Tag: Karen Paul Holmes

ONE ART’s Most-Read Poets of 2025

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ONE ART’s Most-Read Poets of 2025

  1. Kai Coggin
  2. Alison Luterman
  3. Donna Hilbert
  4. Betsy Mars
  5. John Amen
  6. Susan Vespoli
  7. Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
  8. Tina Em
  9. Kim Addonizio
  10. Molly Fisk
  11. Joseph Fasano
  12. Terri Kirby Erickson
  13. Robbi Nester
  14. James Crews
  15. Abby E. Murray
  16. Allison Blevins
  17. Erin Murphy
  18. john compton
  19. Dana Henry Martin
  20. Alison Hurwitz
  21. Moudi Sbeity
  22. Dick Westheimer
  23. James Feichthaler
  24. Karen Paul Holmes
  25. Naomi Shihab Nye

Note: For poets who published multiple times in ONE ART, in 2025, we are linking to the most-read curated work.

ONE ART’s Top 10 Most-Read Poets of November 2025

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ONE ART’s Top 10 Most-Read Poets of November 2025

  1. Jennifer Blackledge
  2. Dana Henry Martin
  3. Betsy Mars
  4. George Franklin
  5. Julie Weiss
  6. Francine Witte
  7. Julia Caroline Knowlton
  8. Karen Paul Holmes
  9. Daye Phillippo
  10. Nancy Huggett

ONE ART’s Top 10 Most-Read Poets of October 2025

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~ ONE ART’s Top 10 Most-Read Poets of October 2025 ~

  1. Karen Paul Holmes
  2. Molly Fisk
  3. Dick Westheimer
  4. Laurie Kuntz
  5. Donna Hilbert
  6. Alison Hurwitz
  7. Joshua Lillie
  8. Francesca Leader
  9. John Arthur
  10. Robbi Nester

Three Poems by Karen Paul Holmes

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I Love It When

Someone fifteen or twenty
years my junior forgets
the same kinds of things I forget—
like the word cardigan, or
why they just walked into the kitchen.

I feel better about myself if
they trip a bit on a gnarled sidewalk
or go to dinner before seven,
squint and shine their cell phone lights
on the menu, order one entrée
split between them.

I’m oh so happy when Jamal—
a handsome-hardbody danseur—
substitute-teaches our Zumba class.
He doesn’t see us as seniors.
When he shouts, Let’s sex it up, ladies,
we do.

June with her titanium knee,
Beth standing by a chair for balance,
Dee on blood pressure meds,
Ellen who can’t reach overhead,
me and my misbehaving back.

Jamal makes us believe
we’re Beyoncé back-up dancers
or Rockettes.
Look at our Bob Fosse hands.
Watch our strut kicks.
Watch out when we swivel our hips.

*

Why I Write Poetry

Because the peace bell tolled for Jimmy Carter’s 98th birthday,
and I need to commemorate that commemoration.

Because I chuckled when I read a sign outside a church that said:
Grow a garden–
Lettuce praise him
Squash the doubt
Turnip at church

Because I’m bothered but amused by Instagram bots who want me. Profiles like:
I believe true love meets you in your mess, not your best.
Always thank God for giving me life in the land of the living.
I am looking for a real and trustworthy sugar baby to spoil with my riches.

Because The Consumer Product Safety Commission announced
a recall of wall beds due to serious crushing hazards, and it was horrible
but reminded me of a Three Stooges skit.

Because a harpist said in an interview it was love at first hear
when she encountered Mozart’s Flute & Harp Concerto. At age 22, she joined
the orchestra for L’Opéra de Paris.

Because an eagle cam showed me live action: A dandelion-fluff eaglet
growing bigger than the daddy and then fledging in 12 weeks. And both parents
bringing fish for lunch until then.

Because my Australian uncle at 96, during his last transfusion, asked for
the blood of a 19-year-old nymphomaniac.

Because I once saw a post on our neighborhood social media:
I need a good deep tissue message therapist, and I thought I’d better heed her call.

*

Beginning Tai Chi

I know rooms like this
       empty before class.
A mirrored wall multiplies it—
ballet barres going on forever
like sky. Sun gleams
the wood floor, inviting me to fill
the space with dance,
       Piqué turn, pas de chat, grand jeté.
I know how it feels to leap

but am no longer airborne.
My balancé, now
       Rooster stands on one leg.
In Tai Chi, We stay grounded,
the master says.
Part the horse’s mane.
Grasp the sparrow’s tail.

The twenty-four movements, not dance
but dance-like, he says, we flow,
undulating his hand
through air—a dolphin in water.
       A moving meditation.
Slow, relaxed,
not ballet’s hummingbird-power.

We each hold a chi ball—invisible,
soccer-sized—one hand underneath,
the other on top.
I focus on that seemingly
       empty space,
feel its unseen weight, its almost pulse.
Draw energy—chi—from the earth
into the dantian, seat of life essence,
he says.

       Wave hands like clouds,
And my own stale clouds loosen,
take on other shapes. Not old woman, but
Fair lady working the shuttle.
Not ballerina, but
Crane spreading its wings.

*

Karen Paul Holmes won the 2023 Lascaux Poetry Prize and received a Special Mention in The 2024 Pushcart Prize Anthology. Her books are: No Such Thing as Distance (Terrapin, 2018) and Untying the Knot (Aldrich, 2014). Poetry credits include The Slowdown, Verse Daily, Diode, Glass, and Plume. Daughter of immigrants, she was the first gen to attend college and has an MA.

Updated: ONE ART’s July 2025 Reading

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Updated: ONE ART’s July 2025 Reading

A slight change in line-up for ONE ART’s July 2025 reading. Laura Grace Weldon will be joining us!

>>> Tickets Available <<<

(Free! Donations appreciated.)

The reading will be held on Sunday, July 20 at 2pm Eastern.

The official event is expected to run approximately 2-hours.

After the reading, please consider sticking around for ~ 30-minutes of Q&A with Featured Poets & Community Time (general conversation).

About Our Featured Poets:

Alison Luterman has published four previous collections of poetry, most recently In the Time of Great Fires (Catamaran Press,) and Desire Zoo (Tia Chucha Press.) Her poems have appeared in The New York Times Sunday Magazine, The Sun, Rattle, and elsewhere. She writes and teaches in Oakland, California. www.alisonluterman.net

Karen Paul Holmes won the 2023 Lascaux Poetry Prize and received a Special Mention in The Pushcart Prize Anthology. Her two books are: No Such Thing as Distance and Untying the Knot. Poetry credits include The Writer’s Almanac, The Slowdown, Verse Daily, Diode, and Plume. 

Laura Grace Weldon lives in a township too tiny for traffic lights where she works as a book editor, leads writing workshops, serves as Braided Way editor, and chronically maxes out her library card. Laura is the author of four books with a fifth due out in 2025 from Sheila-Na-Gig. Her background includes teaching nonviolence, writing poetry with nursing home residents, facilitating support groups for abuse survivors, and writing sardonic greeting cards. Laura lives on a small Ohio homestead where she and her husband host occasional art parties and house concerts. lauragraceweldon.com  

>>> Tickets Available <<<

(Free! Donations appreciated.)

ONE ART’s July 2025 Reading

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ONE ART’s July 2025 Reading

We’re pleased to announce ONE ART’s July 2025 Reading!

>>> Tickets Available <<<

(Free! Donations appreciated.)

The reading will be held on Sunday, July 20 at 2pm Eastern.

The official event is expected to run approximately 2-hours.

After the reading, please consider sticking around for Q&A with Featured Poets & Community Time (general conversation).

About Our Featured Poets:

Alison Luterman has published four previous collections of poetry, most recently In the Time of Great Fires (Catamaran Press,) and Desire Zoo (Tia Chucha Press.) Her poems have appeared in The New York Times Sunday Magazine, The Sun, Rattle, and elsewhere. She writes and teaches in Oakland, California. www.alisonluterman.net

Gloria Heffernan’s forthcoming book Fused will be published by Shanti Arts Books in Spring, 2025. Her craft book, Exploring Poetry of Presence (Back Porch Productions) won the 2021 CNY Book Award for Nonfiction. Gloria is the author of the collections Peregrinatio: Poems for Antarctica (Kelsay Books), and What the Gratitude List Said to the Bucket List (New York Quarterly Books).  Her work has appeared in over 100 publications including Poetry of Presence (vol. 2). To learn more, visit: www.gloriaheffernan.wordpress.com.

Karen Paul Holmes won the 2023 Lascaux Poetry Prize and received a Special Mention in The Pushcart Prize Anthology. Her two books are: No Such Thing as Distance and Untying the Knot. Poetry credits include The Writer’s Almanac, The Slowdown, Verse Daily, Diode, and Plume. 

>>> Tickets Available <<<

(Free! Donations appreciated.)

From Personal to Universal: Using Emotion to Craft Deeper Writing — A Workshop with Karen Paul Holmes

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From Personal to Universal: Using Emotion to Craft Deeper Writing
Instructor: Karen Paul Holmes
Thursday, October 3, 7:00-9:00pm (Eastern)
Duration: 2 hours
Price: $25 (payment options)

Workshop Description:
Writing the personal can make your poems more expansive, more capable of striking a true chord in others. In this workshop, we’ll explore ways to “go inward to go outward”— to draw from emotionally resonant personal experiences and observations to find deeper connection with readers. We’ll discuss a range of poems that effectively navigate concepts of joy, anger, grief and other emotional states. Join us for a two-hour session focused on giving you the freedom to express emotions and the tools to craft the poems you want and need to write. You’ll leave with prompts and a healthy dose of inspiration.

About The Instructor:
Karen Paul Holmes won the 2023 Lascaux Poetry Prize and received a Special Mention in The Pushcart Prize Anthology. Her books are No Such Thing as Distance (Terrapin) and Untying the Knot (Aldrich). Her poems have been widely published in journals such as Plume, Diode, Glass, and Prairie Schooner and have also been featured on The Slowdown and The Writer’s Almanac. After a long career in Corporate America, which included leading workshops as international conferences, Holmes became a freelance writer and has taught creative writing to adults at various conferences and venues.

 

ONE ART’s Top 10 Most-Read Poets of August 2024

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~ ONE ART’s Top 10 Most-Read Poets of August 2024 ~

  1. Matt Escott
  2. Karen Paul Holmes
  3. Carlin Katz
  4. Susan Vespoli
  5. Robbi Nester
  6. T. R. Poulson
  7. Sally Nacker
  8. Robin Wright
  9. Shawn Aveningo-Sanders
  10. Kim Addonizio

I Text My Friend with Cancer “How are you doing?” by Karen Paul Holmes

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I Text My Friend with Cancer “How are you doing?”

He answers I am dying.
I can’t imagine typing I am dying,
like stating I’m finishing War and Peace.

Calendars full of treatments, ending.
Two surgeries nearly taking him.
He told me last year he had three years left—
maybe—but was fighting to see
his last child graduate.

Today, he says his last reading next month—
in a state where he used to live—
is a chance to say goodbye.
He lists all he’s grateful for. A big list,
and it comforts me. I’m a faraway friend,
and this dying man is comforting me.
I want to ask Has knowing been better
than not knowing?

It seems unbearably real to say
I am dying. To be on the other side of hope,
no longer seeing past the earth’s edge.
Do we all have that kind of brave in us?

Or is there still hope, but of a different kind?
A hope for the light at a shaded path’s end—
like those near-death have seen.
A glimpse of that shining.
That beautiful beaconing.

*

Karen Paul Holmes won the 2023 Lascaux Poetry Prize and received a Special Mention in The Pushcart Prize Anthology. Her two books are: No Such Thing as Distance and Untying the Knot. Poetry credits include The Writer’s Almanac, The Slowdown, Verse Daily, Diode, and Plume.

ONE ART’s Top 25 Most-Read Poets of 2023

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~ ONE ART’s Top 25 Most-Read Poets of 2023 ~

1. Abby E. Murray
2. Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
3. Betsy Mars
4. Donna Hilbert
5. Linda Laderman
6. Alison Luterman
7. Julie Weiss
8. Robbi Nester
9. Roseanne Freed
10. Karen Paul Holmes
11. Heather Swan
12. Timothy Green
13. James Diaz
14. Jane Edna Mohler
15. John Amen
16. Barbara Crooker
17. Jim Daniels
18. Susan Vespoli
19. Sean Kelbley
20. Susan Zimmerman
21. Kip Knott
22. Jennifer Garfield
23. Margaret Dornaus
24. Paula J. Lambert
25. Gail Thomas

ONE ART’s Top 10 Most-Read Poets of December 2023

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~ ONE ART’s Top 10 Most-Read Poets of December 2023 ~

  1. Abby E. Murray – Three Poems
  2. Betsy Mars – Delivery
  3. Mick Cochrane – Dabbs Greer
  4. Roseanne Freed – My wet eyes stared into their lights
  5. James Diaz – Once More, Into The Light
  6. Linda Laderman – On Thanksgiving no one wants to hear poetry
  7. Dick Westheimer – CT Scan Assay
  8. Michelle Bitting – Poor Yorick
  9. Lynne Knight – Three Poems
  10. Karen Paul Holmes – Two Poems  

Two Poems by Karen Paul Holmes

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Bypass

He has no heart now and won’t
for the next hour. It’s in surgeon hands
while the heart-lung machine breathes/beats
for the body cooled to hypothermia.
Doctors graft a vein—like a branch of peace—
from his leg, building new paths:
bypassing the impassable.

How can a good man have a bad heart?
Scalpeled open twice in one life.
This go-round, it’s me in the waiting room,
the loneliest eight hours I’ve ever felt.
Nurses call me Mrs.,
though I’m not, nor could I be Widow.
Just Domestic Partner, Significant Other.
Now Caregiver. Living Will Agent.

My head jerks from my novel whenever
a name is called. I remember to pray
with each Code Blue: All personnel to 3-R!
At 9 pm, a friend brings me golden phở,
we slurp noodles and laugh, drugging my worry.

ICU: The screen’s red and green jags,
like a colored Etch A Sketch, spellbind me,
on guard for the flatline I’ve seen in movies.
I-Vs tick steady, until their warning beeps startle.

Chris wakes up, joyful. Breathing
tube out, he sings a few notes for the nurses.
They move him to a regular room, less vigilant.
I can’t not watch the bellows of his chest.
as he sleeps. Water gurgles, wets the oxygen tube.
For five days, lines and drains come out
until his body works on its own.
He walks the hall, stance almost his ballroom form.

He has come home on a day like this before,
sky a clean slate of blue.
I hover. He showers, turning his stitched chest
away from the water’s hard beat.
He’s singing Pink Floyd’s Learning to Fly.

*

He Only Liked Onions in Small Amounts

         for Chris, 1956-2017

Just a bit for flavor, he’d say, chopping
the white flesh as if it were precious, mindful
of the balance in stews, tacos or Low Country boils,
proud when I would ooh and aah.

Once he ordered a large Mega-Supreme pizza,
which was really mostly mega-onion.
Later, when we’d pass the place—Big Al’s—
he’d make a face and say let’s get an onion pizza
or I’d say how about some pizza with your onions?

Now I’m eating a Thai salad, picking out too-many
red ones, yet glad for the Chris-memory
flooding my taste buds.
It’s like he’s here as I try to right myself
on this seesaw-for-one, balancing between
the pungent grief of death and the sweetness of us.
The heavy thud. The weightlessness.

*

Karen Paul Holmes has two poetry books, No Such Thing as Distance (Terrapin) and Untying the Knot (Aldrich). Her poems have appeared on The Writer’s Almanac, The Slowdown, and Verse Daily. Publications include Diode, Plume, and Valparaiso Review. She has twice been a finalist for the Lascaux Review’s Poetry Prize.

Two Poems by Karen Paul Holmes

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At Least Two People I know Take Photos of Hearts in Nature

Morning glory leaves, rocks, clouds,
a horse’s fur, an upturned pear
that grew oddly so.
Or manmade by chance—
oil swirls on pavement,
an accidental heart in marbled rye.
These shapes—symbols
for the human heart,
its beats and chambers linked
with love since Sappho’s mad heart
quaked with it, and Venus
gave Cupid his bow.

The seekers aren’t looking for
a weeping Mary or Jesus
for thousands to bow down before,
just reminders to be mindful,
like when my Buddhist chime
sprinkles the quiet with silver.
Once I look, I begin to see.
Valentines in the unexpected universe,
small doses of hope.
A broken cockle shell tangled in kelp,
the grain of a cedar bench,
pollen on a still pond.

*

Adult Daughters

1.
A friend tells me about her flight last week:
She watched a grown daughter fall asleep—
head on her mother’s shoulder,
mother’s cheek on her head—like puzzle pieces.

As if grabbing my lapel, she implores,
How does this closeness happen?
My daughter and I have PhDs, but we don’t have this,
nor did my mother and I.

I want to mark a route and hand her the map.
But it’s a map—instinct I can’t explain—
mothers pass on to daughters. Blue lines, sinew, heart.
I begin to write. Stories I can’t share with my friend.

2.
My 75-year-old mother and I carry armloads
into the Macy’s dressing room.
She wears new black pants—lint-covered hem to knee.
Eyeing the mirror, says
Gee, I thought I bought pants not a vacuum cleaner.
We laugh and can’t stop, tears dripping.
We retell the story often among sisters and daughters.

3.
Singapore: My daughter and I lie on her bed.
I arrived last night, a 33-hour flight. Eyes barely open,
we enjoy the myna bird’s many songs before city noise thrums.
Something reminds us of the vacuum cleaner pants,
and we laugh. She rolls over, hugs me
I’m glad you’re here, Momma.
Let’s have tea. I bought you gluten-free muffins
and a mango that just now gives to the touch.

*

Karen Paul Holmes has two poetry books, No Such Thing as Distance (Terrapin, 2018) and Untying the Knot (Aldrich, 2014). Her poems have been featured on The Writer’s Almanac, The Slowdown, and Verse Daily. Journal publications include Plume (forthcoming), Diode, Glass, and Prairie Schooner. She founded the Side Door Poets in Atlanta and a monthly open mic in the North Georgia mountains.

Transpiration by Karen Paul Holmes

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Transpiration

There is nothing wrong with a slow heartbeat
in trees. A pulse once every two hours pumps
water—like our blood—from roots to crown.
Botanists know this now, have measured it:
I don’t need to put my ear to trunk, like I laid
my head on your scarred chest, listening for its
rhythm, trying not to fret over stalled thumps,
not wanting to tell you, trusting the docs who
cut you and kept your meter adagio with meds,
your blood thin, its tension down. Trees throb
to keep water pressure in their xylem, and I’d
like to believe you surge there too, drawn up
from clay to sweetgums thriving in my yard,
their leaves opening and opening into stars.

*

Karen Paul Holmes has two poetry collections, No Such Thing as Distance (Terrapin, 2018) and Untying the Knot (Aldrich, 2014). Her poems have been featured on The Writer’s Almanac and The Slowdown. Publications include Diode, Valparaiso Review, Verse Daily, and Prairie Schooner. She’s the current “Poet Laura” for Tweetspeak Poetry.