FAITH

Heather Holliger

A cherry blossom’s fisted nerves—pink and red and white—fragile and aching, bared into the air, the wind’s pitch—

HEATHER HOLLIGER holds an MFA in creative writing from George Mason University and currently teaches writing at the Academy of Art University. Her creative work has been published in a dozen journals, including the Aurorean, Cold Mountain Review, Feminist Studies, Gay and Lesbian Review, Labletter, SNReview, and Sugar Mule. Her poems have been featured in the Split This Rock Poem of the Week Series and in the anthology Riffing on Strings: Creative Writing Inspired by String Theory. She is a former editor of So to Speak: A Feminist Journal of Language & Art

TREES, LIKE FIREWORKS, 16, JASON ENGELUND

JASON ENGELUND is a San Francisco Bay Area based artist. His artworks have been exhibited in galleries and art fairs in London, New York City, Los Angeles, Oakland, and San Francisco. In 2016, he was nominated and selected as one of eleven photographic artists for the triennial exhibition “Boundless: A California Invitational” at the Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, California, where his artwork is now held in the permanent collection. Engelund’s studio practice expanded through his artist residency in France in the spring of 2022. Find more of Engelund’s artworks online at jasonengelund.com.

Haiku

Janet Ruth Heller

May snowfall— drifting in the wind cherry petals

JANET RUTH HELLER is the past president of the Michigan College English Association. She has published four poetry books: Nature’s Olympics (Wipf and Stock, 2021), Exodus (WordTech, 2014), Folk Concert: Changing Times (Anaphora, 2012), and Traffic Stop (Finishing Line, 2011); a scholarly book, Coleridge, Lamb, Hazlitt, and the Reader of Drama (University of Missouri Press, 1990); a middle-grade fiction chapter book for children, The Passover Surprise (Fictive, 2015, 2016); and a fiction picture book for children about bullying, How the Moon Regained Her Shape (Arbordale, 2006; 7th edition 2022), that has won four national awards. Her website is https://www.janetruthheller.com

Haiku

Tiffany Liz Mackay

a promise to return again— plum blossoms

TIFFANY LIZ MACKAY is a haiku and tanka poet based in Seattle, Washington. Her passion for using just a few words to capture a moment led her to the world of short-form poetry. Her poems can be found in Cold Moon Journal, Plum Tree Tavern, Scarlet Dragonly, Japan Society London Haiku Corner, and various other journals. Follow her on Twitter @tlmpoetry and Instagram @tiffanymackaypoetry.