We sat at the bar
sucking back beers
in that smoky roadhouse,
and you went on about it,
and finally said,
“I mean, where is he?
Where did he go?”
Your father, gone,
three months ago
in a freak accident,
his pickup winding up
on its roof in a ditch
for no apparent reason.
You looked at me,
and my lame answer
limped out,
“I believe that
when you’re gone,
you’re gone.”
Spoken like a good
and faithful atheist.
My truth telling
a matter of principle.
You stared at me, nodding
and biting your quivering lip,
Adam’s apple working
as you tried swallowing
the bitter fruit
of my honesty.
I saw it, and quickly said,
“But what the hell do I know?”
And some years later,
I remember you
angrily saying
that when we die
we just rot in the ground,
and I winced
at how you spit
those words out,
and wished I’d lied
way back then.
Brian Rihlmann was born in NJ, and currently lives in Reno, NV. He writes mostly semi autobiographical, confessional free verse. Folk poetry…for folks. He has been published in Constellate Magazine, Poppy Road Review, Cajun Mutt Press, The Rye Whiskey Review and has an upcoming piece in The American Journal Of Poetry
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, 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)
Online Blog Poetics
Collected Poems Laredo Light by RW Haynes Press Release
We are pleased to introduce at PLT, RW Haynes recent volume of collected poems hailing from Laredo. It’s been our pleasure to publish a selection of Haynes’ works over the last few years, ( in case of interest view Search or Categories at this site ). He’s a poet with a canny and unique expertise in the craftmanship of the classical sonnet dating from the Renaissance poets and a master of the lyrical mode but absolutely written in contemporary vogue. At times profoundly reflective and self effacing they saunter from the wry and whimsical to the depths of inner movement, whilst harvesting at all times a spectacular vocabulary in accompaniment. Editor’s comment.
Southern Baptists Sponsor Stormy Daniels Forgiveness Tour
“It costs a lot of money to look this cheap.”
-
–Dolly Parton
Brothers and sisters, we all have turned away
From the true path, but in our faith we know
We can return, though bled half-dry, although
In pain and shame for having run astray.
Judas, too, was born a child of light.
His mother saw in him how love arrives.
His kiss would guarantee that it survives
All storminess and darkness, shining bright.
And we also betray our closest friends
And sell ourselves and them with greedy minds
Until amazing grace assures that conscience finds
We have gone chasing after stupid ends.
And now, O brethren, it has come to pass
We’ve put our money on the wrong jackass.
R. W. Haynes, Professor of English at Texas A&M International University, writes various things in prose and in poetic form. His academic specialty is 16th-century England, but much of his work lately has been on the playwright/screenwriter Horton Foote. His poetry collections Laredo Light and Let the Whales Escape are being published this summer. He recently wrote a play titled Never Claim a Kill, and he hopes to complete his novel The Songs of Billy Bonstead before Laredo cools off again. Another project in progress is an academic work currently titled The Struggling Spirit in the Plays and Screenplays of Horton Foote.
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, 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 Arrest of Mr. Kissy Face. Collected Poems by Mitchell Grabois. Press Release
The Arrest of Mr Kissy Face Mitchel Krockmalnik Grabois
M Krockmalnik Grabois is a poet extraodinaire, his works lucidly readable are delivered in a paced, snappy even raunchy style ranging from the common place mundane social to the seedy, slapstick macabre. Much of his writing follows the genre of narrator vignettes with the inevitable turn and twist closure punch lines that amorphize a mix of compassion with often hilarious black humor. Indeed, these poems are psychotic taking us to the verge of psychopathy where they compell the reader to a confrontation of her own humanity. A provocative and very recommendable read. For further works by Mitch Grabois see and search links below: Robin Ouzman Hislop Editor Poetry Life & Times, Artvilla.com, Motherbird.com
The Arrest of Mr. Kissy Face
I kissed the woman who slices lunch meat
at King Sooper’s
She shoved smoked turkey at me
leaned away
and called: Next!
I kissed my doctor
I’d been wanting to do it
since she first told me to stick out my tongue
and complemented me on its smoothness
and the elegance of my taste buds
I kissed her and she asked
On a scale of one to ten, how have you been feeling this week?
I kissed her again
Have you been seeing or hearing things that aren’t really there?
Have you been feeling suicidal or homicidal?
I kissed her more deeply
really sent my tongue to a remote locale
Do you have access to weapons?
I said:
How can you ask me that
after everything we’ve been through?
Anyway, this is America
She called Security
Security knew me
from the days when I was a high school football star
and an amateur boxer and cage fighter
who went by the moniker Destructo
They were afraid of me
called the cops
warned them: Be sure to bring your stun guns
your billy clubs
and chemical weapons
The first cop who entered the room—
I kissed her
She yelled FREEZE!
Hands where I can see them!
Get down on your knees!
I happily complied
Mitchell Krockmalnik Grabois
Mitchell Krockmalnik Grabois has had over fourteen-hundred of his poems and fictions appear in literary magazines in the U.S. and abroad, including quite a few in POETRY LIFE AND TIMES. He has been nominated for numerous prizes, and was awarded the 2017 Booranga Writers’ Centre (Australia) Prize for Fiction. His novel, Two-Headed Dog, based on his work as a clinical psychologist in a state hospital, is available for Kindle and Nook, or as a Print Edition . To see more of his work, google Mitchell Krockmalnik Grabois. He lives in Denver.
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, 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)
WASTING AWAY. A Poem by Bradford Middleton
Life has dwindled out here
On the periphery of this nightmare
At the edge of full-blown catatonic
Fever sweeping through me
As the waste has done its job on me
And this thing I call a life
No words have been written
As too much life has spent being lived
Until now when at last craving peace
I get a night home alone with
No major worries afflicting my
Mind.
This room is sorted for as long as I want it
My job is still hated but plans are being made
To get out of there too and not before time
As the ten year anniversary suddenly looms
Taking me back to that time when I arrived
Dreaming of a better life only to be dumped
On the refuge tip of creativity, to forsake money
As the evil of all evils. But here everything
Costs something and my brain needs special
Meds to keep it functioning and
All that weed costs a fair old wedge
Whilst all that booze costs a whole lot more
Leaving me with little after rent and food
Have been taken care of.
Right now though I’m just happy
To get this room sorted out as the first requirement
Of a life like this is a room in which I can sleep,
Write, drink, smoke and eat as that is
All I ever really want to do.
BIOGRAPHY
Bradford Middleton was born in south-east London during the summer of 1971 and won his first poetry prize at the age of nine. He then gave up writing poems for nearly twenty-five years and it wasn’t until he landed in Brighton, knowing no one and having no money, that he began again. Ten years later and he’s been lucky enough to have had a few chapbooks published including a new one from Analog Submission Press entitled ‘Flying through this Life like a Bottle Battling Gravity’, his debut from Crisis Chronicles Press (Ohio, USA) and his second effort for Holy & Intoxicated Press (Hastings, UK). He has read around the UK at various bars, venues and festivals and is always keen to get out and read to new crowds. His poetry has also been or will be published shortly in the Chiron Review, Zygote in my Coffee, Section 8, Razur Cuts, Paper & Ink, Grandma Moses ‘Poet to Notice’, Empty Mirror, Midnight Lane Gallery, Bareback Lit and is a Contributing Poet over at the wonderful Mad Swirl. If you like what you’ve read go send a friend request on facebook to bradfordmiddleton1.
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, 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)
Soul of the ruins. A Poem by Fabrice B. Poussin
The veil is thin perhaps unreal, somewhat untrue,
distance it is, in faint tone, he faces the apparition,
a step and she is not nearer, a step and she seems… gone…
He may despair as a hand reaches out aimlessly.
Into the lightness of the night, tending the darkness of a morn’,
undefined as others, she sings of assured forms;
he can not know for certain in the ruins of the fortress,
ghost of the lady of middle times or mistress of his soul.
She may sit on a cornerstone, birther of life eternal,
disappear into the dungeon wall, or hold in her hand
the statue of a powerful lord almighty, in her feebleness
yet she desires, she wants, she yearns for a life hers.
Take courage young squire, the mist is traitorous,
when fearing the treasure that lies beyond the image,
she is, she exists for the one who braves, unknown,
reward awesome, you will live in paradise.
Misty, undefined, unreal to the outsider,
yet she is, no doubt, remains of her existence;
have faith, believe, as you walk toward the apparition,
the embrace tightens; she will crush your heart into hers so.
Fabrice B. Poussin is advisor for The Chimes, the Shorter University award winning poetry and arts publication. His writing and photography have been published in print, including Kestrel, Symposium, La Pensee Universelle, Paris, and other art and literature magazines in the United States and abroad. He teaches French and English at Shorter University. Author of novels and poetry, his work has appeared in many other magazines. His photography has been published in The Front Porch Review, the San Pedro River Review as well as other publications.
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, 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)
Coming Home from the Hospital. A Poem by Holly Day
She bumps against me in the seat and I wonder
what would happen if I took her, this girl
too young to be riding on the bus by herself
too young to be so close to so many strangers.
I smile and scoot over to make room for her to sit
imagine she’s my daughter, that I have a daughter
wonder if the other passengers already think she’s here with me.
I press myself up against the latched window
wonder what our life would be like together
I could pop the emergency release
grab her and run.
Bio:
Once again, winter’s almost gone and I don’t know where the time went. The trellis out back is covered with a lace of iced-over morning glory leaves and snow, and the little field mice are running rampant through the walls of my house, settling in to escape the coldest part of the year.
Holly Day’s poetry has recently appeared in Plainsongs, The Long Islander, and The Nashwaak Review. Her newest poetry collections are A Perfect Day for Semaphore (Finishing Line Press), In This Place, She Is Her Own (Vegetarian Alcoholic Press), A Wall to Protect Your Eyes (Pski’s Porch Publishing), I’m in a Place Where Reason Went Missing (Main Street Rag Publishing Co.), The Yellow Dot of a Daisy (Alien Buddha Press), Folios of Dried Flowers and Pressed Birds (Cyberwit.net), and Where We Went Wrong (Clare Songbirds Publishing)
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, 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)
Inutile. A Poem by Noni Benegas. Translated from Spanish by Noël Valis
Excerpt from Fragments of an Unknown Diary
Inutile Inútil
insolent insolente
insociable insociable
insecure filthy insegura sucia
cupriferous carbona soaked cuprífera carbona rehogada
lens lamina lente lámina
leavened levadiza
villain villana
vultiferous jerk vultífera fregada
insomniac insomne
maniac maníaca
criminoid désolée decisive criminante desolante decisiva
incisive incisiva
leeks mangled beef puerro ropa vieja
snitch soplona
salivating drooling dissolving salivada babeante borrosa
brute bruta
brutally brute abrutada brutal
malapertous malabuena
malapropous malhabida
beflavorous saborida
borealeous brisada
brumeous brumosa
lunar rapide lunar rápida
unmissed mal ida
unwelcome malvenida
seated seatless ensillada sin silla
second sally resalida
aligned ahilada
related recontada
recuperated recuperada
cured curtida
cooked cociente
crunched crujiente
stitched cosida
chosen elegida
papa loved papá amada
papa pretty papá linda
papa talk papá diálogo
papa love papá amor
papa always papá siempre
broken bashed bent rota estrujada revertida
exonerated exonerada
extracted extraída
launched lanzada
mama suppressed mamá elidida
mama scolded mamá reñida
mama twisted mamá torcida
mama out mamá fuera
mama far mamá lejos
mama hurry mamá prisas
mama hollow mamá hueco
mama never mamá nunca
mama old mamá vieja
mama death mamá muerte
mama space mamá espacio
mama freedom mamá libertad
mama voice mamá voz
mama laughing mamá riente
mama suffering mamá doliente
mama pardon mamá perdón
mama please mamá porfavor
mama plea mamá ruego
mama purchase mamá compra
mama vigilant mamá avizora
mama idea mamá idea
mama recuperate mamá recupera
mama leftover mamá sobras
mama rags mamá guiñapo
mama mummy mamá momia
mama whine mamá queja
mama fate mamá sino
mama loving mamá amante
mama late mamá tarde
garden gone jardín ido
gathered recogido
garden rigged jardín jarcias
never-ever jamases
garden grasped jardín asido
threads hilo
garden moon jardín luna
gleams riela
carp play lúdica carpa
sounds suena
pool star charco estrella
garden plot jardín tramo
peril trance
Works by Noni Benegas
Poetry
Argonáutica. Prologue José María Valverde. Barcelona: Laertes, 1984. (Platero Prize)
La balsa de la Medusa. Alicante: Caja de Ahorros Provincial de Alicante, 1987.
(Miguel Hernández National Prize for Poetry)
Cartografía ardiente: Madrid: Verbum, 1995.
Las entretelas sedosas: Montilla: Aula Poética Casa del Inca, 2002.
Fragmentos de un diario desconocido. Ferrol: Esquío, 2004. (Esquío de Poesía Prize)
De ese roce vivo: Madrid, Huerga&Fierro, 2009
Animales Sagrados: Barcelona, Igitur, 2012 ( Vila de Martorell Prize)
Lugar Vertical: Barcelona, Igitur, 2012 ( Ciutat de Palma, Rubén Darío Prize)
El ángel de lo súbito: A selection of poetry, whit an introduction by Benito del Pliego, Madrid, Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2013
Fragmentos de un diario desconocido. Reedition, Madrid, eMe, escritura de Mujeres en español, Ed. La Palma, 2017
Poetry in translation
Burning Cartography: A bilingüal selection spanish-english, introduced and translated by Noël Valis. Austin, TX, Host, 2007. Second edition with added poems in 2011
Animaux sacrés et autres poémes: A bilingüal selection spanish-french translated by Annie Salager, Sète, Al Manar, 2013 (Voix Vives, de Méditerranée en Méditerranée)
Criticism
Ellas tienen la palabra. Dos décadas de poesía española. (with Jesús Munárriz). Introduction by Noni Benegas. Madrid: Hiperión, 1997. 4th ed., 2008.
Ellas tienen la palabra. Las mujeres y la escritura. Collects the introduction to the anthology of the same name, a new prologue, articles, interviews and an epilogue. Madrid,Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2017
Ellas resisten. Mujeres poetas y artistas. Textos 1994-2019: Madrid, Huerga&Fierro, 2019
Bio: Translator. Noël Valis (born 24 December 1945) is a writer, scholar and translator. She is a Professor of Spanish at Yale University. She received her B.A. from Douglass College and earned a Ph.D. in Spanish and French at Bryn Mawr College. An Hon. Woodrow Wilson Fellow, she is a recipient of fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Valis is a Full Member of the Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua Española (an affiliate of the Real Academia Española) and a Corresponding Member of the Real Academia Española. In 2017 she won the Victoria Urbano Academic Achievement Prize (Premio Victoria Urbano de Reconocimiento Académico), given by the International Association of Hispanic Women’s Literature and Culture (Asociación Internacional de Literatura y Cultura Femenina Hispánica), for her work in Hispanic women’s and gender studies. Her translation of Noni Benegas’s poetry, Burning Cartography, was awarded the New England Council of Latin American Studies’ Best Book Translation Prize.
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, 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)
Dream: The Old Dude with Big Side-Whiskers – On Being Called Honey by a Waitress Named Kitty. Poems by RW Haynes.
Dream: The Old Dude with Big Side-Whiskers On Being Called Honey by a Waitress Named Kitty
Yes, Old Ibsen was indeed a sight, I’ll have the Boot Hill burger, I believe,
Appearing in a dim-lit dream where I As the young cowboy said, and some fries…
Lay, probably snoring, on an anxious night, Where does a man end up when he dies?
His whispery voice, a dagger-scraping sigh, When I used to keep a card up my sleeve
Disdainful but intent, urgent to be heard, I knew it was safe with my back to the door
Said, “Listen, cracker, once I had it all And a cup of hot coffee, my hair slicked back,
From my Muses, and then onstage my word And pieces of silver in a small leather sack,
Was their law as surely as avalanches fall. But now you can’t trust nothing any more.
At dinner my fellow Norwegians would rise There used to be a train that ran each day
When I appeared, and the Queen gave to me Through here, and then you could get away
As Royal Playwright a Royal Garden key, From everything. You could go or stay,
And I prospered mightily in all men’s eyes. As the spirit rolled the dice and smiled,
But I tell you now, and listen well to me, Time to go, sometimes time to play,
Your work is diminished by prosperity. Happy as a hog and careless as a child.
The wisdom we seek in optimistic dreams You don’t want to hear an old man’s lies,
Moves through life, when captured, delusive, But everything else he has has dried,
Though the silence biding Mrs. Alving’s screams And his friends and all of his dogs have died,
Defies the mutable, the shifty and elusive. And there’s not much fire burning in his eyes,
Old age calls for a mature intensity And you’ll never know how hard the man has lied
Reaching always toward ghostly shades Or how many shots he took long ago
Hovering maliciously in dark immensity, That no one remembers or ever will know.
Clutching their rust-rotten, blood-rusted blades. Hell, it don’t matter now what all he tried,
Wake up, forget the clowns and their clamor, But when you call him honey, honey, just try
Turn to my Muses, the grim inspiration To give him a hard look straight in the eye
Of rough-edged insight, of ax and of hammer, To stir up them ashes he’s cherishing inside,
The poet’s kind of living, the deadly vocation. And the angels will sing for you, loud and sweet,
If I had my work to do again, it’s true, And heaven’s gates will shake and open wide
I’d write my work in blood, and so should you.” When you bring sacrifice for him to eat.
R. W. Haynes has taught literature at Texas A&M International University since 1992. His recent interests include the early British sonnet, and he is completing a second book on the Texas playwright and screenwriter Horton Foote (1916-2009). In his poetry, Haynes seeks to celebrate life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness without sounding any more dissonant notes than he has to. In fiction, he works toward grasping that part of the past which made its mark on his generation. He enjoys teaching drama, especially the Greeks, Ibsen, and Shakespeare, and he devoutly hopes for a stunning literary Renaissance in South Texas.
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, 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)