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.

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.

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

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/

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. 

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.

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 

aliznaidi.blogspot.com

 

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.