib overall boy With a frayed straw hat Knocked slightly back Chews on a reed As he kicks up dust Strolling barefoot Down a
- [LOVE EASY BY GREG MOGLIA](https://theravensperch.com/22617-2/) - By now I should have learned to take matters of the heart as momentary but with her I found a peace Where telling lies hid in the heart of love I found you kissed your hand To hold your mysteries was enough The old men say all beauty drifts away Being high, solitary and stern
- [HAND BY GREG MOGLIA](https://theravensperch.com/hand-by-greg-moglia/) - Handle bricks long enough your hands grow the dust embedded Grandpa’s hands with a coat that clings cheap labor from Italy But not his son his hands blackened from the newsprint Night postal clerk on his ride home collects newspapers one generation from dust to newsprint - father but less Italian - the hands Next
- [BEFORE YOU FORGOT, I REMEMBERED BY RENE BEQUILLARD](https://theravensperch.com/before-you-forgot-i-remembered-by-rene-bequillard/) - Mita, your hands spoke tales, twisted in strings of lullabies and whispers, in morning coffee aromas, in golden bracelets that danced with each refined movement of yours. Time, however, stole your names one day, dates disintegrated like sand between fingers, and in your eyes, ones like shining lanterns, only a haze remained, disoriented in a
- [OF A PASSING BY DALE COTTINGHAM](https://theravensperch.com/of-a-passing-by-dale-cottingham/) - Today, waiting for the meeting to start, the transport entered, didn’t say a word, took a seat, not directly across, but aslant. She looked at me intently, as if a need (or was it a hunger) stirred, as if a gust front passed over me, leaving me on the verge. Dale Cottingham has published
- [OF A WIND THAT CLEAVES BY DALE COTTINGHAM](https://theravensperch.com/of-a-wind-that-cleaves-by-dale-cottingham/) - He tells me I’m haunted by what happened when she turned, pursed her lips, said the words that cleaved . . . Wide horizon, open sky, breeze restless as a mind, as tall grass sways, one way, then another, then flattened by rain. He struggles to find balance, then raises his gaze. He’ll blow from
- [OF A NEW IDIOM BY DALE COTTINGHAM](https://theravensperch.com/of-a-new-idiom-by-dale-cottingham/) - Like a windstorm I’ve ravaged a body and it is mine, sometimes in the clutch of night, or in small town piazzas, when I try out a new phrase. O, booths, lanes, empty houses, I cannot hold the wind that rips through as I wade into emails then ads saying I should take a cruise.
- [ACROSS DISTANCE AND TIME BY HEATHER HALLBERG YANDA](https://theravensperch.com/across-distance-and-time-by-heather-hallberg-yanda/) - I've stopped watching, stopped reading the news: I'm tired of the world's ugliness, and no one to teach beauty. I love this quiet moment with my teacup, looking out my favorite window, where each morning deer have awakened from the protected spot my house gives them. We rise together to honor the coming day, ask
- [20 CHURCH STREET BY HEATHER HALLBERG YANDA](https://theravensperch.com/20-church-street-by-heather-hallberg-yanda/) - How often did you stand at the front door of your 20 Church Street, fumbling with your keys, refusing the cold, thinking of all 20 Church Streets, all their owners and tenants, oak doors and painted doors, some elegant, and some whose elegance only their owners knew? Who had work days that stretched far into
- [ENVOI BY MICHAEL J. SHEPLEY](https://theravensperch.com/envoi-by-michael-j-shepley/) - I just stuffed a ghost in this old yellow envelope addressed to you It did not resist grey little dust bunny & I did not check to see if it was sad or merely resigned to be a message of mere symbolic import I was glad it wasn’t any raging devil demon again In short
- [TAMARACKS ON THE CORNER BY HEATHER HALLBERG YANDA](https://theravensperch.com/tamaracks-on-the-corner-by-heather-hallberg-yanda/) - Early morning and my car is mired in the snow, here on my driveway’s steep slope. Knee deep in cold, I dig out snow from before and behind tires. Strangers, so warm in their cars, drive by and drive by. When one stops, I don’t notice until I hear the chuck chuck of one more
- [JUST BE BY LAUREN WIENER](https://theravensperch.com/just-be-by-lauren-wiener/) - The runaway leaf the one that did not want to be shoved in to a pile with all the rest the leaf that got away but where was it to go be blown about with all the other wayward leaves it needed a purpose or could it just be free to merely be an ethereal
- [A TASTE OF WRATH BY WILLIAM BINZEN](https://theravensperch.com/a-taste-of-wrath-by-william-binzen/) - Standing by the sink in her silky, satin robe, Marilyn wrung out her wrath like a red dish towel. Ken steamed in his cup of indignation. But two mugs held freshly ground, pungent French roast, and it was morning in America. Call me
- [LAYERS #1 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/layers-1-by-jennifer-gurney/)
- [LAYERS #2 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/layers-2-by-jennifer-gurney/)
- [LAYERS #3 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/layers-3-by-jennifer-gurney/)
- [LAYERS #5 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/layers-5-by-jennifer-gurney/)
- [LAYERS #4 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/layers-4-by-jennifer-gurney/)
- [WOLF BY GINA DE MENDONCA](https://theravensperch.com/wolf-by-gina-de-mendonca/) - Your body knows a wolf even if your eyes don’t see one. You will feel it as you step into a neighbor’s place. Old man. Houseplants. Come inside. When the door closes, it hits you: The air is too still. A tension you cannot name. The hairs on your arms standing up straight. Sweat laces
- [EMILY DICKINSON SICKBED DREAMING BY ALAN CATLIN](https://theravensperch.com/emily-dickinson-sickbed-dreaming-by-alan-catlin/) - I am too sick with flu for piety Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel Furniture out of focus in the fever of sleep, becoming ghost from other people’s dreams: curtains assume a corporeal form, the sickroom oddly shaped as if something seen through like bending handblown glass; waking up after dreaming, silence screams. Alan Catlin's most recent
- [EMILY D’S BACK PAGES: WHITE BY ALAN CATLIN](https://theravensperch.com/emily-ds-back-pages-white-by-alan-catlin/) - poems like White Paintings like White on White, a “harmony of silence,” an absence of color, a metaphor for what is and what is not, for what is coming and for what has gone before, “white is something you endlessly return to,” white pages in a blank book.
- [EMILY DICKINSON’S SOLITUDE BY ALAN CATLIN](https://theravensperch.com/emily-dickinsons-solitude-by-alan-catlin/) - In her haven, a room overlooking Main Street: a low, well-used writing table, white, hand crocheted spread over single bed; outside, scents of Spring, butterfly clusters, bees buzz.
- [BENJAMIN BRITTEN'S REQUIEM, WILFRED OWEN'S BY ALAN CATLIN](https://theravensperch.com/benjamin-brittens-requiem-wilfred-owens-by-alan-catlin/) - anthems for the doomed youth set to music are the unanswered prayers of soldier's sung a capella or accompanied as the Dies Irae for soloists and full orchestra sung in a Cathedral of All Saints in after-storm light, a stained glass filigree, a memorial for the fallen, the victims of lost causes
- [#4 BY JON LAVIERI](https://theravensperch.com/4-by-jon-lavieri/)
- [#1 BY JON LAVIERI](https://theravensperch.com/1-by-jon-lavieri/)
- [#2 BY JON LAVIERI](https://theravensperch.com/2-by-jon-lavieri/)
- [#3 BY JON LAVIERI](https://theravensperch.com/3-by-jon-lavieri/)
- [À ROAD AWAY FROM AUTUMN BY R. NIKOLAS MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/a-road-away-from-autumn-by-r-nikolas-macioci/) - I'm traveling south on State Route 23, the day, sun-bright with glossy, golden glow. I anticipate purchasing a couple of pumpkins from Renick's Farm. I pull into a parking space. Saturday has brought many people to retrieve pumpkins from the 15-plus-acre-pick-your-own-pumpkin patch. A bright sea of orange covers the field like an autumnal carpet. Though
- [THE CHURCHYARD TREE BY R. NIKOLAS MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/the-churchyard-tree-by-r-nikolas-macioci/) - When men from the electric company cut down a tree I named The Churchyard Tree, because it grew on the property line separating my backyard from the churchyard, I wanted to destroy their chainsaws and heave the men back into their trucks. I assumed workers, suited in padded, blue vests, yellow hardhats, and the intent
- [THE CARD BY ANDREW PELFINI](https://theravensperch.com/the-card-by-andrew-pelfini/) - I don’t know what prompted me to turn my head and look behind me, but it is not unusual for me to peruse a theater before a performance begins. “Hello.” the woman said. As if she had come out of a Fairy tale, her silk satin cape was the color of a pale Ginko leaf,
- [ACCRETION BY PAULANN PETERSEN](https://theravensperch.com/accretion-by-paulann-petersen/) - each poem is intruder alien irritant is the party-crasher the hanger-on who can’t take a hint the one who overstays the welcome it never had is worry at the corner of an eye fret too insistent to skirt the mistake rolled around and around trying to smooth its
- [WHAT GIVES OFF STARLIGHT BY PAULANN PETERSEN](https://theravensperch.com/what-gives-off-starlight-by-paulann-petersen/) - the gleam of an egg you crack out of its pale cloister water you see pulled apart into countless beacon-eyed drops dough kneaded by your hands— folded up, over, into itself, stretched toward luminescence the faint opal scars still streaking across your once pregnant belly and even that stone lodged far too long in your
- [IMPRINT BY PAULANN PETERSEN](https://theravensperch.com/imprint-by-paulann-petersen/) - An ecological footprint measures how fast a human being consumes resources and generates waste compared to how fast nature can absorb that waste and create new resources. May my eco-footprint shrink and shrink, yet also sink into soft soil deep
- [ELEMENTS BY PAULANN PETERSEN](https://theravensperch.com/elements-by-paulann-petersen/) - Earth is the world’s noun, naming, naming, saying nothing but in things— proper and common, all at once. Acting up, always doing something, wind is the verb, on the move, unless—of course—it contents itself with simply being. As the preposition, rain pre-positions itself everywhere at the same time. Rain falls upon, around, over, across, along,
- [GENTLE REVERIE BY TINA HARRACH DENETCLAW](https://theravensperch.com/gentle-reverie-by-tina-harrach-denetclaw/) - In the early dark of winter nestled deep into my chair lamp light at my shoulder worksheets strewn across my knees My husband's chair and mine at right angles, huddling together in the calm of our home, relaxed into our work A giant black kitty arrives at my elbow, face lowered He politely bumps my
- [ON THE EDGE OF LIFE BY RALPH MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/on-the-edge-of-life-by-ralph-macioci/)
- [VACANCY BY RALPH MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/vacancy-by-ralph-macioci/)
- [GROCERY SHOPPING BY RALPH MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/grocery-shopping-by-ralph-macioci/)
- [FOLLOW THE YELLOW LEAF ROAD BY RALPH MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/follow-the-yellow-leaf-road-by-ralph-macioci/)
- [A BURST OF SUNSHINE BY RALPH MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/a-burst-of-sunshine-by-ralph-macioci/) - R. Nikolas Macioci earned a PhD from The Ohio State University, taught for Columbus City Schools for thirty years. OCTELA, the Ohio Council of Teachers of English, named Nik Macioci the best secondary English teacher in the state of Ohio. Nik is the author of twenty-three books. He was twice nominated for a Pulitzer
- [ONE MORE BY TINA HARRACH DENETCLAW](https://theravensperch.com/one-more-by-tina-harrach-denetclaw/) - Aunt Shirley’s pecan pie, luscious soft sweetness, crispy pecans tenderly cradled in crust Parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins sit— gathered onto couch, soft chairs, hard chairs, the floor, or stand wherever scents of roasted meat and cinnamon cake waft in the air among them laughter and teasing and storytelling family with Grandma in her living
- [KNIGHT TEMPLAR FINAL TESTIMONY BY BRUCE CURLEY](https://theravensperch.com/knight-templar-final-testimony-by-bruce-curley/) - And this I know And wanted to say to you At some point before I die So hear me out, wife. This is my final testimony: With death calling More times than I can recall or count I saw your face, your image, your spirit Before me briefly before each terror And found then the
- [ERIC FINZI CREATES LIFE BY BRUCE CURLEY](https://theravensperch.com/eric-finzi-creates-life-by-bruce-curley/) - First, he puts on a space suit Physical barrier to the vapors Released when chemicals become beauty A clean lab environment with danger Of death if the oxygen tail that connects To the tank should become disconnected And his last memory is the sweet, sticky, sensual Fumes of the resin seducing him to lose control
- [HALF BLIND, STILL ALIVE BY BRUCE CURLEY](https://theravensperch.com/half-blind-still-alive-by-bruce-curley/) - In a meeting she had called, My contact lens popped to the floor. As I stumbled blindly on the carpet she instinctively came to my help, took my hand, and led my finger right to the missing lens. She is one of so many women in my life who, when I stumbled blindly took my
- [GIVING SPEECH TO THE SILENCE BY BRUCE CURLEY](https://theravensperch.com/giving-speech-to-the-silence-by-bruce-curley/) - Someday, you’re an old man and they’re all gone: One to the West Coast, One to man’s insatiable appetite for war, One to marry a man you thought unworthy of her, And the one here even now, the one who always returns no matter what obstacles that keep the others. He’s the one who from
- [CALIFORNIA ZEPHYR – 1959 BY STEPHEN BRAYTON](https://theravensperch.com/california-zephyr-1959-by-stephen-brayton/) - Martha had never taken an overnight train trip and wasn't sure she'd like it. She imagined being cooped up in a hot, stuffy railroad car, like a sausage in its casing, as the train rolled past empty countryside. But Stan loved trains; so, she reluctantly agreed when he proposed taking the train to California for
- [IN THE CITY WHERE WE MET BY SAM FRIEDMAN](https://theravensperch.com/in-the-city-where-we-met-by-sam-friedman/) - I walked into that room last week, that room where first we talked, first smiled, a room where thousands of students have since sat enthralled or bored beneath professors’ voices, a room where others too must have met, some to love, to hate, or to grieve, a few to rejoice and to endure. Later, I
- [NO’ING HISTORY* BY SAM FRIEDMAN](https://theravensperch.com/noing-history-by-sam-friedman/) - I stare at a newspaper image from sixty years ago. Young men wear sports jackets and white shirts. A young woman, sweatered, stares at the floor. Another seems asleep, her head resting on a steel filing cabinet. A reporter seems to ask questions, a microphone held by another. The headline blares “39 arrested in draft
- [WITCH BY SAM FRIEDMAN](https://theravensperch.com/witch-by-sam-friedman/) - Who was Shakespeare? A man who wrote with witches. What are witches? Women who woo wise trees to walk between. Why do trees ever walk? To crush the raging fang-mouthed orcs. Why do orcs rage?
- [RARITAN RIVER BRIDGE BY SAM FRIEDMAN](https://theravensperch.com/raritan-river-bridge-by-sam-friedman/) - Every day for millennia the moon has sucked water upstream to salt these banks, let it go, sucked again, in a twice-a-day pulsing of mud-embroidered tides. Every weekday for three decades I have twice trod above this pulsing river. In the morning, cars puff exhaustion over this bridge, over these waters. Solo women await the
- [AUTUMNAL BY DONNA DAVIS](https://theravensperch.com/autumnal-by-donna-davis/) - It is the season of All Hallows. Candles stand in cross-hatched windows, and leaves like twisted tears spill on the front lawns. Fences mark the borderlands of walkways, and houses are adrift in the covered yards where Autumn sparks its red-gold fire deep in the guts of things. How can I name this time? My
- [THE WOLF SPEAKS TO LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD BY DONNA DAVIS](https://theravensperch.com/the-wolf-speaks-to-little-red-riding-hood-by-donna-davis/) - The tale of Little Red Riding Hood reflects a seasonal ritual in which spring conquers winter (ed. Alan Dundes). A basket dangles from your arm filled with ripe apples; your crimson cloak is drenched in dew and adorned with autumn brambles. Alone in the woods, what is it you seek? Show me the strawberry tinged
- [SHOVEL BY DONNA DAVIS](https://theravensperch.com/shovel-by-donna-davis/) - The hand shovel bears a singular history in an era that discounts its simple value. Neolithic farmers moved dirt using an ox’s shoulder bone. Bronze and iron ages brought wooden handles with metal blades into the era of roads and canals. Laborers moved tons of earth to build railways and fast trains. My shovel with
- [THE TREES WITH AUTUMN LEAVES AND THE STILL GREEN MAPLE BY DONNA DAVIS](https://theravensperch.com/the-trees-with-autumn-leaves-and-the-still-green-maple-by-donna-davis/) - While sitting in my car, I observe them through the window of a parking garage. They tower on a nearby hill, tinted with warm haze; their dense canopies swim a sunlit lake of sky. “Why aren’t you turning?” one asks a lush green maple. “You look as though the overflowing brooks have flooded your veins
- [FALLING WATER BY AGATHA TAITT](https://theravensperch.com/falling-water-by-agatha-taitt/)
- [OUTSIDE THE (OUT)LINES BY KB BALLENTINE](https://theravensperch.com/22472-2/) - Why is everything black and white (when, really, nothing is)? Even the red barn in the rain beckons like one lotus blooming in a pond (like the shimmer of a kingfisher, a sunbeam) – startling, blinding,
- [REJOINING BY KB BALLENTINE](https://theravensperch.com/rejoining-by-kb-ballentine/) - Sometimes it is necessary to reteach a thing its loveliness — Galway Kinnell Here where my hurts collide, where they divide, where they disappear like the loveliness of leaves blazing then fading and letting go – something I’ve yet to embrace. In the forest: This. This wounded trunk. This heart that pumps in wholeness yet
- [THE HEART PAUSES BY KB BALLENTINE](https://theravensperch.com/the-heart-pauses-by-kb-ballentine/) - Golden shovel from Mary Oliver’s “Why I Wake Early” When I wake and the fog curls a hello, burrows me in its gray cape the sun will later shred like bramble-tears, I enjoy the quiet in that moment. The absolute stillness my body and mind can hold. A breath of stars on my face, a
- [AUTUMN: TRIPTYCH BY KB BALLENTINE](https://theravensperch.com/autumn-triptych-by-kb-ballentine/) - I. Moss traces letters, dates on gravestones – living flirting with the dead. Wind off the sea teases sea oats – sifting, lifting heads without bowing or bending. Decaying rot bunches the wood line, hedges seizing the runaway leaves, pierced and flapping until they crack. II. Why are we still fighting shadows? We fear a
- [OFF THE CUFF #5 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/off-the-cuff-5-by-jennifer-gurney/)
- [OFF THE CUFF #4 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/off-the-cuff-4-by-jennifer-gurney/)
- [OFF THE CUFF #3 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/off-the-cuff-3-by-jennifer-gurney/)
- [OFF THE CUFF #2 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/off-the-cuff-2-by-jennifer-gurney/)
- [OFF THE CUFF #1 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/off-the-cuff-1-by-jennifer-gurney/)
- [NEW DAY BY AGATHA TAITT](https://theravensperch.com/new-day-by-agatha-taitt/)
- [BALTIMORE’S UNDERGROUND CULTURE BY RICHARD MARRANCA](https://theravensperch.com/baltimores-underground-culture-by-richard-marranca/) - We sat in the café – it hissed with an espresso machine, chitchat and the intrigues of chess players. An elderly couple sat across from us. Gabriella whispered, “I’m leaving.” “What -- are you driving home?” “I’ll sit on books. Police would arrest you for child endangerment.” Maria took photos. I sipped tea. Gabriella covered
- [GNARLY BY DEBORAH H. DOOLITTLE](https://theravensperch.com/gnarly-by-deborah-h-doolittle/) - after Landscape on the Coast; near Menon, Renoir So was the word we used to describe it: trees hell-bent with bark scraped as if raked over hot coals as if multiple snakes had shed multiple skins and left them hanging on poles to be shredded by wind. Not a spring breeze to tease the beach
- [NOT KILIMANJARO BY DEBORAH H. DOOLITTLE](https://theravensperch.com/not-kilimanjaro-by-deborah-h-doolittle/) - But something like its iconic volcanic silhouette, snow-capped, in a khaki-colored landscape with a bedraggled, straggled tree scratching the sky for all its worth occurred to me then. Isn’t it ironic? That I am the one who remains, lying in bed and trying to work out in my head what was said from what was
- [NOTE OF DISPLEASURE BY DEBORAH H. DOOLITTLE](https://theravensperch.com/note-of-displeasure-by-deborah-h-doolittle/) - Standing on the platform at the railway station and handed a ticket for your destination, you think you nearly hear it. Forlorn, the train whistling like a loon, with the moon rising over the rooftops and chimney pots of your long-lost childhood. So, this is what is meant to be left numb and dumbfounded; not
- [UP IN SMOKE BY DEBORAH H. DOOLITTLE](https://theravensperch.com/up-in-smoke-by-deborah-h-doolittle/) - There were crickets. Their rhinestone grind chipping away at the darkest flints of night. There were sparks of light. That could be cinders, could be moths or fireflies, could be the tears of stars thrown down as spears. There was the thrum from some old guitar blowing smoke, a discord of chords redolent of camp
- [ELVINA’S HOUSE BY SARAH SUSANNA WOOD](https://theravensperch.com/elvinas-house-by-susanna-wood/) - I. “Caleb Holloway,” he said, disturbing Elvina’s meditation. She opened her eyes and considered him rude. It was obvious that she was occupied. Elvina was seated in her gun metal gray wheelchair among the pine grove on the hill just behind her house. Ellen must have sent him, she guessed. She sighed, “Pleased to meet
- [MY HUSBAND RETURNS FROM THE SAFEWAY BY SUHANTHIE MOTHA](https://theravensperch.com/my-husband-returns-from-the-safeway-by-suhanthie-motha/) - My husband returns from the Safeway Empty-handed, and without his familiar jovial twinkle. Sweetie, where are the groceries? I ask. He had gone to buy non-perishables, hearing on King 5 News of sudden shortages of toilet paper, pasta, canned beans. His eyes stricken. I didn’t get groceries. Our hastily assembled list Dangling between his fingertips.
- [YOUNGSTERS BY FREDERICK WILBUR](https://theravensperch.com/youngsters-by-frederick-wilbur/) - Leaves play whirlwind, tease each other as school children often do: flakes of paint fly from village houses to join them. Wind is calculated from the Beaufort zero to the mischief of trashcans upended: smack and boom: swirling snow knocks on doors and windows. Empty playground swings seem to rock invisible children: those exiled from
- [LIGHTLY BY FREDERICK WILBUR](https://theravensperch.com/lightly-by-frederick-wilbur/) - Up earlier than necessary, I settle in the dark living room rocker facing west as if waiting for horses to amble by. The moon descends the mullions, glass rippled as a fishpond: obligations still asleep. Reverie-moon conjures awe-places: Walpi in Hopiland, Bayeux, Winchester Cathedral. . . . I am unaware that dawn opens the back
- [MAY DAY SESTINA BY FREDERICK WILBUR](https://theravensperch.com/may-day-sestina-by-frederick-wilbur/) - You cannot argue with May flowering forth its fragrant invitations: you cannot refuse primrose dawn its fading, its blinding of stars, cannot ignore messages from humble gods who daily try to tell us what to do. A bucket list, a reckoning, an else-to-do are chores that may or may not satisfy the demands of the
- [MEMORY IS A GRIEVING RELIGION BY FREDERICK WILBUR](https://theravensperch.com/memory-is-a-grieving-religion-by-frederick-wilbur/) - I chase boxes around the legal page: check or leave empty: not multiple choices, not decision trees. My father is dying in the next room. The hospice nurse is of genuine cheer, but her prayers lack the necessary wings. Outside the window, word has gotten around that the bird feeders are empty, house gutters need
- [FALL GEESE BY BRUCE MORTON](https://theravensperch.com/fall-geese-by-bruce-morton/) - It is late in the afternoon when They land in a glide on the stubble Of the wheat field to gorge on what The threshers have left behind. Yellow aspen leaves leave A welcome mat on the steel-gray Water of the neighborhood pond Where the Canada Geese reconvene Honking in the rush-hour traffic. In the
- [CHOCOLATE BY BRUCE MORTON](https://theravensperch.com/chocolate-by-bruce-morton/) - I do not know What it is about Chocolate that is So compelling So pleasing So addicting. Perhaps it is Its inherent bitterness Transforming our own As we cut it to taste With milk and sugar. The Aztecs knew, Even then, it was Worth the sacrifice.
- [GENEALOGY OF HANDS BY JULIE BERRY](https://theravensperch.com/genealogy-of-hands/) - that summer my grandmother rinsed soapy water off her infant son’s – my father’s – shoulder with the water from her cupped hand my hands were buried in the future between layers of mornings afternoons and nights and the hands of my sons were smaller than stamens and were held as flowers are held in
- [FOR I WILL CONSIDER CHICORY BY JULIE BERRY](https://theravensperch.com/for-i-will-consider-chicory-by-julie-berry/) - After Jubilate Deo by Christopher Smart For she absorbs chaos as sponge absorbs spill. For she ingests the blare-bursting, gas-burning hell-making steel-plastic uproar of 21st century highways. For she soothes what is driven by the driven. For she calms pandemonium. For she offers glimpses of solace to hogs, cows and hens destined for slaughter. For
- [MILKWEED BY JULIE BERRY](https://theravensperch.com/milkweed-by-julie-berry/) - when a word swells and bursts into blossom-dripping sweetness when the butterflies that are your ears get stuck and your small insect feet can’t pull out wouldn’t that be a way to die—to starve after the quickly-emptied promise of the most desired word
- [WIND PHONE BY CLAIRE SCOTT](https://theravensperch.com/wind-phone-by-claire-scott/) - A disconnected phone where people can make calls to lost loved ones. Originated in Japan. Where are you my friend of forty years living in a foreign land a land of forgotten words unfinished sentences silences stretching like taffy am I not listening, our connection drowned by the noise of my thoughts are my ears
- [I DON’T KNOW HOW BY CLAIRE SCOTT](https://theravensperch.com/i-dont-know-how-by-claire-scott/) - I don’t know how he does it Oxycontin days, Seroquel nights spent in spasms of pain I don’t know how he does it doctor after doctor sighing and turning away, after ablations, infusions, and off-label drugs don’t work I don’t know how he does it flashbacks of being tossed in the air by a red
- [DO THE DEAD THINK OF US BY CLAIRE SCOTT](https://theravensperch.com/do-the-dead-think-of-us-by-claire-scott/) - Do the dead think of us as much as we think of them do they picture us with their first cup of coffee, their last cup of tea have they taped our photos to their mirrors and fridges do they have tender memories of our times together baking brownies, licking spoons the smell of burnt
- [WHAT A MORNING BY CLAIRE SCOTT](https://theravensperch.com/what-a-morning-by-claire-scott/) - A blue rubber ball rolling down a driveway me on my morning run a child rushes after it heading into the street a red Honda hurrying toward her the girl focused on the ball I grab her and pull her away gouging my knees the frazzled driver a reporter for the Chronicle the story on
- [SILENT STRUGGLES BY JOAN LEOTTA](https://theravensperch.com/silent-struggles-by-joan-leotta/) - Long black feathers, tips splashed with blood lay scattered, strewn across my lawn this morning. I didn't hear any raucous caw-caw-caw, so I realized that the fight among crows or perhaps a bloody struggle of crow and predator had been silent. The strewn feather evidence tells me a fight did happen-- those long black feathers
- [TWO WITCH FAMILIES BY MAUREEN CLARK](https://theravensperch.com/two-witch-families-by-maureen-clark/) - Between Chattox and Demdike no love was lost, “for whom the one favored the other hated deadly.” Thomas Potts the feud began so far in the past no one remembers why it didn’t help things when the Chattox family stole the oats and linen from the Demdike clan but more than just the
- [BLAME BY MAUREEN CLARK](https://theravensperch.com/blame-by-maureen-clark/) - The common people really did believe that witches had the powers attributed to them, based on a simple cause and effect logic. Ronald Holmes blame could light a blaze in sawdust turn a whole town witch crazy there was no need for evidence just a hint of strangeness a story gossip Demdike turned
- [THE WELL TOWER BY MAUREEN CLARK](https://theravensperch.com/the-well-tower-by-maureen-clark/) - Prisoners were tried in batches Philip Almond in the oldest part of the castle a large vault at ground level then a long rough stairway to the dungeon where in 1612 they were chained for 3 months waiting for trial that’s where you feel the evil of the place only
- [NUEVO UNDERGROUND BY MARCUS WILSON](https://theravensperch.com/nuevo-underground-by-marcus-wilson/) - There is a boy down the street whose dad can’t emerge from the basement during the daytime for fear of being deported. I am not a cop but my white-ness breeds uneasiness. Young eyes peer precariously at me when he holes up at our house questioning sanctity, sanity, my sincerity. The same eyes bridge the
- [NAMELESS BY MARCUS WILSON](https://theravensperch.com/nameless-by-marcus-wilson/) - on our way home from the clinic we stare blankly out the window too exhausted to cry the clouds appear as crumpled tissues pasted hastily to the surface of a chalky blue sky as if curated by the mind of a child, given only gentle instructions to create without rules a vial of pills rattles
- [TIGER LILY BY RICHARD WEST](https://theravensperch.com/tiger-lily-by-richard-west/)
- [PINKETY PINK 1 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/pinkety-pink-1-by-jennifer-gurney/)
- [PINKETY PINK 2 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/pinkety-pink-2-by-jennifer-gurney/)
- [PINKETY PINK 3 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/pinkety-pink-3-by-jennifer-gurney/)
- [PINKETY PINK 5 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/pinkety-pink-5-by-jennifer-gurney/)
- [PINKETY PINK 4 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/pinkety-pink-4-by-jennifer-gurney/)
- [SILLY DAFFODILLY BY SANDRA BRODKIN DREIS](https://theravensperch.com/22334-2/) - Add solar juices, and the cheddar bulbs open wearing tiny Victrola noses promising March melodies, tunes uploaded to a puffy cloud then VRUMM, drowned by a gas mower's throbbing drone. The landscaper rides a John Deere wearing a Dash baseball cap and reappears back and forth behind a fat forsythia a mere ten yards away,
- [AMARANTHINE MEMORY BY: M.E. HENDERSON](https://theravensperch.com/amaranthine-memory-by-m-e-henderson/) - Purple is the tandem bicycle you both share while pedaling past chateaus and gardens in the Loire Valley. Purple is the aroma of lavender that sashays around these hills and copulates with the milky musk that grapevines exhale at dusk. Purple is the earthy sweetness of Pinot Noir that you pour over scoops of vanilla
- [DESIGNATED DRIVER BY JUDITH TEICH](https://theravensperch.com/designated-driver-by-judith-teich/) - It was the summer of 1962, and I had just finished my junior year of high school. A few weeks earlier, my parents and I had moved from Chicago, where I was born and had lived all my life, to Hollywood, Florida. None of us has ever been there, although my 18-year-old brother, who was
- [FOR JOSH BY NANCY HASKETT](https://theravensperch.com/for-josh-by-nancy-haskett/) - And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance. Kahlil Gibran We turned off Highway 395, parked at Toms Place, walked past cabins and trailers up a dirt and gravel road that disappeared into pine forest, Rock Creek tumbling noisily beside us, white water somersaulting over rocks, empowered by last winter’s
- [ENDURANCE BY NANCY HASKETT](https://theravensperch.com/endurance-by-nancy-haskett/) - For Alex Honnold, the first person to free solo a full route up El Capitan You need to be strong, confident, brave, and maybe a little crazy to attempt this feat, a free solo climb of El Capitan, 3000 feet of granite that rises like a cornerstone of Yosemite Valley. No ropes, no safety gear,
- [NEWS PHOTOS BY NANCY HASKETT](https://theravensperch.com/22338-2/) - Like the cities themselves, we are bombarded and assaulted with images of rubble, old and new architecture demolished, people in the streets with faraway looks tinged with hunger, hopelessness, numbing despair,
- [THE MEMORIAL TO THE MURDERED JEWS IN EUROPE BY NANCY HASKETT](https://theravensperch.com/the-memorial-to-the-murdered-jews-in-europe-by-nancy-haskett/) - Like an urban graveyard, over twenty-seven hundred rectangular concrete blocks cover four acres in central Berlin, form a grid with alleys, long and straight between the blocks which loom like oversized nameless coffins. A lack of individual names illustrates the impossibility of identifying every victim caught in a trap of order and precision gone mad,
- [KNUCKLEBALL BY SANDRA BRODKIN DREIS](https://theravensperch.com/knuckleball-by-sandra-brodkin-dreis/) - Sinkers, cutters, curveballs may tease the slugger's eye, his embedded compass, his powerhouse body, his PHD in defined power and acute proprioception-- but beware that mischievous missile of unreturnable pitches, baseball's vintage weapon cleanup hitters fear, even hate-- yep, that old Winky-dink makes a comeback as KB dances, winds, weaves its Knuckleball way to home
- [THE WINTER THAT WON’T EVER END BY BRUCE TAYLOR](https://theravensperch.com/the-winter-that-wont-ever-end-by-bruce-taylor/) - you call it when one goes on this long. But it has to, doesn’t it, end? Didn’t the days you splashed through? The nights you crawled a waning moon? Didn’t the poppies steam and fume, the heron stalk the weedy shallows? Didn’t the greedy bee at the throat of the gilded lily gorge? Happy
- [HERE WE GO AGAIN BY BRUCE TAYLOR](https://theravensperch.com/here-we-go-again-by-bruce-taylor/) - How can we let go of the things of the world in all their useless beauty? Does night fall into the lake or the lake rise to the sky, either way the shore drifts further away, stars dip, moon lowers it silver ladder, here I go, there you go again.
- [SOME BLUES BY BRUCE TAYLOR](https://theravensperch.com/some-blues-by-bruce-taylor/) - blue at the edge and in the depth light that gets lost scattered on water the purer the water the deeper the blue the sky is blue for the same reason too blue to breathe too blue to believe all blue is suffering not all suffering blue
- [GLIMPSES OF YOU WITHOUT ME BY BRUCE TAYLOR](https://theravensperch.com/glimpses-of-you-without-me-by-bruce-taylor/) - Sitting quietly where we always sat with one more drink than you usually have. No brunch together not even lunch, no early to sleep late and cozily in. Walking where we walked but more sowly, longer, me left further behind.
- [A BELATED THANK YOU LETTER BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/a-belated-thank-you-letter-by-jennifer-gurney/) - even on the darkest days of my life there is beauty to be found there too the beauty of the stranger who was working in the church across the street from the house where I was living when it got broken into when I got broken into she held my shattered pieces as I called
- [PALO VERDE BY RICHARD WEST](https://theravensperch.com/palo-verde-by-richard-west/)
- [MAGNOLIA BY RICHARD WEST](https://theravensperch.com/magnolia-by-richard-west/)
- [RESET #5 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/reset-5-by-jennifer-gurney/) - Jennifer Gurney lives in Colorado where she teaches, paints, writes and hikes. Her abstract acrylic paintings have been featured in several magazines. Jennifer was the artist of the month in 2024 for GloMag and her paintings are the cover art for several of her books of poetry, Liquid Sky (2025), Love’s Echolocation (2025), Light
- [RESET #4 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/reset-4-by-jennifer-gurney/)
- [RESET #3 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/reset-3-by-jennifer-gurney/)
- [RESET #2 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/reset-2-by-jennifer-gurney/)
- [RESET #1 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/reset-1-by-jennifer-gurney/)
- [ORCHID BY RICHARD WEST](https://theravensperch.com/orchid-by-richard-west/)
- [THERE ARE WORDS BY RUFUS WRIGHT](https://theravensperch.com/there-are-words-by-rufus-wright/) - that whisper sweet strength beneath southern maple bark prompt chickadee’s first notes whistle the instant between windsculpted rivertop and morning dew wet air click thunder‘s rumbles triumphing deep behind, beyond silver clouds make me wish at least my skin mumbled the language I recognize I do not understand Rufus Wright claims more crises than
- [MY EGO FACING DOWN A SQUIRREL BY RUFUS WRIGHT](https://theravensperch.com/my-ego-facing-down-a-squirrel-by-rufus-wright/) - I must be the most frequent word in all poems written since 1960 at least by me Lens the world shows through -- ever smaller, ever closer -- is self-hued, sometimes rose’d always me-tinted Don’t know for sure if that’s so I can figure out how I see what’s not inside me Yellowbellied squirrels playing
- [DOWN HOW MANY RABBIT HOLES? BY RUFUS WRIGHT](https://theravensperch.com/down-how-many-rabbit-holes-by-rufus-wright/) - The answer depends on your perception. If you see a rabbit hole, count it but don’t expect to count them all. Ever. Some people know some rabbit holes some time, but all the rabbit holes don’t welcome all the people all the time. Puberty is a rabbit hole of depth and motion, has you spinning
- [RED LEATHER PRAYERS BY RUFUS WRIGHT](https://theravensperch.com/red-leather-prayers-by-rufus-wright/) - My grandmother cherished her red leather Bible, the perfect arc of Robin’s teeth marks on the back cover, Even more than Jesus’s words in red print. Every single solitary night Gram put out her last cigarette, unwound her bun, got into bed and read a chapter wrapped in red leather. May be homage I start
- [RELATIONSHIP BY PAMELA CASTELLI](https://theravensperch.com/relationship-by-pamela-castelli/) - It began to sink undetected the waters deceptive in their slow progress just a continual flow of benign droplets leaking into a neglected hull we assumed our ship was too sturdy to succumb to something so minor as a few harmless spurts Pamela Castelli has experienced the profound healing poetry can offer as she
- [OUR HOUSE BY PAMELA CASTELLI](https://theravensperch.com/our-house-by-pamela-castelli/) - It started with only a few hairline cracks in our foundation about the same time we detected the first sugar ants creeping across counters you piled baking soda and borax onto old Corelle saucers left them beneath window sills i sat alone and watched The cracks undetected soon traveled down past the crumbling foundation into
- [AWAKENING BY PAMELA CASTELLI](https://theravensperch.com/awakening-by-pamela-castelli/) - Cold, empty tea kettle resting at the edge of the stove cat’s food dish empty from the night before bedspread and pillows jumbled in a heap all silently coaxing this mind-body to stop its hovering and indecision shift into consciousness So I pause notice a glint of morning sunlight reflected in the smooth surface of
- [MISPLACEMENT BY ARVILLA FEE](https://theravensperch.com/misplacement-by-arvilla-fee/) - just a quick walk, two blocks east— that little bookstore on the corner I close the door, step into the sunshine walking shoes sturdy against the pavement down one street, turn left— music thumping from car stereos it’s hot now, my hatless head baked like oven-fresh bread, I stand, hands on hips the bookstore should
- [NOT CARRYING BY ARVILLA FEE](https://theravensperch.com/not-carrying-by-arvilla-fee/) - I refuse to be your Atlas; my back will not be bowed beneath the weight of your barbed heavens my shoulders were never designed to carry the waste of a toxic narcissist
- [CHOOSING PEACE BY ARVILLA FEE](https://theravensperch.com/choosing-peace-by-arvilla-fee/) - The wind whips through my hair, flinging apple-scented strands into my open gap-tooth smile, but I don’t mind. I raise my hands to the heavens, wiggle my fingertips, pretend to touch that endless, inky space of stars, galaxies—worlds beyond our own. I have not heard a human voice in fourteen days but have listened to
- [SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN BY ARVILLA FEE](https://theravensperch.com/scientifically-proven-by-arvilla-fee/) - coffee is good for your heart coffee is bad for your heart eat three servings of veggies a day, fresh, not frozen veggies come in a pill eat an egg—don’t eat an egg. Dr. Lab Coat will weigh you, number your cholesterol, check you BP; you’ve had too many carbs not enough carbs have you
- [](https://theravensperch.com/22271-2/) - WORD AS LIGHT BY JOHN HOYTE I am two, on a footbridge in China. My mother holds me over a bubbling stream. She says, Look, Jackie. My toes barely touch the ripples and the colors dance. I laugh the laugh of discovery, find that light responds to my will. God
- [WORD AS DAGGER BY JOHN HOYTE](https://theravensperch.com/word-as-dagger-by-john-hoyte/) - His were simple, ordinary words. It was how they were said, sharp-edged, with a smudge of frown on his face. My mind had been far away, so it took time to absorb the venom. In decoding the message, blood rose to my face. My scalp tingled in response. Indignation took over. Then futility and exasperation
- [WORD AS BALM BY JOHN HOYTE](https://theravensperch.com/word-as-balm-by-john-hoyte/) - Furtively I tried to downplay the deep wound I caused. Carelessness and indifference revealed my persistent pride. I was in a prison of my mind. There was no escape. Guilt, a monster, occupied the basement of my cell, and rumbled
- [WORD AS LIFELINE BY JOHN HOYTE](https://theravensperch.com/word-as-lifeline-by-john-hoyte/) - I depend on others. There was a time when it was not so, or so I thought. I watched, amazed, as Alex Honnold climbed 3,600-foot El Capitan without ropes. Without a lifeline, one slip and he would be gone. Skillfully and bravely, he made it.
- [I USED TO THINK BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/i-used-to-think-by-jennifer-gurney/) - I used to think with you my scars were invisible but it just hit me with you my scars were infinitely visible and you kissed each one, tenderly till I felt whole, again Jennifer Gurney lives in Colorado where she teaches, paints, writes and hikes. Her poetry is widely published, two of her poems
- [SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO TOUCH THE BRUISE TO HEAL BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/sometimes-you-have-to-touch-the-bruise-to-heal-by-jennifer-gurney/) - I walked around the lake today for the first time since you died the lake where we lived the lake where we built our deck the lake where we got married the lake where we built a life together the lake where your memorial bench will be I cried the entire time it's been three
- [NATURE’S WONDER BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/natures-wonder-by-jennifer-gurney/) - I love a good rip-roaring summer thunderstorm when the temperature drops ten degrees in a matter of minutes and I'm wrapped up in a blanket over my shorts and tee shirt with an adult beverage to sip while I watch the sky and count seconds - between the earth gets washed clean in the pouring
- [IN A GILT-EDGED AGE/BLOOMING BY DICK ALTMAN](https://theravensperch.com/22223-2/) - Gold’s grace comes not from a mine, but his mind. I’m a composer’s son. Music’s 22-carat beauty and forza seed my cortex before first breath. Its gleam sings itself into the boy to be. Music teaches me about order. I thrive on its inevitability. Keys dance me up and down a golden staircase. Notes, luminous,
- [WATERING THE FLOWERS BY JIM TILLEY](https://theravensperch.com/watering-the-flowers-by-jim-tilley/) - As I water planter after planter and watch the moisture slowly soak in, I let my mind set itself adrift. Moving between areas of shade and sunny spots, I give more where needed, yet hold off where there are signs of wilting from drowning rather than dehydration. One of the pair of ornate metal urns
- [WATERING THE FLOWERS BY JIM TILLEY](https://theravensperch.com/watering-the-flowers-by-jim-tilley/) - As I water planter after planter and watch the moisture slowly soak in, I let my mind set itself adrift. Moving between areas of shade and sunny spots, I give more where needed, yet hold off where there are signs of wilting from drowning rather than dehydration. One of the pair of ornate metal urns
- [TOASTED BY K.L. JOHNSTON](https://theravensperch.com/toasted-by-k-l-johnston/) - Sometimes I burn the toast. This is a good, maybe necessary thing. Soaked in butter to soften the char, with a dollop of jam, a piquant twist, an occasional tart surprise pairing well with coffee,
- [GARDEN CHORES II BY K.L. JOHNSTON](https://theravensperch.com/garden-chores-ii-by-k-l-johnston/) - Foxes and fawns have been playing in the lily beds again. Blossoms are gone, neatly sheared, new plants uprooted, disrupting my plans. Who’s to say this plan’s not better? As a matter of survival. The fawns leave me heart shaped
- [IT WILL BE FUN BY K.L. JOHNSTON](https://theravensperch.com/it-will-be-fun-by-k-l-johnston/) - We go to the mountains for healing. I do not say this to my children. I tell them we are going to hike up to waterfalls and down to streams. I tell them we will fish in clear pools and
- [A WARNING BY JEFFREY SOMMER](https://theravensperch.com/a-warning-by-mark-thalman/) - A warning sign came from the sun It said our hottest days are yet to come They tell us we may not survive If we don’t undo what we have done If the answer comes too late Where will all the people go? Will we be drowning in the sea? Or buried in the snow?
- [HALLOWEEN BY MARK THALMAN](https://theravensperch.com/22232-2/) - Students come dressed as pirates, vampires, princesses, bumble bees, and hobos. Those that come dressed as a Playboy bunny or in a skimpy French maid costume get sent to the office, so the vice-principal can call the parents to either pick up their child or bring normal clothing. A few ask me why I didn’t
- [STUCK IN THE ROADSIDE DITCH OF DENIAL BY MARK THALMAN](https://theravensperch.com/stuck-in-the-roadside-ditch-of-denial-by-mark-thalman/) - Mrs. Henderson calls to tell me that her son says I don’t like him, as if this one-person popularity poll is important. She claims Trent had a nose bleed, and I didn’t let him get up to grab a Kleenex. I tell her that’s hard to believe. I didn’t see any blood, and he didn’t
- [A STRANGE LAND CALLED MIDDLE SCHOOL BY MARK THALMAN](https://theravensperch.com/a-strange-land-called-middle-school-by-mark-thalman/) - Gerald, a seventh grader, right out of a Far Side cartoon, tells me the restroom door is locked. The entry ways to the restrooms don’t have doors, so I say show me. The door he’s been tugging on, ten feet away from his objective, is the janitor’s closet. Susan, a frail twelve-year-old, carries a doll
- [HELICOPTER PARENT BY MARK THALMAN](https://theravensperch.com/helicopter-parent-by-mark-thalman/) - After the second day of the new school year, Mrs. Borchard calls me to find out why her son, Andrew, doesn’t have any homework. I tell her Wednesday was orientation. Students followed their schedules with abbreviated class periods to get comfortable with the building. This is important, because the first day is only for 7th
- [AFTER THE FLOOD/WALKING WITH ANGELS BY DICK ALTMAN](https://theravensperch.com/after-the-flood-walking-with-angels-by-dick-altman/) - Northern New Mexico Sunrise, and I wander Arroyo de Angeles. A hurricane-like flood roared, as if a mountain lion, past your high desert walls, an unyielding rip tide, uprooting all life within reach. Your riverbed, this morning, a serene pattern of whirls and ripples, music for the eye, soft underfoot, broken only, here and there,
- [PASSACAGLIA/HANDEL’S HAND AND MINE BY DICK ALTMAN](https://theravensperch.com/passacaglia-handels-hand-and-mine-by-dick-altman/) - My fingers begin to spider, slowly, calmly up the keyboard. I imagine you standing over my shoulder, white locks brushing my ear. Handel, I say, before I play your Passacaglia, I’m trying to recall my composer father’s version, he improvised on violin, then piano. I wanted, for the court, to evoke a dance, spirited, with
- [PRELUDE BY JAMES WASHINGTON, JR](https://theravensperch.com/prelude-by-james-washington-jr/) - I sit on my home’s dark, humid front porch, warned, severe thunderstorms approach. Lightning is diffuse, a strobe light on Xanax, a heavenly preamble. And fireflies, so thick and close, settle into their orchestra pit, to commence the medley. James "Jim" Washington, Jr. is recently retired and grateful to have more writing headspace. His
- [SKY BY JAMES WASHINGTON, JR](https://theravensperch.com/sky-by-james-washington-jr/) - My grandmother, Esther, survived the Depression, & passed me knowledge under a punishing summer swelter, as she took my hand with one, & carried in her other our blanket, & a wore-out paper lunch bag of last night’s dinner, which we ate at Roxbury’s Blackstone Park, tucked under weeping-willow-shade, filling ourselves by reading shape-shifting clouds
- [GUN SLINGERS BY JAMES WASHINGTON, JR](https://theravensperch.com/gun-slingers-by-james-washington-jr/) - In old clouds of old western dust, saloon doors, in unison, bust open drama, the egotist, snake-leather & extra spurs, punctures old-timey piano music, bled into silence.
- [AND SO IT GOES BY JEFFREY ZABLE](https://theravensperch.com/and-so-it-goes-by-jeffrey-zable/) - Mother gone. Father gone. Aunts gone. Uncles gone. Cousins gone. Friends gone. Acquaintances gone. Lovers gone. Neighbors gone. Fellow teachers gone... Yet I remain to think about these people and reflect on the good and not so good that I found in each of them, which can vary depending on what I remember at a
- [POETRY MOVING BY GEORGE LONGENECKER](https://theravensperch.com/poetry-moving-by-george-longenecker/) - All they asked were reasonable rates and went carefully, carefully with the plates. Yelp review of Poetry Moving Company If you read Victor a poem or pass his history quiz, he’ll give a discount on your moving. Victor moves anything and misses nothing: pianos, wood stoves, sofas, but he can’t help you decide whether to
- [I KNOW BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/i-know-by-jennifer-gurney/) - I know it probably sounds silly but eating with a spoon that was once ours with that heavy feel that you really loved makes me feel, through the tears closer to you I know it probably sounds silly but listening to your voice mails on my old phone where you say “Hey, Baby” and “I
- [I LONG BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/i-long-by-jennifer-gurney/) - I long to shed the layers of grief one at a time baring new skin each time, to heal until at last my skin is newly thick enough to carry joy alongside grief
- [IS THERE ROOM BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/is-there-room-by-jennifer-gurney/) - is there room on the back of your bike for one last ride is there time for one last woo hoo as we peal out of the driveway my arms circled around you leaning into every curve your left hand on my leg claiming me is there time for one last ride up the canyon
- [FOUR HUNDRED THOUSAND CENTS BY BARBARA BAER](https://theravensperch.com/four-hundred-thousand-cents-by-barbara-baer/) - “Your bill is ready, Mr. Biggs, but Tulip needs recovery time.” Jesse looked at the page and read $8.59.04. He blinked and looked again, $859.04, “I can pay four cents. I might even come up with four hundred cents.” Jesse had stopped at the first veterinary sign, Rural Animal Care, and carried bleeding Tulip inside.
- [PEACE SURPRISES ME BY NANCY KAY PETERSON](https://theravensperch.com/peace-surprises-me-by-nancy-kay-peterson/) - The two cats go galumping through the house playing at Greco Cat wrestling. The kitchen fern's fronds tremble in a new spring breeze. Sunlight through window glass is warm as the porcelain coffee mug cupped in my hands. The morning paper lies on the table, unread. The back door opens to solid remembrance, the deck
- [PICTURE PERFECT BY NANCY KAY PETERSON](https://theravensperch.com/picture-perfect-by-nancy-kay-peterson/) - My aunt by marriage is perfection in a nineteen-fifties way. Dark hair, never changing, slightly teased in weekly beauty parlor visits, simple make-up, never over-done, tailored slacks creased just so, a passionless woman, cool as starch. Her straight back bears the weight of ever-proper posture. A career gal, she continued to work after assuming her
- [BOOZIE’S RUBBER DUCK RACE BY NANCY KAY PETERSON](https://theravensperch.com/boozies-rubber-duck-race-by-nancy-kay-peterson/) - For a fund raiser Boozie’s Bar took a lesson from the big city that sold chances on rubber ducks cast like bread on the waters to race and win prizes for supporters of the cause. But it had been a dry summer and the little creek feeding Boozie’s harbor was lethargic and the rubber ducklings
- [SYLVIAPLATHIC BY J.H. HALL](https://theravensperch.com/sylviaplathic-by-j-h-hall/) - She carved the last words from herself with scalpel and pen. The earlier, not so deeply buried ones, came out as they went in. In the end a self-Caesarian. was required. The surgeon and the patient died. The words, however, thrived. They’re all grown up now. They’ve found good homes. So overall, the surgery was
- [AT A LOSS FOR WORDS BY J.H. HALL](https://theravensperch.com/at-a-loss-for-words-by-j-h-hall/) - Sad enough when a language outlives its users, but so much sadder if the reverse were true: People rendered mute, reduced to grunts and gestures, tongues used solely for chewing food or ululating. To lose an individual word through disuse is evolution, but to banish an entire class amounts to mass extinction. Just last year
- [TRANSLUCENCY BY J.H. HALL](https://theravensperch.com/translucency-by-j-h-hall/) - In becoming translucent we pass light through us As a window screen strains a breeze into slender columns of air. Likewise, we parse light into colors, otherwise unseen. They re-assemble On the other side of us, in pairs or triplets, but never altogether, Or they’d default to white, same as they went in, a wasted
- [THE DEVIL’S BEDROOM BY PRARTHO SERENO](https://theravensperch.com/the-devils-bedroom-by-prartho-sereno/) - The only way to reach the hidden hollow known to us locals as the Devil’s Bedroom, was to scramble up one of the gullies that ran down to the lake. In holey sneakers, rescued from the dustbin and designated for tramping through water on nail-sharp beds of shale, we could slosh right up the middle—through
- [PHOTOGRAPH OF GIRL ALONE IN A ROWBOAT BY PRARTHO SERENO](https://theravensperch.com/photograph-of-girl-alone-in-a-rowboat-by-prartho-sereno/) - See her there? The famously ornery one in a rarified moment of rest—statuesque in her life-vest on the back bench of the rowboat hitched to the dock. Her father, the oarsman, has gone back for his camera. He’s on the landing now, but for this eternal moment he will never arrive and she’ll never know
- [TIME-TRAVEL @ THE KITCHEN SINK BY PRARTHO SERENO](https://theravensperch.com/time-travel-the-kitchen-sink-by-prartho-sereno/) - Here they come: your long-gone mother and grandmother shucking corn under the bonsai on the windowsill, laundry flapping around them—half mad with the oncoming storm. And here’s another familiar phantom—Carol from Maine, back with the mail after trudging barefoot through snow—the OG genuine article, your junk-store seeress, clandestine abbess
- [THE WAY IT GOES BY CHARLIE BRICE](https://theravensperch.com/the-way-it-goes-by-charlie-brice/) - This tapestry of life finally, at age 75, has frayed at the edges The trail of thread too embossed in the center to unravel. Patterns of irony, travesty, triumph, and disappointment woven too tight to tear. Love, commitment, the hand patting a little boy’s head, faded to unclear. Soon it won’t cover anything. Everything swept
- [AH SUNFLOWER BY CHARLIE BRICE](https://theravensperch.com/ah-sunflower-by-charlie-brice/) - After William Blake Harbinger of dread your withered head droops over my vase. Grown from a garden of love, you abide now in the chapel of death. Zoroaster, my cat, nibbles your wrinkled petals. How your brief experience extinguished your innocence. The little boy, cloaked in chimney soot, who brought you to us is lost,
- [BEDDING THE PALE GODDESS](https://theravensperch.com/bedding-the-pale-goddess/) - The question has always been, what to do with the moon, bewitching in its many profiles, ever changing, beautiful. What do we humans do with it? We find a bed, lie down, and shut it off. That’s what we do with the pale goddess of night, the pearl of
- [THE KING OF CLICHÉ BY DANIEL WEITZMAN](https://theravensperch.com/the-king-of-cliches-by-daniel-weitzman/) - “Are you going to eat that?” He couldn’t believe he’d said that, then again, he could. He wasn’t exactly a prose-master, was known to lean into the occasional cliché. Plus, the last of Maryanne’s tuna melt looked pretty darn enticing. Had she known that he’d be particularly drawn to the rye bread variant, or was
- [DOG DAY MORNING BY CRAIG RONDINONE](https://theravensperch.com/dog-day-morning-by-craig-rondinone/) - It was an honor to be asked to read to my friend’s third-grade class on National Reading Day. I remembered how wonderful it was to have my boring, phonics-filled mornings interrupted by guest speakers when I went to elementary school. There were countless times I wished during art, science or social studies that a fireman
- [BY ANY OTHER NAME - JODI PICOULT: BOOK REVIEW BY LINDA S. GUNTHER](https://theravensperch.com/by-any-other-name-jodi-picoult-book-review-by-linda-s-gunther/) - In the late 1980’s I auditioned for Yale School of Drama’s summer program at Oxford University. It was a competitive undertaking. For my audition I selected Katherine’s closing monologue from The Taming of the Shrew which proved to be an incredible asset and resulted in my acceptance to the esteemed program. I’ve been reading Shakespeare
- [UNSWEPT BY GENE HYDE](https://theravensperch.com/unswept-by-gene-hyde/) - The broom in the corner hints at possibilities…yet mist is lifting on the hill as wisps of clouds slowly unmask the sun. Wrens chatter in the woods as my dog patiently gazes out the screen door. The hillside beckons, the cool breeze keeping the heat at bay. Then the dog gurfs to go out, and
- [WATERY DUST BY GENE HYDE](https://theravensperch.com/watery-dust-by-gene-hyde/) - Flat, jagged-edged rocks, piled just so, turned the creek into a pond. Crawfish lurked under water-worn stones landlocked lobsters, pincers big enough to nab little fingers if you weren’t careful. Lift a stone off the bottom, raise a cloud of watery dust, reveal a haven for more creatures, names unknown, blinking in the light. It’s
- [GOALLESS BY GENE HYDE](https://theravensperch.com/goalless-by-gene-hyde/) - Sometimes when snowflakes brush my face, or when sunlight tickles my feet as I cross the floor, I'm reminded to wallow and ignore my best-laid plans, my endless list of goals. After all, somewhere snowflakes always fall, melting into languid waves, sunlit currents of divine light I can ride as graceful and goalless as the
- [AROUND WE GO BY RALPH MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/around-we-go-by-ralph-macioci/) - Nikolas Macioci earned a PhD from The Ohio State University, taught for Columbus City Schools for thirty years. OCTELA, the Ohio Council of Teachers of English, named Nik Macioci the best secondary English teacher in the state of Ohio. Nik is the author of twenty-three books. He was twice nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
- [BIRDBATH VISITOR BY RALPH MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/birdbath-visitor-by-ralph-macioci/)
- [LET IT BEE BY RALPH MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/let-it-bee-by-ralph-macioci/)
- [THE CHURCHYARD TREE BY RALPH MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/the-churchyard-tree-by-ralph-macioci/)
- [THOMAS BACK BY RALPH MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/thomas-back-by-ralph-macioci/)
- [MIDSHIPMAN’S MAGIC BY STERLING WARNER](https://theravensperch.com/midshipmans-magic-by-sterling-warner/) - Abalone luster lost, Melvin’s pickled herring sense of humor brought smiles to faces long and teary, stimulating downcast eyes a long time lost in self-denial, caught between steam punk pacifists and discord’s cold-hearted purveyors spout half-truths hidden in hanging apples led to fractured alliances as sailors who once navigated fortunes with kayak agility, now disseminated
- [MOCK-HEROIC MINIMALISTS BY STERLING WARNER](https://theravensperch.com/mock-heroic-minimalists-by-sterling-warner/) - Young, inexperienced, eager for adventure we explored each other’s bodies with words amalgamated curiosity and intuition left deft impressions on metaphysical planes where we scanned each meter of our mutual heartbeats, measured sighs and exaltations like poetic feet noting reciprocated satisfaction. Moans and sighs registered as a spontaneous libretto of accented and unaccented syllables. Tree
- [BOUDOIR TRAMPOLINE BY STERLING WARNER](https://theravensperch.com/boudoir-trampoline-by-sterling-warner/) - I impressed brothers and sisters slithering over a foam topper pad like a lizard, flaying arms and legs like St. Andrew’s cross, fingers and toes pegged to pillows after tossing blankets, pup tenting sheets and mimicking jungle safaris sounds from tropical bird songs to rainforest monkey cries, ambience intermixed with open window echoes cascading waterfalls
- [LOVE THOSE LEGS BY DIANA RAAB, PH.D.](https://theravensperch.com/love-those-legs-by-diana-raab-ph-d/) - When I was 14, a young man in a red sports car wasn’t looking where he was driving and crashed into the station wagon in front of him. When the policeman asked him to describe the accident, the fellow said, “Sorry, officer, did you see the legs on that girl?” That girl was me. I
- [AT THE PLANETARIUM BY SHARON SCHOLL](https://theravensperch.com/at-the-planetarium-by-sharon-scholl/) - The universe flares across the dome to a collective gasp of tilted viewers regaled with a parade of zeros estimating distances in light years. Venus winks seductively as Mercury goes whizzing by. Our moon’s craggy face glows without expression while Mars flashes its iron-red surface. The sight is humbling, a put-down for our boastful ventures,
- [HOROSCOPE BY JOHN ATTANAS](https://theravensperch.com/horoscope-by-john-attanas/) - Every morning I check my Aries hoping to read You will soon find love. Black coffee, a bowl of Wheaties, staring out at the cloud-laden morning, imagining the face, the smile, the kiss. Monday becomes Friday. October becomes May. What good is a horoscope if it doesn’t provide hope? I turn to the sports section.
- [SILENT WINDOW BY JOHN ATTANAS](https://theravensperch.com/silent-window-by-john-attanas/) - After Emily Dickinson She stares out the window, vacant street, upturned garbage can, squirrel searching for breakfast. The silence of the approaching storm encircles her, chains tightening with each breath. A flock of black birds squawks madly, flying north in sharp formation. She takes her morning pill, washes it down with weak tea, sees a
- [POST OFFICE AS METAPHOR BY JOHN ATTANAS](https://theravensperch.com/post-office-as-metaphor-by-john-attanas/) - I didn’t murder the clerk even though he threw my change like I was a beggar, even though he barked, Check your receipt after I asked when my package would arrive, even after he gave me the finger when I wished him happy returns. I head into the frozen bleary-eyed afternoon dreaming of lovers
- [FUGUE BY BURCU SEYBEN](https://theravensperch.com/fugue-by-burcu-seyben/) - The package arrives. Thrown onto the sloping staircase. The Halloween kids mocked. Their steps were right-angled, ours nearly a slide. Laughter rang out. An adult hushed them, we might feel ashamed. Softly to the child. Feels like we’re on a sloppy slide since we fled. Fled our country. The fact we had to flee shows...
- [AT 6 AM BY ARTHUR GINSBERG](https://theravensperch.com/at-6-am-by-arthur-ginsberg/) - birdsong pours through the open window. I cannot know if the suet I hung yesterday fills them with joy, or if, the handsome male in the maple is wooing the female in the condominium next door, or if, it is simply dawn that fills them with happiness-- nuthatch and goldfinch perched on the feeder, orchard
- [AT THE MILITARY SURPLUS STORE BY ARTHUR GINSBERG](https://theravensperch.com/at-the-military-surplus-store-by-arthur-ginsberg/) - the proprietor with dead eyes the color of flint, welcomes my grandson into her chamber of horrors, a macabre room filled with the paraphernalia of killing-- gas masks, bayonets, pistols, grenades, bugles, swords dating back to Thermopylae; blood-letting by the Persians and the Greeks. Manikins dressed in uniforms from WWI, WWII and ‘Nam, lend an
- [SWALLOWS BY ARTHUR GINSBERG](https://theravensperch.com/swallows-by-arthur-ginsberg/) - Of those things held like nectar in the soul, the pearls of fidelity are lustrous in the unveiling of each day, are strung and clasped from hope to hope that illuminates the dark, as when, year after year, swallows take refuge in our eaves, and we hear a soft chirrup, chirrup -- music that serenades
- [OCEANIC BY ARTHUR GINSBERG](https://theravensperch.com/oceanic-by-arthur-ginsberg/) - this is how I love you gazing at the creation of your making filled with water and light the way you hover like a dragonfly over lead white and rabbit skin glue moiled sand and spume the waves piling up from before your birth that carry you now in an artist’s boat like Hokusai’s great
- [REVELRY BY LUCIA HAASE](https://theravensperch.com/revelry-by-lucia-haase/) - I watch the wooodland wave its longing branches where wildflowers blow in great expanses to wind that plays along the forest’s edge in songs just yonder from the mountain’s hedge. A willow dapples near a frisky stream vivaciously in sunlight’s rollicking beams. A giddy squirrel runs merrily along as always with an energetic song. A
- [LAND OF THE PINES BY LUCIA HAASE](https://theravensperch.com/land-of-the-pines-by-lucia-haase/) - These are my acres no one can take from me- land of the pines, waterfowl on this lake… laps of golden sand drifting, I can see- mornings of sun blinded hours in each wake. Crackling needles heard under my feet, scents of pine cones filling my plate- this is the land for which I begin
- [MR. DEATH, I AM NO LONGER AFRAID BY MARIA ODESSKY ROSEN](https://theravensperch.com/mr-death-i-am-no-longer-afraid-by-maria-odessky-rosen/) - I once was so afraid of death. The first time I attended a funeral, I became hysterical seeing the corpse openly displayed and hearing the moans and sobs of the dearly beloved. My mom was so embarrassed that she rushed me out the door. When I was seven years old and still living in Russia,
- [TWO WOLVES BY GEORGE LONGENECKER](https://theravensperch.com/two-wolves-by-george-longenecker/) - pace silently back and forth, in a muddy chain link pen, crouch silently when I come near, watch with yellow eyes. You should roam forests, call mates, howl at the moon. Here you howl and pace all night. You should be wary of people— their slaughter of wolves, and buffalo, Wounded Knee, prisons with razor
- [A BARRED OWL AND A DEATH BY GEORGE LONGENECKER](https://theravensperch.com/a-barred-owl-and-a-death-by-george-longenecker/) - For Evans Our skis barely made a sound on snow Probably we’ll find out when we get home. A curtain of snow blew down from white pines I’m sure she’ll call right away. We cut a trail through fresh snow It’s good to be out. I think he’s gone now. Maybe I shouldn’t have said
- [BLOOD DRAWING BY GEORGE LONGENECKER](https://theravensperch.com/blood-drawing-by-george-longenecker/) - After my blood’s drawn, I need food and drink, but pause at art in the hospital lobby; none of these paintings are of blood, though one has deep red. people rush by coming and going, sick or worried about somebody— a few cubists, some colorful landscapes, nearby a sign: Blood Drawing This Way>>> In the
- [AN INCONGRUITY BY DAVID SAPP](https://theravensperch.com/an-incongruity-by-david-sapp/) - An incongruity A shiny sagging Mylar balloon That’s misplaced and Seems searching for It’s fugacious purpose Blows aimlessness Through the woods “Celebrate!” it demands In garish colors Images of confetti And stupidly redundant Fully inflated cousins The fleeting birthday Joy long forgotten Now its lethal Metal foil and plastic blend Remains a persistently Rude resident
- [PERIL BY DAVID SAPP](https://theravensperch.com/peril-by-david-sapp/) - Just before dawn The ecstatic Yipping and howling Of coyotes Too near In the night Woods fields And now rudely My backyard Belongs to them Their teeth shred Trapped rabbits Or as a pack Corner a doe I’m absolutely safe Within my walls But I can’t help A palpable fear Their bloodlust So near elicits
- [EATING A PEACH BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/eating-a-peach-by-jennifer-gurney/) - eating a peach over the kitchen sink calling it dinner Jennifer Gurney lives in Colorado where she teaches, paints, writes and hikes. Her poetry is widely published, two of her poems have won international contests and one was turned into a choral piece. Jennifer has five books of poetry, My Eyes Adjusting (2024), Liquid
- [AT THE EDGES BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/at-the-edges-by-jennifer-gurney/) - at the edges of each day grief waits
- [TWO MONTHS BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/two-months-by-jennifer-gurney/) - two months still reminding myself breathe
- [SHARING A DISCOUNT CARD BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/sharing-a-discount-card-by-jennifer-gurney/) - sharing a discount card I still see all the groceries you last bought
- [THE GIFT BY STEWART BELLUS](https://theravensperch.com/the-gift-by-stewart-bellus/) - She was tired. Eventually, she had to say something. “Hon,” he called from the den; “Come see what I just found.” She was comfy on her couch reading a novel she’d been trying to get to for months, but he was so excited that she couldn’t bring herself to call out what she really was
- [DEAR FACE BY SHELL BIRD](https://theravensperch.com/dear-face-by-shell-bird/) - Remember how we played together as children? What fun we had twisting your features and communicating without words. My personal favorite was your pout, a combination of petulance and innocence. Particularly useful for avoiding the consumption of root vegetables. Thanks for that. We’ve been estranged for some time now. How long has it been? Three
- [LET’S GO SLEDDING IN SEQUOIA BY DAMON YEARGAIN](https://theravensperch.com/lets-go-sledding-in-sequoia-by-damon-yeargain/) - “Mon-te-rey,” I stretched each syllable out slowly; “The aquarium. Seals. Watching waves crash against the rocks. What better way to recharge for the new year? And it’s only an hour and a half from our home.” “Zachary hasn’t seen snow,” my wife persisted; “We’ll bring a sled. It’ll be fun.” I had my doubts. The
- [VERMEER IN A TIME OF WAR BY DENNIS MALONEY](https://theravensperch.com/vermeer-in-a-time-of-war-by-dennis-maloney/) - As the New Year arrives wars are raging on two or three continents, minor skirmishes that rarely make the headlines erupt in a half dozen places. From Ukraine to Israel to Gaza sieges, famines, massacres. The world is becoming frayed and some days seems to fracture into pieces. Day after day people check the list
- [WHAT YOU HEARD BY DENNIS MALONEY](https://theravensperch.com/what-you-heard-by-dennis-maloney/) - for Marjorie Agosin Those voices that persisted, invaded your dreams, insisted on their stories. The mothers of the Plaza de Mayo who speak to their disappeared children each day, hold faded photographs, dancing alone. The young women of Juarez —who is robbing them of their dreams? A desert full of secrets, steeped in blood, remains
- [RODIN'S SCULPTURE: A CHRISTMAS GIFT THAT LASTED A LIFETIME BY KEVIN R. LOUGHLIN MD](https://theravensperch.com/rodins-sculpture-a-christmas-gift-that-lasted-a-lifetime-by-kevin-r-loughlin-md/) - It was shortly before Christmas in 1982. I was about halfway through my chief residency year in urologic surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital. It was customary that faculty members would give holiday gifts to the residents at the traditional holiday party. The gifts were usually perfunctory, an obligation, but nothing beyond that. Concert tickets
- [SWEET ARROWS FOR THE HEART BY TINA HARRACH DENETCLAW](https://theravensperch.com/sweet-arrows-for-the-heart-by-tina-harrach-denetclaw/) - It was a private conversation when my Dad was giving praise. Softly dancing words under bushy eyebrows and glinting grey eyes, almost a smile, head angled slightly, he just barely leaned forward to the
- [A MYSTERY AND A PRIVILEGE BY KEVIN. R. LOUGHLIN, MD](https://theravensperch.com/a-mystery-and-a-privilege-by-kevin-r-loughlin-md/) - I grasp the tool of my trade. The scalpel is always the first step. My breast is filled with anticipation, not fear. I am part of a tradition that began when man first walked the earth. Perhaps on the plains of Mesopotamia, an ancient healer took a sharp stone and lanced a boil on the
- [JOY AMIDST GRIEF 2 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/joy-amidst-grief-2-by-jennifer-gurney/)
- [JOY AMIDST GRIEF 1 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/joy-amidst-grief-1-by-jennifer-gurney/)
- [JOY AMIDST GRIEF 4 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/joy-amidst-grief-4-by-jennifer-gurney/)
- [JOY AMIDST GRIEF 3 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/joy-amidst-grief-3-by-jennifer-gurney/)
- [JOY AMIDST GRIEF 5 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/joy-amidst-grief-5-by-jennifer-gurney/)
- [DEATH & LIFE IN THE LIBRARY REDUX BY RICHARD MARRANCA](https://theravensperch.com/death-life-in-the-library-redux-by-richard-marranca/) - Book 6 Moths circled in the glow of the chandelier while dust sparkled on beams of light. The peaceful surroundings were deceptive: voices floated down the corridors. Digby, the head librarian, said, “Look for signs. Remove those two miscreants!” Phipps and Alf hurried toward the Rare Books Collection but suddenly stopped at the Romantic Poets
- [MEDITATION IN OCTOBER BY CHRISTINE ANDERSEN](https://theravensperch.com/meditation-in-october-by-christine-andersen/) - To be round and red and luscious like a dangling McIntosh on the bough peering through a veil of leafy green swaying with the gusts of a breezy autumn afternoon with nothing but temptation on my mind.
- [POET HANGING LAUNDRY UNDER AN AFTERNOON MOON BY CHRISTINE ANDERSEN](https://theravensperch.com/poet-hanging-laundry-under-an-afternoon-moon-by-christine-andersen/) - Like a sliver of moon cut with a child’s rounded scissors into a tissue paper crescent pasted on watercolor blue or a wind-stuffed, white sail cruising the Caribbean— that coy, lunar wink in a sun-soaked
- [PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHRISTINE ANDERSEN](https://theravensperch.com/photographs-by-christine-andersen/) - The top of my office bookshelf is a gallery of first-grade me dressed as Alice in Wonderland for Halloween, dogs I loved, my parents, my high school senior picture, and a collage of my married years. My lives before this life. Walking through my quiet house, I see my children as toddlers sitting on my
- [KITE BY CHRISTINE ANDERSEN](https://theravensperch.com/kite-by-christine-andersen/) - From the top of Horsebarn Hill, halfway down on the side where the grass grows to tassels and the wildflowers lean into the afternoon sun, I could see a red, tube-shaped kite stuck in a tree like a giant squid collapsed over arboreal coral, tentacles of knotted string and ribbons dangling from the bottom. I
- [GINKGO LEAF: THE BUDDING POLYSEMY BY LILY PAN](https://theravensperch.com/ginkgo-leaf-the-budding-polysemy-by-lily-pan/) - Ginkgo Leaf /ˈɡiNGˌkō lēf/ 1. (n.) The leaf of the Ginkgo biloba, also known as the maidenhair tree, which is a species of gymnosperm tree native to East Asia. A symbol of longevity and resilience in literature. When I was five, the crisp air whispered of the coming fall. My dad and I were
- [WOODS BY CHRISTOPHER KOSTYN PASSANTE](https://theravensperch.com/woods-by-christopher-kostyn-passante/) - I hold firmly to my grandparents’ land and the land of the grandparents before them. A sentinel. Guardian. Benefactor. Transmitter of underground broadcasts. I breathe the sky above, drink the water beneath, hold firm to the ways of the mountain, old and strong. Always watching, always listening for the takers. The slick backs of circling
- [JANICE BY STEPHANIE BARBÉ HAMMER](https://theravensperch.com/janice-by-stephanie-barbe-hammer/) - Me and my friend were sitting at the train station because we had just participated in the Hands Off All of Our Democratic Things, dear Administration march and we were tired, not because it was a long march, but because the situation in our country is so exhausting and being enraged takes up a lot
- [DESIGNATED DIVERSIFIER BY KAREN PALEY](https://theravensperch.com/designated-diversifier-by-karen-paley/) - I am walking up the hill from the Shenandoah Garage at George Mason University trying to find South Plaza at the Johnson Center. I have to go inside the building to access the secluded outside venue. Pleased with myself for finding the location after only three sets of directions, I open the heavy door and
- [FURL THE PROUD BANNER BY TONY REEVY](https://theravensperch.com/furl-the-proud-banner-by-tony-reevy/) - for Ira if you can for it is cast in bronze a brown hand lifted the flag and his feather was hard-won but we must forget for our own small salvation otherwise the gate of solitary awaits and in Arizona the Pima ditches are still dry Tony Reevy Tony Reevy’s previous publications include poetry,
- [SO MANY THINGS BREAK THE HEART BY TONY REEVY](https://theravensperch.com/so-many-things-break-the-heart-by-tony-reevy/) - dust swirls through barbed-wire fence surrounding the plot where classroom buildings, mess hall the barracks once stood housing uniformed children washed and deloused struggling over a is for apple some yards away a field dished by shallows a breeze swirls across the bare ground births a dust devil that skates above the bare land and
- [SPRING 2025 BY TONY REEVY](https://theravensperch.com/spring-2025-by-tony-reevy/) - there is nothing left to hear the voice of reason is stilled there is nothing left to see the eagle’s eyes are dimmed there is nothing left to feel an opiate numbness descends take up a coin turn heads or tails to set a path for this day to thread the market square to find
- [AT THE END OF THE BRETTON WOODS ERA BY TONY REEVY](https://theravensperch.com/at-the-end-of-the-bretton-woods-era-by-tony-reevy/) - those who care repelled by chaos those who know invest in safe bets those who believe salute the New Order those who lead move their pawns on Earth’s board
- [WILL BY ANDREW PELFINI](https://theravensperch.com/will-by-andrew-pelfini/) - The table we sat around, shaped like a dolphin minus the fins, took up most of the conference room. The walls were predominantly windows that looked out onto the parkway. But we were not there for the view. A few weeks back, my husband, Greg took a rendezvous to Plam Springs and that night, like
- [WOODSMOKE BY R. NIKOLAS MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/woodsmoke-by-r-nikolas-macioci/) - Tilt of light tells me I'm on the fringe of autumn, about to enter a multi-colored carnival of leaves that turn, loop, twist like amusement park rides. I smell acrid odor of a burning-leaf pile. I peer out the window at my neighbor who is standing guard against renegade flames. I welcome woodsmoke, will go
- [AUTUMN DEFINED BY R. NIKOLAS MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/autumn-defined-by-r-nikolas-macioci/) - I've created a new emotion called autumn. It starts in the mind, titillates the body like soft electricity, turns the heart inside out with a yearning for an ineffable something always beyond reach but so close to the fingertips, hands could grab and pull it to the chest like a seasonal lover. Autumn engenders limitless
- [BLUES SONG BY R. NIKOLAS MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/blues-song-by-r-nikolas-macioci/) - Carrie Hughes takes her son's hand. They approach the front doors of Harrison Street School. Langston pulls his hand away, not belligerent, but independent, even at the age of six. They open wooden doors, enter a musky-smelling foyer. A snippy attendant asks what they want. The attendance's middle-age face attests she's a smoker, skin find-lined
- [POLYCHOMATIC COWBOY BY R. NIKOLAS MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/polychomatic-cowboy-by-r-nikolas-macioci/) - A multicolored cowboy canters into Bandera, Texas today, leaving Sipokni West behind. His face looks like a wax figure, melting In rivers of hues, under southwestern sky. Every color on the spectrum stripes his handsome features and reflects no particular ethnic group. He is a man unto himself. With Stetson pulled low to shadow his
- [WE WATCH THE HUMMINGBIRDS BY KANDI MAXWELL](https://theravensperch.com/we-watch-the-hummingbirds-by-kandi-maxwell/) - It’s an early evening in late July, and surprisingly, the weather is cool. The sky is deep blue with white, cottony cumulus clouds that tower in the sky offering a chance for rain. The breezy air smells sharp and fresh. I’m waiting for my friend, Darlene, to arrive at my off-grid trailer, as we’re planning
- [GRIEF’S LAMENT BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/griefs-lament-by-jennifer-gurney/) - loneliness joins me on the cool patio this morning a constant friend in the water spraying from the hose onto my deadheaded rose bush resting for a second bloom in the mourning dove’s aria sung from the rooftop to the neighborhood, and me, below is it mourning dove or morning dove and does it really
- [WHAT BREAKS MY HEART BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/what-breaks-my-heart-by-jennifer-gurney/) - it breaks my heart that you died that you’re gone that you’re never coming back. it breaks my heart that I didn’t get to see you before you died you didn’t want me to see you this way it breaks my heart that I will never hear you laugh again ever, not even once it
- [UNCRIED BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/uncried-by-jennifer-gurney/) - I have cried tears that once shed and wiped away cannot be uncried they pour from my heart my mind my soul which are all grappling to believe that you are actually dead my mind seeks proof where none exists save the lone phone call from my stepson the next morning my heart seeks closure
- [YOU NEVER MADE IT TO MICHIGAN BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/you-never-made-it-to-michigan-by-jennifer-gurney/) - every time I’d visit Michigan in the summer I’d invite you you’d remind me that you’ve never been yet and you’d say I can’t this year maybe next time Baby every time we talked about my dream of retiring to Michigan you’d remind me that you’ve never been and I would say yet well I’m
- [HUDSON RIVER PAINTERS BY SHARON SCHOLL](https://theravensperch.com/hudson-river-painters-by-sharon-scholl/) - Such lovely evasions they created, with brushes dipped in poetry. Their rivers flow serenely, skies radiant as the face of God. Their painted worlds are ruled by beauty and the law of love, ignoring the hardscrabble world below ruled by the law of kill and eat. All cruelty was banished from their lexicon, so we
- [I HAVE FELT A PRESENCE BY SHARON SCHOLL](https://theravensperch.com/i-have-felt-a-presence-by-sharon-scholl/) - Not up there, out there, somewhere separate from the reality around us. Nothing foreign like some great power leaning over the universe tweaking the force of fate, casually dispensing life and death. Not the Other, a stranger to our nature but something that shares our Being. I feel that great Familiar, the life force itself
- [THE FISHING SPOT BY KIMBERLY SCARANO](https://theravensperch.com/the-fishing-spot-by-kimberly-scarano/)
- [THE LITTLE THINGS IN LIFE ARE FREE BY KIMBERLY SCARANO](https://theravensperch.com/the-little-things-in-life-are-free-by-kimberly-scarano/)
- [STILL FRAMED BY KIMBERLY SCARANO](https://theravensperch.com/still-framed-by-kimberly-scarano/)
- [CHILDHOOD BY KIMBERLY SCARANO](https://theravensperch.com/childhood-by-kimberly-scarano/) - Shag brown carpet tangled between my toes Amber light shining through sheer curtains Steaming black tea with milk And of course Homemade chocolate chip cookies The wizard of oz on VHS Play, stop, rewind Play Follow the yellow brick road. . . Stop Rewind Play I’ll get you, my pretty! Stop Rewind Handmade Halloween costumes
- [POSSIBILITIES IN MORNING BY DON MONAGHAN](https://theravensperch.com/possibilities-in-morning-by-don-monaghan/) - —for Emma When you visit it's the opposite of me going back home. Everything about you bigger than I remember. Hands. Feet. Words. Your long body poking out from pink sheets, in the bed I once thought made you seem as minuscule, as an ocean driftwood, stirs only a little. The August morning not yet
- [Fall BY DON MONAGHAN](https://theravensperch.com/fall-by-don-monaghan/) - — for C.G. Another snifter of straight bourbon shuttles back and forth. Along a three-inch patch of bar top, your right hand, intent, a blend of care and caution, as though whiskey could be a Jenga block placed precariously on the swaying tower you say currently resembles your life. We talk for hours. Movies. Music.
- [THE AUGUST DAYS OF LOVE, NUMBER 345 BY DAVID STANLEY](https://theravensperch.com/the-august-days-of-love-number-345-by-david-stanley/) - When love meets with the august days of life, it still burns hot yet tempered by the days. The passions still doth sear in flame despite the cloudiness now seen within the gaze. For with our age, I can offer wisdom. For you are sage, which is no mere caprice.
- [SWEET DREAMS BY DAVID SUMMERS](https://theravensperch.com/sweet-dreams-by-david-summers/) - Ted watched Muriel, his wife of 20 years, put down her book then turn off her bedside light. He'd hoped at least for the usual "good night," but wasn't surprised when she silently rolled on her side, away from him. She'd been moody all day, for the last several days, actually. This latest bout of
- [THE DONATION BY NANCY CHADWICK](https://theravensperch.com/the-donation-by-nancy-chadwick/) - Today I gave away pieces of my mother. The moment I pulled a stack of old, folded clothes from the corner of the small bedroom closet—items I had set aside for Goodwill—the decision was made for me. There in the corner, tucked into the dark, were the pieces. The decision didn’t take long. Back then,
- [LIFE REVIEW BY CARYN MIRRIAM-GOLDBERG, PH.D](https://theravensperch.com/life-review-by-caryn-mirriam-goldberg-ph-d/) - Remember last April when stepping outside meant entering an idea made of lilac until a surprise thunderstorm broke the youngest trees to the ground, even then life thrashing against itself? Now it’s winter, nothing to fight or fix. No fast car pulling up to the filling station of the imagination, vying for high-octane. Just a
- [NOISE FROM THE KITCHEN BY CARYN MIRRIAM-GOLDBERG, PH.D](https://theravensperch.com/noise-from-the-kitchen-by-caryn-mirriam-goldberg-ph-d/) - Startles you, a pan dropped, a mug you put down too hard on the counter, your own steps to open the noisy refrigerator. Did you think there was a calm you could carry into this house? Even the most quiet of places, an old moss forest on a pennisula far from the mainland, roars with
- [I’M ON THE TRAIN TO SOMEWHERE BY CARYN MIRRIAM-GOLDBERG, PH.D](https://theravensperch.com/im-on-the-train-to-somewhere-by-caryn-mirriam-goldberg-ph-d/) - The blond fields bunch up in the speed of the cold window as I tilt toward sleep but look! The wingtip of a hawk, a fox rushing underground into tomorrow. When I was five, I jumped chair to chair over a concrete floor and missed. We soared in the station wagon to the hospital, my
- [ENDURE BY PAUL PANISH](https://theravensperch.com/endure-by-paul-panish/) - I’m an old poet, old—far too old to share your youthful plans for power, success. My task is different. Mine is the poet’s task: to bring beauty about—to summon the taste, the smell, the very feel of that stranger—ah! that impossible stranger—life. I was clever with words. My poems, I used to say, were a
- [OH TAKE ME WITH YOU INTO THAT BODYLESS LIGHT… BY PAUL PANISH](https://theravensperch.com/oh-take-me-with-you-into-that-bodyless-light-by-paul-panish/) - They say it’s your final illness’s final hour— Oh take me with you into that bodyless light! You said the Angel of Death touched your cheek, brushed you with his wing, then rode the air —that great hawk, poised on the mastered wind— that soon, soon He will stoop to heave you high from your
- [OH POETRY—YOU LONELY, STRANGE CRAFT BY PAUL PANISH](https://theravensperch.com/oh-poetry-you-lonely-strange-craft-by-paul-panish/) - Oh poetry—you lonely, strange craft! When I look at what I’ve done these last years— my poems—these last, dark, frightful years— I feel my gut clenched in hot despair. Every poem longs to cry farewell as all falls away. Body falls, mind falls, and
- [IS IT A YEAR NOW PAST? BY PAUL PANISH](https://theravensperch.com/is-it-a-year-now-past-by-paul-panish/) - To my late wife Anna Belle Is it a year now past? One year you’re gone? Your wounded life now gone one endless year? Is it a year I’ve paced these empty rooms mumbling it’s best you’ve gone and left your pain behind and left your shattered mind behind— one whole year, now gone? Gone
- [GOLD / FLORINE BY SUSAN KOLODNY](https://theravensperch.com/gold-florine-by-susan-kolodny/) - She brought home apricots A sun within each glowed through warm hued like terra cotta or red ombre She’d put them in a white bowl for us Gathered mustard flowers sautéed the greens The pollen dusted her mahogany colored skin clung Her cornbread tasted of butter and light She made lemon meringue pie the filling
- [RED / RORSCHACH BY SUSAN KOLODNY](https://theravensperch.com/red-rorschach-by-susan-kolodny/) - Inverted parasols of anemones in Tuscan fields Scarlet epaulettes on the blackbird’s wings Crimson of the dress to catch the eye of that boy at the party Heard my younger sister in her room scream She’d pushed down on the trash forgetting the spent light bulb It shattered cut I ran in found her kneeling
- [PURPLE / FIG BY SUSAN KOLODNY](https://theravensperch.com/purple-fig-by-susan-kolodny/) - What else is the purple gold of the fig’s skin A rare koi or two The opaque amethyst in my childhood ring The last moments of an August sunset off Pacific Northwest islands Seen at the aquarium with its round right eye and larger tubular upward facing left its plum dark body a Histioteuthis or
- [TRANQUILITY BY LIV KARP](https://theravensperch.com/tranquility-by-liv-karp/)
- [MY SWEET BOY BY LIV KARP](https://theravensperch.com/my-sweet-boy-by-liv-karp/) - Liv Karp is a rising Senior in Los Angeles. She specializes in oil painting, a medium she has been exploring and refining for many years. As she enters her final year of high school, Liv is eager to continue developing her artistic voice and to participate in the art community.
- [SELF PORTRAIT BY LIV KARP](https://theravensperch.com/self-portrait-by-liv-karp/)
- [JOY THROUGH GRIEF #5 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/joy-through-grief-1-by-jennifer-gurney/)
- [JOY THROUGH GRIEF #4 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/joy-through-grief-2-by-jennifer-gurney/)
- [JOY THROUGH GRIEF #2 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/joy-through-grief-4-by-jennifer-gurney/)
- [JOY THROUGH GRIEF #1 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/joy-through-grief-5-by-jennifer-gurney/)
- [JOY THROUGH GRIEF #3 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/joy-through-grief-3-by-jennifer-gurney/)
- [THE BEAN BY BURCU SEYBEN](https://theravensperch.com/the-bean-by-burcu-seyben/) - I am not asleep. I am alert, like a spider web stretched across the entrance of a cave. I am aware of the dangers that lurk nearby. If they see the web, they may tear me down, thinking that I’m hiding something inside. Not thinking that the web itself should have been kept alive. *
- [BLESSED ARE THE BUD KEEPERS BY TRACY AHRENS](https://theravensperch.com/blessed-are-the-bud-keepers-by-tracy-ahrens/) - Why does a bud unfurl if no one is there to view? A billboard of beauty blasts with colors and scents swirling in a limited theatrical release. The self-absorbed do not see. The propagandized solely seek a severed collection of commonality. A wild bud begs more than glances; it needs nourishment, protection, a historian of
- [IF I WERE TO WRITE ABOUT MY FATHER BY MARY ZELINKA](https://theravensperch.com/if-i-were-to-write-about-my-father-by-mary-zelinka/) - I would start by saying he was a pilot for Eastern Airlines for thirty-four years. And that all he ever wanted was to fly. When he was a boy, he worked after school resetting pins in a bowling alley to help support his Ukrainian immigrant parents. He had to quit school in tenth grade so
- [A LOVE SUPREME BY RICHARD JACKSON](https://theravensperch.com/a-love-supreme-by-richard-jackson/) - During the year 1957, I experienced a spiritual awakening writing “I experienced, by the Grace of God, a spiritual awakening [and] in gratitude I humbly asked to be given the means and privilege to make others happy through music… This album is a humble offering to Him. --John Coltrane, original liner Notes to A Love
- [MY HOUSE BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/my-house-by-jennifer-gurney/) - driving along the country road in my old pickup truck more rust than chrome at this point I come around a bend and slow a for-sale sign catches my attention I signal and brake turning into the long dirt driveway I take a picture with the camera on my phone of the phone number on
- [MY TRUE NORTH BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/my-true-north-by-jennifer-gurney/) - in a fog directionless even my cat looks confused tilting her head at me in silent scoffing where am I? where am I? where am I? I have become a ghost of myself since you became a ghost I no longer know my path since my compass is gone my true north magnetized by death
- [ALTHOUGH MY FEET ARE STILL BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/although-my-feet-are-still-by-jennifer-gurney/) - although my feet are still I am on the move my mind floats free over the countryside out the window of the bus strolling alongside the hills and valleys feeling the ocean spray upon my cheeks my heart soars back to memories touching the bruises of loss hearing the voices of all who have gone
- [INTO BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/into-by-jennifer-gurney/) - into rain-washed morning I wake inhaling fresh, new dawn into my tender soul birdsong calls me awake come into this day renewed from sleep lifted by love the clouds obscure sun’s light leaving the world and me a bit diffuse peaceful in the coolness of day’s break as I sit and feel the day welcome
- [BOURBON AND LICORICE MINT TEA BY LAURA DEHART YOUNG](https://theravensperch.com/bourbon-and-licorice-mint-tea-by-laura-dehart-young/) - Warm air from the copper roof seeps into the living room, where pink urn plants droop over a radiator cover. You hum in the kitchen as I gather brittle petals that bite at my fingers like needles— as disquieting as our small talk at day’s end. I pour a bourbon neat, hoping to unknot the
- [HELL’S KITCHEN BY LAURA DEHART YOUNG](https://theravensperch.com/hells-kitchen-by-laura-dehart-young/) - Wet flakes of snow are illuminated by street lamps beyond the living room curtains. I step onto the fire escape— rusted wrought iron bolted to the red brick facade overlooking the rigid shadows of Hell’s Kitchen. Standing on the small platform, I listen as tires splash through slush in front of this 1950s-era loft building
- [FIVE FEET OF YOU BY LAURA DEHART YOUNG](https://theravensperch.com/five-feet-of-you-by-laura-dehart-young/) - Our marriage of selves always worked— even in 1981, when no one would call it a marriage. Still, it felt secure without a court decree or piece of paper embossed. It never felt flimsy, impossible. It worked for a lot of reasons. Because you put your arm through mine when we hiked to Hawk Mountain.
- [JOB’S TEARS BY LAURA DEHART YOUNG](https://theravensperch.com/jobs-tears-by-laura-dehart-young/) - My neighbor, Charma, sips tea between throaty, wheezy breaths. She clutches a Tareyton and sends smoke signals into summer. Her hands are mottled and sun-damaged, arthritic thumbs bent into perennial no-votes; swollen knuckles secure her many silver rings. These hands have known 80 summers, held lovers, cupped the faces of three children, painted anti-war banners
- [A SAFE DISTANCE BY MARLA J NOEL](https://theravensperch.com/a-safe-distance-by-marla-j-noel/) - Our guide smiles as he gives us directions, the Americans and South Africans who wish to trek with white rhinos. I am an impatient CPA and bad at following directions; however, my life may depend on them on this trip. He tells us, “Stay a safe distance from the rhinos.” but he neglects to define
- [WEEPING CHERRY BY HOLLY DUNLEA](https://theravensperch.com/weeping-cherry-by-holly-dunlea-2/)
- [WEEPING CHERRY BY HOLLY DUNLEA](https://theravensperch.com/weeping-cherry-by-holly-dunlea/) - I am not past my peak, though elderly, infirm, for I still can stretch my limbs and feel their power. I extend my long fingers to stroke shoulders strained by daily work, caressing those who need more care than me. Labeled an ancient lady, I do not feel my years, though my cheeks blush pink
- [A SIMPLE OBSERVATION BY HOLLY DUNLEA](https://theravensperch.com/a-simple-observation-by-holly-dunlea/) - When stopped mid-step I notice a tick as it starts its climb a quiet walk, one leg the lead, a graceful beat, stretches out to gingerly place it, followed in turn by each foot. I think of a model, bedazzled in bling cello hums as she glides, down the runway wearing Vuitton and perhaps pink
- [MISTRUST BY TIM LOUIS MACALUSO](https://theravensperch.com/mistrust-by-tim-louis-macaluso/) - Ice hangs in a long saber from the back gutter a shaggy hardened tooth soon it will bar the window and this bedroom will imprison me with the lies that linger in the mind like an odorless gas. This is where the river divides and the song sings itself; snow is here for the duration
- [BITTER ASHES BY TIM LOUIS MACALUSO](https://theravensperch.com/bitter-ashes-by-tim-louis-macaluso/) - Under the leaden morning light through the blistered lens of ice, he went in February slipped carrying his bronze casket up the hill, six men dressed in black trekked like penguins through the worst whiteout Western, NY had seen in years Heard my mother crying on the phone as the gust of freedom blew through
- [MOVING OUT BY TIM LOUIS MACALUSO](https://theravensperch.com/moving-out-by-tim-louis-macaluso/) - It was yesterday one last look the rooms are bare upstairs, downstairs empty I couldn’t remember where things used to be what we said
- [DRAGON FLY DAYS BY TIM LOUIS MACALUSO](https://theravensperch.com/dragon-fly-days-by-tim-louis-macaluso/) - Parched and roasted dunes July’s sting has passed ribbons of sand spun beach roads in these white-on-white days dragonflies whizzing through the backyard carried by a clear dry wind cool as a gin martini passing over the tongue. Prehistoric-looking ficus trees fountains of elliptical leaves with air roots slinking to the ground in contractions and
- [OPI NAIL LACQUER RATED PEA-G BY OLIVIA KWON](https://theravensperch.com/opi-nail-lacquer-rated-pea-g-by-olivia-kwon/) - Paint my fingernails with that twelve dollar CVS nail polish. Paint my world green like shimmering aspens, green leaching from my fingertips, green like the moss that grows on my childhood swingset. Paint my everything green, engulfing me, covering my world, comforting me. Watch me as I slip my sage-green hoodie over my head. Watch
- [COLLATERAL SILENCE BY BEATRICE YORKE](https://theravensperch.com/collateral-silence-by-beatrice-yorke/) - she holds herself very still wishing for a gold heart but alas confronted with a maid's fortune wails echo like a slaughterhouse neither side relents how does ruin make a home? justice becomes lost in the seams
- [AT THE EDGE BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/at-the-edge-by-jennifer-gurney/) - at the edge through the hazy air I see a speck of white then two more dots of white on blue and my heart pounds in my chest ! pelicans! my soul sings a chorus of thanks to the lake to the universe to God for this moment this joy this lightness of being in
- [FREE, BRAVE, WHOLE BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/free-brave-whole-by-jennifer-gurney/) - what I wouldn’t give for more time with you here, now I am sad and lonely now you’ve gone my heart in pieces but one day at a time I am mending myself together, again and each day it hurts a fraction of a hair’s width less to touch the bruise of grief but and
- [I’D LIKE TO BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/id-like-to-by-jennifer-gurney/) - I’d like to kick grief out it is not welcome here in this house of love grief has overstayed it’s welcome in this heart of mine it is time for grief to leave and close the door behind it I’m going to change the locks and throw away the spare key grief is not welcome
- [THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/the-difference-between-by-jennifer-gurney/) - what is the difference between memories of you and grief now that you’re gone I want to kick grief out but will I lose you if I do that my heart clenches at the thought you are woven into the grief the very fiber of it’s being for grief’s existence is because of you so
- [THE TERRITORY WE CELEBRATE BY ELIZABETH KERT](https://theravensperch.com/the-territory-we-celebrate-by-elizabeth-kert/) - Asher finds a piece of the sea and he starts digging as if searching for the source of the water. His first hole in the soft, dry sand is deep and seems endless. His front legs move frenetically with the excitement and joy of discovery. He circles joyfully around his oceanic puddle, splashing and dancing
- [O’ BRAVE NEW WORLD BY JANET GARBER](https://theravensperch.com/o-brave-new-world-by-janet-graber/) - Mrs. Weiss was too busy to die. She backhanded the doctor, a good five years younger than her still-finding-himself son; the chicken scratch notes from her medical chart went flying everywhere. She leapt off the examining table in a single bound. “Mrs. W, try to remain calm,” the doctor said while still on his hands
- [GOING ALL IN BY GAVIN KAYNER](https://theravensperch.com/going-all-in-by-gavin-kayner/) - His flaming red hair mimicked the fire burning in his mind. The one he tried to put it out with Old Grand Dad, but it just kept on raging—alcohol fueling the flames. Life had dealt him one card away from an inside straight hand after hand. Beginning with his father’s death. The first of many
- [RUN BABY, RUN BY MICHAEL MUSHENO](https://theravensperch.com/run-baby-run-by-michael-musheno/) - I took off down the alley as fast as I could, Mom’s voice imploring me to run fading with every stride, my racing heart exploding in my ears. I cried and screamed as I ran for my life, “God, help, Dad, Mom … someone, please!” I stumbled and fell to the ground, cinders and pebbles
- [SONORAN STORM BY RICHARD WEST](https://theravensperch.com/sonoran-storm-by-richard-west/) - Across the broad Sonoran plain a distant thunderhead rears like some vast tree – shedding leaves of rain across the thirsty mesa flats. Soon, flickering branches of light appear in the darkened clouds, bearing thunder’s grumbling, angry fruit in the dense and heavy-laden sky. Then the storm gathers up her grey skirts of rain and
- [THE WINDS OF ANCIENT CRETE BY RICHARD WEST](https://theravensperch.com/the-winds-of-ancient-crete-by-richard-west/) - Summer sleeps beneath the aged olive trees, and the air is redolent with notes of flute and song carried on winds that thread the island’s tapestry of wheat, barley, fruits, and herbs – tight-woven and seamless between the sea and golden sun. And yet, even in such a paradise, longings search the human soul. As
- [REVOLUTION IN RED, GOLD, AND GREEN BY RICHARD WEST](https://theravensperch.com/revolution-in-red-gold-and-green-by-richard-west/) - As spring revolts against the harsh hegemony of cold the desert wakes, and life – pushed beyond the bounds of its hibernating lull – abruptly blooms. As though from nowhere, seeds rise up and surging latent color bursts explosively across the desert floor. And though the dust reads riot act to the wildflowers in its
- [SEVEN DESERT HAIKU BY RICHARD WEST](https://theravensperch.com/seven-desert-haiku-by-richard-west/) - desert morning – the bone-dry beauty of fire Grand Canyon – a summer hawk drifts on nothingness wind-blown sand in an old cactus – desert hour-glass an immense fortune in Spanish gold - the palo verdes bloom even the cardinal going unnoticed – sonoran sunset native flute – the desert sun sets into a lullaby
- [WATER SEQUENCE: CONCIERTO FOR SUNLIGHT BY RICHARD WEST](https://theravensperch.com/water-sequence-fire-in-the-sky-by-richard-west-2/)
- [WATER SEQUENCE: WATCHING THE RIVER BY RICHARD WEST](https://theravensperch.com/water-sequence-watching-the-river-by-richard-west/)
- [WATER SEQUENCE: CHERRY BLOSSOMS BY RICHARD WEST](https://theravensperch.com/water-sequence-cherry-blossoms-by-richard-west/)
- [WATER SEQUENCE: FIRE IN THE SKY BY RICHARD WEST](https://theravensperch.com/water-sequence-fire-in-the-sky-by-richard-west/)
- [ABSTRACT 1 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-1-by-jennifer-gurney-3/)
- [ABSTRACT 2 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-2-by-jennifer-gurney-4/)
- [ABSTRACT 3 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-3-by-jennifer-gurney-4/)
- [ABSTRACT 4 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-4-by-jennifer-gurney-4/)
- [ABSTRACT 5 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-5-by-jennifer-gurney-4/)
- [THE EVOLUTION OF GRIEF 5 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/the-evolution-of-grief-5-by-jennifer-gurney-2/)
- [WERE I AWAKE BY RYAN CALO](https://theravensperch.com/were-i-awake-by-ryan-calo/) - I would not part a waterfall of moths, or agree to play a role and learn no lines. If I saw a wolf scrabble across the ceiling, I would die of fear. I could not be sucked chest first into the clouds, or encounter my older self, or pray with such fervor that my hands
- [FAMILY POSSESSIONS BY PAMELA BUTLER](https://theravensperch.com/family-possessions-by-pamela-butler/) - No one can be buried here who doesn’t live here, my sister says. She lives year-round in this town where our ancestors settled many great-greats ago. I’ve taken one of the thin china cups we all sipped our coffee from each morning at the drop-leaf maple table on the wide-planked pine kitchen floor. On the
- [CLOUD-SCRATCHED BY TRACY AHRENS](https://theravensperch.com/cloud-scratched-by-tracy-ahrens/) - Strawberry moon bleeds crimson through altocumulus fingers. Once a luminary tempting peeks and love-longing stares, I rip you now from darkness, drained of love, like me. Throat cinched. Heart speared. Flesh infected. Devil moon, cloud-scratched, drained of light; a reflection of me. My eyes close with these clenching cloud fingers squeezing what remains into star-drops
- [CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL SOLEMNITY BY RICHARD JOHNSON](https://theravensperch.com/canterbury-cathedral-solemnity-by-richard-johnson/) - Before you open the cathedral door prepare your mind for the procession to embrace the Word, the choir, liturgy long practiced and reflect upon old stories of knights and fair maidens times of peace not war. And when you enter marvel at a pristine wilderness of marble, gilt and candlelight, sculptured sadness and joy of
- [A PRIVATE MOON BY R. NIKOLAS MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/a-private-moon-r-nikolas-macioci/) - Smoke from a neighbor's bonfire drifts into my yard. He's burning leaves and logs, has invited me over this evening for a wiener roast, and though I appreciate the invitation, I declined. I want to be alone when I welcome the moon pushing pearlescent light through branches of an oak tree bordering my driveway. Meeting
- [THE WRECK OF THE ADMIRAL BY RAYMOND DANNER](https://theravensperch.com/the-wreck-of-the-admiral-by-raymond-danner/) - Tom pilots the Sea Ray next to the blue-and-white mooring ball as Kate deftly reaches over the bow to grab the line and tie off to the cleat. Then Tom kills the engine and the 25-footer dances in the chop. Something in your stomach shifts. You grab the gunwale for balance and peer over the
- [MY GOOD DEED FOR THE DAY BY JEFFREY ZABLE](https://theravensperch.com/my-good-deed-for-the-day-by-jeffrey-zable/) - Upon entering the bathroom, I immediately see a daddy long-legs spider resting on the wall. My first thought is not to kill it, but protect it from my wife who would surely wad up a piece of toilet paper and crush it before flushing it down the toilet. I’m thinking this, even though I know
- [NEW GRIEF BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/new-grief-by-jennifer-gurney/) - new grief is putting on shoes that are in your closet but not yet worn you have to break them in new grief finds an opening in your heart carved by past grief but each day, now that opening is painfully carved bigger new grief recognizes old grief says hello then talks over it for
- [FALLING-ASLEEP POEMS BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/falling-asleep-poems-by-jennifer-gurney/) - what becomes of all the poems I write on my heart as I'm falling asleep but have no memory of once morning rises are they whispered to the angels and pixie dust in the nether time when the world sleeps but magic rises do they fall into the hearts of those restless souls turning in
- [OKAY BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/okay-by-jennifer-gurney/) - when you proposed on the porch of our little hut in Belize I was completely speechless and just kept smiling and crying at one point noticing no response had been given you said you should probably say yes, now and laughing from joy and because it was really funny and so disingenuous and you I
- [ELLIPSES BY WEIYI JING](https://theravensperch.com/ellipses-by-weiyi-jing/) - After Rita Dove’s Thomas and Beulah Outside the church, She strolls past the maple trees, The mandolin’s echo lingers still, as if He’s there, but he’s not. Gazing at the path they used to walk Where magnolia breeze stirs memories: They both had known, their connection, More mutual than romantic, Like parallel streams, running deep
- [DROWNING BY WEIYI JING](https://theravensperch.com/drowning-by-weiyi-jing/) - Wednesday, eleven o’ clock, lying on my bed, in the dark, I called you. Five seconds, ten seconds, fifteen seconds, should I hang up? But–then, you answered, suddenly & finally, tears rush down, competing with one another. Gazing at your smile, your concerned voice, as if you were here, What’s wrong, bǎobèi? Bagged burdens of
- [THE STAGE IS YOURS BY WEIYI JING](https://theravensperch.com/the-stage-is-yours-by-weiyi-jing/) - On the day of my first performance at Carnegie Hall, my mind was filled with nervousness and fear of not performing my best. As I waited backstage, I tuned my violin over and over again by plucking the strings and repeatedly finger-motioning the same chromatic scale. As the last performer’s piece came to an end,
- [BOY WITH A PICKAXE BURIED IN THE WALL BY ALAN CATLIN](https://theravensperch.com/boy-with-a-pickaxe-buried-in-the-wall-by-alan-catlin/) - A limp, grimacing life-like, Halloween mask removed for picture taking purposes the boy’s face unmarked, expressionless, framed against the stained plaster dusted wall the gouger & the gouged Alan Catlin has two full length books of poetry published in 2025: Landscapes of the Exiled (Dos Madres) and Unattended, a long poem in section about
- [INTERIOR WITH THREE BOYS AND THREE WINDOWS BY ALAN CATLIN](https://theravensperch.com/interior-with-three-boys-and-three-windows-by-alan-catlin/) - after R.E. Meatyard The youngest sits in corner shadows at the El formed by top-of-stairs enclosure and wall with legs crossed, hands folded in his lap, obediently obeying admonitions to remain still, to be as quiet as the model he now is. The second boy stands in the open doorway, is a blur of arms
- [WHAT IS SUMMER BY JOHN WYKLE](https://theravensperch.com/what-is-summer-by-john-wykle/) - Summer is a time of laidback reflections on life lived in heated pools of liquid joys and jagged loves. Summer heat cools our thoughts and pricks our passions and drives insane ideas pounded like nails into a block of ice. I have lived through summers of gold and silver and tanzanite bands of mirth striking
- [ALTADENA FIRE BY RUSS ALLISON LOAR](https://theravensperch.com/altadena-fire-by-russ-allison-loar/)
- [POPPIES BY RUSS ALLISON LOAR](https://theravensperch.com/poppies-by-russ-alison-loar/)
- [RAINBOW ARC BY RUSS ALLISON LOAR](https://theravensperch.com/rainbow-arc-by-russ-allison-loar/)
- [EGG ISSUES BY RUSS ALLISON LOAR](https://theravensperch.com/egg-issues-by-russ-allison-loar/)
- [BANANA SUN BY RUSS ALLISON LOAR](https://theravensperch.com/bananana-sun-by-russ-allison-loar/)
- [#3 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/3-by-jennifer-gurney-5/)
- [SURROUNDED BY FIREFLIES ON A SUMMER NIGHT BY R. NIKOLAS MACIOCI](https://theravensperch.com/surrounded-by-fireflies-on-a-summer-night-by-r-nikolas-macioci/) - It's a balmy July evening, and I'm perched on the back-porch steps of our house on Hinman Avenue. The yard is replete with a profusion of fireflies. It's as if the dark wears a cloak of tiny, gold lanterns that flash on and off, on and off. I hold a pint Mason jar, plan to
- [THE FIRST HORSEMAN BY CHRISTOPHER L. DORNIN](https://theravensperch.com/the-first-horseman-by-christopher-l-dornin/) - Kurt Lurvey parks in his wheelchair at the front door to St. John's Church and repeats, over and over, “Have a nice day.” Clearly he does. His congregation must. I watch nearby to stay out of his way. He wears a blue life jacket when he vacations with dolphins at Key West. A mammal tries
- [WOLVES BY CHRISTOPHER L. DORNIN](https://theravensperch.com/wolves-by-christopher-l-dornin/) - Kurt Lurvey interrupts two surgeons in the hospital elevator debating spine procedures. He advises them his scoliosis job went well. He wore a halo brace screwed to his skull and shows them the scars. The docs stiffen. Then smile. We sing in Kurt’s wheelchair van after his job inspiring patients who face withering pain. He
- [WORDS BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/words-by-jennifer-gurney/) - I love reading poetry getting filled by a single prodigious line that can and does captivate me for days fleshy tears of strong leaves pushing up into air* unfurls something in me a connection to another time, space, experience soul where words written in another lifetime and sent into the ether to hover and dance
- [WAITING IN THE WINGS BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/waiting-in-the-wings-by-jennifer-gurney/) - poems written on the page waiting in the wings nervous-excited to step on stage once they hear their cue enter stage left into bright lights all nerves and false bravado once the first line is delivered the rest gushes out the thread of memory tugged gently unfurls the heart
- [MAYBE THERE WAS A CAR BY DAVID PUNTER](https://theravensperch.com/maybe-there-was-a-car-by-david-punter/) - Do you remember the days my love/when we used to swoon at the fresh-cut/smell of petrol and we’d load up the soft-top/black and bronze shiny shiny/head out on the highway in our dreams/before you became an accountant, or perhaps you never did/that would have been too neat an ending/ and besides you were always scarlet
- [BLIND SUMMIT BY DAVID PUNTER](https://theravensperch.com/blind-summit-by-david-punter/) - Pulling out onto a shallow bend on a blind summit/not really knowing whether there is a vehicle approaching (but it would be perfectly safe if the vehicle were not speeding)/it could be that I will fail for once to repress the urge to close my eyes/throw everything up into the air and trust in the
- [A MEASURE OF SMOKE BY LINDA CARADINE](https://theravensperch.com/a-measure-of-smoke-by-linda-caradine/) - You wake up one morning and you’re 70 years old. You see clearly that life is terrifying and fleeting. You find yourself in a world where kids don’t know how to ride a bike or tell time on an analog clock. You’re not sure you want to be here. You tell yourself this, too, will
- [CONFOUNDED BY TRACY JOHNS](https://theravensperch.com/confounded-by-tracy-johns/) - I deem it a cruel twist of my existence to encounter so often a flinted paradox too exquisitely tuned to my softness to be random. What kind of omnipotence imparts a deep peace to be in a house made of wood, and then horror to see a tree “felled,” crashing through neighbor arms? Or the
- [#1 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/1-by-jennifer-gurney-4/) - Jennifer Gurney lives in Colorado where she teaches, paints, writes and hikes. Her abstract acrylic paintings have been featured in several magazines. Jennifer was the artist of the month in 2024 for GloMag and her paintings are the cover art for three of her books of poetry, Liquid Sky (2025), Love’s Echolocation (2025)
- [#2 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/2-by-jennifer-gurney-5/)
- [#4 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/4-by-jennifer-gurney-5/)
- [OF DREAMS BY DALE COTTINGHAM](https://theravensperch.com/of-dreams-by-dale-cottingham/) - I told you that I called out a name from sleep, and it was yours. Funny how the mind keeps flowing its direction, niggling fronds, then under fronds: it won’t leave me alone, but continues to say what might be feelings, but I hear as truth. Yes, my voice comes volunteer. like love grass in
- [NEW SEED/OLD SOIL BY DALE COTTINGHAM](https://theravensperch.com/new-seed-old-soil-by-dale-cottingham/) - Like a windstorm I’ve ravaged a body and it is mine, sometimes words soak in me like rain, sometimes I use them with another but after small talk on the piazza, we went separate ways. O, booths, lanes, empty houses, I cannot hold the wind that goes by, as I wade into emails then ads
- [THE WIND PARTING IS PART BY DALE COTTINGHAM](https://theravensperch.com/the-wind-parting-is-part-by-dale-cottingham/) - It’s back, as if I get another chance, this coursing wind, ripping leaves, swaying limbs as if a seizure, striving to have its way. Like being given another chance to get it right, because you regret what you did before,
- [Portend by John Muro](https://theravensperch.com/21162-2/) - I can still hear the sad sweep of leaves that came from the branches of the ornamental beech like the strings of a harp that had been slowly struck, lifted and passed over by wind, causing me to once again think of you and the way you’d sometimes sit within ear-shot of the fountain as
- [VENICE: A JOURNEY IN WORD AND SOUND BY KIMMO ROSENTHAL](https://theravensperch.com/venice-a-journey-in-word-and-sound-kimmo-rosenthal/) - A city is a perpetual creation…everything in it is “poetry” in the strictest sense of the term. Jean-Paul Sartre, Baudelaire It has been nearly three years since a hectic, enchanting three-day stay in Venice and the fascination I felt upon departing has only grown. Recently, while reading Henry James’s impressions of the city and parts
- [BEHOLD THE FINGER BY MEIGEN SAUL](https://theravensperch.com/enough-said-by-meigen-saul/)
- [SHADOWS BY AGATHA TAITT](https://theravensperch.com/shadows-by-agatha-taitt/)
- [THE EVOLUTION OF GRIEF #2 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/the-evolution-of-grief-2-by-jennifer-gurney/)
- [THE EVOLUTION OF GRIEF #3 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/the-evolution-of-grief-3-by-jennifer-gurney/)
- [THE EVOLUTION OF GRIEF #5 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/the-evolution-of-grief-5-by-jennifer-gurney/)
- [THE EVOLUTION OF GRIEF #4 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/the-evolution-of-grief-4-by-jennifer-gurney/)
- [PRINCESS BY SAM FRIEDMAN](https://theravensperch.com/princess-by-sam-friedman/) - Princess kept me sane through the loneliness of early adolescence, through my sister’s screams, through my parents’ failures, through my isolated years as classmates partied in teenage crowds. But Princess loved me, and I spent my summers reading math and the mysteries of stars and planets and military history with her tongue washing my ear
- [ODE TO THE WEST WIND, EASTER, 2025 BY SAM FRIEDMAN](https://theravensperch.com/ode-to-the-west-wind-easter-2025-by-sam-friedman/) - As I sit on this bench at my poetry pond, breezes cool my armpits after my walk from home. I muse upon the freedom of breezes, their carefree saunters across borders, how they flaunt and jeer at the goons of ICE. Sitting here, on this final Easter when anyone can pretend that America is free,
- [BOOK OF EXODUS, CHAPTER 61, NEW JERSEY BY SAM FRIEDMAN](https://theravensperch.com/book-of-exodus-chapter-61-new-jersey-by-sam-friedman/) - In early March, 2041, after hearing the woes of Princeton refugees, how Nassau Street’s pavement melted in the sun, how tar flowed through streets and houses burned, how lungs filled with acid bile, and housecats and ducks choked and died near the Millstone River beach off Route 27, we loaded what little we could carry
- [IN MAY, DO CHESTNUTS BLOOM? BY SAM FRIEDMAN](https://theravensperch.com/in-may-do-chestnuts-bloom-by-sam-friedman/) - Do chestnuts still bloom conical in the trees of Kyiv where once we worked to fight a plague? Do kids still play in Shevchenko Park? Eat ice cream while parents drink the park’s flowing beer, or play chess below the statue of a poet who dreamed a nationhood now besieged? Does the Museum of Kyiv
- [HOMELESS BY BURCU SEYBEN](https://theravensperch.com/homeless-by-burcu-seyben/) - Being rich might be harder. Money in hand, yet unable to grasp what matters. Talent? No price tag. Love? Books, yes; houses, perhaps. I crave a house, space for my books. Funny how giving them away and letting them find new homes fills me with joy as well. Yet here I am, not rich enough to
- [MY FIRST CALL BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/my-first-call-by-jennifer-gurney/) - the other day when I got the call I never wanted to ever have to answer I crumpled to the floor and disintegrated, broken in just a moment my world had turned upside and I had to remind myself to breathe as I was struggling to reach out for my life jacket to lift me
- [KIND OF BLUE BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/kind-of-blue-by-jennifer-gurney/) - Miles Davis on the stereo muted horn singing the melody while snow falls outside my window candle flickers in the near-gloaming evening cats warm by the fireplace softly purr-snoring and thoughts of you drift in through the cracks in my mind side-by-side with contentment and relaxed ease and as the horns unmute themselves and cascade
- [MY FIRST PLANE RIDE BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/my-first-plane-ride-by-jennifer-gurney/) - when I was seven we flew to California to see family they didn’t have four seats together in coach so we got to ride first class seats were palatial like sitting on a couch in the air with room for both my lifesize doll and me in the seat everyone dressed up back then our
- [TWO FIREFLIES BY RALEIGH VAN NATTA](https://theravensperch.com/two-fireflies-by-raleigh-van-natta/) - It sounded like you, but I know it wasn’t. It was almost perfect — had all your little mannerisms down, the soft way you kiss your tee’s, the slight whistle past your missing tooth; the way you linger on your u’s and your ou’s and your double-o’s, inherited from holidays spent back in North Dakota.
- [TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUN, 1970 BY MARSHA HOWLAND](https://theravensperch.com/total-eclipse-of-the-sun-1970-by-marsha-howland/) - At eighteen, I had lived much less than a blink of an eye. The Earth, moon and sun were four and a half billion years old, give or take fifty or a hundred million years. I felt small and fleeting that March day when the moon slowly crossed the disc of the sun, holding for
- [BEST MEDICINE BY MARSHA HOWLAND](https://theravensperch.com/best-medicine-by-marsha-howland/) - We sicken and break; our bodies don’t work as they should. So there are surgeries and chemistries, rest and exercise, manipulation, fluids and vitamins, braces, splints and slings. Often we get better, we mend, and – as some say – we get stronger in the broken places. Physicians can be magicians; therapists, miracle workers. Wonder
- [FEBRUARY 19 BY MARSHA HOWLAND](https://theravensperch.com/february-19-by-marsha-howland/) - The face of a setting winter sun reflects in a nearby pond. The communion between the two is subtle and spectacular. In an instant, though, the rippled reflection is gone, as the sun drops just low enough in the sky. What’s missing isn’t the light, but the angle – the one from which the sun
- [THE BIRDS AREN’T GOING TO BE PLEASED BY KATHY O’FALLON](https://theravensperch.com/the-birds-arent-going-to-be-pleased-by-kathy-ofallon/) - with my crooked-clumsy fingers: a waterfall of seed funnels from the bag down the garbage disposal, misses the inside lip of the small bin I’ll move outdoors. If I pour it in the yard, spillage will attract the squirrels, and where I come from, next you know they’ll be crawling up your screen door, clawing
- [CLARITY BY MARSHA HOWLAND](https://theravensperch.com/clarity-by-marsha-howland/) - Sometimes the air is as clear as tears. It happens in late January during deep cold, or after rain on a chilled October morning. Or is it that tears are as clear as a winter day? An autumn noon rinsed by creation in all its theatrical might? Perhaps what falls from our eyes in joy
- [TIME IN GRIEF PASSES DIFFERENTLY BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/time-in-grief-passes-differently-by-jennifer-gurney/) - time in grief passes differently five minutes can take an eternity to fill and an entire day can pass on one box of photographs I rarely know what day it is right now and how could that even matter when the light of my universe has burnt out? Jennifer Gurney lives in Colorado where
- [THEY SAY BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/they-say-by-jennifer-gurney/) - they say all we have is now but what if that is not enough I need my memories to sustain me in the now treasures of my past to lift me through difficult times to remind me I was loved that I am loved, still I need my dreams to lead me onward in the
- [RIPPLES BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/ripples-by-jennifer-gurney/) - you won't have died, really till all of your ripples have played out… I'm grateful to be one of your ripples
- [STILL BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/still-by-jennifer-gurney-2/) - as my pen touches paper and my tears spill out on the page as words I wonder to myself does anyone even want to read these tears freshly fallen from a private kind of grief that other people don’t even know and then I remember that in grief we are all united and my words
- [IMAGINING ANGELS 1918 BY EILEEN VAN HOOK](https://theravensperch.com/imagining-angels-1918-by-eileen-van-hook/) - She washed their faces and small hands combed their hair, dressed them in their finest clothes, sat her three young children at the kitchen table while she washed and changed the baby. But it was the other baby she thought of, the one she shouldn’t know about, her husband’s bastard son. She put the baby
- [MEMORIAL SERVICE BY SHARON SCHOLL](https://theravensperch.com/memorial-service-by-sharon-scholl/) - Not yet down to bones but still gone without being missed. Unnamed, unclaimed one of more anonymous residents of the soil. A found body in an obscure grave nudged in among the others laid to rest by charity. Histories without obituaries their past only errant threads cut from time. Light a candle speak their names
- [IT’S THE QUIET BY SHARON SCHOLL](https://theravensperch.com/its-the-quiet-by-sharon-scholl/) - that tranquility I’ve cherished and now don’t know how to live with as a constant. When it was rare in stolen moments, a temporary pause I knew would end too soon, I could float away and love the drift, a disconnected interval sandwiched between life’s demands. But how long can I float when there is
- [OLD HOUSES BY SHARON SCHOLL](https://theravensperch.com/old-houses-by-sharon-scholl/) - Grime isn’t dirt but something insidious that elbow grease can’t touch, something that seeps into the walls of an old house. It wears time like a coat once fashionable that has seen better days. Serviceable– that’s the best you can say for it. Old houses smell lived in, well loved, but well worn. No air
- [OLEANDER BY SHARON SCHOLL](https://theravensperch.com/oleander-by-sharon-scholl/) - The last of a long row planted by the Highway Department as a warning: Pedestrians: do not cross here. It’s a six-lane highway with esplanade placed to thwart head-on collisions – no crosswalks, no street lights or overpasses. Only those gentle green reminders to people dashing from over here to over there that people have
- [INSIDE OUT BY JACK COOPER](https://theravensperch.com/inside-out-by-jack-cooper/) - This morning it was dark out and I forgot if it was day or night I didn’t know whether to open or close the curtains put on or take off my clothes yawn or scream I had read that some jellyfish can age backwards but it wasn’t exactly that It seemed like time had turned
- [ROOM ENOUGH BY JACK COOPER](https://theravensperch.com/room-enough-by-jack-cooper/) - In nature I wait for signs to move forward I listen for whispers and swishes watch for shapes and flickerings I feel my way through shadows and thorns and stop to breathe and watch I rely on the sun to grow the moon to harvest the wind for the water it brings the soil for
- [JUST ANOTHER DEATH BY JACK COOPER](https://theravensperch.com/just-another-death-by-jack-cooper/) - I live in a town with 24 graveyards tens of thousands of people have died here since it was founded in 1853 but only a few were buried in marked graves disparate lives separate deaths the rich attached to the space they earned the poor devoted to another realm These quiet grounds where development is
- [A PERSON LIKE ME BY JACK COOPER](https://theravensperch.com/a-person-like-me-by-jack-cooper/) - It struck me today as dinnertime arrived that if fairness were the norm and a person like me could change the way things are I should skip this meal or take it down to the shelter or call my congressperson and say I will only vote for her if she fights for children’s lunches in
- [PETALS SCATTERED BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/petals-scattered-by-jennifer-gurney/) - petals scattered from last night's storm my grieving heart
- [I REMIND MYSELF BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/i-remind-myself-by-jennifer-gurney/) - I remind myself to eat lunch mid-afternoon grief steals appetites
- [I JUST REMEMBERED BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/i-just-remembered-by-jennifer-gurney/) - I just remembered you're still my emergency contact
- [JUST HIT ME BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/just-hit-me-by-jennifer-gurney/) - just hit me the next time I make strawberry jam there will be no way to send you yours
- [QUICKSAND BY MARK THALMAN](https://theravensperch.com/quicksand-by-mark-thalman/) - Allen moved to California three weeks after school started and now has returned in April. Maybe he’s a migrant, or maybe he’s a shuttlecock being batted between divorced parents. The counselor says Allen has attended ten schools in seven years. When I test him, Allen scores second grade on a standardized reading test. Now, the
- [WHEN ONE HAS BEEN TEACHING A LONG TIME BY MARK THALMAN](https://theravensperch.com/when-one-has-been-teaching-a-long-time-by-mark-thalman/) - When one has been teaching a long time, old students stop you in the grocery store and say, “Remember me?” And you tell them they sat in the second row by the windows, but I’ve had thousands of students, so please tell me your name. When one has been teaching a long time, you start
- [IMPROMPTU HEALTH LESSON, 5TH PERIOD, 7TH GRADERS BY MARK THALMAN](https://theravensperch.com/impromptu-health-lesson-5th-period-7th-graders-by-mark-thalman/) - While doing hallway duty, I watched Carrie share her Tootsie Pop with Dorothy. Dorothy offered the candy to Kevin who took a few licks. Dorothy and Kevin went to class, and Carrie gave the sucker to Jimmy, who stuck the Tootsie Pop in his mouth, then offered it to Kathy. After that I had to
- [LONGEVITY BY MARK THALMAN](https://theravensperch.com/longevity-by-mark-thalman/) - Some of my younger colleagues ask me, "What’s my secret? How have I lasted thirty-five years?" Remember each day is a new day— a fresh start. I only worry about what I can control. Stay away from “drama” and replace false conclusions with facts. I don’t work in the summer. I rest, decompress, charge my
- [HEAVEN ON EARTH, KINDA BY LANA HECHTMAN AYERS](https://theravensperch.com/heaven-on-earth-kinda-by-lana-hechtman-ayers/) - I want the dead to stop dying, immediately, retroactively even. I can’t handle another dead dog, dead aunt, dead lover, dead plumber, dead fly even. Why can’t we all just live forever? Learn to eat less, tighten our belts, scrunch ourselves up to occupy smaller spaces. Cats do it all the time. Or maybe grow
- [LEAVE A MESSAGE BY LANA HECHTMAN AYERS](https://theravensperch.com/leave-a-message-by-lana-hechtman-ayers/) - Each day I long for the metric trill of a defunct rotary phone plugged into the void like on a Twilight Zone episode, your hyacinth voice from the other side saying, Things are good here, except I really, really miss you! Don’t our lost loved ones miss us and the spring peepers, rain on the
- [NOCTURNE FOR THE DEAD BY LANA HECHTMAN AYERS](https://theravensperch.com/nocturne-for-the-dead-by-lana-hechtman-ayers/) - I keep inviting my dead to come visit my dreams, then lie awake all night an impossible host. In the dark bedroom, a purple glow that has no source, grayed wall of bookcases looms like all the good ideas I’ll never have. The alarm clock projects red hours and minutes on the ceiling while I
- [PARENTHOOD BY LUCIEN MORIN](https://theravensperch.com/parenthood-by-lucien-morin/) - I’d like to travel in my mind And ask the friends I left behind Who grew up in the neighborhood, How well they did with pa-rent-hood. Pa-rent-hood! Pa-rent-hood! Up in a castle or down in the ‘hood You cannot retire from pa-rent-hood. Pa-rent-hood! Pa-rent-hood! My beloved son has mental woes Is it PTSD? Lord only
- [SHE WHO WALKS ALONE, NOW BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/she-who-walks-alone-now-by-jennifer-gurney/) - why is there no word for a person who's lost their former husband-best friend-love of their life or am I the only one I feel like a widow today remembering your deep love and mine and the permanence of it all the screaming white noise of grief looking through our wedding box gazing into your
- [I WEAR YOUR RING BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/i-wear-your-ring-by-jennifer-gurney/) - I wear your ring on my left index finger surrounded by your love every moment, now I search for memories of when you were still here I wear the Paris hoodie you bought me at the Eiffel tower gift shop on our honeymoon in the soft fleece of the inside I feel your love I
- [EVERY TIME BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/every-time-by-jennifer-gurney/) - every time I make a sandwich I remember all the mornings I made lunch for three for you for John for me now you're both gone and I'm left with memories every time I make a sandwich I remember
- [CHAPTER ONE BY SHARON L. ESTERLY](https://theravensperch.com/chapter-one-by-sharon-le/) - She lived a typical childhood. Her mother modeled for magazines, on runways, and in stores. Her other mother packaged Tastykakes and Swell Bubble Gum at their factories in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her father sold Cadillacs at his dealership in Rome, New York, and dealt Studebakers from Miami to Cuba. Her other father, an engineer at Westinghouse,
- [ABSTRACT #1 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-1-by-jennifer-gurney-2/)
- [ABSTRACT #2 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-2-by-jennifer-gurney-3/)
- [ABSTRACT #3 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-3-by-jennifer-gurney-3/)
- [ABSTRACT #4 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-4-by-jennifer-gurney-3/)
- [ABSTRACT #5 BY JENNIFER GURNEY](https://theravensperch.com/abstract-5-by-jennifer-gurney-3/)
- [THE LOVER OF STONE BY JR SOLONCHE](https://theravensperch.com/the-lover-of-stone-by-jr-solonche/) - The lover of stone must be old, for there is no such thing as a young stone. The lover of stone must be strong, for he must be able to climb up the mountain and the summit of the mountain to find the beginning of stone. And he must be able to climb down the
- [TO MY EYES BY JR SOLONCHE](https://theravensperch.com/to-my-eyes-by-jr-solonche/) - Runts of the litter, you were always the weakest ones. You were always the neediest. Right from the start, in first grade, my mother had to get those heavy glass crutches for you. How stupid you looked walking around with them. How embarrassed you were. How helpless you were without them. That was what the
- [TO MY FEET BY JR SOLONCHE](https://theravensperch.com/to-my-feet-by-jr-solonche/) - Sit up here, feet. Get a load off. Come up here on the desk, across from me at legs’ length, so I can see you, so I can thank you properly. I want to thank you properly for taking me everywhere I have needed to go: Up the steps of libraries and down the steps
- [Mother’s Milk (And Related Inanities) By Dean Z. Douthat](https://theravensperch.com/mothers-milk-and-related-inanities-by-dean-z-douthat/) - My mother was weird. So much so that when referring to her with my sister, I always say: “Your mother… .” My sister does the same. She was a piano prodigy, who was invited to a Master Class with Percy Granger. She was also an accomplished equestrian specializing in jumping. Very accomplished. But she told
- [Letting Go by Jennifer Gurney](https://theravensperch.com/letting-go-by-jennifer-gurney/) - letting go takes less energy than holding on in the moment yet somehow it is infinitely harder this letting go for in order to let go I need to absorb the reality of your impending death and my heart screams to the four corners of the universe a resounding no not yet not now not
- [The Hardest Part by Jennifer Gurney](https://theravensperch.com/the-hardest-part-by-jennifer-gurney/) - the hardest part of grief letting go the second hardest part of grief the foreverness
- [The Sun’s Lips by Jennifer Gurney](https://theravensperch.com/the-suns-lips-by-jennifer-gurney/) - tonight I painted the feeling of hot sun on newly bare skin first really hot day at the end of a hike to the lake and I feel sun kissed days later I can still feel sun's lips on bare arms solo for now the sun warms me through until I find my last first
- [In a Corner of My Heart by Jennifer Gurney](https://theravensperch.com/in-a-corner-of-my-heart-by-jennifer-gurney/) - I still after four years, now go to pick up the phone to call you and each time it hits me anew that I can’t so I talk to you in my heart instead I know you hear me and in your gentle way I hear you, still but if only we could have just
- [Morning Prayer by Paola Bruni](https://theravensperch.com/morning-prayer-by-paola-bruni/) - Outside my window, the pale forearms of sea mist climb trees with childlike vigor. Smoke skims from chimneys. There is nothing to depend upon, except each impossible change. A tabby hunts a sparrow whose beak plunders a rooftop gutter. Another life surrendered. I rummage through the closet of my mind, find only a basket of
- [Between Heaven & Hell is a Pier](https://theravensperch.com/between-heaven-hell-is-a-pier/) - Where the undetermined slouch and dangle feet over the edge, or sit full lotus, bait sharp hooks with earthworms, tie flies with a contentment of feathers—cast lines. Some pretend sublime acceptance, as if anyone is fooled at this stage. Others relax, believe they are a sure thing for the upper realm, but eventually find themselves
- [Conjunction by Paola Bruni](https://theravensperch.com/conjunction-by-paola-bruni/) - Another morning and the dog is laid up— tendon that burst like an overripe tomato, sutures, a jagged scribble on her haunch, bandage near her vulva where a fatty tumor excised since we’re knocking her out anyway. She’s ripped, tattered like a worn stuffed animal, crying a morphine-addled song, high and tight, strung out. Meanwhile,
- [Life, Death, and Worm Charming by Emma Brammer](https://theravensperch.com/life-death-and-worm-charming-by-emma-brammer/) - To walk on soil is to walk on the dead. As February draws to a damp close, I take a wooden stake and a metal rasp from my father’s carpentry collection in the garage and head out into the valley. Our house, perched on the crest of a rolling hill, sports an acre of oak
- [Trees Have Eyes by Jennifer Gurney](https://theravensperch.com/trees-have-eyes-by-jennifer-gurney/) - when I walk in the forest and hear the river rushing I feel your presence near in the branches above me for the trees have eyes I see the world anew and feel your presence surround me as I float along the river for all life has eyes the birds sing me music through the
- [Father Daughter by Jennifer Gurney](https://theravensperch.com/father-daughter-by-jennifer-gurney/) - I see you in my reflection I am your echo the DNA stamp of you I am the very shadow of you so much of me was formed by you that I cannot be separated from you when you’re no longer here I will still carry you deep inside of me in my very cellular
- [Water Lilies by Jennifer Gurney](https://theravensperch.com/water-lilies-by-jennifer-gurney/) - floating on the surface of my lake and of my mind Monet, my lilies and I together with my memories of the stories that I heard from my mother growing up of her trip to New York City as she was just a girl and the time she went to MOMA and stood at the
- [We Taste the Fire by Jennifer Gurney](https://theravensperch.com/we-taste-the-fire-by-jennifer-gurney/) - we taste the fire from miles and miles away grit between our teeth Canadian fires Marshall Fire they are the same a thousand homes lost lives forever changed I watched the homes of my students burn on the evening news and wept four days after the fire we entered our school, still standing, and came
- [Ashes and Salt by R. Olaf Erich](https://theravensperch.com/ashes-and-salt-by-r-olaf-erich/) - Oh, it was so long ago Written as history or perhaps lore. Yet somehow, some four thousand years later, The lesson is still taught to the young by the old. The sinful cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, Where angels sent by God Found the human condition so deplorable, That the angry Father in Heaven lifting
- [How Can I Write by R. Olaf Erich](https://theravensperch.com/how-can-i-write-by-r-olaf-erich/) - How can I write Something beautiful Yet meaningful, Something shining Bright like polished gold Something radiating the love Hidden in your eyes? How can I write Away your hidden tears, Your regrets, your fears, Your past pains? How can I write away The clouds, the fog, The uncertainty in your eyes Bringing you sunshine, Flowers
- [Rising Mist by James Cronin](https://theravensperch.com/rising-mist-by-james-cronin/) - It was the day before Christmas and mist formed over the East Branch of the Westport River, a rebirth of water from heat and cold, evaporation that morphed to condensation. It sets the stark report of the foreground, a procession of posts, absolved of duty and now obsolete, save to pay tribute if tribute is
- [The Poor Player: a Sestina by James Cronin](https://theravensperch.com/the-poor-player-a-sestina-by-james-cronin/) - Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player. -Macbeth- The soul or self by body is firmly bound; both eyes and brain bind sight as if by strings. Motion too, by nerves and muscles, is a game of sly warp and weft on the body’s loom. This raveling is undone by wear and tear, and
- [A Reaction to an Op-Ed Praising the Polyamorous by James Cronin](https://theravensperch.com/a-reaction-to-an-op-ed-praising-the-polyamorous-by-james-cronin/) - The deeds I can’t get out of my gray head are those of the lithe polyamorous. Oddly, that thought gives way to a darker one: a sad, furious and muscular nun. Like Christ in the temple, she’d start a ruckus and soon end any frolic in the bed. It’s envy, I suppose. Getting out of
- [A Life in Full: J. Donald Monan, S.J. 1924-2017 by James Cronin](https://theravensperch.com/a-life-in-full-j-donald-monan-s-j-1924-2017-by-james-cronin/) - Father Monan, president of Boston College from 1972-1996, dedicated his life to the service of God, university and community. With a life so dedicated to learning, he never saw faith as wanting in proof. Both, like links of love, could easily rest and thrive under a strict Scholastic roof. Love, spoken once and for all,
- [Another Mother-to-Son by Rikki Santer](https://theravensperch.com/another-mother-to-son-by-rikki-santer/) - How can I spur you to nudge your mind away from the brink, what festers in your deep, the getting even, the dark refusal, your brittle archive of human failings, your scream of consciousness—Look, see that dippers candy cake when you reinvented sweetest of sweet, the Birkenstock sandal imprints from your dear uneven feet like
- [Macaw by Rikki Santer](https://theravensperch.com/macaw-by-rikki-santer/) - Auntie favored the paradox of captivity. She liked when her macaw scuttled across waxed mahogany to share morsels of berries, peaches, raisins she gripped with arthritic fingers to place in a circle around him. Who’s my baby? Who’s my baby? Whose mimicry was mimicry? The rainforest rims in his starboard eyes, his clicks in nuzzle
- [Outside of Town by Ann Howells](https://theravensperch.com/outside-of-town-by-ann-howells/) - In the alley behind an abandoned Kroger boys scrawl sentiments on the graffitied wall Broom sage and cactus poke through broken cement and oil-stained gravel Shattered plastics glitter like agates discarded condoms lie like snakeskins crumpled wrappers blow like tumbleweed Boys grow prickly as devil’s cane Ann Howells edited Illya’s Honey for eighteen years.
- [Poem for January by Ann Howells](https://theravensperch.com/poem-for-january-by-ann-howells/) - frozen rain or sleet tink tink tinks like grains of rice or pearls relinquished one by one from a strand all day I remain in pajamas as sleet falsifies snowfall
- [ODALISQUE BY DEBORAH ANN PERCY](https://theravensperch.com/odalisque-by-deborah-ann-percy/) - “I don’t want to play soccer this year,” Charlie told his father, who coached the team. “Why not?” “Because I don’t like soccer.” “But you signed up again last year. You’ve played for two years.” “But last year I forgot how much I don’t like it.” * * * *
- [YOU DON’T BELONG BY SAVITA KRISHNAMOORTHY](https://theravensperch.com/you-dont-belong-by-savita-krishnamoorthy/) - happy has a smell tuberoses braided in jasmine intoxicating frangipani soothing the restless night w(h)isp/er of sandalwood incense ginger-infused tea in a a cardamom-clove-cinnamon-scented kitchen where memories linger first summer rain quenching, macerating the fissured map lines lifelines of earth’s epidermis fear, too, has a smell fermenting in its stench of suspicion snarl-of-surveillance smell hunting-dog
- [Engine Noise by Rick McKenzie](https://theravensperch.com/engine-noise-by-rick-mckenzie/) - All of you will know that I am speeding past you. You’ll know all that I want you to know about blurring pavement, the din and the metal, the machine’s potential, and my loud velocity. Can you hear what it means, really get what it means? Rick McKenzie's work has appeared in The Yale
- [Branded by Rick McKenzie](https://theravensperch.com/branded-by-rick-mckenzie/) - You don’t want generic stuff, the bargain, sold in bulk. You want the brand, the best name, the mark of quality, that shows you know your way. Well, you can be the major make, your contents guaranteed. Get legible clothes, then add tattoos. You’ll be well advertised, clearly labeled, verified authentic.

## Pages

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- [A Word From Our Founder](https://theravensperch.com/a-word-from-the-editor-2/) - [et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section” _builder_version=”4.16″ collapsed=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” _builder_version=”4.16″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_image src=”https://theravensperch.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Fotolia_62957481_XS.jpg” align_tablet=”center” align_phone=”center” align_last_edited=”on|desktop” admin_label=”Image” _builder_version=”4.16″ animation_style=”fade” animation_duration=”500ms” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” animation=”fade_in” sticky=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” global_colors_info=”{}”][/et_pb_image][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” _builder_version=”4.21.0″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” hover_enabled=”0″ use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]The RavensPerch is an online international literary and visual arts magazine. We welcome
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- [Cart](https://theravensperch.com/cart/) - [woocommerce_cart]
- [Checkout](https://theravensperch.com/checkout/) - [woocommerce_checkout]
- [My account](https://theravensperch.com/my-account/) - [woocommerce_my_account]
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- [Visual Art](https://theravensperch.com/visual-art/)
- [Non-Fiction](https://theravensperch.com/non-fiction/)
- [Fiction](https://theravensperch.com/fiction/)

## Categories

- [Non-Fiction](https://theravensperch.com/category/nonfiction/)
- [Fiction](https://theravensperch.com/category/fiction/)
- [Visual Art](https://theravensperch.com/category/visual-art/)
- [Poetry](https://theravensperch.com/category/poetry/)
- [In The News](https://theravensperch.com/category/in-the-news/)

## Tags

- [Sarah Wong Senior](https://theravensperch.com/tag/sarah-wong-senior/)
- [painter](https://theravensperch.com/tag/painter/)
- [artist](https://theravensperch.com/tag/artist/)
- [Linework-Girl-Zoom](https://theravensperch.com/tag/linework-girl-zoom/)
- [poetry](https://theravensperch.com/tag/poetry/)
- [poetry slam](https://theravensperch.com/tag/poetry-slam/)
- [woke](https://theravensperch.com/tag/woke/)
- [American Flag](https://theravensperch.com/tag/american-flag/)
- [judtice](https://theravensperch.com/tag/judtice/)
- [christmas](https://theravensperch.com/tag/christmas/)
- [baby Jesus](https://theravensperch.com/tag/baby-jesus/)
- [north star](https://theravensperch.com/tag/north-star/)
- [merry christmas](https://theravensperch.com/tag/merry-christmas/)
- [joseph and mary](https://theravensperch.com/tag/joseph-and-mary/)
- [Vaughn Benjamin](https://theravensperch.com/tag/vaughn-benjamin/)

## Format

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