Fall 2025
Issue Published September 2025

This issue is organized in two sections; scroll down the page or click the links below to jump to a section:

1. Introduction
2. Poems

1. Introduction

To Readers of Monterey Poetry Review:

The dictionary defines transition as:
  1. movement, passage, or change from one position, state, stage, subject, concept, etc., to another.
  2. music as in a passing from one key to another, modulation.
  3. a passage from one scene to another by sound effects, music, etc., as in a television program, theatrical production, or the like.
  4. also called gender transition. the process by which a transgender person comes to openly express their gender identity, including changes to their way of dressing, acting, or speaking, to their pronouns, name, or legal gender marker, or to their physical characteristics via hormone therapy and surgery.
 
Author William Bridges wrote, "Change is an event but a transition is the process that you go through in response to the change."
 
This issue features imaginative explorations of transitions expressed through poetry, photography, and art.  The range of interpretation spans our emergence from a time of COVID, the mutation of democracy into an autocracy, nature’s life cycles and seasons, as well as glimpses into cultural and personal evolution.
 
May your journey through these offerings transform your perspectives and revive your spirits!


 
Kate, Laura, Jennifer

2. Poems & Art:

Kate Aver Avraham
Laura Bayless
Laurel Benjamin
Terri Watrous Berry
Dan Berick
Marie Boucher
Sharon Brown
Tricia Gates Brown
Chris Bullard
Jeff Burt
Jae Casella
Lin Wen Chao
Jessica Cohn
R. Gerry Fabian
Jennifer Grant
K.J. Hannah Greenberg
John Grey
Lynn M. Hansen
Nancy Haskett
Victor Henry
Sharon Hilberer
Ruth Holzer
D.R. James
Janette Jameson
Jean Janicke
Terry S. Johnson
Louise Kantro
Katie Kenney
Matthew Klope
Jennifer Lagier
Kent Leatham
Jacquie Marietta
Keith Melton
MJ Moore
Robert Nielsen
Donald Patten
Marge Piercy
Paul Lobo Portugés
Royal Rhodes
Laura Schulkind
Mark Strohschein
Rowan Tate
Jonathan Chibuike Ukah
Verna Wilson
Nanci Woody
Andrena Zawinski

Editor's Note

Our vision is to publish art, photography and the highest quality of poetry online twice a year drawing on the talents of artists, photographers and poets, especially those in Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties.

The Monterey Poetry Review is made possible by the following volunteers:

Dr. Jennifer Lagier Fellguth – Editor & Webmaster

Kate Aver Avraham -- Associate Editor
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Laura Bayless -- Associate Editor

Megan Lee – Founder
John Laue – Editor Emeritus
Nicole Henares – Editor Emeritus
Belen Arellano – Graphic Web Design

Learn more about us and how to submit: Click here.

NEW CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS!
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Submission Period for the Spring 2026 unthemed issue: Spring - October 1 through December 31. Please submit only once during a submission period. and review submission guidelines prior to sending your work.

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