Welcome to Lightwood Magazine, Issue #12 Winter 2022/2023. We hope this finds you well, physically, spiritually, and creatively. This issue includes new fiction, poetry, memoir, and reviews by new and established writers from the U.S. and Australia. Enjoy and keep us in mind. We’re always on the lookout for engaging new writing and artwork, both off beat and traditional that has something to say to our 21st century readers across the globe. And we wish you all the best for a wonderful new year, filled with wonder. Keep you creative space close to you and open it to others.
L. Carr, Publisher, Lightwoodpress.com
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Lightwood Magazine Winter Issue 2022-2023 #12
Welcome to Lightwood Magazine, Issue #12 Winter 2022/2023. We hope this finds you well, physically, spiritually, and creatively. This issue includes new fiction, poetry, memoir, and reviews by new and established writers from the U.S. and Australia. Enjoy and keep us in mind. We’re always on the lookout for engaging new writing and artwork, both off…
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The Sky Inside Your Body/ poems by Christina Turczyn/book review by Laurence Carr
Christina Turczyn’s book of poetry, The Sky Inside Your Body, published by Poets of Queens Press: Yara Arts Group, NYC is a powerful collection that immerses the reader inside the voice and spirit of each piece. The book’s front and back covers are by Waldemart Klyuzko with an interior design by Oleksandr Fraze-Frazenko. ///// In…
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After the Flood/ fiction by Gregory Seth Harris
After family, the neighbor, and a friend, huddle in your musty attic. After what was called a tropical storm swells the small creek gushing behind your backyard fence. After its sides burst in near volcanic fury and hail pummels the lawn and wind shakes the patio awning. After the lightning bolts flash like fireworks, the…
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Around the World in 8 Wave Shows by Ambur Masen
The number-one thing to know about me is that I self-identify as a wave music journalist. So, when I was asked to write a travelogue about wave music, I was so excited. Truly. I was. I clocked over 26,000 miles while chasing wave this year. I went full insane person. I’ve travelled locally; I’ve travelled…
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a child’s mind/ creative non-fiction/memoir/ by Jess Nadelman
There was always music in the apartment in the Bronx where I was brought once the doctors gave my mother and father the ok. Given that the first baby died within a couple of days, the doctors were cautious. Symphony music, my mother’s favorite before she became an opera addict, was delivered by the radio or…
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3 poems by Mike Jurkovic/ Color Code/ Eastern Painted/ (h)ours
Color Code (tanka) I’ve outsourced my brain to square colored paper Blue tomorrows Pink for m’lady Lilac missions hold fast to the fridge /////// Eastern Painted The poet’s turtle, an Eastern Painted, paddles like prose. The bard tidies his bonsai, pulls a thread from a blue cable knit and leans in. Sometimes it’s more than…
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Dime Saint, Nickel Devil, poetry by Ann Lauinger, book review by Laurence Carr
Poet Ann Lauinger’s new collection, Dime Saint, Nickel Devil takes the reader on a fascinating tour through ancient and modern myths, mini-biographies, poetic essays, and insightful imagery from our world. The book is published by Broadstone Books, Frankfort, Kentucky, 2022, with an engaging cover photo “Lapsed Persimmons” by Pauline Moffett Watts. What intrigued me first…
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Foundation and Burma-Shave/ two poems by Matthew J. Spireng
Foundation Up the hill, scant remains of an old foundation, first house here that burned long ago—wood, not stone, so buildings standing are what came after. This house newer, and the barn, outhouse and three weathered outbuildings. Who lived there, I’ve no idea, deed traced back only so far. I wonder sometimes if digging there…
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A Story About Stones/ memoir and 2 poems by Jan Zlotnik Schmidt
Lanzorote, The Canary Islands Prologue Jet black lava stones couched in my open palms taken from the heart of a country I dream of what is lost The slow rush of wind rustling waves The salt tang of the seas The pulsing of memory “Stones” A stern security guard at the luggage conveyor belt at…
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Breath and Dreaming/ 2 poems by Maggie Hall
Breath Silent night calm and bright Jupiter and Saturn soon aligned reading at a table, waiting for the feast, the beast has lost his wooden spoon, hidden a whip where it’s safe by the moon tired, in rest by heavenly skies falling asleep before Jupiter’s eyes awake in heavenly peace as Saturn stands in your…
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Hard to Be A Hero/ poetry by Alec Solomita/ book review by Mary Beth Hines
Anyone looking for a no-holds-barred ride via an afternoon of reading should pick up Alec Solomita’s poetry collection, “Hard to Be a Hero,” recently published by Kelsay Books. A master of free and formal verse, and fluent in highbrow, pop, and lowbrow culture, Solomita offers something for everyone in this varied collection. Appealing to casual…
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Fried Goldfinch/ poetry by Sarah Wyman/ book review by Laurence Carr
I always admire a poet, who in a published book of 80 or so poems, can shift gears with themes, subject matter and tone. Writer and poet, Sarah Wyman, in her book, Fried Goldfinch, published by Codhill Press, 2021, does just that. And although the works are presented in traditional flush-left, boxed stanzas (perhaps there could…
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My Words/ poem by J.K. Durick
I should be able to describe The scene Get my words to recreate The size, the shape The way the light plays Across the mountainside The rock, the slight greens. I should be able to describe Recreate the scene With words. This is one of the reasons We have words And the urge to get…
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on benson street/ poem by Cori Spillane
Who gave us this grand table that would never see a feast your eyes upon its surface marked by pens that scratched too deep inside a growing hunger takes its form with sharpened teeth that grind away through thoughts but only ever get to eat away at you forever ///////// Cori Spillane has lived all…
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