It all adds up
I am the sum of the past
a past that never went
its momentum travels fast
freighting each precious
moment of this life
like lightening flashes
sometimes a brief glimpse
other times more intense.
A Venezuelan storm
that continuously sheds
unexpected illumination
refracting on the scene
I am the lightning
and the landscape, I am
all the colours of this life .
from PoetryZoo Abigael
Gael Bage
Pass the Blackout
You should know, sweet sailor,
that every time the boatswain blows
sleepy taps into the misery pipe,
a corsage of sea salt
blossoms on the wrists of standby wives
sequestered in cap sleeves
and hot copper headaches.
You should know the storm flag
is saluted when thunderclap
erases the strategy in our smiles
and braids our breath into aiguillettes.
Fieldstrip the stars like
the cherry of a cigarette,
watch them fall windward as
gravity warps our chest medals into lifeboats,
our dress whites into
hospital gowns.
Goodnight nurse, ghost of Joan,
Before your dreams run aground
know sweet sailor:
There’s a red phone at the
bottom of every ocean
there’s a seabag full of sleep.
Brandon Courtney
Power GridCome down from there.
I can imagine
More clearly your
Wistfulness as sculpture.I made a painting
Of nothing. It’s
In my hallway. I
Know it’s a tree,Or rather the soul
Of a tree. The
Wind in it gets caught
In the yellowBranches. Somewhere deep
In its wood the
Dotted lines of a
Rainstorm. It’s just I’mToo far away now.
I remember six
Actors in a
Split level white house.The shower’s turned
On. The shower’s turned
Off. What might I chip
Away? I rememberDistinctly. My middle
Name’s not a name!
A noose dangled from
A rafter in the garage.I know I was fifteen
Cutting up “death threats”
I’d written at twelve.
One was to Jonny Quest.Something or nothing,
The sky pours off
Of that canvas.
If the grass spiderKeeps living through
Winter. He tells me
A story. His web
Bubbles up out ofAn unused drain.
Paint for the blind,
Tulips. They burn
Until there is no frame.
David Dodd Lee
The Architect’s WidowNow, you only notice city windows
when thin light warms behind them,shadows gathering in white pleats
of curtains, foggy as tracing paper,their billows breaking the rigid frame.
This is what he meant by negativespace: not the domes of the cathedral,
but the places you stand to seetheir familiar swell. Still, to watch you
startle at your reflection in the blistersof his windows, your shoulders sloped
— gentle curve of a wingback chair —the city’s wind snared between girders,
facades of red brick, the body’s tiltin a warp of glass, is to know something
of the way light distorts the thing it touches.Once, he told you that each bend in every
building has as many names as Rochester’sphonebook: fanlight, oculus, loggia — yet,
no single word for the way rain darkensthe shingles of the steeple or how the roof’s
fixed line dovetails a blurred sky.
Brandon Courtney
First loveAn uncommon weakness for gardenia
and certain slow passages of music
repeated till the diamond needle dulled.And the ruby waste of youth
and the tendency to be duped.
I’d burymy face in the cotton prints she favored –
whiffs of fried fish, talcum, dust. Her roomswere numerous, tobacco-stained, pocked
with discarded art, white island of a bed
in a page-curled sea of fact-checked books.Afterwards, she’d read the cards, the dark
cupped dregs, my scarred yellow palm:
Like a bellyou will love in terror, striking what you love,
loving what you strike.
Claudia Burbank
Naked Soul
Futile winds blow
through a broken heart
the vessel flawed
it’s flow fragmented
cracks wide open
Stark naked
before humanities face
feeling vulnerable
in that dark
and lonely space
self leaks out
in a stream of tears
aimlessly to moon about
in a pool
of excuses and fears.
A dark fascination
this absence of light
Love
spreads diamante’
on the cloak of night
The broken vessel
lets in a new dawn.
The smallest pond
nightly
is creation’s mirror.
from Poetryzoo. Abigael
Gael Bage
Maybe I Might
I may live a thousand lifetimes,
but remember only one….
I may find some peace in quiet
when a busy day is done
I might be the other loving half
of someone else’s whole
In somebody else’s picture
I might play a leading role
I might take the time to give thanks
for the things life’s given me
In an indecisive moment
I may possibly agree
I might make a strong commitment
to support a worthy cause
I may learn to live each moment
even those with major flaws
I might travel with the masses
but march to a different drum
I may keep forever hoping
that the best is still to come
Life’s eternally evolving
and no doubt we’re changing too
So I just might think about those things
I may decide to do.
from Wanda’s page Poetry.org.nz
Wanda Kiel-Rapana
The Stuff Dreams are made on
Our journey is wasted
when we hanker for things
that might have been .
With open eyes, the dream
precedes our grit and goal.
No point in nightmares ,
lost in the dusty recesses
of the mind. Life is a one way
street , walk with soul’s dream
in the moonlight and follow
your visions stream.You will be
the first to see the new dawn.
Dreams are born in our heart.
Sometimes I write my dreams
just to discover what I thought.
from Poetryzoo Abigael
Gael Bage
Search-light to my soul
My words are a search-light
to my Soul
speaking my truth.
Sometimes they glow and shine
shaped by thoughts from others
long ago
yet deeply mine.
Some days my words glisten softly
like pale moonlight or distant stars
A silvery fish, darting out of shadows
dapples of half-light, reflecting
off its scales
flashes of truth from memory’s past.
Some days my words burn bright
I cover my eyes in pain;
there is nowhere to hide.
I take another peek – aha!
Nothing to fear
Just light.
Some days the words won’t come.
I shake my torch, bang it on the ground
So frustrated,
so disappointed.
Useless, empty thoughts
expose old wounds
that I’m not good enough
A lonely void haunts me
deep within
So then I seek Your Word
Your truth, your wisdom.
Love fills my heart
Rekindles that radiant spark
that threatens to glow cold.
And then I remember.
You have given me all I need
Gifted me
my salvation
All I must do, is believe.
“Faith need be only the size
of a mustard seed.”
For you Father, are always here
holding my trembling hand.
As we switch on the light together
And reveal such beauty there.
from justwritewithmandy.blogspot.fi
Amanda Edwards
Poetry – My Life
I’m in a moment on my own, just thinking how the years have flown
I ask myself what have I done – that’s brought a change to anyone
The answer comes in very clear, the one thing that I hold so dear
My friends tell me I have a gift that always gives their lives a lift
I write, and when I’m in that space, there is no other time or place
I live and breathe in poetry, the one true thing that sets me free
I think that I have always known, that depth and passion in a poem
Changes words from ordinary, into extraordinary
Inspires thoughts, expands the mind, word imagery clearly defined
Emotional, historical, political, rhetorical
Whilst trying to wax lyrical, some even are hysterical,
The darker side of life is there, tormented souls in deep despair
Some may be borderline insane, through poetry reveals the pain,
Classical, contemporary, even revolutionary
There’s those who write in torrid verse, to some a blessing, some a curse
However one may view that style, it never fails to bring a smile
Always there is that special part, exclusive to my seeking heart
Those loving verses sweet to me, found in romantic poetry
Poetic friendship never ends, I’ve made some truly lovely friends
Nurtured by our art with care, those friendships will always be there
It would be nice to really know when it becomes our time to go
Like poets from another time, we all may live on through our rhyme
My poetry gave me a life, relieved me from all stress and strife
Whatever the future may bring, I owe my poetry everything
from Wanda’s Page – Poetry.org.nz
Wanda Kiel-Rapana
Copyright © 2025 by Magdalena Biela. All rights reserved.