August 22~ LINDA CRATE

Poetry lovers, today concludes our flashback/rerun/double-take of a week here at SHINE! It's been fun sharing new work by repeat contributors, and we'll be back next week with brand new artists and their words. A big thanks to all of our fine contributors. Here is "Kinder Tides" by Linda Crate. Have a pleasant weekend~

Kinder Tides

stars only shine
in the darkness,

so i hold onto the hope
that beautiful things
are going to happen for me
still;

for the moon taught me
i am lovely in all of
my phases--

& so i hope the same
will be said of
my life; 

even in the moments that
grind me down and make me
sad,
perhaps art can be made
of them, too.

my ancestors surname
was starr, so maybe i was
born to glow in the darkness--

i will hold onto the wings
of hope that one day kinder
tides will pull me out
into the song of their sea.

Linda M. Crate (she/her) is a Pennsylvanian writer whose poetry, short stories, articles, and reviews have been published in a myriad of magazines both online and in print. To date, she has fifteen published chapbooks, the latest being: not your piñata (Alien Buddha Press, June 2025).

---