Every Day Poems

A Poem A Day

Nature Poems

Gazing at the Rain from My Window by Shirani Rajapakse

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Gazing at the Rain from My Window by Shirani Rajapakse

Gazing at the Rain from My Window

by Shirani Rajapakse

Words gush out of my brain
like the rain these past few days.
I’m tired of both,
the words and the rain.

I can’t control either.

The words I can’t still.
They scream to get out and will stop
only when dropped
in black and white.

I’m tired of scribbling day in day out.
They don’t let me sleep, but call in my dreams
to write them down.

Who are these
words that want to be heard?

Are they remnants of past lives?

Why does the
rain fall so hard so long?

 

Shirani Rajapakse writes poetry and short stories. She’s the author of five books including Gods, Nukes and a whole lot of Nonsense – winner of the 2022 State Literary Awards, Sri Lanka; I Exist. Therefore I Am – winner of the 2019 State Literary Awards, Sri Lanka, shortlisted for the 2019 Rubery Book Awards, UK; and Chant of a Million Women – winner of the 2018 Kindle Book Awards, USA, Official Selection in the 2018 New Apple Summer eBook Awards for Excellence in Independent Publishing, USA & Honorable Mention in the 2018 Reader’s Favorite Awards, USA. Rajapakse’s work was highly commended for the 2022 erbacce-prize for poetry, UK. She also won the 2013 Cha “Betrayal” Poetry Contest, Hong Kong and was a finalist in the 2013 Anna Davidson Rosenberg Poetry Awards, USA. Rajapakse’s work appears in many journals and anthologies including Dove Tales, Buddhist Poetry, Litro, Berfrois, Flash Fiction International, Voices Israel, About Place, Mascara, Counterpunch, Silver Birch, International Times, New Verse News, Cultural Weekly, The Write-In, Harbinger Asylum and more. Her work has been translated into Farsi, Spanish, French and Chinese. Rajapakse read for a BA in English Literature from the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka and has a MA in International Relations from JNU, India. If you would like more from Shirani Rajapakse please visit her site or check out her books.

Late Spring On The Potomac River Near Hancock, Maryland by Robert Halleck

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Late Spring On The Potomac River Near Hancock, Maryland

by Robert Halleck

Cold water numbs legs
putting canoes into the
river. Partially leafed trees
cover the recent remains
of floods: a Styrofoam cooler,
bottles, a one armed shirt.
Leaning back, paddling down-
stream is easy. Small Bass
fooled by lures are released
to someday be fooled for the
last time. The current and
white water will shrink in summer
heat to expose sentinel rocks
leaking their gift of salt to
a downstream sea.

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Robert Halleck has been writing poetry since 1958. His recent work has appeared in the San Diego Poetry Annual, Chiron, Third Wednesday, The Peeking Cat Review, and Main Street Rag. He is a member of San Diego’s Not Dead Yet Poets and hopes to remain so for a long time. For a number of years he has attended the Kenyon Review’s Summer Workshop.

Crossing the Brightman Street Bridge by Cynthia Elder

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Crossing the Brightman Street Bridge

by Cynthia Elder

Dropping down,
a honey bright ball
ready to bounce,
the sun,
as I drove toward cirrus clouds
dripping in neon,
reminded me of those
who’d been blinded as they walked
a rough-hewn road,
doubting God.

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Cynthia Elder lives on the edge of Hundred Acre Cove in Barrington, Rhode Island, with her husband and their increasingly empty nest. Her poems have appeared in The Allegheny Review, Dog River Review, Plainswoman, and elsewhere. She has work forthcoming in Young Ravens Literary Review and Eudaimonia Press Mental Health Anthology. Cynthia has worked in nonprofit social service organizations for 25 years.

The Moon by Natalie Crick

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The Moon

by Natalie Crick

Schools of moths descend,
Pulled in by waves of light when

The fields begin to steam like horses
In the cool

Like the hush of rainfall
After the sun’s marriage to the skies.

From his window, the child can see;
The young moon sulking behind the sun,

Disappearing beneath the moors
With a final sweep of chill.

An actress on stage
Applauded by the throng

One last time,
Only to return again next night

From where it grows to fullness,
A round milky globe
Asking the question:
Who will admire me next?

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Natalie Crick, from Newcastle in the UK, has found delight in writing all of her life and first began writing when she was a very young girl. She graduated from Newcastle University with a degree in English Literature and plan to pursue an MA at Newcastle this year. Her poetry has been published or is forthcoming in a range of journals and magazines including The Lake, Ink Sweat and Tears, Poetry Pacific, Interpreters House and Jet Fuel Review. Her work also features or is forthcoming in a number of anthologies, including Lehigh Valley Vanguard Collections 13. This year her poem, ‘Sunday School’ was nominated for the Pushcart Prize.

Princess by Amanda Little Rose

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Princess

by Amanda Little Rose

 

There is something primal in the way she whispered
winter into the rolling green meadows
that were riddled with legends,
and remnants of the time before

Her eyes lit up the night and sprinkled
starlight into moonbeams like a
seed that grows into the dogwood trees
by the river and beneath
the gods on the mountain,
Or the rolling hills

I am patient and still while
dreams breathe truth into distance
and my sister sings to me;
She is tradition,
she is beauty

Amanda Little Rose is from the small state of Rhode Island (USA). Previously, she served as Executive Editor of The Willow Literary Magazine. She received her Bachelors of Arts and Science in Secondary Education, and English Literature, from Salve Regina University, in 2015. Currently, Amanda works as a high school English teacher, certified Reiki Master, freelance poet and editor.