poetry

Selected Poems from Turbulence by Gary Beck

August 17, 2021 by Robin Ouzman Hislop

‘Turbulence’, an unpublished poetry collection that looks at some of the disturbing elements in this strange life: ‘Behavior Pattern’, ‘Intrusion’, ‘Turmoil’, ‘Misconception’, ‘Winding Down’.

i.

Behavior Pattern

Human nature
is often contrary,
people refusing to listen,
when given instructions
even when it’s life or death,
congregating socially
in the narrowest part of the sidewalk
so it’s difficult to pass,
like the self-entitled
who think they’re privileged
expecting preferential treatment
trapped in middle class illusion,
and do not know nor care
that most of the world
is trapped in poverty
without opportunity.

ii.

Intrusion

Springtime in the park.
Only the homeless are overdressed
wearing all their clothing,
carrying all their possessions
because they have nowhere to go
except a temporary bench,
made uncomfortable
by the suspicious stares
of the more fortunate.

iii.

Turmoil

Disasters sweep the world
causing death and debilitation.
Powerful storms
linger in memory
until prosperity
breeds forgetting.
War ravages many lands
devastating entire peoples
recovery almost impossible
without massive aid
rarely available
to most countries,
unless they have valuable assets
that make them worth saving.

iv.

Misconceptions

I heard a phrase today
I never heard before.
‘Cultural appropriation’.
It referred to a theatre production
in a foreign country
where the show was canceled
because white actors
played black cotton pickers,
offending profoundly
the African-American ethos
that whites should not play blacks.
Poor white sharecroppers once picked cotton,
so its not beyond ethnic possibility.
Some people are forgetting, or do not know,
an actors job is to fool the audience
into believing he/she is the character.
An actor should play roles
according to his/her skills and talent.
We wouldn’t want a good black actor
to be deprived of playing Hamlet, Ophelia,
just because they’re black.

v.

Winding Down

In the nursing home
seniors come and go,
not lingering long
before the last move
to final resting place.

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 31 poetry collections, 13 novels, 3 short story collections, 1 collection of essays and 4 books of 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, Desperate Seeker and Learning Curve (Winter Goose Publishing). Earth Links, Too Harsh For Pastels, Severance, Redemption Value, Fractional Disorder, Disruptions and Ignition Point (Cyberwit Publishing Forthcoming: Resonance). His novels include Extreme Change (Winter Goose Publishing). State of Rage, Wavelength, Protective Agency and Obsess (Cyberwit Publishing. Forthcoming: Still Obsessed). 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 other stories (Wordcatcher Publishing). Collected Essays of Gary Beck (Cyberwit Publishing). The Big Match and other one act plays (Wordcatcher Publishing). Collected Plays of Gary Beck Volume 1 and Plays of Aristophanes translated, then directed by Gary Beck and Collected Plays of Gary Beck Volume II (Cyberwit Publishing. Forthcoming: Four Plays by Moliere translated then directed by Gary Beck). Gary lives in New York City.

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

Trying to Exist, Scarred Faces & Smell of Younger Days. 3 Poems by Fabrice B Poussin

June 23, 2021 by Robin Ouzman Hislop

(i.)

Trying to Exist

There was once a little universe
crowded with abandoned worlds
dimming planets and wandering sparks.

In the midst of this quiet chaos
particles swirled aimless in a dark substance
chasing lives dreamed up in an unknow realm.

Seeking a likeness in the mysterious substance
two would slow, pulled by an eternal force
that brought them close as to begin life.

Devoid of human features
they may have been giants or midgets
yet older than this odd mixture of all origins.

Their presence could be sensed
as if two lovers holding in a tight embrace
in the intimacy of their wedding dress.

(ii.)

Scarred faces

Faces float, menacing nearby;
they grin, they scream, they decay.

Loves, and friendships melted away,
only to return in Halloween masks.

Their appeal worn away, faded,
overtaken by the inner ugliness of souls.

Roses wilted, gentleness turned to ash,
of features stolen from forgotten corpses.

Little remains of those gleeful memories,
while a cruel stench hovers, relentless.

The joy twists in an agonizing query;
there is no return after death’s frigid kiss.

(iii.)

Smell of younger days

Flavor of absent memories
into one snapshot of forgone years
scent of mysterious objects
unattached.

Listening to the forest singing
brushes paint images of broad strokes
alive with energies of millennia
in unison.

His eyes closed onto a landscape
only he, can distinguish
overwhelmed by a past never really
forgotten.

Sensations are many beyond the self
merging within to another birth
where he can rest a weary soul
a little while longer.

Fabrice B. Poussin is the advisor for The Chimes, the Shorter University award winning poetry and arts publication. His writing and photography have been published in print in the United States and abroad. He teaches French and English at Shorter University. Author of novels and poetry, his work has appeared in Kestrel, Symposium, The Chimes, La Pensee Universelle, Paris, and other art and literature magazines, where he has also featured here at Poetry Life and Times & Artvilla.com. 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 at Artvilla.com ; You may visit Aquillrelle.com/Author Robin Ouzman Hislop about author & https://poetrylifeandtimes.com See Robin performing his work Performance (University of Leeds)

Ode to Gargoyles A Poem by James Croal Jackson

April 30, 2021 by Robin Ouzman Hislop

Strong Baboon, I lost all sense of language 

                         Duck Angel, blue clouds are turning dark 

Anchored Cheetah, chase my spirit away

                          Smiling Lion, Naked Genie, give your lust & longing

Horned Horse, may one day you breathe flame

                          Lost Dog, you have seen my lover

Furless Cat, may my home become yours

                          Hunchback Hyena, I, too, holler at the edge of a roof

Tender Dove, may you pass these tigers safely

                          Galloping Bat, may we find a bed deep in a cave

James Croal Jackson (he/him/his) is a Filipino-American poet. He has a chapbook, The Frayed Edge of Memory (Writing Knights Press, 2017), and poems published in Perhappened, Kingdoms in the Wild, and Capsule Stories, among others. He edits The Mantle Poetry (themantlepoetry.com) and works in film production in Pittsburgh, PA. (jamescroaljackson.com)

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

Six Haiku/Senryu by Susan N Aassahde

April 21, 2021 by Robin Ouzman Hislop

fallen leaves
ramble on crisp snow
for hills of March

early blossom
clang on ivory frost
for bobbles of turtles

fresh dew
talons on rose pulps
for crops of spring

tweak fleece
centipedes on lost rain
for drifts of pebbles

harvest sap
bees on nimble fuchsia
for stream of hops

cauliflower flock
ruffage of flint hyenas
for skips of peat

Susan N Aassahde

Bio:

Susan N Aassahde graduated from university in 2014, her interests lay in the creation of the art of haiku, relatively new Susan N Aassahde has a small collection published with Plum Tree Tavern, Down in the Dirt and Dreich magazine after a concentration of experimental verse which are published with Eskimo Pie and M58 she has progressed to her connection with nature.

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

Vida. (Life) A Poem by Antonio Arboleda (English & Spanish)

May 6, 2021April 10, 2021 by Robin Ouzman Hislop

Image: Calle Santo Domingo, Lorca (Spain), showing the house where Antonio was born and his mother, Lucia, in the balcony of their flat.

Life

To my father, Antonio Martínez Manzanera, who passed away on 28 March 2021

You leave behind a trail of victims.

How many voices,
unique children
delivered to your light,
did you end up strangling
with your own hands, Life?

You kept up the appearances
deceiving those humans
who believed themselves
boundless,
who felt accepted by the matter
of an uncanny universe
that turns out to be
just a sad arrangement
of rough stones and gases,
a universe that enslaves you,
Life,
as its precarious
exotic whim,
forcing you to leapfrog
through chosen planets,
and drag yourself
in travelling theatres
for your vanity,
and your honour,
Life.

My thinking carbon molecules,
the impression of my spirit,
are not members
of any ruthless club
of inert particles,
of empty energies,
of graceless big bangs
with no purpose,
with no story to tell.

Life,
if there exists a divine mystery,
sweet and tragic,
mother, parricide,
redeeming saviour,
defying the dark,
clumsy ways of physics
that must be you,
Life,
That must be you.

Vida

A mi padre, Antonio Martínez Manzanera, fallecido el 28 de marzo de 2021

Dejas a tu paso un reguero de víctimas.

¿Cuántas voces únicas,
hijas paridas en tu luz,
terminaste ahogando
con tus propias manos, Vida?

Tus apariencias engañaron
a más de uno,
que se creyó sin límites,
aceptado por un universo
que resulta estar hecho
de pedruscos y gases,
por un universo
del que no eres más
que lacaya en precario,
Vida,
capricho excéntrico
que de salto en salto se arrastró
por planetas elegidos,
teatros ambulantes
de tu vanidad,
y de tu honra,
Vida.

No es mi carbono pensante
ni el espíritu de mi impronta
miembro de ese club despiadado
de partículas inertes,
de vanas energías,
de big bangs
sin propósito, ni narrativa.

Vida,
si existe un misterio
y una divinidad,
dulce y trágica,
madre, parricida,
salvadora y redentora,
desafiando las artes oscuras
ramplonas
de las físicas
y las químicas
esa,
Vida,
eres tú.

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 at Artvilla.com ; his publications include

All the Babble of the Souk , Cartoon Molecules, Next Arrivals and Moon Selected Audio Textual Poems, 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)

Three Strikes in London A Poem by Megan Denese Mealor

March 23, 2021 by Robin Ouzman Hislop

We spent our thunder in East End stagger,

imbibing jellied eels sharked from shadows

underlying Tower Bridge stained Silver Jubilee.

Irish weavers once spilled their angels on those docks;

Leather Apron boiled fetid fog, tempested theists.

You induced me along gashes of geodesic graffiti

enlivening crooked curry houses, inner city chattel,

fidgety railway bridge partitions retailing

kitschy orchards, botanic rainboots

in the shambolic underpass.

In a charismatic kilt and Victorian tourmaline,

I descended brick basement bookshops,

jubilating in the heirloom halo,

thumbprint burning your impassive palm.

Cancan robots, unbaptized bohemian Bentleys

depicted the dilettantish din borderless

throughout enameled back alleys.

Electrified with Rhubarb Sours and feeling alien,

I disoriented your voltage in a biting brasserie

swirling with coriander, chilies, cardamom.

The last time you lost me in Shoreditch,

I was procuring bouquets of Harper’s Bazaar,

pocketing hints of old-world Chanel,

lacing Queensbridge Road into my hue.

(Originally published in The Ministry of Poetic Affairs, April 2017)

BIO

Megan Denese Mealor is a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee. She has authored three full-length poetry collections: Bipolar Lexicon (Unsolicited Press), Blatherskite (Clare Songbirds), and A Mourning Dove’s Wishbone. Her writing has appeared worldwide in such publications as Digital Americana, Gone Lawn, The Furious Gazelle, Maudlin House, and Black Dog Review. Diagnosed with bipolar disorder in her teens, Megan’s main mission as a writer is to inspire others feeling stigmatized for their mental health. She lives in Jacksonville, Florida with her husband Tony, son Jesse, who was diagnosed with autism at age three, and their sovereign cats Trigger and Lulu. Megan enjoys astrology, alligator farms, painting, photography, yoga, and volunteering at humane societies and food banks.

Robin Ouzman Hislop is Editor of Poetry Life and Times at Artvilla.com ; his publications include

All the Babble of the Souk , Cartoon Molecules, Next Arrivals and Moon Selected Audio Textual Poems, 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)

SORRY BUT… A Poem by John Grey

January 24, 2021 by Robin Ouzman Hislop

You wonder why I’m this way.
It’s not just because of the way you are.
It’s bad programming, flat tires,
my family, my job,
body hair, and boring sex,
cracked mirrors, plastic straws, Trump –
and there’s more –
lids that refuse to unscrew,
songs on the radio,
loud neon scenery,
the unsuspected sharpness of some blades,
spam and junk-mail,
the bus system, the crappy WiFi,
the pain I have to overcome,
Kardashians, heavy traffic,
tasteless fast food, aggressive panhandlers,
food coloring, superhero movies,
the siren eyes of alcohol,
busted guitar strings, empty ink cartridges,
lines of reasoning, rusty pipes.
humidity, bills, neighbors,
the borrowed book that’s never returned,
the never again good times,
Fox news, a friend’s divorce,
religions that kill,
that render their believers brain dead,
the cost of replenishing those ink cartridges,
dentists, big game hunters, Brad Pitt,
the worn-out soles of my shoes,
cigarette butts strewn across the lawn,
dog shit on the sidewalk,
some long ago incident that
occupies the space between us.
It won’t leave,
would rather stay,
be more annoying than the competition.

John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident, recently published in Soundings East, Dalhousie Review and Connecticut River Review. Latest book, “Leaves On Pages” is available through Amazon.

Uptown & After the Funeral. 2 Poems by Holly Day

January 21, 2021 by Robin Ouzman Hislop

(i.)

Uptown

The newspaper makes me angry and I prepare myself
for a day of punching Nazis. I read about the local museum
being infiltrated by white supremacists and so I plan my day
around a visit uptown. My daughter asks me where we’re going and I tell her
we’re going to fuck some shit up.

I keep my eyes peeled for guys with shaved heads and swastika pins
combat boots and iron crosses but I don’t see any. Someone says
something kind of racist on the bus next to me and I look at them
but then they shut up as if they know what’s in my head.

(ii.)

After the Funeral

it’s become a contest of who knew first
who first found out how and when he or she died
who was closest, who has the best story. we get ugly
in our nostalgia, tread a difficult balance between
preserving the subject’s sudden sainthood
while expunging our most pointed, painful, awful memories
find some way to say we should have seen it coming
express surprise that it took so long.

afterwards, we each retreat to our private musings
on how if things had been different
it could have been any one of us
it should have been someone else. there’s a dark, uncertain target
over everyone we know now, ready to move on
who will be next.

Short bio: Holly Day (hollylday.blogspot.com) has been a writing instructor at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis since 2000. Her poetry has recently appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, Grain, and Harvard Review, and her newest poetry collections are Into the Cracks (Golden Antelope Press), Cross Referencing a Book of Summer (Silver Bow Publishing), The Tooth is the Largest Organ in the Human Body (Anaphora Literary Press), and Book of Beasts (Weasel Press).

Robin Ouzman Hislop is Editor of Poetry Life and Times at Artvilla.com ; his publications include

All the Babble of the Souk , Cartoon Molecules, Next Arrivals and Moon Selected Audio Textual Poems, 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)

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