Artwork from Goran Tomic

Collage of images including black and white vintage photos of people, a purple flower, an orange tree, oranges on carpets, and glasses of sherry on a staircase.
Images of skyscrapers in cities, the back end of a car, and airplanes
Images of vintage sheets, people in three-corner hats and vintage buttoned suits, roses, and old buildings

Goran Tomic is a Collisionist Autodidact Artist from Sydney, Australia who has exhibited his collages, video installations and performance art over the past 25 years. Raised on Rauschenberg and born posthumously he Flaneur’s the urban decay searching for his Wilderness robe.

Poetry from Eddie Heaton

light and bitter

sunday lunchtime 
with my father 
in the cemetery  
wind striking stone
beating conflict 
bearing down   
scratched on a head 
marking the days 
four poems prowl
as i fly into deeds 
that bought me up 
for change
to bring me into line
to put me in these lines  
the imagery awakes
and in this mist of time
this son of york
moves effortlessly 
‘mongst the pines 
a slicing of anxiety that lies 
most pale in the moonlight
witness the nervous prayer
vistas that were there for us 
a very useful sunset
once more cut adrift
lover-to-be – begin
sex and secularity
show boats in the drink 
adolescent agitprop revisited
a really low shuck scuttle
across the backs 
of daunting zebras 
leap or they’ll come for you 
get down on the blanket then
harsh noise too dark 
once i was a walking erection
entitlement personified 
lewd passions break neck 
runaway class 
runaway signs 
sonic experiments 
ranging from riffs
exclude ecstasy 
include instances 
you know 
she whispered
you do know
gentle then 
gentlemen
we are subjects 
of the author 
of his latest 
and the world won’t end
oh delighting one
after all you will 
after all you’ve seen
full-lotus on the mantelpiece
a technique to be admired 
move on to more familiar hypnosis 
twist yourself into a tree 
incendiary personal collections
consisting of salacious clips
behaviour can be useful 
a fortune on the pools 
north carolina is drowning
and she is a million years old
in his pocket lies your breathing 
modern psychology fries
wavemakers made off 
with my waking  
red brick telephone lines 
yes sir she does have two kidneys 
racists are usually thick
the meat grinder has read your note 
but you are not excused   
a hundred-thousand potbellies
can’t be wrong
and personal chemistry 
can only take you so far
this blend of surreal chicanery 
is remaining  
weaving opening pieces
and having to make do 
so cease your 
fashionable scuttling
i also find that 
quite contrived 
we held 
we necked
as first rains 
hit the carriage
we decoded the typology
and oh what fun we had
live streaming the event
simplify and exemplify  
or you will be disturbed 
try to exercise 
begin to form softness 
sink into self-defence 
only partly consume yourself  
more profit for the shucksters 
out ways means way out
sullen leaps from the parapet 
my stares have been changed  
and both are rather weary now
coffee brews with queer desires 
following which and taking it on 
take what you want and get it to shore 
farewell yearning cobra 
cats that ridge their backs 
time to find 
the dreamlike 
frame mind 
abiding buttered cool 
blue-tiled pools and pixled fools
furnish them with everything 
be unconscious mind i said 
call it out then mother-hen 


and this is what that feels like

it creeps into you backwards 
with its bug eyes on your feet 
on a tight leash 
fold and unfold 
as the woodland comes to life 
in surroundings 
i wave she waving 
must run 
rice cake wars 
once factories made sure 
still jolly reader 
really bad got bored 
rather than wait 
the creature stirred 
who would have thought 
of virgin lands 
with ringing crystals 
so debauched 
who then is watching 
this unprecedented growth 
through a soft lens 
reach for a cigarette 
vodka 
this world 
has become a dark world 
murdering catamites 
behind a white picket fence 
what is on offer 
we bring you plate 



ransom note 

thought circuits bathed in flaming gravy
simple weird moments in a deep bass slot
fine dimly wondered march acoustics
sirloin beef broils there bypassing breath
this infernal whooping through my mucus 
has transformed the cold machinery of war    
break out the psalms and trance-like simul-
ations before the god of winds caresses 
your last breath counting your sleeps in a 
sound-proofed chamber recycling waste 
for a jollier death my knees have turned 
against me and now they’re spreading so 
there’s little else left here for me to do oh 
damn your dreams fish don’t want air and 
many more besides a little bit of ghostly’s 
gone astray go check for mail and mow 
the lawn and throw your groceries in the 
bin this must we see it cannot be it flows 
through graduated forms a stasis tube 
containing light a play with something 
different new concerns providing stranger 
personal effects aesthetic coffins ripened 
love buds please dear uncle am i then the 
one am i a shade of energy pulsating in 
and out of love of time not out of hate of 
signs but talk of peace that mimics all 
the body’s core and fights what should 
have made a difference and yet 
appears in more and more degrading 
revelations force fed into my conscious 
mind it’s what is endlessly desired 
discover walks and roots in forestation 
that renew then take up huge amounts 
of time – the moments must so easily 
slip by be still and concentrate as best 
you can with myra hindley on your 
knee a flash of bottled radishes pressed 
uo against your spine that so inflames 
the rash that your humanity decries






irrational darkening dream status 

a sinistere mouths 
and my glass eye rolls 
left arm draped 
in a short space
stake gibbet and cross
and repent 
base pernicious 
and degrading
fire and sword 
from lip to ear
crystallised 
into a creed
prenatal memory 
cognition
black fire town 
once there was
a red hot poker
now there’s only
central heating
shadow travellers 
offend 
a sort of rising 
for a few 
like-minded friends 
and what is left 
is postmarked quarantine
daisy gristle welts
green gnomes here lie 
and their chunks 
anastasia was disposed of
lady chatterley's 
a broken tuba now
her topical mouth 
is a gift shop
but it’s closed
whose contraption 
am i strapped upon
the master-key 
is in their hands
and i believe 
they watch my dreams
through apertures extending into space

Eddie Heaton studied innovative and experimental poetry under the tutelage of post-modern poet and educator Keith Jebb, achieving a first-class honours degree. He also won the 2021 Carcanet Award for Creative Writing. His work has been extensively published in a number of prestigious literary journals.

Poetry from Jacques Fleury

Sun low in the sky on a foggy day above some pine trees.
A hazy familiar abstraction....
Like a decoupage painting
Designed as a distraction
Like watching you dreaming...
Mesmerized by a wistful whiff of 
Melancholy and underlying yearning
         for the joy of a blossoming aliveness.
You,       a relay of impressionist painter Claude Monet
All while in the  deep  end of steep sleep;
I was transfixed and     transported     in your succoring   still, 
Even if for a sparkly shine of a      firefly  
Nestled in the arms of the numbing night, 
Like the brevity of life itself...beautifully rendered
Even if only in your dream state;
Until daylight swallows the night
And dreams come AWAKE!

Glowing firefly at night on top of a blade of grass bending with its weight.
Smiling young Black man with short shaved hair, a suit and purple tie.
Jacques Fleury

Jacques Fleury is a Boston Globe featured Haitian-American Poet, Educator, Author of four books and literary arts student at Harvard University online. His latest publication “You Are Enough: The Journey to Accepting Your Authentic Self”  & other titles are available at all Boston Public Libraries, the University of Massachusetts Healey Library, University of  Wyoming, Askews and Holts Library Services in the United Kingdom, The Harvard Book Store, The Grolier Poetry Bookshop, Amazon etc…He has been published in prestigious  publications such as Muddy River Poetry Review, the Cornell University Press anthology Class Lives: Stories from Our Economic Divide, Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene among others…Visit him here.

Poetry from Christina Chin, Shane Coppage, Marjorie Pezzoli and Jerome Berglund

Lower case typed font of a straight vertical line with another line of text winding around it like a snake.


[tan-renga, untitled] deciduous conifers the secret not enjoying it

        seabreeze lifts 

        a mini skirt

Jerome Berglund& Christina chin [rengay]

Shane Coppage    & Jerome Berglund

Lots of text in loops like dolphins or birds or flower petals all around a page's center.

    Light Mana
fooly electric shoals of koi live live neon

    winsome bird

    before the blur
virtual fall the numbers behind purple rain 

    faraday cage 

    color coding

    french ballets 
data castles arabesque in replica dreams

    singularity

    fake it  

    till you make it[split sequence]

Marjorie Pezzoli       & Jerome Berglund

Tiny lines of text looking like a mountain or a city scape with Throw Down in larger black type arched around the top peaks. Marjorie Pezzoli and Jerome Berglund in angled smaller text underneath that.

        Throw Down 
Sisyphus smiles

        high John 

        the Conqueror 

        swine keep disappearing
daisies cheer
        moonbeams laugh        mannish boy dreams         petal drops
rock-paper-scissors 

        Nana Buluku

        no way to contact directly

        submit a support request

Jerome Berglund has worked as everything from dishwasher to paralegal, night watchman to assembler of heart valves. Many haiku, haiga and haibun he’s written have been exhibited or are forthcoming online and in print, most recently in bottle rockets, Frogpond, Kingfisher, and Presence. His first full-length collections of poetry Bathtub Poems and Funny Pages were just released by Setu and Meat For Tea press, and a mixed media chapbook showcasing his fine art photography is available now from Yavanika. 

Christina Chin is a painter and haiku poet. Her work has been featured in numerous publications online and in print: https://haikuzyg.blogspot.com/ https://christinachin99blog.wordpress.com/

Shane Coppage is an emerging writer with a fine arts degree. His words have been published in Humana Obscura, Cold Moon Journal, The Japan Society London, Shadow Pond Journal, and The Winged Moon Magazine. Connect with him on Instagram @shane_coppage.

Marjorie Pezzoli is a silk painter for 25+ years, visual artist, storyteller, and poet. Her writings deal with grief, hope, cosmic wonders, and stuff that catches her eye. Her poetry has been published in numerous anthologies since 2019. Many of her writings are inspired by her photographic observations taken while walking Beau, the dog with Betty Davis eyes. Marjorie looks for words that are worth a thousand images. wwwPezzoliart.com

Poetry from John Sweet

and we all know whose fault it was


ask her if she fools around, if you
can get her number, and
she laughs, and you ask if she has any x,
if she has a friend who puts out and
get it where you can, right? and it sure as shit
wasn’t creeley who told me that,
wasn’t cirino or eliot, cuz all the fucking 
poets ever did was lie

all that asshole tony ever did was 
keep the acid for himself, and it was your father
who taught you how to pull the trigger,
sure,
but he would never let you
take the blindfold off

would never tell you who you’d hit

and he had that guitar autographed
by pettibon, had that girlfriend your mother
never found out about, and did you
cry when he died?

did you go through his pockets 
of his sunday jeans
looking for cash or a credit card?

and i remember you kept telling me he
owed you something, but you were
always a pussy, always thought you were
missing out

always thought the future was
just around the corner

said you wanted to be ready for the
moment that would change everything,
but the moment had already 
come and gone



no religion

my whole life spent waiting for
everything to go wrong, and i end in this
house, on this day, setting fire to the
past while the roof collapses

i end up too old to die young,
and with mixed emotions about it

i end up terrified of the fact
that i might not live forever

that i might end up nothing more
than the person i’ve become





defacer’s blues

and all the pretty girls dead of
accidental overdoses, and all the
parties you were supposed to
meet them at

the ones where you show up alone
already drunk and stoned,
where you fade into the darkest corner,
and it’s a gift, always being the
ugliest person in the room

it’s a thankless job traveling everywhere
with a shovel and a holy book, 
with a can of gasoline and a book of matches,
but none of these corpses are
going to take care of themselves

none of your freedoms are going to
last forever, and it always feels strange
pretending to give a shit
about the state of the world because,
seriously,
what the fuck are you possibly
going to do to stop war,
to put an end to starvation
or genocide?

who are you going to kill to
assure the rest of us a
lifetime of peace?

seems like you should’ve
thought of something
by now



in the garden of dying stars

or junkie truth,
which is not the truth

a victim’s idea of power

grey sun in a grey sky

and this old man sleeping in his
hospital bed looks like me,
                              like my father,
like the spaces that grow between us,
and hope matters,
            of course,
but let’s not fuck around here

the false king is a dead man

the poet without a gun
really has nothing to offer

and i remember telling you this on
the day before your lover’s suicide,
and i remember all of the reasons
you gave for hating me

i remember silence

young boy crying in the middle of
main street, and
then the scream of brakes

only a small loss,
                  right?

gotta look at the bigger picture

gotta build better bombs

the poor can take care of themselves,
and tough shit if they can’t

no one starves in
a nation of corpses



no one needs god 
when a holy man can 
fuck them just as good

understand this, and you might
just turn out okay




[we danced to save them all]


this boy with the knife in his throat thinks he
has something to say,
but he is beyond words

he is a prince and a king and a corpse,
and we are all trying to
forget his name here in the kingdom of nil

we are tell his sister
we love her

we are telling her she belongs in movies,
but she won’t take her clothes off for us

she won’t get in the back seat

and the blood is on our hands,
is in our smiles and our dreams, and
none of the bibles we’re given ever
have anything intelligent to say

none of the children
playing out in the streets
have parents

none of them have homes

and the soldiers laugh as they hand out candy,
and they laugh as they open fire because
no one can ever get revenge if
no one is left alive

no one sings as sweetly
as the hangman’s latest lover

no one’s life ever ends up
being worth very much at all


John Sweet sends greetings from the rural wastelands of upstate NY. He is a firm believer in writing as catharsis, and in compassionate nihilism which, as luck would have it, has all the best bands. His published collections include NO ONE STARVES IN A NATION OF CORPSES (2020 Analog Submission Press) and THERE’S ONLY ONE WAY THIS IS GOING TO END (Cyberwit, 2023).

Poetry from J.D. Nelson


the humans come out
& so do a few loud crows
after the snowstorm

—

tail end of winter
pretty warm in the sunlight
too cold in the shade

—

green buds have appeared
on Mom’s lilac hedge out front
first full day of spring

—

two deer & then three
in someone’s yard on Iris
missed the bus again

—

slept all day & night
I wake up past eleven
disoriented

—


bio/graf

J. D. Nelson’s poems have appeared in many publications, worldwide, since 2002. He is the author of eleven print chapbooks and e-books of poetry, including *purgatorio* (wlovolw, 2024). Nelson’s first full-length collection is *in ghostly onehead* (Post-Asemic Press, 2022). Visit his website, MadVerse.com, for more information and links to his published work. His haiku blog is at JDNelson.net. Nelson lives in Boulder, Colorado, USA.

Poetry from Alan Catlin

“Things Unintelligible but Understood”: 
lines from Wallace Stevens, a found poem

Consider the odd morphology of regret
Note the decline of music
The grapes are here and now
Starry voluptuary will be born
At least the number of people may there be fixed
There is no such thing as innocence in autumn
Machine within machine within machine
The cabinet of a man gone mad
No man shall see the end

 
Naturalized: Lines from Hala Alyan’s, The Moon Turns Back:
a found poem

He plays devil’s advocate.
May father plays soccer.
In dreams I am in Nevada.
Half-life in exile.
I’m not your side bitch.
Those fucking K-Mart towels when did we
	give them away?
I loved them.
Pink as slaughter.
You can’t put a corpse back together again.
I type all the metaphors I can.
I can’t keep pretending to love.

 
Patti Smith Photo Album #1

Mundane objects imbued 
with deep, personal meaning:

Bolano’s writing chair,
Hesse’s decrepit writing machine,

Virginia Woolf’s tarnished
walking stick,

Jim Carroll’s narrow, single bed,
Fred Smith’s recovered childhood toy;

all their owners gone. A woman
with a camera remembers.



		736-

Spy of the First Person. Patti Smith
and her day book. Sam’s Old KY home
Adirondack chairs on the back lawn
facing the hills. Empty now.
 
	737-

Patti Smith punk rock star or
stay at home mom. Surrealistic 
pillow maker or Rimbaud re-
incarnated. As a woman
Collector of memories. Just Us
Kids or a museum of dead things.
On the M Train. Or off.
Babel or Coral Beach. I. She.
Contains multitudes.

 
			Patti Smith Polaroid Sequence Nov/Dec

Pasolini Monument: two doves intertwined in stone
Genet’s A Man Contemplating Death on Mapplethorpe’s
	Birthday: A Still Life
Editing Sam Shepard’s last manuscript
A white horse head in Wales
Dylan Thomas’s grave with plain wooden cross
Rimbaud’s elaborate headstone
Sharing coffee with ghosts of Camus, Sartre, and Simone
	in the Gallimard garden
A solitary bird sings of the death of Proust
Jim Carroll’s well-thumbed Penguin paperback of Schulz’s
	Street of Crocodiles
The bound twig broom used to sweep dying leaves from
	Mishima’s grave
Sam Shepard’s Depression era Gibson
Puccini’s composition piano
Photo of Rosa Parks Dec 1, 1955
Joan Didion: pure writer
The guardian angel near the grave of Bertolt Brecht
Patti Smith at the interval contemplating Tosca:
	“ I have lived for art, for love.”
A letter in the hand of Emily Dickinson
Dante’s headstone
Zappa’s ‘Hot Rats’ album cover
Ralph Fiennes on the set of Coriolanus
The ruins of Hadrian’s library


	
After Reading Burchfield: December Moonrise, #8

Flat saucer shaped clouds in gray
blue sky are pocked by puncture wounds
shining bright as fallen stars or creatures
like birds of another species. Irradiated
seeds sprout plants that only bloom at
night. Moonrise over distant hills make 
the landscape more unreal than it already
seems to be.

		Blistered cones of light
			where the moon
		should be