Category: Poetry

Recovery Looks a Lot Like Picking Up a Paintbrush

Samantha Rose

my skin isn’t paper but that doesn’t stop me from carving the weight of the world into my wrists crimson blood tiger stripes. or from ripping apart the pages of a story i never asked to be in don’t judge a book by its cover-up that is, pant legs and Read more

Samantha Rose

Samantha Rose resides in Portland, OR. She loves using poetry as a form of social commentary, and such writing is often inspired by her degree in sociology and philosophy. She enjoys art of all forms and her work has been featured or is forthcoming by Nightingale & Sparrow, Mohave He[art] Review, Down in the Dirt, Quail Bell, and more. You can often find her painting with coffee when she's not drinking it with her nose in a book.

Seducing a Dying Wizard

Justin Karcher

It’s like being drunk, my fingers running through the dollhouse knocking over everything I don’t know what’s happening to me, the clumsiness, the heaviness of city infrastructure weakening over time, potholes replacing my eyes, my mouth a bridge collapsing in the middle my nose a public school rotting from the Read more

Justin Karcher

Justin Karcher is a Pushcart-nominated poet and playwright born and raised in Buffalo, New York. He is the author of Tailgating at the Gates of Hell (Ghost City Press, 2015), the chapbook When Severed Ears Sing You Songs (CWP Collective Press, 2017), the micro-chapbook Just Because You've Been Hospitalized for Depression Doesn't Mean You're Kanye West (Ghost City Press, 2017), Those Who Favor Fire, Those Who Pray to Fire (EMP, 2018) with Ben Brindise, and Bernie Sanders Broke My Heart and I Turned into an Iceberg (Ghost City Press, 2018). He is also the editor of Ghost City Review and co-editor of the anthology My Next Heart: New Buffalo Poetry (BlazeVOX [books], 2017). He tweets @Justin_Karcher.

My Body, My Choice

Jacqueline Cioffa

Dear God, I haven’t been talking to you much. I’m sorry I haven’t been in touch. I lost my faith for a long while. I lost myself, too. I forgot I was your perfect creation. I forgot the privilege it is to be female. I forgot I was able to Read more

Jacqueline Cioffa

A retired, international model, and celebrity makeup artist. Co-Author of Model Citi Zen, the guide. Founder of http://modelcitizenmakeup.blogspot.com/. Author of numerous prose pieces in various literary magazines. Most recently published in Little Episodes Brainstorms the anthology, among esteemed artists Sadie Frost, Melvin Burgess and Todd Swift.

This City Knows Our Name

Jamie Sawczyszyn

She was the closest I had ever felt to home. Her breath, her smile, The way she danced. Her laugh alone Lit me up for days. That infinite wonder That never got old. And just like my home, I am going to leave her. She is both my summertime breeze, Read more

Jamie Sawczyszyn

Jamie has been writing all of her life, and went to school for 3 years to study professional writing. Though she just began submitting to publications more recently, she has hosted several slam poetry events for herself and other writers to perform their works of art. Writing is more of an artistic outlet for her, and mainly focuses on raw nonfiction prose and poetry. She is in the works of writing a nonfiction book, which will focus on the psychological impact that her childhood had on her as she grew into an adult, and overcoming her anxiety disorder. She hopes that her book, like most of her works of poetry, will help any of her readers who are struggling with mental illness or going through a rough time in thier lives.

Morning Glory

Alexandra Meehan

Blue-fire trumpet perking her young velvet, little blossomed bud new & blue-brite kind, strung noble on her vine. Plucked, not plumped-up or blushed fully Heavenly yet. Blue-Whirling flame of hot-cool Heaven fire. Royal & sweet hot-oiled, delicately spread— open for the inhale of morn. Petal peeled back, downcast blues lighting Read more

Alexandra Meehan

Alexandra Meehan is a neurodivergent poet and poetry editor residing in Gainesville, Florida. Alexandra earned her BA in English from the University of South Florida in Creative Writing.She has mentored lyricists and has worked as a professional writer and as a creative director. Alexandra enjoys watching foreign films, cultivating carnivorous plants, and painting. She is enamored by wordplay and has a lifelong obsession with Emily Dickinson. Alex's work has appeared in Feminine Collective and Rhythm & Bones Lit. She has a forthcoming poetry book. Follow Alexandra on Twitter @LexMeehan

MY MOTHER’S SCARVES

Anne Leigh Parrish

Blue paisley when she feels humble Green polka dots when the beauty parlor is closed Stars and stripes for the Fourth Red and green for Yuletide Magenta for seducing the department chair Navy blue for telling my father it never happened Pink and yellow for the parent-teacher conference Beige to Read more

Anne Leigh Parrish

Award-winning writer Anne Leigh Parrish’s next novel, an open door, will be published in October 2022 by Unsolicited Press. Recent titles from Unsolicited Press are the moon won’t be dared, a poetry collection, October 2021, and a winter night, a novel, released in March 2021. She is the author of seven other books. She has recently ventured into the art of photography and lives in the South Sound Region of Washington State. Find her online at her website, Twitter, Facebook, Medium, Instagram, Linked In, and Goodreads.

Yes, Please

Julie Anderson

darling dare me to share my craving  held close fluid  in dreams help me darling exonerate my whisper of denial cajole the eros restrained under your jurisdiction I will submit revelling reaching touching divine deliverance this wish will come true I carry in my soul a lifetime of benediction gratefully Read more

Julie Anderson

Julie Anderson is the Creator and Publisher of Feminine Collective. Julie was inspired to create this safe place for women to share their secrets, desires, triumphs and pain as the antithesis of what mainstream media offers women today. In her column Pursuit of Perfection, she explores the importance of rectifying the balance of inner and outer beauty through essays, poems and articles on self-esteem, shame, family, and self- acceptance.

Blue-Aged Love

Christina Strigas

I search for you like a lost lover of jazz, I find you in the dim as you play a deceiver of love, where love is never free prices to pay at every bank vault. Waiting for musical clouds to form in all the shapes we always talked about. A Read more

Christina Strigas

Christina Strigas is an author and poet, raised by Greek immigrants, who has written four poetry books. Her poetry book LOVE & VODKA was featured by CBC Books in, “Your Ultimate Canadian Poetry List: 68 Poetry Collections Recommended by you.” Her most recent poetry book, LOVE & METAXA, has garnered positive reviews, including Pank Magazine. Strigas’s poems have appeared in Montreal Writes, Feminine Collective, Neon Mariposa Magazine, Pink Plastic House Journal, BlazeVOX, Thimble Lit Magazine, Twist in Time Literary Magazine, The Temz Review, and Coffin Bell Journal, among others. Her poem, “Dead Wife” was nominated for best of the net 2020. In Spring 2022, she will be releasing her fifth poetry book by Free Lines Press, a French indie magazine that publishes experimental poetry. Twitter: @christinastriga Instagram : @c.strigas_sexyasspoet Facebook: Christina Strigas Author