We are now accepting submissions for the Winter/2015 issue of Blue Heron Review.  Our submission period is September 15, 2014 through December 15, 2014.  Please read our submission guidelines carefully.  It is recommended that poets wishing to submit, read samples from our first two issues.  Links to these issues can be found on the Archives page or by clicking on the tabs for our Winter/2014 and Summer/2014 issues.  Each month, Blue Heron features a single poet or artist on our Blue Heron Speaks page.  Reading works by our spotlight poets is also a wonderful way to learn more about our magazine.

Blue Heron Review is an online poetry magazine specializing in mystical and spiritual verse.  Blue Heron provides a space for poets who offer a positive message about living fully and engaging with the world through beauty, a sense of community and acceptance.

Blue Heron welcomes new, emerging, and established writers to submit.  Each submission will be read with great care and thoughtfulness.  Please note:  due to the rise in the number of submissions received, we have had to increase our response time to 8-10 weeks.  Every writer will receive a carefully considered response.  Please do not ask about the status of your submission until after 10 weeks have passed.

Pens at the ready!  So glad you found us.  If you are drawn to Blue Heron Review, there is a good reason.  I look forward to reading your offerings.

With kindest thoughts,

Cristina M. R. Norcross
Founding Editor, Blue Heron Review
blueheronsubmissions@gmail.com

(photography by Robert Lee Haycock)

(Cover art by Anne Slatinsky-Raskopf)

CONTRIBUTORS
Poets:
Kristina Moriconi * MJ Iuppa * Davita Joie * Lisa J Cihlar * Lila Hope-Simpson * Joseph Farley * Darshan Frances Jessop * Jane Blue * Gail Goepfert * Russell Colver * Jack Riggs * Caitlin Johnson * Nicole Simonsen * Cynthia McCain * Kenneth Pobo * Heidi Hallett * James P Roberts * Ed Higgins * Terrence Sykes * Martie Odell-Ingebretsen * TM Moore * Martin Willitts Jr * Patrice Boyer Claeys * Robert Nordstrom * Glenda Barrett * Chaya Rosen * Su Zi * Mary Jo Balistreri * Steven Bucher * Erina Booker * Donna H DiCello * David Scheler * David Seth Smith

Artists:
Anne Slatinsky-Raskopf * Patricia Bashford * David Seth Smith * Pd Lietz * Su Zi * Heidi Hallett * Jason Iffert

Welcome to the summer/2014 issue of Blue Heron Review!  We have a beautiful array of poetry, photography and artwork for you to enjoy in this issue.  Please visit the Blue Heron Review Issue 2 Summer/2014 page on our site, to savor each poem and image.

I hope you enjoy these poetic offerings as much as I do.

With peaceful thoughts,
Cristina M. R. Norcross, Editor
Blue Heron Review

Martin Willitts Jr.

Our featured poet this month is a prolific writer who has been published widely. His poems are infused with spirit and embody the essence of meditation. Please visit the Blue Heron Speaks page to read three of Martin Willitts Jr.’s poems. I hope you enjoy these offerings as much as I do.  Please stay tuned for the summer issue of Blue Heron Review, due to be released at the end of July.  Martin Willits Jr. is also one of our contributing poets for the summer issue.

Martin Willitts Jr. is a Quaker, organic gardener, visual artist of paper cutouts, and retired Senior Librarian living in Syracuse, NY. Winner of the 2012 Big River Poetry Review’s William K. Hathaway Award; co-winner of the 2013 Bill Holm Witness Poetry Contest; winner of the 2013 “Trees” Poetry Contest; and winner of the 2014 Broadsided award. He has 27 chapbooks including recently, The Constellations of Memory and Forgiveness (Seven Circles Press, e-book, 2014), A Is For Aorta (Kind of a Hurricane Press, e-book, 2014), and national chapbook contest winning, William Blake, Not Blessed Angel But Restless Man (Red Ochre Press, 2014). He has 6 full-length collections including recently, Art is an Impression of What an Artist Sees (Edgar and Lenore Publishing House, 2013), national award winner for, Searching for What You Cannot See (Hiraeth Press, 2013), and Before Anything, There Was Mystery (Flutter Press, 2014). He has poems in Rattle, Stone Canoe, Blue Fifth, The Moon Magazine, Blue Heron Review, Poppy Road Review, Comstock Review, Nine Mile, Big River Poetry Review, and numerous others.

Searching for What is Not There

Before Anything, There Was Mystery

Ruth Bavetta

Our featured poet this month is a multi-talented, creative force in the poetry community. Visit the Blue Heron Speaks page to read three of Ruth Bavetta’s poems.

Ruth is also a talented visual artist who combines her artwork and poetry into a form she calls, Visual Poetry. Visit the Visual Poetry page of her website to view these works of word art.

In these hybrid pieces I combine my two loves, poetry and art. The idea is built on the poetry of “erasure,” eliminating words from a piece of prose to expose the poem within.

I’m heavily influenced by medieval manuscripts, with their gold leaf and multicolored embellishments. The pages are from old out-of-copyright novels, but because such books are printed on acid-laden paper, they are already yellowing and brittle. Even displayed behind UV glass, they would probably crumble after some years. To prevent that, I do not work on the pages themselves, but make a high quality scan of each page, which I print on drawing paper. I then work on these scans with a variety of media, including inks, colored pencils, watercolors, metallic paint, collage and indelible markers.

Ruth Bavetta’s poems have been published in Rattle, Nimrod, Tar River Review, North American Review, Spillway, Hanging Loose, Rhino, Poetry East, and Poetry New Zealand, among others, and is included in the anthologies Twelve Los Angeles Poets and Wait a Minute; I Have to Take off My Bra. She has published two books, Fugitive Pigments and Embers on the Stairs. A third book, No Longer at this Address, will appear in 2014. She loves the light on November afternoons, the smell of the ocean, a warm back to curl against in bed. She hates pretense, fundamentalism and sauerkraut. Learn more about this author here: http://www.ruthbavetta.com/

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS NOW TEMPORARILY CLOSED for Blue Heron Review. We will have our next open call for submissions in FALL 2014 for our WINTER 2015 issue.

Please follow us to read a NEW featured poet EVERY month on our BLUE HERON SPEAKS page, and be sure to watch for our upcoming SUMMER issue, due out at the end of July, 2014!

To read all of the beautiful poetry and art offerings in our first issue, please visit the Blue Heron Review Issue 1 Winter/2014 tab on this website.

Our Blue Heron Speaks featured poet for March 2014 is: Carolyne Whelan

Visit the BLUE HERON SPEAKS page on this site to read two of Carolyne Whelan’s recent poems, “Watching the Red-Tailed Hawk’s Courtship Ritual” and “After Rumi”.

(photo by Robert Lee Haycock)