New Poetry by Stuart Barnes

Colour after the car crash

Colour is a basic human need …

like fire and water,
a raw material, indispensable to life

– Fernand Léger

Through Mosman’s veins they pestered them, orange freaks of Krishna,

silver weavings, citrus Fendi glasses,

blister pearls at clavicles, scarlet Prada clutches,

funereal stiff jackets, ‘why the crutches?’

‘Strangely spotted fingers plucked Deliverance’s bluegrass!

We wanted them away from us, their ghastly hues like mirrors’ …’

- Stuart Barnes 2012

Stuart Barnes is arranging the manuscript for his first book of poetry, & writing his first novel. Poems are forthcoming in Southerly Journal, The Warwick Review, & The Weekend Australian Review; an essay – 'Robert Smith: More Than Meets The Lancôme Eye' – will appear in Issue 3 of VLAK: Contemporary Poetics & the Arts. He currently lives in Melbourne.

New Poetry by Phillip Ellis

Ocean Writing

I have been thinking of your name, recently
when I have had the chance, and how it is clear
as a clean glass of water, with the sunlight
unhindered as it emerges through the sides.

You have a specific way of you being
your name, to me, that I would want to whisper
its clarity to the Pacific Ocean
so that it can write it across green shallows.

And those who cross this border of land, water,
on their way to, from, Aotearoa
shall read your name and shall remember your name,
and, like a meme, word will reach you in the end.

You will maybe wonder why it is your name
is written in the shallows of the ocean,
or you will remember me, and you will smile
at a romantic fool beside the waters.

And I'm hoping, at heart, that you will be pleased
enough to investigate this for yourself,
and to look towards the rising sun, foaming
over ocean, lean your head on my shoulder.


- Phillip Ellis 2012

New Poetry by Kathryn Guelcher

Shoes

There was something about

the way you pressed your thumb

on the top of his shoe to check

the size

the way you reached down

sure-handed

blood surfacing and resurfacing

under the nail until

your hand was my father’s.

I was both child and wife-

anticipating and admiring.

Aglow with the warmth of

the fit.

- Kathryn Guelcher 2012

In addition to being a mother of three, Kathryn has been teaching high school English in a suburb outside of Chicago for 12 years.  This is Kathryn’s inaugural publication.

New Poetry by Martin Jervis

Heavy Cold

There are razors white laced

slicing up tomato soup in a gulp.

There are thick whirlpools of glue

stirring up in deep raw bubbling pits.

There are streaky nitric burns deep

burrowing into lake rusty whites

There are senses hung in acid glow

tissue suspended in a film of moment

and I blow my gurgling nose flute

in a trumpet of anaemic yellow.

- Martin Jervis 2012

Fairy Tale

Once upon a time, a great deity cast a line,

Caught word made flesh, created and

Saved all creatures earth bound passage.

Oxygen made if not discovered, chemical

Process plus hydrogen two equals water. Out

Of the primordial soup crawled warm food,

Multiplication and various diets, first cause.

Warmth sucked out, cold imports rushed in

To carve ice statues, misplaced sun, hard

Water kills all tongues. Holy Spirit, Paraclete,

Consoler, Comforter, Jehovah, Spirit of Truth,

Dove, you killed them all, distraught, learned

Complexities of death of creation and creation

Of death, replenish that blue earth, sow seeds.

All things reproduced, land and sea, walked

And swam, tiniest microbe to largest whale,

Fauna, flora, special places beneath the

Corrected sun, left in the hands of Zamiel,

Beelzebub, Sammael, Belial, Lucifer,

Ahrimanes, Mephistopheles, he swore

Never to return to that spinning sphere.

- Martin Jervis 2012

Martin Jervis lives in Leeds, England. His poetry has been published in the UK, the United States, Canada, Australia, India and Europe. Spends part of the year in India and has written a series of poems with an Indian theme. Some of his poetry has been translated into Spanish and German. He has also travelled extensively and has a Masters degree in Literature. E-book The Citron House was published in 2007 by White Leaf Press, UK.