Susan Isla Tepper is a twenty-year writer and the author of 11 published books of fiction and poetry and 5 stage plays. She has been nominated 21 times for the Pushcart Prize in both fiction and poetry. Her play ‘Crooked Heart’ concerning artist Jackson Pollock premiered on October 25, 2022 at the Irish Repertory Theatre in NYC. Adapted from an earlier novel, it was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Another play, LADY IN A POST BOX, co-written with poet and writer Ciaran O’Driscoll is moving toward production in Ireland. Tepper’s Novel satire titled ‘Office’ has been released as a Second Edition by Wilderness House Press. A new Novel ‘Hair of a Fallen Angel’ will be out in the winter.  Susan is a Brand Ambassador for The Galway Review. http://www.susantepper.com

ERUPTED

By Susan Isla Tepper

For Stephanie Dickinson

The girl wrote God is love
and the glass
shone instantaneously
across its bulbous
smudged surface
moon, stars, sun
at once erupted
sharing the space
blinding me by this alliance
bars banged open
the defeated stepped forth
stunned yet
almost celebratory
every flower budding
burst into bloom
at the same time.

Judith A. Lawrence was the editor/publisher of Lilly Press and River Poets Journal for several decades. She is also a prolific painter, and writer of fiction, memoir, and poetry. Originally from Philadelphia, PA, she now resides in Florida. She has published five chapbooks of poems, written a volume of short stories, and a recent memoir titled “Point of Comfort.” She is currently completing a murder/mystery novel and a book of short poems containing her watercolors, under her nom de plume Juniper Rue.