Roses are red, water is cleansing

She walked along the riverbank  Heart drenched with sorrow  Eyes searching for a savior  Mind wandering through flashing life memories  She wore white for this occasion  As if she were arriving for a baptism  Only she was preparing for her ending  She was over it  This thing called the human experience  The more she thought…

My truth, your truth, whose truth?

The truth will set you free or hold others in captivity. Hear me out. We journey through life experiencing all of these beautiful lessons. I say beautiful because each experience is a lesson that leads to our expansion. That growth and expansion could be mental, emotional, physical, and/or spiritual. Nonetheless, growth is beautiful to experience,…

Event Announcement + Four Poems

Before the final poems that I’ll be posting in my tenure as the Racine Writer-in-Residence, I want to say thank you to all the readers who have visited over the past six months. I would also like to invite everyone to attend the Open Mic & Performance Showcase I’ll be hosting as my community project…

November Rain

“No one’s really sure who’s lettin’ go today.” – Guns n’ Roses A sad song, perhaps, this,that dapples sidewalks with,in each stroke of rain,leaves, yellow devils,to menace usamong the few fallengreen too early.   Each leaf (or more) tumblesinto their soft scatterof paper voicesfrom treetops, down shinglesamong the still-spry clover,and over vermillion bricksin a late chorus…

Faustian Sentences p.2

The series of short verses “Faustian Sentences” were written while inpatient for mental health concerns. Each sightof handshanding over meds in papercups takesa sleight of mind stolen from timespent alonewhen each of us is judgedby the juryof our fears. * inside ofone momentthe day plungesinto glare and the tremorswe call plansretreatinto machines * three days…

Faustian Sentences, p. 1

we speak at times
to no one
and at others
to ourselves

words that cover
what’s between us
and the absence
never there

even if they seem
like what they are
or if they are
what they do not

More than a Feeling: Writing and Publishing Perzines

UPDATE (12/17/21): The live workshop has been canceled, because it’s tomorrow but no one has registered yet. I will instead be recording a video presenting the information I would have presented in the workshop and posting it online (for free). My apologies if anyone was actually planning to attend, but as no one has registered…

tell me all of your secrets

by Jessie Lynn McMains 1 Many people have told me I’m bold, in my writing. That I’m brave to put my life on the page, on the screen, click print, hit ‘publish,’ and not care who might read it or what they might think of me afterwards. Many people have told me I seem to…

Let’s Be Bad

by Jessie Lynn McMains Sometimes, I want to do bad things. This is not a confession of nefarious plots or dirty thoughts. Maybe I should rephrase it. Sometimes, I want to allow myself to be bad at things. I want to let myself make crappy stuff. I want to let myself just make the absolute…