Painting Lessons
By Charan Sue Wollard

You begin with a blank canvas
stark against the chaotic room
smear it sienna, earth brown
like the dust you came from
Rub pigment deep into every crevice

Use cool viridian, warm reds
to define positive and negative space
Work your boar’s-head brush
until its bristles crimp and spike,
load the canvas with color
yellow, violet, cobalt blue –
laden it with high and low tones
make it heavy with color

so that it strains
under the weight of color
Smear its dusty surface
with tears, sweat, milk, mucus, slimy kisses
let it crawl on its belly
with creatures of the earth  

From the depths of a blank canvas
where shade and hue signify form
Behold your image emerge
in its own time
your likeness breathe beyond form and line
See how it shakes loose ripe fruit
from the uppermost branches
and walks with fire.

(From In My Other Life: Poems and Paintings, © 2009, Richer Resources Publications)

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Haiku
By Sherry Weaver Smith

a flower
a thought left
in a cold raindrop

thumbprint—
her teddy bear with her
in every photo

sidewalk flowers—
a small slate where she writes
wishes

the meadow way lost,
petals falling from the vase
of cornflowers

play cottage—
looking for the key
amongst white roses

cinderblock—
a girl’s house
for salvaged dolls

(From Land Shapes: Selected Haiku Poems, © 2011, Richer Resources Publications)

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To a Lightning Bug in the Kitchen Sink
By Sally Zakariya

Last night I saw you
or maybe it was your cousin
flickering at the window
lured perhaps by the hall light
humbled by the sight
of so strong a beam

Did you come inside
when we called the cats
drawn by the impossible brilliance
of that incandescent bulb?

And did you fly hopelessly
through the darkened house
seeking transcendence
while we slept unaware?

This morning I found you
stunned in the kitchen sink
backtracking your way around
a water drop the size of the sea
having learned late
the way we all do
the futility of wanting too much

(from Arithmetic and other verses from late in life, © 2011, Richer Resources Publications)

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I Am
By Kevin Taylor

I am the fulcrum
the base
and the lever

I am the space
and the form
and the game

I am the maker
the vessel
the dreamer
the teller
the namer
the cymbal
un-named

I am the vision
the vista
the seer

I am the lintel
the door and the
frame

I am the lock
the key
and the knocker
the handle
the pause
and the knocker again

I am the palm
and the fist
and the shoulder

I am the sole
and the road
and the stride 

I am the zephyr
the still
and the echo
I am the reason
the song and the rhyme

(from Between Music and Dance, © 2012, Richer Resources Publications)