I tell my wife we are all drawn to sadness by Casey Killingsworth Nothing changes after the year we spend our Sunday mornings offering tea to the homeless in the shadow of the Mission, you know, […]

Prep work by Katherine Gotthardt The last thing I drank was clear. The number of times I’ve had to repeat this reproduces, every anesthesiologist preparing for vomit, I guess. M […]

Looking for Definition by Fred Wilbur   If the misery of our poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin. —Charles Darwin,Voyage of the Be […]

Yoga Today by Fred Wilbur   Among the activities of our local Parks and Recreation Department are youth sports (including cheerleading), a genealogy class, bingo, adult […]

Not Unlike Damon and Pythias by Zachary Lundgren A friend once drove out of town so fast he didn’t know if he was headed north or south. He just wanted to make the coast and finally learn how t […]

2026 Poetry Contest Announcement by Fred Wilbur As I read this year’s contest entries, I accumulated a deep appreciation for the humans who invested the thought and energy to create them and who t […]

Bloodless by Martin Vest I don’t want to be eaten by a grizzly, my dad would say every time we were camping. But I wouldn’t want to be here if it weren’t possi […]

The Kestrel Blues by Marjorie Gowdy   He perches      boldlyon the old phone wiredown Canning Factory Road. He sings      killy killy killya violent tune for a falconpainted in col […]

Human Entanglement and Woman, Falling, 2 poems by Karl Meade Human Entanglement After they split the atom, broke our water into hydrogen, and hydrogen, and the oxygen you couldn’t breathe, we and the h […]

The hothouse by D S Maolalai   wondering at marriage; at what it’s really like and what it does to you – like: I know that I do love her but will it dislocate my bone […]

A Block Off Henderson by Chris Dahl   “The deer stood like a blessing, then vanished.” —Jane Hirschfield, “Standing Deer” And this is how it is when I see the two-point, […]

Interests of Old by Fred Wilbur My teacher wife says that one learns by teaching. Of course, a good teacher must have mastery over the material to be taught. Another step of this […]

Accent by Abraham Kedong Ali   I write in an accent interposed by war school closure, hunger and starvation. I write in an accent interposed by the absence of my father, […]

Jasper Johns by Charles Rummelkamp   I read in the paper today was the birthday of the artist Jasper Johns, 95. I didn’t realize he was still alive. I remember him from Art Hi […]

Ode to a Safety Pin by Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg   Genius of oval, ovum, overlap capable of great feats, holding back the waterfall of too much cleavage or in my case, too vast a high […]

Darkness Over America by Fred Wilbur Twenty five hundred years ago, the Buddha propounded (among other ideas) that nothing in existence is permanent. Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-C […]

It's Raining by Ben Sloan   At age five, after my country doctor grandfather dies, fascinated by the black-and-white photos in his discarded depression-era medical books […]

Lake George in My Heart by David Stern My wife and I sought sanctuary by the lake, our two sons in tow. The four-hour car trip was nonstop requests for candy, cookies, sodas laced with […]

Harvester by Ned Kraft   Once mown a tedder spreads the murdered crop to dry, draws a swath, a windrow waiting. Three days of drought and the hay is fit to […]

A Necessary Addiction by Fred Wilbur Recently, my wife and I attended a dinner gathering of ten academics of which half were retired. We had met all before, though only a few do we […]