New Poetry by Phillip Ellis

Caledonia Australis

The harbour morning's soft with clouds. The cold,
alike long-legged flies, is striding over
the surface of the world. I can't imagine
anything less than this, this dream in time
and echoing a certain poem. There's none
that muses on the passage of the fly
that is the cold, no dreaming eye, none seeing,
a poet making words memorable.

The ship is stalled so near to land. The people
are restless, test their balance, and they moan
into the morning light. Nobody stays
their fear with words or warning hands. The sickness
is stirring on the ship. They do not stir,
but talk in silenced tones; McMillan comes.


- Phillip Ellis 2012

New Poetry by Stuart Barnes

Bone Scan

in memory of Gwen Harwood,

who encouraged the eleven-year-old

me to write poetry

In the twinkling of an eye,

in a moment, all is changed:

on a small radiant screen

(honeydew melon green)

are my scintillating bones.

Still in my flesh I see

the God who goes with me

glowing with radioactive

isotopes. This is what he

at last allows a mortal

eye to behold: the grand

supporting frame complete

(but for the wisdom teeth),

the friend who lives beneath

appearances, alive

with light. Each glittering bone

assures me: you are known.

- Stuart Barnes 2012

Bullfighting

Seven

years ago

sentenced by

a picador

to be herded three times a week toward

a barely furnished dusty room

a ghastly plastic calla

a banderillero

that drove

the diagnoses

in my neck

like vivid sticks:

panic, bipolar, schizoaffective,

obsessive-compulsive, generalized

anxiety, borderline

personality and

substance-induced anxiety

disorders.

So many Romantic syllables!

In seven years a wounded bull

can lose a million pints of blood.

I charged and gored

a matador

when it redly strode

inside my ring.

- Stuart Barnes 2012

New Poetry by Ivan Jenson

Totality

Not having the faintest

idea how my brain and

body function

standing in wonder

at the wonderful

wonder of nature

awestruck by

the promise of

a hereafter

which might come after

and confounded

by the metro system

under

the metropolis

transfixed by

the tongue-tied

triumph which is

language

freaked out

by the farfetched

fantasies of

authors, actors

singers and

those who turn

heartbeat

into drum beat

and who ride

airwaves like

sonic songwriter

surfers

overwelmed

by the billion

baby march

and the

trillion tragic

obituaries

and outnumbered

in every way

by a galaxy of

stars and population

explosion

of sights and sounds

and technological

sorcerers transforming

everything into fairy-tale pixels

I stop for a moment

in prayer, meditation

gratitude and fear

inhale, exhale

then put one

foot in front of the other

and walk

- Ivan Jenson 2012

Ivan Jenson’s Absolut Jenson painting was featured in Art News, Art in America, and Interview magazine. His art has sold at Christie’s, New York. His poems have appeared in Word Riot, Zygote in my Coffee, Camroc Press Review, Haggard and Halo,Poetry Super Highway, Mad Swirl, Alternative Reel Poets Corner, Underground Voices Magazine, Blazevox, and many other magazines, online and in print. Jenson is also a Contributing Editor for Commonline magazine. Ivan Jenson's debut novel Dead Artist is available as a paperback and on Amazon Kindle and Nook. His new novel a psychological thriller entitled Seeing Soriah is now available as an eBook or in Paperback on Amazon.

New Poetry by D.M Aderibigbe

GREEN

She sits before her sadness and his mother,
praying they disappear, before he appears,

It will take a miracle for him to forgive her, if
he meets them in her house,

she wishes, her brain is feverish,
she could have walked out.
Her fear arrives in a green Pajero jeep,
putting on a grey shirt and a green short,

his face is green with anger,
he goes to sit alone on a green chair,

she plucks a leave of green holiness,
apologises to him,
he frowns,

she tickles him,
he frowns,

she kisses him,
he makes a green grin.


- D.M. Aderibigbe 2012

D.M Aderibigbe is a 23-year old writer from Lagos, Nigeria, an undergraduate student of History and Strategic Studies of the University of Lagos. He writes poetry, fiction, non-fiction, plays and lyrics. His work has been published or forthcoming in the UK, Canada and the United States by, Vox Poetica, Pressboard press, UP Literature, HUSMW Press, The New Black Magazine, Misfits' Miscellany, Thickjam and Ditch Poetry. His debut novel Sisyphean, will be published in America, soon. He lives and schools in Lagos.