Issue 35

Courtney Glover is originally from Fulton County, Georgia. She is a writer, published author, editor and amateur photographer. She is the editor of all three of the Sacred Feminine anthologies, as well as the various Open Skies Poetry anthologies including Somewhere Down The Yellow Brick Road. She’s also the editor of Pearls of Poetry and Part of My Life: A Collection of Poetry. Her work has been included in the following anthologies: The Sacred Feminine volumes 1-3, Shards,

Joe Couture is a writer living in rural Nova Scotia. He writes for his health. If you want to connect with him, try here: @ rjcouture.bsky.social Home for the Holidays Her tiny hometown keeps getting smaller Blame rural brain-drain beer, God, outmigration. Leaving folks who know lingering with answers to Life’s greatest questions. So, you can imagine their confusion— A recurring occurrence To the one question that lingers in the absence of her visits: Why won’t she come home

Leonie Jarrett lives in Melbourne, Australia with her Husband of more than 3 decades, 2 of her 4 adult children and her 2 Golden Retrievers. She is also a very proud Grandma to baby Vienna! Leonie has just published her first book, a child’s first reader called “When Harry Got Lost.” My Odyssey “How do I get on that?” “Don’t worry, be happy,” says the guide. “Just relax, keep your arms straight and lean back.” I am petrified. My palms are sweating so much that I fear they wil

I was born in Clones Co. Monaghan in 1962. At 19 years old I joined DUNNES STORES as a management trainee in Dublin and five years later I ended up in Belfast as a Branch Manager where I met my wife Carole Robinson from Portrush, where we now live. I worked in most areas east of Northern Ireland  and as an adult student I achieved an MSc in management change communication from Queen’s University in 2001. I have ran 10 marathons and I have a passion for Darts. I have three gro

Connie Johnson is a California-based writer with four Pushcart Prize nominations for poetry. Her publishing credits include The Iconoclast, Haight-Ashbury Literary Journal, San Pedro River Review, Cholla Needles, The Muleskinner Journal, Sophon Lit, Voicemail Poems, Toasted Cheese Literary Journal, Mudfish, Shot Glass Journal, Gargoyle, Oddball Magazine, Glint Literary Journal, Exit 13, Sport Literate, and Sheila-Na-Gig.  She has authored two poetry collections:  Everything i

Elaine is a native of Athens, Georgia, USA, and is a graduate of The University of Georgia with an Honors degree in Journalism. She served as Project Manager on the debut edition of Literary Imagination, The Review of Literary Scholars and Critics. In addition to short stories, Elaine writes poetry and is currently finishing her first novel. Pure Hearts She pulled her black Volvo SUV into the angled space outside the quant French American restaurant in her small suburban town

Haz Joyce is an Englishman living in rural County Down. His writing explores our fragility and fallibility, but also how we manage to muddle through life all the same. Haz is a musician and folk singer, and is drawn to songs with similar themes. Haz’s studies have taken him to Cambridge and the South-West, whilst his work in the legal profession has taken him to London, Belfast and Dublin.  Note This is how my mum tells it. I don’t think it’s how it happened. You’ll never gue

Mark Tarren is a poet who lives on remote Norfolk Island in the South Pacific. His work has been published in literary journals and magazines in New York, Los Angeles, Dublin, the UK, Indonesia and Europe. Referred to in Italy as “la voce dei Mari del Sud” (“The voice of the South Seas”), Mark’s poems have been translated into Italian and published in Critica Impura, L’Atrove, Pangea and Puntoacapo. A Pushcart Prize nominee, he is currently a member of the judging panel for

Tony Dawson, an Englishman living in Seville since 1989, took up writing during the pandemic. He has published widely in the USA, UK, Canada and Australia. He has also published three small collections of poetry: Afterthoughts ISBN 9788119 228348, reviewed: https://londongrip.co.uk/2023/06/london-grip-poetry-review-tony-dawson/ Musings reviewed: https://londongrip.co.uk/2023/12/london-grip-poetry-review-tony-dawson-2/  and Reflections in a Dirty Mirror reviewed: https://lo

While the World Burns I apply face cream as the world splits open. Soft circles under my eyes while a siren slices through a continent. The jar clicks shut as a mother searches for her son beneath rubble and skyfall. I whisper goodnight while someone wails into silence. In my kitchen, the kettle clicks off. Somewhere else, a breath gives up mid-prayer. What do we do with all this ordinary? The cat still needs feeding, the bins still go out on Fridays, and beauty still climbs

Philip Dunkerley is an active member of open mic communities in the South Lincolnshire area. The former representative of the Stamford Stanza, he runs a U3A Poetry Group in Bourne, where he lives. His poems have been published in impspired , Poetry Salzburg Review , Acumen , Magma , Orbis  and elsewhere, and his translations of poems from Portuguese and Spanish, and poetry reviews, have appeared in Dream Catcher , Acumen  and Orbis . Improbably, he recently became the ‘Good S

Jacob Thomas Roper is a new filmmaker and writer from the Norfolk broads. He graduated from Norwich University of the arts with a degree in film and has since continued making films and writing as a passion and for the love of art and its importance in life.  Mud Island East of the river Yare near a secluded body of water on the Norfolk broads under monochrome skies, the third-generation boat of the Ashworth family slept on the water while its sole helmsman Victor Ashworth wr

Gary Beck has spent most of his adult life as a theater director and worked as an art dealer when he couldn't earn a living in the theater. He has also been a tennis pro, ditch digger and salvage diver. His original plays and translations of Moliere, Aristophanes and Sophocles have been produced Off Broadway. His poetry, fiction, essays and plays have appeared in hundreds of literary magazines. His traditionally published books include 45 poetry collections, 18 novels, 4 shor

JoyAnne O'Donnell is a poet currently writing from Maryland. JoyAnne O'Donnell is an authorette of five poetry books on Goodreads and Amazon. Three chapbooks of poetry published to, one in Scars Publications titled "Sun and Rain, two chapbooks of poetry from The Origami Poets. JoyAnne's latest poems are in Pentacat Press and Ultramarine Review,The Galway Review. Twice Pushcart nominated poet. Dragonfly I often wonder And ponder, Do dragonflies fly From dragon blood, They stit

Nolo Segundo is the pen name of retired teacher [America, Japan, Taiwan, Cambodia] L.j. Carber, who became a published poet in his 8 th  decade in over 260 literary journals in 21 countries on 4 continents, and was nominated for the Pushcart Prize, thrice for Best of the Net. Cyberwit.net has published 3 collections in softcover: THE ENORMITY OF EXISTENCE; OF ETHER AND EARTH; and SOUL SONGS. These titles reflect an awareness gained over 50 years ago when he had an NDE whilst

Amir Zadneamat is an essayist and film critic from Iran. His work explores the intersections of cinema, philosophy, and the emotional textures of modern life, often moving between analytical reflection and a more lyrical mode of expression. He holds an M.A. in Persian Literature from the University of Guilan, and his interests include narrative form, cultural criticism, and the philosophical dimensions of storytelling. The Final Miracle: The Secular Sainthood of Fellini’s Cab

I'm Dylan Ng, a final year university student. Contact me at ndylang@gmail.com A Morning Like Any Other I woke up that morning, crying. Not tears, mind you. Never tears. But my lungs were heaving, my eyes were stingray wet, and I was full of snot, nose to throat to the churning in my stomach. What had changed, to put me in such a state? It was hard to say. The morning was like any other. The view outside my window was still that of the leisure centre car park, with the same

John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident, recently published in Shift, River And South and Flights. Latest books, “Bittersweet”, “Subject Matters” and “Between Two Fires” are available through Amazon. Work upcoming in Levitate, Writer’s Block and Trampoline. FROM THE HEIGHTS OF POETRY TO THE LOWS OF REALITY From a mountaintop,  I bring you flowers, buffeted and swirled, fueled with the passion  of the heights, so put them in water, here in the low country, cool the sweat

Paul Tristram is a Welsh writer who has poems, short stories and flash fiction in many publications around the world. He yearns to tattoo porcelain bridesmaids instead of digging empty graves for innocence at midnight; this too may pass, yet. His novel “Crazy Like Emotion”, collection of shorter fiction “Kicking Back Drunk ‘Round The Candletree Graves”, full-length poetry collections “The Dark Side Of British Poetry”, "It Is Big & It Is Clever", “South Wales Outlaw” and “Unci

Dan Holt is a singer/songwriter/recording artist, poet and fiction author from a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. He has produced 11 albums of original music along with various singles and eps. His poetry has been published widely in the online and print small press and he is the author of "Blank Canvas On Bloody Pavement" and "Motel" (both from Alien Buddha press and available on Amazon). He was a Pushcart Prize nominee in 2021. Death Wish He once rode a motorc