Free for All
Free Poems
Blossom Drop
The last white petals
of snow are tumbling
white-lit by the moon’s
paper lantern.
I drink warmed saki ‘til dawn.
You swim the evening breakers
in sticky heat. We share
sharp heady scents
as chestnuts fall
gnawed by maggots
in your half of our world.
Here the moth rests,
a new day rises.
Blossom has fallen.
In the morning brilliance
the cherry tree is budding.
Martin Porter, born in Jersey, studied Astrophysics in London and Leeds, taught Physics in Jersey, before becoming a systems trainer in New Zealand. He is now retired in Whangarei. He has recently had work published in Live Lines 4 (NZ), Printed Reality (NZ), San Pedro River Review (USA), Bare Fiction magazine (UK), NorthTec’s “Chain Reaction” art and poetry exhibition (NZ).
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Celestial Ballet
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Evening sings, and we listen.
The red blanket sun unfolds,
as orange becomes indigo,
and sleeping stars course to chorus,
beckoning hearts to follow.
Soft upon your lips
are the tones of our earth song,
a wind-embraced crescendo
harmonizing heavens
as we join their verses.
Melody surrounds us,
as caverns ascend
harp-stringed moonbeams.
Tiptoe now the star paths,
hand-in-hand to dance, celestial ballet.
-- Memory Trace
These are poems, images or whatever posted for your entertainment without compensation, but with permission to the creator.
Please do not reuse without permission of the creator, and without noting "Published by Better than Starbucks".
A Note about Starting Up
The thing is, when Abundance, A Harvest of Life, Literature & the Arts and Sleeping Bear Press were in their heyday (1998-2002), we received hundreds of submissions, but as we are brand new, we are still in the dozens.
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We had a couple of other poems we would have published except they had been marked as "for consideration with pay only" which is fine, but they were not quite what we will pay for...
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We do want to pay for poetry and we look forward to our tiny contribution to paying for work, but if you want to be part of BTS in the future, you double your chances if you select, please pay, but please consider for publication in "Free for All", too.
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In the meantime, we will continue to update this page as we get more poetry that fits.
Local Poetry Readings
Wherever local is to you, please send us your local poetry reading venue, be it traditional stand up poetry, slam, spoken word, or even a quiet circle in a living room reading quaint verses. If you know of live poetry anywhere, send it to us and we will post it here!