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Posts Tagged ‘Saturday readers share’

Saturday Share – Sandra Brodkin Dreis

Posted in Imagery, tagged , , , , on August 8, 2026| 3 Comments »

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Saturday morning readers share:
Sandra Brodkin Dreis
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Tympanal
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Cradled upside down
in fibrous threads
I rest, develop from
undefined strangeness
into my destiny.
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I wonder…
this grove, too, upended
and suspended, might be
entirely on its verdant head–
sun on a blanket with moon,
the sky grassy, ticklish.
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Here, among the branches,
every part of me listens,
every pore hears forest.
A breathing leaf, the fungal air,
insect cousins inching closer.
Bats flap above, echolocate
like drones. I fear their target.
A hundred fine scales
structure, strengthen me–
now flight filigreed
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my blood pumps, my belly
vibrates, tiny organs react,
and as sound waves waffle
and pulse–there are whispers
of wings to come.
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Sandra Brodkin Dreis
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❀ ❁ ✾
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I am cultivating the perennial, Alocasia, on my deck, so impressed that they enjoy the blasting heat and humidity as much as I do not. My Jack Russell, Jillie Bean, does not disturb them, probably thinking they are doggie umbrellas.
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My first full length poetry collection, Good Dirt has been released by Kelsay Books. Check out their site or Amazon.
Sandra
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❀ ❁ ✾
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Note from Bill – many insects are able to hear via a specialized organ, a tympanal or tympanic membrane. Like our human tympanum but visible on the exoskeleton rather than tucked into an “ear.”
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Additional poetry by Sandra Dreis at Verse and Image:
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Thank you for visiting Verse and Image:
. . . . . every Friday I present one or more poems I’ve read this week that particularly speak to me;
. . . . . Saturdays I present a poem or two submitted by YOU, my readers.
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If you would like to offer a poem for consideration, either by a favorite author or your own work, please view these GUIDELINES for Saturday Readers Share:
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If you would like to receive an email each time a post appears, please SUBSCRIBE to Verse and Image using the button on the Home Page.
 . 
If you have a hard time finding the SUBSCRIBE button on this WordPress site, you can send me your email address and I will add you to the subscriber list. Send your request to
 . 
COMMENTS@GRIFFINPOETRY.COM
 . 
Thanks again for joining the conversation.
 . 
– Bill
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Saturday Share – Richard Widerkehr

Posted in Imagery, tagged , , , on June 20, 2026| Leave a Comment »

DSCN4899

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Saturday morning readers share:
Richard Widerkehr
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When You Ask About That Dream
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I’m lost in Yakima, but it’s more like New York.
As I trudge through abandoned buildings,
looking for my dog Zach, dead two years now,
things seem familiar, like a city
where I lost something—ashes,
a few small, cold stars.  A woman I don’t know
follows me through vestibules and alcoves
whose mailboxes have been jimmied out.
We heave open a wrought-iron door.
Zach hauls himself up when he sees me,
his fur matted, his body thin.
Absently, slowly, we walk down the street
as we did when the tumor
had weakened him.  I hear a thud
and turn. Near a rusty burn barrel,
Zach’s lying in a hole in the ground.
I bend to help him.  Low flames
lick at his fur, flicker down his side.
I pat at beige and brown patches
almost smoldering, put my arms around him,
feeling the strength across his chest—
this fallen king, a god in disguise,
who used to lie at my door
like a sleepy lion, who butted his head
into my lap when I worked at the typewriter,
who came whenever I asked.
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❁
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Missing The Owl
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You have to come look right now,
she says. A Great Horned Owl in the spruce tree
by our red house—I scan layers and levels
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in dark branches.  Nothing; then a bough
swings up, and it’s flown.  At least she saw
the tufted horns, wings that open, close.
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As if some beast of mercy had offered
this late chance, I gaze at the straight, gray trunk,
dead center of the tree,
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then turn to her lilacs, humble bees—
now, the smell of rain.
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❁
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These two selections are from Missing The Owl, my fifth book, (Shanti Arts Publications).  “When You Ask About That Dream” was first published in Open:  A Journal of Arts & Letters, and “Missing The Owl” was taken by Main Street Rag.
– Richard
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Additional poetry by Richard Widerkehr at Verse and Image:
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Thank you for visiting Verse and Image:
. . . . . every Friday I present one or two poems I’ve read this week that particularly speak to me;
. . . . . Saturdays I present one or two poems submitted by YOU, my readers.
 . 
If you would like to offer a poem for consideration, either by a favorite author or your own work, please view these GUIDELINES for Saturday Readers Share:
 . 
 . 
If you would like to receive an email each time a post appears, please SUBSCRIBE to Verse and Image using the button on the Home Page.
 . 
If you have a hard time finding the SUBSCRIBE button on this WordPress site, you can send me your email address and I will add you to the subscriber list. Send your request to
 . 
COMMENTS@GRIFFINPOETRY.COM
 . 
Thanks again for joining the conversation.
 . 
– Bill
 . 
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Saturday Share – Bradley Strahan

Posted in family, tagged , , , , , , on May 23, 2026| 4 Comments »

The journey is . . .

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Saturday morning readers share:
Bradley Strahan
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To My Father, as He Should Be in Paradise
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Surely there’s a baseball diamond there
where you could be the pitcher you were meant to be.
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And Marilyn, not Mom, must be on your arm,
sexy as the picture you kept on your shop wall.
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There would be beaches with ice cream stands
and real hot dogs with gobs of mustard leaking out.
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No bills you can’t pay, no demands you can’t meet . . . .
You’d have your ’55 two-tone Chevy back, bright as new.
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Oh, and that odd sense of humor would have those angels
rolling in heavenly aisles at your mangled puns.
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There’d be tons of swinging there, and not just chariots:
Benny’s boys and Glen and Tommy too, all playing just for you.
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Funny, I never saw you dance but I know you could.
Cut a rug Dad! And those pennies from heaven are all yours too.
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B.R. Strahan
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Bradley R. Strahan is best known to North Carolina writers and readers as the long time editor and publisher of the poetry journal Visions International. His creative influence, however, spans continents, with a worldwide following for his work since 1976. His publications include several books of poetry and over 500 poems in journals in North America, the UK, Ireland, Belgium, and Korea. He has been anthologized in numerous collections and translated into French, Spanish, Dutch, Serbian, Macedonian, Korean, etc.. He has lectured and read his work in America, Europe and Asia; is a former Fulbright Professor of Poetry & American Culture; taught poetry at Georgetown University; for over 20 years sponsored a series of international poetry readings at Rock Creek Gallery in DC and other venues; and in 2001 replaced John Ashbery as the American poet at the “Literaire Podia Amsterdam” in Holland.
NOTE: Brad has a few copies left of his book “A Parting Glass.” See the link below from 2022 for sample poems. If you would like a copy contact him at brs.poetry@gmail.com; $5 to cover postage and a bit of the printing.
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Additional poetry by Brad Strahan at Verse and Image:
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VISIONS INTERNATIONAL featured at Verse and Image:
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Cookie & Wilson

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Thank you for visiting Verse and Image:
. . . . . every Friday I present one or two poems I’ve read this week that particularly speak to me;
. . . . . Saturdays I present one or two poems submitted by YOU, my readers.
 . 
If you would like to offer a poem for consideration, either by a favorite author or your own work, please view these GUIDELINES for Saturday Readers Share:
 . 
 . 
If you would like to receive an email each time a post appears, please SUBSCRIBE to Verse and Image using the button on the Home Page.
 . 
If you have a hard time finding the SUBSCRIBE button on this WordPress site, you can send me your email address and I will add you to the subscriber list. Send your request to
 . 
COMMENTS@GRIFFINPOETRY.COM
 . 
Thanks again for joining the conversation.
 . 
– Bill
 . 
Doughton Park Tree -- 5/1/2021
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