literary magazines – Page 34

Perseverance and disappointment

Like Olympians who don’t make the podium, writers also encounter disappointment

As I tuned in to the 2024 Summer Olympics over the past two weeks to watch incredible athletes from around the world who had devoted their lives, or much of it, to perfecting their skills, and to revel in the success of the very few who achieved medals for their efforts, I also thought about those who did not make it to the podium.

Published in Periwinkle Pelican

Just when you thought the Great Cicada Invasion of 2024 was well behind us, along comes a poem I wrote about those pesky critters in the online literary journal Periwinkle Pelican. Check out “Thirteen Ways of Hearing a Cicada (With Apologies to Wallace Stevens),” published today.