FF14 - March 2021

Founder’s Favourites

Issue 14 - March 2021

Bruce Levine

Emory D. Jones

Mark Weinrich

Nolo Segundo

Stella Mazur Preda

Vadim Kagan

Founder’s Favourites | March 2021—Issue 14 | 1


Issue 14-March 2021

Contributors

Bruce Levine

Forever a Blanket 5

Cascading Thoughts 9

The Passage of Time 12

Pathways Leading Home 13

Emory D. Jones

An Offering of Haiku 8

Mark Weinrich

Present Delight 3

Nolo Segundo

The Old Tracks 6

The Caress of Words 7

Every Human Heart 11

Stella Mazur Preda

The Healing of my Soul 4

Vadim Kagan

A Virtue 14

Why They’re My Favourites

Mark Weinrich

Present Delight I like that the dawn

is described as having pink fingers,

and we reach out with open hands.

Stella Mazur Preda

The Healing of my Soul This is

honest and raw with a comforting

end.

Nolo Segundo

The Caress of Words I like reading a

poem breathing and having a

heartbeat. Every Human Heart I like

the variety of visuals. The Old

Tracks I relate to this poem describes

something I used to love doing—

walking over old train tracks.

Emory D. Jones

An Offering of Haiku I love seeing

birds as creating words with form and

calligraphy.

Bruce Levine

Cascading Thoughts The first four

lines captured my attention. Forever

a Blanket I like the idea of being held

in a blanket as soft as cashmere. The

Passage of Time The sounds in the

first stanza drew my attention.

Pathways Leading Home Light,

prisms, golden sunsets—mmm.

Vadim Kagan

A Virtue This is current and really

hits home.

Cover—vv | stock.adobe.com


Present Delight

By Mark Weinrich

When dawn’s pink fingers

stretch gently across the land.

May we reach out with

open hands.

Perhaps at other dawns

we have raised a fist

unable to release

yesterday’s sorrows

and leftover stress.

May our hearts rest

in the innumerable gifts

of this present.

May we delightfully

unwrap them

one by one.

martin | stock.adobe.com


The Healing of My Soul

By Stella Mazur Preda

The years have gone and now, you are gone too.

Our mutual heartache and pain

suffered no boundaries

today seems utterly devoid of reason;

so much anger

so many years

squandered in a maze of futile struggles

unable to escape the labyrinth of differences;

yet, before life had run its course

we salvaged our mother-daughter relationship

savoured a minute degree of mutual respect.

You brought me into this world ... gave life

I cradled you as you left it ... gave peace

our bond sealed eternally in your death.

Lidija | stock.adobe.com


Forever A Blanket

By Bruce Levine

Folded forever

In a blanket of love

A fishbowl of virtue

Crystalline clear

Peacock feathers

Spread in a bouquet

A colorful rainbow

To tie ‘round your finger

A constant reminder

Of constancy declared

Held in a blanket

Soft as cashmere

Warmth everlasting

A comet revealed

A tail made of stardust

A magical space

Forever a blanket

To wrap you with love

tata_cos | stock.adobe.com


The Old Tracks

By Nolo Segundo

In my town and only

90 feet from my house

Run a pair of old tracks,

Railroad tracks older

Than my house, even

Older than me, and I

Am become old, very,

Very old, like a tree

Whose branches

Betray it with

Every strong wind

And fall to ground

Leaving less and

Less of the tree.

I used to walk in

Between those

Carefully laid

Iron rails, stepping

On the worn wood

Of the old ties as

Though they were

Made of glass….

I walked the length

Of my small town,

I walked the world.

I walked where

Passenger trains

Carried lives and

Their once warm,

Now cold, dreams

And I was part of

Each life, now gone

To ether and mist,

And so too my

Lonely soul will

Ride those rails

One bright day.

Still, a freight train

Comes by once or

Even twice a week,

And I thrill to hear

Its wailing horn as

it cries out for a

forgotten glory,

and the ground

still shakes a bit

as the old train

lumbers slowly

by my house and

I wait a holy wait

For the music of

Its rumbling and

The cry of its old

Heart as a young

Engineer pulls the

Whistle and sees

Not that he is

Driving eternity.

eric—stock.adobe.com


The Caress of Words

By Nolo Segundo

When I read a poem that breathes,

pulses with its own heartbeat,

relentless, compelling in its own desire—

I feel touched as by another, some

unseen hand brushing my hair,

lips as light as air licking the flesh

near my own sojourning heart…

and I return the caress as my hand

glides ever questing o’er the soft and

solid paper, my eyes rolling over the

printed page like a hawk seeking prey,

looking with the desire of the wild

at the naked words, unclothed by any

convention, unsoiled by any deceit.

A good poem is a lover—

a great poem, a great lover,

the kind you never forget.

eric—stock.adobe.com


An Offering of Haiku

By Emory D. Jones

Across the meadow

Yellow butterflies flitting

Like dancing sunshine.

Squawks from up above

Black words upon parchment sky—

Crow calligraphy.

On the pale blue sky

Flocks of birds are writing poems

That clouds will erase.

Monarchs’ stately flight

Among the blooming flowers

Insect royalty.

JasonGeorge—stock.adobe.com


Cascading Thoughts

Bruce Levine

Sifting through cascading thoughts

Transcendence arising like a geyser

Spraying particles adrift as liquid air

Quenching the thirst for answers

Like the primordial soup awakening

A new life in a new day

Fulfillment of a destiny just over the apex

As mountain ranges spring to life

Through volcanic action previously hidden

In the depths at the core of the earth

Everlasting in form and structure

Yet presenting new challenges

While creating new vistas

Open to the eyes of the true seekers

ferchi | pixabay.com


How to

become a

Founder’s

Favourite

Content contains anything I find

memorable, creative, unique,

visual, or even simple. Accepted

contributors will most likely write

about things that are emotionally

moving. Not sure I will like your

submission? Take a chance! You

have nothing to lose. And who

knows? You may end up being

among the founder's favourites!

Submit today!

http://foundersfavourites.blogspot.com


Every Human Heart

By Nolo Segundo

Every human heart is a church,

A sacred temple, a holy mosque,

And God is found within

In measure to its love.

Some say—

There are no miracles.

Look around, I say,

And then see,

A fat baby laughing,

A new cloak of silken snow,

A heart beating 90 years,

A mind seeing inside.

What is an orchid

If not a miracle?

What is love

If not the wonder

Of the universe?

TSS Jojo Wolff—stock.adobe.com


The Passage of Time

By Bruce Levine

Framing the future

In iambic pentameter

As notes float

On currents of air

And soundwaves

Pierce the atmosphere

Starlight filtering through clouds

Dusting the horizon

With pixie dust

Of long forgotten rainbows

In search of the pot of gold

Hidden with the dexterity

Of age old legends

Syllables scrawled

With graphic precision

Outlining parables

As hieroglyphics carved in stone

Hold a time capsule

In a tome or a tomb

With everlasting certainty

Of the passage of time

Zigor Agirrezabala Vitoria


Pathways Leading Home

By Bruce Levine

Virgin territory

Soaking up a new environment

A new life in a new land

Free to roam

Free to explore

Free to make a new beginning

Roads not taken left far behind

And wrong turns forgotten

A journey to the future

Held in the palm of your hand

Time in a bottle floating on the tide

Of a never-ending ocean

Snatched up and held to the light

Prisms bending rays

Illuminating

Golden sunsets over forests

Filled with pathways

Leading home


louismolinero—stock.adobe.com

A Virtue

By Vadim Kagan

In the morning I bring you your coffee and scone,

But you are on the phone, yet again on the phone,

You say give me a minute - I do as I’m told

And your scone gets all dry and your coffee gets cold.

Later on, I prepare the table for lunch;

You say yes I am coming but I’ve got a hunch

That you are on the phone and I am a fool

As your soup stays uneaten, your mug stays half full.

...you look up at me and

you wink and you smile—

and again I believe that it

was all worthwhile.

Late at night when I bring you warm cookies and milk,

You are wearing nothing but spidery silk,

And you look up at me and you wink and you smile -

And again I believe that it all was worthwhile.


Contributor Bios

Bruce Levine, a 2019 Pushcart Prize Poetry Nominee, has spent his life as a writer of fiction and

poetry and as a music and theatre professional. Over three hundred of his works are published in over

twenty-five on-line journals including Ariel Chart, Friday Flash Fiction, Literary Yard; over thirty

print books including Poetry Quarterly, Haiku Journal, Dual Coast Magazine, Tipton Poetry Journal,

and his shows have been produced in New York and around the country. Six eBooks are available from

Amazon.com. His work is dedicated to the loving memory of his late wife, Lydia Franklin. A native

Manhattanite, Bruce lives in New York with his dog, Gabi. Visit him at www.brucelevine.com

Dr. Emory D. Jones is a retired English teacher who has taught in high school and in several

community colleges. He has four hundred and fifty-five credits including publication in such journals as

Writer’s Digest, Smokey Blue Literary and Arts Magazine, The Light Ekphrastic, Big Muddy; a Journal

of the Mississippi River, Three Line Poetry, Auroras & Blossoms, Pegasus, Halcyon Days

Magazine, Falling Star Magazine, The Cumberland River Review, The Delta Poetry Review, Calliope,

Deep South Magazine, Modern Poetry Quarterly Review, and Encore: Journal of the NFSPS. He lives

Mark Weinrich is a cancer survivor, a retired pastor, gardener, hiker, and musician. He has had over

435 poems, articles, and short stories published in numerous publications, some include The Upper

Room, Birds and Blooms, New Mexico Magazine, Ideals, The Secret Place, and Live. He has also sold

eight children’s books and currently has two fantasy novels on Kindle.

Nolo Segundo is the pen name of retired teacher, L.J. Carber, 73, who in the past 4 years has had

poems published online/in print in over 30 literary magazines in the US, UK, Canada, Romania, and

India. A few months a trade publisher released a 118 pp. paperback book of 60 of his poems under his

pen name and the title, The Enormity of Existence-- a title chosen to reflect his awareness for the past

50 years that he has a consciousness which predates birth and survives death. He became aware of this,

his immortal soul, when he had a near-death experience whilst almost drowning in a Vermont river at

24. Before then he had been a nihilistic-materialist, believing only matter is real in the Universe; now

he knows the problem is not that life is meaningless but that there is so much meaning that even at best we can only

grasp a bit of the Great Mystery, which some call God. Many of his poems seek out and try to express a sense of this

endless 'More'.

Stella Mazur Preda is a resident of Waterdown, Ontario, Canada. Having retired from elementary

teaching in Toronto, she is owner and publisher of Serengeti Press, a small press publishing company,

located in the Hamilton area. Since its opening in 2003, Serengeti Press has published 43 Canadian

books. Serengeti Press is now temporarily on hiatus. Stella Mazur Preda has been published in

numerous Canadian anthologies and some US, most notably the purchase of her poem My Mother’s

Kitchen by Penguin Books, New York. Stella has released four previous books, Butterfly Dreams

(Serengeti Press, 2003); Witness, Anthology of Poetry (Serengeti Press, 2004), edited by John B.

Lee; From Rainbow Bridge to Catnip Fields (Serengeti Press, 2007) The Fourth Dimension,

(Serengeti Press, 2012). She is a current member of Tower Poetry Society in Hamilton, Ontario and The Ontario

Poetry Society. Stella is currently working on her fifth book, Tapestry, based on the life of her aunt and written

completely in poetic form. Tapestry will hopefully be released in 2021.

Vadim Kagan writes poetry and prose in English, Russian and, occasionally, in combination of both

languages. Vadim's poems, bringing together traditions of Russian and English metered verse, have

been put to music and performed by local and international artists. Vadim lives in Bethesda, MD, where

he runs an AI company providing advanced technology capabilities to Fortune 500 companies

and government agencies. Look Vadim up on Faceboof and Twitter (@vadimkagan) and Instagram

(@wines_and_rhymes)



Issue 14—March 2021

Thanks for

spending time with

my favourites.


FF14 - March 2021

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