Plastic Plea | Kristen Thomson Sheely

November 14, 2025

artificial flowers:
pretend beauty, pretend eternity
they don’t grow
they smell of nothing
they don’t require water or care or love
They are placeholders for hope:
a wink of loveliness in our concrete world.

Kristen Thomson Sheely is a writer and the Executive Director of The Derek Sheely Foundation, a nonprofit that honors her son. Her blog, No Name for This Grief, and her forthcoming memoir, Very Dark Places, explore the sorrow and pain of loss. She and her husband live with their greyhound in Pennsylvania.    

Link to blog: www.nonameforthisgrief.wordpress.com

Link to website: www.thedereksheelyfoundation.org

Broken Mirror | Lynn White

November 12, 2025

Someone is missing.

Her absence is revealed

in the shattered glass of the mirror.

Perhaps she is broken,

shattered 

like the mirror.

If only the shattered glass

could reveal her presence.

If only

the cracks would heal.

Lynn White lives in north Wales. Her work is influenced by issues of social justice and events, places and people she has known or imagined. She is especially interested in exploring the boundaries of dream, fantasy and reality. She has been nominated for Pushcarts, Best of the Net and a Rhysling award.  https://lynnwhitepoetry.blogspot.com  and https://www.facebook.com/Lynn-White-Poetry-1603675983213077/ 

bridge becomes sky | A J Wilson

November 10, 2025

somewhere between root and heaven
lies a river of dreams
trees unbutton their shadows
and i tread carefully in the stillness
of yesterday’s rain
listen –
earth is almost remembering
the forgotten footsteps
and my bridge becomes sky

A J Wilson, was born and lives in North Wales,  she wrote her first poem at nine, her pen was left dormant for decades, until the pandemic, when poetry found her again. Her poetry has been published in numerous magazines and journals,  and her short stories have featured in anthologies.

Plaintive Time | Kristen Thomson Sheely

November 7, 2025

And there is my mother and the watch she wore even though it stopped
for good when she was still wearing it. I like the way it feels on my wrist,
she’d say. I have it now. Sometimes a sweet memory like this suddenly
turns into something else, something unexpected, and all the words
I want to say are hidden in my ribs, and it hurts to remember, it hurts
to write, as if ink is blood and syllables are pieces of me and pieces of her
strung together, held fast with whatever I find lying lost on the ground —
what was it that I meant to say? Write anyway. Write it down
before it’s lost forever, and stop worrying about the ink,
the blood, because there’s plenty.

Kristen Thomson Sheely is a writer and the Executive Director of The Derek Sheely Foundation, a nonprofit that honors her son. Her blog, No Name for This Grief, and her forthcoming memoir, Very Dark Places, explore the sorrow and pain of loss. She and her husband live with their greyhound in Pennsylvania.    

Link to blog: www.nonameforthisgrief.wordpress.com

Link to website: www.thedereksheelyfoundation.org

To Meet Myself | Crispina Kemp

November 5, 2025

Broken
The treads fall away
Leaving my foot unshod
Leaving me unbalanced
Leaving me tumbling
Into the water
Deep
Dark
Swirling
To meet myself

Crispina Kemp Biog

Crispina is a writer who by her own admission is obsessed with the weird, the unlikely, the mythical and paranormal. She also has a deep love and respect for the land of her birth where she’s often seen ‘walking her camera’.

https://twitter.com/ineebrown51

https://www.amazon.com/author/crispinakemponamazon

weathering | A J Wilson

November 3, 2025

creaking weathered limbs
the forest cradles the weight
time and steps collide

A J Wilson, was born and lives in North Wales,  she wrote her first poem at nine, her pen was left dormant for decades, until the pandemic, when poetry found her again. Her poetry has been published in numerous magazines and journals,  and her short stories have featured in anthologies.

Whispers and Echoes Poetry and Flash Fiction Index | October 2025

October 31, 2025

Thank you to everyone who has supported Whispers and Echoes throughout October. Whether you are sharing the words or reading them, it is is deeply appreciated.

Also thank you for the sudden influx of submissions towards the end of the month, both for responses to the photo prompt and general submissions. We now only have a couple of scheduling slots left in November, before we begin scheduling for December. As the photo response closes on the 15th November 2025, I’m thinking that we might close to all submissions for the rest of the year on this date too. The reason is that during the journal’s winter break, I am planning on giving the site a new look…So, if you want to see your work shared on the Whispers and Echoes website this year, please bear that in mind. You can find the Submit page here.

To see what we shared – or what you missed – in October, check out the links below. Enjoy!

Poetry

Flash Fiction

Keepsake | Kristen Thomson Sheely

October 31, 2025

Tossed aside: tarnished glitter — now litter
A lipsticked crumpled napkin of profound promise fills a pocket
and on the way home the smeared window is fogged with
yesterday. I have to see where I’m going
so I pull the napkin from my pocket and smooth the wrinkled wreckage
between my hands to make it new again
But that’s like unringing a bell, isn’t it
I sweep it across the window and erase the blur, erase every trace
And yet. I tuck the napkin back into my pocket and
save the litter, to save the day.

Kristen Thomson Sheely is a writer and the Executive Director of The Derek Sheely Foundation, a nonprofit that honors her son. Her blog, No Name for This Grief, and her forthcoming memoir, Very Dark Places, explore the sorrow and pain of loss. She and her husband live with their greyhound in Pennsylvania.    

Link to blog: www.nonameforthisgrief.wordpress.com

Link to website: www.thedereksheelyfoundation.org