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Our nominations for Pushcart 2022: Stephen Spencer, Ian Enters, Debasis Tripathy, Catherine Chandler, Ann Anderson Evans, and David Blumenfeld.

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We Are Live!.Better Than Starbucks November 2022 Vol VII No IV.

“long black digits spread.cerulean fingernails.scratch icy windows”. haiku by Sterling Warner.Better Than Starbucks August 2022. Art: Composition by Terry Frost.#haiku #SterlingWarner #poetry

“My mother’s great, but she doesn’t get out of bed.much. That’s how I answer those who ask;.I leave her death, a few years back, unsaid.”. from “Out of Sight” by Barbara Lydecker Crane. Art: Mother and Child by Christian Krohg.#poetry #BarbaraLydeckerCrane

“This little house of flesh that encapsules us.is no more than a leaf that falls,.a wave that crests.”. from “Brahman. Meditation.” by Janice D. Soderling. Photo: Falling Leaf in Guelph, Ontario, Canada by Ryan Hodnett.#poetry #JaniceDSoderling

“As a young boy, I thought he was crazy. Four decades in, living in a house I don’t own, walking the strange lands of America, I find myself still lost . ”. from “A Man Who Feeds the Birds” by Francis Johann Verdote. Man feeding pigeons by Laura Hadden

“Then that blue blotch on my firstborn’s back,.that millennial native marker — the Mongolian patch.”. from “The Mongolian Patch” by Jen Ross .Better Than Starbucks August 2022. Art: Traquée by Romain Rossi.#poetry #JenRoss

“syntax of birdsong,.making of the man’s wise words.monotone nonsense”. haiku by Max Gutmann.Better Than Starbucks August 2022. Photo: Larus argentatus in Tallinn Passenger Port in early morning by Maasaak.#haiku #MaxGutmann #poetry

“Hamstringing web sites whose owners.Insult the audience by pasting in.Jaculiferous Javascript that.Kills your browser for forty-five seconds.”. from “Abecedarian Prayer” by Kenneth Nichols. Art: Computer art by Kobako.#poetry #KennethNichols

“Now, were a genie to fulfill my wish.that folks could see the globe that we inhabit.like hawks that spy the mice, they’d see the spasm.of extinction”. from “Hawk Feather” by Martin Elster. Art: A Golden Eagle by Archibald Thorburn.#poetry #MartinElster

“Haunting nights.Along the boulevard.With the silent armies.Of a stoned melancholy.By my side”. from “No Mercy” by John Drudge.Better Than Starbucks August 2022. Art: Boulevard in the evening by Isaac Levitan.#poetry #JohnDrudge

“we quit inhabiting a vase in the wilting hand.of grief — a body bearing an ache. too young to possess a name . ”. from “fireflies” by Damilola Omotoyinbo. Art: Vase (self-portrait) by Leon Bakst.#poetry #DamilolaOmotoyinbo

“The further inland my feet and hands drag this dirt-ship, the more books & electronics build my ego. “. from “Oblivion’s Balloon as it Collapses Neuro-Linguistic Pathways . ” by Bobby Parrott. Art: Dynamic Universe I by Romul Nutiu.#BobbyParrott

“The pond is seized by.icy rigor, dead to wind,.and bereft of swans.”. haiku by Teague McKamey.Better Than Starbucks August 2022. Photo: Frozen pond by Alison Rawson.#haiku #TeagueMcKamey #poetry

“There he stands, freezing his balls off. Or in this case, his carrot, trans-.planted from his head by the brat next door.”. from “Saint Frosty” by Edmund Conti.Better Than Starbucks August 2022. Photo: Helmut Smits - Odapark Venray.#poetry #EdmundConti

Please join us in congratulating Kathryn Jacobs and Rachel Jacobs on the publication of their new book, A Life Lived Differently, a poignant portrait of autism. From the publisher: Available at and from IngramSpark. #poetry #autism

Our annual sonnet contest is now open for submissions:.

“And my mother grumbled as we.Trudged home from Downtown Brooklyn.To Bay Ridge, groceries in hand,”. from “The Fifth Ave ‘El’ Closed Today” by Robert Ackerman. Art: A girl doing the grocery bill by Gerolamo Induno.#poetry #RobertAckerman

“What is the time now?.Is it high time to be a butcher?.They think.And start the operation.”. from “The divided world and the river” by Partha Sarkar.Better Than Starbucks August 2022. The Source of the Loue River by Gustave Courbet.#poetry #ParthaSarkar

“. she could win my attention with a soulful look,.her dark-wide pupils riveting and intense.across a table or over the top of a book.”. from “Veronica” by Barbara Loots. Photo: Ilgara (The Home of My Eyes) by Shirin Neshat.#formalpoetry #BarbaraLoots