BEAUTY Conceive me as a dream of stone: my breast, where mortals come to grief, is made to prompt all poets' love, mute and noble as matter itself. With snow for flesh, with ice for heart, I sit on high, an unguessed sphinx begrudging acts that alter forms; I... » read this article

"One of the Butterflies" (from The Shadow of Sirius) The trouble with pleasure is the timing it can overtake me without warning and be gone before I know it is here it can stand facing me unrecognized while I am remembering somewhere else in another age or someone not seen... » read this article

  HEARTLINES NEEDED   How breezily most media headlines spin people's heads in another direction— one top-story, one-stop-shopping shifting attention when the questions to ask are: who decides the headlines? how many kooks are spoiling the broth? who's washing the dishes? what neighbor needs a hand carrying groceries? what neighbor... » read this article

"Although logos is common to all, most people live as if they had a wisdom of their own." Herakleitos (Heraclitus) 1. p.77. Fr.2   "Love is most nearly itself When here and now cease to matter. Old men ought to be explorers Here or there does not matter We must... » read this article

They that have power to hurt and will do none, That do not do the thing they most do show, Who, moving others, are themselves as stone, Unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow, They rightly do inherit heaven's graces And husband nature's riches from expense; They are the lords and... » read this article

  "Fireflies" And these are my vices: impatience, bad temper, wine, the more than occasional cigarette, an almost unquenchable thirst to be kissed, a hunger that isn't hunger but something like fear, a staunching of dread and a taste for bitter gossip of those who've wronged me—for bitterness— and flirting... » read this article

Starlings in Winter Chunky and noisy, but with stars in their black feathers, they spring from the telephone wire and instantly they are acrobats in the freezing wind. And now, in the theater of air, they swing over buildings, dipping and rising; they float like one stippled star that opens,... » read this article

They are poor AND they are honest Yes, they need a hand, but not your arms Help not their oppressors with your weapons You could join in the fight by cultivating their farms *** Let us all declare a united 'war on want' Claim not that you are free of... » read this article

WHOSE WINTER LEDGER? Snow always, at first, pristine, soon mysterious, what's left unseen, too little idea of what or who gets weaned.   The local hardware store's wish came true, while some other stores didn't get their due. Under pale yellow sun the shoveling out, occasionally looking up for the... » read this article

Wake up, my dear, but continue to dream Let's play a game of make belief Help me break these digital chains And run to a wilderness, wild and free *** I read somewhere 'the future is orange' Yet we still long for a past that was green Can we retain... » read this article

I will place a note in the box expressing my gratitude to all of you for helping me pass through the hard times since my country was invaded. I will wrap the box with white ribbons, the color of peace, and will remember a special friend who keeps telling me... » read this article

Namaste is pronounced "Namastay" with the first two "a's" as the first "a" in America. and the "ay" as in "stay". The "t" is pronounced softly with the area just behind the tip of the tongue pressing against the upper-front teeth with no air passing between. (Jai Maharaj) In Sanskrit... » read this article

Regina Guarisco began contributing her poetry to Axis of Logic in 2003 but began writing poetry when she was only 10. Her poetry, published on Axis, was written when she was 16 and 17 years old. She is now a college graduate and a singer/songwriter in Arizona. Read Regina's poetry... » read this article

  SRI LANKA Its a mockery to insanity Fumbling into putting foot 'n' mouth Rambling onto sheer bloody mindedness. Children stare with protruding eyes The skeletons of war and misery. The future hangs in balance of the global players. The locals are victims to lip service and spin doctors. The... » read this article

Working in the Rain My father loved more than anything to work outside in wet weather. Beginning at daylight he'd go out in dripping brush to mow or pull weeds for hog and chickens. First his shoulders got damp and the drops from his hat ran down his back. When... » read this article

IN ALL COUNTRIES HE IS LISTENING dry and warm and the white folk call it Indian Summer in Manhattan but there is a cat out in the dark night of rain, there is an Eskimo trudging through the snow of an analog TV, there is a man on the street... » read this article

Editor's Note: We received the following letter from Nesreen Melek, a frequent guest writer and poet for Axis of Logic. Nesreen wrote it during her current visit in China. In her letter, she compares her experiences in Beijing with that of her last visit to Baghdad, her "Wattan"*. - LMB Dear Les, I went... » read this article

The First Artichoke Though everyone said no one could grow artichokes in New Jersey, my father planted the seeds and they grew one magnificent artichoke, late-season, long after the squash, tomatoes, and zucchini. It was the derelict in my father's garden, little Buddha of a vegetable, pinecone gone awry. It... » read this article

So being off the grid for a month, I had plenty of spare time on my hands to think about stuff, wander around, and contemplate the interlocked workings of our miserably suffering little planet. You know, that war crap and corrupt politicians and Israeli atrocity on Palestinians and the U.S.... » read this article

Water Table It is on dry sunny days like this one that I find myself thinking about the enormous body of water that lies under this house, cool, unseen reservoir, silent except for the sounds of dripping and the incalculable shifting of all the heavy darkness that it holds. This... » read this article