Joel Savishinsky
Introduction to ‘Quartet for Four Pens:
Alexis De Tocqueville-Foreigners Know Best; Fyodor Dostoevsky-At Gun Point;
Zora Neale Hurston-Making It Up; George Orwell-Pre-dating the Future”

"His was a fancy name and pedigree"
Alexis Tocqueville: Foreigners Know Best
by Joel Savishinsky

"The moral weight of language and silence"
Fyodor Dostoevsky: At Gun Point
by Joel Savishinsky

"Those years were the elephant in the room"
George Orwell: Pre-dating the Future
by Joel Savishinsky

"She found that language was the way"
Zora Neale Hurston: Making It Up
by Joel Savishinsky

"Renée said 'I’m not mad'"
The ICE Man Cometh
by Sharmagne Leland-St.John

"A key unlocks the night"
For the Word
by Geoffrey Heptonstall

"No man has the right to snuff out another man’s candle"
Mr. Lincoln: Poet
by Michael Escoubas

"A misty panorama of blue-brown prairie"
North of Liberal
by Vaughn Neeld

"Murmurs of rippling streams"
Emily–An Acrostic Golden Shovel
by Paulette Demers Turco

"A basso voice met in the air by its own echos"
If the Mind Is Not the Brain
by Lana Hechtman Ayers

"A drab wheel barrow"
With Apologies to William Carlos Williams
by Mark Fleisher

“Shadows in a looking glass”
Pindaric Flights
by Barbara Anna Gaiardoni

"

"Your love smiles down"
in a house of poets (for Victoria)
by jacob erin-cilberto

“You gaze through the Autumn window”
To My Mentor, William Marr
—On his 90th Birthday
by Bing Hua
trans: William Marr

"Ducks swim the quicksilver pond"
Rain for Arthur Sze
by Lenora Rain-Lee Good

"Who among us has such an experience"
Mystical Magic on a Mountaintop
by Elayne Clift

"Chandeliers blaze an invitation"
The Music
by W. Wayne Lin

"A spring whose waters never fail"
Step
by Scott Shaffer

Poetry Prompt For May 2026

Untamed Arabesque: Poems
by Marianne Peel
Reviewed by Michael Escoubas

Turning
by Jeremy Loynes
Reviewed by Neil Leadbeater

Anthropomorphizing at the Wharf: New Poems
by Colleen McManus Hein
Reviewed by Michael Escoubas

He Dances in His Wheelchair
by Charles Becker
Reviewed by Michael Escoubas

Publisher: Westbrae Literary Group
Rays Were Never So Near As Now:
Selected Poems 2020-2024
by David Dephy

Publisher: The Instruments of Peace Press
Glimpsing Benevolence
Poems that Reverence the Ordinary
by Gloria Jean Viglione

A surprisingly sweet and sour non-alcoholic mocktail
Pink Surprise
from the kitchen of Sharmagne Leland-St.John

A cold bean salad to begin your Easter or holiday brunch 
Garbanzo Salad 
from the kitchen of Sharmagne Leland -St.John

Oldies but Goodies

Poetry Tea
from the kitchen of Sharmagne Leland-St. John

Deviled Eggs
from the kitchen of Sharmagne Leland-St. John

Easter-Egg Salad
from the kitchen of Sharmagne Leland-St John

*FP*

Alexis de Tocqueville (1850 portrait by Théodore Chassériau)

Fyodor Dostoevsky-Portrait by Vasily Perov, c. 1872.

George Orwell-Press Card photo, 1943.

Zora Neale Hurston in 1946.

*Poetry*

Renee Good DHS agent perspective ~ public domain

John Allyn Berryman ~ Photograph by Jerry Bauer. ~Fair Use & Use Rational

Abraham Lincoln: Public Domain

William Stafford ~ Photo by Christopher Ritter, sourse:  Fair Use & Use Rational
(Victor approved for use)

Emily~ Wiki ~ public domain

Patricia Fargnoli permission granted to use Photo by John Hession
(via messenger to Sharmagne )

William Carlos Williams by Man Ray~Public Domain

Photo of a bust of Pindar

permission to publish the late Victoria Valentine's image from her daughter: Phaedra Guiliano

Permission use granted by William Marr

Arthur Sze 2024 - Public Domain

Photograph of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Carl van Vechten-Public Domain

William_Carlos_Williams_passport_photograph_1921 public Domain

Rainer Maria Rilke Public Domain