Published in Delicate Emissions Poetry Zine

·Pinned

Volume 1, Issue 2

March Equinox 2022 Our second issue features ten poems, including the second part of featured poet Zoe Chuang’s four-part coming-of-age-and-leaving-home poem, “post-suburban gothic.” And while we didn’t declare a theme, we appreciate when common threads show themselves among submissions. In language at once simple and lyrical, these poems challenge our concepts of home…

Poem

5 min read

Published in Zen Poetry

·Apr 29

Written in the stars

By Dusti RWF of Delicate Emissions — Written in the stars: with every moonrise comes an opportunity for your reflection — detach, re-engage, approach life as full of wonder.

Poetry

1 min read

Written in the stars

By Dusti RWF of Delicate Emissions

Written in the stars:

with every moonrise

comes an opportunity

for your reflection —

detach, re-engage,

approach life as full of wonder.

Apr 27

We’ll be river otters

A prose poem by Dusti RWF When I’m reborn, I’ll have endless noodles and root beer floats. A closet full of the same suit, just like Olivia in Fringe, but not for the same reason. Every Windham Hill album ever made, alphabetized by artist name, will be lovingly displayed on…

Poetry

1 min read

Apr 26

Scene from a Window

By Dusti RWF Corvids are hanging out together in the bush outside my window. I see a cardinal, two Stellar’s jays, and a crow. Each seems so unmoved by this untamed wind ripping through the dry courtyard, this hot, soulless sun. About ten minutes after I finished this poem, the…

Poem

1 min read

Scene from a Window

By Dusti RWF

a small green-leafed bush on a sunny day — by zhouhao509 on Pixabay

Corvids are hanging

out together in the bush

outside my window.

I see a cardinal,

two Stellar’s jays, and a crow.

Each seems so unmoved

by this untamed wind

ripping through the dry courtyard,

this hot, soulless sun.

About ten minutes after I finished this poem, the…

Apr 21

Excellent. Thank you.

Randall Snyder

Thanks for your kind words, Randall.

1 min read

Thanks for your kind words, Randall.

Apr 19

Hedera helix: a tanka

By Dusti RWF

Tanka

1 min read

a grey fence with dark green common ivy — Photo by Gromovataya on Pixabay

Hedera helix: a tanka

Published in The Open Kimono

·Apr 18

Easy String Course

By Dusti RWF of Delicate Emissions I travel in my sleep, and always know my way, which is the opposite of my waking life. As a Girl Scout leader, I signed my troop of Brownies up for a string course so we could work on our navigation skills, since they…

Dreams

2 min read

Apr 18

I always choose hard: a working-it-out

By Dusti RWF I’ve often identified with the leaping hare in the photo above: skipping some steps, getting to places quickly. The difference is that the hare moves by intuition; I, a human spirit in a human body, have been moving mostly by compulsion, often fear-driven. Right now, I’m a…

Essay

2 min read

Published in Being Known

·Apr 15

On Heartbreak

A poem — Trace your fallen tears — soft fingers across the moss, the trees, heavy, sob. Be nobody, go nowhere, and tend to your softened heart.

Tanka

1 min read

On Heartbreak

A poem

Trace your fallen tears —

soft fingers across the moss,

the trees, heavy, sob.

Be nobody, go nowhere,

and tend to your softened heart.

Published in Zen Poetry

·Apr 15

Even the birds know

even the birds know when you’ve listened to joan baez’s “diamonds and rust” thirty times in a row; it’s a form of meditation, where you get your insight when your heart is in pieces and you choose to observe it as a work of art just as it is.

Poem

1 min read

Even the birds know

a rusty blue and brown metal door — Photo by Tengyart on Unsplash

even the birds know

when you’ve listened to

joan baez’s “diamonds and rust”

thirty times in a row;

it’s a form of meditation,

where you get your insight

when your heart

is in pieces and you choose

to observe it

as a work of art

just as it is.