Exterminating Angel Press

Creative Solutions for Practical Idealists.

poem

As God Gargles Oceans.

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by Harvey Lillywhite.

Natural wonder invites us to God.
May we ask, for instance, who makes your clothes:
Spiders spinning and weaving birds? And how—
By brushes of hurricanes and lightning
Pins—are you coiffed? How many elephants
And whales on the scales does it take to weigh
You? Just rosy nebulae, aurora
Borealis, the midnight blue of night-
Fall, black raspberries, and sixty-four things
That are purple you use for your mornings’
Make-up? What alphabet of light captures
The words you use, there in the middle of
Nothing and everything, echoing out
And out and out from your gigantic heart?

 

from the collection “I Ask This Favor, as Any Person Might”

Superbloom.

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by Marissa Bell Toffoli.   Bright poppies wave hello in a lucky breeze. Parched, we smile for the sun, move between what shade we can find or make for each other, your shadow inside mine. Feel your tired sighs, pause to catch our breath. My thirsty eyes want it all, the sweet saturation, as if […]

A Hole in the Night.

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by Lana Hechtman Ayers. after “Venetian Siesta” by Joseph Millar   I’ve never had a talent for sleep but when I do, it’s all dreams of lost rooms, rainstorms of rotten teeth water-falling from my mouth, still, I glissade through days wearing calm façades while inside my mind conducts a swing-shift sardine cannery, and in […]

Begin again.

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by Diana Morley. Take one. A party— a couple talking cornerwise shading their eyes from the lowering sun, she in a peach sheath he in creased khakis melted sunlight on her dry baguette slice showing the party’s over. Take two. Begin again. Shaman drum slow rising over the mundane while earth’s molten core pulls our […]

South Loudon St., Sunday Afternoon.

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by Sean Murphy. Sights unseeable, or striving to be unseen, Sunday being the day of rest. Humans hidden or missing in inaction, dispersed like a bombed-out anthill, sucking on poison fumes and marinating in distress—followed by unconcern. A steady scent of sun-baked urine spiced up, at times, by freshly sparked spliffs, gang-greened grass drowning in […]

A Dangerous Scent.

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by Barry Vitcov. Sitting on a creek-side boulder just after daybreak. Light filtering through dewy air like sprinkles on a donut. It’s cool, crisp, and green as he watches for a pair of river otters seen the day before when the fog would not retreat. He is being still, shoulders relaxed, a non-aggressive posture allowing […]

The Happiness Masterpiece.

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by Stephen Mead. Take the pain out of painter. Take the pain out of painting – No need for Guernica. No need for Orwellian warnings, cautionary. But how to choose bliss this time with so much awareness of the other? How not to channel suffering and still have catharsis, a breakthrough by ordinariness, senses attentive […]

Is it difficult?

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by Pulkita Anand. clouds cross the borders silence stays everywhere unflowing the description of food is one of hunger in the cervices of silence the letter of karma, dharma and shame frayed in the fight the unending days with dark nights carrying the salt river the light is at a distance, and it is pouring […]

Scots pine and sea spray.

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by Cliff Beck. We’ve travelled many years to discover that we’re here where the air carries a bouquet of Scots pine and sea spray prompting memories of endless days on mountains, moorland and seashore; the immensity and intensity of it all making us feel so ephemeral, so small. Remember summer days spent under the trees, […]

Vagabond Awareness.

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by Benjamin White. The emotional imprints Of the past Impact the frequencies Of the soul Tuning in dreams Until previous lives Are reconnected To shared experiences While seeking The familiarity Of spirits Once-and-always touching, Close and joined To the point Of being The same consciousness, Although split By time and space On the parallels Of […]