A Space for Practicing Poets
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—for Mary
Open like a seaside cave
the waves roll in, roll out
the bats fly in, fly out
And then you come, brief tourist
flashlight in hand, your oohs and aahs
only your absence left behind
—
Jota Boombaba, when not on the road, writes in and around San Francisco, where he lives and kicks back with his son. Visit him most days at www.jotaboombaba.com.
. . . learn to listen as things speak for themselves.
-Bashō-
They’ve always known how to be alone, common,
Anonymous and ordinary in number as the cricket,
Except for silence, redundant as blackboard clunch,
But even more than this, though underfoot, beaming
Perennially face-up, starship voyagers eyeing the heavens,
Whatever weather, donning the same cloche and pillbox
Saffron hats season after season, never la nue, but never
Outré ou gauche either, as might be expected, never even
Rococo, downright out-of-the-loop, ever wishing they were Dressed to kill like toffs and swells, and almost never,
Confides the poet in Edo, in perfectly erudite Mandarin,
At fall twilight, echoing a solitary cicada’s cry,
Unless you listen, listen, “sinking/into stone.”
—
FROM FALLING will be published between March-April 2016; EVERYTHING SPEAKING CHINESE and OPEN HOUSE (fictions) were published in 2015. Gordon divides his personal and professional lives among Southeast Asia, Europe, and the Desert/Mountain Southwest.
dead snag along the
edge of the creek
unfolds like a parasol opening,
squawks effort, pulls
gangly
legs
that
trail
like
reeds
behind him, white lime of feces
streak onto water like an afterthought,
wide wings mask the road of sky
between the trees, a deep whoosh
so thick with flapping
you have to suck
at your breath,
cramp
your
diaphragm,
catch and swallow
that air before
it curls away
into the eddies
of his leaving.
—
Roy Beckemeyer’s poems have appeared in The Midwest Quarterly, The North Dakota Review, Coal City Review, and I-70 Review. He was a 2016 Pushcart nominee, and his collection of poems, “Music I Once Could Dance To” (Coal City Review and Press, 2014), was selected as a 2015 Kansas Notable Book.
Larkspur lace greens the garden
daffodil snubs push up
through the light snow dust
fat leaf buds stud the lilacs,
but earth’s still in winter’s hold
half way between the shortest day
and the first of spring.
Still cold.
Remember Bridget in fields just plowed
hallowing the new growth
and Simeon in the temple’s crowd
celebrating the new hope
Assemble then the candles,
newly blessed,
along the table’s length.
Let their light
with the Full Snow Moon’s
illuminate the dark night,
all the winter
that remains.
—
Mary Dudley received a master’s degree in English from SUNY/Stony Brook before moving to Albuquerque, where she earned a Ph.D. in child development across cultures from UNM. She has worked with young children and their families for many years. Her poetry has appeared in numerous publications.
I can trick you into swallowing
privilege.
Ours is too big to shove
in your mouths.
“Chubby bunny,”
the President laughs as
whiteness falls
from his tongue.
Clinton said that being president
is like an orgy:
you’ve got a lot of people under you
and nobody’s listening.
We wait
to be seduced.
Kym Cunningham will receive her MFA from San Jose State University with emphases in creative nonfiction and poetry. She is the lead Nonfiction Editor of Reed Magazine, the oldest literary magazine West of the Mississippi. She received the Ida Fay Sachs Ludwig Memorial Scholarship and the Academy of American Poets Prize for outstanding achievement in her writing. Her writing has been published in Drunk Monkeys and Reed.
There is no corner house
for your latest desire but there is
a cozy duplex, just off Main,
behind the shoe repair
and water department. Two doors down
there’s a cute artisanal bakery
where cupcakes become dreams
and a toothless man rails for mince.
The Dutch Apple Chocolate
is sometimes dry. Other than that
it’s a quiet town, sunny and white,
where Kalashnikovs make wealth
and Lotto governs the poor.
The ringleader lights his flaming hoops
as lost girls play hopscotch w/religion
in their earbuds.
The way is cleared for the prophet.
The riser erected. The carpet tacked down.
The faithful stampede. Bring their kids to the show.
Tomorrow could be the be all and end all
but it’s still just a staircase, a footnote.
A cheap sleight of hand God sometimes uses
then overdubs strings. Then on Wednesday
the town board votes and on Thursday
another mass shooting.
—
Poems and music criticism have appeared globally but have yet to generate any reportable income. First full length collection, smitten by harpies (Lion Autumn Press, 2016) Second chapbook, Eve’s Venom (Post Traumatic Press, 2014), Purgatory Road (Pudding House Press, 2010) Anthologies include: WaterWrites & Riverine (Codhill Press, 2009, 2007) Will Work For Peace (Zeropanik, 1999). VP, Calling All Poets in Beacon, NY. Producer of CAPSCASTS, recordings from Calling All Poets, available at www.callingallpoets.net. Music features, interviews & CD reviews appear in Elmore Magazine & the Van Wyck Gazette. www.mikejurkovic.com
He loves Emily most of all
Fighting injustice is one thing —
but I’m not sleeping with the enemy.
Not this time, cookie.
One argues for one’s rights,
and then a crisis comes along,
altering the landscape,
upsetting the natural balance,
and, generally, putting the boot in.
Oh, you can wring your hands
as if they were dirty rags
in a bin at a service station,
but this is bullroar, brother.
Just because something is broken
doesn’t mean we should fix it.
—
Pushcart nominee Bruce McRae is a Canadian musician with over a thousand poems published internationally, including Poetry.com, Rattle and The North American Review. A new book has just been released, An Unbecoming Fit Of Frenzy, and his first book, The So-Called Sonnets, and both are available on Amazon. To see and hear more poems go to ‘BruceMcRaePoetry’ on YouTube.
Behind winter’s soul your stature concealed
but your motion through this vaporous sky
cleaves open the mist till upon my eyes
you scatter your charm; thus with wonder filled
my senses revel and solitude yields
to every beat of your wings and my sighs.
Through diligence your unsung hardship cries
which your flight’s view acquaints me with. Like fields
that in wet chill and winter dryness stand,
your feathery body endures this cold.
Wreathed your labor shall be with garland
of fertility. Young wings shall unfold
and through season-hued skies as they ascend
the fields shall have molded lush rural gold.
—
An engineer by profession, Nilotpal Sarmah’s intellectual identity has always been that of a poet’s. A day’s hectic job is topped off with some of his verses. Born in 1987 in Assam, India, her landscapes have moulded Nilotpal’s thoughts as well. He is constantly writing in the hope of seeing his words in print someday.
Loose lips slit wrists
on the dashboard of our bathroom floor
darling these bodies are too heavy to hold,
this skin we wear
for disguise
is only covering the night.
You can’t remember the stars
for want of mirroring the moon,
I’m here to tell you
you’ll never shine
like her,
effortlessly
in the scattered dark.
So sew up your wrists
before the stars spill out
from your pretty little veins
that glow
in the dark.
—
Nicolette Daskalakis is an award-winning filmmaker, poet, and multi-media artist residing in Los Angeles. She received a BA in film production from the USC School of Cinematic Arts and a minor in Intermedia Arts from the Roski School of Art & Design. Her first book, “because you’re now banging a French girl,” was published in 2015.
Register today for The Poet’s Toolkit at ZingaraPoet@gmail.com, a Five week online class
Attend as many or as few classes as you like: $20 per class or $75 for all five weeks
This five-week course will focus on several of the most integral craft elements of poetry writing and is suitable for writers in any genre. Whether new to the craft or a long-time practitioner, this online class will help you bring focus and new energy to your poetry.
Each lesson will center on a particular skill and will include sample readings and discussion of the week’s craft element. A selection of representative poems meant to spark lively discussion will be included as will a number of fun and engaging writing prompts.
Facilitator: Lisa Hase-Jackson, MFA, passionately believes that great writing comes from active imagination and a careful eye, two characteristics easily cultivated through playfulness.
All day the sky teases –
bubbling storm clouds,
then sunlight around dinnertime,
dark squall finally
blowing in from the ocean.
Gusty deluge whips redwoods
into a drenched frenzy,
rust-colored needles cast down
to become one more startling hue
in a soggy compost pastiche.
Night brings banshee winds
that lift and rattle
windows and shingles,
command a second quilt.
By morning, this cabin,
a water-tight golden ark,
shelters and warms,
offers a good book, crackling fire,
hot cup of coffee.
—
Jennifer Lagier has published ten books of poetry and in a variety of literary magazines and anthologies. She taught with California Poets in the Schools and is now a retired college librarian/instructor. Jennifer is a member of the Italian American Writers Association and Rockford Writers Guild. She co-edits the Homestead Review and maintains websites for Ping Pong: A Literary Journal of the Henry Miller Library, The Monterey Poetry Review, and misfitmagazine.net. She also helps coordinate the Monterey Bay Poetry Consortium’s Second Sunday Reading Series. Visit her website at: jlagier.net
Hello Poets and Writers!
This is just reminder that registration for The Poet’s Toolkit is still open. The five-week class begins on Monday, October 17 and will cover important craft elements every writer interested in sharpening their skills will appreciate. Cost is only $75.00 for all five weeks or $20.00 per class for those who wish to pick and choose. In either case, you will have access to the course material beyond the five week session.
A shower of snow, ice dust drifting.
Hands so cold they burn, and hot pink memories
of bougainvillea, musk rose burst
into my mind. You, sitting in a grass field, head turned
away from me, the first clue.
Wind picks up, and I tug your old sled
up the track-scabbed hill, lift our son’s small body
onto the graying wood. Watch him laugh and tip
into a pool of space before he, too, speeds away.
—
KB Ballentine’s work has appeared in numerous journals and publications. A finalist for the 2014 Ron Rash Poetry Award, she was also a 2006 finalist for the Joy Harjo Poetry Award and was awarded the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Prize in 2006 and 2007. Fragments of Light(2009) and Gathering Stones (2008) were published by Celtic Cat Publishing. Her third collection, What Comes of Waiting, won the 2013 Blue Light Press Book Award.
Forgive me for running the tap too long,
houseplants murdered, paper
towels and paper plates,
brand new light bulbs dropped, the shabby
pens lost,
and house lights left on when no one was home.
Sorry for the now-extinct mice
I killed for living in my air conditioner.
The flowers cut before they went to seed
the fruits and veggies I didn’t get around to eating
or bottles and cans too lazy to fish
from the trash. I apologize for leaving the crust of my bread,
for pitching
tin foil after one use.
But I’m not sorry for
the smokes I smash out after a few drags
during the countdown toward a polluted future
I will miss
days of excessive living
with soap or washers and dryers or
radios or wallets or gas stations
from a time when I thought
recycling was good enough.
—
Juan Morales is the author of the poetry collections The Siren World, Friday and the Year That Followed, and the forthcoming collection, The Handyman’s Guide to End Times. He is a CantoMundo Fellow, the Editor of Pilgrimage Magazine, and an Associate Professor of English at Colorado State University-Pueblo, where he directs the Creative Writing Program and curates the SoCo Reading Series.
Accepting registrations now:
The Poet’s Toolkit
Five week self-paced online workshop for writers
While this five-week course will focus on several of the most integral craft elements of poetry writing, it is suitable for writers in any genre. Whether new to creative writing or a long-time practitioner, this online class will help you bring greater focus and new energy to your writing.
Each lesson will center on a particular skill and will include sample readings and discussion of the week’s craft element. A selection of representative poems meant to spark lively discussion will be included as will a number of fun and engaging writing prompts.
Students are invited to write a poem each week in response to any of the readings or prompts. While sharing is always optional, students may do so on a private discussion board. Students are also free to simply follow along with the weekly lessons.
Feedback on poems from me is available on request.
Price: $20.00 for ala cart classes or $75.00 for all five weeks. Scholarships are available to students and recent graduates. Contact Lisa at zingarapoet@gmail.com for more information or to register.
The Zingara Project 