Spring 2023
Issue Published January 15, 2023

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:

How ironic to be writing an introduction to the Spring issue of Monterey Poetry Review as wild winter weather shrieks just outside my windows! I watch a hundred-year-old oak tree flailing in gale winds, spilling blackbirds as brittle limbs kamikaze to earth along with a Pineapple Express deluge.
 
Our theme for this issue is “Between Seasons.” Contributors have offered multiple interpretations of this topic.  In his poem “Hyacinths,” Wesley D. Sims describes their sprouting leaves bursting through March soil “lifting their cylindrical / barrels of blooms / in one of several solid colors, / like multilayered wheels / of flowers posting / a message that Spring / is close at hand.”
 
In her poem “Elusive,” Cleo Griffith writes: “With not even a rolled smudge of cloud / against horizon’s line / where do I seek elusive rain?” “Ballets of silver drops against wide puddles / are cool memories / vague as seamless midnight shadows / on dry sliver-moon nights.”
 
In “This Afternoon,” Gary Thomas explores the cyclical change of season and time: “Midafternoon, and all that presages sundown—— smaller / birds scuttling under live oaks, ripe peaches succumbing / to autumn and gravity, a clack of almonds hitting the tarps / or an unlucky hatless farmer.”
 
To borrow a quote from Yoko Ono: “Spring passes and one remembers one's innocence.
Summer passes and one remembers one's exuberance. Autumn passes and one remembers one's reverence. Winter passes and one remembers one's perseverance.”
 
May this new issue of Monterey Poetry Review provide a spring reawakening of creative possibilities and hope.

 
Jennifer, Kate, & Laura 

Laura, Kate & Jennifer

 

2. Poems

• Dee Allen.
• ​Kate Aver Avraham
• David R. Baker
• Laura Bayless
• Robert Beveridge
• Jeff Burt
  
• ​Joe Cottonwood
• Krikor Der Hohannesian​
• Edward Ferri, Jr.
• George Freek
• John Grey
• Cleo Griffith
• Lynn M. Hansen
• Melanie Harless
• Nancy Haskett
• Victor Henry
• Louise Kantro
• Jennifer Lagier
• Ellaraine Lockie
• Pawel Markiewicz
• Gene McCormick
• Bruce Morton
• D Larissa Peters
• Fabrice B. Poussin
• Mykyta Ryzhykh
• Heather Sager
• Linda Scheller
• Robin Shepard
• Wesley D. Sims
• Gary Thomas
• Diane M. Williams

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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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The submission period for poetry, photography and art for the Fall 2023 issue will open on April 1 and run through July 1, 2023. This will be an unthemed issue.

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