Ann Christine Tabaka was nominated for the 2017 Pushcart Prize in Poetry. She is the winner of Spillwords Press 2020 Publication of the Year, her bio is featured in the “Who’s Who of Emerging Writers 2020 and 2021,” published by Sweetycat Press. She is the author of 15 poetry books, and 1 short story book. She lives in Delaware, USA. She loves gardening and cooking.  Chris lives with her husband and four cats. Her most recent credits are: Eclipse Lit, Carolina Muse, Sparks of Calliope; The Closed Eye Open, North Dakota Quarterly, Tangled Locks Journal, Wild Roof Journal, The American Writers Review, Burningword Literary Journal, Muddy River Poetry Review, The Silver Blade, Pomona Valley Review, West Texas Literary Review, The Hungry Chimera, Sheila-Na-Gig, Fourth & Sycamore.

*(a complete list of publications is available upon request)

My First Love

The wind is harsh, yet it beckons,
calling me back to you.
Come home!
Come home!
You hold my spirit captive.
Sparkling existence held just out of reach.
The first of many loves.
Days in the dazzling sun lasting forever,
seafoam caressing my toes.
Counting endless shore birds 
retreating home, 
over lush marshlands.
Magical visions awaken weary eyes.
An island full of mystery, 
where past and present collide.
An explosion of delight.
Many storms tortured you, 
but none could devour you whole.
A sliver of sand, ocean kissed, 
rooted in time. A refuge to many.
You will always be my home –
Ocracoke. 

Goodbye to Spring

Spring – a doorway between past & future.
Leaving winter’s chill behind,
	reaching towards the sun.
Warm days grow longer.

Summers – pass too quickly.
Brown invades the world.

The crispness of October 
soon to fill our lungs.

Looking back at the fading glow. 
I remember love.

Spring is but a memory
	painted upon our souls.

You Cannot Take that Away from Me!

brightness indulges and allures,
a once common gratitude for my loss.

a time so long ago
	memory fades and dissipates
among the ruins,
not knowing north from south.

illusions evade	 reckoning, but I know my place.
you cannot topple a tower that stands above all HOPE.

I am here
I am now
the future does not exist!

remembering the beauty of a silent morning kiss,
bedsheets strewn upon the floor.
a wonderous moonlit tryst.

years may pass and feelings wane,
	but in the end …
you cannot take that away from me.