Monday, September 29, 2014

New Poetry by William G. Davies Jr.










Kissed by God at Ski Roundtop

It came gradually
as it might be
expected to do.
The trees, Peruvian green
rise up the slope,
instead of a burning bush,
an agave blue sky
penitent with clouds
and the burdock of chance.


- William G. Davies Jr. 2014



William's collection, "Before There Were Bones", will be published by Prolific Press sometime in 2015.

Friday, September 26, 2014

New Poetry by Grant Tabard










To/Fro

The world will end 
with yellow wolf's death rattle.

The furniture of the universe 
is a bare lightbulb 

swinging to and fro,
to and fro.

To: hand luggage for the wilds 
of the wolf's yawn.

Fro: black tepid ram's tongue,
licking like a Billy goat

in it's gruff weed 
of the stars

pulled across the sky
by a tractor.


-Grant Tabard 2014



Grant Tarbard has worked as a journalist, a contributor to magazines, an editor, a reviewer and an interviewer. He is now the editor of The Screech Owl.
His work can be seen in such magazines as The Rialto, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Bone Orchard Poetry, BLAZE, The Journal, Southlight, Sarasvati, Earth Love, Mood Swing, Puff Puff Prose Poetry & Prose, Postcards Poetry and Prose, Playerist 2, Lake City Lights, Medusa's Kitchen, The Open Mouse, Weyfarers, Miracle, Poetry Cornwall, I-70, South Florida Review, Stare's Nest, Zymbol, Synchronized Chaos and Decanto.



Monday, September 22, 2014

New Poetry by Ivan Jenson










Velvet Clown

My desires
will not be
contained
by the 
fig leaf
of public
modesty
and my 
wants will
not lie
wasted
on the cement
like a cross-addicted
cross-dresser
and my scent
will not be 
covered by
soft soap
and Old Spice
my vibration
is so
sizable it
sets off 
a seismograph
and it will trigger
an after-life
aftermath
long after 
my laughter
turns into 
a chuckle
and then
a trickle
of a giggle
and then
a sigh of
relief
because
this whole
self-serving
self-deprecating
prank 
backfired
on me
when I slipped on my 
own literary
banana peel



- Ivan Jenson 2014



Ivan Jenson is a fine artist, novelist and contemporary poet. His artwork was featured in Art in America, Art News, and Interview Magazine and has sold at auction at Christie’s. Ivan was commissioned by Absolut Vodka to make a painting titled “Absolut Jenson” for the brand’s national ad campaign.  Jenson's poetry is widely published (with over 450 poems published in the US, UK and Europe) in a variety of literary media. A book of Ivan Jenson's poetry was recently published by Hen House Press titled Media Child and Other Poems, which can be acquired on Amazon. Two new novels by Ivan Jenson will be published hardcover and will be available for purchase at bookstores worldwide.  Ivan Jenson's website is: www.IvanJenson.com

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

New Poetry by Donal Mahoney










Twin Girls, 1948

Beth was always different
marching as she did
to an armless drummer.

Her sister Kate marched
to another drummer,
one with arms on certain days 

but never with a drum 
that caught the sticks Kate 
kept in the air flailing.

When the girls were young
their mom and dad took them out
for walks on Sunday

afternoons in summer.
The girls waved to butterflies
but never to anyone else.

It was hard for other kids
peering from porches
to understand the problem.
When the twins were small
they didn't call it autism. 
It had no name on my block.

Now the illness has a name
and different medications
that sometimes temper

but never cure.
The girls are women now
old and living in a big home

with others in a small band
some still playing instruments
no one else can see.


- Donal Mahoney 2014


Donal Mahoney lives in St. Louis, Missouri. Nominated for Best of the Net and Pushcart prizes, he has had poetry and fiction published in various publications in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. Some of his earliest work can be found at http://booksonblog12.blogspot.com/


Monday, September 15, 2014

New Poetry by Christine Brandel










CINEMATIC
 
O you silly little, just a boy, she can pick you
up and move you across the floor -- there's a mark
there, did you hit it when he pretended to hit you,
like someone once did not pretend to hit her?
You act like you are clever, but she is the one
who solved that puzzle. You act like you love,
but her heart is bound with twine. You act this way,
that way, because you are an actor. She is not. She lives.
She speaks on telephones. She hits glass and it breaks.
She writes. She beats metaphors like corpses until they
no longer breathe, and her poems end like suicides.


- Christine Brandel 2014



WE ARE ALL BIG BOYS NOW
 
On Monkey Island, the mothers groom their young. When grown,
monkeys tend to each other: they clean and scratch and stroke
to maintain good hygiene and to form a bond. Social grooming
releases a chemical that relaxes the monkeys. It's scientific,
you can look it up if you don't believe me.
 
         It is not her job to keep you clean. It is not her job to pick
         the dirt and scales you let cover you. It is not her job
         to keep you protected from parasites and regret.
 
When grown, monkeys tend to each other.
 
         We are all big boys now.
 

- Christine Brandel 2014


Christine Brandel is a British-American writer and photographer. In 2013, she published her first collection, Tell This To Girls: The Panic Annie Poems, which the IndieReader described as a "well-crafted, heartbreakingly vivid set of poems, well worth a read by anyone whose heart can bear it." To balance that, she also writes a column on comedy for PopMatters and rants and raves through her character Agatha Whitt-Wellington (Miss) at Everyone Needs An Algonquin. More of her work can be found at clbwrites.com.

 

New Poetry by William G. Davies Jr.










Labor Day

Water in the pool
is murky, still.
The pump off.
Marigold petals flitter
beneath the surface as Koi.
A diving board
splays the end
where once she cleaved
to her freshly risen breasts,
gone, but for clods of grapes
basking, as is their way
in slanted light.


- William G. Davies Jr. 2014


WG Davies Jr has published in The Cortland Review, Bluepepper, The Wilderness House Review, Diluted Ink, Jellyfish Whispers and many others. He is on the cusp of having a chaplet of poetry published. WG Davies Jr lives on ten acres with his wife, Theresa, of thirty-nine years and in good years they produce some fairly elegant red wine. WG Davies Jr is also 2013 Poet Laureate for Perry County, Pennsylvania. 

Saturday, September 13, 2014

New Poetry by Kamaruzzaman










And That Was You Who Saw The World of No War, No Blood

You saw the world
In your own eyes, there was no war
No blood to love you dead
There was no darkness to shed over the roofs of cloud
No begging, no hungry bones collapsed
Into the smoke to break peace, to be in peace with you
With your breads and hone - that was your world
And that was you, and only you to give birth to eternal
YOU, and that was you...

Who tossed the coins
Of capital - who tossed the shadows of fear
Into mist and touched the thorns of flowers
With guts and heart out
To write the epic of little verse
In human chains
Of equal days and nights - you

Who only could write
The epics of no war and no blood
In your own world
You saw in your dreamy eyes and you:
Who had a dream or two - of your own
To create a world of vision
To say goodbye to all and others
To rejoice in cheers, in full

And that was you...


- Kamaruzzaman 2014


Kamaruzzaman is "self-retired, basically a nihilist", writes poetry and essays, at one time edited a polemical journal, and is currently translating the complete works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez into Bengali, One book already published, several others on the line.


Tuesday, September 09, 2014

New Poetry by Ali Znaidi










An Hour-glass Sonnet
 
I had the fear that
I wouldn’t be able
to write a sonnet
about the glitzy sand
since I have found
an antiquated hour-
glass in the attic.
        
          ***
These days hour-
glasses are difficult
to find, more difficult
than finding sand grains
—victuals for fiery
furnaces of time:
 
The grate of gravel in a hologram of silence.


- Ali Znaidi 2014


Ali Znaidi (b. 1977) lives in Redeyef, Tunisia, where he teaches English.  He graduated with a BA in Anglo-American Studies in 2002 from the University of Sfax for the South.  He writes poetry and has an interest in literature, languages, and literary translation.  His work has appeared in various magazines and journals worldwide. He authored four poetry chapbooks including Experimental Ruminations (Fowlpox Press, 2012), Moon’s Cloth Embroidered with Poems (Origami Poems Project, 2012), Bye, Donna Summer! (Fowlpox Press, 2014), and Taste of the Edge (Kind of A Hurricane Press, 2014). Links to his published and forthcoming works can be found at 




 

New Poetry by Neil Ellman





The Mood of Now

(after the painting by Yves Tanguy)
  
Now is the time
   that all things happen
Now the beginning
Now the end
     all in this forever once
     as if there were never
     more than just this now
     at once
Now is the center
     of the gyre
     and now the edge
     expanding at the speed
     of when
Now whatever happens
     happened
     whatever will is now
     between the now and then
     the color of now
     is all there is.


- Neil Ellman 2014


Neil Ellman, a poet from New Jersey, has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net and Rhysling Award.  More than 1,000 of his poems appear in print and online journals, anthologies and chapbooks throughout the world.