Tag Archives: Best of the Net

2019 Best of the Net Nominations

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The annual Best of the Net Anthology from Sundress Publications promotes the diverse and ever-growing collection of voices who are publishing their work online and serves to bring greater respect to an innovative and continually expanding medium.

The judges for poetry this year is  Eloisa Amezcua.

Nominations must have originally appeared online and must have been first published or appeared on the web between July 1, 2018, and June 30, 2019. Nominations were due on September 30, 2019 and must have come from the editor of the publication.

Congratulations to this year’s nominations from Zingara Poetry Review. I hope every poem is included in this year’s anthology!!

Mouse Heaven Richard King Perkins II

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The exterminator has taken away
the small carcasses
and left the smell of Lysol
and coiled snap traps
baited with peanut butter.
Your eyes mourn
those tiny missing lives
wanting there to be
a mouse heaven
free from human dominance.
My laughter makes you wince
and cry even harder.
I hold myself open to you
but even
in my most comforting arms
you cannot find
the slightest hint
of comfort.

—

Richard King Perkins II is a state-sponsored advocate for residents in long-term care facilities. He lives in Crystal Lake, IL, USA with his wife, Vickie and daughter, Sage. He is a three-time Pushcart nominee and a Best of the Net nominee whose work has appeared in more than a thousand publications.

Solitude by Vinita Agrawal

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In slumber I am not alone.
Awake, I am.

In a crowd, I am stranded
In solitude, found.

People meet and mix
They have reasons.

My reasons are dead.
I stretch empty from sky to earth.

I am a sliver of light
trapped between closed doors.

Air that cannot be breached
and moulded into a hug.

In myself, I am all that is lost
I am everything that needs to be said.

—

Author of two poetry books – Words Not Spoken and The Longest Pleasure, Vinita is a Mumbai, India based, award winning poet and writer. Her second manuscript was selected for publication by Finishing Line Press, Kentucky, USA. Her poems have appeared in Asiancha, Constellations, The Fox Chase Review, Pea River Journal, Open Road Review, Stockholm Literary Review, Poetry Pacific and over a 100 other national and international journals.  She was nominated for the Best of the Net Awards 2011, awarded first prize in the Wordweavers Contest 2014, commendation prize in the All India Poetry Competition 2014 and won the 2014 Hour of Writes Contest thrice.

Belongings by Richard King Perkins II

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It’s too late to gather your clothes
about you;

the morning light has already found you naked
just before his eyes of acid rain—

working the last half day in reverse
without the sun’s spirant assistance.

An intimate world collapsing

swans in a cesspool
branches of brine
hands barricading your clouded face

if there was a chance out
it wasn’t beneath the lost demure of these sheets—

flailing gestures only bind you tighter
to a bed that was never yours.

—

Richard King Perkins II is a state-sponsored advocate for residents in long-term care facilities. He lives in Crystal Lake, IL, USA with his wife, Vickie and daughter, Sage. He is a three-time Pushcart nominee and a Best of the Net nominee whose work has appeared in more than a thousand publications.