When I started this site, I had a whole lot more time on my hands (with the lockdown and all that), so I canvassed the internet for 4 line poems and added illustrations to them. Now, I just don't have the time for it any longer.

It was an honour and a privilege to read all your poems. I hope I did them justice.

4 Line Challenges

We are overwhelmed with information, swamped with stimuli, and flooded with facts and fakes. 

The goal of these challenges was to do the opposite: to get to the heart of something as simply as possible. Can you reveal the deeper meaning, true essence, or soul of something in four lines?

So, here are the best examples of people reflecting | examining | pondering | ruminating !

FLUX////2021////2

the break of day //// Helen Openshaw

BIO////

Helen Openshaw is a Drama and English teacher, from Cumbria. She enjoys writing poetry and plays and inspiring her students to write. Helen has had a short monologue commissioned by Knock and Nash productions. Recently published and upcoming poetry work in Secret Chords by Folklore publishing, Green Ink Poetry magazine, Open Door magazine, Fragmented Voices, and Loft books.

////CONTACT

t: @Pocket_rhyme

//// j.boelhower

BIO////

Husband. A father of six. Poet. Believer in the power of words. 

////CONTACT

t: @jdog90

a request //// Legrade

BIO////

I am Legrade, of course this is a pen name. Having spent my childhood in India, and right now living the teenage life in the midst of books and parents, it has been quite an adventure. Expect that I have been lonely most of the time but poems, reading, CS and astrophysics sum up for that. Moreover, I am a high school student living with a younger sis, family, moon and fantasies.

//// Alicia Turner

BIO////

Alicia Turner holds an MA in English and is a grant writer/storyteller from West Virginia. She can mostly be found writing confessional, conversational poetry in an over-priced apartment somewhere in WV. Her most-recent poem, 'The Anxiety (A),' was published in the CTD's 'Pen-2-Paper' project. Her life is a twisting, turning thing.

////CONTACT

i: @leeshycup

WINTER////2021////1

Two's Company //// Sarah Robin

BIO////

Sarah Robin is a new writer from England who featured as one of the winners in the previous quarter’s challenge. Robin loves walking through nature and exploring new places. She regularly feeds birds in her garden and her love of birds inspired this poem, especially in the loneliness of the pandemic. Robin has put a focus enjoying the simplicity of life, at a time when nothing should be taken for granted. 

////CONTACT

t: @SRobinWriter

Nature's Sabbath //// Rajiv Joshi

BIO////

Rajiv is around sixty. He loves to write, prose and poetry, in Hindi and English. 

////CONTACT

t: @rajivjoshi07i: @rajivjoshigm 

//// Aimee DuFresne

BIO////

Aimee DuFresne is an avid storyteller of both poetry and prose.  Early in life she learned that words could wound. Luckily, she later realized words also serve as a salve to the soul. She is the author of the memoir, Keep Going: From Grief to Growth. 

////CONTACT

i: @aimeedufresne

//// H.K

BIO////

i imagined some riddlewould read well here,something about not being there,or here, or anywhere 

////CONTACT

i: @hohokally

GIFT////2020////4

little fingers //// Sarah Robin

BIO////

Sarah Robin is a new writer from England. She was inspired to start writing during the coronavirus pandemic. Sarah takes her inspiration from the people she meets and places she visits, as well as her own life experiences. This is the shortest poem she's ever written!

////CONTACT

t: @SRobinWriter

//// Aimee DuFresne

BIO////

Aimee DuFresne is an avid storyteller, experienced speaker, and author of Keep Going: From Grief to Growth. She follows the creative inspiration within. Coffee helps with this endeavor in the morning, wine at night. Aimee possesses a fierce determination to uncover joy in this wild life.

////CONTACT

i: @aimeedufresne

gift //// Rajiv Joshi

BIO////

Rajiv is around sixty years old, an ex-bank manager. After his retirement, he spends his time chewing the cud, trying to figure out what really happened in those dreamy six decades of his life. He likes to write, both prose and poetry, he feels it’s a hobby which helps him in his search. He has finished writing a science fiction novel that awaits a publisher.

////CONTACT

t: @rajivjoshi07

heArtist //// Tracy Rose Stamper

BIO////

Tracy Rose Stamper dances with words, carries wildflowers in her purse and hope in her heart. She lives in a home on a hill in St. Louis with two beloved humans, two beagle boys and two whimsical wind sculptures. When not writing, she is probably thinking about writing. You can find her dancing with words at http://m.facebook.com/DancingPenTracyStamper/

////CONTACT

facebook.com/DancingPenTracyStamper

LIBERTY////2020////3

women //// Dina Sarayra

BIO////

Two mice fell into a bucket of cream... I am that second mouse.

////CONTACT

i: @di.ver.gent28

liberty //// R. L. Griffin

liberty //// Ignacio Diego

BIO////

Well, for my poem, it was more of a lack of Liberty in this Country. Especially for us minorities, who are facing the Glock every day!

////CONTACT

i: @themexicanpoet75

american freedom //// Lily Beaumont

BIO////

Lily Beaumont is a freelance curriculum and study guide developer; she holds an MA in English and Gender Studies from Brandeis University, and currently lives in Central Texas. Her creative work has appeared in publications including Open Minds Quarterly, Young Ravens Literary Review, and Rise Up Review.

////CONTACT

facebook.com/lily.beaumontlinkedin

FAMILY////2020////2

spring squall 

//// Sharon Israel

BIO////

Sharon Israel's debut chapbook Voice Lesson was published in 2017 by Post Traumatic Press. Her poem, "Melodrama at the Biograph" was nominated for "Best of the Net 2016". Sharon is the host of the monthly radio show, Planet Poet-Words in Space, on WIOX 91.3 FM (WIOXradio.org) in Roxbury, N.Y.

////CONTACT

sharonisraelpoet.comt: @sharonpoetfacebook.com/PlanetPoet

teaching kids how to apologize, when you should also improve

//// Jennifer Edwards

BIO////

Jennifer Edwards is a Pushcart Prize (XLIV) nominated poet & preschool Speech-Language Pathologist & busy mom/wife/brindle boxer mom in NH. Her writing appears in Portrait of New England, The Poets' Touchstone, The Ekphrastic Review, Headline Poetry and Press, Lucky Jefferson, Poetry in the Time of Covid (2020, Hobblebush Press). She reads @MudSeasonReview.

////CONTACT

t: @Jennife00420i: @JenEdwards8facebook

family photograph

//// John Grey

BIO////

John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident. Recently published in Soundings East, Dalhousie Review and Qwerty with work upcoming in West Trade Review, Willard and Maple and Connecticut River Review.

////CONTACT

facebook

night memory

//// Connor Orrico

BIO////

Connor is a medical student, field recordist, noise artist, and incipient birder. He likes global health, mental health, health equity, and racial justice. He last read from books by Antonin Artuad, Samuel Beckett, Emil Cioran, and Alejandra Pizarnik. He is bad at thinking in quadruples.

////CONTACT

t: @connororrico