Year: 2026

  • Poet Pick – Deanna Kern Ludwin

    Poet Pick – Deanna Kern Ludwin

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    by

    Constance Brewer
    in

    Time’s Wingèd Chariot ~with thanks to Andrew MarvellHad we but world enough and time, chocolate would be our only crime. We’d sit beneath the cacao tree, shaded by its fragrant leaves. Wait four years or more while I’d adore your lips,your forehead, silken skinuntil the farmers rapped the podson rock or tree, split them, scooped…

  • Poet Pick – David Colodney

    Poet Pick – David Colodney

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    by

    Constance Brewer
    in

    SpectatorsIt’s the coldest winter in 15 years, TV’s weather guy tells, and cold seems to have so many meanings. I use this news to touch your face,kiss your chilly nose. Our iPhone app says its 45 but “feels like” 35. We ask each other why the “feels like” is never warmer. We’re Floridianswearing socks, long-sleeved…

  • Poet Pick – D. Dina Friedman

    Poet Pick – D. Dina Friedman

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    by

    Constance Brewer
    in

    HORSES IN THE GULLY —After the painting, “All the Tired Horses in the Sun,” by A.C. CanonThe artist says they’re tired,maybe because they’re in a gully,each direction a climb no discernible road. Whyis one of the horses red, the sky orange? Why are the spots on the red horse blotchylike the white spots in the…

  • Poet Pick – Chuck Stringer

    Poet Pick – Chuck Stringer

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    by

    Constance Brewer
    in

    What The Apple SaidI must say, I was really getting tired, Eve,of just hanging aroundon a tree that everyone—alltwo of you—knewno one should touch. Tiredof watching that sneak of a serpentcoil around this lonely, darktrunk on which Godhad nailed a NO TRESPASSING sign.Eve, I thrilledfrom my core through my fleshto my loosening stemwhen I saw…

  • Poet Pick – Bonnie Proudfoot

    Poet Pick – Bonnie Proudfoot

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    by

    Constance Brewer
    in

    A Brief History of Wetzel County – by Bonnie ProudfootHere is a hill, a trail,shale rocks crumble into earthwhen I step on them,canes of multiflora rose tugmy legs, arms, neck, face. Herefog hugs the valleys,autumn sun dips behindthe ridgeline before 3:00,stumps of chestnut treesare wider than anyliving trees, squirrelshide in oak branches.Here Lewis Wetzel, bornin…

  • Poet Pick – Beth Kanell

    Poet Pick – Beth Kanell

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    by

    Constance Brewer
    in

    Late-Life ContentmentI like my late-life belly, its rounded willingnessmetaphor for Swiss chocolate, crème brûlée, butter on hottoast. When the doctor squints and says “body mass” I say“you won’t believe who joined me for a good meal at that littlerestaurant!” Besides, most descriptions of weight-loss dietsare such an insult to the children starving in Gaza—if you…