(Poem of the Week) My solitude is the result of my survival My fear is the loss of my youth My womanhood is the peak of the mountaintop...

What draws me in is the musical layering: "Parnassian syncopation," "beat bedtime melodies," "zodiac music," "celestial spheres"—it turns personal longing into a symphony of the universe. The shift from feverish passion to gentle, eternal dreaming (with a quill and beat near willow trees) feels restorative, like surrendering to inspiration's flow.

This short, powerful prose-poem captures a moment of intense, merged awareness—where control, power, pleasure, and sensation blur into unity.

It’s such a delight to choose (or admire) cover art for stories and novels. Some authors design their own, while others collaborate with photographers or professionals for that perfect visual hook. One that stands out to me as especially lovely is on Celia Blake's short story Exposed. She received kind permission to use this stunning underwater photograph of an octopus by Enrico Somogyi.