I hope you will join me in congratulating Mark Woodward for winning the Spillwords Press September 2025 Publication of the Month Award. Mr. Woodward won for his poem, “Crossed Wires.”
(And for those of you who voted for the short story of mine that was nominated, I do thank you.) 🙂
ABC.
We nerd out hard around this house.
Marvel Comics.
The fox leaps into your eyes.
Otters rush from the darkness.
The snakes pour through your body.
Your dog howls and upstairs
Your wife both exults and weeps at once.
The wild god dances with your dog.
You dance with the sparrows.
A white stag pulls up a stool
And bellows hymns to enchantments.
A pelican leaps from chair to chair.
In the distance, warriors pour from their tombs.
Ancient gold grows like grass in the fields.
Everyone dreams the words to long-forgotten songs.
The hills echo and the grey stones ring
With laughter and madness and pain.
— excerpt from Tom Hirons’ “Sometimes a Wild God”
A lit lover and a buddy of mine here in Roanoke sent me a link today of a reading of this poem. It really is a wonderful piece.
You can read the full poem right here at the author’s website:
https://tomhirons.com/poetry/sometimes-a-wild-god
Image credit: George Sallie, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Oil on mahogany wood.
Then check out Local Gems Press’ new Halloween-themed anthology — Ghosts, Echoes & Shadows 2025. You can order it from Amazon at the link below:
(If you do purchase the book, I hope that you’ll peruse my poem about ghosts around Roanoke, “This Windy Morning.”)
Oil on canvas.
I am honored today to see American Poet publish three of my poems: “Ode to a New Black Ballpoint Pen,” “Like White Plumeria Petal” and “Hardy Orchids Haiku.”
Thank you, Editor-in-Chief Faiyaj Islam Fahim, for allowing me to see my work at this outstanding website devoted to American Poets.
Eric Robert Nolan, Author 