F 1.23. Enbarr

F 2.23. saci

F 3.23 La Planchada The Ironed Lady

Manannán calls the new herd

At the edge, you can believe it into being. Skittish bay, water rolling
its whited eyes. Foam on the haunch. Have you been listening, have you

used all the ears twitching at throat, wrists? Repeat that old, soft spell, all salt
promises you know it: clucks to cantrip the tongue’s valley, any restless field

to solid endless. You are severed from your line and bleeding centuries and ghosts
who do not know that have still ploughed here. Each wave, her furrow of dark’s

deep. Each ridge starred bright white: mother light’s jasmine, wind-dancing lines.
The first step drags weight, machinery reluctant to let you go. The second crescents

the rich blue dirt. This wound fills. Water rushes your shape rising from the moon
of the hoof, pulses you wild. You the thing that flows, no fence in any direction.

-Ankh Spice 

How We See Them (Inspired by all three images)

Our basest natures conjure up
the one-legged imps, foul-smelling
creatures of the night,
and grief-stricken women in white,
who tend the ill with guilt-tinged care–
but the white-maned waves gallop
across the world, into the air, magnificent,
the swiftest creatures,
nature and imagination, alive.

-Merril D Smith

Enbarr

There was beauty then unsullied,
when you trod sea foam,
leaping lightly the troughs of waves,
mane flowing with seabirds’ wings,
racing between islands, green, blue,
bearing lovers from haven to heaven and back,

and if there was unhappiness,
it was none of your doing.

Beauty then you were,
and I wish the world was galloped
by white horses again.

-Jane Dougherty

Take a Sip of Wish (F2.23 Saci)

He arrives in a whirlwind of wishes
swirling around him in eddies of canary light
Feathered filaments of hope tickling the sky.
His red cap ready to snatch
daring you to capture him, bottle him.

Take a sip of wish everyday –
Will you taste the lemon tang of the open road?
Will it slick your lips with buttery lover’s kisses
or the sticky syrup of babies?
Drink deeper for the unami of love
And wealth’s bitter ale.

Tease your tastebuds, test your heart,
Take a sip of wish
Until you suck your dreams dry.

-Jacqueline Dempsey-Cohen

Bios and Links

-Jane Dougherty

lives and works in southwest France. A Pushcart Prize nominee, her poems and stories have been published in magazines and journals including Ogham Stone, the Ekphrastic Review, Black Bough Poetry, ink sweat and tears, Gleam, Nightingale & Sparrow, Green Ink and Brilliant Flash Fiction. She blogs at https://janedougherty.wordpress.com/ Her poetry chapbooks, thicker than water and birds and other feathers were published in October and November 2020.

-Eryn McConnell

is a poet originally from the UK who now lives in South Germany with their family. They have been writing poetry since their teens and is currently working on their second collection of poems.

-Spriha Kant

developed an interest in reading and writing poetries at a very tender age. Her poetry “The Seashell” was first published online in the “Imaginary Land Stories” on August 8, 2020, by Sunmeet Singh. She has been a part of Stuart Matthew’s anthology “Sing, Do the birds of Spring” in the fourth series of books from #InstantEternal poetry prompts. She has been featured in the Bob Dylan-inspired anthology “Hard Rain Poetry: Forever Dylan” by the founder and editor of the website “Fevers of the Mind Poetry and Art” David L O’ Nan. Her poetries have been published in the anthology “Bare Bones Writing Issue 1: Fevers of the Mind”. Paul Brookes has featured her poetry, “A Monstrous Shadow”, based on a photograph clicked by herself, as the “Seventh Synergy” in “SYNERGY: CALLING ALL WRITERS WHO ARE PHOTOGRAPHERS” on his blog “The Wombwell Rainbow”. She has been featured in the “Quick-9 interview” on feversofthemind.com by David L’O Nan. She has reviewed the poetry book “Silence From The Shadows” by Stuart Matthews. Her acrostic poetry “A Rainstorm” has been published in the Poetic Form Challenge on the blog “TheWombwell Rainbow” owned by Paul Brookes. She also joined the movement “World Suicide Prevention Day” by contributing her poetry “Giving Up The Smooch” on the blog “The Wombwell Rainbow”, an initiative taken by Paul Brookes.

-Gaynor Kane

from Belfast in Northern Ireland, had no idea that when she started a degree with the OU at forty it would be life changing.  It magically turned her into a writer and now she has a few collections of poetry published, all by The Hedgehog Poetry Press Recently, she has been a judge for The North Carolina Poetry Society and guest sub-editor for the inaugural issue of The Storms: A journal of prose, poetry and visual art. Her new chapbook, Eight Types of Love, was released in July. Follow her on Twitter @gaynorkane or read more at www.gaynorkane.com

-Dave Garbutt

has been writing poems since he was 17 and has still not learned to give up. His poems have been published in The Brown Envelope Anthology, and magazines (Horizon, Writers & Readers) most recently on XRcreative and forthcoming in the Deronda review. His poem ‘ripped’ was long listed in the Rialto Nature & Place competition 2021. In August 2021 he took part in the Postcard Poetry Festival and the chap book that came from that is available at the postcard festival website. https://ppf.cascadiapoeticslab.org/2021/11/08/dave-garbutt-interview/.

He was born less than a mile from where Keats lived in N London and sometimes describes himself as ‘a failed biologist, like Keats’, in the 70’s he moved to Reading until till moving to Switzerland (in 1994), where he still lives. He has found the time since the pandemic very productive as many workshops and groups opened up to non-locals as they moved to Zoom. 

Dave retired from the science and IT world in 2016 and he is active on Twitter, FaceBook, Medium.com, Flickr (he had a solo exhibition of his photographs in March 2017). He leads monthly bird walks around the Birs river in NW Switzerland. His tag is @DavGar51.

-Merril D. Smith

lives in southern New Jersey near the Delaware River. Her poetry has been published in several poetry journals and anthologies, including Black Bough Poetry, Anti-Heroin Chic,  Fevers of the Mind, and Nightingale and Sparrow. Her first full-length poetry collection, River Ghosts, is forthcoming from Nightingale & Sparrow Press.  Twitter: @merril_mds  Instagram: mdsmithnj  Website/blog: merrildsmith.com

-Jacqueline Dempsey-Cohen,

a retired teacher and children’s library specialist, considers herself an adventurer. She has meandered the country in an old Chevy van and flown along on midnight runs in a smoky old Convair 440 to deliver the Wall Street Journal. She is a licensed pilot, coffee house lingerer, and finds her inspiration and solace in nature in all its glorious diversity. Loving wife and mother, she makes her home in the wilds of Portland OR. www.MudAndInkPoetry.art 

-Kyla Houbolt’s

first two chapbooks, Dawn’s Fool (Ice Floe Press) and&n