WestWard Quarterly, The Magazine of Family Reading

WestWard Quarterly
P.O. Box 369
Hamilton, Illinois 62341 USA
800-440-4043
wwquarterly@aol.com

Note: As of June 1, 2009 our mailing address has changed to P.O. Box 369, Hamilton, Illinois 62341. Our telephone number and email address remain the same.

Marsha Ward, Novelist
(Former Editor of
WestWard Quarterly)

Illinois State Poetry Society

Richard Leonard's Rail Archive

Note: Writing contests have been temporarily suspended. The last one ended March 31, 2007. Thanks to all who have participated in these contests! If they are to be resumed in the future, an announcement will be posted here.

WestWard Quarterly, the Magazine of Family Reading

WestWard Quarterly tries to present the best work of upbeat writers and poets, whether accomplished or beginners. We maintain a positive editorial philosophy, presenting material that is reflective, inspiring, uplifting, encouraging and humorous. This is not to say that we “bury our heads in the sand.” Some of the difficult issues of our time must be addressed, and poetry has a role to play in raising the standard of our expectations. It can do this through offering hope, instead of by magnifying what is crude or deplorable in the human condition.

We accept all styles of poetry and look for good imagery and grammar and a fresh outlook. If rhyming, we look for consistency and natural word order in the rhyme scheme. If metrical, we look for consistent scansion or “beat.” If free verse, we look for some kind of rhythm, flow, and harmony that makes a poem differ from prose.

For other submission guidelines, with subscription and single issue prices, please click the link at left. There is a sample page showing the magazine’s current style. We offer a “Writer’s Workbench” (also a regular department of the magazine) featuring helpful hints for better writing. The Archive presents back issues a year old or more. In addition you can meet our editor, Shirley Anne Leonard, and read some of her more than 850 poems. All of these features are linked on the menu bar.

Poetry Chapbooks

by WestWard Quarterly Editor Shirley Anne Leonard

THE COMPASS

81 poems about the voyage through the
seas of denominationalism into the
secure harbor of God's Kingdom.

THE PROMISE

46 poems relating the story of mankind's fall
and God's promise of restoration.
With Richard C. Leonard.

THE JOURNEY

59 poems about the perils and
joys of the journey from the
Kingdom of Darkness to
the Kingdom of Light.

CREATION’S SONG

38 poems extolling the beauty
that God has created in the world
of nature for our enjoyment.

REMEMBERING EDEN

31 poems honoring Christ and
God's glorious plan for the
restoration of all things.

Retail price is $5.00 for each book. Order from Laudemont Press.

Without Words

Made into a song by Richard Silkebakken. To download and play the music, choose MP3 format, M4A format, or WAV format.

I cannot tell you,
words will not come,
but if soul should speak to soul
what need for tongue?

Let my eyes tell you
when they gaze into yours
and my soul gets lost
in their deep corridors.

Let my lips tell you,
barely touching yours,
of the tender love
in a heart that adores.

Let my hand tell you,
clasped into yours,
while love speaks
without words.

Let your music speak,
with the setting sun
in the soft hours of twilight,
that we are one.

Poetic Visions

I am a poetess delicate — fragile.
I belong in a garret
with pen and a candle,
with a window overlooking
a garden of beauty
where to think and to write
is my only clear duty;
where dainties and morsels
are sent up on a tray
with a teapot and biscuits
in sumptuous array;
where books and fine pictures
would line all the walls
and a fireplace blazes
when evening chill falls;
where my true love comes home
after workdays apart
and we share tender moments
as heart speaks to heart.

Playing Dress-Up

I’ve been playing dress-up all my life,
as a little girl, young lady and a wife.
But, deep inside, I’m still a little girl
though I’ve been pushed into a larger world.

I marvel as I see how others live!
The flair, the suave, the polished look they give
as if they were quite capable, thank you,
of anything the world might ask them do.

But I — I hesitate when I should leap,
and jump ahead whenever I should creep.
When all around me things are going fast
I opt for sitting still till they have passed.

I’ve been playing dress-up all my life,
as a little girl, young lady and a wife.
But, deep inside, I’m still a little girl
though I’ve been pushed into a larger world.

A Noble Proverb

“Iron sharpens iron,”
so they say.
But what if I
am only made of clay?
Obliteration —
if I get in the way!

Iron sharpens iron.
So does stone
if rough, and with a
hardness all its own
to grind the weapon’s
cutting edge, and hone.

Iron sharpens iron.
Make me so
the wheel will grind
deliberate and slow,
and sparks will not inflame
emotion’s glow.

Iron sharpens iron.
Let us talk
and mind the words we say,
lest they should walk
toward battlefields
and kill us on the way.

WestWard Quarterly’s roots go back to Explorer Magazine, edited by Raymond J. Flory for nearly 40 years, and to Roadrunner Magazette, edited by the late Barbara Quinlan during the 1990s. In 1998, when Ms. Quinlan decided to suspend publication, Marsha Ward took over the magazine and renamed it WestWard Quarterly. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Flory also decided to retire from publication and turned his Explorer subscribers and contributors over to WestWard Quarterly.

By 2002 Ms. Ward had encountered some health issues and was unable to produce WestWard Quarterly on a consistent schedule. A writer on western themes, she decided to concentrate on her other work and suspended publication of the magazine. Shirley Anne Leonard, a subscriber and contributor, offered to take it on with the help of her husband, Dr. Richard Leonard, publisher of Laudemont Press. Under the new editorship WestWard Quarterly has retained its name for the sake of continuity, and in recognition of Marsha Ward’s efforts. The magazine continues her editorial philosophy of presenting material with a positive outlook on life — “Adversity happens; find the eternal purpose behind it.”