Thank you to the 256 poets from around the world who participated in our BUGS & INSECTS Series, which ran for nine months — from August 7, 2025 to May 6, 2026. The series was a revelation on so many levels — and showed how bugs, insects, and arachnids make life on earth possible through pollination, irrigation, and recycling. Revisit all 272 poems — yes, some poets contributed more than once — at this link.
PAINTING: Insects by Jan van Kessel (1626-1679)
Footnote
by Melanie Villines
Hospitalized
because your
foot sore
won’t heal,
until
a new/old
treatment—
fly larvae—
that visitors
don’t see
because an
opaque bag
covers your foot
and they wonder
why
this hospital room
has so
many flies.
Image by Gemini.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Maggot debridement therapy (MDT) uses sterile, laboratory-raised larvae (typically Lucilia sericata) to treat diabetic foot sores by eating dead (necrotic) tissue, killing bacteria, and speeding up healing. This safe, cost-effective treatment is highly effective for cleaning infected wounds and can prevent amputations.
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: When I visited a relative with diabetes hospitalized for a foot sore that wouldn’t heal, I was surprised that the room was buzzing with small flies. When I wondered out loud how the insects had managed to breach the tight windows, my relative and the other visitors acted as perplexed as I was. It wasn’t until later that I learned about the fly larvae therapy that had helped to heal the wound. The buzzing flies must have escaped their plastic prison after completing their work.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Melanie Villines is an award-winning screenwriter, published novelist, and producer of documentary TV programs. Since 2024, her screenplays and TV pilot scripts have taken 20 top awards at international screenwriting competitions, including Grand Prize TV Pilot at the 2025 Golden State Film Festival. She received a B.A. from DePaul University and studied TV writing at UCLA Extension as well as medical writing at the University of Chicago Graham School. In 2011, she founded Silver Birch Press and started the Silver Birch Press blog on June 24, 2012. Over the past 14 years, she has hosted a wide range of Poetry & Prose Series — and hopes to continue for many years to come. A Chicago native, she lives in Los Angeles, a city has grown to know and love.
Autumn Moths
by Ma Yongbo
Upon the cracked red painted pillars of the temple,
these fluffy, plump moths, as thick as a thumb,
bear daunting star-shaped markings on their wings，
hanging motionless in the autumn chill, as if sunk in thought,
or stricken with senility, ignorant of love.
To the intermittent chime of wind bells, they flutter and clatter to the ground,
thrashing, spinning, coated in dust, dragging their heavy bellies to crawl a few steps.
Compared with butterflies, these reddish-brown creatures carry ponderous bodies，
cling tight to grass blades pushing through cracks in the concrete,
clutching them like the last straw of salvation.
Some creep slowly upward along the corridor pillars,
climbing deep into the shadow beneath the eaves,
to reclaim the residual heat of their bodily engines
beneath the inner sky of the bronze bell,
their stubborn defiance runs counter to the Buddha’s teachings.
At night, small fluttering flags stirred by the bell’s resonance,
they rise again, circling the mercury lamps,
drawing smooth circles like Buddha’s serene head,
before fading away without a trace.
PHOTO: Chinese Oak Silkmoth (Antheraea pernyi). Photo by Zdeněk Macháček on Unsplash.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Born in 1964, Ma Yongbo, Ph.D, is representative of Chinese avant-garde poetry and a leading scholar in Anglo-American poetry. The founder of polyphonic writing and objectified poetics, he is the first translator to introduce British and American postmodern poetry into Chinese. Since 1986, he has published over 80 original works, and translations of his work have appeared in nine poetry collections. He focuses on translating and teaching Anglo-American poetry and prose, including the work of Dickinson, Whitman, Stevens, Pound, Amy Lowell, Williams, Ashbery, and Rosanna Warren. His complete translation of Moby Dick has sold over 600,000 copies. He teaches at Nanjing University of Science and Technology. The Collected Poems of Ma Yongbo (four volumes, Eastern Publishing Centre, 2024) comprising 1178 poems, celebrate 40 years of writing poetry. Find him on Facebook.
First Cicada
by Gary Grossman
It’s June in the Georgia Piedmont—
magnolias fully in bloom, as if
someone had built trees from sheets of
dark green wax and tipped branches with
porcelain bowls of vanilla ice cream.
The blossoms push out a breeze of
fruity scent—and walking at seven AM
it smells like Coco Chanel left an
open bottle of Number Five perfume
on every front lawn.
Three miles later I walk down my
driveway to the back yard and hear
a metal rod being dragged over
rusty tin. It’s the first
cicada of the year.
PHOTO: Cicada in magnolia tree by Gemini.
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: As an ecology professor for 41 years and a poet, nature has always fascinated me as a subject—especially odd phenomena like cicadas. Here in Georgia, the state not the country, we have both annual cicadas (the thumb size greenies) and periodic (thumbnail-size, red-eyed) cicadas. Periodic cicadas come in two forms (17-year broods and 13-year broods). Georgia hosts one 13-year brood, also known as The Great Southern Brood, as well as three broods of 17-year cicadas. In 2024, there was an emergence of The Great Southern Brood and it was difficult to drive or walk in some areas (they are patchily distributed in the state, some spots have them and others do not).
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Gary Grossman, Professor Emeritus of Animal Ecology, University of Georgia, has poems, short fiction, and essays in over 65 literary reviews. He doesn’t enter contests but his work has been nominated for awards—no wins yet though, so meh. Gary enjoys running, music, fishing, and gardening. His poetry books Lyrical Years (2023, Kelsay), What I Meant to Say Was… (2023, Impspired) and Objects in Mirror May Be Closer Than They Appear (2025, Arroyo Seco), and graphic memoir My Life in Fish—One Scientist’s Journey… (2023, Impspired) all available from the author or on Amazon. Visit him at garygrossman.net.
even if you can’t be, the butterflies are my friends
by Linda M. Crate
we’ve gone from a
sisterhood to a séance
in the blink of an eye,
can find little sense in it;
but i have seen little
white butterflies every day
for the past few months—
they bring me
comfort,
glad that someone is there
for me since it’s clear
you cannot or will not be;
wouldn’t even acknowledge
my birthday—
i wonder if i was a
butterfly and had wings the
color of the ocean,
luminescent and ethereal;
would you notice me
then?
or if i had wings pink
as the skinny little lady bug
in my parents’ yard would
you notice me?
would you notice me if
i had wings like a mermaid’s
tail or a dragon’s shimmering scales?
maybe i shouldn’t care so much,
but it just feels like a waste of
twenty years:
so much love and laughter
now thrown into a void—
at least i am acknowledged
by the butterflies, the bees,
the creeks, the crows, the ravens, and the trees.
Photo by Gemini.
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: This poem is about a friendship break-up that is still raw and painful to me, the white butterflies who have been bringing me peace as of late as I learned white butterflies symbolize that the spirit is with you, and wondering if I were a butterfly if my former friend would even notice me? We had a kinship of twenty years, I thought of her as a sister; I trusted her with my secrets and then one day she just decided she didn’t want to be my friend any longer. I don’t think I’ll ever understand it, but at least the butterflies and bees are my friends. Butterflies have always been very sweet to me. I have remembered them following me or letting me follow them since I was a child. I always used to find super friendly Tiger Swallowtails who let me take their picture super close up and I wondered why they chose me. But maybe they can sense good/kind spirits the way dogs or babies can.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Linda M. Crate (she/her) is a Pennsylvanian writer whose poetry, short stories, articles, and reviews have been published in a myriad of magazines, both online and in print. She has 15 published chapbooks, four full-length poetry collections, a photography collection book, and three novellas. Alien Buddha Publishing released her first short story collection, King Quinlin (March 2024); her debut haiku collection, in these ancient veins (May 2024); her book, mantle lake, a hybrid collection of poetry and photography (February 2025); and her novel These Monsters Conquered (February 2026).
Gossamer (tanka)
by Eiko Masubuchi
perched on the grapefruit tree
gossamer of a butterfly
reflects the colours
of forests, mountains, crossed,
oceans, continents, o’erflown
IMAGE: Grapefruit with leaves, caterpillar, and butterfly by Cornelis Markée (1763).
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: Since this series started I have been enjoying the beautiful photos and paintings as well as the poems. Especially I have been attracted to the small ones with very delicate and thin wings. My tanka here was inspired by those little ones.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Eiko Masubuchi has been writing Tanka for 15 years. She finds the form of these short poems of 31 syllables in a sequence of five, seven, five, seven, seven syllables enables her to express herself well. Although she writes mostly in Japanese, Eiko has translated some of her work and in 2020 won second prize in the English Roots Theme in the competition by Japan and Australia 短歌とTANKA. 短歌とTANKA – Flipbook by carol.hayes | FlipHTML5. Her recent piece can also be read in Quail Eggs-A Tanka Journal, Issue 3. An adjunct professor at a number of universities in Tokyo for nearly 30 years, she is a member of the Tanka circle “OKI.”
Beetle Mania
by Clive Collins
Nabokov and Eric Carle, at first sight
not too much in common, but the one,
entomologist, lepidopterist, professor
and novelist, explainer and defender
of Lycaeides melissa samuelis might
have smiled at the other’s creatures,
that voracious caterpillar, the cricket,
voiceless until the last page is turned,
the workaholic spider, protagonists
of books my daughter read as a child.
She, early years indoctrination maybe,
naturally predisposed perhaps, has never
feared the creepy-crawlies, still lifts up
worms or woodlice to keep them safe.
Unlike her father, who gagged when
the cats brought home wriggling titbits
in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and though
awed each autumn by the Joro spiders’
weavings in Tokyo’s parks and gardens,
has only ever admired one insect, rare,
endangered: a species of Beatle (sic)
frequently misspelt, as here. He has
a photograph: a column of four, held
as if in amber, crossing a road in leafy
St John’s Wood, their own terrain, abode.
IMAGE: Cover of The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle (World Publishing Company, 1969).
AUTHOR’S NOTES ON THE TEXT: Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977) was a Russian-born American poet, novelist and short story writer whose novels include The Real Life of Sebastian Knight (1941), Lolita (1955), Pnin (1957), Pale Fire (1962), and Ada (1969). Nabokov was also a renowned lepidopterist and entomologist. Erik Carle (1929-2021) was an American author and Illustrator. His books for children include The Very Hungry Caterpillar (1969), The Very Busy Spider (1984), and The Very Quiet Cricket (1990). The Joro spider (Trichonephila clavata) is named for the creature from Japanese folk stories, the Joro-gumo, a spider that can shape-shift into a beautiful woman who seduces men, binds them in her silk and eats them.
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: This poem is the result of a number of things coming together over a few weeks. A question in The Times (London) newspaper’s “Quizle” puzzle, the answer to which was Vladimir Nabokov; an Erik Carle book I sent as a Christmas gift to a friend’s grandchild; and my viewing of The Beatles Anthology. These things stewed in my brain/memory/imagination until they seemed to coalesce and I was ready to write a first draft.
PHOTO: Cover of Abbey Road, the 1969 album by The Beatles referred to in the poem.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Born in Leicester, England, Clive Collins is the author of two novels, The Foreign Husband (Marion Boyars) and Sachiko’s Wedding (Marion Boyars/ Penguin Books). Misunderstandings, a collection of short stories, was joint-winner of the Macmillan Silver PEN Award in 1994. He was a short-listed finalist in the 2009 Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. Carried Away and Other Stories is available from Red Bird Chapbooks. He is a poetry editor with The Sunlight Press.
The Last Butterfly of Summer
by Giulio Magrini
Flutters past my window
Like a Van Gogh strobe light
Vanishes flashing into
Autumn sweetness
Trees cover light
Crimson golden-brown
Crisp leaves fall
Stiff whirl-a-way
The earth grows soft for lovers
Photo by Jürgen.
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: “The Last Butterfly of Summer” was written as a celebration to what we seem to always crave of the four seasons. i.e., SUMMER. All the seasons have their allurements, but it seems that Summer is the season we most anticipate. In this case I envision this “last” butterfly with melancholy, in that it exemplifies the end of a season that is ending, like life itself ends.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Giulio Magrini has performed at Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Arts Festival numerous times, and at many other venues in the city. He has conducted poetry workshops at alternative high schools, prisons, drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers, and has hosted a radio show for local poets. He was asked to perform his elegy to late mayor Richard Caliguiri, The Pittsburgher, with the Pittsburgh Symphony at Point State Park before a 4th of July crowd of over 100,000 people. Magrini has been nominated by Lothlorien Press for a Best of the Net award and for a Pushcart Prize by Brownstone Poets. The Color of Dirt is an anthology of his poetry and flash fiction. Find him on Facebook.
Standoff
by Vince Gotera
In California desert outside
San Diego, a massive scorpion
and a gigantic grasshopper face off
in the sun’s harsh glare. They stare and abide,
mega-monsters tinted red copper and
rusted steel. In this taut showdown, two tough
hombres are posed like Wild West gunslingers,
waiting tensely for the other’s first move.
The sculptor rendered these combatants in
praise of the originals — warrior
and singer, real life.
PHOTO: Metal sculptures created by Ricardo Breceda at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park (Borrego Springs, California). Photo by GB11111.
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: These sculptures are in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in Southern California, a couple hours east of San Diego. There are over 130 of these huge metal sculptures, created by Ricardo Breceda, formerly for Dennis Avery’s Galleta Meadows Estate, now part of the park, starting in 2008. The sculptures include dinosaurs, mammoths, a sea dragon whose 350-foot body dips in and out of the earth like it is swimming in the ocean, camels, sloths, horses, and of course the 15-foot-tall scorpion and 15-foot-long grasshopper my poem is about. I’ve never seen the Anza-Borrego sculptures in person but I’d really like to, especially the sea dragon. ¶ This poem is a curtal sonnet, a poetic form invented by the English poet Gerard Manley Hopkins in the 19th century. It is 3/4 of a regular sonnet, so instead of 14 lines, it has 10 1/2 lines. The curtal sonnet’s rhyme scheme is abc abc dbcdc. The closing 4 1/2 lines are sometimes rhymed dcbdc (that is, with the b and c rhymes switched), as in my poem here. I use strict decasyllabic lines (10 syllables) except for the ending half line which contains 5 (sometimes 6). This is my only departure from Hopkins’s practice, sprung rhythm.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Vince Gotera is Poet Laureate of Iowa. He taught at the University of Northern Iowa for almost 30 years. He edited the North American Review (2000-2016) and Star*Line, the print journal of the international Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association (2017-2020). His poetry collections include Dragonfly, Ghost Wars, Fighting Kite, The Coolest Month. and Dragons & Rayguns. Poems have appeared in Dreams & Nightmares, The Ekphrastic Review, The MacGuffin, The New Verse Review, Philippines Graphic (Philippines), Rattle, Verse-Virtual, The Wild Word (Germany), Yellow Medicine Review, and the anthologies Multiverse (UK), Dear America, and Hay(na)ku 15. He blogs at The Man with the Blue Guitar. Vince is currently writing a poem each day for a second year in the Stafford Challenge.
Author photo by Sean O’Neal.
Ode to a Spider
by Joan Ganny (Gannij)
On my balcony
I find evidence
of an uninvited visitor.
The filament flytrap it has woven
is Keflar-strength,
proof that she has been laboring
through the winds and the rains
of this slow-arriving autumn.
As I inspect the flowers that have survived
the showers of the night before
I spot this agile arachnid,
the size of my father’s thumbnail,
suspended in the air,
like Philippe Petit between the Twin Towers
once upon a time.
She is plump, compact,
possibly full of new offspring.
I engage her sotto voce,
compliment her on her skill and patience,
apologize for bumping into the sticky camouflage.
The wind shifts her gently,
like a cat on a cradle.
I wonder what the neighbors will think…
but don’t really care.
Our brief encounter is interrupted
by four golden orbs peering through the window.
She is on the move again, climbing upwards.
Focused, deliberate, oblivious to danger.
I am touched by her dedication to the task at hand
She climbs inch by steady inch,
until she reaches the clothes line
where she fixes herself against a wooden pin.
The human impulse would be to feel threatened by her presence,
to kill her, smack her dead, because that is what most people reflexively do
I’m immune to that, thanks to a book I once read to my children.
The spinster goes on with her meticulous labors.
Her innocence, bliss.
PHOTO: Spider and web by Ted Erski.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Joan Gannij (Ganny) is a writer/photographer, poet, and award-winning children’s book author. She was born in New York City, raised in Los Angeles, and has resided in Amsterdam since 1987. She recently exhibited her portraits of Charles Bukowski (“East of Western”) at Beyond Baroque in Venice, California. The exhibit will open at Laterna Magica in Helsinki, Finland, in October 2026. She is working on her fourth chapbook, It’s All Chi. Visit her at joangannij.com and on Instagram.
Author photo by Henry Cannon.
Silver Birch Press 