WWPH WRITES ISSUE 104

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WWPH Writes 104…continues our annual special issues of TINY POEMS…this year: AMERICAN HAIKU on celebration, resilience, and rebellion. We also have a very special trio of haiku (breaking out of the American Haiku form) from poet Grace Cavalieri.

Our next big project, our 50th-anniversary anthology, AMERICA’S FUTURE: poetry & prose in response to tomorrow, launches on September 9th, and it is now available for pre-orders in trade paperback and ebook. At over 500 pages, this is our most ambitious anthology ever. AMERICA’S FUTURE features 164 writers, including an opening from Congressman Jamie Raskin, a first poem by the iconic E. Ethelbert Miller in collaboration with Mihos Kinnas, and so many more literary responses to today’s anxiety and tomorrow’s hope.

While the official pub date is September 9th, we’re having a ‘sneak preview’ end-of-summer WWPH Literary Salon on Tuesday, August 26th from 5-8 pm at the DEN downstairs in Politics & Prose (Connecticut Avenue). WWPH Literary Salons are free, three-hour gatherings that feature creative writing, readings, and discussions. Join us as we write/speak/discuss some truth to power. Please RSVP: we can only accommodate 60 people for this free event. See below for link.

On Wednesday, September 10th, from 7-8:30 pm, we are celebrating the official publication of AMERICA’S FUTURE with a VIRTUAL (ZOOM) reading under the Writer’s Center banner. Please join us. Link below. And stay tuned! We have over a dozen events planned throughout the DMV.

Lastly, another shout-out to a new book from a WWPH press-mate is in order: Nancy Naomi Carlson. This is particularly timely as the literary world has marked August as Women in Translation Month to promote and honor women translators, along with the many women writers writing around the world in languages other than English.

Enjoy the end of summer! We hope to see you at one of our upcoming fall events. Read on!

Caroline Bock & Jona Colson
co-presidents/editors

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LOVE NOTE TO AMERICA

If you would love me

red/white/blue

I would love you too

Bernardine (Dine) Watson is an award-winning nonfiction writer and poet who lives in Washington, DC.

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Fascism relishes ignorance;

Conserving history of the possible:

Our wisdom work

Dan Vera writes poems fueled by coffee and inspired by his friends, his love, and his dog. More at danvera.com

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purple mountains rise

through the smoke

neighbors waving hands

Pam Mathison-Levitt is a disabled poet living in the DMV; her work can be found on Instagram @pmmlevitt or Facebook at Lines and Branches.

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WHAT MAKES ME, ME

My hair, my struggle

natural

My home, my own, love

Anita Ogbeide wrote a little poem about a time that felt like a huge problem. Now my acceptance is love, it is me.

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WORLD PRIDE

17^th Street party

Throngs rave dance rampant joy

Romancing with rainbows

Elizabeth Ambos writes and lives in Washington, DC. She is currently working on her MFA in Creative Writing at Hood College.

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Joyful protesters

unwilling

to abandon hope

Peter Montgomery relies on poets and poetry for renewal and inspiration to fight fascism and seek freedom and justice for all.

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SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS

Virtue reminds us,
bare-breasted,
Virginia won’t kneel.

Sky Sprayberry lives in the DMV with her family, dog, and too many plants. Find her on Instagram and elsewhere @writtenbysky

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white red blue
disfigured on Fourth of July
has to recover      

Danuta E. Kosk-Kosicka is an author of two prize-winning chapbooks, translator for four books by Lidia Kosk, co-editor of Loch Raven Review. Marylander since 1981. danutakk.wordpress.com

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YOU ARE

You are here

Alive and breathing

You are here

Kè Marsalis writes haiku.

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LONGING

Cactus in a jar,

silently

itching the smooth glass.

 Daniel W. Ross hails from Baltimore, Maryland. His poetry has been published in As You Were: The Military Review and Mouthful of Salt.

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Vietnam Vet reads poetry

about a bored soldier with a gun

and a farmer in the field.

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shopping for my great grandson

100 toy soldiers with guns

I finally find 10 spacemen.

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the gray bay

licks its foamy shore

again and again.

Grace Cavalieri was Maryland’s tenth Poet Laureate. She’s the author of several books and produced plays. She’s founder and producer of THE POET AND THE POEM, now from the Library of Congress, celebrating 48 years on air. 250 of her poetry podcasts went to the moon on Lunar Codex from NASA, landing in The Ocean Of Storms. In 1975, she founded, with three other poets, the Washington Writers’ Publishing House.

If you missed our first August issue of AMERICAN HAIKU…find them here!