A dream, a sight
I see a man surrounded by light
A war was fought, and won
A day that even I couldn't have seen done

The man smiles
A smile powerful enough to withstand all the trials
So bright so strong
Like a melody of a beautiful song

Full of joy and sincerity
A life well lived and full of prosperity
A man that is perfect
Day after day living without a single regret

I strive to be like him
Maybe life won't be so grim
I should start moving on
Before all I hold dear to me will be gone


Author Bio:
Thomas is an aspiring writer and a college student living in a third world country. He likes to write about how he feels. 

We are whittled by desire,
our inclination to act toward our infatuations
has consumed us.

False entitlement has blinded us.
Distractions have become the priority.
He wishes for love,
she dreams of another.

Empty words have been told
to satisfy our hunger,
but our worlds become emptier
at the lack of gratification
that comes after our aspirations are fulfilled.


Author Bio:
Zoey Ruzic is a sophomore studying Creative Writing at Miami Arts Charter. She has been published twice in creative communications, won first honorable mention in Poetry Society of Virginia, Wilda Morris Poetry Challenge, won 3+silver keys in Scholastics, first honorable mention for Jack London, and has been published in several literary journals such as Tunnel Magazine and Balloons Literary Journal. When she isn’t writing she enjoys making short films and traveling. Her goal is to go to college in New York and study film, psychology, and writing.

You smell the birth of the forest. You hear the hiss of life, the shrug of existence. You see the sunlight through the droplet on the flower in the young soil. The terrain erupting a lava of energy, the chirping of new shoots, the blooming of vivacious birds, perched on lavish trees. Buds crawling slowly, sprouting unnoticed, the playground of nature abuzz with hums and echoes, where life giggles and reverberates. The earth like knight-less stallions, too proud to tame, hair panting, the unharvested gold of wheat fields against the morning zephyr, harness the sun, the agile dance of wind, a meteor stabbing the troposphere at the starting point of a new cycle.



Author Bio:
I was born and raised in Baghdad, Iraq. Both of my parents were archaeologists, so I can safely say that I lived my life surrounded by history. I grew up hearing stories about museums and artifacts, and I guess this is what sparked my love for discovery and the sense of wanting to get to the bottom of things, which I sometimes attempt to do through writing. I write in different genres, but mainly poetry and flash fiction.
I have been a freelance translator (English/Arabic) for more than 15 years. Along the way, I did some studying here and there: a BA in Translation, a Bachelor in Professional Writing, and now I’m in the last stages of finishing my MFA from Lindenwood University in Missouri.

I currently live in Vancouver, Beautiful British Columbia (as the license plate very accurately proclaims) with my husband and two children.

Standing before the sea
vastness of enhanced sky 
sends a chill down my spine.
I gaze and wonder how little we are 
in thoughts and deed.

Limits are set, on the limitless
boundaries, human territories
marked to the extremes,
land, air, water even beyond ether,
never to be challenged.

Creatures with fins and webfeet
wading below the wide water
winged birds that fly across,
and other mute spectators pity 
the shrinking globe, silently.

The sun never shies away
to rise on the next day
with unflinching hope that
realization may still dawn on 
frenzied human minds.


Author Bio:
Thriveni C. Mysore is a science teacher from India. She loves nature poetry.

​Friend, lover, spouse,
corner of solace,
you are my shell,
my magic thank you,
the heart inside my heart,
the air of my soul,
the sky of my desert.
I swim in your brown eyes
where hope and shared thoughts abide.

Note: this poem has been turned into a song.


Author Bio:
Julia Hones loves Mother Nature, writing, painting and yoga. She is learning to play the piano and has turned some of her poems into songs.

​He walked along in daylight,
His shadow close behind,
And though it followed closely,
Was never on his mind.
The earth he walked was waiting,
Though he saw no end
To his days.
In the end the earth
Would claim him,
His shadow gone away,
Never ever to be seen,
Or darken the light of day.


Author Bio:
Bruce Mundhenke has worked as a laborer and a registered nurse. He writes poetry in Illinois, where he lives with his wife and their dog and cat. He was introduced to poetry in grade school and has been writing poetry since the time he read his first poems. He also enjoys music and believes song lyrics to be a popular form of poetry. He finds in nature both inspiration and revelation.

You thought of it as darkness
but you could’ve been carried through.
Though time has enough burden of its own,
there were hands,
hearts, shoulders. You chose the clouds.

There were 
voices that could’ve 
softened your wounds within. You could’ve
fought the ones that told you to give in--
oh soldier. If only you had counted
those you honored and the multitude
that saluted you and still do, but you

counted the wounds instead
and laid on your bed—safe, but too still,
like a frozen cloud waiting to be blown away.

​
Author Bio:
Tia Paul-Louis is the pen name of fiction writer and poet Pascale Louissaint: a mother to a four-year old girl and the wife of a health specialist. She moved from the Caribbean to the U.S. at age nine with her parents. Through many years of battling with foreign and old traditions that could never come to an agreement, she finally found a voice through writing and earned an MFA degree in Creative Writing at National University in La Jolla, California. She began with lyric compositions at age 11 but later gained a strong interest in poetry and fiction. Inspired by poets such as Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson and Langston Hughes, she continues with her writing which appeared in literary journals such as Rabbit Catastrophe, Eye to the Telescope, The Write Place at the Write Time, Words Apart, Ancient Paths, Darkrun Review and several others. Paul-Louis’s themes portray family life, mental health, gender role controversies, and spiritual values. Aside from writing, she enjoys singing, playing the keyboard, watching animated movies, and exploring other aspects of art.