CELEBRATING HOLIDAYS
The year flies by and all too soon,
we think of so many things we have to do.
The list is long so getting ready takes time,
The kids have their list and I have mine.
We think we will stop all the extras this year,
But suddenly find ourselves the same
As decorations appear.
We run to the mall several times a week
And walk the mall over for the items we seek.
We promised ourselves to keep the spending lower
But we look at our checkbook and know the marketing power.
So, sadly we try to sort our mistakes
Balancing our checkbook, — have we got what it takes?
We promise again that next year we’ll do better
And I know what I’ll do, I’ll write myself a letter
As a reminder of the promise I’ve made
And then make my list before what I will need fades.
Hayward Public Library
Cold steel door handles
startle my senses
alert,
eyes scanning
people, shelves, books–
ever the books–
inching off their appointed spots,
creeping closer,
daring me to approach.
I slip past the librarian,
whose wire-rims notice nothing
but my overdues,
taking breath,
deep, tense,
boldly, I enter the stacks.
The hairy hand
around my ankle
springs from
The Rue Morgue
blue book, clear cover,
white-knuckle grip–
Poe me,
but I’m ready.
I kick out hard,
freeing my leg and leaping
20,000 leagues away,
finding Nemo
in brown leather binding,
and giant squid tentacles–
slithery, insistent,
suction cups on my eyes,
my eyes!
A SPOOKY NIGHT
Halloween is coming,
A bewitching night, it seems.
The parents tell the children, have no fear.
And in the dark of the night, lights from some houses gleam
Inviting you to come with your pumpkin bag to fill,
so you draw near.
Of course you have to say, “Trick or Treat”.
To all the people that you meet.
Children running or some just walking but
You see ghosts, Cinderella, space men, and more
You run and hurry to the house next door.
You behold a welcome sight
Of people holding baskets of treats
And they are standing in the light.
Halloween is fun walking in the dark
And seeing ghosts and goblins running here and there,
But parents are watching and they are in their care.
Soon, the night is over and tired children slow down
Everyone is walking at a slower pace, their
Eyes are on their home with their pumpkin bag of treats.
Welcome readers to October 2015’s issue of Synchronized Chaos Magazine. Our theme this month is In and Out of Time. Our contributors explore how we relate to the dimension of time. What focuses us on the present moment, what helps us remember and causes us to forget, what gets us up and out of ourselves and our time-structured worlds.
Strong emotions such as grief can pull us out of normally structured time into a subconscious world of our own, where we go to process our losses. Michael Robinson and Sharifa Petersen eloquently illustrate the dislocation of mourning, either through literal visuals of bodies and hospital beds or more abstract images of trains and ghosts.
Unchecked anger, even when directed at legitimate social injustice, can cause us to lose our sense of historical and emotional perspective and violate commitments we’ve made, behavior essayist Ayokunle Adeleye criticizes in his homeland of Nigeria. We must not forget that we have created a society based on the rule of law and so even those we despise deserve impartial legal action and an examination of the facts surrounding their actions rather than a public witch hunt.
Romantic love and self-discovery can also draw us into another time frame, as Holly Sisson points out in her review of Patty Lesser’s new novel A Discerning Heart. Love can take us to a world all our own, as Rui Carvalho shares: a dale of flowers in our mind’s eye.
Rubina Akter depicts a longing for love which cannot be satisfied even through connection with another person, which she describes as a quest for the divine. Her speaker does not live according to his own timeframe, or even on his beloved’s schedule, but seeks something more eternal. Akter’s other pieces point out our vulnerability to pain and abuse as human beings by depicting the suffering of innocent and confused children.
Patrick Ward and Ash Gamble also call attention to our weaknesses. Ward writes of people who feel trapped in their physical bodies or by their mental states and emotions and Gamble creates a humorous vignette where our human concerns don’t translate well to other creatures.
Ryan Hodge, in his monthly Play/Write column, probes why apocalyptic and raw survival scenarios remain popular in video games and movies. He suggests that we actually crave reminders of our vulnerability. Through these scenarios we can make ourselves feel strong by vicariously rebuilding or triumphing through disaster and deprivation along with the characters, even when we don’t literally have to face starvation and gunfire. We know deep down that many live, and have lived without, many of our modern comforts and would like to think that we are also tough enough to survive without them. Having to find food, shelter and physical safety brings us out of our heads and our subconscious worlds back into the reality of our immediate situation, and perhaps we seek that refocus, that heightened awareness of what is most critical.
Ayokunle Adeleye shows another way to rise to the challenge and overcome one’s obstacles to build something enduring: start a small business and invest in land, leaving behind a legacy.
Rick Hartwell’s poetry illustrates encounters with nature that call us back into the immediate moment. Hartwell’s speaker focuses on specific sights and sounds around him, falling leaves, lizards and other reptiles. Nature operates according to seasons and cycles and creatures act differently during each season. We, too, can experience each one fully without getting too far ahead of ourselves.
Patrick Ward also describes different aspects of sound: scary, comforting and fun, depending on our mood. Listening to what is around us and paying attention to how it makes us feel can refocus us in the present. Ash Gamble also writes of the tension between miscommunication and breakthrough, memory and resilience.
Ajise Vincent shows how some acts of violence, such as the terrorism of West African group Boko Haram, shake us out of our reveries and bring us back to the moment, where we must face what has happened. Vincent’s work directly addresses and condemns brutality, exploitation, and injustice in strong terms without flowery language. Poetic grief can come later, but now is the time to speak up and be heard in the face of atrocity.
Elizabeth Hughes, in her Book Periscope column, reviews Peter Jacob Streitz’ new poetry collection Hellfires Shake the Blues. She points out how poetry can grab our attention, bringing us out of our own minds and into the world of the poem. This can happen involuntarily, arresting our consciousness like sudden sounds or motions on the horizon, and whether or not we consider ourselves fans of poetry.
Joan Beebe also gives us pieces of reminiscence and gratitude, calling us to share her fun and peaceful moments and also reminding us through her piece on the car crash how we are vulnerable to disaster and none of these moments are guaranteed.
Image from user Geralt on PIxabay.com, public domain. http://all-free-download.com/free-photos/download/clock_time_gear_214121.html
Green Dale of Love
My life is a dale:
A mystery of green loneliness.
A swift breathing with flowers’ flavor,
that covers with gold petals, and scattered dreams.
And the cold of the night announces sleep,
the dark olive green, always classic,
the screech owl, always alone,
But not a new life:
an enchanted and colorful brier!
All this world is a stage of love’s complaints!