April 2020 – Poetry Life and Times

Liberty Atoms 26/30. Poems by Christopher Barnes

April 28, 2020 by Robin Ouzman Hislop

26.
Gagged, straitjacketed effigy
Blinked an impenetrable announcement.
Thunderbolt frogged a lump-cloud windpipe.
Maisie galloped circles –
Haunting our bathmat.
Sitars wanted to decline.
Nail-varnished on the record’s label:

“A shadow fell beside him
And he jumped up”.

Quote: Iris Murdoch, The Nice And The Good

27.
Polkadot-lens specs
Invariably gaze at TV.
Our unbolted laboratory kitten
Spasmed on Maisie’s dirndl, clucking.
Teardrops flick window
Impeding distinctness.
Blazoned across yellowing t-shirt:

“When Stuart had left him
Thomas sat motionless at his desk”.

Quote: Iris Murdoch, The Nice And The Good

28.
Ballerina gyrated
In musical box
To some neglected chorus.
Logs glistened, infuriated.
Maisie slung cellophane bellflowers,
Hexing between yaps.
Needled into throwover:

“You lack the gift of ordinariness,
Perhaps essential for your programme”.

Quote: Iris Murdoch, The Nice And The Good

29.
The clamped philanderer
Wouldn’t flap athwart the screen.
Draughts gave netting persuasion
To choke Maisie.
Tight-lips earnest, vernal.
Sheer-drop chess pieces in relief:

“One has to learn
To read it”.

Quote: Iris Murdoch, The Nice And The Good

30.
Ferroconcrete soufflé
Nadirs light hearts.
Convivial wasp
Burned out on pillow,
Had shed gravity to emptiness.
Maisie tut-tuts at aerospace
For dissembling blue.
Ransom note leftovers inform:

“We always change in the evening,
We put on our pretty dresses”.

Quote: Iris Murdoch, The Nice And The Good

In 1998 I won a Northern Arts writers award. In July 200 I read at Waterstones bookshop to promote the anthology ‘Titles Are Bitches’. Christmas 2001 I debuted at Newcastle’s famous Morden Tower doing a reading of my poems. Each year I read for Proudwords lesbian and gay writing festival and I partook in workshops. 2005 saw the publication of my collection LOVEBITES published by Chanticleer Press, 6/1 Jamaica Mews, Edinburgh.

On Saturday 16Th August 2003 I read at the Edinburgh Festival as a Per Verse poet at LGBT Centre, Broughton St.

Christmas 2001 The Northern Cultural Skills Partnership sponsored me to be mentored by Andy Croft in conjunction with New Writing North. I made a radio programme for Web FM community radio about my writing group. October-November 2005, I entered a poem/visual image into the art exhibition The Art Cafe Project, his piece Post-Mark was shown in Betty’s Newcastle. This event was sponsored by Pride On The Tyne. I made a digital film with artists Kate Sweeney and Julie Ballands at a film making workshop called Out Of The Picture which was shown at the festival party for Proudwords, it contains my poem The Old Heave-Ho. I worked on a collaborative art and literature project called How Gay Are Your Genes, facilitated by Lisa Mathews (poet) which exhibited at The Hatton Gallery, Newcastle University, including a film piece by the artist Predrag Pajdic in which I read my poem On Brenkley St. The event was funded by The Policy, Ethics and Life Sciences Research Institute, Bio-science Centre at Newcastle’s Centre for Life. I was involved in the Five Arts Cities poetry postcard event which exhibited at The Seven Stories children’s literature building.

REVIEWS: I have written poetry reviews for Poetry Scotland and Jacket Magazine and in August 2007 I made a film called ‘A Blank Screen, 60 seconds, 1 shot’ for Queerbeats Festival at The Star & Shadow Cinema Newcastle, reviewing a poem… On September 4 2010, I read at the Callander Poetry Weekend hosted by Poetry Scotland. I have also written Art Criticism for Peel and Combustus Magazines. I was involved in The Creative Engagement In Research Programme Research Constellation exhibitions of writing and photography which showed in London (march 13 2012) and Edinburgh (July 4 2013)

Robin Ouzman Hislop is Editor of Poetry Life and Times ; You may visit Aquillrelle.com/Author Robin Ouzman Hislop about author. See Robin performing his work Performance (University of Leeds)

Even Now. An Audio Textual Poem by Robin Ouzman Hislop

May 2, 2020April 21, 2020 by Robin Ouzman Hislop

Robin Ouzman Hislop is Editor of Poetry Life and Times ; his publications include

All the Babble of the Souk , Cartoon Molecules and Next Arrivals, collected poems, and the recently published Moon Selected Audio Textual Poems, as well as translation of Guadalupe Grande´s La llave de niebla, as Key of Mist and the recently published Tesserae , a translation of Carmen Crespo´s Teselas.

You may visit Aquillrelle.com/Author Robin Ouzman Hislop about author. See Robin performing his work Performance (University of Leeds)

The Spirit of Corona Times. An Audio Textual Poem by Debashish Haar

April 21, 2020April 16, 2020 by Robin Ouzman Hislop

This moment is a metaphor, 

        the metaphor is a war,

               the war for the survival of mankind.


Its victims are those who sold weapon

     its victims are those who bought the weapons,

          its victims are those on whom incendiary explosives were and are being fired.


Its victims are those who armtwisted national regimes, 

     its victims are the benighted nations,

          its victims are rich, its victims are poor.

           
Its victims are those who stockpile nuclear arsenal, 

     but have scant PPEs and Ventilators,

             its victims are the stereotyped minorities.


Its victims are the old who have lived their lives,

     its victims are millennials in callow youth having starry dreams, 

          its victims are infants and even new borns.


Its victims are those who are living lives in house arrest 
     
      fending an invisible nano scale enemy threatening to reduce the world

           in a nuclear winter without any bombs being dropped.


This moment is an allegory,

       which nobody knows, no one understands,

             it stammers and rattles, and speaks everything at once!

Debashish is a machine learning scientist, who has been published in literary magazines several
times across the globe, including Poetry Life & Times, where he was interviewed twice.

He is currently contending with a severe writer’s block spanning a decade, when he has hardly
produced any publishable content. He is also losing emotional connection with his own work
gradually, and spends more time to edit/tighten his old poems than creating any new content.

Editor’s Note: Debashish Haar was interviewed twice in the old Poetry Life and Times, once by
Sarah Russell then Editor & later by myself as a new Editor before it folded in 2008.

The New Poetry Life & Times restarted in 2013 at Artvilla.com site, Admin David Jackson.

Robin Ouzman Hislop is Editor of Poetry Life and Times ; You may visit Aquillrelle.com/Author Robin Ouzman Hislop about author. See Robin performing his work Performance (University of Leeds)

ÓÓÓÓÓÓÓÓÓÓÓ A Poem by Antonio Martínez Arboleda

April 18, 2020April 14, 2020 by Robin Ouzman Hislop

                                                                         O
                                                                         O
                                                       I am not one Virus
                                                but                                as
                                                                        many        as
                                                                                Bodies
                                                                     and cells
                                                                             I inhabit
                                                                         O                                                                                                                               O
                                                                         O
                                                                 You assume 
                                                        I cannot             think
                                                    nor                                  feel
                                                     for                           Me
                                                                   and You
                                                                         O
                                                                         O
                                                                 My sorrow 
                                                         is                           constant
                                                   like                              the song
                                                       of                                   the Sailor
                                             who lost                                        the compass
                                                 and relies                                     on fate
                                                   to reach                        another Island
                                                       hopping                            through
                                                                  breaking in
                                                                         O
                                                                        OO
                                                                       OOO
                                                                I do not want 
                                                      to kill                       You
                                                                   honestly
                                                          but                   some
                                                                            times
                                                            things go wrong  
                                                                       OO
                                                                     OOO
                                                                   OOOO
                                                     We are damaged goods
                                  looking                                                     at each other
                                                                in the eye
                                                             like in a duel
                                              just                                    separated
                                                  by your protective glasses
                                                                and mask
                                                                  OOOO
                                                                OOOOO
                                                             OOOOOOO
                                                      Nature against Nature
                                  It will always                                 be a draw
                                                           OOOOOOOO
                                                      ÓÓÓÓÓÓÓÓÓÓÓ

Antonio Martínez Arboleda:
Antonio (Tony Martin-Woods) started to write poetry for the public in 2012, at the age of 43, driven by his political indignation. That same year he also set in motion Poesía Indignada, an online publication of political poetry. He runs the poetry evening Transforming with Poetry at Inkwell, in Leeds, and collaborates with 100 Thousands Poets for Change 100tpc.org/. Tony is also known in the UK for his work as an academic and educator under his real-life name, Antonio Martínez Arboleda at the University of Leeds. His project of digitisation of poetry, Ártemis, compiles more than 100 high quality videos of Spanish poets and other Open Educational Resources. http://www.artemispoesia.com/ .

He is the delegate in the UK of Crátera Revista de Crítica y Poesía Contemporánea , where he also publishes his work as translator from English into Spanish. He published his first volume of poetry in Spanish, Los viajes de Diosa (The Travels of Goddess), in 2015, as a response to the Great Recession, particularly in Spain. His second book, Goddess Summons the Nation Paperback , Goddess Summons the Nation Kindle Edition , is a critique of the ideas of nation and capitalism, mainly in the British Brexit context. It incorporates voices of culprits, victims and heroes with mordacity and rhythm. It consists of 21 poems, 18 of which are originally written in English, available in print and kindle in Amazon and other platforms. Editor’s note: further information bio & academic activities can be found at this link: https://ahc.leeds.ac.uk/languages/staff/91/antonio-martinez-arboleda

Robin Ouzman Hislop is Editor of Poetry Life and Times ; You may visit Aquillrelle.com/Author Robin Ouzman Hislop about author. See Robin performing his work Performance (University of Leeds)

COMMUTE. A Poem by Juanita Rey

April 2, 2020April 2, 2020 by Robin Ouzman Hislop

An alarm clock rings on the side-table.
My head rings in harmony.

The cat jumps upon
my curled-up body,
tears my dream to shreds.

I flick on the radio for company.
The station plays a song
I’ve heard a thousand times before.
The thousandth and one time
knows no better.

I pour coffee into
the unwashed cup
I retrieve from the sink.

Yesterday’s stains
meet today’s fresh blend –
that’s always the way.
Like a new start
that knows how all the old ones ended.

I dress, bundle up until
I’m bear shape and size,
head out for the freezing bus stop.
That feral cat of a temperature
still finds a way to scratch at me.

It’s another day just like any other.
I haven’t it within me
to make it any different.

For the life I’ve planned
is like a car stalled out in the driveway.

Here comes the bus.

Juanita Rey is a Dominican poet who has lived in the USA for the last five years. Her work has been published in Pennsylvania English, Opiate Journal, Petrichor Machine and Porter Gulch Review.

Robin Ouzman Hislop is Editor of Poetry Life and Times ; his publications include

All the Babble of the Souk , Cartoon Molecules and Next Arrivals, collected poems, and the recently published Moon Selected Audio Textual Poems, as well as translation of Guadalupe Grande´s La llave de niebla, as Key of Mist and the recently published Tesserae , a translation of Carmen Crespo´s Teselas.

You may visit Aquillrelle.com/Author Robin Ouzman Hislop about author. See Robin performing his work Performance (University of Leeds)

Withdrawment & Poems by Sanjeev Sethi

April 1, 2020 by Robin Ouzman Hislop

(i)

Withdrawment

Campaigning without connections
is an exemplary pursuit.
To one sans options
this is senseless.
Ideas chassé on the semi-sprung
of choice. I go with inner sequences.

To be in sync with similar beats
is the right swing.
Silence draws in contagion
of concepts
some worthy of chase.
In the hush-hush I unearth handles.

(ii)

Iciness

Backer is harpy, recipient always ravenous.
Different show different setup.

Like a forsaken sloop led by Pharos
your vowels fuel a balefire to intent.

Emptiness scans more meaning than there is:
like a literary egghead evaluating belles-lettres.

Boozed up you withdraw from our bull session.
This tells me your endearments are an evasion.

On her podcast, the diva inquires of her spouse:
hex to bring back spice? His comeback: role play.

(iii)

Aberrance

Every ply is elbow-grease: when
even an earworm is inert, when I
wish to lam out I garner I hold no
eye-catching selfies.

Sacred they will be skewed I seldom
click any. I’m my worst ambassador.
An unlawful being is as unsmudged as
his solicitor. Close-ups soil some of us.

(iv)

Blackball

One may have envied it
had you laid out less:
your sojourns and the whole shebang.
Happiness fulfills inner chinks.
Mailing close-ups suggests other motives.
Is it an end run?
Slainte for something
more special
is a flawed premise.
Lapses are latent.
Errors are acceptable
so are fender-benders.
Manipulating emotions
for a payoff:
a thumbs down.

Sanjeev Sethi is published in over 25 countries. He has more than 1200 poems printed or posted in venues around the world. Wrappings in Bespoke, is Winner of Full Fat Collection Competition-Deux organized by the Hedgehog Poetry Press UK. It’s his fourth book. It will be issued in 2020. He lives in Mumbai, India.

Robin Ouzman Hislop is Editor of Poetry Life and Times ; his publications include

All the Babble of the Souk , Cartoon Molecules and Next Arrivals, collected poems, and the recently published Moon Selected Audio Textual Poems, as well as translation of Guadalupe Grande´s La llave de niebla, as Key of Mist and the recently published Tesserae , a translation of Carmen Crespo´s Teselas.

You may visit Aquillrelle.com/Author Robin Ouzman Hislop about author. See Robin performing his work Performance (University of Leeds)