Our bones used to be the same
By Heleana Bakopoulos — Fish, teething filleted fish of yesterday on a bed of blueberries, with purple fingertips and spider legs,
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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- Apr 27
Injustice - Caroline and Miriam
By Phyllis Evan — 7th grade. I still remember their names. Caroline and Miriam. Caroline’s face was long and narrow, except for her cheek
- Apr 7
IF ONLY MY MOTHER WOULD HAVE LIVED
By Lynn Davidman — If only my mother had lived instead of dying when I was barely thirteen, my life would have been easier in so many ways.
- Mar 7
I have heard her voice
By R. Bremner — I hear her voice at
the strangest times: at work, during a conference all; walking the dog on a bright sunny day; listening
- Jan 13
Shadows
By Simon Perchik — With each kiss your breath presses against this dirt, still warm from shovels emptied one by one, the way this hillside
- Jan 1
UNVEILING MY HEART
By Ojo Olumide Emmanuel — A love poem is like honey conjugal-blessing two pairs of cookies. A broken poem is like a strain. You holla &
- Dec 9, 2021
Disappearing
By Kelly Kotewa — My mother is disappearing. This is not the woman who raised me. Her shape is still there taking up space. Her voice is
- Nov 2, 2021
Dawn at the Carquinez Strait
By Thomas Piekarski — There is much disclosure of facts about mankind's impending fate, but our human faculties fall short of altering those
- Oct 12, 2021
I Should Have Said
By Gerry Grubbs — I should have said How lovely you were last night. I should have said I knew the stars were out because I could see you
- Sep 24, 2021
Dear Nana
By Kim Steinberg — For eleven years, you lived on a sadist’s charity. The year was 1918. You were two years old, living in the port city of
- Aug 21, 2021
Keeping Cool
By Eric Burgoyne — Fred was washing his new Subaru in the driveway in front of the house. A meteorite crashed down in his backyard before he
- Jul 28, 2021
Let’s Talk About Fat
By Susan Anmuth — What if the hours I’ve consumed with diets, food plans, new bright starts, still missing the mud pie at Henry’s End in
- Jun 27, 2021
The Problem with Chivalry
By Alan Cohen — There are more scars on my heart inflicted by women than there are days in the year. It is better not to love them.
- May 31, 2021
The Nectar Song
By Yuan Hongri & Translated by Manu Mangattu — A sieve of my soul I weave with lightning of time. And cast it into the interstellar sea of
- May 8, 2021
Just Passing Through
By Madge Kaplan — I know we’re both waiting outside a hospital’s locked psychiatric unit. But I won’t be doing this more than once or twice.
- Mar 20, 2021
The House
By Anita Kestin — I have not traveled that route in some time. That place belongs to a time when we thought we were all healthy and when
- Feb 22, 2021
Notes from an Agnostic
By Susan Hand — god: I’m going to strip you of your capital letters, if that’s ok with you. If only god would reveal himself, in the flash
- Feb 2, 2021
If Only I Moved by Instinct
By D.R. James — Life has been a grand migration to where you are today! Well known wisdom. I didn't know! Otherwise, when those raggedy
- Dec 29, 2020
Cutting Loose
By Carol Keegan —
Too many of us cut loose at the same time, so the bell curve inverted. Eccentrics at both ends of old norms became the
- Dec 14, 2020
I am Purple
By Megan Snedeker — If only you could see that being bisexual isn’t half red and half blue. It’s purple. We’re a beautiful mixture of lost