Soul Poetry, Prose & Arts Magazine

11/23/2025

From Soul Poetry's 2025 Fall Issue

Photo by Kate Darmody: Unsplash.com

The Living Room
by CS Crowe

I want to start a weekday cult
In my grandmother's front room
Den. Antechamber. Vestibule. Votary.
How one room can be all of these
If the house is small enough
This room where we come alive
Like children opening their third eye
For the first time at the age of five

I want to start a weekday cult
Iconolatry in my grandmother's front room
But instead of plants or paintings,
Instead of coffee mugs, shot glasses, or
Little Moments porcelain figurines,
She collects nativity scenes—
So my cult just goes all the way
Back around to being Christianity again

I want to start a weekday cult
But we moved my grandmother
To an assisted living facility,
And we sold the house to pay
For the care none of us were willing
To give her, a cult of iconoclasts
Who would break any tradition
For a chance to finally live our own lives


CS Crowe is three crows in a trench coat that gained sentience after eating a magic bean. He spends his days writing stories on a stolen laptop and trading human teeth for peanuts. A poet and storyteller from the Southeastern United States, he believes stories and poems are about the journey, not the destination, and he loves those stories that wander in the wilderness for forty years before finding their way to the promised land.

11/23/2025

From Soul Poetry's 2025 Fall Issue

Photo by Shovan Datta: Pexels.com

Heavy as Memory
by Baskin Cooper

the blue ridge leans above the farm
quiet and larger than life
a steady backdrop to the change
that stirs in the valley below

I find the old well pump
choked by weeds and vines
its red paint nearly gone
to bare iron dark as earth

the air hums with wires now
a new house rising on the field
steam shovels scrape where tree frogs
once sang the woods alive

my father’s hands on the handle
the arc of water flashing cold
I drank from cupped palms
believing it would never end

I touch the rusted lever
its silence heavy as memory
faithful to a place and time
that somehow slipped away


Baskin Cooper is an award-winning poet, visual artist, and multidisciplinary creator based in Chatham County, North Carolina. His work spans poetry, songwriting, sculpture, screenwriting, and voice acting, weaving together visual, narrative, and musical elements. He holds a PhD in psychology and previously lived in Cork, Ireland, experiences that often shape his explorations of folklore, lyricism, and personal history. His poems have appeared in Verse-Virtual, ONE ART: A Journal of Poetry, Ink & Oak Lit, and others. His debut collection, The Space Between Branches, is currently seeking publication.

11/23/2025

From Soul Poetry's 2025 Fall Issue

Photo by Inge Wallumrød: Pexels.com

Come Autumn
by Ken e Bujold

Come autumn, Aestas rising later and
later each morning. As the river runs
to a trickle, nearer and nearer
to Saturn’s bedrock, the dove and butcherbird
dart and cower amidst the thinning cover
of dogwoods. Along the banks
I begin to make my ledger of leaves—
the seasonal lovers that never returned.

Time and Death, Life’s unflinching auditors,
never miss a heart’s faux pas.
Every leaf has to be catalogued—
the grim march of apples rusting,
worms hollowing out an ungrateful eye—
noted before the winter’s disinfecting purge.
Though I always remember to leave one page unfilled,
blank for the coming spring I hold deep in my bones.


Ken e Bujold is a Canadian poet residing just outside of Toronto. He is the author of two collections: a private, limited edition, In the Key of Musica (2022), as well as The Landscape of Three Small Words (2024).

11/23/2025

From Soul Poetry's 2025 Fall Issue

Photo by Melissa Jansen van Rensburg: Pexels.com

The Secrets of the Willows
by Lita Marie Bonciolini

After David Whyte – To Break a Promise

The promises we made
are not ours anymore.
They went with the river,
let go from the steeped banks.

You thought they'd be lost—
a drowned word,
a forgotten vow—
but they found their own way.

They live in the bends,
in the rush over stones,
a bright glint of sunlight
on the water’s broken surface.

They are the secrets whispered
by a gathering of willows,
a hum of communion in deep waters.

They belong to the river now,
you look for them in me,
no longer clutched to my heart,
pink petals slipped from my fingertips.

Lita Marie Bonciolini is a writer, artist, and jewelry designer. She has been nominated for Best of the Net 2026 Anthology. Her poetry accompanied the Robert Indiana: A Legacy of Love exhibit at the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio (2020); in the anthologies Pandemic Puzzle Poems (2021), and Yellow Flag Poems / Life in the Time of Covid-19 (2022); as well as in Arts Alive San Antonio (2022, 2025). Her poetry, prose and art have been included in two editions of Soul Poetry, Prose & Art Magazine (2025). She illustrates book covers and children’s books. Lita lives in San Antonio, Texas.

11/23/2025

from Soul Poetry 2025 Fall Issue:

Photo by Alena Jarrett: Unsplash.com

Slow Forecast
by Robert Beveridge

You wonder
if it would be considered
uncouth
to practice the trombone
on the Broad Street local.

You waggle the nub
on your spit valve,
stare at the nearest person
with green eyes and freckles.

Robert Beveridge (he/him) makes noise (xterminal.bandcamp.com) and writes poetry on unceded Mingo land (Akron, OH). He published his first poem in a non-vanity/non-school publication in November 1988, and it's been all downhill since. Recent/upcoming appearances in Brief Wilderness, Castagnette, and The Broadkill Review, among others.

11/23/2025

Front Porch
by Brian Michael Barbeito
in Soul Poetry's 2025 Fall Issue

Brian Michael Barbeito is a Canadian photographer and poet. A work of landscape photography and prose poems, The Book of Love and Mourning, is forthcoming in autumn 2025.

11/23/2025

See whole interview on Soul Poetry's 2025 Fall Issue
Author Profile: Mackenzie Meeker

1) How would you describe yourself and/or your work in three sentences or less?

My work is an extension of who I am—always honest, gritty, and fervent. I never stop myself from writing about human nature, the pain of nostalgia, and the loss of childhood. I embrace old memories, the growing pains of grief, and the nature all around me, from the trees to the little bugs that live in the dirt: all of these staples of human life have formed me into who I am today.

2) Who has been your biggest supporter and/or inspiration?

My grandpa, who was lovingly known as Papa by all his grandchildren. Papa had the best smile in the world. He had a gentle, loving, and humorous personality to match. When he passed in November 2023, I found myself consumed by grief and a kind of depression I had never experienced before. I had never written anything before Papa's passing, but my grief became both my menace and my catalyst to become the writer I am now. His death inspired me to write about the impact he had on my childhood, my adulthood, and the love I still hold for him. Papa will always be my inspiration because he lives on through my writing, and my nostalgia never lets me forget that. I hope to publish my chapbook about him someday, sharing how much he meant to me and the lasting impact he had on my life, even now.

3) Where is your favorite place to write or create your art?

I often find inspiration while running. During those moments, I observe people, reflect on nature, or dwell on thoughts that have been weighing on me. I begin composing poems in my head, and when I return home, I develop those ideas in a Google Doc. I also love walking at night and being surrounded by darkness; the moon and a cool (or warm) breeze inspire me to write. Sometimes I'll pull out my phone mid-walk to capture a poem as it comes to me.

Fun fact: My poem Nevermore was inspired by a dead crow I saw one night while walking around campus. It looked so peaceful and beautiful that I felt compelled to write about it.

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11/23/2025

See whole interview in Soul Poetry's 2025 Fall Issue:
Author Profile: Orman Day

1) How would you describe yourself and/or your work in three sentences or less?

At nearly eighty, I feast on my past. Driven by wanderlust, I spent years of my early life with a pack on my back, thumbing, freight hopping, having adventures. Now I have a mountain of scrawled notes from which to draw memoirs.

2) Who has been your biggest supporter and/or inspiration?

I’m lucky to have friends, family members and a resident muse who cheer every acceptance with attaboys and give me pep talks after rejections.

3) Where is your favorite place to write or create your art?

My office is full of what I call creative clutter, some of it scattered across my work table beside my computer where I work. Surprisingly, I can usually find whatever I need.

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11/23/2025

See whole interview in Soul Poetry's 2025 Fall Issue
Artist/Author Profile: Baskin Cooper

1) How would you describe yourself and/or your work in three sentences or less?

I’m a poet who writes at the intersection of memory, myth, and place. After a first draft, I look for the thread, the ironic or revealing angle that gives the poem its reason to exist. I want each piece to reflect something true about being human, something that lingers after the last line.

2) Who has been your biggest supporter and/or inspiration?

The late Michael Glaser, former Poet Laureate of Maryland, has been my greatest mentor and inspiration. He taught me that poetry lives in the quiet moment, in those still spaces where words can resonate beyond the page. His wisdom continues to remind me that reflecting in silence is often how a poem finds you.

3) Where is your favorite place to write or create your art?

The Blue Ridge Mountains. Time feels suspended there; the outside world falls away, leaving only the stillness of full life: the air, the trees, the ridge lifting against the sky. In that quiet world, it’s easy to forget yourself and simply listen to what wants to be written.

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11/23/2025

See whole interview in Soul Poetry's 2025 Fall Issue

Artist Profile: Brian Michael Barbeito

1) How would you describe yourself and/or your work in three sentences or less?

I would describe myself and my work as creative and spiritual. By exploring the natural world and memory itself through writing and photography, the spiritual journey and dimension is enhanced and enriched.

2) Who has been your biggest supporter and/or inspiration?

My wife Tara has been my biggest advocate. She has been a partner in the nature walking since the beginning and a great muse. When it comes to the actual art of making art, she is always there to speak with and often help with the technical side of formatting books. The work is dedicated to her on both a spiritual and practical level. Being a true creative, I have always struggled with the technical side of anything. And she’s a Virgo, so her organized and pragmatic nature offsets my dream-like mystical temperament well.

3) Where is your favorite place to write or create your art?

I don’t have one, as in by a meadow or in a cozy office. I can and do work in coffee shops, at home, while a passenger in a vehicle, at a dinner table, or basically anywhere and anytime.

**Issue linked in the comments

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11/23/2025

Ready? Set? Go! Get your very best winter prose, poetry & arts ready for submission. Opening day is November 30! While there is no hard-set theme, I do tend to gravitate toward works that depict the season of the issue. Think cozy, snuggling, fireplaces, sweatshirts, snowmen, decorations, holidays, rest, hibernation, reprieve...and interpret those in various ways. Art people -- I love cardinals in the snow. Fence rows with snow and pine trees, frozen lakes, snowflakes falling, old barns with winter setting, etc. I would love to see some gorgeous winter paintings and photography! I can't wait to see the new work. Have a blessed Thanksgiving. Bless you all.

11/15/2025

And we are LIVE! Check out Soul Poetry, Prose & Arts Magazine Volume 1 Issue 4 Fall 2025. Thank you! Thank you, contributors for making this such a beautiful issue. I'm so proud of all of you. Feel free to visit the site, download the PDF and share the Flip Book. I know this is live about 12 hours early, but I was on a roll tonight! To access the link (because FB is crazy with links) check the very first comment.

Soul Poetry Volume 1 Issue 4 Fall 2025Download