Sister Publication to Poetry Life & Times
Issue of August 2016
BOY DOWN THE WELL.
A Poem by John Grey.
They say there was a boy who fell into the well years agoand his body is still down there.
I was told to stay away,
as if his ghost would coax me into his dark bottomless world.
People even gave him a name – Hector.
And he’d be in my dreams, tiny and pale-faced,
dressed in a blue and white sailor’s suit,
begging me to come out and play.
A parent’s warnings were powerful medicines
but they didn’t work so well in the head.
Here was the danger that stalked innocents –
not the boogie man, not the pedophile cruising
the suburban streets, but reflections of our own selves –
curious and ignorant, edging too close to the holes in the world. ...
CONNECTION UNMADE.
A Poem by John Grey
John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident. Recently published in New Plains Review, South Carolina Review, Gargoyle and Big Muddy Review with work upcoming in Louisiana Review, Cape Rock and Spoon River Poetry Review. To view more of his work www.motherbird.com & www.artvilla.com
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Shine. A Poem by Irsa Ruçi
Translated by Silva Daci
I.
Hear to the cicada’s song, my dear, hear it
Some words they mutter to spring
And feel their whisper to the leafs
To the mornings’ dew
So tell me:
Was this world made to be savage?
II.
Oh, what sins did we give to this earthSo that our own tear weighs in powerlessAt traces that froze in oblivionThe lost sinnerWe…Guardians of Hope
III.One day we will get awayIn a path there’s no coming backFor sure I’ll carry behind only regret,Why we weren’t enough in this greedy world?And the forgivenessWe were eager to get it
When one day even our soul we’ll see itStripped from our bodies.
IV.O tell me that nothing is true
That the poet’s words are thatch stalks
That would be fired by one single match
And I, my last line I’ll give to the Human;
For he prays in the sin’s mercy
And in his life never lied to himselfMy last line I’ll save it for the Human…
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FUD. A Poem by Robin Ouzman Hislop.
Robin Ouzman Hislop, born UK, a reader in philosophy &
religions, has traveled extensively throughout his lifetime but now
lives in semi- retirement as a TEFL teacher and translator in Spain
& the UK. Read Full Bio at Poetry Life & Times
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Tribute to the late E. Darcy Trie
by Wanda Brayton
Wanda's website: http://wandaleabrayton.blogspot.co.uk/
Now, Don’t Tell.
SHE NOW MIGHT WEAR DIAMONDS.
DAMP. (a poem after the rains)
RECOMMENDED BOOKS
Ian Irvine is an Australian-based poet/lyricist, fiction writer and non-fiction writer. His work has featured in many Australian and international publications, including Fire (UK) ‘Anthology of 20th Century and Contemporary Poets, ’ (2008) which contained the work of poets from over 60 nations. His work has also appeared in a number of Australian national poetry anthologies, and he is the author of three books and co-editor of many more (including Scintillae 2012, an anthology of work by over 50 Victorian and international writers and poets). He currently teaches writing and literature at Bendigo TAFE and Victoria University (Melbourne) and lives with fellow writer Sue King-Smith and their children on a 5 acre block near Bendigo, Australia.
by Barbara Crooker
RECOMMENDED READING:
PRESS RELEASE:
Inner Child Press, compiled by Janet Caldwell
Let Her Try. A Poem by Gertrude Stein
Read more about Maria Salgado at Motherbird
Every Piece of Flesh.
View video from Motherbird page
Perceptions. Video Poem & Book Review.
Read more about Perceptions and Gary Beck at Motherbird
Angel of Peace by Aberjhani
Stuck in a Black Bird's Groove
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Now, Don’t Tell.
A Poem by JD DeHart
JD DeHart is a writer and teacher. His chapbook, The Truth About Snails, is available from RedDashboard.
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SHE NOW MIGHT WEAR DIAMONDS.
A Poem by David Spicer
The tornado I knew as Sharon left after a brief
appearance. Her grey eyes romantic to me,
a pilgrim who worked in a barn near flowers
and the cornfield, the shacks sleeping.
I wish I had wings, I wish I could shimmer:
then she might have stayed. She thundered
when I compared her to a beautiful storm,
a tortuous wind breaking hundreds of hearts.
Sharon called me a dumb devotee of Apollo,
punched me so hard I saw linnets on the ceiling,
making me regret I owned a telescope.
Sad that she now might wear diamonds,
I can only sing hymns to her in school,
but sometimes she appears to me
in dreams as a wild palomino.
WHEN WHITE ROSES LOVE FIRE. Poem/Sonnet by David Spicer.
David Spicer has had poems in Yellow Mama, Reed Magazine, Slim Volume, The Laughing Dog, Jersey Devil Press, The American Poetry Review, New Verse News, Ploughshares, Bad Acid Laboratories, Inc., Dead Snakes, and in A Galaxy of Starfish: An Anthology of Modern Surrealism (Salo Press, 2016). Read full bio at Motherbird
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DAMP. (a poem after the rains)
by Akor Emmanuel Oche
After the rains
come the drain of a white washed
road–sepulchers
of pungent oozing paths.
Cossy skins blended
in tar pigmented melanin,
mock the innerbeing,
telling her she is wet,
telling her she is clean.
Only fire tests the truth of things.
Soon the road evapourates
the reminants of her hidden self,
and the skin
whispers the truth
of its self- dark,dirty,blue-
-in avarice for the subtle touch of water,
to purly through the body through
to the spirit.
After the rains come the real water.
Spinning the soul in spree.
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The Sudden Drizzle. A Poem by Bhupender K Bhardwaj
The sudden drizzle that brought long-sought fulfillment
To the scorched shacks of the country masses
Knitted the serrated peak and the neglected pavement
Into an aquamarine fabric under whose grace wild asses
Brayed with glee. The rusted generator attached
To the cola factory hummed loudly and brought
Back memories of the dull headaches which once latched
On to you. But these were phantoms of imagination which caught
You unawares, lost in the coerced stillness induced by your drab work
That ate you up slowly, constricting your vision
Beyond which strong-legged peacocks continued to jerk
Their crested heads in unison with the swaying trees that season.
Later, the sparrow-squeaks and the marketplace shouts
Which came up the verges were glinting arrows that quelled your doubts.
Bhupender K Bhardwaj, an IRTS officer, 27 years of age works with Ministry of Railways, Government of India. He has been composing poetry since the last few years. His influences are Derek Walcott and Seamus Heaney. His poems have been published by Mad Swirl, Indian Review, The Galway Review and Kingston Creative Writers’ Blog. Also, He was recently longlisted for The Toto Awards for Creative Writing 2016 in the Poetry category.
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RECOMMENDED BOOKS
Songs of the Interstitium. Poetry of Ian Irvine Hobson
Ian Irvine is an Australian-based poet/lyricist, fiction writer and non-fiction writer. His work has featured in many Australian and international publications, including Fire (UK) ‘Anthology of 20th Century and Contemporary Poets, ’ (2008) which contained the work of poets from over 60 nations. His work has also appeared in a number of Australian national poetry anthologies, and he is the author of three books and co-editor of many more (including Scintillae 2012, an anthology of work by over 50 Victorian and international writers and poets). He currently teaches writing and literature at Bendigo TAFE and Victoria University (Melbourne) and lives with fellow writer Sue King-Smith and their children on a 5 acre block near Bendigo, Australia.
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Barbara Crooker Selected Poems / 2015 available on amazon.com
by Barbara Crooker
This collection brings together 102 poems from Barbara Crooker’s
previous ten chapbooks of poetry, two of which won national prizes, with
a handful of uncollected poems at the end. Of Crooker’s work, William
Matthews has written, “Barbara Crooker’s poems have been written with a
deft touch and with that affection for their textures and pacings that
we’re accustomed to call, a little dryly, ‘technical skill.’ It’s a form
of love, actually, and since she’s expended it on her poems, we can,
too.” Janet McCann, writing in the Foreword, says, “The poems in this
collection come mostly from chapbooks, collections which cluster around a
theme, such as loss of a parent or friend, raising a child with autism,
travel, art. Crooker’s collections are remarkable for their unity;
their poems, epigraphs, even covers have a thematic thrust that collects
and directs the work, making each a coherent work of art.... Reading
the work from beginning to end provides an experience of Crooker’s
world, that place of work and sadness balanced by art and love. It also
provides vignettes of growing up in the fifties and sixties and shows
what it was like to come of age as a woman in those years—the
expectations, the hopes, the barriers that had to be overcome. Even in
poems of loss, the energy persists, giving us the sense that Crooker is
truly in the current of life, feeling its verve—what Wallace Stevens
called ‘the intensity of love’ that he identified with ‘the verve of
earth.’”
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Two new books out now by Gary Beck:
Click book image to visit amazon.com to buy this book or read reviews
DISPLAYS - a collection of poetry by Gary Beck
Unheard Arias
The purple finch and house finch
are unappreciated
by busy city dwellers,
who will never take the time
to listen for a moment
to their melodious song
that would please receptive ears
that are otherwise deafened
by the city commotion. Read more
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RECOMMENDED READING:
All the Babble of the Souk
by Robin Ouzman Hislop
Click book image to visit the Amazon page
Poet Robin Ouzman Hislop’s first full-length collection, All the Babble of the Souk, is appropriately titled. With a remarkably consistent ear for the market’s noise, for “[t]he broken lights of the bazaar/spangled] with glistening promise/in the eyes of the dusky beggar …” (Laminations in Lacquer ) Hislop’s poems, many of them cinematic-style montages of sounds and images, show us the metaphoric souk of the world, on the beach or in the street, its glitter, its sadness, its ragtag glory:
“pets, flower pots framed captive in a moment
outside the house of the painter, a robot
in chains with an alms bowl”
(“Departures”) ...Read more of this review by poet Miriam C. Jacobs
More Reviews for this book:
Aquillrelle. Press Release. All the Babble of the Souk
Richard Vallance Reviews All the Babble of the Souk
Reviewed by Marie Marshall All the Babble of the Souk
Richard Lloyd Cederberg Reviews All the Babble of the Souk
Adam Levon Brown Reviews All the Babble of the Souk
Further comments and reviews on Motherbird
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PRESS RELEASE:
World Healing, World Peace 2016: Volume 3
Inner Child Press, compiled by Janet Caldwell
with Foreword by Keith Alan Hamilton £11.83 on amazon.com
From Foreword: "This vision of world healing and peace, if such a hope is going to come to fruition, it will take much struggle through effort in the human process of thinking. Firstly within reflective consciousness THE HUMAN-KIND will collectively have to change the way THE HUMAN RACE is perceived by all humans..."
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FEATURED VIDEOS
Let Her Try. A Poem by Gertrude Stein
Read by Maria Salgado.
Read more about Maria Salgado at Motherbird
Every Piece of Flesh.
A Video Poem by Nicholas Hallows
Perceptions. Video Poem & Book Review.
Gary Beck.
Angel of Peace by Aberjhani
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