perched
on my
bedspread
you rub
your hands
together
like dinner’s coming
no food here
I wave you
away
but you
linger
long enough
to let me
graze a wing
-Bianca Bargo
Bigger than They Appear:
Anthology of Very Short Poems
(Accents Publishing)
Bianca Bargo is a southeastern Kentuckian, 2009 Farquhar Poetry
Award Winner, and University of Kentucky graduate. She
currently lives in Lexington, Kentucky where she is inspired daily.
Rise,
stretch,
bathe,
dry,
crack,
whisk,
sizzle,
fry,
then
drive
dash
do
cross
the
list
through
hike
teach
call
reach
meet
eat
brush
rush
slide
hide
cry
lie.
–Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
Bigger than They Appear:
Anthology of Very Short Poems
(Accents Publishing)
A mangled apple core
clutches the taste of the day
before yesterday.
Even its shadow
has shriveled to pale silence.
Nothing left to eat.
It’s an apple skeleton,
not a spider set to pounce.
Don’t have to squash it.
–Paul Sohar
Bigger than They Appear:
Anthology of Very Short Poems
(Accents Publishing)
Paul Sohar, chemist for a living, poet for the soul, has nine books of translations and one of his own: Homing Poems (Iniquity Press, 2005).
I long for what disturbs
her, for the splinter
she complains of,
I’m jealous of what
has gotten into her today.
Nothing strikes close.
-Marilyn Kallet
Bigger than They Appear:
Anthology of Very Short Poems
“Thirst” first published in In the Great Night (Ithaca House 1981)
I am going to invent a new month.
we say things such as ‘yes’ & ‘I want you.’
we use proper names.
this is a love poem.
-rob mclennan
Bigger than They Appear:
Anthology of Very Short Poems
Ottawa writer rob mclennan is the author of over 20 books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, and regularly posts reviews, essays, interviews and more at robmclennan.blogspot.com.
A sign proclaims
justice for sale.
There are four white
open mailboxes, waiting.
A turtle, the size
of a dinner plate, is crossing.
Buffalos, alpacas,
and cows are grazing.
At the pumpkin patch,
someone’s selling strawberries.
–Staci R. Schoenfeld,
Bigger than They Appear:
Anthology of Very Short Poems
My advice, like I know anything,
is to dedicate the entire day to the gallery.
Regard the clay bull from Peru
and the jade serpent from China
and the recumbent hippo
from the Middle Kingdom—
a mute and motionless zoo,
older and wiser than you.
-Don Boes,
Bigger Than They Appear:
Anthology of Very Short Poems
(Accents Publishing)
There are sharp flashes of light, moments when the miraculous world reveals itself to us swiftly, fully. And, because hte mind is also a miracle, the lucky words sometimes arrive to capture that revelation and through it witness what it means to be alive. That is the girft of this gorgeous collection.
Today at the plumbing store counter
I put on my lipstick.
Around me, men
with heavy jowls,
hairy arms,
speak of plastic parts
and female ends.
In the circle of my compact
my lips glare
an o.
-Libby Falk Jones,
Bigger Than They Appear:
Anthology of Very Short Poems
(Accents Publishing)
I am your bungee woman
head over heels,
bounce to rebound,
always attached,
free-fall and all.
Between us
a certain elasticity,
a bouncing back,
give and take,
pliant pitch,
resilient catch,
back and forth
at your touch
like a swinging
weight on a string.
I always come back.
-Ada Jill Schneider,
Bigger Than They Appear:
Anthology of Very Short Poems
(Accents Publishing)
Ada Jill Schneider directs “The Pleasure of Poetry” at the Somerset Public Library in Massachusetts. Her latest book is Behind the Pictures I Hang (Spinner Publications, 2007).
To the man in the white pickup truck driving past
me in my little Honda on Highway 34,
who pointed out his window
that my silk skirt was trapped in my car door
and flapping its floral sail above the asphalt—
thank you.
-Lisa Zimmerman,
Bigger Than They Appear:
Anthology of Very Short Poems
(Accents Publishing)