Spirit Fire Review is pleased to announce our nominations for the Pushcart Prize awards for work appearing in our magazine in 2016. Congratulations to the nominees, and thank you to our amazing team of editors Cindy Bousquet Harris, Elizabeth Brooks, and Janine Pickett. About The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses series, published every year since 1976, is the most honored literary project in America. Since 1976, hundreds of presses and thousands of writers of short

LORD, YOU STAYED WITH ME Like a loyal friend, you stayed with me when life hung by a thread. You gave me strength to carry on when I was slipping away. When I thought it was my last breath, Lord, you held my hand and led me back. Now that I'm again alive, what is your plan for me? I feel joy in my heart for you, Lord, so why do I hold it in? You've been with me my entire life; .your presence, as tangible as water in the stream, brought me peace of mind. I know you'll never le

THE MIDNIGHT CALL  The ringing telephone shattered the quietness of the night. Fear wrapped around me as I listened, for who would call in t

Unashamed They hiss and wag their heads unknowing but clearly visible through opaline glass panels, not luminous incapable of producing light which keeps my community under siege Oh! this has gone on far too long too far and beyond and when one is in grave pain there is no one to turn to nowhere to go to get justice when the world is broken and against you. You cry, you vex your spirit you bawl, then you empty your bosom, your belly, yourself you empty yourself completely to

Questions Who composed this cosmic puzzle sifting through dark dominions from the empty before? What ignited the blackness with swinging lanterns of fire through that longest night? When did time begin careening on its urgent journey to shake something out of nothing? Where is the mind who forged such astonishing starbursts hammering beacons of light? Why did shadows turn to brightness...the glory of our sun becoming golden? How can heaven be silent while blue jays meet in co

Needles and Pins Pins & Needles not in my hands, feet or body but in my spirit. I open my eyes, I am wound up with a tortured soul. Who will be captured, grabbed or snatched next? I am afraid to witness another lynching. Oh, something is coming, coming through my Spirit. I begin to hum an unknown Negro spiritual and I walk and wave my arms throughout my home and I moan from deep within. Then I see a proud Black woman from back in the day and the Holy Spirit carries her with

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