Edinburgh Rock
red and white peppermint twirled to a length that could be licked or broken in pieces my brother wanted a stick brought from Margate with its beach of castles donkey rides and buckets blankets on sand and long slow waves the colours smell of seaweed saltwater linger in memory overlaid by the taste of Edinburgh...
Read MoreFeatured Works: Week of July 13 (Travel)
This week, our contributors take us on a little trip. Carol Hamilton’s “Comings and Goings” reflects on the possible journeys of neighbors. “On the Ferry from Martha’s Vineyard” by James B. Nicola captures a transcendent moment in the natural world. “The Old Mill Disco on a Greek Island 2” by Andrew Oerke provides an up-close view at a popular tourist...
Read MoreThe Old Mill Disco on a Greek Island #2
The hip old mill of the disco stops grinding the wind into power. A soft nothingness descends like a million moths filtering through cobwebs and cobwebs of moonlight, leaving the anesthetized eyesight bobbing like duo lanterns on local boats. In the gray allegiance of pre-dawn, an inventory of tackle, nets, and floats is visible now the night is gone. Then the pill of the sun is thrown and the titration point is behind us, irretrievably clarifying things. Darkness is exchanged for daylight in a parenthesis of clouds white as snow, as the trackless frost on a winter’s pane that once seemed...
Read MoreOn the Ferry from Martha’s Vineyard
There is a cool fire, one that is inviting to touch with a half-promise it will not burn you. I’ve seen it in the eyes of kindness once or twice. But I saw it or something like it too when I rode the ferry from Martha’s Vineyard back to Massachusetts after a busy day galumphing and happy when the sun was lowering. Suddenly the sea turned into a horizontal blaze and I into a child on a merry-go-round wanting to clasp the brass ring. At least that is how the ripples of the sea attracted me with their powers of enchantment at about 6:40 just as the day was thinking about turning again into...
Read MoreComings and Goings
My own are scattershot and the neighbors’ flicker and stutter like the lives of diners peering at menus within little squares of light on a passing train. How can I help picturing myself up above in Seat 17A looking out at clouds, myself the size of a baby’s thumbnail on that passenger jet still lifting on its way to Kansas City. Right now I see Steve’s living room lights at 6 a.m. on Sunday, so I wonder if he, the neighbor who wears earphones when he mows, ever gets a day off, and if he is still Steve, the one I knew long ago, or someone new? And do any of them notice my empty...
Read MoreFeatured Works: Week of June 7 (Longing)
Whether it’s unrequited love, passion or something else, this week’s contributors portray the depth and frustration of longing. “Taking it in Almost” by David Breeden is a poem about yearning for something just out of reach. The short story “You Know How Women Are” by William Parent is set in 1969, using gentle humor to ponder dating. “Meeting Alice Mary” by Robert Watts Lamon, a story set in the 1980s, captures the seemingly insignificant moments that can shape love’s destiny. The poem “Sunday in Her Garden” by Maura Gage Cavell captures the almost...
Read More