An Old Man

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  The skin and hair have thinned, the muscles have shrunk and weakened, the carriage is bent. The energy that once animated the body and shined out through the eyes is dimmed. The attenti...

The Capitol of Entertainment

Star studded night The searchlights shine brightly It’s entertainment that I need Up on the billboard, the title glitters Wheeling’s own Broadway show The walk of fame full of music stars The time they sp...

Wheeling Women Artists: Bonnie Thurston

Bonnie Thurston is a proud West Virginian woman who grew up in a remote southern part of the state. Her first introduction to the literary world was when her father would read bible stories to her before bed as...

Romantic Wheeling Project: Greenwood Cemetery

Obituaries Greenwood Cemetery, 151, Of Wheeling, West Virginia, Has yet to pass away. Greenwood was born in March, 1866, to the prominent citizens of Wheeling. 37.5 acres, Lined with monuments of human s...

driving route eighty-eight

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in the space between working and not i lose myself essing and squiggling day and late on eighty-eight-- a kind of asphalt umbilical cord, connecting dawn and sunset--- wending way again today ...

Romantic Wheeling Project: Ozymandias Rebuttal

The Romantic Wheeling Project is a multi-genre place-based learning project where 12th grade Honors English students at Wheeling Park High School used themes of British Romanticism like Natural over Artificial,...

Changing Course: A WLU Retirement

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When David J. Thomas, originally from Burgettstown, PA, first came to West Liberty State College (WLSC) in 1970, he was a sophomore at Weirton Madonna High School (MHS). His early entry into WLSC was due to his...

The Power of Intense Fragility

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* Title attributed to E. E. Cummings The other evening I attended a musical program at Wheeling Jesuit University. Looking up from a table of delicious desserts after the performance, I saw Mary Hamm across th...

W.Va.’s Poet Laureate A Student Of Life

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This Poet Laureate’s pace when he’s publicly reading his work is sometimes somewhat swift and steamed, but when Marc Harshman is embracing a conversation, the author chooses his words most carefully. He is arti...

Newspaper Hawker

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  Herb limps down and up the cinders on the berm of Exit Ramp 2-A behind Perkins’ restaurant. He holds up The Intel. He is tired; he is sweaty! His dirty tennis shoes cry out: “Chrish-...

Year of the Bloody Sevens

there are new silhouettes in this farm field at night now and I hope that the shapes of digits on this farmhouse clock face tell of times the old storms rolled through ‐ when lightning lashed out at t...

just another Warwood brat

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just another Warwood brat, son of Clyde and Vera, running the streets with Moe, Rudy, Mario, Bill, and Ray near North 20th pacing the courts at the YMCA under his dad’s skeptical eye lettering in three...

Bridge Song

that railroad bridge sentence spelled out in dark Cyrillic letter struts overtop the Ohio finally sang me a train song this morning on such a snow globe set stage where dead drifted harmonies float do...

You Once Saw a Bird

you once saw a bird flying overhead you remarked on her beauty but she flew away instead you once heard a bird singing her sweet song you didn't know the words but you sang right along you once felt...

A Poem: County Road 4

cold porch lights chase me thirty miles per hour downhill to the Ohio past bison in greasy fields old company town hollow filled by skinny creek run full of yellow dog seeps out back behind a mine store...

A Poem – “In Defense of my Dog”

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My mind and my mouth don’t always agree.  My mind says, “Just walk away,” but my mouth is the only thing that starts moving.  My mind says, “Just let it go,” but my mouth prepares for battle.  You know how the ...

The Poetry Break: Louise McNeill

Story courtesy of Weelunk partner West Virginia Public Broadcasting   West Virginia Poet Laureate and Ohio County resident Marc Harshman delivers the poetry of his predecessor's predecessor in this P...

A Poem: We Walked

(I was honored to be a speaker at this year's City of Wheeling Martin Luther King Interfaith Gathering for Freedom. I read this poem, which I wrote especially for the occasion.) We Walked away from Auschw...

A Mid November Morning

A pewter sky branches almost bare a few burnt orange leaves stretch sway tear free from branch flit dance fall to the ground to the frozen earth to the brittle brown A few burnt orange leaves fall ...

Autumn: A Poem

This poem is courtesy of our friends at Elkinte.com Soon comes the eve whose dawn shall be autumn Where the woodland sheds all, to be raked and forgotten With damp leaf puddles on each road and lawn Summe...

The Wheeling Feeling – A Poem

The Wheeling Feeling.. ------ “The Friendly city” so it’s called, Along the Ohio River it lays sprawled. Nestled in the hills where so few know, If you blink you’ll miss it, though. ------ It’s a city ...

A Song for West Virginia

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           We give the mountains our names / and they stand still...  -- Irene McKinney   Walnut Springs Mountain Reserve, near Union in Monroe County, West Virginia. Photo by Steve Shaluta.          ...

Spring

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A flush of green Lilac, lavender, sweet the soft puff of dandelion seeds A hawk gliding on a breeze Caterpillars bungee jump from trees Wheeling Creek hushed by leaves A couple sitting on its bank heads ...

Yesterday: A Haibun Poem

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Yesterday   memories gather in the rear view mirror framing a rich past   Wheeling, late 50's: A living breathing organism; the population on the verge of decline. The business di...

Snow Day, a Poem

By Lauren Cuff Weelunk Contributor   Snow Day   I have coffee I keep my pajamas on I play music I listen to my dog snore I begin to write a story for my nephew...