Announcement: Amy's Pen

Dear Friends and Followers of Brevity Poetry Review,

I would like to announce that I have started a blog of creative writing and essay writing tips. I hope that my writing process and the struggles I encounter will help others work through their own struggles in writing. Please visit and follow!

https://amypollardwriter.wordpress.com/

Sincerely,

The Editor 

image from www.isotropicfiction.com

Issue #7

Dear Readers,

Spring is here! I would like to introduce you to ten poems of artistic excellence that provide some food for thought as you enjoy the sunshine. Once again, I am honored to have encountered such a diversity of poems and poets. Congratulations to the ten poets who were selected and thank you for your support of Brevity Poetry Review. I look forward to many more issues to come.

Best,

The Editor

Leaving Sodom

The deserter does not turn
into a pillar of salt—only his skin

shivers a little as he looks back

through the watery gates, where a boy

who thinks he’s a soldier is shaking

a gun. What can this man say to that

boy now, about breath, and the gray soot

of memory.  City ruins, crumbling riverside towns

and the setting sun as the man walks

away from home and family

selfish, arrogant and proud

fingers brush Sabal palms and steel as he

tears and turns

his sight from the boy

and the lingering past

Hugo Esteban Rodriguez Castñeda is a Mexican expatriate living in Houston, Texas, though he has unbreakable roots in the Rio Grande Valley. He holds two degrees from the University of Texas at Brownsville and is currently working on a MFA in Creative Writing through the University of Texas at El Paso.

Erupt

When upon the lilies

these islands purge

nuclear lava, like boiling frogs,

my throat chant mantras transforming 

into doors strengthened 

by coals, frying

my words into clamps.

The cyclone undresses her stems

and the oil yelps in my mother's frying pan.

Saheli Khastagir lives in India and is finishing a Masters in Psychology from Delhi University. Saheli writes, paints and doodles. Saheli’s paintings can be found at http://sahelikhastagir.tumblr.com/, and poems have appeared in papercuts (Desi Writer's Lounge), Reading Hour and Eye on Life Magazine.  Visit Saheli’s website for more info: http://sahelik.blogspot.in/.

In Soft Silence

In soft silence

Rain-wet streets

Swallow sound

Sip by sip

And smell heavily

Of dampened dust.

I wager with the pregnant air

And walk the tepid sidewalks

Barefoot, without a coat.

Sky-winds sent the clouds dancing—

White clouds chasing grey—

Predecessors of the sun.

Linda Ledford-Miller lives in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Long an academic writer, she has recently moved to creative writing. Her non-fiction essay, “An Inherited Friend,” was published in Turk’s Head Review.