Stanzaic Stylings

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year From Stanzaic Stylings

Sabrina, Photo by Gary Hoshiyama Sabrina, Photo by Gary Hoshiyama Me and Sabrina @ The Culver Club in Culver City, CA Photo by Gary Hoshiyama Snow Goddess For Sabrina Her eyes reflect the Sun’s kiss as she walks upon water. Her wisdom traced on paw print sands as she softly treads along the shore. She dreams of snow-laden earth while paws frolic upon icy sea foam. Sabrina, goddess of snow spreads warmth melts hearts on Winter’s playground with love… joanneolivieri.weebly.com mypoeticjourney.weebly.com

Courageous Woman By Desiree Cady I don't know how you do it How you keep faking your beautiful smile When I know the pain you've known Keeps you walking those extra miles You say that faith gets you through You owe it to your prayers I look at you in disbelief I can't help but to stop and stare You possess a strength inside you Precious and unique You say what needs to be said When others are too frightened to speak You hold within you a power So unbelievably strong You say what is on your mind Even when you know it may be wrong You stand up tall, You stand and fight Through so many of your demons So many others would lie down and fail For so many different reasons Do me a favor for just this once Take a hard look inside of you There is such tremendous bravery In everything you do. ©2016 Bio I am a 33 year old mother of two beautiful girls who have been my saving grace. After a brutal attack a few years ago, I have been plagued by PTSD. After the attack and a few s...

DINNER IS SERVED I'll eat you raw... I'll sip you dry... I'll stew your insides... While I snack on your cries... I'll garnish your tenders... I'll season your loins... I'll dress your openings... Sell your rarities for coin... I'll bask you in sauces... I'll drench you in wines... I'll sauté your flesh... Leave no scraps behind... I'll seat you front and center... Watch you get what you deserve... I'll lift my glass in merriment... Alas, dinner is served ©Crystal Price ©Crystal Cunha ©2015 Bio:  Name: Crystal Price Age: 34 Residence: Fresno, CA I started writing poetry as a preteen living in the foster care system. Poetry was the oxygen that kept me from becoming an emotional vegetable. Poetry me & I it. Poetry is my life support, and my survival has, & always will depends on it.

PLAYPEN OF PIGS They drug me raw... While you lamed me... No birdies... Just black... Spats of disapproval... Limbs have no value here... Teasing me with end's prospect... Stuffing my listeners with wet oink... Bleek for the hopeful... Some asphalt, some sand... Meek for the naive... Not abuse, just men being men... In the eyes of passerbys... Fear dances a jig... A hooved dedication... In the playpen of pigs ©Crystal Cunha ©Crystal Price ©2015 Bio:  Name: Crystal Price Age: 34 Residence: Fresno, CA I started writing poetry as a preteen living in the foster care system. Poetry was the oxygen that kept me from becoming an emotional vegetable. Poetry me & I it. Poetry is my life support, and my survival has, & always will depends on it.

It All Comes Down To You by, Melissa R. Mendelson Swallow me down, so I can return back into the womb, where evil can’t penetrate the fabric of time as I lie safe inside of you. Bring me inside, so my body becomes yours. And we can become one as well as untouchable for love is stronger than hate. Enter my mind, and stay with me for dark times lie ahead, where nobody can survive alone. Seal me in to those memories you carry, so I’ll always be remembered as well as the times we’ve shared. Take me back from the arms of depression and put hope into my heart as I look deep into your eyes while your arms are wrapped around me to protect me from harm. Carry me off into the sweetest dream, where I can be happy and sleep peacefully. Fill me up because my fear has drained me, and I have no energy to stand. Take my hand and pull me back up because I feel like I am falling down this huge, dark hole as more terror stri...

STRIPPED You stripped away my right to choose... Stuffed my lips with hatred... Forced my hands to unsow good seeds... Lamed my limbs through calculated savagry... You are no more than a cowering simpleton... A starving jackal in a field of sheep... Stop right where you are... Your business here is done... You have sealed every fate... Uprooted all that could be moved... Move along now... Your work here is done! ©Crystal Cunha ©Crystal Price ©2015 Bio:  Name: Crystal Price Age: 34 Residence: Fresno, CA I started writing poetry as a preteen living in the foster care system. Poetry was the oxygen that kept me from becoming an emotional vegetable. Poetry me & I it. Poetry is my life support, and my survival has, & always will depends on it.

Literally, My Neck I travel here and there at break neck speeds stick my neck out when I must, and happily recall when I could neck for hours on end, but at times my neck can also become something quite literal, literally that stem between my torso and head, the vertebrae I’ve seen posed painfully in x-rays, that DMZ I’ve counted on for years the link I need to help me nod and turn my head when someone who turns heads goes by, hold my head up despite the circumstances, bow it when I feel humbled, I’ve clothed it in neckties and scarves, necklaces and chains, stretched it, hid it, know I could hang by it, can stretch it too far a guillotine awaits, my executioner tests his blade sends this preview, this literal pain in the neck that doesn’t go away, impervious to pills and ready to follow me through my neck of the woods. J. K. Durick is a writing teacher at the Community College of Vermont and an online writing tutor. His recent poems have ap...

Torrid sincerity If I could build a bridge out of sunshine And only sincere-hearted people could cross it without getting the soles of their feet burned How many would beg for a rain shower to ease the pain ... Probably I would make a nice profit, selling burn ointments and blister plasters at the opposite side © Daginne Aignend Bio Daginne Aignend is a pseudonym for the Dutch poetess Inge Wesdijk. She likes hard rock music, photography and fantasy books. She is a vegetarian and spends a lot of time with her animals. Daginne started to write English poetry four years ago and posted some of her poems on her Facebook page and on her website www.daginne.com

e a s t w a r d I turn eastward to allow the radiance of the sun to light my way. And I allow the moon to descend without grace from Heaven’s warmth and peaceful embrace. My hopes have been liberated from the chains that were made to bind them. And I bask in the knowledge that I have been victorious over all of the pain and suffering that I have chosen to leave far behind. ~laura j. minning excerpt from “a verbal collage” c. november    2006 brcartandpoetry.wordpress.com Laura Minning  began writing creatively at the age of nine. She’s become an award winning published poet and author since that time. All in all, she’s had one-hundred and seven individual poems, six articles, two books, two plays and one piece of prose published in both hard copy and on-line. Her work has been featured in publications like “Literature Today”, “Amulet Magazine” and “Slate & Style”. Laura received her first Editor’s Choice Aw...

Iridescent  silken strands  intricately  woven disband For  again  and  again the  spider will  spin Until  her web  of  magnificence becomes a deadly trap  of silence Lynn Long is an aspiring writer/novelist.

The Paperback She loved to read thrillers in the safety of her warm bed. The cashmere throw purred on her lap like an orange tabby while her fingers stroked the virgin paper. The paperback held endless possibilities; she felt the excitement building up into goosebumps. The curious moon stepped on top of a cloud, trying to get a better view between slats of vinyl shades; they thought him rude, a voyeur, invading their personal space.  This was a private show and he wasn't invited. Page after page, she turned her  fears into aphrodisiacs, swallowing them  whole until she was full. Never feeling  the ache that throbbed in her heart.  Bio:   Gracen Hiss  writes poetry and fiction. Her latest poetry chapbook,  The Lilac City , was published by Origami Poems Project.  Her  first novel, a gothic fantasy,  The Rosegiver,  was published in February 2016.   She enjoys horror/mystery m...

(painting by Perle Fine) Ceremony of a Kind (after the painting by Perle Fine) In celebration of the day our world ended and a new one born swaddled in a cloth of stars we march to the beat of a distant drummer and raise our flags to victory and the magical arrogance of the children we were. It is a ceremony of a kind with ritual sacrifice letting of blood effigies on fire and painted faces to mask our misgivings and our fear no longer children we parade beneath the arches of a life we had left behind. We are the inheritors of a history forgotten or never learned that we shall repeat because we have no other choice. Neil Ellman is a poet from New Jersey.  He has published numerous poems, more than 1,000 of  which  are ekphrastic and written in response to works of modern art, in print and online journals, anthologies and chapbooks throughout the world.  He has been nominated twice fo...

I Believe in Trees Those silent citadels standing against long nights of wind and cold. Broken willow bramble scratches a pale sky after yesterday’s ice storm. Each spring small buds blossom as bugs and butterflies orbit boughs. Green new leaf fits your hand so perfectly. The future lies in your palm. Birds reciting litany in woods. Each rainfall the forest  grows taller, more verdant. Summer afternoons…trees sashay in sunshine showing off their emerald gowns. Winds sway maple branches. Leaves drop like butterflies falling to the warm earth. Red yellow brown carpets of crunchy foliage spread over roads welcoming us. Joan McNerney’s poetry has been included in numerous literary magazines such as Seven Circle Press, Dinner with the Muse, Moonlight Dreamers of Yellow Haze, Blueline, and Halcyon Days.  Three Bright Hills Press Anthologies, several Poppy Road Review Journals, and numerous Kind of A Hurricane P...

Effective Immediately I want to become an Ambassador for Rain! Why the bad image? Birds love rain.  Tweeting through dry spells for water. They flutter from leaf to bud for a sip. It’s super creative… feeding tree roots, wild flowers. Without rain…no blessed blue lakes, rivers, streams. Open your eyes.  Rain clings  to window panes, miniature globes of splendor.  Listen as pitter pattering skips over rooftops. Consider your thirst for  liquid pleasures. Gather up in green reverie. Dance barefoot on this emerald earth joining me in jubilant chorus. Joan McNerney’s poetry has been included in numerous literary magazines such as Seven Circle Press, Dinner with the Muse, Moonlight Dreamers of Yellow Haze, Blueline, and Halcyon Days.  Three Bright Hills Press Anthologies, several Poppy Road Review Journals, and numerous Kind of A Hurricane Press Publications have accepted her work.  Her latest title...

On the Plain The wind has drowned out the footsteps behind me and the telephone lines go my way like trees beside a road -- I am looking for the ones that cross. I see tall buildings in the distance: there's nothing to obscure them. I realize the past is not what I want; but I'm lonely. I want to stop. I want to go back. I'm tempted to. But I have to catch up, carrying a heavy load. Biography: David Francis has produced five albums of songs, one of poems, and "Always/Far," a chapbook of lyrics and drawings.  His film "Village Folksinger" has been screened in New York, Texas, Connecticut and England.  David's poems and stories have appeared in a number of journals and anthologies. http://davidfrancismusic.com/

t h e     p r o t a g o n i s t I am a beacon of hope,     on a wet and rainy day. While forming a shelter     from heaven’s tears     and clouds subject to decay. I am always on hand,     where ever droplets can be found,     so take me for granted     because I’ll always be around. ~laura minning excerpt from “a verbal collage” c. november 2006 Laura Minning Exhibiting Abstract Artist, Published Poet & Author brcartandpoetry.wordpress.com Laura Minning  began writing creatively at the age of nine. She’s become an award winning published poet and author since that time. All in all, she’s had one-hundred and seven individual poems, six articles, two books, two plays and one piece of prose published in both hard copy and on-line. Her work has been featured in publications like “Literature Today”, “Amulet Magazine” and “Slat...

Healing a Broken Soul You shivered when I touched you Although my hands were warm You bundled yourself up in protective clothing Though the bright skies show no sign of storm A bitter heart is broken A soul I see you've lost All of the people in your past They've hurt you..just see what it has cost You cannot go on living In a world where you are full of fear How do I do it you ask Listen closely, let me whisper in your ear I have gone back to the trusting Little girl I used to know So convinced the world means well Yes, it is delusional I know I put on a happy front Place a smile upon my face Take myself somewhere else A much better place I tell myself I could remain Damaged broken and bruised But that would be just one more way I would be allowing myself to be used So I remember how much love I once had inside my heart I provide that to the world And tell myself I am doing my part You may see me as caring, trusting and naive At times I do appear to carry My heart upon my slee...

Snow The man we made-up -- dressed and groomed -- is gone now. The man we grew -- added to, subtracted from -- is gone now. The man we built -- talked to, laughed with -- is gone now.  The man we created -- wished for, planned on -- is gone now. Perhaps, we'll find his hat or gloves sometime and hear his voice fading just out of reach. But the man we knew would be gone one day is gone now. J. K. Durick is a writing teacher at the Community College of Vermont and an online writing tutor. His recent poems have appeared in  Social Justice Poetry,   Tuck Magazine, Yellow Chair Review ,  Synchronized Chaos , and  Haikuniverse .