#published poetry

[lovers-daisies]

hey that’s me!!

[leahkentwriter]

From my as yet unpublished collection called I Will Never Name Your Killer. This piece published in Last Leaves Magazine.

[gemma-flora-ortwerth]

“You Are”

You are light caught in motion,

warmth that lands on skin

and gives us permission

to exist as we are.

There is beauty in your essence,

but a fiercer current moves beneath:

the steady pulse of your laugh,

the way your eyes hold a powerful, radiant gravity

at the small miracles,

a sparrow balancing on a wire,

a joke remembered mid-story.

I have watched a room move with you,

cups stilled, conversations dissolving,

as if awe itself had to take a seat.

You are powerful

not for how the eyes witness you,

but for how others feel luminous

and safe in your presence.

Your being proves that strength can be soft.

Your touch quiets all that aches;

your voice makes even still air listen.

If doubt ever knots itself within you,

I will untangle it carefully,

naming each thread after what you’ve survived,

until your own name hums in your chest.

You deserve the morning that waits

without demand or hurry,

the arms that embrace without question,

the kind of love

that never asks you to make yourself smaller.

And if the universe has eyes,

they widen each time you pass.

It grows kinder,

more possible,

because you are here.

—

A poem by Gemma Flora Ortwerth

Originally published in Lovestruck Inkwell, Spring 2026 issue.

https://www.lovestruckinkwell.com/spring-2026/you-are?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAZnRzaARA2z9leHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA8xMjQwMjQ1NzQyODc0MTQAAaem1TDlfdrKZiAzOi1fM2MjPkz9ZcRY8mLvh0IojA8lFA5a60woe_jSdPJJcg_aem_xni95D51Ik1EcYkf0ZY9gQ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

[softproserpina]

“I have asked God to be gentle / for within us has been instilled the primordial sacrifice…/…eternally I will cradle this tenderness this sin that has condemned me / eternally I will wrap you in my arms”

— Haley Green, from “Adam & Eve,” Vellichor Literary (Ariadne’s Thread I: January - June Anthology)

[agirlnamedbone]

Lucia Lu (Discount Guillotine '26)

[poetics-tracy]

Look what I just got!

You can find this collection on Amazon. I absolutely did not and will not get paid for being included in it, but I am so happy to see one of my poems in print.

Amazon.com: Poetry A Table: The Table Between Us: 9788269385571: Iset, Kine, Cole, Jennefer York, Anderson, Colin, Evans, Claire, Paul, Rach

[lovedripdrop]

My National Poetry Month 30 for 30 challenge is done & I’m so very thankful! New poems, pics & posts all on my IG: Haikuguru