By: Paweł Markiewicz It’s a late and warm autumn.The wind gathered leaves up on the roofof the marvelous tavern.The seagulls heralded a memory – an initiation.The old pensioner-captain drank the intoxicant,like the ambrosia of the life.The female pirate Mary mentionedher…

By: Jim Bates Winter’s frigid songCold wind howling through bare treesWindswept melody. Clear cold winter nightDome of stars bright and immenseStarlight streaming bliss. Out comet huntingSaw instead a soft sunsetMagic in the sky. Winter afternoonSunlight hanging suspendedAlmost whispering.

By: Bruce Levine Christmas festivalsYuletide games and mistletoeEggnog and rum punch Christmas sights and soundsOrnaments hung on a treeLaughter in the air Christmas tree lightingsGatherings in the town squaresStores and streets festooned Riding through the snowSleighs festooned with Christmas bellsTinsel…

By: James Aitchison (A reflection on the Bondi Massacre,Sydney, 14 December 2025) It waits outside your door.Let hate in and it spreads itstendrils, reaching intoevery word you speak,into every thought you have.Like a snake, hate spreadsits venom with skill,striking down…

By: Don Tassone Andrea sat propped up in her bed, looked around her room and wondered where she was.  Nothing looked familiar.  She felt lost.      But then her eyes lit up.      “I see it!” she cried.      “What’s…

By: Benjamin Thorne In Silence (Quaker Worship) In the silence of the Meeting,a settled stillness falls;push aside the sounds of shifts in seating;heed your leading when it calls.Sink into that deeper feelingof solitude and unity,thresh over those thoughts wheelingthat threaten…

By: James Aitchison (Cimetière du Père Lachaise) Come climb the hills and wander throughthis labyrinth of death. Alleyways of tombs,forbidding mausoleums, tenements of the dead,Molière, Gertrude Stein, graves nudging graves,Chopin, Bizet, Edith Piaf, wedged like sardines,the poplars reaching the sky…

By: William Kitcher And then I saw myself in the future. I looked ninety or a hundred or eighty, who can tell? Once you’re past a certain age, you’re old, and that never changes. One son visited me every Father’s…

By Mark D. Walker Part of the Yin & Yang of Travel Series How and why my wife Ligia and I travel has changed radically over the last fifty years. From day trips around Guatemala with Ligia’s parents, to packing…

By: Jim Bates After the snowstormWinter’s soft gentle beauty…Snow on evergreens. At the skating rinkHappy folks spin and swirlA winter ballet. Sunlit snow fallingTiny flakes frosting the groundSparkling and gleaming. Clear crisp winter nightCrescent moon shining brightlyStars igniting dreams.