Category: Poetry

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Detour – Caleb Coy

Detour

Worms eat the belly and freshen the soil

To reconcile, to breed blooming flowers,

And call them a masterpiece—

This is tramping in God’s garden.

Sensible, though it is, to say she has spoken,

An echo sublime, a material reflection,

The path into her muffles into darkness—

Not this way. Not in the brambles.

Terror and folly, awe and mystery

Choke the spirit of searchers,

Their counsel tangled in time,

In the depth of undiscovered stretches.

Here we turn. Here we take the byway.

Leave the wood, leave the peaks, leave the beaches,

Return to the tongues of men and of angels,

Return to the temple of the prostrate self.

Lest the image become the object,

Lest we return again to whispering horns,

Or we wander in dimness of words

And swallow the wormwood within the honey.

—

Caleb Coy is a freelance editor with a Masters in English from Virginia Tech. He lives in Christiansburg, VA with his wife and two sons. His work has appeared in The Common, Stonecoast Review, and Harpur Palate.

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Blackberries – Caleb Coy

This is the first of four poems that we will be sharing from Caleb. We hope you enjoy reading his words over the next few days just as we did during the editing process.

Blackberries

I turned blackberries from the stem

On down the brambled row,

Ripe and bulging,

Silver in the sun of evening.

Beetles had come to drink,

Sometimes four on a single berry.

You must blow them off

Or risk the smashing of all.

My fingers stained with soft

Labor, my bucket half full,

I wipe my brow at the end of the row

And carry my glean to the stand.

Later, I return with white raspberries,

My blackberries having been taken.

The farmer offers me his own picked bushel,

But it is not the same.

—

Caleb Coy is a freelance editor with a Masters in English from Virginia Tech. He lives in Christiansburg, VA with his wife and two sons. His work has appeared in The Common, Stonecoast Review, and Harpur Palate.

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Unwelcome with My Camera? – Keith Moul

Another piece of Keith’s we found to paint a vivid picture. Enjoy.

Unwelcome with My Camera?

Local folks suspect strangers lurking about.

My head up, I gauge light burst on a window,

then as flashily decamps in the leaves’ flutter.

What to do with “get away from my lawn”?

Or defend a case of brilliance here observed?

If I turn to gaze farther, I dig ghastly cavities

in brain matter granted custody of this place.

All right, a simple inquiry at the door: May I

pause to limn the gilding pageantry of light?

Thus squandering that time and all should he

answer “NO!” East breeze ferries drama in;

rain sweeps to vertical the velour of leaves;

street spray from a car flashes the horizontal.

A tide no more regularly reconfigures beach

than light saturates this neighborhood’s eyes,

blinding in painted white of this church wall

of a minor sect sparkling as if combustible.

My accidental presence here creates a scene:

a timeless day, my imperfect finger ready on

the release; my ignorance; me, wet but steadily

pelted by as yet unknown but eternal certainties.

A forced departure bars me from final assertion,

penultimate views, or any infinite assertions

on any stage where my vision may earn a space.

Evening darkness, of course, supplants debate,

yet a word: I click a frame to the mediating, but

minor sect, yet in profile.  Kinfolk tales portend

a fight, but guide the fine spirit of nostalgic light.

—

Keith Moul has written poems and taken photos for more than 50 years, his work appearing in magazines widely.  His chapbook, The Journal, and a full-length volume, New and Selected Poems: Bones Molder, Words Hold were recently accepted by Duck Lake Books. These are his ninth and tenth chap or book published.

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Spring Tumbles Anew from Slush – Keith Moul

Spring has officially sprung (as of the 19th, really) and this poem of Keith’s is the perfect piece to conjure the spirit of the season. Enjoy.

Spring Tumbles Anew from Slush

Each flake busted in like a little mountain,

encasing in cold, longing vegetable corpses

all ready to join the living in spring warmth

per custom cited in every local garden book.

So hurriedly seized, as hurriedly deliquesced

on orthodox cue as air bubbles up from below.

We feel tingles, but hear both pops and smacks

of joy, the smell of mud striving with the melt:

tendrils uncurl, sliding up to slippery twirl

rose hips aged orange 

red and yellow dogwoods bud

purple blackberry vines

clamp bronzed cedars 

opalescent horseflies neigh

Ever-curious, hatched right to hungry, eager

for buoyancy permitting them radical choices,

astute robins enter as if by stage direction

cunningly unwritten, breathtakingly in tune

with planetary law, with music of the spheres.

Cabin fever primes my detonator,

floods the vacuum universe with word bursts,

splotched, fused and spattered with galaxy light,

hoops shade as if of crinoline

tufts gurgle with new aromas

caterpillars undulate

deer pad ancient paths

saplings rise into forest space

every root electric in reverence,

passion holds trembling beneath every leaf.

—

Keith Moul has written poems and taken photos for more than 50 years, his work appearing in magazines widely.  His chapbook, The Journal, and a full-length volume, New and Selected Poems: Bones Molder, Words Hold were recently accepted by Duck Lake Books. These are his ninth and tenth chap or book published.

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And Dreams of Seas – Stephen Mead

Another poem of Stephen’s that we took interest in, “And Dreams of Seas” felt real, raw, and visceral to us. We enjoyed it, as well as “Sighs,” and we hope you will too.

And Dreams of Seas

If the food stayed down

(& it did)

If the hands found each other

& not blindly

or just through letters,

that piercing paper touch

(& they did)

If we were soluble, the flesh

transparent, & could merge

in a flow where nobody 

drowned

or at least not alone

(& we might have)

If your voice, face

was suddenly inside mine

& sky-lit eyes looked out brighter,

an ocean in the all-over-dark

(& we almost)

If I were not sad, could feel

joy even in your leaving

without angry idols, fearful

obsession of the fact

fact of your sickness

(& I am)

or death

(am not)

then the last vast wave

would not want oblivion

(& we cannot)

only a sort of truth,

nearly clear

(& we don’t)

in this surge,

the real dream

which does not stop

—

Stephen Mead is an Outsider multi-media artist and writer. Since the 1990s he’s been grateful to many editors for publishing his work in print zines and eventually online. He is also grateful to have managed to keep various day jobs for the Health Insurance. Currently he is resident artist/curator for The Chroma Museum, artistic renderings of LGBTQI historical figures, organizations, and allies predominantly before Stonewall: https://thestephenmeadchromamuseum.weebly.com/.

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Sighs – Stephen Mead

Sighs

To covet, sighs,

a covenant between spirit & flesh.

Eyes come

eternally mortal to that rhythm:

Pelvic, pubic, the moan emissions

between your eyes above mine

as sex & sensuality meld us to one fluid,

bone marrow, the extremis…

You know that knowledge is terrible,

death’s phantom a phoenix to the fusion

of our shadows & the winged brilliance

where, life to life, pulses feed sickness or DNA.

Love, feed the thirst, the hunger desire

decides on. Choose passion as breath & we

wave in the ebb, the flow of that domain…

Here, first eddy, flushed then waxen

tallow, flame to wick.

Come, come again, I’ll hide no sighs,

being charcoal to paper 

rubbing an imprint.

—

Stephen Mead is an Outsider multi-media artist and writer. Since the 1990s he’s been grateful to many editors for publishing his work in print zines and eventually online. He is also grateful to have managed to keep various day jobs for the Health Insurance. Currently he is resident artist/curator for The Chroma Museum, artistic renderings of LGBTQI historical figures, organizations, and allies predominantly before Stonewall: https://thestephenmeadchromamuseum.weebly.com/.

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It is Almost Dawn – Dmitry Blizniuk

We find pieces that have been translated from a different language to be especially demonstrative of the wide reach that writing of all kinds can have, and Dmitry’s poem (translated to English by Sergey Gerasimov) is no exception. Enjoy.

It is Almost Dawn

The pillow is soaked in tears:

your face has wetted itself like a puppy,

and the eyelashes flutter, ashamed.

I pierce our seventh heaven

with my congealed madness,

like with a piece of rusty wire.

Tears sparkle like glass wool.

I push you away to see you better.

I’m a tree, you are a branch on my body.

You blindly grow around the iron fence

like a wooden, knobby snake.

We argue; we pick up a fight.

A cat bites its own shoulder.

Like kids or stray dogs,

We run across the highway –

it’s wet and black after the recent rain –

and the semi trucks of cruel words

swish past, honk their horns, powerful, angry, roaring.

Chitin-plated maniacs 

race around on the motorbikes of interjections,

hit the guard rail and ricochet, 

and cut the bloodied plastic. 

Gosh! We’ve nearly killed each other with words.

It is almost dawn…

—

Dmitry Blizniuk is an author from Kharkiv, Ukraine. His most recent poems have appeared in The Pinch Journal, River Poets, Dream Catcher, Magma, Press53, Sheila Na Gig, Palm Beach Poetry Festival and many others. A Pushcart Prize nominee, he is also the author of The Red Fоrest (Fowlpox Press, Canada 2018).

Sergey Gerasimov lives in Kharkiv, Ukraine. His writings span the gamut from philosophical poetry to surrealism and tongue-in-cheek fantasy. His stories have appeared in Adbusters, Clarkesworld Magazine, Strange Horizons, and others. Also, he is the author of several novels and more than a hundred short stories published mostly in Russian. Translator of Russian poetry and prose.

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Under His Care – Jacob Kobina Ayiah Mensah

It’s official: our first posted piece for our Spring 2020 season. And what a lovely way to start – we particularly liked this piece from Jacob. Enjoy.

Under His Care

Blacksmithing yellow fat made from milk ‘n’ salt,

O’Joe Cab becomes a backsliding & falling away

from close neighbours structured around

the heating hearth & a short day.

We wake up from this recovery to breathe in

something, yet to be done under grudging,

or suspicions, we struggle in your panic body,

lacking its real formation in oblivion.

A steady vibrating hum throughout the night,

Cab waits somewhere behind the gate

& the red clotting light in his eyes follows

those from their garages & their corner shops.

This late news acts as a comment on English life

strangers complain or depend on in order

to get along & find where their hyperbole

is catching. The coal miners uncover a false issue.

His immigrants, calling themselves “blacks,”

are used to fascinating names like ”Indian,”

“Pakistani,” “Bengali,” etc, something about

naming pride & its harrowing attitudes.

There’s a call from Ms. More, who keeps

cages of chickens for sale in the open market,

everything edging away from itself

& at the same time quick as apples blossoming.

This is your part & my size which is full & bright,

I open your eyes again on the disc & my pulse.

All those who come in a body to your health

are ushered into your gay heart at ease.

—

Jacob Kobina Ayiah Mensah, who is an algebraist and artist, works in mixed media. His poetry, songs, prose, art and hybrid have appeared in numerous journals. He lives in the southern part of Ghana, in Spain, and the Turtle Mountains, North Dakota. 

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Forecasting the Fate (2): A Wuxing Poem – Changming Yuan

This is the last of Yuan’s submission. It makes for a good close. Enjoy!

~~~

Forecasting the Fate (2): A Wuxing Poem

– Believe it or not, the ancient Chinese 5-Agent Principle accounts for us all.

1/ Water (born in a year ending in 2 or 3)

-helps wood but hinders fire; helped by metal but hindered by earth

with her transparent tenderness

coded with colorless violence

she is always ready to support

or sink the powerful boat

sailing south


2/ Wood (born in a year ending 4 or 5)

-helps fire but hinders earth; helped by water but hindered by metal

rings in rings have been opened or broken

like echoes that roll from home to home

each containing fragments of green

trying to tell their tales

        from the forest’s depths


3/ Fire (born in a year ending 6 or 7)

-helps earth but hinders metal; helped by wood but hindered by water

your soft power bursting from your ribcage

as enthusiastic as a phoenix is supposed to be

when you fly your lipless kisses

you reach out your hearts

until they are all broken


4/ Earth (born in a year ending in 8 or 9)

-helps metal but hinders water; helped by fire but hindered by wood

i think not; therefore, I am not

what I am, but I have a color

the skin my heart wears inside out

tattooed intricately

with footprints of history

5/ Metal (born in a year ending in 0 or 1)

-helps water but hinders wood; helped by earth but hindered by fire

he used to be totally dull-colored

because he came from the earth’s inside

now he has become a super-conductor

for cold words, hot pictures and light itself

all being transmitted through his throat

~~~

Yuan Changming published monographs on translation before leaving China. Currently, Yuan lives in Vancouver, where he edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Qing Yuan. Credits include ten Pushcart nominations, Best of the Best Canadian Poetry (2008-17) and BestNewPoemsOnline among others.    

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Snow In, Snow Out, On My Birthday & Off – Changming Yuan

Snow In, Snow Out

In the wild open west, flakes keep falling

Like myriad baby angels knocked down from Paradise

    Blurring the landscape behind the vision

Hunting each consonant trying to rise above

The ground. The day is brighter, lighter &

 Softer than the feel. Soon there will be

Dirty prints leading to everywhere (or nowhere)

& no one will care how the whole world will collapse

      In blasphemy. The missing cat won’t come to

     Trespass the lawn, nor will the daffodil bloom

To catch a flake drifting astray. Nobody bothers even to think

    About where the season is held up on its way back, how

       The fishes are agitating under the pressure of wintry

       Water, why people wish to see more and more snow

~~~

On My Birthday & Off

I don’t remember how many years old

I am, but I do care about my birthday, a time

When I can imagine getting good wishes

Or words. Rather than having a party

With a big cheese cake or a bowl of longevity

Noodles, I would prefer to leave home

For a lonely walk in the country, wandering

In a poetic wonderland, where I stop to reflect:

For more than a decade I have done what I could

By way of a poem, but since it is unlikely I can

Do anything with it, I find it the proper

Occasion to write one last stanza just

To commemorate my yearly visits to

Qucheng, Homerburgh, Dantefield

Shakespeareston, Goethestadt

Pushkingrad, Baudelaireville

Nerudastad, Frostdale, & Tagorerboro

~~~

Yuan Changming published monographs on translation before leaving China. Currently, Yuan lives in Vancouver, where he edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Qing Yuan. Credits include ten Pushcart nominations, Best of the Best Canadian Poetry (2008-17) and BestNewPoemsOnline among others.