Cassini Vision by Lark Beltran

This blue-dot world,
far outshone by the surreal ringspan
of big-brother Saturn,
is of so little consequence, any might say,
who was not of Earth.

Countless such dots
evolve then thrive,
their cultures and cataclysms
utterly remote
to a kaleidoscope of far-flung peers.

To be or not to be:
a synchronicity
of force and Deity?

The void is neutral:
no up and down
no left and right
or right and wrong ...
no sound!

Seeing our world so like a jewel
in minuscule under Saturn´s rings -
it rings of magic.


Lark Beltran, Lima, Peru

Superdense by Josephine Shaw

In quantum theory the inconceivably small
can give rise to the unimaginably large.
And that means that somewhere there exists

a diamond the size of a planet

made from a cold, corroded star.
And also that the more precisely you know
where something is, the less you know
about where it’s going.

Or how fast. We reach for little hopes,
craneflies skating on the skin of life.
Hoping, each sunset, that where we are says 

nothing about the dark matter of our own journey.


Josephine Shaw, London, UK

Watch Swallows by Matthew Friday

To watch swallows flying over water,
weaving in and out and around
each other, lacing the air,
skating the corners, cutting
the finest lines between air and liquid,
a cloud of flick-bodies photons,
fantastically quick. Such agility is
the luckiest accident of evolution;
an acrobatic show for no one.


Matthew Friday, UK

A Shrug in Time by Diane Webster

The bird clicks across the metal roof
in hoppy, hoppy steps to start,
stop, look, start, stop, look
only present in silence
like an almost memory
scratching against my mind
suddenly startled by a fraction of noise
like someone calling my name
but seeing no one.
A shrug in time
forgotten four steps further
down life’s progress.


Diane Webster, CO, USA