NEW ::: POETRY | 2016 | International edition

NEW ::: POETRY INTERNATIONAL EDITION | ._:_.::: ISSN 2059-4992

ARIA LIGI | STANISLAV LAUK-DUBITSKY KEVIN KIELY | RINA IVANOVA ALESSANDRA BONOMELLI | ROMAIN TROJANI ELSBETH POE | ILANA HALEY | KATELYN DURST EVA NOLAN | CINDY CHEN | MATILDA LARK ROBYN BELT | LAURA BEYLEY | ZOE FISHER LISA ALAVADO | SHﾃ？RAZﾃ． ROSE SUZANNE AKKERHUIS | MARGARITA PUSHKINA MARIA SANTOS VILLARREAL | WETDRYVAC I. WRIGHT | VICTOR LOBOS DIEGO A. CORONA | ANDRES MORALES CAMILA F. GACITUA | NOELLYN CARTER RITA FORDE | NISHTHA PANDEY SAMER A. HADI | KIKI ERNST ANREW P. MASON | ANNABELLE FULLER

NEW ::: POETRY is a non-profit international magazines network and community with next attributes: shindyindie scheme (indie production with easy-going help from others, mostly geniuses) | Focus on classical & neoterrific poetry, translations, premiers, new genres and experiments | No politics, religion, sexual content | No actual budget | No sponsors | No advertisment | No academic establishment & the old boy network | Ready to print-on-demand (POD-friendly) | Quarterly (slowsome one), Weekly+ and special editions include sci-art and children's magazines | ":::" is a combination of two colons ":" with three ellipses "..."; it's like a portal to the future and a road to it. P.S. The cover art "Goddess of time" is made by Rina Ivanova from concept by SLD.

TABLE OF CONTESTS TOP-SPOT | CONVOYCE | ARIA'S ARA: ARIA LIGI | P: 4-19 EPICANTHROPE: STANISLAV LAUK-DUBITSKY (SLD) | P: 22-34 SAYVORY: I. WRIGHT | P: 35-36 NEWP!* | P: 38-45 | ALPHAFALL* | P: 47-50 PHOETRY BOOKMARKS* | P: 20, 37, 46, 51, 71, 76 UNDER COMMAS | POEMS BY EDITORS: KEVIN KIELY | P: 53-57 RINA IVANOVA | P: 58-60 ROMAIN TROJANI | P: 61-63 ALESSANDRA BONOMELLI | P: 64-66 MARGARITA PUSHKINA | P: 67-68 SUZANNE AKKERHUIS | P: 69 MARIA SANTOS VILLARREAL | P: 70

EDITORIAL STAFF Stan Lauk-Dubitsky [SLD] Founder / Publisher / Chief Senior Editor / Author

POINEER | NEWBIES' BENEFIT: NOELLYN CARTER & RITA FORDE | P: 73 NISHTHA PANDEY, SAMER A. HADI & RYAN PELAEZ | P: 74 KIKI ERNS, ANREW P. MASON & ANNABELLE FULLER | P: 75 \VOW | SPECIAL SECTION: ELSBETH POE | P: 78-79 ZOE FISHER | P: 80 MATILDA LARK | P: 81 EVA NOLAN | P: 82 CINDY CHEN | P: 83 ILANA HALEY | P: 84 LISA ALAVADO | P: 85 KATELYN DURST | P: 86 ASHLIE ALLEN | P: 87 ROBYN BELT & LAURA BAILEY | P: 88 SHÁHRAZÁD ROSE | P: 88-89

Aria Ligi - Senior Editor of International edition / Author / Proof-reader Rina Ivanova - Editor of Russian edition, Senior editor of Children's edition / Illustrator / Portraitist / Cover designer / Author Victor Lobos - Senior editor of Spanish edition / Translator / Author Tanja Istomina - Senior editor of German edition / Translator / Author

It is the first and last page with no design or artwork, so enjoy while you can :)

ADVERSETISMENT | WETDRYVAC | P: 92 CHILDREN OF CHILE | TEASER FROM SPANISH EDITION: DIEGO ALEGRIA | P: 94 ANDRES MORALES | P: 95-96 CAMILA FADDA | P: 97 VICTOR LOBOS | P: 98-99

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All Works are Copyright © their Authors 2016 All Rights Reserved Worldwide

No portion of this electronic magazine may be reproduced in any other form or by any means, except for the purposes of review, without the prior consent of the appropriate copyright owner.

P.S. All design works and illustrations were crafted by SLD.

Dear Reader, What you hold in your hand is the work of many, across continents, wires and seas. It is our impassioned aim that through poetry, prose and the sharing of ideas that we may make a mark upon humanity suffusing it with light and an indefatigable desire to better humankind.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated: “We need poets to change the world.” Though some may naysay this, and claim that poetry is just distilled language only useful for greeting cards and wooing, it must be remembered that throughout history, and prior to this technological age, poetry was not only lauded for its ability to allure and soothe, but as a rallying cry; its thunderous tocsin, the clapper echoing violently through marketplaces announcing and proclaiming for the masses of the day the political injustices which impacted them. This is poetry at its finest hour, it is what it was crafted for. One need only to look to Iran where Fatemah Ekhteari and Medhi Mousavi, two Iranian poets, were imprisoned for poems they wrote challenging the status quo. If poetry were merely meaningless drivel, the powers that be would not be threatened thus.

Similarly, a US spoken word performance on the Queen Latifah show by BE, RM, and ZA, three teenagers who are members of the Get Legit organization entitled Somewhere in America, on the Queen Latifah Show, declaimed regarding censorship in education, and the pressures on young women within society both peer and the undercurrent of sexual objectification which permeates all cultures.

This is the imperative of NEW ::: POETRY, to bring voices together from around the world, through poetry, and in a loud voice, around the issues that affect us all. Therefore we can declare to all the detractors that poetry is not a happenstance, it is not a frivolity: it is the fuel that lights the engines of change.

Foreword by editorial staff.

TOPSPOT | Aria Ligi as featured author with interview and selection of poems from her forthcoming book "Hammer of God"

ARIA LIGI | s. editor of NEW ::: POETRY (ENT) and NP ::: DESTI. Poet, critic, blogger

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Why don’t you let the hammer of god rain down on me The gibbet tied tightly in your bloodied fists~ Why don’t you take the mallet so heavy Made from the old hickory that stood behind our privy And hack and hack till my brains smack No more to torment you No more to sully the purity of your low hanging vine, Of you sweet Christ wineOf you hymnals sitting as brethren on the pews sublime To think is absolute freedomTo question, is to shine These things professed as unmitigated truth Now rot and twist are stamped divine~ The call of so many voices pursued me Out of the darkness you consumed me I ran till my breath nearly broke And your god became, what he was, unmasked, His teeth shown bared emitting bracken flares Within the vacuum of his oracular tomb His hammer is his tongue, his teeth are the blade Serrated edge ripping me to shreds In the blaspheme, in the sour bilious breeze The hammer sounds, the tree is felled

RIMG SPEC. Rhyme: ::/::: Rhythm: horizontal, mixed semi-universal style

Oh prime mother, are you blind to the dross Godly entail, bequeathed to your progeny The subtle subtext lacing that foaming effervescent sea This bequest was yours alone to give It was seen in the faces and heartsIn the flowers that lined and made your final bed Would you recognize him, the smile situated plainly, Under guile and toothy gums when pageantry is gone And the lights dim Will he still be your sweet gentle ingenuous child Oh prime mother, does he dream of you still And does that image wax and press within it The promise susurrated, the unaffected life The image, you censured Does he hear you anymore Does he acknowledge the implications Oh prime mother, your smile still shines Neath the beam in his eyes Let your open arms adorn him...

Let the humble pathos be conceded No more to be suborned in convenient conventionality Upset the sett- tear the style from your bosom Oh Primal mother, hear our plea The monarchial choir, where Bobbies nod refrains A hideous discordant act of duty Throw the cockade to the sea Channel a ballooning polluted pledge to aristocracy Turn your air brushed cheek rosette powdered and keen To the last; hinting, abiding for that silent kiss Would we be remiss to stand on Awaiting for her slight form to hail us from beyond Oh Prime mother, your anthem has been acceded To the halls of the aged and the poor Whose little limbs frail as tinder, lovely embers lit the hillocks Crackling and spinning, dwindling and dying Furious lights descending The hearse’s motor now diminishing The flame she lit as none before *For Princess Diana of Wales

RIMG SPEC. Rhyme: ::/::: Rhythm: chaotic, semi-universal style

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RIMG SPEC. Rhyme: ::/::: Rhythm: mixed (chaotic + horizontal, separate styles)

I saw his cradled head under the wounded flowerbed Wrinkled and sagging in its frowzy spinal fare It didst spake, unbeknownst to maternal ears: See me, hear me, climb unrestrained from your womb But their eyes were waxened o’er Soused in the nectar of faery flower Whilst ears and hands mourned the loss They had as yet to partake They in that mournful hour, wailing their loss, Lauded the passing not so much as an abysmal parting; But with acquiescence turned their knowing gaze Whispered sad and ironic clichés – contrition For the woe bludgeoned museThat they were now sacred in their loss, Gilded in ethereal dross Lofty gold hues which are embossed To the saddened and the few- the exclusive conclave The drearisome and entitled brave Touted martyrs and saints while the doors slam And the tissues are packed away We are left, bemused and despised Our entreaties of compassion sit in tatters And his lone voice remains unheard In its opulent defiant refrain: “see me”, “hear me” As the dirt pours on his open grave 8

What do they matter those tiny feet, twigs Lissome stilts and sweet as figs What is the cost to our humanity To our self-proclaimed united, nobility We abate-We capitulate gainst primogeniture Titled heirs and the pomposity Which somehow lifts us, silent and unawares Under their spell we walk dream bound For that promised pinnacle We wander through candy fumed clouded rooms Where the opiates- orgiastic take us in, Wreathing us in its portentous doom The cacophony of the unheralded is a hammer on my tongue Which coughs and rasps a little purr quelled Stamped as frippery And breathing (now an arduous task) subdues the slight sac In its naked, nascent form Which, was never brilliant, nor fulsome But lay its soft head between her shaking knees Inert, while the leavings, viscous sheen dried And the announcement of the day Of the imminent arrival died, unpronounced No dais to adorn him No mantle decked in purple pageantry proclaimed his majesty But gainst his mother’s slicked and sweat raked cheeks He found dignity.

*For the 700 babies born into poverty each day in Britian on the birth of Prince William’s son RIMG SPEC. Rhyme: ::/::: Rhythm: mixed (chaotic + horizontal, semi-universal style)

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RIMG SPEC. Rhyme: ::/::: Rhythm: horizontal, separate styles

you - neight tad of St. Ate... in god wet rust... in wick can...

Good morning America Do you hear my cry The unborn epiphanies never to arise This mouth nakedly open could swallow youWho lie blinded and wounded by your own hand Filtering for coins in the burnt and mildewed lands Good morning to the ďŹ elds of cha, Ears broken, wrinkled And weeds untilled the plough sits corroded Fettered by ill use Eyes peer out amidst the blades hurling and railing insults On the bloodied shafts once stained In the green rich mulch and morning dew Good morning to what A goodness now tainted in suspicion The milk soured by invectives and soil riddled in derision This pen that inks the page Stands unapologetic in the rain

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SHUNT THE BLADE The searing jagged jabs to the hole Will not make you whole nor atone for the quiet death That burning branded as a hot smoldering unfaltering note Over and over the bludgeoning pain Till it tore up my thighs and left me insane I put my head upon the splice begging you for my life While under the wretched bovine knife You hacked and hacked, slung me in your gunny sack Bones chiseled shards en mass; over the blood hewn ice The ringing in my ears reverberated through ribs and tears Till fear and anger overwhelmed me I lay in an ocean replete where none could reach, nor hear Tired child of doom let your sadness not o’er take you Nor hatred, make you; let it still be immaculate seed RIMG SPEC. Rhyme: ::/::: Rhythm: mixed (chaotic + vertical, semi-universal style

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Selection of best questions of editorial staff for Aria Ligi

it reached them. To me, that whether they admit it or not, again means on some level, by that, then, so be it. That powers that be are offended considered before. If the might not have even see things in a way that they reader to think and maybedifferences there are commonalities that link us all. rthdghgd write. I want to challenge theand then in the end, to maybe see how underneath was nice.” Nice is not what Ito question and see things from an alternative perspective was pretty.’ Or worse, “Thatwhich elicits deep thought. In to this I would add the ability to read it and say, “oh thatincite a reaction. Not necessarily positive or negative but one a chord. I don’t want peoplehave done my job. I have many intentions, but first is to yes ponder, then I know I have hitthey admit it or not, it reached them. To me, that means I mine and have to pause andthat, then, so be it. That again means on some level, whether think. If they read a poem ofconsidered before. If the powers that be are offended by cause the reader to stop andmaybe see things in a way that they might not have even merely be sexual, but willnot what I write. I want to challenge the reader to think and such a way that will notsay, “oh that was pretty.’ Or worse, “That was nice.” Nice is is progress. I try to write inknow I have hit a chord. I don’t want people to read it and that are no longer today. Thisread a poem of mine and have to pause and ponder, then I ago would have been taboosexual, but will cause the reader to stop and think. If they so many topics which yearsprogress. I try to write in such a way that will not merely be freedom of speech. There areago would have been taboo that are no longer today. This is speech and especially artisticfreedom of speech. There are so many topics which years I would defend freedom ofI would defend freedom of speech and especially artistic

PERSON-PER-SUN | PERSONAL PATH SECTION

What inspired you to become a poet? Are you proud of your choice?

I would have to say my early love of music and singing. As a small child, I used to get up early in the morning and sing to my parakeet. I would make up songs, and just sing. When we are children we have the freedom to play, making up stories, and weaving a thread that is all our own. Children create stories and poetry naturally. Unfortunately as we age, creativity dissipates. However, if as an adult you can retain that child within, that sense of play with words or images that you had; that is where true art comes from, whether it is poetry, painting, sculpting or any art form.

Did you learn poetry by yourself or did you study it during your college years?

I learned through trial and error, and reading. When I was younger, I read a lot of poetry, and experimented with different styles.

That is how you find your voice. In high school I read poets such as: Sylvia Plath, Emily Dickinson, Yeats, Tennyson, Burns and Byron. Later, when I was in college, I did take a short story class, and a poetry class, but my major was not poetry. College is a great time for not only focusing on your core classes, but trying new things, new avenues of creativity and finding out just what your passion is.

What is the most important thing you have learned about poetry?

And what do you feel when you write or read poems?

There are quite a few things, so to pare it back I would need to make a list. If in terms of what I have learned concerning writing poetry, I would have to say that there is always more to learn. Writing is a process and as such it is constantly evolving. If as a writer you become so inured that you never alter anything, then you don’t evolve. You become stagnant. On the other hand, if you can step back from it, and are able to take stock, hone it, and fine tool it, then you may have something worthwhile at the end. Of course, this is dependent on you as a writer, being willing to be self-critical, which is never an easy thing. One may ask, how does one deal with a barrage of rejection slips, emails etc… You contend with it, by becoming a little numb to it and then realizing that it is in fact, not you, but them. If you can find the support of an editor or publisher, then that will make all the difference; discovering that person though is paramount to any meaningful success. Now, if you are talking about poetry as a whole, and what is the most important thing in that regard, then I would have to say that poetry can be more than just pretty verse upon a page and it should be. Poetry has the potential to be a great tool to reach the masses. During the 15th Century and up until the 20th, it was just that.

It was highly regarded and esteemed. To be a poet was a greatly revered vocation and one which was not entered into blithely.

What has lowered it is in fact a degradation of education, respect for education, and with that the insidious commercialism that has seeped into our culture and which has marked poetry with the stamp of being a mere triviality. This lowering of the muse, and summarily education and language on the whole, has depressed real verse and given rise to a ‘poetry’ which is anything but grand or consequential. The question then becomes, how do we take it back? How do we infuse it with life, meaning and the veneration which once hung around the poet’s pate like a coronal wreathe? We do so by lauding great works of the past, schooling ourselves on the likes of Shakespeare, Petrarch, Homer, Arisoto, Dante, Milton, Byron and then, using them as examples to craft our own. We can pen exemplary poetry which has merit and is diffused with the issues of our times, if we do just that. By taking up our pens in this great cause we can return verse to its rightful place as something which is respected and honored, while at the same time rallying for the rights and causes that impact humanity. This is the great cry of poetry.

Answering the second question, it depends on what I am reading or writing. Is the poem sad? Is it insightful? It’s not so much about what you feel; it’s about how you take it in. Once you have read something, what do you do with that knowledge? Do you say, that was interesting and move on? Or do you take it in and think about it? Do you use the information to gain further knowledge? Does it in some way effect and thus alter a previously held notion? In this way, are you a passive reader or an active one? The active reader lets the text involve them. There have been few modern poems that have deeply affected me. I find that very sad, but the truth is that most of what I read these days does not cause me to pause and reflect. There are a few poems that have impacted me and which I can relate to. Sylvia Plath’s poem ‘Daddy’ was the first poem I read which I connected with a very core level. That is because if you are a survivor of child abuse, it hits you very strongly. It really packs a punch, and even beyond that, her description of her father as this authoritarian figure, is one which many young women (and men) can identify with. While it can be seen as a confessional poem, it has the ability to reach across time and into the inner psyche of our lives. That is a powerful poem. There are others too though, Mandelstam’s poem, gorgeous poem which starts: “I want to serve you on an equal footing with others; with dry lips. The word does not slake my parched mouth and without you again, the dense air is empty.” And Neruda’s exquisite ‘Body of Woman’ which in its fulsomeness reveres with such tenderness that it is more than a love poem, but an ode to all women.

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If you had to choose between: form, content and technique in a poem which is quintessential?

That’s a tough one. I think form is KEY. You need form, because it’s your foundation. You need content, because otherwise what are you saying? And to whom are you saying it? Technique rather goes with form, because you need technique so that you can create form. I think though form is first, because without it, you have nothing. It would be like building a house with no bolsters. The house would fall down. So, you can have the best content, and great technique, but with no form you have a mess. Form gives a poem richness and structure so it can stand on its own. I have read poems that zip along the page with no form at all, and reading them is like trying to decipher the fuzzy white screen on a television when the station has turned off. You get nothing. You are lost.

This is why form is not only nice to look at, it is essential.

Since the use of words and vocabulary often seems to be unapproachable and might scare newcomers away. What does your daily schedule look like when you're planning to write and which emotion inspires your writing the most?

It’s pretty simple. I made a goal for myself to write every single day. Even if I have a busy day, I still write. My daily schedule though is a little backward sounding but I write in the evening and then type it in, every morning. When I put it in, I edit as I go. The nice thing about writing at night is if I am unhappy with it, I sleep on it, so that when I come back to it in the morning I am fresher. And I don’t think there is any one emotion. It’s important not to get stuck in particular style such as being a poet who only writes love poems, or only writes nature poems. That’s like playing the same record, or eating the same food day after day. UGH. I want to give the reader variety. Therefore, I have poems which are humorous, sad, nature oriented, political, ethereal, satirical, etc. If you stick to a certain genre then what happens is you get typecast as a poet who only writes one thing. There should be much more than that. Now some poets get known for their love poems, but if you read more of them, then generally you find they write about a wide array of subjects. That is when you know you are a well-rounded writer. The other part of that is that if you do this, then your ability to reach more people increases because there is more of a chance that somewhere along the line, something you say will move them and that’s what it’s all about.

What inspired you to write about/for historical figures?

About five years ago now, I happened to pick up a book in the dollar bin at our local library on Marie Antoinette. It was a piece of historical fiction entitled “Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette” by Sena Jeter Naslund. The book was just fantastic. It is written not merely as a piece of fiction pretending to be fact it was extremely poetic in its prose. I had been very curious about Marie Antoinette, not just because of her famous line (which I discovered she not only never uttered, but which was antithetical to who she was a person and how she was raised) but because an elementary school friend was directly related to her. I wanted to know more. Somehow that more, morphed into writing poetry for her and my research grew and grew. I felt very close to her almost as if she was standing right beside me. Then she moved from standing beside me to being with me all the time. It was a strange kind of empathetic symbiosis. After I wrote my book for her, it occurred to me that I could do more of this, and then, and I don’t recall how, I became interested in the English Romantic Writers of the 18-19th century. I think this grew out of Marie naturally because of course they were from the same time period, but I wanted to see all sides of it. It is one thing to solely look at say an aristocratic point of view, but then to see the peasant’s point view, and then to step further back and see the entire thing from the English perspective, (which is completely different, because they started out very invigorated by the entire thing, but as the revolution became bloodier and bloodier, their stance changed from support to disgust) widens your scope. Through doing this, you don’t get trapped in any one view point, but are able to see it from a personal framework as well, as how the views of those from different cultures saw it as well. One of the things I work with when I am writing poetry is that sense of empathy, so that the reader can become enmeshed within it too. I want to create a bridge between then and now, so that poetically, and viscerally, you can understand what they were going through.

What is it in the Renaissance that draws you to it?

Oh, gosh everything!!! The softness of color, especially in the shading which the high masters called chiaroscuro, their willingness to play with ideas and to find within what they created, what essentially was already there. Michaelangelo said that when he found the piece of Travertine marble that eventually became the statue of David, that it was already there, he just revealed it. WOW. The Renaissance was a time of great expansion, creativity and openness. Even in Italy, there were places where in fact men who were gay, did not have to hide who they were. They could just be. Can you imagine that? Poetry was lauded and revered, and then you had such divine artists as Raphael, Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, Da Vinci, to name a few. I think though what captures me most though was the underlying reverence and need to be creative, to take chances, while at the same time the public, respected and revered great art. What time to live!

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INTERVIEWERS: KEVIN KIELY (5), SARAH RAHIMI (6,8), ASHLIE ALLEN (3), ALESSANDRA BONOMELLI (1,2,4,7), RITA FORDE (7)

POE... PLUS POPULUS |

ART & PEOPLE SECTION

Do you think our society has an overrated knowledge and love for poetry? Maybe poetry is slowly losing its value?

No. In fact I think poetry is underrated, at least real poetry. If you go to any bookstore, the poetry section, if it is there, is really, really small, and then what passes for poetry today is usually not. It is either Hallmark or so overly flowery that it means nothing.

About losing value - I hope not. One needs to look at our world and realize that with all the chaos going on around us, poetry, and what it can accomplish, is needed now more than ever. I can read Shelley’s “The Mask of Anarchy” which was written about the Peterloo Massacre of 1819 and still relate to it, because what it is talking about is more salient than ever. We need more of that kind of writing; if it can be used as a medium to heighten understanding, it is of inestimable value.

Do you think that poetry should be introduced in primary school to make little kids understand the power and the beauty of it? And do you think writing poetry is for everyone?

YES! And they need to introduce classical verse, and at the same time make it fun. Let kids play with it, and find their own voice.

But No. That would be silly. I think anyone can appreciate poetry, but not everyone can write it. It is a craft, and as such needs to be valued and respected much as one would a symphony or a portrait exhibited in the Louvre. Great poetry is like that, for it is eternal crossing time and generational divides.

The world is slowly turning more grey, no opinion seems to be absolute, everything can be relative depending on how you see the matter, experience and describe it. In this world, where does your morality lie as an artist who has to bring her perception of good and evil, right and wrong to the world?

I think morality comes from your inner core. How were you raised? What are your belief systems? Where are your boundaries?

Most people know for instance that stealing, is wrong, yet, do they have that inner sense of self, that compass that will stop them from making a mistake? Crossing the line? Even if you were raised by hooligans, or lived on the streets, it doesn’t matter, if you have strength within, you know. It’s in how you live your life. This does not mean being gullible, it means having a sense of balance.

I would not for instance read someone’s work, and give them bad advice just to thwart their efforts as a writer, because I feel threatened… or if someone sent me a poem, change a few words and call it mine. That is plagiarism and it’s not only illegal it’s morally unethical. The question is, in this world in which society has this free for all on the net with artwork can you pull yourself back, retain your integrity and still make an impact? Artists who are honest, morally and ethically are, after all is said and done, viewed with higher esteem.

As we know your writings can sometimes be seen as provoking, whether it's sexual or thought. If there is a chance that censorship will be the norm, when a conservative party starts ruling the country, how hard are you willing to protect your freedom of speech? And what is your intention with your poetry? To provoke what exactly?

I would defend freedom of speech and especially artistic freedom of speech. There are so many topics which years ago would have been taboo that are no longer today. This is progress. I try to write in such a way that will not merely be sexual, but will cause the reader to stop and think. If they read a poem of mine and have to pause and ponder, then I know I have hit a chord. I don’t want people to read it and say, “oh that was pretty.’ Or worse, “That was nice.” Nice is not what I write. I want to challenge the reader to think and maybe see things in a way that they might not have even considered before. If the powers that be are offended by that, then, so be it. That again means on some level, whether they admit it or not, it reached them. To me, that means I have done my job. I have many intentions, but first is to yes incite a reaction. Not necessarily positive or negative but one which elicits deep thought. In to this I would add the ability to question and see things from an alternative perspective and then in the end, to maybe see how underneath differences there are commonalities that link us all.

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Blake and Shelley were fighters of freedom, equality and justice. Does their attitude reflect your position in society?

YES! Those are two great examples and I would add to them, Leigh Hunt, (the owner, Editor and Publisher of The Examiner) because he really put his money where his mouth was in terms of not only criticizing the government, but actually having the chutzpa to publish satirical essays, poems and columns on the King of England, George IV and then being tried for sedition and libel three times, and finally being sentenced on the fourth time to two years in Kings Bench prison. He was courageous. Hunt spoke out not only on the King’s immorality, he was a gambler, womanizer and corpulent as whale due to constantly over indulging on food, but Hunt spoke out on the immoral and abusive treatment of the soldiers in the military. There was this one soldier who refused to be flogged. He was then flogged 200 times. He only made it to 100 lashes before he died. Hunt in speaking out on these abuses was so loved that he would get fan letters in prison from the mothers’ of soldiers saying that he had saved their son’s lives. WOW. Blake, spoke out on child prostitution and child labor before anyone took the cause on, and Shelley, would go out into the streets and give soup and blankets to the poor. He lived according to his ideals, which meant he emphasized : love, compassion, and equity. He was adamantly opposed to slavery, so much so that he refused to have sugar in his home because he knew it was picked by black slaves and he took in a homeless girl, adopted her and raised her with Mary. I think the sad part is that both Shelley and Blake would be deeply disturbed at how little society has changed in terms of reaching these goals (and having their actions reflect these ideals).

How do you see poetry during the modern age where everything needs to have a pragmatic purpose rather than a personal one, like pleasure, enrichment of the soul/intellect?

I see it as evolving. In the beginning poetry was more about music and creating a mythos between and for cultures which passed on through time. (i.e. the tribal songs, ceremonies and prayers to gods) then it morphed into long and grand epics, esp if you read the Greek or Italian works by writers as Petrarch, Dante or Ariosto. Poetry was hip and cool for a long, long time. It was how young men wooed women, or men wooed men; it was a means of creating art, love and even political descent. Then during the 16th-19th century you had the greats, Shakespeare, Milton, Burns, Cowper, Chatterton, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, Browning, both Robert and Elizabeth, Dickinson, and with that the shepherd, Leigh Hunt who was himself a publisher and poet and who found new talent, such as Keats and Shelley, and really helped to bolster their star. Most people when you mention Byron, Keats or Shelley think of love poetry, but in fact, they were political crusaders in a time of violence and oppression. You have to remember that this was the time of the French Revolution and so many Englishmen and women hoped for reform as a result for England. It’s imperative to understand this, because out of the blood and ashes came great, profound verse the likes of which has yet to be seen again. Then we come to the sixties, and what we got was Ginsberg, Ferlinghetti, Auden, etc, who with this freedom call of anti-war, and free love decided to dismantle poetry from its foundations, strip it from the roots, and recreate it without any girders at all. That is free verse. While free verse has its place, it is not in the same league as classical. It is much, much more akin to prose. So much of what is written out there sounds more like a Hallmark card, than a poem, or is so intensely personal that unless you have a map for it, you have no idea what is being said. I don’t think you should need instructions (like the ones used to construct furniture from IKEA) to understand a poem. While footnotes (and I do use them) can be helpful, they should only be aides; the poem itself should be able to stand on its own, so that any person reading it will retain some sense of value.

Could you try describing yourself with most minimal amount of words to capture your essence? Because when I think of Aria, I think of forest, poetry, romanticism, white, old books, freedom. Am I correct?

Yes, but it also means silvery, Aria was a nymph in Greek Mythology who had a child with Apollo and it was also the name of the Capitol of Afghanistan for a long time. I have had a lot of Persian friends think I am Afghani which of course would be silly, because I am this petit woman with blond hair. HA! I like your thought though. And I see my essence as very, very, very old (soul-wise) and yet always evolving and changing. In terms of a metaphor rather like liquid silver, or mercury just reforming and adapting as time goes on. I don’t feel a day is complete unless I learn something new. That’s part of it. The other part is that no matter how much I share with others, or learn from others, I think there is always more to me, and more to you, that I can learn and know. I find that endlessly wonderful and fascinating.

INTERVIEWERS: SARAH RAHIMI (1,3-7), ALESSANDRA BONOMELLI (1,2)

16

PETAL TALE |

| POETS' SECT

Do you believe poets today care to learn about traditional poetry?

My brief answer is they don’t care, but they should. There are many schools within poetry, the traditional classists and the free verse folks, but in truth, one abdicates form entirely and the other uses form as a ballast upon which to build their work. There have been significant poets, in both schools, generally speaking though, I think it’s very important to have knowledge of the classical poets, and the great bards, because then you have a foundation from which to build on. After all if you were a musician, you would want to study the great composers such as Brahms, Beethoven, etc. Would you be so arrogant as to say, I don’t need to know this, and skip to the likes of Phillip Glass? No, and so like any art, you need to know where you came from to have an appreciation of where you are. This in turn will strengthen you as a craftsman. Poetry is akin to sculpting with words. A sculptor would not decide one day to create the worlds’ best statue, he/she would need to study sculpture, and work towards that. Poetry is the same way; modern poets need to understand that.

What is your opinion of confessional poetry in that all modern poets seem to be confessional?

I am not a huge fan of this genre at all. For one, because it feels to me like so much vomit on the page. Secondly, if you only write confessional poetry then that does not take a lot of imagination and of course once you have confessed all your crap in poetry, then what do you have to write about? Thirdly, a lot of this is so specific to the writer’s experience, that unless you know that person personally, you may not understand what they are saying. Good poetry should not need a guide post, or map to understand it. Even if you use footnotes, which I do, they should only be to tell the reader the meaning of a word, or maybe shine light on context which may be unfamiliar, but the feeling that emanates from the piece should be there without the writer needing to extrapolate.

You must have influences even in Harold Blooms's phrase 'anxiety of influence' but do you feel that poetry is never written in a vacuum and definitely influenced by other work or is there any poet who can claim total lack of influence?

We all learn from each other, if we are honest. At the same time, imagination is the foundation of poetry. It cannot be written in a vacuum because that would assume that one is so intractable that they are never influenced by any outside sources. Since we are all part of this world, then, it is only logical that just by being in it, we affect one another. It is useful to have someone to bounce ideas off of, if they are knowledgeable about what you are trying to do, and supportive, it can be of great benefit. It really depends on who you are conversing with. If they are not empathetic, then it can do more harm than good. On the other hand, if they never give you any advice but only gush over your work then it will be a waste of time. So, it really depends on what you want out of the relationship and what the dynamic within it is. (Some friendships have been strained by using friends as sounding boards therefore, it might be better to ask the advice of someone you are not especially close to). For myself, I don’t really turn to anyone as a muse or guide. I read and I listen to my inner voice. I don’t believe in looking to others for your creative source, because that makes you dependent. I would never want to be that way. Otherwise, if said person left, or died then where would you be?

During the time you have been an editor, what have you learned about the mistakes poets are making today?

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That’s an interesting albeit difficult question to answer, as in I do not in my spare time contemplate how many errors there are and if there is a common thread. That being said, the most frequent mistakes are an overabundance of adjectives. This is a clue that the writer is either trying excessively hard to impress by adding in as many descriptors as possible, or that they simply have no idea what they are doing. They are in effect throwing words on the page. What do you have after that? Nothing; after that the other one is a writer who has not found their voice yet, so they either switch pronouns in the middle of the work or their piece has no single theme. This leaves the reader lost. Where are you going? And what are you trying to say? Another one, is the overuse of the lower case 'i’ which unless you are E.E. Cummings, looks pretentious or like you are stuck in elementary school. My advice is be a grown up. This is the same as adults who write their ‘i’s’ with the dot as a bubble, smiley face or worse a heart. It’s cute when you are in fifth grade, but after that, it just looks absurd. I don’t want to sound dogmatic here, but use correct grammar, and format. Write with purpose, otherwise, why do it at all?

If there is anything you could tell an insecure aspiring writer, what would it be? What would you say to encourage new talents? Any tips to get inspiration flowing?

First of all read, read anything you can, If you do nothing else. It does not have to be poetry, but read. The best teachers are books.

The other thing is experience life. Get out there and be active. Meet people, all kinds of people and listen to their voices. There are so many different people, and with so many different stories of their own. The more you listen to others, the more you increase your inner reservoir of knowledge. And of course go to museums, libraries, bookstores, concerts and immerse yourself in art.

Expose yourself to art, and take chances. The more you are open to new ideas the more you will discover. If you look at the great works of the Renaissance, and you read how the masters made the frescos or statues in Rome, then you will learn even more. It is not just about seeing a painting and saying, ‘That’s nice’, but asking yourself what was the artist trying to convey? And what materials and modes of craftsmanship did they employ to make it? I learn through reading others’ works, through practice and through academia. It’s not necessary to take classes in poetry to be a poet. One can be technically masterful at creating a sonnet for instance but if the poem itself is devoid of feeling, then you end up with nothing You need to have both form and conviction otherwise the end result is vapidity. Next, be patient, because Shakespeare was not a poet or playwright when he was two. So, be patient and allow yourself to make mistakes and to write crap. You have to keep moving forward and keep trying. Also, don’t beat yourself up if it doesn’t sound right. Even crap can be beneficial because without it, you don’t learn. I had this poem a while ago that I wrote. I hated it. I knew what I wanted to say, but it came out all wrong. So, I put it aside and came back to it later. I had to rewrite the entire thing, and gain new perspective by taking time away from it. Allow yourself to make mistakes and forgive yourself. This is an art, it’s not about throwing words on the page and calling it art. Then, remember that to be a writer, you need to feel that pull within yourself that says I am doing this because I have to, not for money, or glory, but because the desire beats within like a drum. If you can find that then everything will follow.

Do you think it is worth it to rewrite poems that you had written a long time ago, or should they remain unchanged? I think it is extremely helpful to go back, reread what you have written not just with the aim of possibly editing but to see how you have progressed as a writer, to take stock if you will.

I did this a few years ago, because I had not written anything in a very long time, and wanted to return to poetry. There had been a lot of personal tumult and so I was unable to write at all. After things had calmed down though, I went back and decided I would look at all of my old work. I have this suitcase full of all my writing: poetry, journals, etc. I think there are about 200-300 poems in it.

I wanted to see just where I was, and if I could still do this thing called poetry. Had I changed? Out of all of it, I kept about seven poems and out of those I rewrote maybe two. It is also an interesting thing to do, because it’s kind of like looking at yourself from a new vantage point. I was astounded for instance that so much of it was just not me anymore. I couldn’t relate to it. I had no idea who this person was who wrote this stuff. That is why, in terms of really assessing yourself as a writer, I think it is an invaluable tool. The other plus to doing that, is that it challenges you to be honest with yourself. Can you say truthfully, this is junk? And do you have the strength to say, you know this is not me anymore, and I am throwing it out? Now, I did not throw out any of my work, I kept it. I did that purposefully, to remind myself of how far I have come. I think that is important. The bottom line though, is forcing yourself as an artist to be honest, be humble and work relentlessly at whatever you are doing, be it poetry, music etc, so that in the end it will reflect your highest aim.

ARIA'S SUGGESTIONS FOR READING MATERIAL: "Childhood, Boyhood, Youth" Tolstoy | "The Bell Jar" Sylvia Plath | "Will There Really Be a Morning" Frances Farmer | "East of Eden" John Steinbeck | "Iphigenia in Tauris", "Medea" Euripides | "The Faery Queen" Edmund Spenser | "Byron, Life and Legend" Fiona MacCarthy | "Percy Bysshe Shelley" James Bieri | "The Seagull" Anton Chekov | "Five Finger Exercise" Peter Shaffer | "Butterflies are Free" Leonard Gershe | "The Idler in France" Lady Blessington | "The Grasmere Journal" Dorothy Wordsworth | "The Fatal Friendship: Marie Antoinette and Count Fersen and the Flight to Varennes", "Paris in the Terror" Stanley Loomis | "Abundance, A Novel of Marie Antoinette" Sena Jeter Naslund | "Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man" James Joyce | "A Spy in the House of Love" Anais Nin | "Blood and Beauty, the Borgias" Sarah Dunant | "Coleridge, Early Visions" Richard Holmes | "Valperga" Mary Shelley | "The Sonnets, Triumphs and other poems" Petrarch | "The Abandoned" Paul Gallico | "The Witches’ Boy" Michael Garber | "The Bartimaeus Chronicles" Jonathon Stroud | "Pietro Bembo: Lover, Linguist, Cardinal" Carol Kidwell | "The Whole Disgraceful Truth: Selected Letters of Lady Caroline Lamb" Paul Douglass | "Night" Elie Wiesel | "Lord of the Flies" William Golding | "The Golden Notebook" Doris Lessing | "Z- for Zachariah" Paul C. O’Brie | "Triste" Osip Mandelstam | "The House of Spirits" Isabelle Allende | "Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair" Pablo Neruda | "The Collected Poems of Sylvia Plath" Sylvia Plath | "Vindication of the Rights of Women" Mary Wollstonecraft | "Fanny Hill" John Cleland | "Justine" Marquis de Sade | "The Complete Poems and Songs of Robert Burns" Robert Burns... And William Shakespeare.

INTERVIEWERS: KEVIN KIELY (2,3), SARAH RAHIMI (5), ASHLIE ALLEN (1,4,5), ROMAIN TROJANI (6), RITA FORDE (5) 18

19

THREADS: Journeying within the soul

It seems as if the world all around us is collapsing into a fen of racism, terrorism and underneath it all a current of xenophobia driven by fear. This is the poison within our societal well. Yet, in Mr. Hastie’s newest tome, Threads, he reaches into our fears, and finds, beneath it all that beauteous rills of hope. He asks us to be better, to strive for that, which is exalted, the great goodness within all humanity. This is not done in the guise of Priestcraft or demagoguery, but instead it is executed with subtlety and poetry.

It is present in such as lines as: Nothing that sings so Can ever evaporate, Be excised, Burnt out of your soul

ARIA'S ARA

SCOTT HASTIE'S BOOK REVIEW BY ARIA LIGI

He is speaking not only of the revivification of lost love, but of the echoes of the heart.

And indeed he finishes the poem by bringing us back and reminding us of the resilience within humanity, to feel, to long and to love. At the denouement of the poem he writes: We too can repair Our cracks with gold And glow again.

Crazed by life, More beautiful than ever before The themes of love, rejuvenation, sadness, the ability to mourn and then repair what has been lost, are plangent within. In Here I am, he confronts dead on the fear that like a viper sleeps within us all: For isn’t it true that, Without fear, We are capable of anything…

Threads: The poetry of Scott Hastie Publisher: Centuria ISBN-10: 099270930X ISBN-13: 978-0992709303 Publication date: 13.2.2016

Yet he does not leave us hanging, but continues in a lovely stanza that not only captures what he is saying but is poetic and metaphoric without being banal.

The smell of fresh rain, Like gunpowder on the lawn, Embellishes the day, As the summer rips on And so we press on with reading not because we must, but because like a symphony it ebbs and swells, and within it the culmination sweeps us up with orgiastic verve. There are treasures within this that are little slices of life, such as the lovely lines: If we always knew for sure What lay ahead Would we still stir Each and every morning?

For me, my warm, Soft sheet, snuggled erections Are daily optimism personified, Transitory stiffened dreams Riven with hope And it is hope which permeates throughout this, yet it is a hope measured with meter that breathes, and has a strength of purpose. It is not so much the grinding through of each day that matters, but the moments along the way. Do we share them with loved ones, or huddle beneath our blankets, cowering in fear? Hastie asks us to take those moments and walk with him, dance the verse of life and thought and rhyme.

:|:_.::.

20 poetry + photos

''Library of forgoten sun beams" The cast: Light, Shade, Plastic cap Director: SLD. Operator: Nicon D90

EPICANTHROPE a special section for epic poetry at all forms

Stan Lauk-Dubitsky (SLD) | Restaurant | 2016

Without echo of the "whordes'' Let me avow - I don't like "poets"!

"La-Fa" to "...Hoo!", Luck-fu** to words!

Stablets of wasp to fire-closets!

You're brinky-dinks in top, in slop, in opiu..., And floats of sheets + Ache'ron of plebs!

For every flub - gagrave to Calliope, For every zero - "views" of blebs!

You're ministrel of medals & Medusas And drover of the blood to yawner' darks, The mirror' seed, worm-kalian and oozes In desert sayfs, like Adam, stale in flux...

You’re hormones’ lead untill the Manna Lisa and chains’ bleed and froth of bluish pipes!

So skive sky dots to get Parnassus visa in whiten square, oh mannequin of lines!

Your «...m" and «um..." is «My» in bands of dummy, Long egos make sep-Pooh-ku by laugh’ rents!

And standing on «tra-la…", «ta-ta!» tatami, You'll peg’asus all sparks of crazy «tents»...

EPIGRAPH

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I remember the dream that I had to redeem, hour by hour, from the prison of noise with agleam screamy voice, Which annoys your aplomb and convoys to the home...

I remember the dream...

I was naked and dim And I walked amid lees, dirty purlieus Of sleeping “Egopolis”.

Full of poll-lice who crying for please to industries' supreme sire, to messiah... of progress and off-fares In a stress and cares.

I saw in roads, wires, knots of lives how My faith was decaying In mis-mist of cocaine...

How love was hanging On fallen phalli-gallows With a fear inside egg shells Placed in empty eye-holes, With a grief on hairs, and silent bells In a belly-a-bowl!

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I walked to nowhere, making a suit From beautiful leaves and spots, from dots and "if's" with scaled words...

And then I sewed a tie with threads of my hope... by a needle of lies and a middle's dictate, so "ho-ho-ho".

I broke eighty-eight mystic twigs, making a stick In the form of a gun to lean on... and to walk as a noun in commas' taiga, almost alone.

I felt a hunger inside, my guts turned to a hollow inkwell And tongue to a quill, dry with a wilt, nothing to quell...

My scream was dropping from lips to a fell Of a paper asphalt under my feet.

I walked on the "No hour for honour" street, So unknown, guided by fate's aid in the maze of queries-a-mice with umbrae of numbers on posters, pre-paid...

There... there... I heard a cry... I knew it was fay!

And I turned to a wall, to an alley, so blind With the name of ideas of genius mind.

There I slunk as a rogue and saw my shades, they were catching all sparks With a seine of smoke, with a trap of cum / mucks!

I touched the wall and it burst like sun' bubble in lour!

I saw ahead a block with scroll-shaped tower – a bastard of Pisa raped by Babel!

It was made by tales' cabels and tails of lizards, By tongues of funny phonies and tones of Money-a-Lisa...

It stood in fashion of ash and raffles and leisure.

I saw there a signboard with a rafflesia and fay with a lesion, yelling "Restaurant "Poesy".

It was full of neon lights and none-colours of Icon’ners!

I went around the corner and saw a backstage box, there were sitting pied dogs with white wolfs' orbs but prostheses; Just like cold decks or Tarot with "cons and pros" theses’ about life errors...

I saw how chef of burnt words opened "go-to-hell' window and threw out a paper of soul with a pepper-and-salt, a slot-machine meat of reverse reveries With sinews of sin’ use, and fate’ bones picked by miss…!

Just near them, in rotten cages I saw cadaver cadgers Seeking tombs of the past and tomes in a dust.

They were crooked by miseries like broken keys.

They kept gags and hats in hands With scraps of scrips and knocked-out teeth.

Their lips shivered like worse Morse code.

Then I saw besides the blinds, they scored By torn strings and thorn-shaped matches, playing marches on guitars about gits and us; Oh, then... a knot of footless weasels with bloody easels In wait for pittance and plea from patrons' arm & pit.

And behind, in a smoke's waves, there were young waifs dressed in dirty notes & bills on deflated wheels...

Their arms of shame by papier-mache had machete-quills!

Oh, my... their eyes were red by hope to find the way in the shade-thread to a hole of the scene...

Then beneath I recognized masks Buried in cobblestones with long tongues in the form of cracks, licking grey ink, Belching out the text and sketch of a blink...

There...

I saw faceless troubadours lamed for fame.

They were chalking their troubles on doors, on empty frames, on uneven veins with fingers grazed to the bones, ...chalking lines from the Bible of hearts, still unknown!

I smelt out the burning and malodour!

There were shamans of sham coda, all rough.

They were tattering, scathing their stuff in a copper tun with a dance, outdone.

And at the other side of the fire the living lamb-malkins, Each with bloody, house-shaped cuckoo clock!

Their garrets kept a smoked cock ...with cigarettes rolled by book leaves, filled with tobacco of soul, lighting by hell greaves...

They were poets of Eden's sui-cider with sweet sow-spider's weave In burning shock-shore!

All... all of them were standing near the backdoor with a trashcan, so grotesque, in the form of a grot-desk full of wads...

I remember how I turned to the grand entrance with only one wish to have a dinner with shifty fish without the din of a lunar laver and mourning dew!

But then I was stopped with favor by a riant Maitre d'!

The giant with a snake-trident and suit sewed with remains of blood and chains of faked doss I saw blurred crystal doors were starting to shiver and burst opened for new guests of a poetic halt. Lo and behold!

Filling the air with sweat and dust, from the guild of the rust pens the potbelly gilded "sires" with small dot-eyes arrived with a wheeze and whisky!

They grabbed whiz kids with weak wicks, still burning, with sell-by dates, and put on the leash.

Besides of them the lathy dames, so smoke-saturated, lazy, no names,

...Like sur-summer mums with hens under arms for rotten eggs and terrene charm.

Then… with scars by bank-notes venal Venus' swines with false romance signs tattooed on snouts… their grunt is loud, their grant is out for every "pig’eon" of skyey sty which fell beyond!

And next… with nightly tie, scarf, long and shady, I saw geniuses from “whoribless” lady of late afflatus.

Their souls were traitors in the war of words!

Bale' cavalcade! ...Like oblatory cades for absurd table bla-bla-blats!

And, increasing void and holes, at their heels, the contours of men marched with ledgers made by toilet seats.

I saw surnames on them, surnames of fallen feats!

Oh, what a mess!

Spitting on it, I came closer to Maitre D’ and gave him my quill.

He sealed it and made a mark on my wrist with a branding-iron of Bye-bye'ron priest!

I entered inside and then what I saw...

My eyes were blinded by pageantry and glent… of flying, burning pages with no content.

My ears were deafened by screams and laughs.

There was a score of tables with Abel's labels and staff.

Clients were like serpents with poison pens and snakeskin pads!

I saw six show-estrades with corset-dressed muses dancing on the pillars of trades for ars' pills and spousal oozes!

Their femors were full of rhymes from mors with typos by prose.

They had price tags on mammillae and "mills of vanilla" hair-pose...What I had to suppose?

Oh Calliope! Euterpe! Erato!

Your poetry is errata of tic-tac-toe!

And just opposite, in the aureate cage from Eden twigs, was the stuffed Pegasus with hay decayed wig...

...and near it, on smoked ribs with dispute' dribs, the derbies' birdies and bodies, bodies, bodies of smooth spoken grooms.

Then I saw, between the rooms, portraits of the greats, painted by Azoth and rainbows!

And everywhere were waiters of the way of dose, they were scurrying in ecstasy with masks of nimbuses and horns: Kalian lions, drugs guards, alcohol cowls, Any desire for them all!

I looked around and descried, on the ceiling, the numbered niches with nailed down tables, chairs and ladders in a red mist.

Number one was a pier for spiritists disappearing pirates of writing' rates.

Triturating alium and ash, they called ghosts of golden age to threw down a gage, to cut gorgeous gorges With a feathers by Saint George's name!

Number two was the casino of endless spirals of sinners and Cassandraesque cashiers!

Russian roulettes with rusty bullets of fear!

Dices from ancestors mould and stakes for a zero – their soul!

Number three was an entrance to the court of ill fame and wide-open palp of courtesans with baits of saliva for lepra-rail dance.

Fallen god-divas to dive or divest!

Steamy windows rattling from a venery nest!

Oh, but number four was a funeral tribunal for any guest!

It was full of mop-headed critics with wired yokes, The Word' syphilitics, fogies, so broke!

I saw in their ripped bowels little men - littered ratters with rotten vowels from dead literators!

Their red eyes were closed by matted eaves with no tears, no matter for one-line reef.

Their mouths were open book-covers with black inked teeth Sharpened by "Ave's" to slaves of the heath.

They... were waiting for bloody dishes of cutter poetry sheets With pain and wishes and passion' reprints...

Then... in rear of them the gibbous old fiscal - Gibbon with a top hat And jungle side-whiskers, salty withe' etiquette.

His purse was a purpose to forge from a verse Gold chains for opus of future to worse! And... of course, the glass screen was above him, all shining, keeping the grand figure of laureates' lord With worries for glory and all words untold.

His face was an ink blot, shivering, leaking, making awe echo from freaky fanfares of lottery-plot.

That lord wore a nightmare swarm of woe worms and files-flies in the form of nimbi, Screaming his pseudonyms for every imbeciles of Limbo!

He had thirteen cupping-glasses with dead spiders, on his spine, And nailed receipts for morphine to the final divine.

His throne was a smouldering stub And just at his feet I saw the crown from star, fallen from fee and the sceptical scepter - coarse force cup; then the orb, the misbirth, with tin nitid cross, fire scrub…

Oh... Because of these... I fell so easy with dizziness And closed my eyes… for a rest.

After a while I stood up surrounded by kinky-ink darkness And saw nearby a pulsatile spangle!

It was a lit microphone for every rhyming Angle...

Sounded like a heart but more like "ha-ha".

It was calling for all poets Who are still keeping the lamp from slam' Haham and jargon' Maharaja to agio' aged anes and all other insanes...

Bah!... I saw the first one the faceless, unnamed "Hydra" enceinte with void, in high drama dress but with heads of sea-port fellatio-whores...

It started reciting a free verse and with every second that microphone was grabbing its soul and light

like a magnate-magnet or black hole of lie!

And after the final rhyme the poet crumbled to dust to make this scene vacant for the next star stud... who can or who must...

And yes, then I saw an ordered row of poets!

A Trio of riot and upset: flying jaws of jazz couplets, Epigram' pelts from pet-pigs and tough epitaph' skulls with laughing buds in zag-zigs of adults; Songs' erot-parrots of Cupid's "oops!" with orchestra of 24-carat coops; Clock-work mummies tied up with honeyed fused-snakes of mezzo-sonnets and fake aches; Illegal crying nuns of elegies with hidden jeers to Gods of joy; The anagrams’ undead boys made by limbs mixed with angor, limits and fog; Tremendous maids from rocks and grog And tornado binding shades for epic poems arcade; The ballad bald cocks eclipse with flying music nibs ready for nips and lip-locks to make moon palls invalids; The pallid and lank nurses of blank verses with paper wads with rigmarole words instead of heads; The red-faced midget with scars instead of eyes And army of mice from high coomb for reading of haiku; Huge frogs with inflated paunches in sandy conches of fata morgana for hymns and honour; Reeky freaks - palindrome twins from a circus of echo' circles on dim mirror’ skin; Painted and panting mimes with spyglasses-crutches For drawing visual rhymes with matches; Romantic mantis of loss with two chained doves of swale in claws; Possessed tall rusty dolls of Poseidon With automatic writing of fall-side-on They all... all gone in this microphone!

Bounce...bounce...bounce...

I saw the organ made by backbones of fallen poetry Titans And the ogre made from glass, tears and ash as organist with agony dash!

His fingers were playing a great mactation' tune!

But then all bony pipes turned to balloons filled with airy feces, An organist was torn to pieces To make a jazz band of twisted rainbows land.

And... Ho-ho-ho!

I saw again the restaurant' hall Full of the same staff, so eerie!

Famished and over-weary I asked the nearest waiter to find me a pit for paters and a second had not elapsed when I saw my table - perfect round cobweb and a candle - fire spider with smoky chela from a killer of pokey steps...

That waiter took my suit, hanged on a living mannequin With my childhood face and noose within...

I sat almost naked, ashamed and chill With only one fig-leaf – a fail’ gift with cipher of life and ill.

Then the waiter gave me the following: A broken clock-face as a plate, With the title "Too late!", the fork - dried leg of peafowl With inkpot full of foul beams, the knife - a petrified quill of seams And a lot of serviettes to write and serve with tears or dew...

Afterwards I asked for a menu And voilà!

It was being tattooed on my breast with hidden vein-shaped prices in talents and rises.

And possibility to pay by credit card of your soul!

It was so...

MUSES OF USED SUM (W/O LUTE-10) Madam modesty | Shy-high’s house-skipper of "skip"advice with "hows" dipper full of "whys"; Miss Stress | Sado-maso hysterical "May-day" maiden with laden eidolon of colon-bonds; Signora of ora-signs | Reverse abettor of «worse or better» who’s making rotten bets on «etc» nets; Done-Donna | Poltergeist with raised poultry of literal heist and living no-no-notes; Noo-Nurse | False pregnant nanny with many mammary summaries and milk climax' reprise; No-meds demons | Orchestra of dead voices' chess buried in ear's chest with sick kisses of incest;

PATRONS WITH POWER'S POWDER Mister Rest | Old and lewd sir sarcast glued with hoar moan, golden sweat and harm-hormone; MaMoth | Immense nympho-phony with horny ...nym as tattoed tutor with routine nimb; Youth producer | Gigolo-jigger who reads on threads only tears code and has, instead of heart, the toad;

INSPIRATION SET (V.EGO FRIENDLY) Smokey-okey | Kalian from ally alien - the Worm with cool coal-roll from the storm hole with alcohol; Dope'lganger | Drugs from a huge dugs of craze and lubricous maze with sacred bricks; Deliri | Prophetical profit from XY-Styx with sour sauce of pain and blind six-six-six zoom; Ares of mares | Imagination gin for eternal imagos of words with syringe-straw of war' warts;

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WRITING TOOLS & LOOT Celess | Angel gel quill with heavy poises of nil and balloons of lunar-loony quilt; Suck'cube | Vampirish pen with a bill of cross + sorrow-driven garlic garland, no cause; Glorry ride | Brittle lepra-pencil from silly celebrity with ten stencil for sale;

DESERTS Eyes-yes | Readers in bundles, for sale, bobbleheaded, no noble or blessed, just dumb and best; AD / A.D. | Ocean of promotion by superoctopus with reposting epos and bubbles-bulbs of blurb…;

Rod-ode | Brush-shrub with always burning hair from calvous calvish poets of chair;

Onus-bonus | Chef`s specialty: a niche in the temple of fame, full of fume from Mafia punctuation marks...

Antique-tock | Fantastic fang of the arc sharkbeast with black blood ink full of clock-work bees;

PUBLISHING ON A LEASH

Dick'tate | Embalmed priapus of any superior poetry man with didyMuse inkstand; Metatron-2000 | Fine knife-finger and a half with nay-nail and pocket torch in a haft;

"Lavatorah" | Rot rotulet from a sacral toilet roll and fly strip for a one-trip soul; Peek-a-book | Collection on poisoned flysheets - the panacea with label "See ya!-hits»; Viral for rival | Prints on the back of every passer-by with bice ink of tolerant lie…;

STABLE OF TABLE PEGASI

"Bible" bi-bleb | Encoded tomb-tome for any sects and sports, flecked with dirty blank spots;

Loaf & foal | Couple of coupon-ponies with show-shoes for trip to the tip of deific booze or Tartarean hot tart filled with excuse;

TallMud | Self-publishing on the loose-leaf book of sun' dies with sorrel chain-links of "you and I".

Recitit | Night-jam major-jumper with nival, naive brains and veil of levins for paper lane.

Ha-Ho harsh-horse | Shire athlete-sire for hire to reach higher pits and spiritual spiral biting bits.

Cade-abra | Starry but rusty hobby-horse from witches' broom for kidalts’ moor-room.

Horary horse of the last hoars | The hoodoo RIP-stallion with a bridle by idle needles and “todo” tombstone among cross-skittles in wait for lips of double eclipse beetle.

NOTE: if you are paper pauper and have not had enough (Ugh!) talents you can leave as a deposit your sap of past and future to raise your balance on the lance of percent.

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34

A Waiter asked me for my offer and raised a candle to mark a course But I took my quill, placed in a fire source and threw all the napkins up, making the burning gyre!

I threw the inkpot to a waiter with ire But his tail-coat soaked it up like night’ felt…

I yelled: “I want a fresh big fish - leviathan without divine levy, for mind, sharp and heavy!”

He laughed: “Pish, pish sir! No fish for the new eras, Only water is free for swollen sunken chimeras with sad eddies and bleed for the god of bog - sky cancer of greed!”.

The silence accidentally took this place; All persons, black full points, were watching me and my play I stood up and took the plate and smashed it to smithereens, immanacling hour-hands and green miseries by curly brackets of bluff!

I decided to leave this place with an empty belly from stuff.

But the door closed with a bang and everything vanished The restaurant became an armchair with me as an embryo of man a question mark enswathed with nebulose sparks, reared by an empyreal colon to step on the stairs of an ellipsis someday… allone… :::

Stan Lauk-Dubitsky (SLD) | Restaurant | 2016

One morning, somewhere between dream and not, I found myself clung to sheets made of finely-woven fear, The sheets asked to become my skin, I panicked and so they had permission Pick left or right, do not shift gears, or feel the might of storms that veer No see in saw; no warmth in plight, can't let it thaw, the runoff bites Look to the bright, the lightning's here, your eyesight is meant to steer Rename your awe as thoughtful slight; don't want the gnaw, whether trite Devoid of air, terrors spread, sinking, cooling I screamed out when they asked to become my blood, they took what was theirs I would be nothing but fear itself, writhing in form, delighting in the chew To paint in white and rid the flaws -Who gave my ears these dusty laws?

The leaning sight's a peer through straws, but I'm unclear of just what caused

SAYVORY

bonus section

A squeeze so tight, that the gut with-draws, how raincloud tears make rusted jaws So then the fight's to strip it raw, if rain is near, let’s flush what was...

36

Breeze in it while I volunteer; a chance to see the thought premiere Junctures rank as they appear and words will be my pioneers "Liquid adheres" ease in it lest it seem veneer A dance between the hemispheres, structure a plank upon a pier and merge it with the engineer "Crystal smear" freeze it in the now and here, the glance that's seen on all frontiers Picture the blank from chandeliers, converge it within the mind's atmosphere "Backwards years" tease it like a pamphleteer; Entice the dream to reappear Puncture all tanks that interfere, if urged the edge becomes insincere "Frozen spears" seize me to be cavalier, advance serene to preserve for sure what sank is all that's dear Defer my streamline gondolier "Grip-less fear" Only the brave create; a poem bangs a drum, overdone Juxta positions in rerun, just read and succumb, Anyone can know that life only comes when a sun explodes, Lines full of outcomes with no crumbs to sew, There's already some, but its from unknown, We add up to one the sums in code, odd combinations like a glum "hello"

SAYVORY

bonus section

I. Wright

37 poetry + photos

''Fallen angel or unseen seed of sin" The cast: Light, Shade, Plastic cap Director: SLD. Operator: Nicon D90

NEWP! - the most unique section with new ways of art invented by magazine.

FUNDAMENTALS:

RIMG: Rime (rhyme) + Img (image) is a new visual poetry for full lettering visualisation of titles and small poems with specific rules and different technics made by SLD.

Visual rhyming: you should "rhyme" letters of words with images from their definition. So the more easy way you can read the word and see the image linked with definition the more clear rhyme it is.

Visual rhythm: an order of visualized letters: vertical, horizontal, chaotic, mixed (vertical + horizontal etc), mirrored, and their style: universal for all letters / words (the one font, size or technics) or different.

Theme: the comix-like lines, one-two visualized lines per page, all lines per page and others.

Sizes of visualization: first letters only, constants only, use of abbreviations, title, slogan / motto, haiku, small poems, selected parts of poems, medium poems.

Forms: 3D projection, 2D projection, any angle of view suitable for context.

Visualization rule and technics for objects from the real world with well-known form. The only rule is: you should use all letters of word in its visualization with mostly universal style / technics and with straight links to its definition or related words to make your idea clear and solid. There are some technics: 1) Anchor + Choir: you can use one letter of word as an "anchor", highlighted important part of an object with possible additional details or different style, and other letters as a "choir" - parts of an object linked with each other by style and logic, for example body parts.

2) Anchor + Action*: one letter or syllable + all other letters based on actions linked with definition of visualized word, for example: gun + aim, fire, bullet. * Instead of action you can use related words linked with results of the action (stove + food), tool of action (stove + fire) or environment (stove + kitchen).

Visualization technics for abstract or complex objects: you can visualize it with freedom of expression.

1) Formula: turning letters to separate objects organized and linked in one meaningful formula. Signs from math / physics are accepted. Alchemistry stylization is can be used too.

2) Carnival: combination of objects based on related words with masks - hidden meaning or riddles.

3) Jazz: just like in formula but without links between objects.

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40

Line 1: Hey, night samurai

Smiling face is a storyteller. "Hey" is like an archer who is shooting to make attention. Night is represented as temple of Japanese night Goddess with moon as a hook, candles and stones.

"Samurai" is laying on the one side with swords and helmet (second "a"). The snake of his dreams are serving the night.

41

Line 1: unite mind and paradise "Unite" is a formula u+n=e, "and" is like a bridge with arcs.

"Mind" is a combination of images: jaw vise + brains + book + spade + pipe.

"Paradise" has heavens arcs and door, angel and devil.

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Line 3: It's easy: mind knife

"Easy" is a scene with samurai "y" who is uplifting three letters "e,a,s" on his blade, two persons are pointing to him, amazed ("it's") . "Knife" has front projection, hand ("k") and slit over the old scar ("e"). "Mind" is a mirrored maze with code and fume-like chains and fetters.

Null text illustration: Brain + knife + quill + spine

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Line 1: highs' aether sheath

"Highs" is like cloud's eggs in the sun. "Aether" is bell-owers among these clouds. And ďŹ nally the "sheath" is like womb-grave for spermatozoa of war.

Null text illustration: Sheath + sun + beam + baby

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Line 1: that's why' die with care

"that's" is an arrow and pointing ďŹ nger at the same time, "why" is combination of question marks; "die" is like time in the metal vice of Vice with three last drops into cradle of sunset; "with" is bridge-like linkage and "care" is a scene with dead body on the table, another person is keeping the ceremonial candle with care.

45

Line 1: don't cut beneath

"Don't" is dead-ends with manacles from open grave and cycle; "cut" is a hand with blade making a scar; "beneath" is a simple downhill ladder from letters.

The whole poem: Hey, night samurai!

Unite mind and paradise...

It is easy!

Mind - knife, highs' aether - sheath.

That's why - die with care, Don't cut beneath...

46 poetry + photos

''Vertex of veritas and shades" The cast: Light, Shade, Plastic cap Director: SLD. Operator: Nicon D90

visual orchestra of alphabet

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"AAAAH!" This is AlďŹ na.

She is giving a birth to her...

"BABY!" and it is putting into...

"CRADLE!" from dark-red star' candle, this night is his "DATE of birth!"...

The baby and mother are "EAGER!" to each other. And she is "FEEDING!" it to ''GROW'' it up and to ''HELP'' it, "IRRADIATING!" his...

Made by SLD

49

"JOURNEY!" for the temporal...

"KEY!" of... "LIFE".

At this path it will able to "MEET!" many no-mads,

"NOMADS!", pop ones with nets and...

"OPPONENTS!" to ask them with "PLEASE" deep...

"QUESTIONS" about...

Made by SLD

50

"ROOTS!" of night and "SOURCES"... of the sacred "TORCH" of shades' ruins and "UNION" of sparks.

to ďŹ nally return to the "VILLAGE!" of...

"WISDOM!", so "XENIAL!", and bring "YOUTH" and "ZEAL" into endless celestial doors of knowledge.

Made by SLD

51 poetry + photos

''Face of abyss" The cast: Light, Shade, Plastic cap Director: SLD. Operator: Nicon D90

UNDER COMMAS - special introductions of our editors with selected art stu.

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Kevin Kiely | poet, novelist, playwriter, iiterary critic—born Co. Down, Northern Ireland—University College Galway (Ireland): Diploma in Creative Writing; Honorary Fellow-in-Writing Iowa University; Master of Philosophy in Creative Writing, Trinity College, Dublin (Ireland); Fulbright Scholar-Professor Boise State University.

:|:_.::.

OBSERVE THE POE-HEADS OF ULSTER MARCHING TOWARDS FABER & FABER

RIMG SPEC. Rhyme: ::+/::: Rhythm: chaotic, universal style Size: title, full / Theme: 1 page

I give you two fingers―a definite V for victory this art thrives on excellence: not wet-turf stack poetry I could never dig with Seamus’s sheep-shaped head and between forefinger and thumb hold a laptop instead These careerist Norn Iron poets hijacked language to build a lego-fake hyped up rural idolatry parading as a literary earthquake While Charlie Monteith fawned on the London Literary Press via Faber & Faber― British guilt exalted a daisy chain of reverseMen smudging on Paper & Paper frog-marching poets cashed-in when civil rights fought wrongs in the North...

2

Alone, the real suffering people linked broken arms and marched forth.

In a dirty tricks fix Vacuous movements of empty mouths akin to the mushroom-dolmen presses in the South Fitted green carpet-poets finding a slim volume audience at home Nostalgia for farm, kitchen, pigsty, and the sub-Kavanagh bog-longing poem―imagine bleating sheep dressed in homespun ill-fitting woolly kilts Dull little po-hems like turf-smoke signals: stinted verse poised on stilts This cunning clique worked up a jumble of politics to blame and shame us, a pretense to proxy history while their aim was fame...

3 They made ideal Media fillers betwixt ‘the Troubles’ and full page ads―a bunch of self-exiled, non-artistic have-nots and talentless-never-hads Rising on the sectarian tide, implying they were speaking for their people as they pumped up their Plastic Paddy Parnassian folkloric steeple Parading dialect as a Hallmark: yet, overtly reeking of political journalese fooling many with their coughs and preambles and non-literature-tease Nothing more than a crinkle suited hackademic phalanx pulling strings through insider institutional congregational readings Keeping their bleary dreary eyes on the Guardian, TLS and the BBC, London, Boston, New York, the Irish Times and RTÉ

These pretender dumb-pome-men with exported clipped tones ― Poe-Biz behind the scenes & bookings on the phones Ambassadorial culture-sales folk who traded IN their native NI―hotly pursuing reputations for which they would die rather than spend a week in Belfast, Armagh or Derry

These were a Fallacy all of one tune inhabiting their Shangri-La-La Land 5

North by North of Pseudo-Brigadoon Frauds posing with putrid books in hand soft-slippered yodelers out of tune Never exposed for being right royal hypocrites Poking poetry-hams at home, at America and at peace-loving mainland Brits

Unless with a film crew, taxis, dinners preceded by Tio Pepe Fino sherry―the dry-wall poet-spoofs, truly northern, truly rooted: never beaten, jailed, bombed out, harassed or hooted

Ireland’s self-styled scribe-heroes spewing fashionable green ink of ploughs, potatoes, hayforks, yokel-clichés and the jawbox sink

Living safely and squarely in Southern Ireland vainly and gainly―writing North of North about its pastoral landscape mainly

Pulling a fast one with nod and wink smarter than their public don’t you think

Metaphor gone mad, slack cadenced vocality of the locality a poetry of fauna, flora and the threshing machine’s practicality

They connived, cajoled and curried favour these cowards abandoned their next door neighbour and are outed here for their Caper & Caper

special column

DATELINE 2015: Poets, reputations, institutions…

Dr. Kevin Kiely :::

Conflicts in the arts proliferate. Action calls me to work on regardless. I intend to amplify this position in a series of columns in New Poetry magazine.

Any discussion of literature and the arts must involve ethics. Good art cannot guarantee good ethics. Bad art creates an atmosphere that falls below the radiance and beneficence of real art. The squandering of time and public funding on bad art is a waste of resources. The discussion of poetry demands references. T. S. Eliot believed there was a hierarchy of poets: ‘there is some absolute poetic hierarchy...some final Judgment Day on which the poets will be assembled in their ranks and orders. In the long run there is an ultimate greater and less.’

When you read an anthology the issue of hierarchy emerges in the number of poets you prefer over others. This extends across the poetry scene in terms of which country you live in, and within the wider context of the world poetry scene. Not to contradict Eliot. However, among real poets the top of Parnassus is a plateau. It is flat. I mean poets who reach the pinnacle of poetry are united together regardless of which era or century they created their work. Shakespeare relinquished the rancour of publishing, leaving his main works unpublished in his lifetime. Otherwise in Sonnet 66 he reaches despair when he lists his woes: ‘And art made tongue-tied by authority.’ Wordsworth did not believe in the public but the people. Blake was dismissed as an idiot. Emily Dickinson wrote anonymously in private. Whitman was vilified. Poe ridiculed. However, baby hear them now in their shining glory.

I will discuss twentieth century poetry in a future column but conclude (below) with a quote from Alexander Pope (1688-1744) who confronted the London poetry scene of the Georgian era. In The Dunciad his targets included fellow poets Fleckno, Curl, and Shadwell who are forgotten which is what the Dunciad proclaimed to the future. Pope received the idea to write his long poem ‘attacking’ the poetry scene from Homer but other elements of creation were necessary in order for him to write the poem.

How poetry ‘gets’ written is not known which is obvious in that if it was it could be mass-produced at will. This may be the unpopular topic in many poetry scenes: the manufacture of poetry compared to the poetry that is created.

Significantly, Homer’s The Dunciad composed in Ancient Greek was listed as ‘missing’ and is referred to

by Aristotle (385-322 BC) in his Poetics (the first treatise on poetry and drama). Homer composed a long poem ‘discussing’ the poetry scene before he wrote either The Iliad or The Odyssey. ...::: >

ISSUE :_:_.::.

The tradition of aesthetics and literary criticism began with Homer, Hesiod, Anacreon, and all those poets of the earliest times. It is a necessary conflict for poets to write about poetry as well as write poetry. Poets contain this conflict in their poems. The timeless brilliance of poetry is its presence in comprehension as if completed yesterday. Poetry lives while often the places, cities, rooms, houses, and streets where it was written are a pile of stones.

Lao Tzu states that ‘The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao’. It is equally true that explaining and knowing as to what poetry is, or should be, falls below poetry because it soars higher beyond language, structure, music and presence.

Poetry is fixed in form, language and style within each poem yet actually changes with each reading beyond our complete understanding how the arrangement could have achieved such resilient beauty and everything that poetry yields. And yes, truth is delivered and certainty also without being a construct, a counterfeit, or a fake. The truth of poetry is in its being true to itself and capable of mirroring, reflecting and forming a parallel to our existence.

Shakespeare knew it in stating ‘to thine ownself be true, and it must follow as the night the day, thou can’t not then be false’. Humans are both good and bad, both lying and true. Poems are true not false.

The poetry scene from century to century has and will always be conflicted. Cardinal Richelieu (1585-1642) purposefully set out to damage the French poetry scene and implemented the Académie française instilling conflict and disharmony among writers, artists and poets. Richelieu’s havoc and censorship came into existence during the age of Shakespeare and Cervantes. Aldous Huxley who moved to Hollywood in the 1930s wrote a biography of Richelieu who cunningly understood that nothing could tranquilize, tame, cause chaos and (occasionally) silence real artists better than his académie which persists. Many luminaries opposed the vileness of the académie including Molière, Diderot, Descartes, Rousseau, Balzac, Flaubert, Baudelaire, Zola, Proust, and Sartre: none of whom wanted to become members. Beethoven knew the artist must not bend to any public authority, not even the throne.

Plato’s Ion and Mallarmé’s Don de Poème present poetic creation as a subjective principle for each poet.

Many poets translate Mallarmé’s Le Cygne into English which is a poem reflecting the act of making poetry.

Poetry creates the poet. Not the other way around.

Poetry is Nature’s Bounty as Dante said. Beautiful as the darling buds of May, said Shakespeare who is adorable. And God is love. Poetry uses the language of love. Pope addressed Venus, goddess of Love, despite his friends and enemies among poets, and wrote: ‘Her too receive (for her my soul adores) So may the sons of sons of sons of whores Prop thine, O Empress! Like each neighbour Throne,

..................................................................:::

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:::

Rina Ivanova | poet, blogger, critic, performer, artist (cg / traditional), illustrator, book / motion designer, animator, art director of animation ďŹ lms. Senior illustrator and co-editor of NP ::: POETRU (Russian edition). Senior editor of NP ::: DESTI (edition for kids).

:|:_.::.

THE HOUSE

RIMG SPEC. Rhyme: ::+/::: Rhythm: chaotic, universal style Size: title, full / Theme: 1 page

That’s you… so yond and sole, but life’s the same done story.

Look!

House’ dome with a pipe so bold, piebald, one storey…

It’s pied and holed, its skin is torn, And meat from bricks is out of holder!

Its garth - unmown, no haw, so lorn…

It’s yours but nobody’s, no molder!

It’s saved and you are still untold!

Each year crumbs whitening like moult…

You’re guest, uncalled, on a date with old And past distending from your shoulder.

THE HOUSE TRANSLATOR: Stan Lauk-Dubitsky EDITORS: Aria Ligi, Irina Fesenko.

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Romain Trojani | poet, songwriter, singer. Dormant french editor.

:|:_.::.

The Sun, this trustworthy rusty radiator burns away my pain, extinguishes the fever it heats my frosty heart back to a usual beat Gets me back on the track, gets me back on my feet Makes me think of those happy days, makes me smile, And those terrible thoughts aren't so bad for a while at least for a while And I run out of time to miss you I just run out of time to miss you

The Night, The sempiternal asphyxiator That tempers the vigor of my ďŹ re A lady full of surprises, a lady full of tricks Double edged blade, mist full of risks A blues accompanying the melancholy of a text.

Throwing me in the rubbish and discarding me like the rest I want to ask you, have you forgotten me once again?

Have I been caught in the net, is it the same now as it was then?

And I can't help but miss you I can't believe I can't resist you

Your Heart, The uncontrollable stallion Breaks hearts by the thousand, you're one in a million act as you wish and do as you please when you're armed with unforgiving eyes like these I spend my time missing you And I'm foolish

ISSUE :_:_.::.

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Alessandra Bonomelli | poet, artist, professional ballet dancer, scientist, translator, dormant senior editor of the NEW ::: POETRY | POIT (Italian)

:|:_.::.

O’ enchanted epitaph on the grave of the river, languid evenings fishing for stars neath boundless nights O’ the serene light The sound of the crickets The Breeze at twilight, in the downpour of a storm The delight of a warm embrace sheltering in your Chest moving slowly, to the rhythm of your breast I Remember being barefoot running through grass flowers flattening under skin caressing and giving candidly being Fireflies moving Bliss without borders Leaves hunkering in their den the affected crusade of the wind O’ precious hand the searched for phantom neath sheets the smile in the dark accompanied by sleep joyful mornings and the distance breached The most beautiful of all images Your Skin by my side a cornucopia so resounding That past, dear and unique, deceptive and prophetic this present of double fires, armed and belligerent~ flows like a stream along the mountain memories of the day that I’ve been that I was that I am

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:|:_.:::

"Hello, Paul, hello!"

No connection at all.

Just hoot of wires I hear: May be the rain is guilty- I can’t call With one of the Beatles - Sir Paul, May be the day’s not mine? What’s a crime! No Idea.

"Hello, Paul, hello!"

Suddenly! From nowhere! It has detonated!

Real frenzy. Explosion.

The voice is cutting the soul!

The voice of Frieda Kahlo.

Nephrites ear-rings, her dark eyebrows.

She is still raving about Mexico, And her heart’s in fire of love, The whole world – to the Devil Beauty is in Frieda’s hands.

She turns a man into a Tree And lavender orchid with petals covers foolish offences But her tie with hot Earth is not cut – Frieda let not it be.

But Steel in same way break her burning body and bones, Mexico, wild dear Mexico, God! With its every part, With every feather of falcon singing inside her the song Of despair, becoming the crying stone, Frida’s back – forever to the scaffold of bed with knife.

FRIDA: “Santa Madre Santisima!

Destroy this hell, this prison, Give life to a child, for reason – Let my baby rush after my pictures, Weave him the cradle from roots, Crawling to the center of Earth. Look, It mixes with bones of forefathers, Known Mexico without Americans, others.

I will dance sandango I am dancing sandango Thou, I’m condemned and mortal I dance.

Madre mia, Santisima!

I struggle for my independence I struggle with snake, repeating the eagle’s movements.

Let flowers and birds admire their lives Hello, Paul. Hello!

No connection!

Just hoot of wires I hear Frieda’s voice let me not talk with one of Beatles - Sir Paul She is exulting, she’s cursing all, Time falling like plaster from the ceiling above her bed-throne.

That’s all!

Live it's shooting till last Frida’s cartridge Till the last bullet of her, brave and stoned.

Sir McCartney is married again, He sang “Hey Jude” with the whole of Wembley Somewhere in Mexico the child was born.

Chica. I know:

Pain is a nun, pain is a tart, pain is a singer from pub, With the days and weeks Pain makes notes in the Book of Life.

Why is she suffering so hard?

Diego Rivera & Revolution & Trotsky Leon shake their hands, Dark one and white one are Friends, They’re Brothers by blood running baptism They’re standing by walls, painted with a hand of Rivera – And all of this are reality and dreams…

:|:_.:::

Suzanne Akkerhuis | poet, translator, activist. Dormant dutch editor.

Petals The trees tell their story, no one can hear Sleepless nights to whom it is still a fear No noise but the laughter of the river The crying of the rain and the leaves that shiver Then a shining rose was born Not a petal - not a thorn Nothing in red - nor in green The most sanguine I've ever seen

Mindless Like flowers to the blind, the ideas in their mind They flow around vapor in the sky Floating about, droplets on the side.

Words flow Without reaching Without preaching Minds I want to see Minds I need to be Minds I fail I feel I fear to meet.

69

70

THE WHORE OF NAZARETH (The Evil hides behind The Good)

The sun on my face The sweat of my skin The Cross in my back Their cries of sin My swollen brain With their murky blood It falls thru my eyes And crushes my bones The more I try to get it out The more it ploughs me under The orbit of needles deranges me with wonder “She’s the One! The Chosen!”

–Shout, the addled insects Full of muck, and dirt, and rubbish With putrid, rotten odor

Maria Santos Villarreal | poet, translator, activist.

Dormant editor of the Spanish edition.

...

The more I try to get it out The more it mows me under The orbit of needles deranges me with wonder “Is that the dead mother The one that we are condemning?”

–They ask themselves, the Semites Who are crucifying me Thundering glint Corneas burning fire Unpinning me It starts a nausea choir The beatitude calls me Through the underground tunnel But the orbit of needles Keeps torturing me thru the runnels...

The other faction of reverend cowards They want, badly To give me death by stoning The obtuse thief is saved by the Creator While this humble prostitute succumbs to the Dictator ...

71 poetry + photos

''Bird of buried burden" The cast: Light, Shade, Plastic cap Director: SLD. Operator: Nicon D90

POINEER - mini-section for newcomers with ďŹ rst but sure steps in poetry.

NOELLYN CARTER | US | ''Quarry''

You slay me with kisses as I approach my little death My last words form your name in ragged, heaving breaths "See? That wasn't so bad." I barely register your coo Your voice degrades into whispers thu I will it to clear You snuck into my bed, baited me familiarly, Luring me with ancient phrases I usually ignore I caught the Trojan horse at some point, & made sure I sent it back; I thought I'd won but I didn't see You re-plotting your attack, pushing into me Wearing the "friendship" disguise, put my mind at ease While securing ties -My mind- The center of what I say & do You got right in, hijacked control, & took my body too You interrupted my epiphany with a smile sickly-sweet; I'm staring at defeat; defeat leans down & plants a kiss & from it, feelings grow lighting my veins Electric embers; inward curses flood my brain I pull away, but you reel me back in My hands slide down your arms, both subdued & strong, As I inject into your ears the words "Maybe I was wrong."

Strange elixirs Raging lights Burning lungs Glasses raised to free nights Stars in the sky wind in our hair Hands up high Love together Memories forever Forget our cares Brush away our fears worries left behind ~Step out of line It's here, it's here we'll all go together Year after year Until one day we forget Red cups become coffee mugs We trap ourselves in a cage Throw away the keys ~ No time to rave We forget long nights We forget being together We don't love like we used to The grains fall We begin to crawl Lost is our pride Over the waterfall No loving together No freedom of the stars It all ends at the beginning It all begins at the start Never forget The flash of youth Don't close your eyes Or else we all lose The most important things Freedom and love It's time to face the truth We need more than one Together is better than being all alone We're here until tomorrow And the path that leads us home

73

NISHTHA PANDEY | IN | ''SEARCH FOR THE SHORE''

Heartstrings

The way admiration pours from your brain to your mouth to your fingertips.

Anything unconditional is worth more than me, but I’ll accept anything wrapped in that package. I’ve seen many pretty faces and heard many wrenching tales. My gut is safe, but my heart never is. You hit every imperfect valve, as if given direct instruction, and they sing for you. You’ve turned my heart into the most beautifully off-key organ.

Close the windows, this is played for only you and me, and never mind a poem, this is depth only found of the sea.

Sing, sing and tempt me like the siren of my 21st Century.

What is this exhaustion? Desperation for love and more Calling out to random strangers What is this perpetual sadness masquerading feelings Showing off the false glamour All so I could be accepted a little through Why have I turned into a ghost; forever falling Why can’t I wander on my own With no one to hold me back and frown When did it turn leaving me on my own Why did the lust for sea grow so much That I refused to believe anymore All the while I blamed others destiny, and lovers When the real villain was me all the while In search for of the shore while yearning inwardly

SAMER A. HADI | EU | ''Wake up!''

Wake up! Wake up!

I enter the room, its night, its wide Fancy dresses, it feels so right Masks are worn, I smile so bright the crowd is restless, her dress is torn.

But she is different, she stands alone No smile on her face, she deserves a crown.

I feel so distant, only tears I see It is a maze, she, a banshee.

What happens here ? A pain in my ear A gruesome shriek, it is near Panic takes over, chaos appears Masks are fallen, faces of fear.

Tiny vessel

I scattered him across the sky and placed the urn at my feet Remnants kissed the wind amid the glow where the Earth and heavens meet I closed my eyes and absorbed the warmth from the constant setting sun to open them to a fleeting moment, and your spirit on the run

RYAN PELAEZ | US |

KIKI ERNST | NL | ''Losing it''

I put my arms around the child I put my arms around an empty sheet a sheet of linen a sheet of gold embrace the fragile dust embrace the softest kiss love the emptiness hate the world

ANREW PAUL MASON | US | ''Quarry'' Ocean spray and waves abound to whom will hear this crashing sound silver slivers flashing wings let's just see what boat brings crowds gather by the lighthouse on the coast to whom we owe this poignant toast nets of wonder pots of joy invented part of natures toy time to scatter time to eat bring tomorrow to repeat I'm full now sir ready and able may I leave this blessed table x

ANNABELLE FULLER | US | ''The birds'

75 I’ve decided: it’s the time.

I watch the black Vs glide across the blue, slicing through each cotton cloud: a Southward offensive met with only vapour resistance.

For months I’ve made my dead legs walk, leaden boots hauled corpse-like through the drowning mud.

Pot-shots at grey magpies, one for sorrow, red blood blooming from its flesh, weighing down bedraggled feathers till it falls from the flare-filled sky.

Bullets soar into ribcages, kill the frantically beating hearts within.

Let it sag, welcome the little piece of death, enfold it to a feathered chest.

The birds die nameless, quiet, still. jail my fluttering thoughts of peace, desecrate their twittering with misery and human pain.

The copper tang within my mouth lingers on my cracked-river lips.

Shrill screeching sounds above; a bullet, a bomb, a blitz? a baby bird, left in its orphan nest. a single feathered form, bereft, but summer is not made by swallows.

This June’s been formed by flares and falling feet, by metal hard and cold inside my fist. a warning squawk: we flit as one above the ground, barbs tangling in our feathers, mud drowning us, filling our tiny lungs.

They fly at us, ready to tear our pale flesh.

Hammer, bird-tweet click.

I clutch death lovingly, raven-winged, a vulture, parchment-taloned.

We golden hawks shot down, .........migrating to our graves.

76 poetry + photos

''Wayfaring mother" The cast: Light, Shades, Glass, Metal Director: SLD. Operator: Nicon D90

\VOW* - is an oeuvre from women around the world speaking their truth like a prayer to humanity | *voices of women

AMERICA'S BEAUTY Closing your eyes, you hear a blue-eyed blonde American born and raised California Valley girl One nation, "Oh my God!" Where women are invisible Without a body deemed pleasant for all.

You have no excuse The sun's up there to lighten your hair To darken your skin "Why are you staying in?"

"Reading Sci-fi? Is that like Twilight?"

A mind full of worlds of fantasy Where I went to escape this society When other girls were in bikinis I was in shorts down to my knees Hiding thighs I felt ashamed by Sucking in my belly and chin Before I reached the age of ten With numbers jumbling in my head Given constant reminders Of how dumb I was then School meant stress And tests All those systems Based on competition Made my insides squeeze Confidence was something foreign I could not achieve Words like "ugly" and "stupid" Inducing tear soaked knees Or was my hazy brain and pain From the lack of food in my stomach those days For years I continued to throw it away While my girlfriends would eat and eat all day The same amount was weight I'd gain "You should go out for dance or swim!"

Full of formfitting uniforms I was made fun of in

:::

ELSBETH POE US

Maybe that's why I have a soft spot For all our patriotic jiggly kids Especially round little girls In a man driven world Of "achieve and succeed" Led to believe The worth of a woman Only lies in her body In beautiful eyes In perfect teeth And long thick hair In her physical potentials to make males stare Comments about my perceived beauty Never made me feel at ease Why would people choose only to see All of the things that do not make me me In youth "She's so cute!"

Then suddenly You're a sexual object From the age of thirteen "They're compliments!"

"Say thank you"

78

To cars that shout And men that stare To whistling lips And grabbing hands Taking Innocence With these my widening hips

When I wanted to join the wrestling team They thought that of course I must be joking Laughing at the idea of a girl with the desire to do one more thing Meant for the boys "Not you"

In patriarchy The Land of the Free Has yet to mean equality My country made it clear to me Girls and boys don't start side by side.

Like my brother I wanted a skateboard to ride Not his face but his interests Were how he was defined While I was told My mind was of a different size

To this day when I strike my Rosie posie Riveting muscles put proudly on display They chuckle at my love to do push ups each day

Still I never stopped running And managed to find This hidden word "Objectified" - To regard as a thing - Disregarding feelings This societal demise Violent crimes on the rise With women not often the ones taking lives I almost can't blame them When they do as they see When men are taught they need power Not regard or empathy At fourteen a tall man in leather Chased me, kidnap or rape I was his for the take Though I managed to flee That fear cut me deep And I knew in that moment Strength was something I'd need

:::

Now as girls we're taught we're fragile But let's go back again Back as far as I remember I longed to roughhouse with men

"It's not ladylike to show you have strength" "It's not sexy to be a woman who's strong" "Muscles on girls look weird and wrong" "Don't intimidate men" "They prefer women thin" But we all know that's not how it's always been.

Just take a look at Marilyn American curves they used to define beauty and grace But Hollywood only gave her the role of young blonde with no brains In the melting pot of the U.S.A. A melding of women of all shapes and age A stew that's consistent of quite the array But yet there's just one type of girl on display And it's goddamn time that fucking change America's the beautiful?

What a stupid form of praise.

80

*** I whispered the three words into your ear Daily reminders of our sweet secret sincere A mystery which lifts us to a higher place Our little heaven with fingers interlaced Together the earth laid beneath our feet We could kiss the sun and taste its heat Our planet a tiny dot watched as we danced The two girls who soared above the expanse Now gravity restrains me and I'm grounded Alone but for the wanting that surrounds Your hand slipped away from my fingertips Love vanished in a blur and I am myopic I march in lockstep with this untiring haze Hopeful to find just one moment of grace Which leads me free of this terrible storm Returning me into the arms of who I adore When I break free and my vision is renewed I will sprint to you with my voice unmuted To whisper once more our concealed refrain And hold your hand looking down on the rain

ZOE FISHER

US

TREATMENT |: "whispered": lips, echo, chain of sounds, + "three" as Roman n u m b e r s + " w o rd " : book, balance, pieces / "ear": ear-ring, sounds.

RIMG SPECS Rhyme: :./::: Rhythm: mixed, universal style Size: sentence Theme: 1 page

:::

ROADS No words we use to describe roads describe their fundamental stillness.

Unlike the land which lies roads stretch and wind and run roads are noisy busy roads take us places roads go somewhere.

Roads are active, they carry us and we rest into their movement.

But we are the travellers, the road our tool, just as trumpets don’t sing and tellies don’t speak; roads are the flat graves of our activity.

Ghosted by our infatuation with The Commute, our deification of exodus, roads are our talismans, activated by our imaginative propensity to personify, like trumpets and televisions clocks and corporations like radios, mobile phones, power stations, the internet and all other human drugs. Really .if to travel is to dream ..then roads are sleep, ...silent, still and left behind.

:::

TREATMENT |: time's fish and sandglass + cycle + eternal battery / seasons + ghosts of travelers + dead-ends with different origin.

RIMG SPECS Rhyme: ::/::: Rhythm: horizontal, universal style Size: title Theme: 1 page

81

82

:::

Millionth hour of the night It's dark It might be midnight But I wouldn't know Of all the hours, alone, awake Of all the tremors that made this bed quake My bed has seen a dozen faces Faceless bodies worshipping till light A thousand drops of sweat, tears Satin, skin and laces Men I couldn't stop kissing So many scents Sweat, sex, cologne and lies ache stained pillows drenched in misplaced ties I'm in bed with ghosts Memories afloat, my stomachs in knots Deafened by echoes of hearts Pulses that quickened at my touch Stuck to sheets thickened by 5 minute love Blood boiling, swirling, empty bed but no place for me to lay my head My bed is an abandoned battlefield War wounds left under my skin after defeat We fought and lied, no sleep, no retreat Lovers, lifeless, now piled up next to me Nameless, night guests lay there, cold and neat My bed is a coffin My bed is a store bought Christmas card Generic, impersonal scribbles within With silly doodles on the front blanks filled in To's and from's didn’t mean a thing It’s the millionth hour of the night and I'm sleepless, sinking cuffed to the bed by dreams invisible disturbances and the slow unreeling...

TREATMENT |: "Insomnia": wakerife body with a head like the midnigh sun + always open dry eye + two sharp hooks of slavery / It's all between continuum of life.

RIMG SPECS

Rhyme: ::/::: | Rhythm: horizontal with division of word, universal Size: title Theme: 1 page

*** A week could be seven epochs and you Felt parting lighter than a line of verse Can a day's reunion erase any pleasing woe Of a thousand years of divine phrase?

Not a trace shall live in your memory Of our fortuitous encounter, my ephemeral tale A spring breeze cannot be less memorable Or engender a breath more frail Yet how beautiful! If sorrow hasn't kept A loss more beautiful than Beauty's self When I'm old and grey and just slept These words shall resurface back to myself Then the world will leave me nothing further Than to write poetry and love you more!

*** Within a dark room I lock myself So as to hear well my own frail breath I smell my body and feel the warmth Of a strange intimacy, an inďŹ nite self Oh Darkness! My sacred master Fold me into thy arms and shield The gentle caress by wings of a mother To hold her most timid and secret child Despise you, they fear with insecurity Escape you, they avoid with agility How would they kneel for a tender surrender For whom the night falls under In my pure blindness, I praise thee Only my mind's eye can see the comic Tragedy

RIMG SPEC :::

Rhyme: ::/::: Rhythm: mixed, universal style Size: phrase Theme: 1 page

TREATMENT |: "line": rain and lighting from paper clouds + "of": bomb + "verse": a quill, hand, eye, lines, roots, paper, brains.

83

84

(From the collection ballads of a land) A single tear stung her eye, In the day‘s draining desert heat, In the chilling and cold, silent night – In her loneliness In her wandering; Hagar walked and walked, Walked and wailed, She yelled to the moonshot stars, She cried to the desolate sun – Hagar spoke to her unseen God, And to the boy, Born of her body, As tears washed down and fell Into dry, aged and comforting earth – And she softly floated down, Resting, with outstretched arms Up toward unseen Heavens, While, Ishmael, her son, Slept at her side.

ILANA HALEY US

REMEMBER (a dream memory) The cobbled stones underfoot strain to the weight burning above by day… crystal cold to the touch by night…

In the cavern of her heart she sighs and weep, smiles and sings as a vision appears... swirling in space… a stage, a floating stage…a multitude waiting, watching, listening...a woman whispers…

I dance...I am dancing this is what I see I am on a stage...I am outside a stage I see…I am seen flowing around about the purest finality of an esthetic miracle,

:::

I float back...back stage...to life… lovely, sordid, tormented, thrilling, treacherous; dreamy, melting beauty, crashing hearts blood, roaring…rushing...life… a woman whispers; another vision comes: ..

I am back stage… an esthetic airy purification comes to me, someone is stretching his arms leading me, for I cannot see… I cannot see..

TREATMENT |: "Desert" is a trap from sun + moon + time... where you can face the poisoned end of your path.

RIMG SPECS Rhyme: ::/::: Rhythm: vertical, universal style Size: title Theme: 1 page

85

To die like Rachel With a soul quivering like a bird Seeking space.

Beyond the tent Jacob And Joseph stood stricken, They spoke of her with awe All her days tossed about within her Like a child wanting to be born.

How hard it is.

Jacob‘s love consumed her Voraciously Now while the soul expires She has no desire for all that.

LISA ALVARADO US

Suddenly her baby screamed And Jacob ran to the tent But Rachel feels nothing Tenderness floods her face And her head.

A great peace came over her.

Her breath of life will never Stir a feather.

They laid her down among the Mountain stones And spoke no eulogy.

CHOKE

:::

When did I become A rag that you can wring the life from?

When did The grip of your hand on my throat become your way out?

When did My beating heart become the metronome of your prison?

When did I become A basin for your acid rage?

When did I become The father/ sister/ lover that betrayed you?

When did you forget That our bones are made of the same starlight?

When will the cut pieces Of my body, my soul, weave themselves into wholeness?

I’ll let you know, Not as a whisper Not as a plea for my life, But as myself, unstoppable and bright as the sun

TREATMENT |: "To die": claws of skies, "spermatoZoo", eye, dead body; "choke": two dead heads, chains

RIMG SPECS Rhyme: ::./::: Rhythm: vertical, universal style Size: title Theme: 1 page

ANGER

86

:::

You hit your hands together to stay calm.

Your hands, fists, cold as mallets—against me.

You like to think the storm in your eyes is what drowns me.

When I think about your body, I feel wet but not yet sunk.

I think of you waiting to pounce.

That word, on your tongue, hot, ready to turn fire to coals.

You carry around anger in your body.

Each bone yells for an answer.

I don’t know what goes on inside you, is what you said.

It’s probably like a great flood inside you.

Maybe there’s some 1,000 plus feelings graveling for a moment to be belief.

KATELYN DURST

You carry around anger in your body.

You sit sideways, not eye-to-eye.

You pull on your own mustache hairs.

You remind me of people Who take out their feelings on their own bodies.

People like me.

I used sink in feelings.

Not the lighting kind you have. I had the quicksand.

The mud at the bottom of the stairs, after the rain, that no one wants to step in.

I had a sad body. It felt like picking your dying relative up, moving their body, to the right position, to help him breathe.

It felt like my own ribcage tightening, counting down time, until the next big thing starts.

I have got to find something to make this wondering/wandering feeling pass.

I still dream of you. Not how anger alines your spine.

I still dream of you. Not how anger spaces out your breaths.

I still dream of you. Not how anger is you, your body. ANGER. You carry around anger in your body.

Each breathe, a downed power line.

It sounds like buzzing—it’s only faint if you want it to be.

It feels like shivering. It’s real and I don’t want it to be.

When your anger body erupts, your arms wriggle, hands flap.

Hands direct. Hands mallet. And I do understand.

I know that look. It’s icy like the winter that froze Lake Superior over twice.

I wait for the cold. I wait for the break. I wait for the hit, for it’s solid force that hallow blow, to drown me into you.

TREATMENT |: "anger": person who is suffering from headache and losing its head and personality.

RIMG SPECS Rhyme: ::/::: Rhythm: horizontal, universal style Size: title Theme: 1 page

87

Alone, speakers reverberating in my ribs I visualize your face, eyes so drained with sensitivity it seems an illness is forming I am not gifted when it comes to affection I understand if you find me undesirable because of my stiffness, silence and reluctance Maybe in isolation, there is punishment by my own hand for not washing you with my love There is such beauty in the human bond If I am cold to it, I should freeze in front of your eyes, body azure and blistered, expression mournful until I can be forgiven or forgotten

US

TOKYO VIBRATION Tokyo, techno reverberation, skinny bodies in neon garments, hair divided in three sections, representing all their personalities I do not like to dance So I sit in a lavender chair, hip crooked, eyes malicious as I study everything I am not, free, enthusiastic, sensuous A woman grins at me, her expression devilish like she knows I am ashamed that I do not want her Maybe I do not desire anything Maybe it's okay if I observe the moods of others forever and feel nothing

:::

TREATMENT |: skate + flag / sun + head-bant + (ing, yang + percent sign) + neon light + power-on button + freak on a monocycle / various vibration devices.

RIMG SPECS Rhyme: ::./::: Rhythm: vertical, universal style Size: title | Theme: 1 page

88

DAWN, 1:3 In the still, still early hours, rocks along creeks and light scatters In refracted air, on languid leaves and the boughs of trees Adam and Eve held hands beside a river-creek God touched them, with no suppositions In the beginning there were Two of UsThe naked, senseless, mewling sounds, reverberations against canals Quickening darkness and robbing light Now we are -Three- Eve walked with He -and He with She And there was the Holy Ghosts between Them, spirits, transformation goddesses, Kama Sutra, Allah Oh My God, I think about running my hand against your stubble Of horizon; lines in paintings and of the Good in You What my last words will sound like, Craggy and half-formed, Taken from your ribs and played like a lyre, an honest, dusty tune Against these streets.

ROBYN BELT

PREACHER MAN Oh preacher man. Hey, preacher man You dance before God just as fast as you can Now home from the army back to old stains Climbing to Paradise where nothing remains Gone to the city looking for truth No one, not even the blind comes out of the booth You remember the way is filled with great pain Yet you persist for lost refrain

LAURA BAILEY

Preacher man, oh preacher man Remain in her arms Just as long as you can And love's last charms Encircle Satan's fan Yes, the blood flows And the river rolls on You deny all At dawn's final yawn

89

BARBED FLOWER _ BESIDES the Silent mirror, Her hands swung up Above her head As she moved bras and bells. . .

The Moon-dance Queen Shadows on her shoulders Eyes watching the Arab Zil, And Zills Shakin; Two tip toes right, two tip taps left Leading wrist and hips like a cruel navy in a stormy sea, Melting down like an ice cream as she moved her belly Like a flag in the wind and bended her knees and slowly sat down, Eyes dagger behind the veil Sea Serpent Rage, Callin, Wearing a Nasal helmet! Shshshshshshsh WHOSE Love Burned and Once destroyed

By Gods’ curse Thunder and Lightning, Now up to revenge, Always to revenge, the, “Moon-dance Queen". . .

-No sin in watching her half nude body?

The “Kaif Khalifah”, Besides the mirror; In the front row His wives wearing dark chador and burqa in the streets. . .

(Seal of the Lord Or Human disgrace?) _ BEHIND the mirror, FAR away from them [In another chapter of a fake Jihad for God’s glory (by God’s greatest foes), Called Khavarij] An Afghan girlUNARMED-Under Chador and the dusted veil has shed tears, AShamed of the "Life" Taken away from her by, the sword!

Smell BLOOD, Ruins of her house, Kaif Khalifah* Devouring the apple KISSING "Her" shoulders “BESIDES the mirror”, Leading Daesh “BEHIND” Has, CUT, the nose. . .

SHÁHRAZÁD ROSE IRAN

(Mirror;) Sperms Running FAST And their Rage Hit the Defenseless Barbed Flower's NOse, Cut! Isis wings, Coin belts, jewels*, And, his Pants. . .

Barbed Flower. . .

"- I need a shelter to Helplessly cry, Rescue me Lord, ONCE upon a time I tied my HEART to his SHOULDERS!” “- I need a Shelter to Shamelessly Cry; For "ONE" Night, THY arms might, embrace;" ِ ‫آتن‬ ِ ِ ‫»ربَّن َا‬ «‫َاب الن َّا ِر‬ ‫سن َ ًة َو ِفی‬ َ ‫اآلخ َر ِة َح‬ َ ‫ال ُّدنْیَا َح‬ ‫فی‬ ‫َا‬ َ ‫سن َ ًة َو ِقن َا َعذ‬ َ ["Our Lord! Give us in this world that which is good and in the Hereafter that which is good, and save us from the torment of the Fire!”]

"Khawarij’s Jihad!"

Unarmed Flower's Neck Laid to barbed, Hearts in Barbed Wire Fence, Sword on her throat, Her NOSE, CUT;

Notes and References: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/meet-the-afghan-woman-who-refusesto-stay-silent-after-her-husband-cut-off-her nose_us_56aa0100e4b05e4e3703588e?utm_hp_ref=tw http://www.alquranenglish.com/al-baqarah/quran-english-al-baqarah-201

Isis wings, Coin belts, jewels* are Arab Dance instruments!

Arabic Zil (Zill) is a belly Dance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNGedFYIAoY https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zill Kaif (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Kaif ) King of kings. A person that is unpredictable and capable of surprising you any moment. Their creativity and ability to create a spark in any situation makes them a born leader no matter what the situation.

He really acted like a kaif in that game.

He will grow up to be a kaif one day.

Khalifah (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/khalifah / https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalifa) The civil and religious leader of a Muslim state considered to be a representative of Allah on earth; "many radical Muslims believe a Khalifah will unite all Islamic lands and people and subjugate the rest of the world "Khawarij’s Jihad!"* Jihad http://islamicsupremecouncil.org/understandingislam/legal-rulings/5-jihad-a-misunderstoodconcept-from-islam.html?start=9 http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/ 2003/10/1023_031023_jihad.html In a religious sense, as described by the Quran and teachings of the Prophet Muhammad (s), "jihad" has many meanings. It can refer to internal as well as external efforts to be a good Muslims or believer, as well as working to inform people about the faith of Islam.

The concept of jihad has been hijacked by many political and religious groups over the ages in a bid to justify various forms of violence. In most cases, Islamic splinter groups invoked jihad to fight against the established Islamic order. Scholars say this misuse of jihad contradicts Islam.

Khawarij http://www.al-islam.org/polarization-aroundcharacter-ali-ibn-abi-talib-ayatullah-murtadhamutahhari/how-khawarij-came http://abuaminaelias.com/dangers-of-thekhawarij-ideology-of-violence/

The Kharijites earned their name (from the root kh-ra-ja meaning “to go out”) because they exited Islam and the Muslim community due to their heretical innovations. They will recite the Quran but it will not go beyond their throats, meaning it will not enter their hearts and they will not understand it.

Abu Sa’eed Al-Khudri reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: ِ ‫ش ِر ِق َويَ ْقر ُءو َن ا ْل ُقرآ َن َال يُ َجا ِوزُ تَر‬ ِ ِ ‫اقيَ ُه ْم يَ ْم ُر ُقو َن ِم ْن ال ِّد‬ ْ َ ‫َاس ِم ْن ِقبَ ِل ْامل‬ ُ‫ين َك َما يَ ْم ُرق‬ ‫الر ِميَّ ِة ثُ َّم َال‬ َّ ٌ ‫يَخ ُْر ُج ن‬ َّ ‫الس ْه ُم م ْن‬ َ ْ َ ِ ‫يَ ُعو ُدو َن ِف‬ ِ ُ‫الس ْه ُم إِ َلى ف‬ ‫وق ِه‬ َّ ‫يه َحت َّى يَ ُعو َد‬

There will come a people from the east who recite the Quran but it will not go beyond their throats. They will pass through the religion just as an arrow pierces its target and they will not return to it just as the arrow does not return to the bow.

Source: Sahih Bukhari 7123, Grade: Sahih As a person who lives in a Muslim community and among them, no matter what I believe in, I insist that Islam in its nature is a peace seeking school as is Christianity and other religions but ideologies have always been mistreated and Used by those who wanted to take advantage from them.

I wanted to be a voice sending out the message that hatred, in every outer cover and judgment in every form, is despicable…

I have seen many people who judge Islam and judge or look down on people in middle east as a second class oppressed people.

Well, this is definitely not right and wise people never regard borders, place of birth or religion and more than that, they never judge! and wise people ARE everywhere. So let us educate each other. I'm sorry for the Afghan girl but I'm so proud of her that she chose to speak up and my message to her is that, nationality and religion are matters of a simple accident (the place we are born) but accidents place us in the situation to stand out and evaluate our consciousness and our spirit. Stand strong and know that Deep down if we believe in God and/or the true spirit and greater reason for our being, we would undoubtedly acknowledge that It is faith, respect and empathy that distinguish us. Let's be careful how We treat people. Life is worth trying...

I tried to highlight the positive and peaceful messages in Quran as far as I know as an outsider. To express the true pain and anger, I have avoided Any self-censorship and that's the reason I write most of my poems in English in the first place. I hope the readers do not consider it as a disrespect and the true humanistic message is understood along with my respect to all religious believers and religion, implied. . .

God bless, February 2, 2016

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THANK YOU FOR READING!

Author: Wetdryvac of Wetdryvac.net | The Wetdryvac is a gender/race/ religion-free trading construct, built around contract/consent ethics.

Title: Queue Surface Source: It is releasing its next book of poetry, Cation, in January of 2017.

Timbre of this music is tallow sleep slaking bone’s rhythm, Taurus driven weeping open squeezing each second - thermal-riffed complicity danced paces lead traces down tongue stinging nettles for breathing comfrey relief chuffing blister engine clutching careful between slips making peaceful of extraction each taste, then twist monoxide between covers, spun cotton luster pacing golden wick, tweaked tempo under counter voices matching beat, functioning – slower purity psalter, condensate steeped and thick, so thick this season swallowing one’s core, one’s own relation t’ween savagery and sweeping pace upon pace, in dream thermobaric recantation, swing, dip sway’d flask of ownsome string’d whispering naming positions’ measures, treasuring sole that dance compression, blast condition skin tanned in tallow’d headwall each pace precision deep each lace incision kept

CHILDREN OF CHILE - teaser section of Spanish edition.

94

Without stopping the water resists the weight of the sky *** Every mask drowns at the bottom of oneself *** "Girl reading a letter at an open window" As your cheeks dye of red colour the apples of Paradise brim over with delight upon the tablecloth waves "Night song" At this instant you must be opening the book, or listening to the creak of firewood as the fire dances.

But I am mistaken.

At this instant -as every nightyou sing in the shade of a city that gleams.

Diego Alegría (Chile, 1994) Undergraduate student of English Language and Literature at Universidad de Chile. He has won several awards, such as first place in 20º Concurso Escritores para Chile (2011), Premio Municipal Juegos Florales Gabriela Mistral (2012) and Premio José María Valverde (2014) in Spain.

Translation - Teodoro Ortúzar Cox (Chile, 1992) Undergraduate student of Hispanic Literature at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.

RIMG NOTE: to create these art-works some new technics were used - double letters reducing, uni-shape for letters, "Tetris mode".

Oooh... More!

NOCTURNE OF SANTIAGO The sky falls to pieces in every city, the same green or grey sky, the same sky that covers with fears breaking locks, spying, blowing down windows and walls, opening each door without modesty, without pause.

The wind prevails and geometries breaks strangely foreign to figures and shapes; goes unabated through corners, clouds, every square, sleepless, in its straight stealth.

No one is in the streets, neither in courtyards nor in parks, no one pities the judgement of the night.

But the night annoys, disturbs, now holds sway over the great avenues, the crossroads, the boulevards.

The sky has stripped shames and pleasures.

The wind doesn’t comfort neither heal, nor give respite.

In every city it seems like death has opened its black pit of sulphur and rage and little is left then for the lone night now taking over the sea, the rivers, the hill: knife blade pulsating and sharp in the restless memory of the empty city.

Just at midnight muffled noises are heard as if a thousand maggots crossed the garden or all those rats, injured by hunger, went out of their frozen holes of silence.

They are not the vermin neither the owls, nor the crows: it feels like the quiet quivering of women in labour or the song of those who go to the sacrificial stone, or the teeth grinding of a child in the battle.

It is the dweller, the citizen, the man crawling slowly and restoring his breath after kingdoms and dominions lost or already dead.

It is the owner, the master, the landlord, the possessor of shapes, the skilled architect, the only one who knows how to chase the night away, how to scare away the wind, the sky, even the angels falling by millons over the filthy streets.

The order thickens, lines itself up, it prevails now and nothing is left outside the perfect circle.

The wind ceases slow until it becomes black.

The blueprint has arrived, the map of the exact untangling jungles, spreading the air out: The index that passes through the storm is back and keeps the fear of the gods in its pride.

Andres Morales. He was born in Santiago de Chile in 1962. He graduated in Literature from the University of Chile and Doctor of Philosophy. He has published twenty books of poetry, from "Of strange islands" (1982) to "Written" (2012). Pablo Neruda Prize 2001. Andrés Bello 2014. His work has been translated into 15 languages. He is Professor at the University of Chile. Member of the Chilean Academy of Language Academy Good Letters of Madrid, Spain. "Night of Santiago" belongs to the collection of poems "turncoat", forthcoming.

Translation - by Victor Lobos.

This city rejoices in its sure affliction, this city dresses itself in the middle of the desert. this city covers its eyes and falls silent when the birds fly out adrift.

Reenacts carnivals, wakes up the dead, traces two thousand leaps over the mountain ranges.

This city agonizing of rythms that it doesn’t dance and of phrases learned in a dead language.

Will it have a happy ending, will it remember the touch of the trees, the fresh smell of night?

It seems to have died this merry city.

It seems there is no such alien city.

It seems it remembers its most secret years and now shuts its walls in a sleepless face.

The bellfry announces a morning on tenterhooks and a slow afternoon of rains from another time.

Monotonous in days, in hours, in minutes seconds bite their restless past.

Nothing happens here, time doesn’t eat us away.

There’s no God here, nor the sky has a feeling of Him. Here dream sinks in a farewell of voices and words that never say anything.

Santiago doesn’t remember its name neither its steps.

The awful province sleeps in a nightmare of twisting towers and senseless streets.

The vile memory writes in the lone mountain: Santiago doesn’t exist anymore, Santiago hasn’t existed.

This we live through is another alien dream.

And don’t go appealing to that grief of dead people, of pale countenances in those old pictures.

Don’t go tearing your robes as a sign of other people`s endless mourning.

Santiago hasn’t cried neither cries for its fate, this city surrenders to the vile architect who will raze it down to its foundations.

This city surrenders to the commanding voice that still unravels it, humiliates it, disgraces it.

Don’t go crying or intoning a song funereal and serene, as if everything was nothing.

In the middle of the square I remember those who then remained silent before the master of all misfortunes.

The sky falls to pieces, is a figure of speech, and it falls: The same green or grey sky, the same sky and the city hides, escapes, bleeds to death and the city turns off its lights and falls silent.

The Cordillera falls over the sleeping city.

The whole Cordillera buries its raving.

Stones pierce the bodies, the windows and every square explodes in a vast wasteland.

No one becomes aware of such a quiet death, no one regrets, neither cries nor swears.

The city sinks and falls into the void of time and the ghosts of hatred and oblivion.

97

*** I climbed up the mountain without moving forward each step fell into the same path of the back of this mathematical monster and the labyrinth became a pretty trick this is how I reached a top without height I climbed the wrinkled geometry and arrived nowhere and everywhere

Only the mother knows how to stir the milk in the cup that way with a trained wrist whipping through childhood in the kitchen where only the mother knew how to stir the milk in the cup that way and it is because only she knows how but doesn’t know that she knows as I was the one who knew the milk was for me the mother was mine and I knew that only the mother knows how to stir that way

Camila Fadda | Chile, 1969. Poet, translator, Cultural Manager. She lived in Germany for five years integrating various cultural projects (music and literature). Her poetic stuff has been published in various literary journals and poetry translations. Honorable mention in the international poetry contest "Alfonsina Storni" (Argentina, 2010). First place in the international competition of Women's Poetry (Peru, 2012).

Translation - by author.

98

DEGREES OF (IM)PERFECTION

One is Ulro The box that does not open The pure, abstract idea Of how things should be Reduced to their lowest common denominator.

Two is the Crow Reaping the eyes of the dead Stalking the worm in your navel Shy, anxious voyeur Of the White Roe Browsing the pale grass in the cemetery But unable to touch her.

Three is the embrace in the sky Between the Red Dragon and the Whore of Fire Forming in the twilight With their pixelated intercourse A Village* postcard.

Or all the paradises I lived but I can’t remember Under the snow Among the asphodels Under the skies of lapis lazuli already gone.

Four was the perfect number Before we were divided...

* Ulro is the dreariest form of the fallen material world in poetic universe of William Blake. ** Village is the trademark of some very popular greeting postcards in Chile, characterized by a corny, sentimental little rhyme often printed over the background of bucolic landscapes or glorious sunsets.

...When your eye saw me complete Outside and inside From a distance, close to me In the infinite ocean Which formed all the mirrors In the universe. *** In every closed bud Tender petals hold The sleazy charm: Your wrinkled navel.

This spring your eyes will open When the Crow is no longer there To eat them. *** Something like the ghost of a dove The Crow-angel formed with her hands.

She pretended they were flying, But no: pale they stayed stuck to their wrists.

Her face was so so strange: Looking at me As if hiding a dark secret And when she opened her mouth it was as if She was going to start singing, But no.

Meanwhile, black wings unfurled Sprouting from her back and fanning us As if we were going to take flight, But no: we stayed glued to the ground, embraced.

And we were very still this way a long long time Like two lovers who are saying good bye At a railway station in late winter, From which everyone is going away, But no: we stayed glued to the ground, Waiting for something We did not know what it was.

Victor Lobos | Senior Editor of the NEW ::: POETRY LAS (Latin American & Spanish edition), translator, poet, writer; and also he is a psychologist and psychodynamic psychotherapist (Catholic University at Santiago de Chile) Translation - by author.