Phantom Heart

Lover your name is true. I see you beyond what has been ingrained honeyed words drip from your lips, drop into my dreams. Beat on for me, I can hear you in my heart. Sigh deeply suck me in. Spin a web of wishes around the sincere fantasy. Exhale the 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.

My Lover Does Not Deserve Black

I wear scarlet to his funeral, a beautiful floor-length affair with sleeves that flick the air like flames, a splash of red electricity. I swirl with the bagpipe’s skirls. Sounds hunchbacked and keening, drench the mourners crushed in black, mute and dark eyed. I am the solitary scarlet bell. My Read more

Elizabeth Kirkpatrick Vrenios

Elizabeth Kirkpatrick Vrenios’ poetry has appeared in Clementine, Silver Birch Press, Kentucky Review, Bethlehem Writers Roundtable and Silkworm, in forthcoming issues of Edison Literary Review, Crack the Spine, Poeming Pidgeon and Unsplendid. She co-wrote the book Party Line under the name Elizabeth Kirkpatrick. She has studied with Judith Harris, Gloria Boyer, Hailey Leithauser, Sue Ellen Thompson and Alexandra Van de Kamp. Elizabeth is a professor emerita from American University in Washington DC, having chaired the vocal and music departments. Vrenios’ solo recitals throughout the United States, South America, Scandinavia, Japan and Europe have been acclaimed, and as the artistic director of the Redwoods Opera Workshop in Mendocino, California, and the Crittenden Opera Workshop in Washington D.C. and Boston, she has influenced and trained students across the country. She is a member of the international Who’s Who of Musicians, and is the past National President of the National Opera Association.

To Kiss a Married Man

it would be because he was a player a rake, and we both knew we were shooting hell blinded by the way night rolls he would take his jacket off his hands on my shoulders and then my hips, and he would smell like cognac and sweet tobacco, his eyelashes Read more

Sandy Coomer

Sandy Coomer is a poet, mixed media artist, and endurance athlete from Nashville, TN. Her poetry has most recently been published or is forthcoming in Red River Review, Clementine Poetry Journal, and Hypertrophic Literary Magazine, among others. She is the author of two poetry collections: Continuum, published by Finishing Line Press, and The Presence of Absence, which won the 2014 Janice Keck Literary Award for Poetry. Sandy's artwork has been on exhibit in middle Tennessee galleries, community centers, and libraries. An avid lover of endurance sports, Sandy trains and races year-round in the sport of triathlon, including Ironman and Half Ironman events.

The Artist

You say you don’t know how you feel How admirable your resolve Ambiguity adds to your appeal Infatuation without getting involved Their pretty faces individually believe Your heart belongs to only she With smiles and flowers you deceive Playing selfish games with insecurity Without romancing me, you charmed me In Read more

Erin Righetti

Erin Righetti is a professional writer across multiple media channels. She has over 20 years experience as a freelance writer/reporter, and has been a contributor to newspapers and online magazines and blogs. Erin works as a public relations and social media strategist in Carlsbad, California.

An Abyss

The blood in my veins holds him like that last drop of wine you will never taste again. … For his illness seeped into an abyss that I will never see how it all began circling spiraling signaling all my weakness for love unbridled untitled separate & together melding into Read more

Margret Avery

Margret Avery expresses her talents through being a singer / songwriter / actor / writer and poet. She has also worked as a freelance makeup artist with her work gracing the pages of many editorial and commercial publications. The passion to express through song led to her writing and continues to grow with equal tenacity. Margret has contributed as a writer to Suite101, Women’s Voices for Change and now proudly for Feminine Collective. Margret’s writing is included in Feminine Collective: Raw and Unfiltered Vol 1 and that makes her smile on a daily basis. Her music can be heard on Spotify, Pandora, CDbaby, Soundcloud, Reverbnation and NumberoneMusic.

First Try

Vague, repetitious, harrowing flashbacks – And wondering if it’ll ever happen again. Why not? If it did before and then again, Even in the mean times and always in the ever after? Realizing and Rationalizing – Roller coasters on a roof top during an External Blizzard Internal Blizzard And a Read more

Love Hurts So Good

When my partner, William, accepted a six-month consulting job in Boston, I was thrilled for him. What a great opportunity, overseeing the launch of a brand new division for a highly successful company. William had just left his full-time job and was searching for something new, challenging, and positive. I Read more

Andrea Clemens

Andrea Clemens received her master’s degree from Boston University in clinical social work and has been educating school faculty, students, administrators, parenting groups, mentors, and the general public about educator sexual misconduct for over ten years. She has participated in both local and national television shows, including the Montel Williams Show and Fox News Live. Andrea is a key member of the speaker’s bureau for S.E.S.A.M.E., a national organization dedicated to preventing sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment of students by teachers and school staff. She is also an instructor with the non-profit organization, KidSafe Foundation, whose mission is to prevent child sexual abuse, bullying and internet dangers by providing education programs to children, seminars to parents, workshops to teachers and counselors and trainings to all professionals working with children. Andrea continues to invest time and energy ensuring schools can be safe environments for our children – free from harassment and abuse.

6 Ways to Release the Tiny Dancer Inside of You

I was at the grocery store the other day and a mom and her daughter were in front of me. The daughter was about four and having the best time pretending to be a ballerina in the aisle. I stood and watched as she danced with glee, enjoying the music Read more

SA Smith

SA Smith has always loved the magical life. She is the bestselling Amazon author of FOREVER, her four part young adult paranormal romance series. She is an advocate for women of all shapes and sizes. Believing that we are all enough just as we are, and needing to spread that word far and wide. Having been diagnosed with CRPS over 12 years ago, SA also uses her writing to increase social awareness of the disease. Writing is her passion. She often tells friends that writing is a journey for her. It’s like spending time with friends. "I just follow my characters along on their adventures, like a fly on the wall, and see where they take me." SA currently lives in Florida with her best friend/husband and their one son.