A man rubs honey on his eyelids
before going to bed
to dream ants and spiders.
In the morning his eyes weave
webs of silver and gold,
and mind stretches wings.
Each evening flying
with the birds his mind enters
itself in a golden cage lit
by honey lamps.
Originally Written in 2006
Published in Manifold Magazine of New Poetry
Editor the late Vera Rich.
Editor’s note: Vera Rich is also published here at PLT
where you may also read the bio of her fascinating life
https://www.artvilla.com/plt/conformal-mapping-poem-sonnet-vera-rich1936-2009
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)
Poetics
ON OVERCOMING GAMOPHOBIA. A Poem by Despy Boutris
Since your silence scares me, be roadkill,
be oil spill, be the elevator that stalled
on its way down. Let me learn to love
the quiet; let’s learn to speak without noise.
And since I despise tight spaces, locked
doors, uncertainty: lock us in a room in the dark,
or in a storm shelter—love, take me
subterranean and then take me, let me
take you. You know odd numbers make me
nervous, so how about I ghost the five fingers
of my left hand over all seven bones of your neck?
If I’m bonnet, be breeze and blow me
away. But take me with you. If I’m blind,
be shuddering breath, be the sound you make
when I touch your chest. If I’m oak, be Spanish
moss so we can grow together, so I can grow
rings to give you, so you can wrap yourself
around me. If I’m weed, be gardener
and uproot me. If I’m week, be -end
so we can spend Sunday morning in bed,
so we can bake bread. If I’m night,
be nightlight so I can find you in the dark.
If I’m crocus, be rainfall, be honeybee
and, honey, come be with me.
(first published in Byzantium)
BIO:
Despy Boutris is published or forthcoming in American Poetry Review, Copper Nickel, Colorado Review, The Adroit Journal, Prairie Schooner, Palette Poetry, Third Coast, Raleigh Review, Diode, The Indianapolis Review, and elsewhere. Currently, she teaches at the University of Houston and serves as Assistant Poetry Editor for Gulf Coast.
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)
Motifs. Poems by Gary Beck
 
Motifs is an unpublished poetry collection that looks at instances in the human experience Gary Beck
(i)
Hard Times
On many street corners
of my fair city
the homeless sit
resources exhausted,
the tattered cardboard signs
requesting aid
the last connection
between abandonment
and termination,
alternate options
totally expended.
(ii)
Sustained
I do not need
intimations of mortality,
my frailty so burdensome
I never forget
each day a miracle
of continuation,
for which I give thanks
that I can still function
and appreciate beauty,
weeping willow, Beethoven,
the wondrous creations
of man and nature
(iii)
First Contact
Several times daily
I look up at the sky
expecting an alien spaceship
to suddenly appear.
Logically it shouldn’t be
invaders or traders,
but eager explorers
urgent for discovery.
If we are fortunate,
their advanced technology
will stimulate our sciences
for rapid innovation,
so when the merchants and soldiers
arrive for the next visit
we are not as ill prepared
as primitive tribesmen
who were devoured
by Western appetites.
(iv)
Machine Learning IV
The latest business venture,
the Discreet Android Delivery Service,
satisfaction guaranteed,
all major credit cards accepted,
all languages spoken,
will open a new window
to A.I. profit.
Preliminary surveys
indicate a big market,
as long as the company controls
proprietorial software.
They’ve vowed great rewards
or dire punishment
to employees
to maintain secrecy.
Prospects are glittering
and to encourage clientele
corporate accounts welcome.
still enriching my life.
Gary Beck has spent most of his adult life as a theater director and worked as an art dealer when he couldn’t earn a living in the theater. He has also been a tennis pro, a ditch digger and a salvage diver. His original plays and translations of Moliere, Aristophanes and Sophocles have been produced Off Broadway. His poetry, fiction and essays have appeared in hundreds of literary magazines and his published books include 26 poetry collections, 10 novels, 3 short story collections, 1 collection of essays and 1 collection of his one-act plays. Published poetry books include: Dawn in Cities, Assault on Nature, Songs of a Clerk, Civilized Ways, Displays, Perceptions, Fault Lines, Tremors, Perturbations, Rude Awakenings, The Remission of Order, Contusions and Desperate Seeker (Winter Goose Publishing. Forthcoming: Learning Curve and Ignition Point). Blossoms of Decay, Expectations, Blunt Force, Transitions, Mortal Coil and Temporal Dreams (Wordcatcher Publishing, Forthcoming: Redemption Value and Fractional Disorder). Earth Links and Too Harsh For Pastels (Cyberwit Publishing: Forthcoming: Severance). His novels include a series ‘Stand to Arms, Marines’: Call to Valor, Crumbling Ramparts and Raise High the Walls (Gnome on Pig Productions). Acts of Defiance, Flare Up and Still Defiant (Wordcatcher Publishing. Forthcoming: Until the Bell and Pirate Spring). Extreme Change will be published by Winter Goose Publishing. His short story collections include: A Glimpse of Youth (Sweatshoppe Publications). Now I Accuse and other stories (Winter Goose Publishing) Dogs Don’t Send Flowers and and other stories (Wordcatcher Publishing). The Republic of Dreams and other essays (Gnome on Pig Productions). The Big Match and other one act plays (Wordcatcher Publishing, Forthcoming: Collected Plays of Gary Beck Volume 1 and Four Plays by Moliere – Translated and Directed by Gary Beck)). Plays of Aristophanes will be published by Cyberwit Publishing. Gary lives in New York City.
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)
Cyber Madonna. A Poem by Sterling Warner
Strategically stressed denim garnished by
random sweatshop tailored holes
adorn wafer thin sheaths that
bond practicality and beauty,
encase the streetwise goddess’s
thighs—accentuate long legs,
enhance airy, sylph-like movements, while
her satin skin peeks through weathered threads
rises above, basks through the frayed fabric’s weave,
when early morning’s warming rays touch
her strapless back, kiss soft shoulders,
bathe them in deep, moist, honey breaths.
The cyber Madonna fingers fine pearls,
plucked from the buxom ocean’s bosom,
like meditation beads,
gives every cultured orb an identity, blesses and
eternalizes each mollusk’s enterprise; the
world begs to be her cybernetic oyster, so
she invites men and women to
text her, tweet her, love her; horny, she
longs for enduring chat room romances…
as she types, her heart hangs over parted lips
like an engorged keystones above
Aphrodite’s passionate arches.
Environmentally friendly lifelines
hold their shape then creep like
molasses along a steamy plain:
dignified, resolute, as determined as
the sheer force of gravity,
she bends her elbows, folds her arms,
camouflages self-consciousness solemnity
as loving as a preying mantis’s gaze
whose frozen posture like an invisible cloak
becomes one with surroundings—
cautious as a vigilant caretaker
guarding the tomb of an unsung savior.
All want to lie in the virgin’s lap
while she cradles tired heads in the
deep valley of her skirt, connecting
without speaking, a million miles
from another’s thoughts, yet
united in a common denominator:
transcendental intimacy—calculable regret; the
Madonna stokes each lover’s hair that
settles across her body as if petting
an exquisite ermine or sable stole, while
every race, color, gender, creed, lifestyle
coax another Immaculate Conception or ascension.
Sterling Warner’s Brief Biography
An author, poet, educator, Sterling Warner’s poems have appeared in many journals and anthologies, including The Flatbush Review, Literary Yard, The Fib Review, “Street Lit: Representing the Urban Landscape and The Atherton Review. Warner has published five collections of poetry: Without Wheels, ShadowCat, Rags and Feathers, Edges, and Memento Mori: A Chapbook Redux.
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)
Liberty Atoms 26/30. Poems by Christopher Barnes
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
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
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
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)