What Rough Beast
Jenny Ward AngyalGibsonville, North Carolina, USA I remember my mother telling me how she felt on the frigid night in…
Annunciation
Jenny Ward AngyalGibsonville, North Carolina, USA Days after the latest school shooting, I wake to the sound of shotgun blasts…
Night Vision
By Jenny Ward AngyalGibsonville, North Carolina, USA clear-cut . . .the quavering cryof a screech owl I am driving up…
Incantations
By Jenny Ward AngyalGibsonville, NC, USA forestsburning far awayI bowto the wood thrushsinging orisons unseen I follow a path along…
Just This
By Jenny Ward AngyalGibsonville, NC, USA I used to thinkit would last forever—the swallowscoming home each year,the green hills blossoming…
The Least of These
By Jenny Ward AngyalGibsonville, NC, USA Hokusai painted them, Issa wrote about them, and Mao did his best to exterminate…
Pachamama
By Jenny Ward AngyalGibsonville, North Carolina, USA Long ago, in a sacred valley where Inca kings and mountain glaciers reigned,…
The Intruder
By Jenny Ward AngyalGibsonville, North Carolina, USAA glimpse of white wing bars, half hidden among juniper and honeysuckle. Uncertain, I…
All of Us
By Jenny Ward AngyalGibsonville, North Carolina, USA all of usfrom blowfly to blue whalebirthright citizensof a dying planet . .…
Walking Widdershins: An Ode to Joy
By Jenny Ward Angyal and Autumn Noelle Hall Walking Widdershins is comprised of 108 sets of collaborative tanka, a genre of…
Renascence
By Jenny Ward AngyalGibsonville, North Carolina, USA No cougars are supposed to roam the Appalachian mountains. They’re supposed to be…
The Spinning Wheel
By Jenny Ward AngyalGibsonville, North Carolina, USA milkweed bloomsat the meadow’s edgeshe waitsfor the monarch’s blessingunder a shattered sky one…
Evensong
By Jenny Ward AngyalGibsonville, North Carolina, USA butterflies flutterfrom the artist’s brushin memoriam—a river of monarchsonce flowed across the sky…
Beyond the Threshold
By Jenny Ward AngyalGibsonville, North Carolina, USA the slow beatof an egret’s wingswhiteagainst dark oaks—earth’s annunciation vulturescradled on the windendlessly…
Limb from Limb
By Jenny Ward AngyalGibsonville, North Carolina, USA morning lightgilding the treetopsas they fallsplinters lodgein my paperbark heart the soundof limbs…
Gone
By Jenny Ward AngyalGibsonville, North Carolina, USA the screamof a red-tailed hawkover the woodwhere dozers wait—my silent cry an echo…
Tipping Point
By Jenny Ward Angyal Gibsonville, North Carolina, USA diving into the cold depths of fear . . . until I…
Manifesto
By Jenny Ward Angyal Gibsonville, North Carolina, USA jack in his woodland pulpit preaches . . . the right of…
Gaia
by Jenny Ward AngyalGibsonville, North Carolina, USA a boulder lieswhere the glacier left it—clear as crystalthe old crone’s memoryof fire…
Tomorrow
By Jenny Ward AngyalGibsonville, North Carolina, USA only two Monarchs spiraling up the sky maybe they'll see …