"Loneliness," original and unpublished."His attempts to soothe her, his soft cooing words, his very presence, these only made her angrier and sadder. This time, he lies very still, looking at his long unbitten fingernails and countin...

Four original micropoems, unpublished.

"Candlemaker," previously unpublished."Our purpose, if we have one beyond the abilities we perform effortlessly thousands of times per day, is ethereal and divine. It is related to survival and beauty and the interrelatedness of all ...

Dan Foley reads three original poems.

One original poem: "Gravity's Mistake"

"Alarm," previously unpublished."They both feel lucky to have someone who cares enough about them to make sure that they are drinking enough water."

"Walking to the Number 61," previously unpublished."Ian always frames his emails to colleagues in the passive voice. It’s a habit he picked up from his father, a librarian, who believed that if you did your job well, people wouldn’t ...

One original poem: "Mastery"

Singer-songwriter DAIN describes his songwriting process and how he wrote "Tinman."DAIN is a Seattle based singer-songwriter / indie pop artist with an emphasis on storytelling in his lyrics. His music can be found here:Spotify: <...

"A Tribe of Genies," previously unpublished.“Packets of cigarettes and boxes of sweets were passed round, and the bedouin women sang and danced, the night and the desert resounding with the echoes of a great feast, as thou...

"Locked Inside," previously unpublished."He couldn’t live with not knowing. It was far more painful to him than the violation of his home by these two yahoos, the loneliness he felt daily, the heavy shame that he carried around his ...

"The Promise," previously unpublished."He wonders whether change can be intentionally sought, or rather, like a sudden crisis of faith, it can only be experienced, it can only come as a reaction. If this is the case, which he comes ...

Discussion with Dale Hall and Charlie Hope-D'Anieri about the best books we read in 2024.

"The Sirens of Santa Cruz," previously unpublished."The eucalyptus trees were dark crimson. The smell was intoxicating. I wish I could have shot them but the flash would have ruined the color and without it, the picture would be far...

Alexandra Duprey reads two original poems.

Two original poems: "At the Poetry Reading" & "See the Stars"

"The Sound with No Name," previously unpublished."Just before we walk through the door to the bar, I hear a small boy scream, 'Look, they’re just walking.'"

"The Harmonica," previously unpublished."I had never before thought of music as something with divisible parts. It always just seemed like the air that humans needed to breathe – the air that they breathed through me to make me spea...

"Penelope," originally published in CommuterLit in October of 2022."Beautiful he was in the braided lamplight over the drinks and the smoke and the cards, she remembers, beautiful."

Charlie Hope-D'Anieri reads his piece, "The Soup.""The magnificent Beauceron has not received his due!"

An original poem.

"Ember Baby," originally published in JMWW in June of 2024.“His father always told him that family was the one thing for which you sacrificed everything else. But he worried, with each passing day, if the love he felt for Madeline w...

"Theseus," originally published in Visual Verse Vol. 6 - Chapter 12 in October of 2019."She’ll tell you about her perspective, her layers, how she composes herself. She’ll tell you that she is both a subjective object and the proces...

"A Companion Piece" (original and unpublished)"The city, he says, alienates the individual, makes him feel as though he will be lost to history unless someone records both the great and the terrible things he does."

London-based writer Dale Hall reads his piece, "Robinson's Wake," originally published in The Wells Street Journal Issue 12 in the Winter of 2019."Because of his purpose, Calderon likes to see parallels. Rather than seeing ...