Nicole Rollender
Morning Prayer
Fog blows, trails left from salt-covered stars’ edges
String thick thread through red and yellow peppers, scent of wet dirt
Cupped hands raised to first light, damp and earth-clinged
Fire ember pops, last to die as night’s excesses of love
Spine curves like a swan’s neck – its wings moving through moss and shadows
At your feet, my lips
My hands, soil on palms, are ancient butterflies
O, release the dawn, the scent of apples, of rain
Nicole Rollender’s poetry and nonfiction have been published or are forthcoming in various literary magazines and anthologies, including 27 rue de fleures, Alaska Quarterly Review, Creative Nonfiction, Dark Matter Journal, Enizagam, The Kenning Journal, Literary Mama, The Madison Review, Princemere Poetry Journal, Ruminate Magazine, Salt Hill Journal, the strange fruit, Third Wednesday, Reckless Writing, The Voices Project and The Whirlwind Review. Nicole serves as media director for Minerva Rising Literary Magazine, and regularly blogs for Ruminatemagazine.com. Her poem, “Hunger,” won second place in the 2014 Westmoreland Arts & Heritage Festival Poetry Contest. She’s the winner of Ruminate Magazine’s 2012 Janet B. McCabe poetry prize for her poem, “Necessary Work,” which was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She also won Princemere Poetry Journal’s 2012 Princemere’s Poetry Prize for her poem, “Quickening.” Her poetry chapbook Arrangement of Desire was published by Pudding House Publications in 2007. Nicole, who has an MFA in creative writing from Penn State University, is editor of Stitches magazine, which won a Jesse H. Neal Award for “Best Single Issue of a Magazine” and the American Society of Business Publication Editors (ASBPE) 2011 Magazine of the Year Award.
Return to May 2014 Edition
Fog blows, trails left from salt-covered stars’ edges
String thick thread through red and yellow peppers, scent of wet dirt
Cupped hands raised to first light, damp and earth-clinged
Fire ember pops, last to die as night’s excesses of love
Spine curves like a swan’s neck – its wings moving through moss and shadows
At your feet, my lips
My hands, soil on palms, are ancient butterflies
O, release the dawn, the scent of apples, of rain
Nicole Rollender’s poetry and nonfiction have been published or are forthcoming in various literary magazines and anthologies, including 27 rue de fleures, Alaska Quarterly Review, Creative Nonfiction, Dark Matter Journal, Enizagam, The Kenning Journal, Literary Mama, The Madison Review, Princemere Poetry Journal, Ruminate Magazine, Salt Hill Journal, the strange fruit, Third Wednesday, Reckless Writing, The Voices Project and The Whirlwind Review. Nicole serves as media director for Minerva Rising Literary Magazine, and regularly blogs for Ruminatemagazine.com. Her poem, “Hunger,” won second place in the 2014 Westmoreland Arts & Heritage Festival Poetry Contest. She’s the winner of Ruminate Magazine’s 2012 Janet B. McCabe poetry prize for her poem, “Necessary Work,” which was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She also won Princemere Poetry Journal’s 2012 Princemere’s Poetry Prize for her poem, “Quickening.” Her poetry chapbook Arrangement of Desire was published by Pudding House Publications in 2007. Nicole, who has an MFA in creative writing from Penn State University, is editor of Stitches magazine, which won a Jesse H. Neal Award for “Best Single Issue of a Magazine” and the American Society of Business Publication Editors (ASBPE) 2011 Magazine of the Year Award.
Return to May 2014 Edition