Elyse Hart
Elyse Hart is a poet and musician from Los Angeles. Her poetry has appeared in The Nervous Breakdown, The Los Angeles Press, Okay Donkey Mag, and others. In 2020, her composition Five Poems of Mirabai for Flute and Soprano won top prize in a competition at the University of North Carolina Greensboro (UNCG). The piece enjoyed two live performances in 2021. You may find more of her work on Instagram @elysehartpoetry and elysehart.com.
The following work is Copyright © 2021, and owned by Elyse Hart and may not be distributed or reprinted in any form whatsoever without written permission from the author.
Blue makes green
The city still alight
and time to spare
I drop a pin
for blue
Find myself by the marina—
sea of masts
lines gently clamoring
tinkling metallic
The sun setting
a cabin glows
an old man sits book in hand,
a man on his boat
Peace stirs my prying—
karmic addition
or capital subtraction
Do friends irk greenly
or sit in grander yachts?
Photos of sloops might fly
by US post
Twilight descends
water calm, air crisp—
a breath of respite,
an op
My phone snaps,
I post filtered
so water looks bluer
Not too blue
a spring blue—
believable blue.
conversation somehow
yelling into a joke
as if on the other end
someone were mending
a broken wink
i know it’s you there,
not a pinpoint of your exactness
but a drink in your meander
and heap of emojis
funneling through
fingers cloak, i want to—
keypad drifting and busted,
receiver picks apart
things which on sunday
sound like monday
i’m bruising, here’s why:
for every serious
there is a dancing man;
for every angst
there is an eggplant;
for every plea
there is a mustache face;
for every sad
there is a party hat;
<3
sunday is not like sunday,
you’re all finger click
and throwaway promises.
Pamela Gemme
Pamela Gemme is a poet, artist, and a child protection social worker for the Department of Children and Families. Pamela has been a social justice advocate and a political activist through-out her life. Pamela is an essential employee. Pamela is the former art editor of the Lily Poetry Review. Pamela is the co-editor of Essential Anthology forthcoming from West VA Borderless Books in 2022. She lives in Massachusetts. She has recent or forthcoming publications in many journals and anthologies. including The American Journal of Poetry, Haiku Journal, The Ghazal Page, The Chicago Quarterly Review, Heliotrope Anthology, J Journal, Eclipse Literary Journal and many others.
The following work is Copyright © 2021, and owned by Pamela Gemme and may not be distributed or reprinted in any form whatsoever without written permission from the author.
haiku
deer arborvitae
this haiku is filled with fear
coywolf cougar bear
