This month’s poetry collection invites us to pause at the thresholds of our own lives — the doors we open for others, the memories we carry but never captured, and the promises we make to ourselves about how we want to move through the world. Madlyn Epstein Steinberg reflects on the tender complexity of being a “door opener” in a world where sensitives often walk alone. Nicole Freezer Rubens turns her lens toward the photographs that live only in the mind, reminding us how love and loss shape the images we never took. And Carol Ostrow brings her trademark wit and optimism to the art of not taking life too seriously, even when the years — and the laugh lines — keep moving forward. Together, these poems offer a trio of truth, humor, and heart.

Door Opener

Opened the door
Your talent and creativity will always get you there
You befriended a loner so be aware of what that means
As Paul Simon wrote”I have my books and poetry to protect me.”
I know it and live it.
Poets and Writers are sensitive
Sometimes Empaths
Safer alone but not lonely
Harder to love and understand
Caring,kind,Sweet,not selfish.
Selfless
That said
Your Door Opener
Wishes you much Success
Now,Open the door for another

~Madlyn Epstein Steinberg, author of “Put Your Boots on and Dance in the Rain,” and “Beautiful Heart”

Missed Opportunities

There are all the photos never taken
that vividly live inside my head.
My car sped by
as I framed and cropped the boarded windows
and fantasized
about exploring inside
by the light of an old neon sign.

How many pictures would I have
of my mother
who died right before
the first iPhone landed
in my right hand.
Her with my girls
braced and pubescent,
her skin beginning to droop
from the glorious weight of time.
Her at the graduations and Hanukkah tables,
dressed with heirlooms,
paying homage to our ancestors.

I can see it all
on my oily screens,
even though none of it happened.
How many pictures
will my three have of me,
and how many more times
will I be at their tables?
Will the phone’s memory
be big enough later
to preserve every little snap?

~Nicole Freezer Rubens is author of “The Long Pause and the Short Breath”

Not Taking Life Too Seriously

I have vowed to keep my sunny side upper,
To eat veggies and fruits when time for supper,
Not let world news get me sadly down,
And not allow a crisis to make me drown,
In tears of self pity,
About the nitty gritty,
Of life.

The sun shines and the rain stops,
There’s good and bad, successes and flops,
Accepting life by its own measures,
Looking at family and friends as treasures,

Time stops for no one we all know,
So make a promise to love and grow,
Into the person you always wished to become,
There’s no time to waste or come undone,

A new year is upon us now.
Erase that frown from your brow,
If you can’t erase the lines alone,
Give me a call on your own cell phone,

I have a great doctor who injects miracles,
Maybe all you need are Botox injectables!?

Let me know!!!

~Carol Ostrow is the author of “Poems from My Pandemic Pen,” and “Poetry in Motion with Much Emotion”