A mixed media platform dedicated to sharing the story of love. We invite you to sift through the intense joys and uncomfortable no’s. We are deeply dedicated to exploring the emotions that yield hard truths.

Jessica Frelow

Discretionary Love

All pieces must be connected to love in one way or another. Send us the beauty and the chaos. Talk to us about self-love, relationships, parenting or just surviving your partner.

General call

Beth Mulcahy is a poet and writer whose work has appeared in various journals. She writes to bridge the gaps between history and the self, between hurt and healing. Beth lives in Ohio with her husband and two children. She works for a company that provides technology to people without natural speech. Beth’s debut Chapbook, Firmer Ground, is available from Anxiety Press.  Learn more about Firmer Ground and check out her latest publications on her website: https://www.bethmulcahywriter.com.

Basic Bio

Beth Mulcahy is a poet and writer whose work has appeared in various journals. Her writing bridges the gaps between generations and self, hurt and healing. Beth lives in Ohio with her husband and two children and works for a company that provides technology to people without natural speech. 

54 words or less

Beth Mulcahy (she/her) is a Pushcart Prize-nominated poet and writer whose work has appeared in various journals. Her writing bridges the gaps between generations and self, hurt and healing. Beth lives in Ohio with her husband and two children and works for a company that provides technology to people without natural speech. Her latest publications can be found here:  https://www.bethmulcahywriter.com/publications.html

72 words or less

Beth Mulcahy (she/her) is a Pushcart Prize-nominated poet and writer whose work has appeared in over thirty literary journals. Beth lives in Wooster, Ohio with her husband and two children. She works for a Wooster-based company that provides technology to people without natural speech. Beth’s debut chapbook with Anxiety Press, Firmer Ground, was published in April. You can find out more about the book and check out her latest publications on her website: bethmulcahywriter.com and her free substack at https://bethmulcahy.substack.com.

bio for readings

Ali Rowland is a writer from Northumberland. She has been nominated for Best of the Net 2025, won the Hexham Poetry Competition in 2023, and has two published collections: Rooted (Maplestreet Press, 2024) and Dragged Up: A Northern Childhood (Sixty Odd Poets, 2024) You can follow her work at Musings of a Mad Woman on Substack.


Poetry

Daniel Bliss is an English professor and world-traveling poet originally from Anchorage, Alaska. His work often focuses on the honest side of rural Americana. Instead of focusing on the often-naïve aspect, I examine and ask what does it mean to be raised in places that are forgotten. 

What moments exist in these places that end up sticking with us and later defining what we attempt to escape. His poems have been published or are forthcoming in Pinhole Poetry, the Bicoastal Review, League of Canadian Poets, Blood and Bourbon, BarBar, and many others. 


Daniel Bliss 

Jack Anthony (@janthony.writes) is an emerging poet and writer from Meanjin/Brisbane, Australia. His work has been published in anthologies and literary magazines such as Heartfelt, Ink & Inclusion, Discretionary Love, and Beneath the Mask. Jack enjoys writing about the supernatural, the historical and aspects of identity such as neurodivergence and queer/trans experiences. When not writing they can be found with their nose in a book, haunting thrift stores and bothering their cat, Jesper. 

Poetry bio

“for i am not curt enough
to compose the occasional “no.””

receptive repast

Melancholic poem reflecting on the apparent enmity of the winter season.

Our Season

"House of Worship" is a sex-positive love poem that explores the confidence one experiences when they are comfortable in their own skin upon finding someone who loves them just as passionately as they love them.

House of Worship

"Cherry Blossom" is a narrative poem about a love that only lasts for the season but will be forever remembered

Cherry Blossom

Match

"I cannot look you in the eye,
Nor can I watch your retreating back,
But I can hold you through whispers —
Our hips bracketing our love,
Our legs a facsimile of parallel lines."

Published in Discretionary Love [March 2022]

The Spaces Between Us

Here it is New Year’s Day
and Chicago, Illinois is on its way

Beginning with Goodbye

did you find out that you can’t drink pop with breakfast in a soda town?

What about Bourbon Street?

you were home to me for so long until
you just became someone walking around at night in the rain

Home to Me

True love but for the fact
of becoming part of a past
for you to run from
true love but for the lack

True Love but for the Lack of What is Not

Before you begin, separate out all expectations and discard (do not bother setting aside for use later or for any other relationships as unfulfilled expectations are generally considered ruinous.) 

How to Bake a Marriage

Paul and I stood side by side. It was a dreary winter afternoon, and as lifelong bookworms, we were spending it together in an old house that had been converted into a used bookstore, with each room dedicated to a different genre.

Stacks

If I'm honest, this was inspired by the release of Red (Taylor's version). My title is a not-so-subtle nod to that album. 

Discretionary Love

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