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Halcyon Days Issue 14 - 2019 CONTRIBUTORS
Agnieszka Filipek 11 Water Lily 14 Holidays Carol Smallwood 12 Fog
Agnieszka Filipek Pg 11, 14
Carol Smallwood Pg 12
Christina E Petrides Pg 14
Robert Funderburk Pg 7
Steven Tutino Pg 4
Stella Mazur Preda Pg 5, 6, 8, 9
Christina E. Petrides 13 Clouds John Grey 15 Blue Sunset Robert Funderburk 7 Generations Steven Tutino 4 Ode to Painting Stella Mazur Preda 5 A Love Affair to Remember 6 Island Fever 8 Colours on the Wind 9 Folly Beach
Cover © 幸治 加藤—stock.adobe.com Facing photos—Dmitry Ersler
Halcyon Days Magazine ISSN: 2291-0255 Frequency: Quarterly Publisher | Designer: Monique Berry
Contact Info http://halcyondaysmagazine.blogspot.ca Twitter: @1websurfer monique.editor@gmail.com
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Special Notices Halcyon Days has one time rights. See website for subscription details. No photocopies allowed.
Contributor Bios Agnieszka Filipek lives in Galway, Ireland. She writes in both her native tongue Polish and in English, and also translates in these languages. Her work has been published internationally in countries such as Poland, Ireland, India, China, England, Wales, Germany, Bangladesh, Canada and the United States. For more visit www.agnieszkafilipek.com Carol Smallwood is a literary reader, judge, and interview who returned to college to take creative writing classes and has founded humane societies. Her most recent book is Patterns: Moments in Time (WordTech Communications, 2019). Christina E. Petrides is an expatriate American living and working on a small volcanic island in the Pacific Ocean. There, the magpies and the palm trees are imported, but the rice wine is indigenous and delicious. She breathes too much of the notorious 'fine dust' (an industrial, not intoxicating, concoction) and spends too little time at the gym. John Grey John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident. Recently published in Midwest Quarterly, Poetry East and North Dakota Quarterly with work upcoming in South Florida Poetry Journal, Hawaii Review and the Dunes Review. Robert Funderburk was born by coal oil lamplight in a tin-roofed farmhouse near Liberty, MS. He is an LSU graduate (1965), and a SSgt USAFR (1965-1971). He has had 17 novels published, one national best seller, and 10 poems accepted by literary journals, 2 published thus far. He lives with his wife, Barbara, on 50 acres of river wilderness in Olive Branch, LA.
Stella Mazur Preda is a.resident of Waterdown, Ontario, Canada. Having retired from elementary teaching in Toronto, she is owner and publisher of Serengeti Press, a small press publishing company, located in the Hamilton area. Since its opening in 2003, Serengeti Press has published 43 Canadian books. Serengeti Press is now temporarily on hiatus. Stella Mazur Preda has been published in numerous Canadian anthologies and some US, most notably the purchase of her poem My Mother’s Kitchen by Penguin Books, New York. Stella has released four previous books, Butterfly Dreams (Serengeti Press, 2003); Witness, Anthology of Poetry (Serengeti Press, 2004), edited by John B. Lee; From Rainbow Bridge to Catnip Fields (Serengeti Press, 2007) The Fourth Dimension, (Serengeti Press, 2012). She is a current member of Tower Poetry Society in Hamilton, Ontario and The Ontario Poetry Society. Stella is currently working on her fifth book, Tapestry, based on the life of her aunt and written completely in poetic form. Tapestry will hopefully be released in the Fall of 2019. Steven Tutino is currently a graduate student at Concordia University in the process of completing an M.A. in Theological Studies. He obtained a double major from Concordia as well in Honours English Literature and Theological Studies His poetry has appeared in Concordia University’s Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Sexuality, The Paragon Journal and Halcyon Days. His artwork has appeared in Word in the World, The Paragon Journal, The Minetta Review, Beautiful Minds Magazine, GFT Press: Ground Fresh Thursday, Michael Jacobson's The New-Post Literate, The Omnicult, November Bees: Journal of art and literature, Inside the Bell Jar, and Hour After Happy Hour Review. Steven currently resides in Montreal, Quebec.
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Ode to Painting By Steven Tutino
When I paint, I am young again, resilient. I want to live, find my way back to what it means to suffer and connect to the suffering of others. When I paint, I am not cut in two; there is no civil war raging inside my being. I am no longer divided. I am wholehearted. This is my passion, my joy, my friendly universe; the world mediated and permeated with value. Loving you is all that’s left to follow.
c ajwk—stock.adobe.com
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A Love Affair to Remember by Stella Mazur Preda entwined in an embrace two spirits manifest from the opacity of morning mist
they glide effortlessly swaying like gentle breezes accompanied by songbirds and bring the waltz to life oblivious to the world eyes only for each other their sublime love affair endures the centuries mist shrouds the couple conceals their passion their destiny to dance for eternity
GeoffGoldswain—stock.adobe.com
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Island Fever
by Stella Mazur Preda Caribbean sun turquoise waters caress white-hot beaches sipping cool pina coladas bikini-clad goddesses speculatively eye the competition turn their attention to bronzed specimens, surfing whitecaps silver moonbeams mirrored images shatter on bleached sands exotic island fragrances linger erotically on ocean breezes waves nip at their feet as lovers stroll, languishing in sensual haunting rhythms of steel drums
fotosdenada—stock.adobe.com
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Jag_cz
Generations
By Robert Funderburk Azalea Street, blazing red petals in the noonday sun, keeping covenant with its namesake. Honey bees browsed the lavender blossoms. . A young barefoot couple sat on their brick patio. Children played beneath the park’s ancient live oaks their squeals and shrieks of laughter drifting to them like Christmas memories. Then the weather turned around. A cooling wind blew in from the southwest, scattering thistledown clouds, blue sky rapidly becoming slate. Rain began a slow plinking on the tin roof of a back porch next door, changing slowly to a deep murmur as a white-haired man in faded overalls, lying on an army cot, drifted into sleep to the sound of his childhood. Inside, the anxious husband asked his wife, “You feel okay?” She lifted her feet onto the couch and lay her head in her husband’s lap. “I’m just enjoying being a woman. One who’s simply ecstatic about having our first child.” She sighed deeply, then closed her eyes, at peace in the certainty of their timeless covenant.
fotosdenada—stock.adobe.com
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Colours on the Wind by Stella Mazur Preda
Towering cedars line the obscure dusty road end abruptly in azure blue lake waters sunbeams ricochet, explode like shattered crystal; nature flaunts her daily rituals. Cool waters caress the beach, wild canaries bathe; a pair of loons call their young into military formation, ride the waves like a roller coaster; a chipmunk scurries, pauses to stare at this invasion of privacy, decides I am of no importance; humming birds flit impatiently, staccato wings a musical interlude of syncopated rhythms; a monarch flirts promiscuously with sassy sunbeams dances pirouettes daring me to catch it. Whispering lake winds nibble at my ear, blow warm kisses like a gentle lover teasing my senses; seduced by this virginal landscape, I surrender to Elysian pleasure that only Gods have known.
Lars Johansson—stock.adobe.com
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Folly Beach
by Stella Mazur Preda Brilliant copper feathers ebony night boldly clutches indigo skies as daybreak explodes on the horizon Sandpipers dance the shoreline morning repast tugging at their bellies Sandcastles relinquish their guard as rolling waters embrace the beach Fairy breezes frolic in the sands and palmetto palm leaves offer homage to a sunrise invoked by deities
abwnurse—stock.adobe.com
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DOC RABE Media—stock.adobe.com Halcyon Days - 2019 Issue 14 | 10
Water Lily
By Agnieszka Filipek lady of Fairyland skin soft and rosy eyes blue when it rains white airy gown on a shimmering lake scent of water lilies bed of rushes your voice whispering luring me in
c | cooperr—stock.adobe.com
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Fog By Carol Smallwood hints of another dimension with an ephemeral catch-me-if-you-can ambiguity of Midsummer’s Night Dream. When it rises from the ground one wonders whether it’s because air’s warmer than earth or vice versa? Patches in varied sizes and thickness fades quickly leaving you wondering if it ever was; walking through it one feels the fear of falling off the Earth like those sailing with Columbus.
frenta—stock.adobe.com
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Clouds
By Christina E. Petrides Nimble nimbus dripping water Subtle stratus trending higher
Middling altos acclimate Wispy cirrus dissipate Fat cumulus forge dark magic or drift luminous serene and classic
red150770—stock.adobe.com
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Holiday By Agnieszka Filipek The fragrance of oranges carries a sweet taste onto your lips Hot evening air melts my summer dress off into the sand Your tanned hands touch the edges of my dreams Ticket in hand I pack a suitcase full of souvenirs
C LisaLiza—Pixabay.com Halcyon Days - 2019 Issue 14 | 14
Blue Sunset By John Grey Lake's dusk between pines, glorious blue ceiling, forerunner of the yellows, the reds, mountain's indigo palette, sunlight seamless, transparent, that responds, at dusk, as lilac, thin, delicate as a sash Even at night, the more darkness repeats itself, the more blue memory sings.
C Eak Ekkachai—stock.adobe.com
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