Issue 77 cover

Soft cover | 132 pages | $15


Passager Poet
Joyce Schmid
and 42 Honorable Mentions

“These poems are dedicated to my sister, Dolly. I want people to know her name, how much she had to suffer, and how loved she still is. I felt – and still feel – that she sacrificed herself for me in many ways. As a child, I dreamt that we were in a witch’s castle and the witch made us drink poison. In the dream, she drank hers quickly and then snatched mine and drank that too.”

Joyce Schmid

Honorable Mentions

Colleen Anderson
May 2020: The Children in Their Bedrooms

Stefan Balan
Honeysuckle   

John Biggs
Sudsville

Ann Bookman
Romance, Not for the Faint of Heart

Judith Bowles
The Future

Jane Bridges
Shame

Toni Bryant
The Packing Chicken

Don Colburn
Pause Over Thanksgiving

Brian Cronwall 
Norwegian Farms

John Philip Drury
Abecedarian Ode

Kelly DuMar
Dear Lyudmila Navalnaya, please

Sindee Ernst
The Holding

Martha Fox
Letter of Final Wishes

Mark Fryburg
Claudia

Madelyn Garner
Summer of Hiroshima

Clarinda Harriss
Advice from Conjure Mabel

Kathleen Hellen
among the other catherines in the cult

John J. Hohn
Winter Night Trek

Matt Hohner
Your Last Entry in My Baby Book Before You Left

Thomas John Hurley
What Moves the Hermit Thrush to Sing in the Dark Woods Before Morning

Bonnie Jacobson
Crossword

Bobby Jones
Alleluia, Alleluia 

Gurupreet K. Khalsa
Ganglial Glitches

J. I. Kleinberg
To be unseen

Elizabeth Knapp
Age of Aquarius

Mary Kollar
Sunlight This December

Kerry Loughman
Two Blocks From the Arboretum

Diane Y. Macklin
Mother Ashes

Bonnie Naradzay
Hymn 

Kathy O’Fallon
Listening for Tchaikovsky

Kathleen O’Toole
St. Francis in the Snow

David J. S. Pickering
I Came from My Marriage to Tell You This 

Jennifer Pratt-Walter
A Clothesline of Words

Rick Rohdenburg
After the Flood

Lori Rottenberg
You Drive Like a Man

Noel Salinger
Pioneers

Joel Savishinsky
The Saddest Smile, Indian Residential School 1907

Bill Spence
International Relations

R. A. Stewart
A World Without Dogs

Susan V. Walton
Cranes Roosting by the Platte: Sunset, 3/28/23

Anna M. Warrock
Missed the Bus

Susan Zimmerman 
Not Dead Yet


Errata: On page 90, references in John Philip Drury’s bio should read Cambridge, Maryland.


Mary Azrael, Kendra Kopelke, editors. Rosanne Singer, assistant editor. Christine Drawl, managing editor, art director. Harry Bauld, Joyce Stevens Brown, Kate Deimling, Richard Levine, Fran Markover, Ellen Schmidt, guest readers. Ashlyn Mason, Ruby Taylor, internsJanet Waterscover painting.