Saturday 1 April 2017

Sister Publication to Poetry Life & Times

Issue of April 2017



Sherry Moments
a poem by Daginne Aignend




He used to wait for me
when I got home from work
‘A glass of sherry, my dear’
We sat down
as I listened to his stories
The same story
he already told me yesterday
He played Rummy with
his girlfriend, the old bag
A puckish smile
accompanied his words
The old bag was sixty-five,
he already reached
the honorable age of eighty-two
For me, sipping my sherry,
it was the time of day to relax

He wasn’t always an
amiable man
When he was younger
he frightened me with
his abrupt violent bad temper
Aging took the edges off
his tantrums
Nowadays, I have decided
to remember my granddad
by these languid sherry moments

  



Daginne Aignend
is a pseudonym for the Dutch poetess Inge Wesdijk.

She likes hard rock music, photography and fantasy books. She is a vegetarian and spends a lot of time with her animals.
Daginne started to write English poetry five years ago and posted some of her poems on her Facebook page and on her fun project website www.daginne.com
She has been published in some online Poetry Review Magazines with a pending publication at the Contemporary Poet’s Group anthology ‘Dandelion in a Vase of Roses’.



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The Cambridge Companion to Academic Dipshits. A Poem by R.W. Haynes




A fat old parrot’s fine impersonation
Of a dean, on YouTube, set our friend a laughing
Which he couldn’t stop. It turned to coughing,
And he died, sort of happy, at his station.

We found in his desk, stashed carelessly,
An ancient manuscript he was translating
From Sicilian Greek, a tragedy dating
From Plato’s time, and indeed relating
To the philosopher, for his great enemy
Dionysius the First of Syracuse
Wrote the play to defend his tyranny
Against Plato’s defense of liberty
And attack on his autocratic abuse,
Tyranny raging against philosophy.

Do we moralize against tyranny,
Although small fish, but not so small
As delicious minnows on whom we fall
With glittering eyes, slobberingly?
Do these ideas–rained upon our minds,
Like mud rain in Laredo–elevate
Consciousness toward the great
Hovering supremacy philosophy finds?

Our dead associate, with his dramatic Greek
Representation of a fictional fight
In which dialogue produced lurid light,
Urges our lethargy to think and speak.
Have we reason to listen to that urgency
Or indeed to reason, whose puritan whine
Is likely at times to somewhat undermine
Its specious claim of authority?
“I’d rather be right with Plato,” someone said.
But what does it matter when we all are dead?

So now they have sabotaged a Chaucer class…

Ho hum. They did the same for Tragedy,
And who can blame a stupid clown or an ass
For despising Oedipus or Antigone?
Brainlessness is not some contagion
But, in our non-Platonic academe,
A status quo, the vacuous conversation
Of envious imbeciles with bulging eyes agleam.
The best one can do in this fools’ competition
Is sometimes to put a stick in the machine
And briefly delay the supremely ignorant mission
Carefully strategized by Satan and the dean.

Let no one dying here view with surprise
Dung-beetles circling, with burning little eyes.


  

R. W. Haynes has taught literature at Texas A&M International University since 1992. His recent interests include the early British sonnet, and he is completing a second book on the Texas playwright and screenwriter Horton Foote (1916-2009). In his poetry, Haynes seeks to celebrate life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness without sounding any more dissonant notes than he has to. In fiction, he works toward grasping that part of the past which made its mark on his generation. He enjoys teaching drama, especially the Greeks, Ibsen, and Shakespeare, and he devoutly hopes for a stunning literary Renaissance in South Texas.



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STEPHANIE
A Poem by John D Robinson



We could have
been lovers,
but we weren’t,
we could have
been life-long
friends,
but we weren’t,
we could have
been so much
more than a
beautiful exchange
of a brief and
intense light that
scorched us both
with an
innocence that
overwhelmed us
leaving us
strangers for
evermore. 

John D Robinson was born in 63; he is a published poet with 2 chapbooks; ‘When You Hear The Bell, There’s Nowhere To Hide’ (Holy&intoxicated Publications 2016) ‘Cowboy Hats & Railways’ (Scars Publications 2016); he was a contributing poet to the 2016 48th Street Press Broadside Series; his work appears widely in the small press and online literary publications; he is married and lives in the UK.




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Shared Closet For One. A Poem by Judy Moskowitz.



A spacious walk in
With built in shelves
And interesting places to hide
I didn’t realize I had so many shoes
Color coordinated clothes
Perfectly aligned on velvet hangers
You can tell so much about a person
The way they fold their clothes
Tell tale signs of intimacy
Rolled up in a draw
Evidence of a once lush life
Hidden in the green of envy
A garden of weeds
Oxygen with just enough poison
Taking over the landscape
No flowers of consolation
Just black smoke inside
A tin box ready to explode
Have I left enough trills in the music
Did I change the sheets
That witnessed submission
Can you feel my authentic bliss
That I once loved you




Judy Moskowitz started playing piano at the age of three, and studied at the Julliard School Of Music in New York City, her native city.
She became a jazz pianist and continues to play jazz. Now residing in Florida, she started writing poetry three years ago, and has been published in the Moonlight Dreamers Of The Yellow Haze anthology, Thepoetcommunity, Whispersinthewind, Indiana Voice Journal. Poetry runs deep in her veins along with Music.




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Jazz. A Poem by Joan McNerney



the kitchen sits
in fruit soup…
steamed apricot
mango shadow
  
down thru spinning
smoke into hot light
blink beat
  
body ends dangle
lead eye skin cement
high on tongue

night pasted among
buildings Styrofoam clouds
moon hung beneath billboard
rolling pass wet
rocked streets
soul tramp
diamond panhandlers watch
paper birds slices of
the daily news drift in air
comes cool ether
whispers up door
climbing dusty corridor
tree windows lapping lisp
door slams again noise again
then none void nothing syncopates
noise again door slams tree bare frozen

caught in the image of 7 candles
within 7 candles flames of air
7 light bulbs growing out of each other
7 silver circles coined from 7 silver rings
  
clear as blazing sheets
of glass yet
vague as dust
an ice cube on wood table
in front of crushed velvet

    melt
    poured
    peeled

when this sky now boiling with
stars is strapped black
in pinched air thru sucked mind
swimming pass spaced time
will be one silent
note up.



Joan McNerney’s poetry has been included in numerous literary magazines such as Seven Circle Press, Dinner with the Muse, Blueline, Spectrum, three Bright Spring Press Anthologies and several Kind of A Hurricane Publications. She has been nominated three times for Best of the Net. Poet and Geek recognized her work as their best poem of 2013. Four of her books have been published by fine small literary presses and she has three e-book titles.



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Hostages. A Poem by Ananya S Guha



Had it not been
a hell of a night
I would not know
how chandeliers
had broken
and the gig we did
broke into dawn
till all the people
in the room started
reading those old
books, which memories
had kept stored in rusted
trunks. One started reciting
the others with immaculate
looks read steadfastly.
Silence. Silence was the watch dog.
The reading continued late till
the day. Gunshots woke them up.
They were told they were hostages
but they continued to read.
A war is on ( they were told)

The chandeliers splintered
books strewn,



death hyphenated, they
continued to read.
Soon dogs started barking
the coffins were ready.
The clock ticked
death is a neighbour.

DSC_0018


Ananya S Guha has been born and brought up in Shillong, India and works in India’s National Open University, the Indira Gandhi National Open University. His poems in English have been published world wide. He also writes for newspapers and magazines/ web zines on matters ranging from society and politics to education. He holds a doctoral degree on the novels of William Golding. He edits the poetry column of The Thumb Print Magazine, and has published seven collections of poetry.
  
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Idealist. A Poem by Cornelia Păun Heinzel


Editors Note: Translated from Romanian by the author herself, as far as the editor knows.
 

You always tell me: you are incredibly idealistic
when you love all people equally, trees and flowers, animals,
without concealing them with the cloak of inequality,
when you are admiring what it is worthy of praises,
without the worm of jealousy eating you whole,
when you do not harm anybody
and the waves of evil do not immerse you,
when you understand every being,
even if you, in this, are enigmatic,
when you help anyone from the kindness of your heart
without expecting something in return,
when you consider money to have no value
and the wisps of greed never daze you,
when you always forgive
without the boulder of vengeance shattering  you in pieces,
when you introduce yourself to people the way you truly are,
without performing on the stage of life as a perfect actor,
when you truly are faithful
without the arrows of evil, greed and deception piercing you…


  

Cornelia Păun Heinzel is an Romanian writer, journalist, member of International Press, Professor Ph.D. in Robotics with the scientific title of Doctor of Industrial Robots 1998, the Bucharest Polytechnic University, Master in Educational Management and Evaluation, Faculty of Psychology, University of Bucharest, in 2002, Master in Teaching Subjects Philological Faculty of Letters, University of Bucharest, licensed of Philology, Romanian Language and Literature – French Language and Literature, Faculty of Letters, University of Brasov, Diplomat mechanical engineer, specializing in Technology of Machine Construction, Faculty of TCM, Brasov University in higher education and research, a field in which she has worked until today and electrical engineering, specializing in Transport, Polytechnic University of Bucharest. In 2007-2013 she trained experts of the Ministry of Education in Educational Management. She completed three graduate courses and in 2012-2013 received a grant to Germany, MUNCHEN GOETHE INSTITUTE in the area of specialization – MULTIMEDIA FüRERSCHEIN DaF- Das Internet als Quelle FÜR Materialien und Projekte . She has published six books and over 200 articles – published in Romania and abroad.
Anthologie Multilingua. Cornelia Heinzel



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Featured Books


Little Dancer — The Degas Poems
by Lyn Lifshin



The newest book from Lyn Lifshin, imagines and explores the world of Marie Van Goethem, the "Little Dancer" sculpted by Edgar Degas. The Degas Poems contains 29 poems. 


A Sneak Peak in to the Poem 


Now loved, Degas' original wax version of the little dancer was hated, though his paintings had been greeted enthusiastically. His sculpture of The Little Dancer, Aged 14, was considered shocking and unsettling, like a little monkey. It is said one father cried, 'God forbid my daughter should become a dancer.' Many were shocked by her pose and the material used: human hair, beeswax, silk. Degas loved the opera and ballet but this statue was called 'repulsive' and 'vicious,' a threat to society. It forced viewers to look at the seamy side of life since most of the young girls came from very poor slums and working class families. Others were horrified that she seemed to champion ugliness and depravity. Degas never again exhibited the sculpture. And, though he painted ballerinas all his life, The Little Dancer was largely forgotten until it was rediscovered with dozens of other sculptures. His fascination with making sculpture was little known in his lifetime, unlike his portraits, history paintings, scenes from modern life, the world of horse racing, and the theater and ballet.

Christina Zawadiwsky, winner of a National Endowment Award, and author of The Hand on the Head of Lazarus, wrote this review:


"We now recognize The Little Dancer sculpture by Degas as arresting and compelling, but there was a time when she was considered scandalous and disturbing. Lyn Lifshin's poems celebrate her creation as a symbol of so many young and impoverished French female dancers who attempted to fill our world with grace, energy, and beauty. And Lifshin's insightful and incisive Little Dancer poems remind us to remember her name, Marie Van Goethem, so that she will never fade into obscurity."



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Barbara Crooker: Les Fauves
(Paperback) Released on 15th January 2017

on amazon.com




Les Fauves is, as the title suggests, a collection of ekphrastic poetry, meditations on paintings from the Fauve and Post-Impressionist movements. But it also contains poetry’s equivalent to Fauvism, poems that take a walk on the wild side. There are language experiment poems, poems of word play, poems in form both usual (end rhymes, sonnets, ghazals) and unusual (abecedaries, traditional, embedded, and double helix), palindromes, anagrams, and word scrambles. Crazy word salad poems. Crooker’s subjects range widely, from living and working in a small village in the South of France, love in a long-term relationship, food as more than sustenance, faith in a secular age, grammar and usage, the pains and pleasures of the aging body. But always, what engages her most is what it means to be human on this fragile planet, at this time in our troubled history, still believing that “Beauty will save the world.” (Fyodor Dostoevsky).


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All the Babble of the Souk 
by
 Robin Ouzman Hislop



Click book image to visit the seller's page at lulu.com

Poet Robin Ouzman Hislop’s first full-length collection, All the Babble of the Souk, is appropriately titled. With a remarkably consistent ear for the market’s noise, for “[t]he broken lights of the bazaar/spangled] with glistening promise/in the eyes of the dusky beggar …” (Laminations in Lacquer ) Hislop’s poems, many of them cinematic-style montages of sounds and images, show us the metaphoric souk of the world, on the beach or in the street, its glitter, its sadness, its ragtag glory:

“pets, flower pots framed captive in a moment 
outside the house of the painter, a robot
in chains with an alms bowl”
(“Departures”) ...Read more of this review by poet Miriam C. Jacobs

More Reviews for this book:

 Aquillrelle. Press Release. All the Babble of the Souk

Richard Vallance Reviews All the Babble of the Souk

Reviewed by Marie Marshall All the Babble of the Souk

Richard Lloyd Cederberg Reviews All the Babble of the Souk 

Adam Levon Brown Reviews All the Babble of the Souk

Further comments and reviews on Motherbird


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Fault Lines:
A Poetry Collection by Gary Beck

Fault Lines is a poetry collection that examines the disconnect, the unchallenged chaos, and the possible downfall of humanity.


Symphony of the City
Discordant orchestra
rent by untuned instruments,
the underlying hum of engines
sound the theme of endless din.
The clack of workmen moving pipes,
the bumpthump of delivery trucks,
the unrhythmic thud of hammer,
the voices of children
cavorting in the playground
serenade the senses,
varied sensual sounds
interrupted by crash and bang,
handymen, repair crews,
horn-blowing motorists
aspiring to be soloists,
daytime throb of labor.
Nighttime crack of gunfire,
shrieks and howls
of citizens in torment
under constant assault,
reveal the melody
of your anguished composition.

‘Thoughtful, densely rich poems.’ Archers Crown Magazine

‘Excellent, chilling, sobering. Great work.’ – Six Sentences Magazine
One of the poems was a Pushcart Prize nominee by Nazar Look Magazine

Fault Lines.Gary Beck. Amazon.Com



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100 Thousand Poets for Change
Leeds 2016



Since 2011, 100 Thousand Poets for Change has been working with poets, writers, artists, musicians… to help organize events around the world for peace, justice and sustainability. Now, more than ever mobilization is crucial so we have created theGLOBAL ACTION CALENDAR open to EVERYONE to post Creative Actions around the world.
 Editor’s Note: On January 14th 2017 at the Inkwell Arts Centre Leeds UK  Transforming with Poetry presented this collection of poems by local Leed’s poets & contributors editited by Tony Martin-Woods & Siobhan Mac Mahon. Their Editor’s preface scrolled down provides further elucidation on the purposes & intentions of this compilation of poets’ works. Once opened simply simply access the enlarge monitor on the bottom bar & follow the forward arrows throughout. 
   

Click the image to find out more about this anthology



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FEATURED VIDEOS


Sweet Little Sperm / Tony Martin Woods
 for The YouTube Poets TV pilot project



The Meow of Now / a video poem by Paul A Toth
to be included in The YouTube Poets  TV pilot project




Rediscovered Darkness by Ian Irvine
for The YouTube Poets TV Pilot project




Sample intro style for The YouTube Poets TV pilot project






Wednesday 1 March 2017

Sister Publication to Poetry Life & Times

Issue of March 2017



Special Feature in Poetry Life & Times:
Poems from Laura Giordani 
Translated from Spanish by Amparo Arrospide and Robin Ouzman Hislop


Click picture below to read at Poetry Life & Times in new window






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COFFEE HOUSE FEEDBACK
A Poem by Marc Carver



I look at the girl’s reflection in the sheet glass window.
Another woman looks at me.
I see her
but still she looks, I am not that different am I?
The woman shouts some exotic coffee to go but it doesn’t matter because everything is in a ‘to go’ cup today.
The Anglo Indian man told me the dishwasher was broken I asked him if it was him, he looked sheepish.
I can’t decide whether to tell the girl who made me my coffee that it was good
because she told me she didn’t get much feedback.
The woman who looked at me before looked at me again as she walked down the road.

It is quiet now but still I don’t want to go but I know I must and I know I have to tell her how good that coffee was.
As I tell her an old boy says
“Horrible the coffee in here is horrible.”
“Mine was alright.” I tell him.
As I walk out he walks out with me with his coffee.
He has spilt something on his jacket but not recently
“Horrible.” He says.
“Well it will sober you up.” I say
“It will be Christmas soon.” He says.
It is January.


Marc Carver Bio: 
Sometimes I don’t write for a few days and it feels okay but after a few more it doesn’t feel right at all. So I start to look for things and get out of the house more and there they are. Just waiting for me all along.


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The Lucy-Ann. A Poem by Andy Hubbard



She was a fishing smack
Of maybe forty feet
Somehow foundered and come to rest
In our little harbor.

The crew just walked away,
There were no harbor police in those days.
She just sat there, listing over
A little more every month.

We boys scrambled aboard
Against our parents’ strict orders
Whenever we could escape surveillance.

We were looking for treasure
Or guns, or cigarettes,
Or naked women, sprawled and helpless.

The best we ever found
Was a couple of hunting knives
And some black-and-white mens’ magazines
That didn’t show as much as we could see
Sneaking past big sister’s bathroom.

In retrospect it was kind of a waste
But at the time it was stranglingly exciting.

The thrill of the chase,
Of the unknown,
Of the infinitely possible.

It never recedes. Never.

Are you free tonight?



Andrew Hubbard was born and raised in a coastal Maine fishing village. He earned degrees in English and Creative Writing from Dartmouth College and Columbia University, respectively.
For most of his career he has worked as Director of Training for major financial institutions, creating and delivering Sales, Management, and Technical training for user groups of up to 4,000.
He has had four prose books published, and his fifth book, a collection of poetry, was published in 2014 by Interactive Press.
He is a casual student of cooking and wine, a former martial arts instructor and competitive weight lifter, a collector of edged weapons, and a licensed handgun instructor. He lives in rural Indiana with his family, two Siberian Huskies, and a demon cat.

See Andy Hubbard’s new book at http://ipoz.biz/portfolio-single/the-divining-rod/



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CRAVING REST. A Poem by Bradford Middleton.


At work again and craving sleep and
A change in this life, two hundred and eleven hours
To go until freedom is mine
With a move around the corner
Is surely big enough right now but
My eyes look to the future and where
I’ll be spending the rest of my life
Who knows where that will be as
Not even I have one clue as to where
I will land but this year is certainly
Going to be a challenge as again
Job searches begin whilst finding places
That is within my meagre means and the
Sad realisation the answer, still, ain’t much


Bradford Middleton was born in London in 1971 but eventually found himself in Brighton in 2007 and began writing. Since then he has over 250 unique publications, including a novel from New Pulp Press and a couple of poetry chapbooks from Crisis Chronicles Press and Holy & Intoxicated Press. His work is dotted all over the internet and in several magazines and journals. He tweets occasionally @beatnikbraduk and is on facebook at bradfordmiddleton1. 



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FEATURED BOOKS

Barbara Crooker: Les Fauves
(Paperback) Released on 15th January 2017

on amazon.com




Les Fauves is, as the title suggests, a collection of ekphrastic poetry, meditations on paintings from the Fauve and Post-Impressionist movements. But it also contains poetry’s equivalent to Fauvism, poems that take a walk on the wild side. There are language experiment poems, poems of word play, poems in form both usual (end rhymes, sonnets, ghazals) and unusual (abecedaries, traditional, embedded, and double helix), palindromes, anagrams, and word scrambles. Crazy word salad poems. Crooker’s subjects range widely, from living and working in a small village in the South of France, love in a long-term relationship, food as more than sustenance, faith in a secular age, grammar and usage, the pains and pleasures of the aging body. But always, what engages her most is what it means to be human on this fragile planet, at this time in our troubled history, still believing that “Beauty will save the world.” (Fyodor Dostoevsky).


--------------✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿--------------

All the Babble of the Souk 
by
 Robin Ouzman Hislop



Click book image to visit the seller's page at lulu.com

Poet Robin Ouzman Hislop’s first full-length collection, All the Babble of the Souk, is appropriately titled. With a remarkably consistent ear for the market’s noise, for “[t]he broken lights of the bazaar/spangled] with glistening promise/in the eyes of the dusky beggar …” (Laminations in Lacquer ) Hislop’s poems, many of them cinematic-style montages of sounds and images, show us the metaphoric souk of the world, on the beach or in the street, its glitter, its sadness, its ragtag glory:

“pets, flower pots framed captive in a moment 
outside the house of the painter, a robot
in chains with an alms bowl”
(“Departures”) ...Read more of this review by poet Miriam C. Jacobs

More Reviews for this book:

 Aquillrelle. Press Release. All the Babble of the Souk

Richard Vallance Reviews All the Babble of the Souk

Reviewed by Marie Marshall All the Babble of the Souk

Richard Lloyd Cederberg Reviews All the Babble of the Souk 

Adam Levon Brown Reviews All the Babble of the Souk

Further comments and reviews on Motherbird


--------------✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿--------------


Fault Lines:
A Poetry Collection by Gary Beck


Fault Lines is a poetry collection that examines the disconnect, the unchallenged chaos, and the possible downfall of humanity.


Symphony of the City
Discordant orchestra
rent by untuned instruments,
the underlying hum of engines
sound the theme of endless din.
The clack of workmen moving pipes,
the bumpthump of delivery trucks,
the unrhythmic thud of hammer,
the voices of children
cavorting in the playground
serenade the senses,
varied sensual sounds
interrupted by crash and bang,
handymen, repair crews,
horn-blowing motorists
aspiring to be soloists,
daytime throb of labor.
Nighttime crack of gunfire,
shrieks and howls
of citizens in torment
under constant assault,
reveal the melody
of your anguished composition.

‘Thoughtful, densely rich poems.’ Archers Crown Magazine

‘Excellent, chilling, sobering. Great work.’ – Six Sentences Magazine
One of the poems was a Pushcart Prize nominee by Nazar Look Magazine

Fault Lines.Gary Beck. Amazon.Com



--------------✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿--------------


100 Thousand Poets for Change
Leeds 2016



Since 2011, 100 Thousand Poets for Change has been working with poets, writers, artists, musicians… to help organize events around the world for peace, justice and sustainability. Now, more than ever mobilization is crucial so we have created theGLOBAL ACTION CALENDAR open to EVERYONE to post Creative Actions around the world.
 Editor’s Note:On January 14th 2017 at the Inkwell Arts Centre Leeds UK Transforming with Poetry presented this collection of poems by local Leed’s poets & contributors
editited by Tony Martin-Woods & Siobhan Mac Mahon. Their Editor’s preface scrolled down provides further elucidation on the purposes & intentions of this compilation of poets’ works. Once opened simply simply access the enlarge monitor on the bottom bar & follow the forward arrows throughout. 
   

Click the image to find out more about this anthology



--------------✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿--------------



FEATURED VIDEOS



Book video trailer: Fault Lines by author Gary Beck




Kate Tempest: Europe is Lost (Live on KEXP)




Rivers of blood by Antonio Martínez Arboleda




The Insomniac's Prayer / Sara Russell, self-help poetry mantra for insomniacs




Stuck in a Black Bird's Groove by Nordette N. Adams

Monday 30 January 2017

Sister Publication to Poetry Life & Times

Issue of February 2017


Welcome back
Jan Sand; poet, cartoonist & satirist



Originally a New Yorker, Jan Sand now lives in Helsinki, Finland. Jan was one of the first poets ever to appear in Poetry Life & Times, after its founder, Sara Russell, discovered his poetry on a newsgroup called alt.arts.poetry.comments.  He became a regular contributor during the first years of Poetry Life & Times, including poetry and cartoons. He sent us a data stick of his more recent work in December 2016, rich with poetry and artwork, so now we are delighted to be able to introduce Jan's works to a new generation of readers.


   RECIPE FOR A WORLD

Let there be light, of course.
But darkness too,
Where the planet's shoulder
Shrugs away the fury of the Sun
To permit the Moon's cool eye
To hold court over her coterie of stars.
The world itself, a ball of rock
Holding in its tight fist
A nugget of molten nickel iron
Must wear a simple veil of seas.
Galaxies of shining fish
Should swirl through this salty soup
And, lightly sown throughout its blue ambience,
Monsters of tentacles and teeth must roam
To teach death to life and give it value.
Across dry land multitudes of green eyes
Must drink the sun
And give its lessons to the air,
To the water and the soil
That they also may learn to feel time and life.
Within the tangle of the trees,
Through the mesh of roots.
Above, the luxury of the plants,
The empire of the animals
Must consume, conflict, conquer and cooperate
With wonders of terror, understanding and delight.
All this turmoil must act and react
To confront, oppose, cancel and,
In finality,
Reach the balance of equilibrium.


Eve and the Snake, by Jan Sand



RAGGED MAGIC  

He appeared
Tall and thin.
Tall and thin with a grin.
An ironic smile, with guile
To permit an opening. Friendly enough
So that approach might coach
In anticipation a reciprocal
Appreciation. 

I saw him in the subway station.
No one else about.
In this city late at night he might,
Considering his dress
Evoke panic, shouts, distress.
But no.
He seemed harmless enough
Made of funny friendly stuff. 

Hello, he said. Shook his head.
“Sorry about those.” Indicated ragged clothes.
“I am, in this moment, at these dates,
In dire financial straits.”
“I am”, one eyebrow rose, “a magic man.”
He pinched his nose. “I can produce wonders.”
He curled his thumb, touched his chin
To indicate he would begin.
I heard distant thunders. 

“Watch!”, he said, and a red
Balloon popped out from his palm.
Without a qualm he twitched his nose.
The balloon arose.
But on his toes he poked the thing.
It sprouted, first, one wing, then another.
Tweeted. Then flew down the tunnel.
“Look!”, he cried, produced a funnel, out from which
Poured golden streams. He grinned and from his eyes
Sprang glowing gleams. I leaped back.
With a “crack!” he shook his beard
And disappeared! 

I peered behind a nearby post.
There he stood, most delighted
At my surprise.
He winked his eyes.
I wished him luck.
Gave him a buck.

" Conflict" by Jan Sand


VERNAL PROCESS 
The cold is gone,
The Spring's begun
And life begins to spill from time
In green cascades. 
Miniscule eagernesses
Coalesce from rain and air
To gobble up the energies
Pouring down from the sun
To fabricate life's brocade. 
So now the killing must begin
As tooth and beak ply to their trade
To swallow down the newborn hopes,
Divert their purposes unmade.
Elemental shapes reform to new sophisticated norms
Which rise in waves of ceaseless change,
Anticipating to arrange
The modules of the living things
To patterns of both death and hope
In this grim kaleidoscope.








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Also welcome back: Jim Dunlap







The Politics of Verisimilitude. A Villanelle Poem by Jim Dunlap.
Posted at Poetry Life & Times on


An ill-thought-out statement can pack quite a punch,
So it’s best to be careful while speaking:
What you say at breakfast … can eat you for lunch. *

A bare-knuckle sandwich might be what you munch
If your words cause inordinate ‘freaking’:
An ill-thought-out statement can pack quite a punch.

Unwelcome visitors might join you for brunch
If bad thoughts from your mouth exit streaking:
What you say at breakfast … can eat you for lunch.

The state of the world, at last forced to the crunch,
Throws a stench that’s quite powerfully reeking:
What you eat for breakfast may inconvenience your lunch.

Of the species on earth, we’re the worst of the bunch,
And we’ll likely not find what we’re seeking:
Mother Nature could just simply CANCEL our lunch.

No ‘bang’ and no ‘whimper’ can make such a scrunch
As the blast where the fuel line was leaking.
An ill-thought-out statement can pack quite a punch:
What you mis-said at breakfast … can eat you for lunch.


Snipping the Threads 
from The Hypertexts by Jim Dunlap 

Talking to you yesterday, I realized
that love never really dies, at all ...
and that, although you empathized,
you’ve moved on, far beyond recall ...
while I’ve kept the embers fanned,
and still see you in nightly dreams.
The chasm truly can’t be spanned,
nor time embroidered at the seams.
We’re rather different people now,
though to me it seems just yesterday.
Our last goodbye became a vow,
and your black and white, my gray.
I've gathered threads I cannot sever:
see you on the far side of forever.



Jim Dunlap's poetry has been published extensively in print and online in the United States, England, France, India, Australia, Switzerland and New Zealand. His work has appeared in over 90 publications, including Potpourri, Candelabrum, Mobius and the Paris/Atlantic. He is the co-editor of Sonnetto Poesia and and is serving as co-editor of a new sonnet anthology currently in production, The Phoenix Rising from the Ashes. He is also the chief proofreader for the On Viewless Wings Anthologies, published out of Queensland, Australia. In the past, he was a resident poet on Poetry Life & Times and the newsletter editor for seven years with the Des Moines Area Writers' Network. You can download an e-book of his poems, The Spirit of Christmas in Poetry, by clicking on the hyperlinked title.
http://www.thehypertexts.com/Jim%20Dunlap%20Poet%20Poetry%20Picture%20Bio.htm


Homepage: http://mindfulofpoetry.homestead.com/index.html


www.facebook.com/PoetryLifeTimes
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robin@artvilla.com
editor@artvilla.com





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And the welcome return of: Richard Vallance ...

Sappho Ode. The Moon Has Set The Pleiades. Translations Richard Vallance.


Richard Vallance, meta-linguist, ancient Greek & Mycenaean Linear B, home page: Linear B, Knossos & Mycenae, http://linearbknossosmycenae.wordpress.com/
Also previously wrote The Vallance Review for Poetry Life & Times in the 1990's

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FEATURED BOOKS



Fault Lines is a poetry collection that examines the disconnect, the unchallenged chaos, and the possible downfall of humanity.

‘Thoughtful, densely rich poems.’ Archers Crown Magazine

‘Excellent, chilling, sobering. Great work.’ – Six Sentences Magazine
One of the poems was a Pushcart Prize nominee by Nazar Look Magazine

Fault Lines.Gary Beck. Amazon.Com




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100 Thousand Poets for Change
Leeds 2016



Since 2011, 100 Thousand Poets for Change has been working with poets, writers, artists, musicians… to help organize events around the world for peace, justice and sustainability. Now, more than ever mobilization is crucial so we have created the GLOBAL ACTION CALENDAR open to EVERYONE to post Creative Actions around the world.
 Editor’s Note:On January 14th 2017 at the Inkwell Arts Centre Leeds UK Transforming with Poetry presented this collection of poems by local Leed’s poets & contributors
editited by Tony Martin-Woods & Siobhan Mac Mahon. Their Editor’s preface scrolled down provides further elucidation on the purposes & intentions of this compilation of poets’ works. Once opened simply simply access the enlarge monitor on the bottom bar & follow the forward arrows throughout. 
   


Click the image to find out more about this anthology




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Barbara Crooker: Les Fauves
(Paperback) Released on 15th January 2017

on amazon.com




Les Fauves is, as the title suggests, a collection of ekphrastic poetry, meditations on paintings from the Fauve and Post-Impressionist movements. But it also contains poetry’s equivalent to Fauvism, poems that take a walk on the wild side. There are language experiment poems, poems of word play, poems in form both usual (end rhymes, sonnets, ghazals) and unusual (abecedaries, traditional, embedded, and double helix), palindromes, anagrams, and word scrambles. Crazy word salad poems. Crooker’s subjects range widely, from living and working in a small village in the South of France, love in a long-term relationship, food as more than sustenance, faith in a secular age, grammar and usage, the pains and pleasures of the aging body. But always, what engages her most is what it means to be human on this fragile planet, at this time in our troubled history, still believing that “Beauty will save the world.” (Fyodor Dostoevsky).


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All the Babble of the Souk 
by
 Robin Ouzman Hislop



Click book image to visit the seller's page at lulu.com

Poet Robin Ouzman Hislop’s first full-length collection, All the Babble of the Souk, is appropriately titled. With a remarkably consistent ear for the market’s noise, for “[t]he broken lights of the bazaar/spangled] with glistening promise/in the eyes of the dusky beggar …” (Laminations in Lacquer ) Hislop’s poems, many of them cinematic-style montages of sounds and images, show us the metaphoric souk of the world, on the beach or in the street, its glitter, its sadness, its ragtag glory:

“pets, flower pots framed captive in a moment 
outside the house of the painter, a robot
in chains with an alms bowl”
(“Departures”) ...Read more of this review by poet Miriam C. Jacobs

More Reviews for this book:

 Aquillrelle. Press Release. All the Babble of the Souk

Richard Vallance Reviews All the Babble of the Souk

Reviewed by Marie Marshall All the Babble of the Souk

Richard Lloyd Cederberg Reviews All the Babble of the Souk 

Adam Levon Brown Reviews All the Babble of the Souk

Further comments and reviews on Motherbird




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FEATURED VIDEOS





Janet Kuypers reads 3 life & death poems at Georgetown's "Poetry Aloud" open mic event on 21st January 2017





Madrid 1973; by Guadalupe Grande, 2013
Original Translation Amparo Arrospide & Robin Ouzman Hislop




The Lammas Hireling, by Ian Duhig




Tara Bergin reads "At the Lakes With Roberta"



You Tube Video Poets. Sara L Russell.



Meet Sara Russell she is Editor of the monthly Poetry Lifetimes Blog our plan at Poetry Life & Times is to make a YouTube Poetry Documentary with Sara as it’s Editor, submissions or for more info contact Robin@Artvilla.com for sample videos check this site or see our Facebook page www.facebook.com/PoetryLifeTimes