By Douglas Young      “Wisteria Falls Hideaway Inn – let’s make your vacation a big win.” Marigold McTaft answered the phone behind the front desk, moving from side to side in her swivel high chair and grinning at Furman Chase,…

By: Carl “Papa” Palmer Clocks leapt forward urging us to step forwardfrom daily gray days of endless days upon daysunder dark, dank, drooping fir trees dripping upon dormant shrubs, slumber slumped bushes,potted plants playing dead, barren bedding beds,all reset to…

By Douglas Young You don’t love because: you love despite; not for the virtues, but despite the faults.–William Faulkner.        It is breathtaking how much phenomenal music Jimi Hendrix squeezed into a recording career of not even four years. In…

By: Bruce Levine StriationsGradationsFilling the atmosphereIn stillness PinkMixed withWhite and grayTo almost holiness Fallacy of fateLanguishThe unknowingWith helplessness Testing the tidePressing forwardThrough fearOf loneliness Watching the idleWither without them knowingThrough vacantWastefulness As the nouveau richeLuxuriateIn ostentatiousLavishness And society’sDouble meaningThe self-inflicted…

By: Frances Leitch Spring In The Air In thinkingof that warm breezeFelt after burrowing throughthe long, white winterIn thinkingof delight and easeA smile crossedthe rutted roadAnd time stoppedHeld me thereIn a moment’s joySpring in the air Wildflowers The flowers that…

By Susmita Mukherjee Every night at ten past ten, the milk was warmed. Not boiled, not allowed to skin, just warm enough to hold between the palms without flinching. Minati had perfected this temperature over decades, long before thermometers or…

By: Rosko Iliev Tzolov Andrey often dreamed of flying. He would stand on the ground, spread his arms, and take off. Other people longed to dream of flying, but he had the same dream again and again. He worked as…

By James Aitchison Think today’s bestsellers, and the usual suspects spring to mind: J. K. Rowling, Danielle Steel, Lee Child, Stephen King, John Grisham, David Baldacci and James Patterson.  And while their sales achievements make headlines, some less familiar names…

By: Harrison Cashmere The Red Dust of April You arrive like a held breath against the Zabarwan,row upon row of silk cups catching the mountain sun.But spring in the valley is a thief;you offer your throat to the breeze,knowing the…

By James Aitchison Alone Retreat fearlessly into yourself.Let solitude be your close companion.Let no shadow fill your footsteps.Feel the slowed soul possess asharper perspective.The Voice that waits for all menwill speak in the silence andyou will be eternally tranquil.Free of…