Cling to life, deny its claim:
the monster’s shadow slowly fades,
lightened by the labor of a risen sun
—but it never really goes away.
Leland James is the author of five books of poetry, four children’s
books in verse, and a book on poetry craft. He has published over
300 poems in poetry venues worldwide including Rattle, The Lyric,
The South Carolina Review, The Spoon River Poetry Review, The
Atlanta Review, New Millennium Writings, HQ The Haiku
Quarterly, and The London Magazine. He was the winner of The
UK’s Aesthetica Creative Writing Award and the Writer’s Forum
short poem contest. He has won or received honors in many other
competitions, has been featured in Ted Koszer’s American Life in
Poetry, and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
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