Good Girl, Olive
By Vibha Akkaraju — “Good girl,” I coo to Olive in that tone that Maya, my first born, finds unbearably saccharine. But it's not saccharine
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The
Premier
online
literary
journal
for
Expressive
Writing
The
Premier
online
literary
journal
for
Expressive
Writing
JOURNAL OF
EXPRESSIVE WRITING
THEMES by PROMPT
We publish writing using a series of prompts as an entry point for exploring emotions, personal histories, shared truths, joy, grief, shame, and those themes that matter most to us in our hearts.
Explore the themes by prompt below:
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- 5 days ago
Sullen Joys
By Glenn Marchand — By twinges in twilight, suffused, bewildered, and aloof from pegs; rocket wings, severed from emotion, unable to grasp
- Jan 21
Shadow Docket
By Mark Blickley — No woman can call herself free who does not control her own body. Every time we liberate a woman, we liberate a man.
- Jan 18
To M.W.
By Gabriella Garofalo — Bad reps, twisty marriages, fractured families. These are the gifts waves left for me
on the seashore last night
- Jan 15
Erratic Orbit
By Gary Beck — The sun rises late,
sets earlier, but some of us hardly notice, bound to city cycles, wake, rise, hygiene, rush to work on
- Jan 12
The Only Time the World is Perfect
By Nolcha Fox — In miniature the world
is perfect, once a year at Christmas time. The train runs round the Christmas tree, never going off
- Jan 9
On reaching old age
By Colin Ian Jeffery — Time is fleeting in its passing and does jolt the memory,
recalling images of long ago when life seemed to stretch
- Jan 6
My TONGUE IS ALL I HAVE GOT
By Oteeyho Iro — I did not know
it's hellish to live on the other end of the gun, always on the target board,
that surviving is another
- Jan 2
The broken soul in my homeland
By Pawel Markiewicz — When I first read about a wartime-labor-camp in Bielsk Podlaski on the Internet, it was an autumn day a few weeks ago.
- Dec 30, 2022
Northern Cruise
By Jeremiah K Durick — There must be something here worth the effort. The time spent. The foghorn goes off every two minutes reminding us
- Dec 28, 2022
Bee–stingly sister
By Oksana Mauricio — I turned into the bee version, desiring to sting her for interrupting, my Niece and I's conversation. She was not
- Dec 24, 2022
THE TRIATHLON
By Judith Morgan Gray — I am standing knee deep in the open water of Lake Washington in a roped off area close to the shore. It is 6:30 am
- Dec 22, 2022
The Inner Critic Returns from the Dead
By David J. Bookbinder — Foolish boy, foolish boy, foolish boy, why do you torment yourself with ambition when you know as I have always
- Dec 20, 2022
Definition of Romantic Love
By Dorothy Lolagne — The intimacy of hearing your voice in the dim lighting of my bedroom. My arms tangled around my pillowcase—I took my
- Dec 17, 2022
They won't hear you
By Daun M. Wright — A life is in turmoil, cries for help in the deafening silence of the ignorance of others, in the avoidance of those in
- Dec 14, 2022
Deep in the Unmowed Paddock
Kyla St Jaye — My body feels like an episode of hoarders. I’m always hungry. Stacked with debris and loading. Each scrap, bottle top and
- Dec 12, 2022
Rebars
By Martin Schwarz — A vortex descends on me of shrapnel and hopelessness. Yet a hunger in my spine hauls me from the afterlife. Born in hail
- Dec 9, 2022
Aging in a Time of Pandemic
By Dr. Sidney Trubowitz — This year, on February 4th, I will celebrate my 97th birthday and I consider what changes the ravages of time have
- Dec 6, 2022
Police Pulling Me Over
By Karol Nielsen — I needed a car for my new job as managing editor of a weekly newspaper covering murders, drugs, schools, and communities
- Dec 3, 2022
We Didn’t See It Coming
By Diann Logan — When I was Sweet 16, one computer was bigger than any of the classrooms I spent my days in. High School guidance counselors
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