O:JA&L Poetry: All forms & styles
Shyla Ann Shehan
TWILIGHT MEDITATION
~After “The Mountains in the Desert” by Robert Creeley.
Tonight, let me go at last
away from the relentless habits
of an uneasy mind.
A slow, methodical climb
through low brush, dust, and dry air.
Let me go until breathing alone
dominates my senses. Breath broken
by the random snap of a twig
on the unnamed path. Let me
let go like birds that nestle, quiescent
in scant trees. Let me settle, at last,
on the summit, my body permeated
by heat, my thoughts remade
into a mirror of the cloudless sky.
Let me let go of the relentless sun
and all the habits of it, sinking low
beyond soft mesa silhouettes
god-strewn across the horizon.
About the writer:
Shyla Ann Shehan is an analytical Virgo from the Midwest with an MFA from the University of Nebraska. Her writing has appeared in The Pinch, Moon City Review, Puerto del Sol, Summerset Review, and elsewhere, and her full-length poetry collection, Mining the Gap, was published by WSC Press in 2025. Shyla has received an Academy of American Poets Prize, Pushcart nomination, and Best of the Net Nomination. She’s the EIC of The Good Life Review and currently lives in Omaha with her husband, children, and three cats.
Image: Night Falls Among the Mesas (AI-assisted digital image) by O:JA&L staff creative. 2025. Public domain via Midjourney AI.
OJAL Art Incorporated, publishing since 2017 as OPEN: Journal of Arts & Letters (O:JA&L) and its imprints Buttonhook Press, HOT BUTTON PRESS Contemporary Issues, and HIGH BUTTON PRESS Contemporary Art, supports writers and artists worldwide.
O:JA&L’S BUTTONHOOK PRESS MASTERS SERIES
Click on the titles below to explore or download the free PDF chapbooks in the O:JA&L Masters Series.
The Buttonhook Press Masters Series: Brian Clements on Prose Poetry
With an Interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto
The Buttonhook Press Masters Series: Mark Budman on Flash Discourse
With an Interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto
The Buttonhook Press Masters Series: Ray Gonzalez on Prose Poetry
With an Interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto
The Buttonhook Press Master Series: Michael Martone on Flash Fiction
With an Interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto
The Buttonhook Press Master Series: Roberta Allen on Flash Fiction
With an Interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto
The Buttonhook Press Master Series: Peter Conners on Flash Fiction
With an Interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto
The Buttonhook Press Masters Series: Maxine Chernoff on Prose Poetry
With an Interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto
The Buttonhook Press Masters Series: Pedro Ponce on Flash Fiction
With an Interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto
The Buttonhook Press Masters Series: Tom Hazuka on Flash Fiction
With an interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto
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