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As we wrap up the week here at SHINE, I'm pleased to put the spotlight on Cape Cod writer, Janet Belding -- with two poems, "Continuum" and "Visit From the Angel." Thank you, Janet, for sharing your writing with SHINE international poetry series! Continuum Visit From the Angel  Janet Belding lives and writes on Cape Cod. She enjoys gardening, the study of nature, and walking in the woods. She has been published in Sky Island Journal, The MacGuffin, and Revolute.
Welcome, poetry lovers. Today we're shining the spotlight on Canadian poet, John RC Potter, who writes from his home in Turkey. John's "hybrid poetic duality" is accompanied by original artwork (with permission of his god-daughter), entitled "Birds in the Setting Sun." Thank you John (and god-daughter) for sharing your work with SHINE!  Original artwork provided by the Potter family. I Don't Understand 'Hate' Two Doggies and Two Daddies: A Hybrid Poem Per the poet's suggestion, click to listen: Patti Page's "How Much Is That Doggie In the Window"  John RC Potter is an international educator from Canada who resides in Istanbul. He has experienced a revolution (Indonesia), air strikes (Israel), earthquakes (Turkey), boredom (UAE), and blinding snow blizzards (Canada), the last being the subject of his story, ‘Snowbound in the House of God’ (Memoirist). The author’s poem, “Nie Wieder/Never Again,” and his story, “Ruth’s World,” were Pushcart Prize nominees, and his poem, “Tomato Heart,” was nominated for the Best of the Net Award. The author has a gay-themed children’s picture book scheduled for publication. He is a member of the League of Canadian Poets and the Playwrights Guild of Canada.
Welcome back, poetry lovers! Today at SHINE, we're putting the spotlight on Welsh poet Jim Young, who brings us two moving social-oriented poems. Thank you, Jim, for sharing your words with the SHINE international poetry community. The 'Enemy' The Day They Shot the Poet  Jim Young is an old poet writing from his beach hut on the Gower peninsula Wales UK.
Poetry fans, I'm happy to shine the Friday evening spotlight on Rick Blum, with his poem, "Broken Promise." Please enjoy! And make sure to dig into some poetry this weekend, as we near the end of National Poetry Month here in America. Thank you, Rick, for sharing your words with SHINE! Broken Promise  Rick Blum has been chronicling life’s vagaries through essays and poetry for more than 30 years during stints as a nightclub owner, high-tech manager, market research mogul, and, most recently, old geezer. His writings have appeared in more than 50 print magazines, literary journals, and poetry anthologies, as well as in numerous online publications. He is also a frequent contributor to the Humor Times.
Poetry friends, today SHINE has yet another phenomenal poet for your reading pleasure...the accomplished R. Nikolas Macioci. Please enjoy his poems: "January So Far" (which sounds a bit like April so far, in Upstate New York this year), and "A Woman Screaming in God's Wicked Bed." Thank you, Nik, for sharing your gift for words with SHINE international poetry series! January So FarThe silence after holidays feels like the weight of a heavy coat I wear. I carry debris of celebration in trash bags to curbside, ribbons, wrapping paper, boxes, and I stand on the driveway, look at the sky that January has stripped of color. My breath in the cold is a cartoon bubble, and in it I would say that the world looks like an empty void, a gray slate on which I would write something fresh and new. I linger in the cold a while longer, watching squirrels climb the oak tree in the front yard, and a rare robin flits from branch to branch. The appearance of that bird reminds me that spring is the next season. Even though it is far away, in my mind, spring is in time's waiting room, preparing for the appearance of its blooms. I head toward the house and turn my back on what I'd like to think is the last look at winter. I appreciate that each day brings longer light, and a little more hope that there really is green waiting under the bleak, snowy landscape. A Woman Screaming in God's Wicked BedEach night she sleeps without romance, in the morning, removed from a narrative of deception and relationships that suddenly reverse themselves. She lost years of life climbing over mountains of betrayal to reach a middle ground of moderate pain. She has built a wall around need and the occassional itch of longing that crawls across her skin like an annoying insect. All she wishes for is mentioned only in dreams, to have someone's body deep in the silence of hers. Her loneliness stretches atop a tattered quilt, its maroon and white squares torn away from rotted thread, decomposing promises. Streetlight slices through a Venetian blind, illuminates a hint of her green eyes. In a room otherwise darkened by midnight, the tip of her cigarette glows. She wonders if she will ever embrace anything but her threadbare pillow. She slides out of bed, centers herself at the window, pulls the blind up on buildings close enough to block dawn, believes that she has passed the season of a man in her life. In an ashtray on a bedside table, stabs out her cigarette, a modest need for love. She turns from the window, lights another cigarette, slips into bed again, feels concupiscence fall away with restless relief, pulls a patch of streetlight up to her neck.  R. Nikolas Macioci earned a PhD from The Ohio State University, taught for Columbus City Schools for thirty years. OCTELA, the Ohio Council of Teachers of English, named Nik Macioci the best secondary English teacher in the state of Ohio. Nik is the author of twenty-three books. He was twice nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, nominated five times for a Pushcart Prize, and twice for a Best of the Net award.
Poetry lovers, what a pleasure to kick off this week with work by the prolific and artistic, Gerry Sarnat. Please enjoy his two-part poem (with accompanying photo), "As My Plots Thicken, I Plotz," which is comprised of a haiku and a tanka -- addressing conspiracy and controversy with irony and mirth. Thank you, Gerry, for sharing your poetry with SHINE! As My Plots Thicken, I Plotz Photo provided by G. Sarnat I. conspiracy theories claim Mossad killed JFK. Pops’ role in Dallas? II. golden boy back home oy not so much at Harvard* fabricates bio seeks Rhodes Scholarship: roomies agonized, Blow the whistle? *Before assassinated, Alumnus/Prez JFK arranged luminary WDC audiences for bunch of us when 'Gesundheit Sarnatzky' was a frosh  Gerard Sarnat
Eighty-year-old late-phase often graphic chronicler arrived in seventh decade, aphorist, humorist or sometimes meanderist; Gerard Sarnat’s a multiple prize winner plus Pushcart/Best of Net Award nominee who also has been invited to serve as judge for competitions. “Activism Through Poetry: How Gerard Sarnat Uses Verse as a Form of Protest” is a 2025 retrospective, available here: https://culterateblog.wordpress.com/2025/02/20/activism-through-poetry-how-gerard-sarnat-uses-verse-as-a-form-of-protest/. His words have been widely published in four collections, including by Rattle, Gargoyle, Main Street Rag, New Delta Review, Black Mountain College Press, Poetry Lighthouse, Anomaly, Songs of Eretz, London Arts-Based Research Centre, Israel Association of Writers in English, The Nature of Our Times/Poets For Science, Hyperbolic Math-Poetry Review, Gravity of the Thing, Third Wednesday, Poetry Center of San Jose, Brooklyn Review, Tokyo Poetry Journal, Gargoyle, Deronda Review, Buddhist Review, New York Times, Louisville/Mount Saint Mary’s LA/ Saint Benedict/ Saint John’s Universities, Oberlin, Slippery Rock, St. John’s University, Northwestern, Yale, Pomona, Harvard, Missouri Baptist, Stanford, Dartmouth, Penn, Columbia, Grinnell, Johns Hopkins, NYU, Brown, North Dakota, CUNY, McMaster, Maine/Oklahoma/British Columbia/Toronto/Malta/Chicago/Virginia/Alabama university presses — and more. He’s a Harvard College and Medical School-trained physician, Stanford professor, and healthcare CEO. Currently, he’s devoting energy and resources to dealing with climate justice, and serving on Climate Action Now’s board. Sarnat’s belonged to the longest-running U.S. Jewish-Palestinian Dialogue Group. He has been married since 1969, has three kids, seven grandsons — and looks forward to future granddaughters. Online at: gerardsarnat.com Poetry lovers, you're in for treat today where at SHINE we're putting the spotlight on DS Maolalai, with three short poems: "Diary," "What Kind of Dog Is That," and "An Ex-Girlfriend." Thank you, DS, for sharing your work with SHINE! Diary What Kind of Dog Is That An Ex-Girlfriend  DS Maolalai has been described by one editor as "a cosmopolitan poet" and another as "prolific, bordering on incontinent". His work has been nominated fourteen times for BOTN, eleven for the Pushcart, and once for the Forward Prize. Maolalai has released three collections: Love is Breaking Plates in the Garden (Encircle Press, 2016), Sad Havoc Among the Birds (Turas Press, 2019), and Noble Rot (Turas Press, 2022).
Poetry lovers, today it's an honor to shine the spotlight on the talented and prolific Sheila Murphy. Please enjoy "Bee Breath" and "As the Decibels Meander Forth." Thank you, Sheila, for sharing your love of words with SHINE international poetry series!  Editor’s Note: According to online sources, a “breviary” is a liturgical book used in Christianity for praying the canonical hours, usually recited at seven fixed prayer times   Sheila E. Murphy. A Pushcart-nominated poet, Murphy’s most recent book publications: I Want to Be Your Radio (Unlikely Books, 2025), Escritoire (Lavender Ink, 2025), Permission to Relax (BlazeVOX Books, 2023). Gertrude Stein Poetry Award for Letters to Unfinished J. (Green Integer Press, 2003). Hay(ha)ku Book Prize for Reporting Live From You Know Where (Meritage Press, 2018). She lives in Phoenix, Arizona.
Poetry lovers, today we're shining the spotlight on Italian writer, Vincenzo Cohen. Please enjoy his poem "The Palace" (from Cretan Sea) and "Spirit Rising" (from Army of Bodies). Thank you, Vincenzo, for sharing your gift of words with SHINE!   ARTIST STATEMENT My poems speak of biographical experiences and I use to write right away whenever I get the chance. I consider all art expressions I deal with closely connected since for me the creative process is a flow that sweeps towards different forms merging in a poetic vision of existence.
~~~ Prior publish credits include: Poesia, Collana Ominium, Susil Edizioni, Carbonia SU (IT), March 2022 The AutoEthnographer Literary & Arts Magazine, Armored Corps: The Spirit of Combativeness and Human Resilience, vol. 4, issue 3, Fort Lauderdale (US), September 2024 Welcome back, poetry lovers! Today at SHINE, I'm pleased to spotlight Nancy Byrne Iannucci, with a beautiful photo (by Emily Byrne Hickman) to boot! Please enjoy "Like Ghosts," "Unanswered Questions" (previously published by Poem Alone), and "Earth." Thank you, Nancy, and Emily, for sharing your talents with the SHINE international poetry community!  All Saints Church – Wribbenhall, Bewdley, England By Emma Byrne Hickman     Nancy Byrne Iannucci's poetry can be found in Thrush Poetry Journal, 34 Orchard, The Poetry Lighthouse, Eunoia, and Maudlin House, among others. She is the author of four chapbooks and a two-time Best of the Net Nominee. www.nancybyrneiannucci.com and on Instagram: @nancybyrneiannucci
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Emma Byrne Hickman is a nature photographer who resides in the countryside of England. Her photographs aim to capture moments of wonder and awe found in the natural world. Friends and poetry lovers, today I am absolutely delighted to shine the spotlight on Hawaii-based poet, Eric Paul Shaffer. Please enjoy Shaffer's moving poem "King Tide," written for his late brother, as well as (the perfectly reasonable!) "Why I Have No Tattoos" -- two poems which, through differing topics, convey the scope of Shaffer's work. Thank you, Eric, for sharing your words with SHINE international poetry series!    Photo by Mathew Ursua (http://blog.mathewursua.com/) Eric Paul Shaffer lives in what’s left of the Koʻolau Volcano on the fractured edge of the Nuʻuanu Landslide, Hawaiʻi’s largest local submarine landslide, covering hundreds of miles of seafloor and occurring more than a million years ago. Today, the caldera is peaceful enough for Shaffer, retired and full of words, to repeatedly write poems. Rejected by the most discriminating reviews, journals, and magazines on the planet, Shaffer’s ten books of poems include Second Nature; Free Speech; Green Leaves: Selected & New Poems; Even Further West; A Million-Dollar Bill; and Lāhaina Noon. Shaffer does not surf, yet lives on O‘ahu.
Today we're shining the spotlight on Texas-based poet Marty Shambles. Please enjoy his poem, "When I Was Too High To Smoke." Thank you, Marty, for sharing your words with SHINE international poetry series. Wishing everyone a pleasant weekend, and we'll be back next week with more new poems for NaPoMo! When I Was Too High To Smoke  Marty Shambles is a poetry editor and writer-in-residence at Blood+Honey. Published and produced playwright. Poet laureate of railroad tracks and greasy spoons. He lives in Texas and has a GED.
Happy National Poetry Month! To get things started here at SHINE, it's a pleasure to put the spotlight, once again, on Michael Igoe with his poem, "Other End of the Day," previously published in D.O.R. (Deadly Orgone Radiation) Issue 6 available on Amazon. Please enjoy! Thank you, Michael, for sharing your words with SHINE international poetry series!   Michael Igoe, city boy, neurodiverse, whose work appears in journals and anthologies (available at amazon.com, lulu,com, barnesandnoble.com). Editor's Choice Award National Library of Poetry(Owing Mills MD) 1997. Best of the Net Nomination 2023. poetry-in-motion.org
Hi there, poetry fans and thanks for stopping by! SHINE poetry welcomes back poet John Grey with two moving poems: The Boys After School, and Second Chance. Thank you, John, for sharing your words with SHINE international poetry series! As a PSA: SHINE Spotlights are a going to be a bit spotty (see what I did there?!) this week and next, but but don't worry, SHINE has plenty of great writers lined up for National Poetry Month...right around the corner! The Boys After School Second Chance  John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident, recently published in Shift, Trampoline and Flights. Latest books, Bittersweet, Subject Matters, and Between Two Fires are available through Amazon. Work upcoming in Levitate, White Wall Review, and Willow Review.
As we approach the weekend, SHINE has one more Spotlight for this week...two poems by the prolific A.M. Hayden! Please enjoy, "At the Frankenmuth Dog Bowl Events, I See Racing and Dock Dive Dogs," which is part of a larger poem published in VIPF Boundless Anthology, (also) March 2026; and "When My Husband Put Vin Into AI." Thank you, A.M., for once again sharing your words with SHINE international poetry series!    A.M. Hayden served as Poet Laureate for Sinclair College from 2021-2025 and is a Tenured Professor of Humanities, Philosophy, and World Religions, receiving the League for Innovation Teaching Excellence Award (2020) and the Distinguished Faculty Scholars Award (2024). She has two full length poetry collections (American Saunter: Poems of the U.S. and Old World Wings: Poems of Europe) and one chapbook (How to Tie Tobacco), published by FlowerSong Press and Wild Ink Publishing. Twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize and a River Heron Editors' Choice Winner, she lives on a windy farm with her family and many rescues including a blind, three-legged dog named Vinny Valentine and a three-legged goat named Old Man Jenkins.
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SHINE - International Poetry Series
Click here for submissions and more
From the international poetry community, we have a "luxury of stars," as Sylvia Plath might say, and it is SHINE's honor to provide a home for their words with the online Spotlight series as well as SHINE Quarterly. Click on the logo above to learn more. And...keep writing, keep shining!
In poetry, Samantha Terrell, EIC SYLVIA PLATH
Stars Over the Dordogne Stars are dropping thick as stones into the twiggy
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