Joan Leotta

Joan Leotta, of Calabash, NC, plays with words on page and stage. In addition to her ten published books, her varied writings have appeared or are forthcoming, in Ekphrastic Review, Pinesong,, Brass Bell, Verse Visual, anti-heroin chic, Silver Birch, Ovunquesiamo, Verse Virtual, Poetry in Plain Sight, and others. She is a 2021 Pushcart nominee and received Best of Micro Fiction in 2021. In early 2022, she was named a runner up in the Frost Foundation Poetry Competition. Her chapbook, Feathers to Stone , which includes the poem, Sycamore Roots, is scheduled for publication at the end of 2022 from Main Street Rag. She performs tales featuring food, family, nature, and strong women.

www.joanleotta.wordpress.com

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► Joan's microchaps & selected poems are available below. Download the single-page micro-chapbook as a PDF by clicking the title.

Origami Microchap	Selected Poem(s)
Morning by Morning
Click title to download PDF microchap Cover: Day at the Beach by Lauri Burke (with dolphin added by JanK) * Every Origami Microchap may be printed, for free, from this website. •	Moments Before Dawn Before the sun transforms night’s worries into day’s sure steps, dampness stains my cement drive, thanks to evening showers that played on the roof keeping me awake all night. Streaks of cloud play among still glittering bits of star. Moon is a dark round wafer, sitting on a silver chalice rim. Weaker, he has already surrendered primacy to sun, who will soon arise and reign. * Winter Sunrise Sunrise is a daily lesson to persist. Daily, sun struggles to crack open frozen horizons, cling to chilled sky long enough to provide some warmth, short though her reign will be. * Summer Sun Night has barely finished breathing when sun pushes him aside. Blazing, even from those first moments, she shimmers. She rapidly ascends until only shade, night’s gossamer shawl, offers any respite from her hard hot glare.	Dolphin at Dawn- New Year's Day From the porch I looked out onto a gray sea extending to a gray sky populated with just a few dying stars. As a bit of sun tried to slip up through the horizon, a black dolphin slowly, silently bobbed up out of the water. He slipped through the channel, rhythm steady, rocking up then nosing down. As I watched, he moved ever outward from the shore to meet that spot of orange on the horizon. Slowly, steady, never minding the surrounding hopeless gray of sea and sky. His journey gives me courage for mine. - Previously Published as Black Dolphin Dawn in ‘Snapdragon’ Fall, 2018 * Ocean Aubade Lullaby waves cradle my senses in deep sleep until pink inserts itself between navy satin water and the still dark sky. I slip downstairs to join rows of waiting seagulls along the tide line. Together, we stare out, watching that spot in the sky where sun will escape the grip of night. * Joan Leotta © 2020
Dancing Under The Moon
Click title to download PDF microchap Cover: Dancing under the Moon by Lauri Burke * Every Origami Microchap may be printed, for free, from this website. •	Dancing under the Moon In the dark before dawn I pad down the cool cement of our driveway to pluck the daily news from its resting place at the base of the mailbox. On those days when the full moon is slipping down behind my neighbor's roof to rest in the heat of the day, I salute his silvery countenance and, since no one else is watching, I dance in his waning glory covered in the shimmery glow of his last full smile. • The Full Moon Rises The moon rises out my back window bright and round, bigger as the sky darkens seeming close but out of reach. Its twin rests softly in the waters of Caw Caw creek. That shimmering badge of light remains still, captive. Mine to enjoy in sky and water until the curving of the earth's rotation pulls it away. * Moon as Bauble So now in the early morn darkness moon is like the star atop a fairy wand— a wand made of a line of stars aligned with Jupiter and Mars. Age of Aquarius greets me now pointing my way down the drive to what seems the start of an ordinary day. Feeling their light as I walk in the deep darkness lit only by the sparkle of their line and light, my heart skips a beat reminding me days are only ordinary if we think them so. Joan Leotta © 2016	Moonlight Over My Town Full moon shows off my hometown, its silver glow transforming silent silver skyscrapers into soft blue sentinels of night along each riverbank. Those same skyscrapers, piled high along the nearer bank, stretch to stroke moon's soft, shining face. Arched girders bridge the banks giving hope to the buildings on the far side that they as well will be able to touch the moon, and so can I. • Silver Crescent Lullaby Moon's curve cups the stars gently in its cradle so by morn they will sleep * Full Moon's Glow Full moon draws me outside, into its glow. Over and over I snap photos, like a new mother with her first child. Moon, my full moon, glows and shimmers casting its glow over all I love, near and far here and passed on. Moon's full light marks our rendezvous point in the universe— that Eden, that paradise, the place where we will gather when life is done on earth. * Joan Leotta © 2016

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