Holly Painter is a poet, writer, and editor from southeast Michigan. Her first book of poetry, Excerpts from a Natural History, was published by Titus Books in Auckland, New Zealand in 2015. Her poetry, fiction, and essays have also been published in literary journals and anthologies in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore. Holly teaches writing and literature at the University of Vermont.

 

Cryptic Crossword XXIV

 

Clues

Full moon penetrates dour field.

Beneath – separate, avoiding society –

sad pine ages,

 

ravaged of agile greenness,

recalling time of sun beams,

scent of flowers

 

gasped and held in a tempest,

vacuous beauty of

steady flame.

 

Answers

Court under blue moon

Foliage emits bouquet

inhaled by lover

 

~

 

Cryptic Crossword XXV

 

Clues

Naval commander heard calling for

antique glass.

 

Watchman, stooge in striped cotton

clothes, alien among sailors,

sounds warning as

open boat,

 

fashioned from soft naked

pinewood, parts current.

Boat comes around island, and tails British fleet.

“Heave the anchor!”

curse and damn the crew.

 

Answers

Seeking old-fashioned

seersucker jackets for launch

of new yacht rock band

 

~

 

Cryptic Crossword XXVII

 

Clues

Woman of the house listens to insects

sing nonsense syllables and three-part

 

harmony, calm

cut off from

trouble. No fear, not before dusk.

Gingerly, tender lips split:

 

new note enters general

cloud around mid-afternoon croakers.

Hot cry, and quiet. Spring,

too, comes from a desire.

 

Answers

            Ladybugs scatter

Peace of afternoon splintered

Green frogs hop along

 

~

 

Cryptic Crossword XXVIII

 

Clues

Wine-soaked bride and groom,

day and place for the afterglow –

cold ice ridge.

 

Blustering man embraces silence,

kindling romance with close friend.

Home is love and husband,

seed of no consequence

 

without God to plunder or covet.

Rambling dirge for the mountains

consumes birds

soft and airy.

 

Answers

            Brandied sunset chill

            Gusty wood, hearth for the birds

            Pine ridge swallows light

 

~

 

Cryptic Crossword XXX

 

Clues

Nameless female deer

sallied playfully on trails

a bit inattentive following

            leap in stream

 

like a fish at the hint of a shiny object.

Concealed by tupelo, noiselessly approaching

drop of fat

berries, ruinously ripe after endless June,

 

one hart turned, identifying new

sounds. A listener’s keeping very quiet.

 

Answers

            Doe dallies in spring

nibbling on plump juniper

Another appears