Ravens

by Walker Abel

At daybreak in desert
two ravens on rock
moon still up in west.

Hills wrinkled deep with shadow.
When the birds fly north
no one stays behind.

Estuary

by Mike Dillon

Sanderling’s wicker tracks in mud.
A breeze ticks the sedge that nearly hides
a rotting dory. Gull mew. Clack of clamshell
upon rocks dropped from a hovering height.
The quiet mixing place where salt water
meets fresh, its bits of seaweed and a rainbow trout.
Back of all — a silence that does not speak.

Decaying

by Farzana Israt

a sigh in unison
amongst the Willow Trees
as the cicadas
sing their
mournful song

kingdom

by Geoffrey Aitken

seasonally
they return to the south
our Australian Parrots
to fly above us
on intermittent show
celebrate September springtime
with feasts of fresh pine nuts
in Conifer treetops
take water
from recent winter rains
then preen
mate
and nest
then with familial dawn song
remind us of incumbency
evolutionary longevity
and ownership
before flight beckons -

as if to brag

Tannenbaum

by Andrew Hutto

The bear-whelps scratch on fir trees
and mourning doves eat safflower seeds.

To bracket out epoché between unseen
                                                    and seen-world.

There is no adieu.

                        Ice will not ornament the forest this winter,
                             there will be no way to cross the river.

The hot air in the morning will drive
all the martens to the stream but they will not
dip their paws into the boiling water.

Lines

by Stephen A. Rozwenc

dew and lightning
mountains and rivers

sacred doctrine

over the crest of Kerchouan

by James Bell

bare boughs beneath the sky
trace in hazel woods
remains of long gone oaks

great rocks of granite
skirt small ravines where humanity
has had no effect on the always been

standing stones have dotted horizons
for thousands of years
in attempts to understand

the beyond over brows of hills
as far as the eye cannot see –
its limits clear of mist today

Lines

by Roberta Beach Jacobson

claiming
the sunrise
barnyard rooster

Three Crows on a Pine Bough upon Buson’s ink-brush painting

by GTimothy Gordon

Late fall parched mustard wheat
modest as a Norse king, no risqué
bluebell, poppy, scarlet paintbrush,
or even outré desert aspen, bronze turning
among mangroves of sand speckling this end
of earth, not Kyoto, in fall, the blackest of ravens,
goblins, trolling from husks of stumps bone-dry things,
all for the scent of blossom, sight of bloom,                 
every prickly Joshua beseeching heaven.

Lines

by Roberta Beach Jacobson

autumn morn
canaries find something
to sing about

January Evening, Garden Valley, Idaho

by Yash Seyedbagheri

Garden Valley, Idaho night,
a January evening
luminous half moon mingles with brightness of snow
white meets white
across hills and valley
around the curves of Sunrise Drive
over rising and falling hills dotted
white mingling with remnants of ice
from the last storm, the storm before it
fresh and glass-like
and moon shimmers through groves of pines
stillness in the air, shadows
broken only by lights from an A-framed lodge
bright white holiday lights
the occasional roar of a truck, a car
fading away without echo
footsteps of a walker in the night
en route somewhere,
replaced by the crispness of thirty-degree cold, dropping, and the moon,
drifting through clouds, opening and disappearing.

Guineas

by Wesley D. Sims

A knot of guineas swung
around the pasture
like a swirl of twigs
pinned to a rubber band,
picking grass seeds
and singing their squeaky
alto song of contentment
All-right, all right.

Wildlife

by Darrell Petska

The zoo giraffe
treading its concrete
winter quarters
pauses
with each circuit
before the small
high window
looking out on

the chain-link enclosure
of the Somali wild ass
listlessly chewing hay
beneath its lean-to
capped with snow

and the grey slate of sky
nearly as far from spring
as Africa.

Kolibri

by Sterling Warner

iridescent feathers
greenish-red flashes
zipping, darting among
coral honeysuckle vines,
wings buzzing 52 beats a second,
ruby throated hummingbirds
pause, hover, penetrate, feed,
long tongues lapping nectar,
plucking aphids and mites within 
each trumpet-shaped
blossom.

Kallar elephant corridor, Western Ghats

by Ajay Kumar

Some just came to drink
across a table of water,
others just left,
pudding-pipes in their way,

a calf sniffs to the side,
alone a bull’s tusks
point to his raised trunk,

movement of myriad grey.
A flycatcher, a blue of his own,
excavated in the sky
from the sun, rests on a Neem.

Soap pods in patches. Snaky
trunks smell a cardamom memory.
The ones that came to drink leave
for wild plantains, more come
across the water again.

Spider Constellation

by Wesley D. Sims

A large gray spider
in an almost deserted
restroom at the campground
has spun a silky mural
of long legs and little
brown bodies,
strung up a constellation
of granddaddy long-legs,
their wire-thin legs splayed radially
outward like arms of a galaxy.
Their lights have gone out,
their carcasses kept
on cold storage in the spider’s
private mausoleum,
hidden in a corner
of little used web-space.

Missive from a Blue Whale

by Susan L De Miller

My world is your ocean
So you say
Floating on blue
you pay to see me
I am your fascination
You offer me no peace no warning
you are here there everywhere
Refuse spills from your world into mine
Blue sky
Blue ocean
Blue whale
Multi hued human
I am starving
We are all starving
Starving for blue
You can not build
a new planet
a new ocean
a new sky
Gone
is
gone
is
gone

Sky Driving

by Judith Steele

Early South Australian summer
before the fires.
Driving north
from Glenelg beach to country town
of Gawler, into sky intensely blue,
lapis lazuli, a bowl just made
in ancient Mesopotamia.

Late afternoon returning south
sky gathers smoky clouds,
herds them onto the horizon,
allows pale blue to float above.

Detour west to Semaphore beach
in early evening. Yellow streaks of sunsetting
recline on darkening sea.

Stopped at traffic lights, look east
to curves of Adelaide Hills
glowing purple. Above them,
reflecting their lines and tints,
long waves of violet clouds.

Back in my Tod St flat
with its view of 26 more.

Lines

by Darrell Petska

Walking through the woods
in search of inspiration—
oh, that blue jay's scorn!

Sky Tree Water

by Ajay Kumar

Jacanda walking, on the water,
on the water-weed disciples,
its wings bronze, golden
the oil sachets it keeps walking on.

In the trees, there’s a decade
in that one note the koel likes to hold
in december, his eyes red in july.

In the sky, kindled blue, with a cloud
disturbed indigo, an eagle
flapping once- assurance
of gravity upon a time.

Five Crows Forage in Wittunga Park

by Martha Landman

their stomachs full
they take flight en masse
swooping through the air
their caw-cawcophony
murders the Sunday silence

Lines

by Stephen A. Rozwenc

three evergreen triangles
slowly climb
a steep hillside

As simple as that

by Ajay Kumar

Water makes no sound, friendly petioles
pardon leaves which flavor the wind green.

Message of crow echoes, torch by torch.
A bird of sound alone, a small bird by sound,
flies from the mountains of that side-

rubber rubber rubber mountains mountains
rubber rubber rubber rubber mountains rubber
rubber palm bananas bananas palm rubber
          pole                               pole     
road road road road road road road road road
canal canal canal canal canal canal canal canal
road road road road road road road road road
      pole                                       pole
wall gate gate wall wall wall wall wall wall
drumsticks                         coconut coconut
hibiscus tulsi                         tobacco   coconut
                                              well neem
                                          coconut coconut

-to the coconuts of this side, a fossil of a song
from the east to the west is a kingfisher,
a piece of cloud stuck in his throat, whitening it.

The trinity of coconuts sways, in memory
of a fulfilling wind, in extinction of right-angles,
all curving & moving, the white-throat drops
an anchovy, like punctuation, like leaves falling
in alliteration

Can It Be?

by Gary Beck

Dogwood is blooming everywhere.
Daffodils are blooming everywhere.
A scrawny cherry tree
is working like wild
to put out its aroma.
Daffodils are blooming everywhere.
Dogwood is blooming everywhere.

December

by Michael H. Brownstein

Snow fell on white rose petals,
the way too early blossoms of mulberry,
and spun webs upon gardens of lilies.
The sky opened itself to summer,
earth crunched open with warmth,
the roses opened their mouths to the sun,
one mulberry began to ripen among miscolored Ieaves,
and three lilies spread their wings.
Seventy degrees, an easy wind,
warm swamps of what had been snow,
and we put away our winter clothes again,
headed out to the field of stone edges,
green brown moss, evergreens,
and wild flowers that did not know any better.

"then there are"

by Stephen A. Rozwenc

then there are
those long frigid winter nights
when the shivering mind desperately resorts to cold calculation
for warmth

perception becomes beatified delusion
and crucial explanation
of why
riparian New England snowscapes
swath moonlit snow’s creamy vellum
with iridescent comforters of thermal profusion

movement becomes meditation
a restless Chi of wind moans hotter eroticism
up through the back pasture
sailing disbelief like a ghost schooner
its barely audible foredeck jib a filigree powdery swirl

more resolute abstinence tacks across a hillside meadow
pausing only
to marvel at the rusted hay baler
and its half emerging halo of snow
inviting reckless deer to feed
on heavenly light
instead of ragged strips of hemlock bark

a pearly necklace of enterprising stonewall
belies the edgy hill’s diffident proposal
of fire clamoring inside ice
and a runway back to blissful heat
and the blessed Pleiades within our DNA

Australian bushfires

by James Aitchison

They say the smoke has reached Chile.
Not just the smoke from our blazing forests,
But the smoke from lost firefighters and townsfolk,
And thousands of lost homes,
And five hundred million wild animals,
And cattle and sheep and bold horses
Burned alive in once-lush paddocks.

They say the smoke is toxic.  It is not. 
It is sacred.

Mimicry

by Michelle Ainslie

Two purple hooks
curl into a promise
to the male wasp’s urge;

its plum body
pulsating on yellow
again
and
again.

Flower to
flower,

the wasp
relentless
in his pursuit;

the orchid -
blooming.

From Ocean Triptych

by KB Ballentine

III.

California coast — mystery of rock and water —
froth spumes, soars — whirlpools eddy the sand.
Seaweed tossed and withering, shearwaters skim
teal and turquoise while fly fishers wait, wading
swirling edges. Salt stings, shells and broken glass
  flashing through the shingle.

Trajectories #8

by David Chorlton

Against a sky wiped clean of every memory
a Red-tailed hawk hangs on a thread
of sunlight, while behind him is a kestrel
dipping and looping in a hundred
arabesques. Below them
Sunday’s rooftops lie at rest, with brunch
and lunch and football games continuing
and a weekly round-up of the news
consigned to silence. The kestrel’s
quick as a lawyer’s tongue;
the hawk is big but can’t negotiate
the curves the kestrel can. There’s no telling
where it ends. The facts come slowly
but they come. Without a lot
of decoration, just the intricate maneuvers
a diplomat is master of. There’s truth
and lies and every nuance in between,
so much work to figure out
who’s right. Or not, when the light
shines so brightly on the struggle
and the powerful wings
steer the hawk in his defeat
away.

Lines

by Veronika Zora Novak

cradled
by a peacock's cry . . .
full moon

Here

by Andrew Hutto

is a Florida scrub jay
on the shell of a gopher tortoise
in the Juniper Prairie.

They walk alongside the
trumpet vines
and saw palmetto.

Lines

by Marilyn Ward

long night
the broken branch
a crow turns into

Daybreak

by Beverly Summa

Bent blades of Shenandoah and beard grass reflect
morning’s blue-green light under shimmering coats
of late winter frost.  The red fox turns her head at the fleeing sound
--a nimble-footed field mouse erupts through the thread hairs
of her ears and warms the blood of curious nostrils.
The mouse disappears beneath the snow.
Hunger guides a knife’s edge concentration as her kits
stir and stretch in her belly.  She pauses, waits.

Lines

by Veronika Zora Novak

Kawarthas
a wolf's deep winter tracks
rewritten

Lines

by Susan N Aassahde

deer gypsy broom
snow well
hoof trench pickle

Garden in October

by Jeanne Shannon

Leaves of the honey locust
floating down,
a cold, gold rain.

But still
two green leaves
on the Tree of Heaven.

Lines

by Maria DePaul

Foraging at dusk
Coyotes howling
Last call of Autumn

Erotic Slugs

by Eric Fisher Stone

Globs of butter, wet goblins, they rub
mouths lubed on blue lichen,
bellies grinding slow rivers
over humid mud, glugging air,
slugs measured in slimy lust
for dew, hedonist pleasure-monks,
paths slick with carnal lard, joy swelled
in oily organs, jellying hearts
gorged on Earth’s heaping gift.

Bushland

by Judith Steele

Trunks of Eucalypts lean towards one another,
whisper with leathery leaves
Young Casuarinas draw black needles
on pale blue sky.
Sturt Peas flame in the dust
Pig Cactus creeps in hollows
Dam water is brown, ducks are brown
between blue-green bushes
and blue-green scent of bushland.

Lines

by Carl Mayfield

i.
sandhill cranes too high to see

ii.
willow branch after the sparrow

iii.
horned owl swooping as low as he has to

Upon a Pile of Bear Dung

by Pepper Trail

Chestnut-brown dough of digestion
Polished husks of acorn, torn flesh of apple
Autumn’s abundance tumbled in that barrel of body
The dross left with nonchalance upon the path
All goodness taken in, made a robe of fat against the cold
But not yet ready for sleep, the October bear
Wanders the brambles, finds what she likes everywhere
Ambles to the high point of the year
Grunts, scratches, shits, and eats some more

The Day Before

by Summer Koester

A devil's club graveyard all that remains,
bones of a mighty clubbed fortress
reduced to small brown skeletons,
silent, still scaffolds of what once was.
This is how you say madrugada in English–
the coldest, darkest, undead hour
when spirits roam the earth, right before
the first snow:
the rainforest so dry and quiet
bones and shapes, negative space,
the air sucked right out.

Swan Song

by Wesley D. Sims

A sparse chorus of crickets
telegraphs the news--autumn
arrives on the overnight train.
Forty-degree West wind
plucks brown leaves
from walnut and poplar.
Twilight sifts over the landscape,
dark clouds press a pale orange sky
into the horizon.

I Remember Aleppo

by Terrence Sykes

ancient silk road heirloom
grew upon the left bank
determined Queiq river
steeped landscape
rising field of peppers
powdered ochres
colors changing
seasons ceased
blossoming at dusk

Since the storm

by Mathieu Debic

since the storm, new birds
find a home in the strewn leaves.
from the brush, new songs.
shafts of sun penetrate, now,
and mockingbirds dip and swerve.
broken branches dry in the sun.

awakening

by Kat Terban

the slowly creaking dawn
sheds light on an unfurling
green pothos leaf, on the minute
veins where precious sap flows.

crisp sparkling dew
condenses, coalesces,
is drunk by a careful
angulate orbweaver spider;
it breaks open the water’s skin
and sucks the liquid in
while myriad eyes
remain alert for prey.

perched upon that new leaf
tapping its leg-tips, the spider
leaps out toward the sun,
spinner releasing a line
to rappel down, and start
a fresh day’s web.

Lines

by William Cullen, Jr.

norway maple
where a few leaves just were
the north star

The uppermost leaves

by Nandini Maharaj

The branches of the elm tree lean to one side
fanning out with the sun’s rays,
the uppermost leaves, emblazoned in gold.
The leaves below are tightly clustered
giving the appearance of stillness.
When all at once the wind blows and the leaves disperse,
revealing new patches of blue sky.
Then the leaves close in once again,
and all seems still but the uppermost leaves
glistening in the morning light.

Hardwoods

by Mathieu Debic

Groans in the hardwoods.
Wind stretches timbers, abates;
a blaze, a red shower.