Ruth Holzer

Mandarin class

how to say

feeling faint

—Ruth Holzer

Our Nominations for The Red Moon Anthology (2024)

(December)

fleeting sweetness of the world baklava

Ruth Holzer

(November)

thumb, forefinger

disentangling

the leaves

Jerome Berglund

(October)

eating the last piece

of bread in the world

nuclear toast

Stephen Jarrell Williams

(September)

orange crush

the long line to buy

MAGA hats

Adele Evershed

(August)

cold tea my life wasted on work

Timothy Daly

(July)

in the night

croaks from the old pond

all alike

Keith Evetts

(June)

an old man

gazing up to heaven

wondering when

Stephen Jarrell Williams

Major congratulations to these talented poets.

Ruth Holzer

out the back door

in the dead of night

they'll roll me

quickly and quietly

so no one will notice

Ruth Holzer

fleeting sweetness of the world baklava

Ruth Holzer

an ant with a message I move out of the way

Ruth Holzer

Touchstone Award Nominations (January through April 2024)

Announcing the Touchstone Award nominations from CMJ:

traffic slows

I move the dead rabbit

to safety

Tom Clausen

if peace

were a sound

snow angels

C.X. Turner

my inner bear

begins to hibernate

cold moon

Alfred Booth

a leafless tree

raises arms to the sky

praying for peace

Neena Singh

grunting

I try not to be an animal

but I am

Tony Williams

it could be winter or it could be worse

Robert Epstein

periodic table

the stars that flow

through us

Eugeniusz Zacharski

power outage

learning the shapes

of familiar things

Helen Ogden

his first recital

a round of applause

for all the pink

Barrie Levine

claiming the American dream an American gun

Susan Yavaniski

windstorm

reading a letter

not meant for me

Ruth Holzer

Ruth Holzer

 

reaching

through the chain-link fence

one white iris

Ruth Holzer

at the end

of the familiar journey

this time

I won't find mom or dad

or anyone I know

Ruth Holzer

Ruth Holzer

only after

you switch the light off

in the hall

and the last plane of the night

descends, can I fall asleep

Ruth Holzer

windstorm

reading a letter

not meant for me


Ruth Holzer

Ruth Holzer

the life

of a wanderer

brief chaos

of white dust and starlight—

surviving by chance

Ruth Holzer

*

flocking

around my candle

All Souls

Ruth Holzer

Ruth Holzer

I'm still

traveling this

open road

hard to imagine it

running out

Ruth Holzer

Ruth Holzer

waking

from a dream of love

I'm grateful

for imagination

in place of memory

Ruth Holzer

Ruth Holzer

the day

I moved into

my starter house

little did I know

that would be it

Ruth Holzer

Ruth Holzer

our footsteps

clattering on the stone bridge

together

in unwelcome dawn

we go our separate ways

Ruth Holzer

Ruth Holzer

interrupting tai chi to do something less important

Ruth Holzer

Ruth Holzer

white peony

on the window sill

red ants

Ruth Holzer

Ruth Holzer

dropping like flies...

all the film stars

I had crushes on

Ruth Holzer

Ruth Holzer

Days of Awe—

praying for a kind stranger

or angel

to place pebbles

on the family graves

Ruth Holzer