Chimezie Ihekuna’s drama The Success Story, Fifth Installment

Please feel welcome to read the four previous installments of The Success Story here, here, here. 

and most recently, here.

Chimezie Ihekuna

[Greg begins his journey of writing in the Living Room. All parts of the Living Room are convenient for Greg except there are visitors.]

Greg stays in the house continues for the next three years. He is faced with several rejections. The writing materials he has in his possession tell how many writing conferences he has attended. Jane, currently on a month break after her first semester at the University of Perth, studying General Medicine, is on hand to see through Greg is doing. She is doing a great job encouraging Greg in his pursuit. At times, Jane’s mood appears discouraging to Greg. But Greg’s passion does not give in easily. Though there are certain reasons for the manuscript rejections that may want to frustrate him, Jane never gives up encouraging him. Andrew is busy with studies the Perth Institute of Business Management. Mr Smith just left for work while Mrs Smith is in the kitchen preparing breakfast for Jane and Greg.

 Despite having his first and second books, ‘Never Late’ and ‘Dare to get Back on Track’ being rejected over seventy times by publishers and agencies in Perth, Berth and beyond, Greg has written in book form and submitted to different publishers other ten manuscripts, including his just-finished piece, The Success Story.

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Elizabeth Hughes’ Book Periscope

Crissa Constantine’s Love and Accept Yourself Now

Love and Accept Yourself Now is the memoir of Crissa Constantine’s journey through being diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Ms. Constantine takes the reader through the diagnosis, her shock, then her treatment. She also goes into her life and travels through Europe and her friends and people she meets. She includes many suggestions that can work for anyone through stressful times. The book will keep the reader interested and intrigued all the way through, page after page. I highly recommend this book particularly for the invaluable advice she gives. I believe that anyone can learn something from this memoir and apply the advice and suggestions to themselves.

 

Crissa Constantine’s Love and Accept Yourself Now is available here. 

 

 

Friends List by Rob Watson
Friends List by Rob Watson is a thriller/horror that in my opinion, is on a par with Stephen King. From the very first few pages, he grabs your full attention as you gasp aloud. Lexa and Alex are grown twins that have had horrors in their past. Lexa is supposed to go on a Thanksgiving holiday with friends that have all worked together to get Senator Storm elected. Then things begin to go horribly wrong when a killer appears. On a par with Stephen King, Mr. Watson’s Friends List will keep you on the edge of your seat. With the twists and turns of a truly great horror story you will absolutely not be able to put it down until you reach the very last page. I absolutely loved Friends List. It kept me enthralled and excited until the very end. If you are a fan of horror stories you will absolutely love this novel.
Finding Joy by Ellen Page
Finding Joy is a memoir that has to do with the abuse to not only children but adults also. Ms. Payne brings up the subject of abuse in all forms. She talks of physical, verbal, sexual and emotional. She speaks of how every form of abuse can and will leave emotional scars. She brings up that abusers come from all walks of life. She encourages the victims to bring it out in the open by reporting and getting the help they need. I highly recommend this book. This book will enlighten readers of how widespread the problem is. She tells how for years and years the victims are told to keep quiet. The only way to eradicate this heinous crime is to speak up so others will.
Stepping Stones on The Spiritual Path by Astra Ferro
Stepping Stones on the Spiritual Path is a book that will help people find their spiritual journeys. I like the Glossary of Terms in the beginning of the book. It helps clarify the terms for those of us who are unfamiliar with them. This is a book that has something that can help everyone no matter what your beliefs are. It also helps to clarify the meaning of your soul and spirit. You are able to look within yourself to define your strengths and weaknesses. The reader can then work on their strengths. The reader can also find their inner peace and work to achieve that. The reader can find out what their purpose is and what their journey will be. I enjoyed this book very much and hope that you, dear reader will too.
The Wrong Side Of Honor by Marshall Ginevan
The Wrong Side of Honor is a  novel about the war on drugs at the end of the Vietnam War. Its is exciting and thrilling and action-packed from the first page to the very last. The CIA has a drug operation taking opium from Vietnam to the U.S.. The Air Force has put together a secret operation to destroy the opium trade. This novel is perfect for history buffs. I absolutely loved it and recommend it highly.
Elizabeth Hughes is an avid reader and longtime contributor to Synchronized Chaos. While she’s open minded about genre, she does love a good mystery!

Elizabeth Hughes

Poetry from Chimezie Ihekuna

The Beauty of Originality

Chimezie Ihekuna


When there is love, facade fades
When there is truth, triviality decays
When there is reality, illusion wanes
When there is purpose, obscurity gives ways
When there is life, death never weighs…

That’s the beauty of originality

 The Wrong Side of Life’s Bell

I was in a cell
But i never knew it’d be hell

I thought i was well
Until i pressed life’s wrong bell
The consequence was what i lived to tell;
Time was the revelation on how i fell ”Why am i in hell?!!!”,
i choose to yell
A still voice said: ”I need to realize that you were a wrong sell”
”That’s why you fell into life’s wrong bell”

Poetry from Leticia Garcia Bradford

 

March On

 

 

Millions march on Washington

taking buses buses and airplanes

Those who didn’t have the means

organized marches in their own backyard

From San Francisco to Oakland to Boston

In every state of the union

 

What are you marching for?

 

First time marchers

Veteran marchers

Women Men

boys girls

Pregnant mothers

Lesbian Gay

Bi Transgender

toddlers infants

Dogs and I wouldn’t be surprised, if a parrot or

two made an appearance perched on the shoulder

of a weathered activist

 

What are you marching for?

 

Some felt the scourge

of an ill-fitted president

Twitter

fly away hair & orange face

build a wall

take away our rights to healthcare

 

What are you marching for?

 

Indigenous people

long scarred

lost land

lost gravesites

lost identity

Segregated to be removed from site

But enough is enough

Now they want our water too?!

Follow the trail of tears

 

What are you marching for?

 

Planned Parenthood

My body is mine

You have no right

I determine my future

Another woman believes it is wrong

Sacrificing one life for the other

I may not believe in abortion

But I believe in your right to choose

 

What are you marching for?

 

You say I can’t marry

the love of my life

Committed to stand the test of time

Ministers of love

Commemorate our union

We want a legal bond

We want to be a family

 

What are you marching for?

 

No justice on the streets

leaves much to be desired

decades old strife

Guns face men women boys

taking their life

Who pays the price?

Black Lives Matter

All lives matter for you and me

 

What are we marching for?

 

Inclusion participation

reconciliation justification

decision resolution

gestation sanctification

Striving for a unity of heart across a country

 

March On

 

 

~ March 3, 2017

 

 

Leticia Garcia Bradford

© March 2017

 

  

Love Letter For Leonard Peltier

In the Spirit of Crazy Horse

 

Feel the trembling of my heart

A continued voice heard in the wilderness

You have not been abandoned

You instill in the minds and hearts of the

People a hope of a better day

The earth shall rise again

Upon the footsteps of our heirs of birth

The mountains sing in our minds and ears

A joy of never ending new beginnings

Within a hand’s grasp

Muttering the words of worship

Sputtering the flame of the anointed

Calling to flesh and bone

Delivering in an unknown force

Only found in the sailing breeze

Moving towards the center that cannot hold

All the blessings rained down from heaven

Falling within reach

Bones rattling again

Clean of woes

Clean of death

 

~Doksha

  

 

Leticia Garcia Bradford

© January, 2018

 

 

ODE To Standing Rock, December 4, 2016

 

Rights to Water

The emphasis of life

What’s ours is yours

But not if you poison us

 

A nation of natives

Joined by a tribe of

Socially Conscientious Citizens

Guarding an indigenous people

 

Veterans gather from as

faraway as Hawaii

Water Rights Matter

Not just for the Sioux

 

A time of enough is enough

We want peace

We want a resolution

To protect our children’s children’s children

 

We sleep in peace tonight

Our collective voices have been Heard

 

 

Leticia Garcia Bradford

© December 2016

 

Leticia Garcia Bradford is a poet, playwright and publisher. In 2014 she founded B Street Writers Collective (BSWC), Hayward, CA- a community of writers both amateur and professional. Her poems and stories have been published in local and national journals. She edited BSWC’s anthology FLY WITH ME which she is, also, the publisher for MoonShine Star Co. BSWC’s new anthology WHAT IS LOVE debuted this spring. In 2017, Leticia toured around the entire SF Bay Area with her poetry and stories at open mics and readings featuring in San Francisco numerous times. Check out her blogs: MY NEW ADVENTURE, living without a place to call home at leticiagarciabradford.blogspot.com, and LETICIA’S BLOG at lgbradford.blogspot.com has her poems and other stories. Leticia’s website: bradford-productions.com

Poetry from Luis Cuauhtémoc Berriozábal

COVERED WITH LIGHT

Covered with light,

the fish swim to the moon.

They bathe in light,

They slip inside head to tail.

The skies at night

are like the sea and there

is a ship shaped cloud

like a six-stringed guitar.

The mermaids swim

on an invisible

stairway to the sky.

The waves in the sky

are choppier than at sea

level and darkness falls.

 

FLOATING

Floating in the sky
after several margaritas

I imagine I am flying
with angels.
The moon laughs at me.
I waved my hands
and put the moon
in its place
with my rosy cheeks
and my halo gifted by angels.

Floating in the sky
after several margaritas

I imagine overlooking
vast fields
where men and women toil
to put food on the table.
I come down to earth
and prepare for work.

No more floating
and no more margaritas tomorrow.

 

LONELY CLOUD

The lonely cloud at twilight
does not change form. It
disappears. With my eyes
I cannot see it and it is okay.

The lamp of a moon shines
its light at the lonely cloud
late in the evening and still

the solitary cloud does not

change in form. I go to sleep
and in the morning the cloud
is gone. My eyes search for
it. The cloud disappeared.

It was taken by the wind.

The sky could not harbor it.
My eyes wept in the shining sun.
I was not mourning for the cloud.

Poetry from JD DeHart

The Whale in the Sky

To live in a world where

the pale pearl of a cloud might

be filled with the shadow presence

of a whale,

 

swimming through the sky,

rising and falling in massive

flight, spouting cumulus from a cavern

mounted on its considerable frame,

 

and meanwhile, on the earth below,

only beautiful animals, no more slithering

creatures tapered at one end and filed

like knives on the other tip,

 

ready to cut us down, undulating

threats moving with soiled gleam.

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Poetry from Ahmad al-Khatat

Paradise

Before you, I was nothing but a sinner who wanted to be a bird’s feather to rest my journey by the gate of heaven

With you, I am a different man who will be a dove to fly out of the universe all the way inside the world of paradise

What Will Remain

What will remain of me today or the next coming year, will it be worth a bird’s feather

The only grief in my bloodroot is the sad song of nightingales like a wedding with a mother in a picture frame

In this life I could live foolishly and lost in problems with a place in darkness to weep till I die

The tattooist of previous wars asked me about my homeland I told him that I was sold to the land of happiness

With a friend who broke my trust, a woman who died before loving me, And parents who denied my existence

What will remain of me, not an expensive pen, but an unreadable diary of the depths of my soul

The Silent Lake

Sitting in the front of the silent lake, with a wind blowing the tree branches, to hear the voiceless conversation ‘tween the leaves and the flying birds

the lake is shining like my tears in the night reflecting the light of the hanging stars with the moon watching my grieves covering my woman from the heat of my nerves

The wine I drink on my own will never wipe my yearnings from the scent of yours, the smile of yours, and the silky body of yours sliding above my flesh in the times where I was reaching over your lips

Life is wonderful because of you, standing in a white dress, with unbuttoned buttons unzipped zipper in the back, waiting on the sunset to unwrap you for a beautiful memory with no end, but a little sleep next to your long hair

Tears of The Sad Stars

The other day; I wore my Victorian suit and I poured myself a cup of English tea. As I take my first sip, I saw a giant Viking ship, sinking quickly. In seconds everything was calm as if nothing happened but a flying

dragon was eating the cold moon. Meanwhile the cookie monster was eating the cookies of the kids who died in the Viking ship my cup was not filled with tea instead it was filled with tears of the sad stars

Ahmad Al-Khatat was born in Baghdad on May 8th. From Iraq, he came to Canada at the age of 10, the same age when he wrote his very first poem back in the year 2000. He also has been published in several press publications and anthologies all over the world. And he currently studies Political Science at Concordia University in Montreal. He recently has published two chapbooks “The Bleeding Heart Poet” and “Love On The War’s Frontline” through Alien Buddha Press. They are available for sale on Amazon. Many of his new and old poems are also available on his official page Bleeding Heart Poet on Facebook.