Thursday 5 May 2022

POETRY PACIFIC (11): COVER PAGE

  

                    POETRY PACIFIC

     [volumn 11, 2022 edition]


Dynamik: Cover Art by Velibor Baćo 
Titel: Porcelain hope
Maße: 40x50cm
Technik: Acryl auf Leinwand mit Pinsel
Jahr: 2020
Preis: € 299

links for the e.book & paperback:

PP Editors' Notes

dear All PP Patrons, 

 

hope this third annual edition of PP finds each and every one of you well and safe in this trying time!

 

first and foremost, as planned and announced last year, we have changed our Poetry Pacific from an annual online edition to a printed anthology! at the same time, we release an e.book or kindle edition of the anthology, in addition to our online publication. Given this big change, we adopt a new format: in our online edition, we feature only one or two poems from those who have more than two pieces accepted, but for artworks, such as paintings, drawings, studies and photos, we showcase them all and only in our online edition for 'better' presentation. in other words, the paperback and e.book include all the poems or word content, while the online edition samples only word content but presents all the visual artworks. 


links for the e.book & paperback:


also, good news for some authors: from now on, we are open to chapbook and full-length collection ms submissions year round. though we have no specific restrictions or "guidelines," a query (including a short proposal and literary cv) first would be greatly appreciated. 

 

another note to all submitters: while we are deeply grateful for your (continuing) support, please wait a period of four months, or at least two issues/years (in the case of acceptance by PP), before submitting new work to us. 

 

most important: as beginning from this (2022) edition, PP will be released as an annual edition both as a print anthology and an e.book. as for our website, we will continue to maintain it but only for promotional purposes; that is, we will use this site mainly to sample the content of every anthology and showcase all the accepted visual artworks in the years to come. 

 

in this annual edition, we are honored to present 66 authors and 6 artists.


happy reading/viewing,

 

with all very best wishes for this trying time... 

- eds. at PP


PP's Call for Submissions

 

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES [Revised]


WARRANTY & AGREEMENT 

By submitting to PP, the submitter warrants that 
s/he alone has created the work s/he is submitting and that 
s/he owns all rights to it. The submitter will indemnify and 
hold PP and its staff harmless from and against any and all loss,
 damage, costs and other expenses arising out of claims, 
whatever their nature, resulting directly or indirectly 
from breach of this warranty. At the same time, 
the submitter/contributor agrees that PP can use 
part or all of his/her accepted material, including responses 
to PP's interview questions, on its Facebook and/or 
other similar social networking vehicles for promotional purposes.


* All poetic and photographic works are carefully read/viewed 
year round on a rolling basis 
for PP's annual edition as a print anthology and e/kindle book, 
due out on or around 5 May;

* Multiple and simultaneous submissions, as well as previously published work, 
are all equally welcome insofar as you still hold the copy/publishing rights;

sorry, this is not a paying market, (nor can we even afford to 
provide a complimentary copy to each contributor, )
but a publication for true lovers of words and wisdom;

Please send up to 5 of your best shortish poems each time 
by pasting them all together with a brief 3rd person bio note
within the body of your email
to editors.pp@gmail.com
or visual artworks as individual separate attachments;

*  Please feel welcome to send us a query if, for instance, 
your accepted work does not appear as scheduled;

Our response-time is four months though usually much shorter than that, &
only those accepted will get a reply;

* we do not require you to mention us as the first publisher of your work,
but your mentioning would be much appreciated;

Once accepted by PP, please allow at least two years/issues
before submitting new work to us

- Many thanks for your kind support of PP & Gooooodluuuuck!

********************

for book or poetry collection/chapbook manuscript submissions 
send us a brief description together 
with a literary tv or professional bio


Basic Guidelines for Preparing a Manuscript

1.     Proofread everything carefully to make sure there are no typos, misspellings or improper uses of capitalization & punctuation marks.
2.     Single-space all the textual content;
3.     Stick to the same font, preferably ‘times new roman’ (12) for sake of conformity;
4.     Use font sizes (for titles or sub-titles), italics, boldface, underlines in a consistent and conventional fashion;
5.     Provide a cover image/photo in a separate file, if any;
6.     Include no more than 5 high-resolution illustrations (images/photos) for a chapbook, 10 for a full-length book, whose sizes should be less than 3/5 of a standard doc page (11x8.5 inches);
7.     Provide a ‘devotion page’  (optional);
8.     Provide a ‘acknowledgements’ or ‘attribution list’ page (work title, followed by publication name, & date/issue number if any);
9.     Provide a ‘table of contents’;
10.   Paginate the text of the (chap)book beginning from the first poem or first page of the prosework;
11.    Provide an ‘author page’;
12.     Provide 3 to 5 blurbs (optional)

Note: failure to comply with the above or provide a camera/print-ready ms would result in eventual termination of the publication process.

MANY THANKS FOR YOUR KIND COOPERATION!

friendly back link:: Cave Moon Press

5 Poems by Barry Harris

his war words

she say his language of war
be the same
as his language of peace

words of a desperate brother
and protector
embodied as if in two men

they be like one another as two beans
not sisters of oneness like we
she say this chorus sings duality

like a gong harmonizes silence
echoing eternal song

for two hours trade a peace
we cannot understand
for a war that we do

she say the idea there is duality
to the Great One

be perspective



the focal point of a lens

You can’t imagine what you can’t imagine

Then there was the day I caught you
bi-locating in the kitchen,
you standing there in your fuzzy red nightgown,
another you crouching in pajamas
putting cinnamon rolls in the oven.

When I spoke my amazement
neither of you seemed concerned.

The you in the fuzzy red nightgown
placed arms around my neck.
The you in pajamas merely moved
an interested eye in my direction
and you said with a smile
I am not as horizon-stuck as you.

- first published in Saint Ann’s Review


Bioinfo

Barry Harris is editor of the Tipton Poetry Journal and has published one poetry collection, Something At The Center. His poetry has appeared in Kentucky Review, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Grey Sparrow, Silk Road Review, Saint Ann’s Review, Boston Literary Magazine, Night Train, Silver Birch Press, Flying Island, Awaken Consciousness, Writers’ Bloc, and Red-Headed Stepchild.

Married and father of two grown sons, Barry lives in Brownsburg, Indiana and is retired from Eli Lilly and Company. He graduated a long time ago with a major in English from Ball State University.

5 Poems by Koon Woon

A Cup of Coffee

It was just a cup of coffee at a coffeehouse. I paid a trivial amount to be amidst humanity. It was a reminder that all the demons in my head can be subdued. Even if not, there is a likelihood that someone in that community has questioned reality from time to time. We will not necessarily win against unreality, but more certain than that, we will lose to mortality. So, drink up for now, even if it isn’t intoxicating.


Mist

Within the mist of the world,
my own mist of being,
as rain drops cling
to tips of branches.

Reluctant to let go
that ill-defined resignation,
as far hills chill my limbs,
that reluctance again!

This time inside my bones,
the knowledge I was never
the man I thought I was,
merely slate, I was,
and now, erased.

But!
I am glad to be empty –
to hold nothing,
and to have nothing,
withheld.


Bioinfo

Koon Woon is a lifelong learner and he is an mfa poetry student at the University of New Orleans. He is also the publisher of Goldfish Press.

5 Poems by Chris Butler

Carbon’s Footprints

The path of carbon’s footprints
across the beach’s sand,
still will not wash away,
despite the rolling tide’s
undulating plastic particle
tsunami of vengeance.


High Anxiety

Anxiety
results from yourself telling stories about yourself
to yourself.

Men are more susceptible to heart disease than women, however…

women don’t realize
that a man’s heart,
despite being of equal size
is twice as fragile to breaks.


Bioinfo

Chris Butler is an illiterate poet. The 9th and 10th books in his Poems of Pain series, "Hi, my name is anonymous" (Alien Buddha Press) and "DOOMER" (Ethel) are in print and available for sale on the infomaniac superhighway. He also released a collaboration collection of words with Randall Rogers, entitled "Dead Beats". He is also the co-editor of The Beatnik Cowboy.

5 Poems by Frank Joussen

Dad

one piece of really bad news
spatters dark spots all over
the positive images of my day –
the invitation from a long lost friend,
the smiling face, the warm embrace
of my favourite colleague,
even the praise from a totally
unexpected source –

for how can I turn my inward eye
towards these bright rewards
and shining promises
without seeing your exhausted face
without rereading your doctor’s
cryptic report with the one word
that should lack clarity
but unbearably fails to do so:

your cancer’s growing
and my field of vision’s shrinking
till all I can seeis a little white dad
amidst a forest of black Xs.


Excavation Dream

At Dad’s funeral
I couldn´t see the coffin
for the wreaths and bunches of flowers –
pink, lilac, orange, whitish.
I couldn´t find my mother,
let alone console her,
amidst the throngs of strangers –
desperate, lonely, crying wildly, freely!
And I was still praying
for concentration
when it was all over.

Now in my dream burial
I'm level with a huge excavator
at the bottom of the grave –
digging, digging methodically, unhurriedly
both sides of the dead-wood sarcophagus
till I stop it in its tracks
asking it
how much burial ground
that yellowish or whitish thing from hell
is still going to clear
and for what else
and for whom.


Bioinfo

Frank Joussen is a German teacher and writer. His publications include five book projects, published in India, Germany and Romania. His poems and short stories have also been published in literary magazines and anthologies in India, Australia, G.B., Eire, Germany, Romania, Malta, the U.S.A., Canada, India, China, Thailand and Japan.

5 Poems by Isabelle Kenyon

Afternoon Tea with Self

We are in Ali’s café at the end of the world –
it must be
for I am sharing scones with myself at sixteen
our legs gangly under table
and much the same,
though one pair wrapped in electric blue,
and I find there is always an Ali’s café to be found
somewhere.

She says she is ready to understand,
dabbing lip-gloss curves with napkin.
I say she never will, sorry,
some things, people, you pass on from, like wraiths,
better to shrug the last five years off
like glitter.
She says I am lying, of course, and I smile
for I knew she would say it
and we finish our tea like a stubborn, married couple.


Wonder [Previously published in Sarasvati]

She gives him hair on his chest
downy like the otter, playful and familiar.

He gives her her lips
from the pit of a plum, all spring
and juice
she finds herself delicious.

She has found answers:
why his spine is sculpted just so
why his hands are warm bowls of milk.


Bioinfo

Isabelle Kenyon is a northern writer and the author of 5 chapbooks including Growing Pains (Indigo Dreams Publishing Ltd, 2020) and one short story with Wild Pressed Books (Short Story 'The Town Talks', 2020). She is the editor of Fly on the Wall Press, a socially conscious small press for chapbooks and anthologies. She has had poems and articles published internationally in journals such as Ink, Sweat and Tears and newspapers such as The Somerville Times and The Bookseller.

She has performed at Cheltenham Poetry Festival and Verbose, Manchester in 2020, Leeds International Festival as part of the 'Sex Tapes', Apples and Snakes' 'Deranged Poetesses' in 2019 and Coventry Cathedral's Plum Line Festival in 2018. She is a fierce dog and guinea pig lover and a confessed caffeine addict.

5 Poems by James Reitter

 The Bone Song Revisited

Connections are growing weaker

by the day w/ every word typed
or written, every bend or twist.
Bands snapping under strain.
Ball popping socket.

When connections are gone
these bones will be floating
unconstrained and will stabilize
according to someone else’s law.


No Wings

Each day I am more

an Old Man just waiting
to be poked and prodded,
singing only at night.


Bioinfo 

James Reitter has been publishing poetry for nearly four decades. He is the author of a collection of poetry and artwork, Scratched Records, and runs the online literature and arts journal, Masque and Spectacle. As an Associate Professor of English and Film Studies, he lives in New York with his wife and pets. 


5 Haiku by Shihoon Lee

1
The magical world
If you just open your book
Your journey begins

2
There is no compass
There is no map in your life
Just follow your star


Bioinfo

Shihoon Lee is a middle school student from Seoul, South Korea. In September 2019, her short story, THE BEAR WHO BECAME A HUMAN, made the Honor Roll for Stone Soup, an international magazine of English. On March 3rd, 2020, her blog, My DREAM, was published in Stone Soup’s Young Bloggers.

5 Poems by Allen Yuan

City Mingling

Full of the promising young, and the promised old
This kaleidoscope-like urban cityscape
Stuttering in broken circles of light
Towers zig-zagging
Across the geared, cyan skyline

No being cynical
Expanding borders
Until all sides are hypotenuses
But it’s your life, don’t make it a brutal brawl

Cybernetic world,
The clash of (common) creeds,
Is all I need to make sure that
There is not only me

Everyone’s values are today’s splendid, Splenda society
Making life sweet
It’s so wonderful--
To be you and me


Paperworking

Our entire adulthood is expended to fill
In the blanks left in our teenager dreams


Bioinfo

Allen Yuan, author of Traffic Light, is a 2-time Pushcart and 2-time Best of the Net nominee. A co-editor of Poetry Pacific, Allen currently works as an accountant in Vancouver. Since grade 10, Allen has had poetry appear in more than 70 literary publications across 16 countries, which include Cordite Poetry Review, Literary Review of Canada, Poetry Scotland, Shampoo and Spillway.


4 Poems by dave boles

A Bowl of Blackberries Late into the Night

Did you dance with the creator
While arranging words before you
Watching Vishnu soar
Upon the back of Garuda
Ascending to the light
There is an opening
On the horizon
Calling you to
Free your mind
And dive right in.


Harvesting

i keep an old wheel barrow
red, flat tire
down by the creek
where magic grows

the flat tire makes it
difficult to use
but it comes in handy

when harvesting magic


Bioinfo

dave boles (bodhi), is a Publisher, Writer and Designer. Founder of the magazine Primal Urge, he also created the anthology Voices, which he publishes through his press, Cold River Press. Through his church, The Church Of The Illuminated Monkey, he helps dispel the myth that faith needs religion in order to flourish. He has published, designed, edited and written numerous books, articles, and periodicals, both nationally and internationally. He lives at his retreat, Lake House, with a variety of animals and his wife, Mrs. America.

1 Painting by Andy Patton

 

Ghost Sutra, Andy Patton 2011, 36" x 24", oil on canvas.


Ghost Sutra

No sutras
no hymns
no doctrine
only these
next lines
blown about
by the wind.




6 Paintings & 1 Artvedio by Velibor Baćo

Titel: Superficies
Maße: 50x50cm
Technik: Acryl auf Leinwand mit Pinsel
Jahr: 2020
Preis: € 299


Titel: Hope will last
Maße: 50x50cm
Technik: Acryl auf Leinwand mit Pinsel
Jahr: 2020
Preis: € 299

Titel: Vasilije
Maße: 30x40cm
Technik: Acryl auf Leinwand mit Pinsel
Jahr: 2020
Preis: € 199


Titel: Colorblind
Maße: 30x40cm
Technik: Acryl auf Leinwand mit Pinsel
Jahr: 2020
Preis: € 199

Titel: Mnemonika
Maße: 30x40cm
Technik: Acryl auf Leinwand mit Pinsel
Jahr: 2020
Preis: € 199


Titel: Rings of eternity
Maße: 40x50cm
Technik: Acryl auf Leinwand mit Pinsel
Jahr: 2020
Preis: € 299





Artsit's Statement

Change yourself and the world changes.


Bioinfo

Born 1985 in Bosnia the writer came to Austria as a war refugee. After studying law in Salzburg, Austria he worked in the banking law field. Currently living in Vienna, Austria he paints abstracts and writes German and English poetry and prose.





5 Poems/Artworks by Donna McCabe

 






Bioinfo

Donna McCabe is an established poet with over 20 years experience whos vast variety of work has gained her multiple accolades within her field of literature.

From being published in journals, magazines and anthologies as well as being a highly respected admin in multiple social media groups, her most recent works of merit would include The Writers and Readers' Magazine, Our Poetry Archive,Raven Cage Zine and featuring in a book published by Poetry Planet called Words in Motion.

Donna's intricate wordplay displayed in her works has been personified by her past and concurrent experiences which include her hardships, trials and tribulations. All of which she has been accompanied by her loving husband of 24 years. Together they have raised three children in the picturesque valleys of the Rhondda, South Wales.

Her lifetime admiration of reading and writing has steered her into a adventurous new direction of collaborations with an up and coming Canadian artist Alla Ilescu whos idiosyncratic mind and artistic works compliment the vivid images Donna's narritve works paint. These collaborations have resulted in a beautiful book of poetry and artwork entitled “Explosion Of Love” published on Amazon earlier this year.



9 Paintings by Grace Ellen



Pro Athlet


Romanesque Silencia

Interior Silencia
 
Roman Landscape

Moose

Pelican

Pumpkin

Painterly Style

Old Master's Style


Artist's Statement

My vitality is a mere expression of the Master Creator’s and our earthly response and countenance. Beauty must be nourished and shared.


Bioinfo

Grace Ellen: …our journey ahead is care-free when on the rightward train…… Eternity....is a very long time... and final!


5 Paintings + 3 Calligraphic Artworks by Yumiko Tsumura






1. Ki  気 ( This Kanji means spirit, soul)
2. Doo  道 (This Kanji means the way, the tao discipline - Zen Term.)

3. Sho-shi-n  初心 ( This kanji means beginner's mind- Zen term)

Artist's Statement

Japanese shodo (書道) is a way of writing with a black ink brush, which is influenced by Zen Buddhism. For example, to practice basic brush movement for the kanji character of ”one (i-chi)," first one needs to learn how to enter the brush, moving the brush left to right, focusing to get to the end of the line and knowing how to end the movement to take the brush off the paper. The kanji character, the brush movement, and the artist's mind must be one. This process is called mu-shi-n (無心)— the fluidity of the mind, Zen’s ultimatum. After acquiring the basic skills, one can only reach that stage by disciplined practice.

I was first exposed to this process at age seven, when I was allowed to be a student of an eminent shodo master in the city of Gobo, Japan. Sitting on the hardwood floor, I practiced writing the kanji character one (i-chi) with an ink brush; I did this for three years before the master approved my going to the next stage of the process. I began with the block style of kanji, learning basic skills and then putting the whole character together in balance. Then I learned the position of the character and the layout on the Japanese mulberry rice paper. It was important to learn the speed of the brush movement and the appropriate amount of ink in the brush, so as not to poke a hole in the fragile paper.

There is no perfection in this disciplined art. There is no revision. One executes only once in the moment. In shodo, the artist's style is clearly identifiable, but each piece of the artwork is not the same. If the shodo artist's execution of the first stroke in terms of the position on the paper, the amount of ink, and the movement of the brush fails, the whole precious paper is wasted.  After repetitive disciplined practice, one still loses the fluidity of the mind in each execution, even with a master shodo artist, as there is no perfection. It is different from “woodshedding," when a musician rehearses a difficult passage repeatedly until it can be performed flawlessly.

I have continued to be involved with shodo in the following ways—

Teaching:
• Taught the course “Zen and Japanese Culture,” which included shodo, at Foothill College for   38 years.
• Gave lectures and demonstrations to students of art and Japanese studies at colleges in the San Francisco Bay Area.
• Gave a lecture and demonstration to the community of Varazdin, Croatia in September,1993.

Creation:
• Created large-sized brush works for Apple Computer and NASA Ames Research Center on  commission from 1985 to 1995.
• During the same period, I created on commission more than 50 small-sized brush works for Ford-Mitsubishi SUPER BIRD event.

Recently I have been creating small-sized brush works on traditional Japanese shi-ki-shi (9.5 x10.5) made of mulberry and rice paper pasted on cardboard trimmed with gold. 


Bioinfo

Yumiko Tsumura was born in Japan; she received her BA and MA in American Literature from Kawansei Gakuin University in Japan and her MFA in Poetry and Translation from the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. Her article “Poetry: War, and war’s end, through the eyes of a child in Japan” published by The Mainichi Japan August 17, 2021). Her books of poetry include All in One (Black Mountain Press, 2021), Man of Peace (Black Mountain Press, 2020), Woman of March (Finishing Line Press, 2017). Her books of translation include Kazuko Shiraishi’s poetry: Sea, Land, Shadow (New Directions, 2017), My Floating Mother, City (New Directions, 2009), Let Those Who Appear (New Directions, 2002). Her books of translation with Samuel Grolmes include Tamura Ryuichi Poems 1946-1998 (CCC Books, 2000). Also, as a Shodo brush-writing artist, she taught Zen-influenced Shodo, and has given workshops in the San Francisco Bay Area colleges. 


8 Studies by Helena Qi Hong











习画心得 Artist's Statement

活到老、学描梦到老。It's never too late to learn to paint a dream. 


Bioinfo

祁红,中国广东珠海,曾经供职广电传媒现已退休。无意间接触到彩铅画,从那以后便以纸为媒以笔为伴在五彩缤纷的世界里感受色彩的变化得到美的享受,给退休生活增添了无穷乐趣。现在还处在初学阶段,在光影的感知、笔触的运用、色彩的把握等技法上非常稚嫩,利用这个平台大胆展示习作通过学习交流提高绘画技能。

Helena Qi Hong worked as a sound engineer for a local TV and broadcasting station for almost forty years before retirement. Now she lives a divided life between Zhuhai and Melbourne.  To fulfill one of her fondest teenager dreams, she has been learning colored lead painting since the Pandemic started in her native place. 

5 Poems + 2 Calligraphic Artworks by Yuan Changming

Our Species: A Bio-Note of Homo Sapiens

So, we distinguished ourselves as
Bipedalists eating cooked foods

So, we’ve become frenzy
Makers of all types of waste

So, we will immigrate to
A Mars after ruining Earth

So, we are a unique species
The only storied creatures

(So, in a sense, our inner
Sense has no innocence)


Anti-Theodicy

In a parallel garden of Eden created
By an even higher life, there was also
A young couple of two opposite sexes

Where the eve barbecued the Serpent
And enjoyed its flesh with the adam
While they managed to sell the Apple

To God, thus beginning to live
Happily ever after by choosing
To immigrate to an other earth

Ink Brushing: Chinese calligraphic artwork in free cursive style -1

                        Ink Brushing: Chinese calligraphic artwork in free cursive style -2

Bioinfo

Yuan Changming, 12-time Pushcart nominee and multiple poetry award winner, is probably the world's most widely published contemporary poetry author from China, who speaks Mandarin but writes in English. Growing up in an isolated village, Yuan started to learn the English alphabet in Shanghai at age nineteen and authored several monographs on translation before leaving China as an international student. With a PhD in English from the University of Saskatchewan, Yuan lives in Vancouver, where he edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Yuan. Since mid-2005, Yuan has had poetry appearing in more than 1,900 literary outlets across 48 countries, which include Best Canadian Poetry (2009, 2012, 2014), the Best of the Best Canadian Poetry (2008-2017), BestNewPoemsOnline & Poetry Daily. In recent years, Yuan was nominated & served on the Jury for Canada’s National Magazine Awards (poetry category). Currently, Yuan is working on his first (hybrid or cultural) novel Edening.

Solo Chapbooks by Yuan Changming:
1. Chansons of a Chinaman [Paperback]. Murfreesboro, TN: Leaf Garden, 2009.
2. Landscaping [Paperback]. San Jacinto, CA: Flutter Press, 2013.
3. Mindscaping [e.chapbook]. Halifax: Fowlpox Press, 2014.
4. Origin of Letters [e.chapbook]. Chicago: Beard of Bees Press, 2015.
5. Kinship [Paperback] Seattle: Goldfish Press, 2015.
6. Wordscaping [e. Chapbook]. Halifax: Fowlpox Press, 2016.
7. Dark Phantasms [Paperback]. San Jacinto, CA: Flutter Press, 2017.
8. East Idioms [e.chapbook]. Cyberwit.net, 2019.
9. (R)e.volution [Paperback]. LA: the Wapshott Press, 2021.
10. 《袁昌明诗选》(Selected Poems of Yuan Changming) [Paperback & e.book]. Vancouver: Poetry Pacific Press, 2021.
11. Limerence [Paperback & e.book]. Vancouver: Poetry Pacific Press, 2021.
12. All My Crows [Paperback]. Grass Valley, CA: Cold River Press, 2022.
13. E.denning [Paperback]. Seattle: Goldfish Press, 2022.

3 Poems by Keith Holyoak

Climbing Above Rongbuk Monastery

       A golden spire
draped with prayer-flag rainbows
       and Qomolangma
burnished by summer snows

       Point the way upward
beyond the human world—
       the air gets thinner,
the end of the earth draws close.

       Nothing but ice,
and rock, and wind, and sky—
       life colors have vanished,
even the green of moss.

       Gasping for breath
I crawl on hands and knees—
       between bare stones
a purple blossom grows.


Bioinfo

Keith Holyoak, raised on a dairy farm in British Columbia, is now a Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles. In addition to a volume of translations from classical Chinese poetry, Facing the Moon: Poems of Li Bai and Du Fu (Oyster River Press, 2007), he has published four volumes of his own original poetry. The most recent is Oracle Bones: Poems from the Time of Misrule (Goldfish Press, 2019). The poems included here appeared in Foreigner: New English Poems in Chinese Old Style (Dos Madres Press, 2012). Keith has been a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He combined his interests in psychology and poetry to write The Spider’s Thread: Metaphor in Mind, Brain, and Poetry (MIT Press, 2019).


3 Poems by Geoffrey Aitken

for others

the trick it seems
is to sleep on it,
overnight it
in such a fashion
that by dawn
and your rising,
it has disappeared
ethered,
vanished,
dissolved and
       you can go about your business,
       guilt-free

Human Rights Australia
http://rightnow.org.au/creative-works/for-others/


Bioinfo

Minimalism drives Geoffrey Aitken away from the scene of mental unwellness for those without voices. Widely published - locally (AUS), and internationally (the UK, US, CAN, CN & FR). Most recently, 'Cacti Fur' (US), ‘Oxygen’ (AUS) & 'Flashes of Brilliance' (US). Older. He chases suburban congeniality.

3 Poems by Suzan Alparslan

Icarus at Nightfall

You were there when I caught
the sun with my own jaw—
snapped it up in a flicker,

ground it into my double-espresso
and swallowed. I could hear
the night descend, thoughtless

as a minor chord
played on a broken organ.
Of course, you soon took off—

headed straight for the gap
between watching and being.
You took it with you, the light,

inhaled each rich, searing particle whole
as I watched the malnourished sky
atrophy around me, taking down
with it the moon, stifled on the rise.


Bioinfo

Suzan Alparslan’s poems have been published in; Smartish Pace, Poeticdiversity, The Pedestal Magazine, Mannequin Envy Triplopia and HazMat Lit Review, among other journals. She also holds an MFA from Antioch University and was a proud mentor at writegirl.org Suzan writes, draws, paints and massages in Los Angeles where she lives with her interspecies family.

3 Poems by Ken Allan Dronsfield

First Snow

the first snow, the snow, the snow,
drifting down from the heavens
like pieces of shattered frozen tears.
floating down, down, down to earth
filling all with the lost spirit of winter.


Bioinfo 

Ken Allan Dronsfield is a disabled veteran and prize winning poet from New Hampshire, now residing in Oklahoma. He graduated from the Community College of the Air Force. He has six poetry collections to date; 'The Cellaring', 'A Taint of Pity', 'Zephyr's Whisper', ‘The Cellaring, Second Edition’, ‘Sonnets and Scribbles’ and his latest collaborative book, 'Inamorata at Twilight. Ken loves writing and spending time with his rescue cats Willa and Yumpy.

3 Haiku by ayaz daryl Nielsen

1

yes, the rising sun!
prancing through grandma’s garden
kissing everything


Bioinfo

ayaz daryl nielsen, veteran and hospice nurse, lives in Longmont, Colorado, USA.  Editor of bear creek haiku (35+ years/175+ issues) with poetry published worldwide, he is online at:  bear creek haiku   poetry, poems and info.  Among other deeply appreciated honors, he is especially delighted by the depth and heart of poets worldwide whose poems have a home in bear creek haiku’s print and online presence.

3 Poems by Strider Marcus Jones

As I Look Through My Window 


in that other way
the wind blows
and seed shows,
so Lothlorien knows
kingdoms return to clay.

evening rain splashes
like beads of nectar
on your uncovered lashes,
glisten in pure light
from the uncovered star
in the bowl of my pipe.

your eyes film me
thinking metaphysically
how all is displaced
yet told it's place-
lost Lothlorien, is the last Ringdom,

not a ruled, divided kingdom.

 

Bioinfo

Strider Marcus Jones is a poet, law graduate and former civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. He is the editor and publisher of Lothlorien Poetry Journal https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry  https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com/ reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms. He is also the editor and publisher of Lothlorien Poetry Journal.  https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/                   

His poetry has been published in numerous publications including: Dreich Magazine; The Racket Journal; Trouvaille Review; dyst Literary Journal; Impspired Magazine; Melbourne Culture Corner; Literary Yard Journal; The Honest Ulsterman; Poppy Road Review; The Galway Review; Cajun Mutt Press; Rusty Truck Magazine; Rye Whiskey Review; Deep Water Literary Journal; The Huffington Post USA; The Stray Branch Literary Magazine; Crack The Spine Literary Magazine; A New Ulster; The Lampeter Review; Panoplyzine  Poetry Magazine and Dissident Voice.

3 Poems by Damian Ward Hey

Greensleeves after the Dead

I let myself sleep until noon,
and wake to the whirl of the ceiling fan,
set on high, against the summer heat —
lost up there, among the blurring blades,
nowhere to go, nothing to do, no one to meet,
loving the emptiness of my own life.
Restlessness no longer taunts.
Inactivity brings no guilt —
a madman’s sensibilities
or a newly-shaven zen monk’s:
a little liberated, and a tad off-kilter.

Evenings spent along the boardwalk —
drawn back by salt air to a disparate realm
of recognizable strangers.
Long Beach is a foreign place, and I’m an alien
come from trees, grass, and shade.
No trees, here, for the late sun to abuse,
and always sand gritting between my toes.
No grass, except that kind
whose earthy fragrance perks my ears
and makes me hum “Greensleeves,”
after The Dead at Nassau, years ago.


Bioinfo

Damian Ward Hey has published poetry in numerous journals including, most recently, Black FlowersRat’s Ass Review; and Neologism.  Hey is a professor of English on Long Island and is the founding editor of Stone Poetry Journal stonepoetryjournal.com