Winged Moon

edited by Aubrie Cox

Winged Moon is a project from Yay Words! Poets were invited to submit short form poetry and artwork about faerie folk and/or lanterns to celebrate the summer solstice. Each poet who submitted was guaranteed at least one poem into the collection.

All poems and artwork copyright of their authors.

Cover art by Kris Kondo.

IntroductionWhen putting together a collection, I like to arrange the poems so that they link. The challenge of linking all the poems together may be one of my favorite parts. Whether intentional or not, each poem influences the reading of the next, so I think of a collection as a sequence or even a loose narrative. Apparently so was everyone else for this prompt!

I was delighted by the collaboration among poets in the renray and rengay sequences. In addition, there were poems paired together, and others that worked so closely together it felt that they should go together. When it came time to put the poems together as one cohesive collection, they clustered together naturally.

Now the days will get shorter and daylight will slip away, but inspiration will remain the same.

Aubrie Cox20 June, 2012

1

dusky twilighta full moon begins to fillthe empty lantern

Johnny Baranski

every lantern litin the Japanese gardenjust for tonightthe yukata slipsfrom my shoulder

Christina Nguyen

2

land-lockedthe mermaid maroonedon his forearm

Peter Newton

one by onethe floating lanternsembrace the night

Mark E. Brager

3

a yin yang flickerthrough the holesof the pinprick lanternshe holds his handto her belly

Terri L. French

peace lanternin a world of turmoili wonder whythe gardener has hidden itamong the shrubs

Johnny Baranski

4

paper lanternsdo you know how many diedat Hiroshima

Johnny Baranski

paper lanternwith the white dome’s heatNagasaki

Martin Gottlieb Cohen

5

6

FlickersA renray Mark E. Brager, Terri French, Lucas Stensland, Kathy Nguyen, and Christina Nguyen

floating lanterns . . .from deep in the rushesa loon’s call

riddles ponderedin the moonlight

a flickerdown in the glen. . . and its trail yellow monarchthe primrose uncurls

7

another whisperawaits an answer

broken bottlesnear a small stone crosswind rising

toppled cairnat the water’s edge

cypress vineleading me hometo the winged moon

8

machairtwo mermaids in flagranteon the opposite bank

Mark Harris

9

Arashimaya River Banks

Drifting down river one moonlight August night banks of bending pine—

Here one black bough dips into the calm, cool water: swaying red lanterns

Antoinette Libro

10

in bullfrog stillnessof a summer night pondfireflies circle and winkstarry fay reflectionsin the blink between light and darka star falls

Yousei Hime

11

too late to gather bluebonnetsnext year I’ll weave theminto a wreath ofcalculus and Spanish mosswrap it around a pecan piefloat it down the Neches Rivermy heart, a lantern grief brightwith seeds of his memories

Yousei Hime

12

the way the watershimmersmy belief in mermaids

Peter Newton

unseen yetacross my napefaerie breath

Susan Nelson Myers

13

Into the NightCara Holman & Kirsten Cliff

garden partymoths flitteraround the lantern

fairy dustin her hair

pixie ringdancing longinto the night

koi pondthe children huntfor mermaids

tinkling laughterclusters of coral bells

dark lanternstill the heady scentof wild jasmine

14haiga by Victoria Durm

15

eating honeyi dance and flyin the flowers

Maria Santomauro

a bee gathers the faerie deep in the flower

Frances Trosborg

16

haig

a by

Kar

en C

hand

ler

17haiga by Merrill Gonzales

18

MidsummerAubrie Cox

double dog darea white candleburning away my youth so brightly in the dark wood

forest floor floodedwith faerie lightsI lay my head downand forget howold I am…

the shortest nightshadows danceto make amendsas they havefor a hundred years

19

puck whispersand the stagefalls to blackno grove, no danceno sound1

sunlight slipsinto the treeshow old I’ve become… the elves’ songstill ringing in my ears

1 Last two lines taken from Sappho’s fragments

20

pixie dusthovering on the edgeof sleep

Cara Holman

21

mirror, mirrorthe negative spacebecomes her

Mark E. Brager

at his toucha shiver, her skin thinnerthan dawn

Alegria Imperial

22

Faerie’s ParasolA renray Christina Nguyen, Mark E. Brager, Kathy Nguyen, Lucas Stensland, and Terri French

faerie wingsthe first breathof dawn

muffled sounds beneaththe antique comforter

workdaya shift of sundustaround the cat

easing into midsummertrumpeter swan

23

paper lanternsshe pilfers his drink parasol

still waitingfor that last messageeventide

savoring a sliceof ripe moon

chamomile starswhere the Sandman leavesbehind his dreams

24

stone lantern...could a fairy be hiding insidethe dark moon?

Kris Kondo

25art by Kris Kondo

Links OutJohnny Baranski - @haikumonk <http://twitter.com/#!/haikumonk>

Karen Chandler - Visioning <http://karenchandler.wordpress.com/>

Kirsten Cliff - Swimming in Lines of Haiku <http://kirstencliffwrites.blogspot.com>

Martin Gottlieb Cohen - @martin1223 <https://twitter.com/#!/martin1223>

Aubrie Cox - Yay Words! <http://yaywords.wordpress.com>

Victoria Durm - The Wonderful World of Victoria Durm <http://victoriadurm.net/>

Terri L. French - The Mulling Muse <http://terrilfrench-themullingmuse.blogspot.com/>

Merrill Gonzales - snowbirdpress <http://snowbirdpress.wordpress.com/>

Mark Harris - markfharrismemes <https://sites.google.com/site/markfharrismemes/>

Yousei Hime - Shiteki Na Usagi <http://tasmith1122.wordpress.com/>

Cara Holman - Prose Posies <http://carahoman.wordpress.com>

Alegria Imperial - jornales <http://jornales.wordpress.com/>

Susan Nelson Myers - The Frugal Poet <http://www.frugalpoet.com/>

Peter Newton - @ThePeterNewton <http://twitter.com/#!/ThePeterNewton>

Christina Nguyen - A wish for the sky... <http://tina.mnnguyen.com/>

Kathy Nguyen - Poetry by Lotus <http://alotus-poetry.livejournal.com/>

Lucas Stensland - Haiku Cowboy Productions < https://www.facebook.com/pages/Haiku- Cowboy-Productions/208395509201202>

CreditsThe following poems first appeared in the listed publications.

“dusky twilight” by Johnny Baranski Dragonfly: A Quarterly of Haiku (Summer 1986); Fish Pond Moon (sunburst matchbooks, 1986)

“peace lantern” by Johnny Baranski bottle rockets 13.2 (2012)

“Arashiyama River Banks” by Antoinette Libro Brussels Sprouts: Haiku Quarterly (Fall 1981)

IndexBaranski, Johnny - 1,3.4Brager, Mark E. - 2, 6-7, 22-23, 21

Chandler, Karen - 16Cliff, Kirsten - 20Cohen, Martin Gottlieb - 4Cox, Aubrie - 18-19

Durm, Victoria - 14

French, Terri L. - 3, 6-7, 22-23

Gonzales, Merrill - 17

Harris, Mark - 8Hime, Yousei - 10, 11Holman, Cara - 13, 20

Imperial, Alegria - 21

Kondo, Kris - cover, 24, 25

Libro, Antoinette - 9

Myers, Susan Nelson - 12

Newton, Peter - 2, 12Nguyen, Christina - 1, 6-7, 22-23Nguyen, Kathy - 6-7, 22-23

Santomauro, Maria - 15Stensland, Lucas - 6-7, 22-23

Trosborg, Frances - 15

Wappner, Bette Norcross (b’oki) - 5

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