Poetrypoeticspleasure Ezine Volume 2; Issue 2; February 2018
Preface
The poems for this issue started pouring in after an emergency help mail I sent to my friends: poets, editors and poetry lovers. I had a few poems with me but their number filled me with doubts regarding the future of this little ezine. I took my chance and sent an invitation to my friends all over the world (the last four words are not there to brag, they highlight the focus of this ezine: bringing poets from various continents together). They came to my rescue and sent me wonderful nuggets of gold, some of which can be seen in this issue. I have stored many more for the issues to come. not surprisingly then, I dedicate this issue to the poets published in it:
To you, my friends.
Poet of the Month: Michael Griffith
Her Savior
She savored a savior as she tried to repent.
Spent time on her knees, spent time in retreat.
Entreatments for forgiveness, entreatments for relief.
Belief sometimes came hard, belief and faith would flee.
Bleed upon the cross, breed sorrow and sin.
In rapture, in stigmata, in tongues not her own,
she savored her savior, but she could never atone.
Glass Woman’s House
The glass woman,
seen whole only in reflections of others,
there in her glass house of shrinking windows
and growing shoulds,
a stone’s throw away from being revealed.
Shines in her sorrows,
shimmers in her fears,
shakes in her solitude.
Throw that stone, boy,
hurl the brick,
but aim away from the glass woman.
Hit her sorrows and fears,
strike the solitude and break those panes of should;
take up a mallet and ruin her house of oughts and wishes.
Let her shimmer in the light shining from strength she never knew she had.
Then help her build a new house that’s not so fragile.
Twilight Cowboy
His sad, hoarse opera remains
long after he leaves the stage.
He doesn’t even know
what to cry about anymore,
but still he cries.
The plains his home,
his rope and rifle his two best friends,
history and change his two worst enemies.
He’s running out of places to be,
but still he rides.
The things he could fight
are now long gone;
the things he could love are dying off, too.
The things he could keep no longer exist,
but still he tries.
Michael Griffith began writing poetry to help his mind and spirit heal as his body recovered from a life-changing injury. Recent work appears online and in print in such outlets as The Blue Nib, Nostalgia Digest, The Wild Word and Poetry24. He resides and teaches near Princeton, NJ.
Spirit in the Album by Ken Allan Dronsfield
Like spider silk woven into human form.
grasping at air as it moves and beckons.
glides around the metal of an old light pole.
Head turning and seeming to look at me.
I ask, if you ever came back to us again,
how annoyed would you be at the traffic?
Would you enjoy computers or cellphones,
or perhaps find them an abomination?
Smiles shining like noon if you returned;
our eyes would twinkle like a winter star
excitement would make the heart flutter;
but you’re only a crispy voice of whispers
indifferent to feeling, or even to breathing
whether lost kindred fallen in a great war
ghost of the battlement, forever on guard
or kept alive by the memories and pictures
there in the album, on grandmother’s shelf.
Ken Allan Dronsfield is a poet who was nominated for The Best of the Net and 2 Pushcart Awards for Poetry in 2016. Originally from New Hampshire, he now resides in Oklahoma with his cats Willa, Turbo and Hemi. His poetry has been published world-wide in various publications throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa. His work has appeared in The Burningword Journal, Belle Reve Journal, SETU Magazine, The Literary Hatchet, The Stray Branch, Now/Then Manchester Magazine UK, Bewildering Stories, Scarlet Leaf Review, PPP E-Zine, EMBOSS Magazine, and many more. His book, “The Cellaring”, a collection of haunting, paranormal, weird, wonderful and odd poems, has been released and is available through Amazon.com. He is the co-editor of two poetry anthologies, Moonlight Dreamers of Yellow Haze and Dandelion in a Vase of Roses available from Amazon.com.
Reasons by Edianna Reyes Ovalle
So many reasons to love me
So many reasons to hate me
So many reasons to hate them
So many reasons to love him
I have so many reasons, I collect them
Every season, every year, every decade
I collect, collect them
I regret, no regrets, I haven’t forgotten
In my head, they take up space
Right there in that space with every situation I face
In my memory, these reasons are kept inactive
In my solitude, these reasons are enlightening
They make me feel satanic
My reasons, my reasons
This is not a thought all of a sudden
My reasons are my logic
My reasons have been kept inactive
For my reasons aren’t always pleasant in action.
Edianna Reyes Ovalle evokes vital emotions, knowledge, morals, truths, and values, through writing. She loves being outspoken because it has helped her to freely express her opinions of the world and its people. Her work has been featured in the likes of HangTime Magazine, PPP Ezine, NOTLA Digital, Anti-Heroin Chic, and Trópica Laced Magazine.
Spring Equinox by Joan McNerney
This is when we search for
color to transform cold grey.
Rainfall begins its magic
high lighting sky blue.
We see stacks of luminous clouds
as plants pop out emerald buds
and forsythia busts open with
sparkling yellow stalks.
Trees dressed up in chic green
boogie through noon breezes.
Aromatic lilac bushes cluster
in soft bunches. Just today a
breath of warmth brought alive
pink crepe myrtle branches.
Joan McNerney’s poetry has been included in numerous literary zines such as Moonlight Dreamers of Yellow Haze, Seven Circle Press, Dinner with the Muse, Blueline, Halcyon Days and included in Bright Hills Press, Kind of A Hurricane Press and Poppy Road Review anthologies. She has been nominated four times for Best of the Net.
Two Parts by Darrell Herbert
Coming to terms with insignificance
Trying times, more or less, dying times
In terms of our relationship, this shit is so one-sided
Drunk off of love, hate ignited
You’re not satisfied, I’m not excited
Should I leave or should I go?
Or, should I try to connect with your soul?
Why am I so unable?
A psychotic who’s mentally unstable
But, they hate my decreasing health
Or, maybe I just need help
Turn me on, turn me out
Turning the gun on myself.
Darrell Herbert is a recipient of the 5 American Visions and 5 American Voices Award, as well as a national silver medal in the 2014 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, presented by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers. He is a gold key recipient of poetry, presented by Casita Maria Center for the Arts & Education. He has been featured on the 2016 November issue of Not Only Street Magazine. He is also a recipient of the 2016 Scythe Prize, and the 2017 Scythe Prize. He was one of the winners in the second North Street Book Prize competition. He is a recipient of NY Literary Magazine’s 5 Star Writer Award. He was named a winner in the Fall 2017 Writing and Art Contest. His fiction and non-fiction has appeared in the Utica College Ampersand. His poetry has been featured in the likes of “The Best Teen Writing of 2014,” by Hannah Jones, HangTime Magazine, UC English Corner, The Lemonade Stand Magazine and many more magazines all over the world.
orders and wounds by linda m. crate
you still haunt me
in nightmares
kindness now
doesn’t erase or diminish
the unkindness
i received as a child
needed a father to love me
gave me a bully that cursed my name
belittled and wounded me
just because you could
insisted father knew best,
but i don’t think you did;
cried once when my mother
wouldn’t let you punish me
only taught me my value was in my
beauty
neglected to give me anything
other than orders and wounds
my only shelters and comforts
were books and nature
the soft needled pines embraced me
in comfort i never found in your arms.
Linda M. Crate is a Pennsylvanian native born in Pittsburgh yet raised in the rural town of Conneautville. Her poetry, short stories, articles, and reviews have been published in a myriad of magazines both online and in print. She has five published chapbooks A Mermaid Crashing Into Dawn (Fowlpox Press – June 2013), Less Than A Man (The Camel Saloon – January 2014), If Tomorrow Never Comes (Scars Publications, August 2016), My Wings Were Made to Fly (Flutter Press, September 2017), and splintered with terror (Scars Publications, January 2018).
Desiderata by Sergio A. Ortiz
There are days
you walk around dazed
and you’re not very friendly.
Minutes, even hours,
and you’re not very friendly.
Minutes, even hours,
find you lost and I know
my presence confounds you.
That’s when you start talking
That’s when you start talking
in whispers. It’s your way
of asserting the strands
of silver on your head,
your Lord of the Flies dance
your Lord of the Flies dance
around my campfire.
Don’t let it blind you. Virtues
abound in everyday heroes.
Sergio A. Ortiz is a two-time Pushcart nominee, a six-time Best of the Web nominee, and 2016/17 Best of the Net nominee. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Valparaiso Poetry Review, Loch Raven Review, Drunk Monkeys, Algebra Of Owls, Free State Review, and The Paragon Journal. His chapbook, An Animal Resembling Desire, will be published by Finishing Line Press. He is currently working on his first full-length collection of poems, Elephant Graveyard.
Ma`s Maize Meal by Ndaba Sibanda
She brought in
with her a silver pot
into which she discharged
water before assigning the vessel
to sit silently on the warming plate
When the silver pot was steaming
the water inside it was screaming
emotive gurgles that got her
toting guarded quantities
of mealie-meal and stirring
She left the porridge to simmer
and thicken for some time–
the aroma emanating
from the bubbling
was mouth-watering.
Ndaba Sibanda has contributed to the following anthologies: Its Time, Poems For Haiti- a South African anthology, Snippets ,Voices For Peace and Black Communion. He edited Free Fall (2017). The recipient of a Starry Night ART School scholarship in 2015, Sibanda is the author of Love O’clock, The Dead Must Be Sobbing and Football of Fools. His work is featured in The New Shoots Anthology, The Van Gogh Anthology edited by Catfish McDaris and Dr. Marc Pietrzykowski, Eternal Snow, A Worldwide Anthology of One Hundred Poetic Intersections with Himalayan Poet Yuyutsu RD Sharma scheduled for publication in Spring/Summer 2017 by Nirala Press and Seeing Beyond the Surface Volume II.
Every day by Eliza Segiet
Translated by Artur Komoter
When
you leave everyday life far behind,
so you can wait out the bad times here,
comes alive in you
the memory:
of the cloudy sky
and beautiful moments of forgetfulness.
Although memories and plans
cross with each other –
you know
that nothing will be like
it was yesterday.
Always repeat:
it was good that I was here.
Tomorrow, it may surprise you.
Eliza Segiet is Jagiellonian University graduate with a Master’s Degree in Philosophy. She completed postgraduate studies in Cultural Knowledge, Philosophy, Penal Fiscal and Economic Law, and Creative Writing at Jagiellonian University, as well as Film and Television Production in Łódź. She has published three poetry collections and two monodramas.
The Ticking of Winter’s Clock by Linda Imbler
My mother died in winter.
My mother far away.
Spring was to rise in only a few weeks.
It was the fourth of March.
Brown grass and leafless trees
were in endless array outside.
I could hear
the ticking of the clock
as I waited
for the phone to ring.
I have my father,
I told myself.
My father died in winter.
My father far away.
It was the seventh of March
and again, the green was still to come.
And again,
I could hear
the ticking of the clock
as I waited
for the phone to ring.
Then, I was alone.
Linda Imbler is a poet, music afficionado and lover of art.
Layers of Winter by Mysti S. Milwee
The bitter cold leaves me bundled
up in layers; two pairs of thick
wool socks that make me itch –
cuddle duds that cling trapping
in the heat to stay warm;
Ski pants that snap but all I want
is a long winter’s nap and roasting
marshmallows by an open fire;
Smoke signals cling to the air and
drift within my every breath that
I expel from my lungs and with
every breath I take a breath of
dry air shadows the moisture –
and every tear that leaks from the
corner of my eye will freeze an
emotion of freedom longing
for springtime.
Mysti S Milwee is an award winning artist, digital artist photographer, and published poet from Southside, Alabama. Her poetry has been published in the PPP E-Zine (India)-Poetics Interview-October- Volume 1: Issue 5-2017; The Alabama Baptist-”Beyond The Veil”-March 30,2017; The Mountain Press- “Gatlinburg Strong”-December 11,2016. Her poetry has been used in academic studies and ministries across the US and abroad. Her art was published in the GloMag (India) in an ekphrastic collaboration with Scott Thomas Outlar.
The Hole by Ann Christine Tabaka
A hole
there is a hole
there is a hole
in everyone
it cannot be filled
with wealth
with things
with busyness
those who say – NO
deny themselves
deny the truth there is no truth
the hole only g r o w s
wider
deeper
darker
until we find
what we have lost
truth
hope
love
love fills the hole
Ann Christine Tabaka is a nominee for the 2017 Pushcart Prize in Poetry.
She placed Third in Vita Brevis Best Poem Contest January 2018. She was selected as Poet of the Month for January 2018 and interviewed by Kingdoms in the Wild. She lives in Delaware, USA. She loves gardening and cooking. Chris lives with her husband and two cats. Her most recent credits are Page & Spine, West Texas Literary Review, Oddball Magazine, The Paragon Journal, The Literary Hatchet, The Stray Branch, Trigger Fish Critical Review, Foliate Oak Review, Bindweed Magazine, The Metaworker, Raven, RavensPerch, Anapest Journal, Mused, Apricity Magazine, The Write Launch, The Stray Branch, Scryptic Magazine, Ann Arbor Review, The McKinley Review.
God-coloured sea,
I was having you,
and not having you.
Margarita Serafimova was shortlisted for the Montreal International Poetry Prize 2017. She has two collections in the Bulgarian: “Animals and Other Gods” (2016), “Demons and World” (2017). Her work is forthcomingin Creative Process, Antinarrative, Aji Magazine, Lunaris, New Poetry, Subterranean Blue, Pangolin, and appears in Agenda Poetry, London Grip New Poetry, Trafika Europe, European Literature Network, The Journal, A-Minor, Waxwing, Nixes Mate Review, StepAway, Ink, Sweat and Tears, HeadStuff, Minor Literatures, The Writing Disorder, The Birds We Piled Loosely, Noble/ Gas Quarterly, miller’s pond, Obra/ Artifact, TAYO, Shot Glass Journal, Poetic Diversity, Pure Slush, Harbinger Asylum, Punch, Tuck, Futures Trading, Ginosko, Peacock Journal, Anti-Heroin Chic, and many other places.
Memos by Daginne Aignend
I have too many thoughts in my head
No wonder that some of them slip away
It happens oft that I was about to do
or about to say something, and
suddenly another thought enters my mind.
Don’t even recall what I wanted
in the first place
These days, I have to put notes everywhere
to remember what is really important
I think, my thoughts are an ongoing
stream overflowing my brain basin
Need some more structure in my head,
starting tomorrow
I better hang a memo on the fridge,
so I won’t forget
Daginne Aignend is a pseudonym for the Dutch writer, poetess, photographic artist Inge Wesdijk. She likes hardrock music, fantasy books, is a vegetarian who loves her animals. She’s the Poetry Editor of Whispers and has been published in many poetry journals, magazines and anthologies, in the ‘Tears’ Anthology of the The New York Literary Magazine’ to name one. She has a fun project website www.daginne.com
Serenade: A Moment by Glory Sasikala
He wove dreams with and around me
I will take you to the river
and make you a raft
You can lie there and float
with the current.
I’ll lift you up by a rope to our own tree house
We will watch the blue moon together
and hear the owl hoot.
I will send you love letters on lotus leaves
down the river.
I will weave you flower garlands made of buttercups.
There are open spaces in the forest
where the bamboo bloomed and died
We will go to the stream where the wild animals drink.
I will show you how the cheetah’s eyes
shine in the dark jungle
I will show you how to make baskets
out of palm leaves
And I will make love to you
among the flowers in the hillside
where the birds sing.
Glory Sasikala is a poet and writer currently residing in Chennai, Tamilnadu, India. She is the Editor and Publisher of the Monthly Online Prose and Poetry magazine, ‘GloMag’ and is the administrator of the group of the same name on Facebook. She is a language editor and quality analyst by profession.
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