WWPH WRITES ISSUE 80

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WWPH Writes 80…continues our TINY ODES special issues. Plus, your Washington Writers’ Publishing House has a big September planned…

We kick off our 50th-anniversary celebrations on Friday, September 13th at 6 pm People’s Books in Takoma Park with our co-founder Grace Cavalieri and more. Please RSVP below to join us.

We have a joyful reading on Sunday, September 15 at 1 pm at Potter’s House in DC with Holly Karapetkova along with us and our 2024 WWPH Fellows (if you are interested in learning more about our paid WWPH Fellowship program join us at this event! Applications open in September.)

Our second WWPH LITERARY SALON takes place on Tuesday, September 17 at 5:30 pm, a FREE evening of creative writing, reading, and discussion, at the Arts Club of DC. Seating limited. RSVP required.

Our 50th-anniversary anthology, AMERICA’S FUTURE, opens for submissions on September 1st!

Read on to our TINY ODES special issue. See you in September!  

Caroline Bock & Jona Colson
co-presidents, WWPH

ODE TO YOUR ABSENCE
I will thank you for this one day
as you walked out the door
you left me with a gift
tied with a glittering bow of realization
that I should never love someone else
more than I love myself

Traci Taylor is a queer poet who finds her inspiration mostly in skylines, oceans, and sometimes heartbreak. The poets that have influenced them over the years have been: Rudy Francisco, Andrea Gibson, and Mary Oliver amongst others. When Traci isn’t writing she can be found wandering around the city, getting lost in the aisles of a bookstore, or relaxing by a body of water. This is her debut publication.

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ODE TO A SWALLOWTAIL

Black swallowtail by my door,
Black swallowtail who feeds
on ivory flowers, wings
untorn, symmetrical — What
have you come to say,
to say about my restless life?

W. Luther Jett is the author of five poetry chapbooks. His full-length collection, Flying to America, was released this spring by Broadstone Press.  

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ODE TO MY SUNFLOWER

sunflower, why’d you die today?
too much water? so many bugs? no green thumb? those plant drugs?
i felt you flourish on east lawn. where sunbeams sparked at dawn.
but, today you ended your life.
head round as smiley face.
why did you seem happy?

Maryland resident and public relations executive Eleanor Jones enjoys horses, dancing and a combination of both. Eleanor’s quirky poems and evocative memoirs have been published internationally in literary journals.

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ODE TO MOTHERHOOD
He will wrap his tiny arms around my neck, place his tiny head
on my collar bone. I can’t help but bite his tiny ear. I will

reach for him in the night over and over and over again. I will
sleep in the same nursing bra and shorts I slept in last night,

the same ones I wore all day. Maybe I will shower first
or brush my teeth. Maybe I won’t weigh myself this time.

Anne Marie Wells (she/they) is an award-winning and Pushcart-nominated poet, playwright, memoirist, and oral storyteller. She is the author of Survived By (Curious Corvid Publishing, 2023) and Mother, (Cinnamon Press, 2024).

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ODE TO HER DRESSER

My mother’s dresser rests long and low, mahogany,
filled with nylons, lingerie, diaphanous nightgowns.
Framed in a nest of varnished curlicues, the mirror above
reflects her, my body. The bottom drawer holds a dried rose,
a photo of a suave stranger, boutonniere pinned to his lapel,
and her supple braid, long and mahogany, waiting to be unplaited.

Ellen Sazzman is a Pushcart-nominated poet whose work has recently been published in Clackamas Review, Atlanta Review, Delmarva Review, Sow’s Ear, and Peregrine, among others. Her collection The Shomer was a finalist for the Blue Lynx Prize and a semi-finalist for the Elixir Antivenom Award and the Codhill Press Award.

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ODE TO CRANBERRIES
Tart juice lingering on lips
Lyrics and memories
Sour and syrupy, folded into one
Oh, to strum that thrifted Yamaha
Or hear your voice, singing about dreams and Sundays
One more time.

Abby Grifno is a high school English teacher in Montgomery County and a writer. Her journalistic work has appeared in places like Washington City Paper, Bethesda Magazine, and more. Her literary work has appeared in Elbowroom, American Literature, Black Hare Press, and is forthcoming in Adanna Literary Magazine.

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ODE TO A FAWN

Gangly, snow-spotted, startled,
you pace our lawn, a visitor from sweeter times.
Your mother devoured my zinnias and tomatoes,
so you are nourished with milk made from hope-laden seeds,
dark, mysterious soil and soothing, persistent rains.
Now, in turn, your beauty feeds me.

Maggie Rosen (she/her) lives in Silver Spring, Maryland. Her poems and hybrid works have been published in Marrow, Heron Tree, Harpy Hybrid, Waccamaw, Cider Press Review, RiverLit, Blood Lotus, among other publications. A poetry chapbook, The Deliberate Speed of Ghosts, was published in 2016 by Red Bird Chapbooks. See more about her work at maggierosen.com.

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ODE TO WINTER SOLSTICE
Sliverish clouds handscape the moon’s
soft symphony spinning bands of season;
heart’s wrought rhythm like ladderings of asteroids
moving peristalsis.

The sky tastes like ice and I chew.

Loralee Clark is a writer who grew up learning a love for nature and her place in it, in Maine. She resides in Virginia now as a writer and artist, with two awesome kids and a loving husband. Her Instagram is @make13experiment. She writes poetry and non-fiction. Myth is her love language. She has been published most recently in The Taborian, Superpresent, Thimble Literary Magazine, Impossible Task, Studio One, Cannon’s Mouth, and Big Windows Review.

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ODE TO COVID LOCKDOWN
You were 7 & still miss that time:

    Remember when the hawk almost slam dived you, Mommy, on our walk?
    Or when I hid under your desk and won Hide & Seek?
   When we lined up dominoes, toys, books, and they crashed down too early?
   When we had dance battles to the keyboard’s demo songs?

  Remember when we didn’t get sick?

Chloe Yelena Miller’s poetry collection, Viable, was published by Lily Poetry Review Books (2021). Miller is a recipient of three DC Arts and Humanities Fellowship grants. Miller is the co-founder of Brown Bag Lit; she teaches and organizes events for them.

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ODE TO MORNING COFFEE
This precious coffee, my soul’s eternal redeemer!
Drip, pour over, fine, or coarse, in any form, unconditionally
The single miracle of salvation, subtle like velvety black magic
My idealism is growing back!
I can forgive now

Katherine Flores Guzman is a nurse practitioner student in Virginia. She is passionate about research on social determinants of health and addiction treatment in underserved communities. Katherine believes in the power of writing to foster empathy and healing spaces. Her work has appeared in Intima: Journal of Narrative Medicine and The Calendula Review. When not pulling all -nighters, she’s looking for bubble tea, bookstores, and Greek food.

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ODE TO ODES

More happy love! more happy, happy love!- Ode to a Grecian Urn by John Keats

Mawkish joy is your bread and butter
and you never fear going hungry,
while even my compliments taste bitter.
Odes, teach me your ways.
Teach me how to love
without fear.

Cam McGlynn is a writer and researcher living outside of Frederick, Maryland. She likes made-up words, Erlenmeyer flasks, dog-eared notebooks, and Excel spreadsheets.

JOIN US for the kick-off of our 50th-anniversary celebrations with our co-founder GRACE CAVALIERI along with Jean Nordhaus, Heather Bruce Satrom, and David Lott at People’s Book in Takoma Park on Friday, September 13 at 6-8 pm. Stop by and learn more about how you can submit to our upcoming anthology America’s Future with Caroline Bock and Jona Colson, co-editors. PLEASE RSVP and let us know you are coming! https://peoplesbooktakoma.com/event/wwph/

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AMERICA’S FUTURE celebrates our 50th-anniversary and the nation’s 250th anniversary, and you are invited to submit. Detailed prompt and guidelines available here. Submissions open on September 1st.