Poetry Archives - Page 6 of 105 - FEMININE COLLECTIVE

Trapped Tears

April 10, 2023April 10, 2023 Judith Staff

It’s back, that distantly familiar swell under my ribs, a bitter sensation, like crying which is desperate to escape. Is it my trapped tears, all alone inside my chest? Or the hollow itself that they inhabit, which hurts? The aching makes me inhale, throbbing intensifies. Perhaps because my sorrow is Read more

Judith Staff

Judith Staff’s background is in teaching and early years education. She still teaches occasionally, though now her main focus is in child welfare and safeguarding children. Her work includes delivering training, presenting at conferences, and engaging in collaborative projects with schools around child abuse awareness and sexual violence prevention. She enjoys writing blogs and poetry on topics she feels passionate about. Judith loves running, gym classes and karate. She is married to an art lecturer and they live in Northamptonshire, England with their three free-spirited children, a 12- year-old son, and daughters aged 11 and 9.

Night Shift

March 5, 2023March 6, 2023 Lara M. Lawrence

My hands come together prayerful around the whistling hot cupful to wait to sip scorchless to feel its breath grow cool degree by half degree across my lip— A vigil I cannot keep. All day I touch my raw tongue to the back of my teeth. Again, broadside in the Read more

Lara M. Lawrence

An ardent student and teacher of literature for almost 30 years, Lara is venturing into her own writing endeavors.

Richard’s Mummy

February 6, 2023February 6, 2023 Judith Staff

Richard isn’t at school today. He wasn’t there yesterday, either. When I get home, my mother seems sad. She crouches, looking into my eyes with hers. “Richard’s Mummy is – “ My mother has tears now. I don’t ask her why, I wait. I feel uncomfortable. “Richard hasn’t got a Read more

Judith Staff

Midnight’s Talking Lion and the Wedding Fire

December 12, 2022December 12, 2022 Adam Day

Though god might be called conceptual, not perplexing, but a citizen reader cannot help what is left out, what goes unsaid, yet gestured at, what cannot be known, what might be derived from the fraction offered, and who has redacted what (only blocks) and why not say that the reader Read more

Judging Rights

December 5, 2022December 5, 2022 Judith Staff

Nestling together, blame and judgement let’s talk about that. Were you there? Were you wearing her clothes? You know, the ones she asked him not to pull off? Did you feel her heart accelerating? While her soul wept in fear of what was to come? Were you witness to all Read more

Judith Staff

I Know

November 21, 2022November 20, 2022 Elisabeth Horan

Using the crowbar on me — I am more tired than angry with you — endlessly waiting — I’m aware you don’t love me; the way you love the scarlet lady out your backdoor I’m shaking alone — only the veins in my forehead pulse – applaud my effort — Read more

Elisabeth Horan

Elisabeth Horan is a poet mother student lover of kind people and animals, homesteading in Vermont with her tolerant partner and two young sons. She writes to survive and survives to write - We are all battling something. Let's support each other. Elisabeth enjoys riding horses and caring for her cats, chickens, goats and children (not necessarily in that order). She teaches at River Valley Community College in New Hampshire.

Ghost Knight

November 7, 2022November 7, 2022 Paula R. Hilton

We haven’t spoken for years, yet my wounds are fresh. Your sword’s point, it’s center ridge, the length of its groove, as if a ghost knight buried his blade in my chest. It’s no secret, I once loved you more than the rest, despite your duplicity, your sarcasm disguised as Read more

Paula R. Hilton

Paula R. Hilton explores the immediacy of memory and how our most important relationships define us. Her work has been nominated for Best Small Fictions and has appeared in The Feminine Collective, The Sunlight Press, Writing In A Woman’s Voice, Dear Damsels, The Tulane Review, and elsewhere. Her novel, Little Miss Chaos, was selected as a Best Indie Teen Read by Kirkus, and her first poetry collection, At Any Given Second, received a Kirkus star. She holds an MFA from the University of New Orleans.

sabbatical 2022

November 7, 2022November 10, 2022 Kiki Dranias

the glamor and glaze; the love of the dream and all its on-looking haze it’s still there. but the plays; the twisted and funky things their spirits need(ed) to do and say on behalf of those, watching—themselves acting out on that stage: am I drawing this curtain to fade? perhaps Read more

Kiki Dranias

KIKI DRANIAS is a multi award-winning Hellenic-Canadian poet, playwright, director & producer living in Montreal. Kiki’s debut play GOING UP, an immersive and site-specific theatrical presentation, was performed live for 14 shows in November 2019, on board Elevator #1 at LE 5800 St. Denis, in Montreal. Winning three of the categories, including Outstanding New Text, Outstanding Emerging Playwright & Producer, Outstanding Independent Production, this sold-out inaugural production received in total seven nominations at the 2020 Montreal English Theatre Awards. This playwright’s second theatrical work WHERE IS ANTON is a 40-minute piece that Kiki wrote, produced and also directed. The show was performed live at the 30th Montreal Fringe Festival in June 2021, for six sold-out shows at MainLine Theatre. With primary support from Canada Council for the Arts, Kiki wrote and produced her third play THE LOVE TRIAL, a 75-minute modern Greek tragedy. This hybrid type and immersive theatrical presentation was performed live in front of 500 audience members in December 2021, for seven shows at the Masonic Temple Hall in Montreal. As a poet, Kiki has also authored BLOOD IS BLUE, a well-received poetry collection. To showcase her work and the work of others, this woman artist works under the Purple Divine producing and publishing banner.