A Dear Bud Letter by Elizabeth P. Glixman is a luminous ode to a single green bud, its stubborn reach for air, its inevitable blossoming, and the deep renewal it offers after winter’s gray. With language both intimate and expansive, the poem weaves earthly botany with prehistoric seas, spiritual awakenings, and the primal allure of scent and color, until the bud becomes a flag of freedom unfurled in the light.

Leitrim’s Sands by Stan Long captures the quiet, elemental bond between rider and stallion on an Irish shore. The poem traces the transition from gallop to gentle submission, where brute strength yields to the grace of small white hands, and the wild energy of the tide softens into the calm rhythm of homecoming.

It’s where the cobbles warm first in the morning, and where the last of the day’s light lingers longest. Folk pass through here on their way to market, to Mass, or to nowhere in particular, each leaving a trace, words half-spoken, a sigh caught in the stone. Sit here long enough, and you’ll hear the footsteps of those who’ve been and gone: lovers parting, pilgrims pausing, children daring one last game before supper. The steps remember them all.

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