You’re twenty. Fresh-faced. Everyone else in this writing cohort is watching you, rubbernecking, wide-eyed, pale. They can smell the blood in the water. They know you are going to say something, you mu […]

As a very small child I learned language just like all small children. Only in my case there were some mysterious words that took me years to sort out their true meaning. There were words like Amtrak, lugao, Santo […]

Meeting Myself on My Morning Walk

…..a long look up
into branches I’ll see him,
………………his blond hair
in a butch I wore more
than fifty years ago.

………..Where wind currents swell
every […]

A Taxonomy of Lists by Fred Wilbur     As a youngster, I watched my father slice out-of-date reports whose 8 1/2 x 11″ sheets had blank back sides; the pivoting knife of the p […]

Ahab’s Widow
I wait for him as every whaler’s wife.
I write him letters every day.
I tell him how he grows bigger and stronger.

I tell him of his first words and of his first walk on his own.
I write, […]

Whenever I say that my extended family camps together in the summer—living in tents, cooking over the fire, and bathing in the river—someone will ask, “And you all get along? For a whole week?”

Sure, I say. […]

My goal in approaching each new painting is to create something both pretty and uncomfortable. The colors and compositions—largely focused on nature—are traditional bubble gum fare that is pleasing to t […]

It was my granddaughter’s fourth birthday party. I, old lady
with cane, was sitting in the shade on the side, then made my way
cautiously to watch the children hit the piñata with a plastic bat […]

Though many photographers have influenced me, the top three are Edward Weston, Richard Misrach, and Joel Meyerowitz. Besides his masterful compositio […]

What the sky chart would indicate is that he and his dog, Bella, are looking at is the constellation Orion. But what he sees is the Frozen Butterfly, one of the constellations his sister taught him. Jack […]

Antonyms for “Affluence”
It is a myth that mice
are impossible to eat.

I see my tuxedo
on another man,

a groom or musician.
It is a myth

that the bride will be thinking
about Queen Vic […]

I recently accepted a beautiful piece of writing by an author who wrote back to thank me — and to graciously say he’s open to feedback—which was a lovely, appreciated response. Writers have been known to b […]

Sara Biel has earned an Honorable Mention in Streetlight’s 2021 Poetry Contest

I Want to Give Him a Chance
Her voice is thin, scrapes and rolls, a dry leaf across the sidewalk.
My fingers grip the phone, […]

When my late husband set out to write his memoir he purchased Life As Story, by Tristine Rainer. He studied the book’s exercises and wrote in the margins. I want to read his annotations again. Feel the swoop of […]

In the summer of 1967, the year of my high school graduation, the Newark, N.J.-adjacent town of Plainfield, where I grew up, exploded with race riots. I was in Washington, D.C. when it happened, working as a G-2 […]

Nate Jacob has earned an Honorable Mention in Streetlight’s 2021 Poetry Contest

Mourning Doves
Looking back, the choice seems obvious.
A man is given the chance in life
to select from a pantheon of […]

The 2022 Streetlight Essay/Memoir contest has concluded. I’m happy to announce our winners: Betty Wilkins, Catherine Childress and Susan Valas. All three essay impressed our judges with their strength of narrative […]

Elizabeth Nowak has earned an Honorable Mention in Streetlight’s 2021 Poetry Contest

Dear Mi-Kwon

Before the whole world went mad,
you wrote to ask about my life
in beautiful America. I could not then […]

My work is inspired by sacred geometry, which is thought to convey sacred and universal truths by reflecting the fractal interconnections of the natural world. By reiterating these ratios, my work […]

Hey, son. It’s your Mama. Hope y’all are doing good up there. I’m callin’ cause I’ve got a little problem here.

So, did you hear about that storm we had a couple days ago, that derecho? Well, none […]