A Dreadful Hospital Visit Many people have events in their lives that can take a toll on them, where they do not know what to do or they are simply at a loss. Mine was when my best friend Emily was sent to the hospital for emergency surgery and had to stay overnight for two nights. The …
The message of this personal essay by Mellissa serves as a helpful reminder to all of us at the moment: just breathe. Enjoy. Just Breathe In the morning hours, eleven years ago, my world was changed. I thought I was dreaming; I could hear the faint sound of a ringing phone that I could not …
This nonfiction piece of John’s felt heartfelt and open to us in a way that perfectly captured the goal of our last theme, Return of the Roar. We’re about to embark on a new month, and despite the unsteadiness everyone is surely feeling right now, it is a beginning all the same. The hopeful yet …
Seventh Month Heart swells and yet something inside feels like a cobra slithering and biting. A blessing. So why do you have the chills? You’re carrying around a couple of pounds of fatback. Your joints insist on telling you the weight exactly. Now for every licked finger, there’s a gray ghost wavering at the end …
The vivid scenes created in the poems John submitted to us were powerful for all of us to read. We will be sharing a total of two poems from him, the first today and the second tomorrow. We hope you feel just as transported as we did. Enjoy. Circumstance When her son was conceived, the …
Our first work of fiction for your reading pleasure thus far. We enjoyed the humor present in this story’s dialogue sections and in the unique characterization of Bessie. We have a feeling you’ll come to agree. The Hobby Cowboy About three years ago, my wife, Pinky, talked me into moving. I say she talked me …
Ah, Life Ah, says the sighing sage, Life. You have to taste it in the deed, Make time for it by letting go. Screw that, says the cynic, the salesman. You have to have a leg up on the vermin who desert a sinking vessel. You have to do what is best for yourself. …
Here on Earth I said I know you never meant to do the thing you did. He said, I know that, I know that, But as a consequence of my deeds And the boulder I set rolling, a pure good thing is gone from here, And it’ll never return here again. I …
Detour Worms eat the belly and freshen the soil To reconcile, to breed blooming flowers, And call them a masterpiece— This is tramping in God’s garden. Sensible, though it is, to say she has spoken, An echo sublime, a material reflection, The path into her muffles into darkness— Not this way. Not in the brambles. …
This is the first of four poems that we will be sharing from Caleb. We hope you enjoy reading his words over the next few days just as we did during the editing process. Blackberries I turned blackberries from the stem On down the brambled row, Ripe and bulging, Silver in the sun of evening. …