Tag: Shawn Aveningo Sanders

ONE ART x The Poetry Box Reading

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Sunday, March 1, 2026
ONE ART x The Poetry Box
Featured Readers: John Arthur, Katie Dozier, John Wojtowicz, Laura Foley
Information & Registration via The Poetry Box
Tickets are FREE!
>> Register Here <<

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A special crossover event celebrating poets who have been published in ONE ART and who have been winners of The Poetry Box Chapbook Prize.

  • Katie Dozier – Editor’s Choice Winner, The Poetry Box Chapbook Prize 2025 for All That Glitter

You can learn more about The Poetry Box Chapbook Prize, which is open from February  1st thru March 15th, at ThePoetryBox.com/chapbook-prize.

About the Poets:

John Arthur is the author of Lucy the Elephant Wins in a Landslide. John is a writer and musician from New Jersey. His work has appeared in Rattle, DIAGRAM, Frogpond, Failbetter, trampset, ONE ART, and many other places. He has worked as a valet at a casino, a waiter, a Ferris Wheel operator, a cook, a pizza delivery driver, a fast food delivery driver, a landscaper, a journalist, an editor, a librarian, a library director, a manager, and for one long, hot day as a guy going door to door asking if you’d like to donate to the Sierra Club.

You can purchase John Arthur’s winning chapbook at:

https://thepoetrybox.com/bookstore/lucy-elephant

(or wherever you like to buy books)

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Katie Dozier’s love of poetry first bloomed as a child. She memorized Robert Frost sitting on a tree stump and bathed in Edgar Allan Poe as an adolescent. While studying words at Florida State University, Katie also played with chips and became a professional poker player. She’s passionate about encouraging others to discover and share contemporary poetry—through her social media, Substack, and NFTs.  Katie is the author of All That Glitter; Watering Can: a Month of Poems; and the co-author of Hot Pink Moon: a Crown of Haibun and Did You See the Moon Honey. She is the creator of the top-rated podcast The Poetry Space_,   the haiku editor for One Art,   and an editor at Rattle. Katie lives in The Woodlands, Texas, with her husband Timothy Green, their four children, and way too many books.

You can purchase Katie’s winning chapbook at:

https://thepoetrybox.com/bookstore/glitter

(or wherever you like to buy books)

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John Wojtowicz, author of No Lightsabers in the Kitchen, grew up working on his family’s azalea and rhododendron nursery and still lives in the backwoods of what Ginsberg dubbed “nowhere Zen New Jersey” with his wife and two children. Currently, he teaches social work at Rowan College South Jersey. He has been featured on Rowan University’s Writer’s Roundtable and the Painted Bride Quarterly’s Slush Pile Podcast. Several of his poems were selected for Princeton University’s 2021 Unique Minds: Creative Voices exhibition at the Lewis Center for the Arts. When not writing, teaching, or rolling around in the yard, he enjoys monitoring bluebird boxes, volunteering at the Cohanzick Zoo, and flipping horseshoe crabs.

You can purchase John Wojtowicz’s winning chapbook at:

No Lightsabers in the Kitchen

(or wherever you like to buy books)

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Laura Foley, author of Ice Cream for Lunch: a grandparents handbook, is also the author of ten previous poetry books, most recently, Sledding the Valley of the Shadow. Her book Why I Never Finished My Dissertation received a starred Kirkus Review and an Eric Hoffer Award. She has won a Narrative Magazine Poetry Prize, The Common Good Books Poetry Prize, Atlanta Review’s Grand Prize and others. Her work has been included in many journals including: Alaska Quarterly, Valparaiso, Poetry Society London, Atlanta Review, Poetry of Presence, and How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope. She lives on the steep banks of the Connecticut River in New Hampshire, and romps with her grandchildren as often as possible.

You can purchase Laura’s book at:

https://thepoetrybox.com/bookstore/ice-cream-lunch

(or wherever you like to buy books)

Beginning, Again by Shawn Aveningo Sanders

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Beginning, Again

Minty spittle slithers down
the handle of my toothbrush.
It’s a cold sunny morning
with new batteries; my teeth
are excited for a fresh start.
I didn’t have high expectations
for last year, a pessimistic way
to say I surpassed my goals.
(well, some of them, anyway)
This year, I feel more confident—
until a splash of cold hits my face.

             breaking news
             holding hope
             for the midterms

*

Shawn Aveningo Sanders shares the creative life with her husband in Beaverton, where they run a small press, The Poetry Box. Over 200 of Shawn’s poems have appeared worldwide, most recently in ONE ART, contemporary haibun online, McQueen’s Quinterly, Sheila-Na-Gig, Cloudbank, and Love Is for All of Us. Shawn is a multiple Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and Touchstone Award nominee and has won prizes from the Oregon Poetry Association. Her newest book Pockets (MoonPath Press) was a finalist in Concrete Wolf’s Chapbook Contest. When she’s not writing, you might find her shopping for a new pair of red shoes or toy dinosaurs for her granddaughter. (RedShoePoet.com)

I’m taking a holiday by Shawn Aveningo Sanders

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I’m taking a holiday

from headlines, and I’m not the only one.
I walk through a nearby neighborhood,
the kind with a community pool
and a new elementary school
between row after row of houses.
Cul-de-sacs of cocoa & cookies,
lights adorn rooftops down each street,
everyone saving each other a seat
for the big Holiday Parade. Scouts
setting up for a bake sale, tables of
treats their moms helped make sweet.
I stop at a house with one blue spotlight
and a red bucket hung on a hook,
where a plaque invites me to Take One.
Hoping to find a little poem inside,
there’s a handwritten prayer instead.
And though I didn’t feel the need,
I was grateful for the offering, this
token of kinship from a stranger—
and how I found myself believing
maybe—just maybe—We the People
can still turn things around.

*

Shawn Aveningo Sanders’ poems have appeared in journals worldwide, including Calyx, ONE ART, contemporary haibun online, Drifting Sands, Quartet, Timberline Review, Cloudbank, Sheila-Na-Gig, MacQueen’s Quinterly, and many others. Her new book, Pockets (MoonPath Press, 2025) was a finalist in the Concrete Wolf Chapbook Contest. Shawn is a Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and Touchstone Award nominee. A proud mom and Nana, she shares the creative life with her husband in Oregon, where they run a small press, The Poetry Box. When she’s not writing, you might find her in a shoe store hunting for a new pair of red shoes. (redshoepoet.com)

Beads by Shawn Aveningo Sanders

~ ONE ART ~ 2 Comments

Beads

There are days I long for long-ago days
and crave the cackled song of her laughter.
Why did she have to leave us so soon?
I see her in every bloom of iris, purpling
my side yard each June. Grief is
a forever fading bruise, a reminder
of our Kodachrome days, all those little
snapshots we carry, trinkets we unbury
from the drawer of memory—
a bracelet full of charms reminding us
how lucky we are to find one another,
each of us, a shimmering bead
on life’s great, miraculous string.

*

Shawn Aveningo Sanders’ poems have appeared in journals worldwide, including Calyx, ONE ART, contemporary haibun online, Drifting Sands, Quartet, Timberline Review, Cloudbank, Sheila-Na-Gig, MacQueen’s Quinterly, and many others. Her new book, Pockets (MoonPath Press, 2025) was a finalist in the Concrete Wolf Chapbook Contest. Shawn is a Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and Touchstone Award nominee. A proud mom and Nana, she shares the creative life with her husband in Oregon, where they run a small press, The Poetry Box. When she’s not writing, you might find her in a shoe store hunting for a new pair of red shoes. (redshoepoet.com)

ONE ART’s October 2025 Reading

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

Date: Sunday, October 5

Time: 2:00pm Eastern

Featured Poets: Susan Rich, Shawn Aveningo-Sanders, Faith Shearin

>>> Tickets Available <<<

Free!

(Donations appreciated.)

The official event is expected to run approximately 1-hour.

After the reading, please consider sticking around for approximately 30-minutes of Community Time discussion with our Featured Poets.

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~ About Our Featured Poets ~

Susan Rich is the author of six collections of poetry and co-editor of two prose anthologies. Her most recent books include Blue Atlas (Red Hen Press) and Gallery of Postcards and Maps: New and Selected Poems (Salmon Poetry). She co-edited Demystifying the Manuscript: Creating a Book of Poems (Two Sylvias Press) and Strangest of Theatres: Poets Crossing Borders (Poetry Foundation). Susan’s previous poetry books include Cloud Pharmacy, The Alchemist’s Kitchen, Cures Include Travel, and The Cartographer’s Tongue–Poems of the World–winner of the PEN USA Award. Birdbrains: A Lyrical Guide to Washington State Birds is forthcoming from Raven Chronicles Press.

Shawn Aveningo-Sanders’ poetry has appeared in journals worldwide, including Calyx, ONE ART, Quartet, Timberline Review, About Place Journal, Sheila-Na-Gig, MacQueen’s Quinterly, and many others. She is the author of What She Was Wearing and her manuscript, Pockets, was a finalist in the Concrete Wolf Chapbook Contest, which is forthcoming from MoonPath Press. Shawn is two-time Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee. A proud mom and Nana, she shares the creative life with her husband in Oregon.

Faith Shearin’s seven books of poetry include: The Owl Question (May Swenson Award), Telling the Bees (SFA University Press), Orpheus, Turning (Dogfish Poetry Prize), Darwin’s Daughter (SFA University Press), and Lost Language (Press 53). Her poems have been read aloud on The Writer’s Almanac and included in American Life in Poetry. She has received awards from Yaddo, The National Endowment for the Arts, and The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. Her essays and short stories have won awards from New Ohio Review, The Missouri Review, The Florida Review, and Literal Latte, among others. Two YA novels — Lost River, 1918 and My Sister Lives in the Sea — won The Global Fiction Prize, judged by Anthony McGowan, and have been published by Leapfrog Press.

Three Poems by Shawn Aveningo-Sanders

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My Goldilocks Closet

There’s a place in the back of my closet,
where I hang my memory. I have this fear
that someday I’ll plummet again, that I
will forget how to be happy. Back there
is where I store the purple dress I wore
for my second wedding, just in case
I want to wear it for our anniversary. But
it’s three sizes too big. And that’s a good
thing—finally learning the art of self-care.
There’s that black velvet number, trimmed
with mink, I wore to a country club soiree.
Oh, to wear that dress again—such a classic—
alas, it’s two sizes too small. And let’s face it:
even if it did fit, it wouldn’t really “fit” this
body “of a certain age.” I try on the denim jumper,
the one appliqued with black kittens popping
out of pumpkins. The one I wore decades ago
trick-or-treating with my kids. Somehow, it fits
“just right.” I slip my hand inside the pocket,
find a wadded-up Skittles wrapper, and inhale
the rainbow of my children’s youth.
A happiness I will never forget.

*

A Second Life

Every time I toss an empty Country Crock
into the recycle bin, I feel a tinge of guilt.
But also, I smile.

MeMaw was known for her pantry
full of Trailer Park Tupperware, saving
containers that once offered up

cool whipped-cream dollops atop
strawberry shortcake. Or those packed
with that almost just-like-butter taste

to spread on biscuits. She granted
each plastic vessel a second life.
Some cradled batches

of snickerdoodles
on their journey to my dorm—
small packets of love

to soothe away my homesick blues.
My roommate asked me why
anyone would ship a tub

of margarine. I laughed.
Then I saw her brown saucer eyes
speak of loneliness.

I un-burped the lid,
to open the tub, offered her
a cinnamon-sugared treat,

so she, too, could know
the taste of home—
she, so far away from her own.

*

Labels

Have you ever noticed the women
who linger in the canned food aisle? How
they will stand there in their comfortable shoes,
wearing a modest shade of pink lipstick to
perk up an exhausted smile, scrutinizing and
scanning each label: cans of creamed corn,
stewed tomatoes, garbanzo beans, and soup.
Is it the calories? Allergies? Price?

After weeks in the ICU, he is finally coming home.
I pore over every prescription protocol; key-in
each doctors’ number into my phone; make copies
of his Patient Implant Card to tuck into my wallet.
I buy one of those easy-to-read neon pill caddies,
so he never misses a dose from the armada of pills
fighting for his failing heart.

I scan a list from my pocket. How long have I
been standing here holding this can, reading
this label? I get it now—what it means to join
the sorority of salt seekers. Our faithful mission:
rooting out sodium dangers at every possible turn.
I understand these tedious, loving acts
and the monumental task to save the hearts
that beat in unison with our own.

*

Shawn Aveningo-Sanders’ poetry has appeared in journals worldwide, including Calyx, ONE ART, Quartet, Timberline Review, About Place Journal, Sheila-Na-Gig, MacQueen’s Quinterly, and many others. She is the author of What She Was Wearing and her manuscript, Pockets, was a finalist in the Concrete Wolf Chapbook Contest, which is forthcoming from MoonPath Press. Shawn is two-time Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee. A proud mom and Nana, she shares the creative life with her husband in Oregon.