# 2

"It is not the brains that matter most, but that which guides them-the character, the heart, generous qualities, progressive ideas."--Fyodor Dostoyevski


The Death and Life of a Dream

a dream,
it's true
dies first
soft, tender, unattended
relegated to the long expanse
of bygone
misplaced emotions
desires and secrets
decay of the bottom
of our malleable minds
archaic thoughts
forced to peek around
life's current corners
a treasure both luxuriant
and worthless without them
still sealed with intense
covert feelings
secretly stashed
it suddenly
will dust itself with doubting fingers
earnestly wanting to feel
needed again
trying hard
not to crumble
when newly exposed

Eila Mahima Jaipaul



paramount to my problem

is the them/her/you of it all i
know no other way to say it
i am burned by the passion
of such fire over and over it
means i become a prisoner
of love willingly i search my
soul for solutions reasons i
cannot bring myself to love
myself realizing this curses
me/you/them/all i hold dear

J.A. Spahr-Summers

(May 25, 2006)

# 1

"Human, all too human."--Friedrich Nietsche


I want to thank all the following contributors for allowing me to use their poems over the last 2 years;

Bobbi Jo Green
Karen E. Harrison
Christopher Soden
Royce Franzoni, Jr.
Tiffany Franzoni
Jason Robert Hall
Tony Bush
Ryfkah
Ward Kelley
Kristin Johnson
Jim Bennett
Todd Heldt
Tom Berman
Bert Glick
David Fraser
Michael Levy
Kenny Klein
T.L. Stokes
Merilene Murphy
Taylor Graham
John Browning
Andie King-Vaughn
Josie Lawson
Anthony Liccione
Helen Bar-Lev
Gerald Bosaker
Michael Pacholski
Alex Stolis
Joel L. Young
Melanie Simms
Jospeh Veronneau
Patricia Gomes
Norm Wygant, Jr.
Jim D. Babwe
Jackie Goldstein
Maurice Taylor
John Simon
Donna Kuhn
Kristi Swadley
James Carraway
Wes Ward
Glenn Smith
Cory Habbas
Bam Dev Sharma
Chaim Rosenblum
Birgitta Jonsdottir
Arif Khudairi
Timothy Smith
Donna Pecore
Simon Perchik
Maria C. James
T. Ashok Chadkravarthy
Roger Humes
James M. Brown
Stephen Roxborough
Laura Stamps
Jake
Pamela Lindley
Daniel Elijah
Samuel Hazo
Gerald Stern
Bonnie Florea
Patsy Anne Bickerstaff
Ted Kooser
Andrew Kirkwood Peterson
Michael Estabrook
Carolyn Mahdi
Ulrike Gerbig
Bridget-Rose Lee
Daniel A. Olivas
Umesh Ghoshdastider
Linda Benninghoff
Justin Spahr-Summers
Elinor Melvin
Alan Lee Birkelbach
Michael Virga
Sonja Broderick


Please forgive me if I have overlooked anyone!

Special apologies to Alan Lee Birkelbach for abruptly ending his poetry series when I stopped production temporarily in October 2005.