Category: Dating + Relationships

Jazz

Doug Hoekstra

When I got divorced I realized early on that I had to look at What I was gaining as opposed to What I was losing When I did, I found much to consider With all due respect Because this is the nature of the universe A place beyond words Invented Read more

Doug Hoekstra

Doug Hoekstra is a Chicago-bred, Nashville-based writer and musician, educated at DePaul University in the Windy City (B.A.) and Belmont University in the Music City (M.Ed.), whose prose, poetry, and non-fiction have appeared in numerous print and online literary journals. His first set of stories, Bothering the Coffee Drinkers, was published in April 2006 and earned an Independent Publisher Award (IPPY) for Best Short Fiction (Bronze Medal). Ten Seconds In-Between, his latest collection of short stories, was published in June, 2021 on Better than Starbuckspress. Hoekstra has also worked extensively as a singer-songwriter with eight albums of original material on labels released on both sides of the pond, propelling touring throughout the U.S. and Europe, at bookstores, coffeehouses, clubs, libraries, pubs, festivals, radio stations, and castles; solo and with combos in tow. Musical highlights have included Nashville Music Award and Independent Music Award nominations, as well as many groovy happenings. 2021 also brings a new album of music, The Day Deserved. ("A lot of people write songs, Hoekstra writes five minute worlds" - Wired Magazine).

Murmurations Inside and Outside

Kashiana Singh

inside an echo makes home silent murmurations are octopusessed in my veins burn frozen frescos, tattoos into my heart, an unleashed fear smirks en masse, a rogue writhing vermin slithering through my veins into the chambers of my heart, caged outside an autumn in twilight sky shimmers bright extravagant shadows Read more

Kashiana Singh

Kashiana Singh is a management professional by job classification and a work practitioner by personal preference. Kashiana’s TEDx talk was dedicated to Work as Worship. Her poetry collection, Shelling Peanuts and Stringing Words presents her voice as a participant and an observer. She dips into very vulnerable and personal contexts but also explores the shifting tectonic plates of the world around her. She is from India, now lives in Chicago and bridges the miles by regularly etching her thoughts. She is a regular contributor to different poetry platforms like OnMogul, Literary Yard, Best Poems, Narrow Mag, Modern Literature, SikhNet, Women’s Web, Tuck Magazine, Spillwords, Visual Verse. She is in the process of gathering her second collection of poems. Facebook: KashianaSinghAuthor/facebook Twitter: @Kashianasingh

not seeing eye to eye

Anne Leigh Parrish

i call you fake crazy because you’re saner than i you call me crazy fake on account of my lies you want to be wild, unleashed, out of bounds i want my words to bring you around your distance puts me right at the edge i’ve grown too used 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.

The Pain of My Sister’s Murder Gets Me Up in the Morning

Kim Sisto Robinson

The day he shot my sister, it was like any other day. Gold sun, warm breezes, and aqua air. It was perfect until it wasn’t perfect. The skies didn’t darken until 5:15 PM. This is when he pulled the trigger. This is when he changed our lives. Bang. Bang. Bang. Read more

Kim Sisto Robinson

Kim Sisto Robinson is a mother, lover, poet, writer, educator, obsessive blogger, lover of cats, cheese puffs, chocolate chips cookies, Sylvia Plath, addicted to books, women’s stories, walking with audio books ( Lolita was off the charts!), and powerful, transformative words. Her work has appeared in Scary Mommy, Bella On Line, Glass Woman, Migrations, Rebelle Society, and Feminine Collective. She created her blog, My Inner Chick, to honor her sister, Kay, whom was murdered by her estranged husband in 2010. Her mission is to give “Voice” to all women without one. She was honored the "Men As Peacemaker's Award" in 2015 for her work with domestic violence.

Absent neighbors

Kashiana Singh

Last night, I became a taboo woman, tantric veins breaking into unencumbered branches of witched trees that fell, nearly fell. They hung in limp moaning slumber, fulfilled after the thunder had hit them like an orgasm last night. The bird feeder, still quivered beneath, on a rusted hook. Inside its Read more

Kashiana Singh

Kashiana Singh is a management professional by job classification and a work practitioner by personal preference. Kashiana’s TEDx talk was dedicated to Work as Worship. Her poetry collection, Shelling Peanuts and Stringing Words presents her voice as a participant and an observer. She dips into very vulnerable and personal contexts but also explores the shifting tectonic plates of the world around her. She is from India, now lives in Chicago and bridges the miles by regularly etching her thoughts. She is a regular contributor to different poetry platforms like OnMogul, Literary Yard, Best Poems, Narrow Mag, Modern Literature, SikhNet, Women’s Web, Tuck Magazine, Spillwords, Visual Verse. She is in the process of gathering her second collection of poems. Facebook: KashianaSinghAuthor/facebook Twitter: @Kashianasingh

Re-Origin

Tia Fishler

you spat me out at the very top of the tornado where sky meets dust just high it was blurry-dizzying, nauseating most mornings chewing-gum- pin-balling between being wrong and being wronger, I know I was never wrongest I slithered, spiraled down that treacherous hole, it felt like years and honestly Read more

Tia Fishler

Tia Fishler has recently graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English with a Concentration of Poetry, with Honors, from Hobart and William Smith Colleges. She has lived in Poughkeepsie, New York, for her entire life. Through Hobart and William Smith Colleges, she has been the winner of multiple awards, such as the Deborah Tall Prize in Poetry/Creative Nonfiction in English and Comparative Literature. Her poetry emphasizes the use of sound in language as a way to illustrate the personal tangibility of feminine rage as a result of relationship abuse. These themes are also brought to life through 'challenged forms', which aim to create feminine narratives from historically patriarchal forms such as sonnets, screenplays, and indexes. Tia hopes to become a voice for those who have undergone relationship abuse.

Black Hole Witch

Megan Coleman

I’m a bad bitch, stay low to the ground witch, made of ground stone and bone motherfucker, bleed snake skin and vermouth.   I was born under a watching eye: teeth, moon, armless spiders are my kin.   See me sizzle against your skin, erase time from our coordinates, etch Read more

Megan Coleman

Megan Coleman has been writing from the womb and is an emerging poet in Chattanooga, TN. Five of her poems appear in Elephant Journal (2017), and she is featured in Ordinary Madness Magazine (2017), Vocal Magazine (2017), finalist in the Fortnight Eyewear contest (2017), Visera (2012), and the winner in poetry in Chattanooga Writer's Guild contests in 2003 and 2004. She has given readings at Barking Legs and Mudpie Cafe in Chattanooga. She also has a B.A. in Women's Studies.