I’m delighted to have four poems in this gorgeous new anthology complied and edited by Kaye Lynne Booth and Robbie Cheadle. Other authors include DL Mullan, Jude Itakali, Ivor Steven, Robbie Cheadle, Michelle Ayon Navajas, Gwen M. Plano, Elizabeth Gauffreau, David Bogomolny, Dawn Pasturino, Maggie Watson, and Colleen Chesebro.
Isn’t this a good time to focus on our small pleasures? Focusing on joy and gratitude is healing. One of my poems describes a walk along the Missouri River. Another celebrates our drives to Eagle Bluffs, a local wetlands, to count the deer. Also, in our dining room we have a huge Norfolk Pine (a gift after Dad died in 2000) and a sprawling umbrella plant (a gift after Mom died in 2016). I imagine I am sitting with my parents while I write at the dining table. We share a view of the patio, where I feed the birds and squirrels. Finally, I share memories of Loghenge, a stack of logs which my husband muscled into position by our small garden. All of my poems address both gratitude and grief. I feel we have to hold both emotions at the same time.
Loghenge
Logs stacked into a sentry to guard
the small garden. In its shade, a mud turtle
chomps on a tomato, pecked at by a starling
and too ripe to hang on. A doe dines
on the basil. A rabbit, the carrot tops.
I harvest what’s left for soup.
Loghenge crumbled to chipped wood, gradually
repurposed as mulch. The tree branches
loom over the garden now, their canopy
blocking the sun. Volunteer kale emerges,
feed for the doe. Nettles can grow, but
I am a stranger to them. Tomatoes fail to thrive.
Our turtle friend, long gone.
The anthology contributors used a variety of poetic forms, such as freestyle, etheree, tanka, haibun, shadorma, garland tanka, garland cinquain, choka, and acrostic. Teagan Geneviene produced the YouTube video. The Kindle book costs $3.99. The purchase link is below. I hope you enjoy the poetry in this book as much as I am!
Extraordinary Sunshine Weaver 
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