Darkened matter

When we left the earth
we left ourselves
a dark matter of our existence.

That dark matter exists
does not preclude me
from destroying myself
because if we are universes upon universes
what will explain eternity?

Will I be
this imploding shell forever
consuming myself?

Let’s pick up speed
and make a dash towards eternity
towards the ultimate boundary
the eternal mark.

You exude an obscure virility
that doesn’t quite capture me
but I will measure the immeasurable
as we scuffle and scuff the dark
wearing its edges away to gray.

Empty space foams with energy
enough power to blow away the stars
like leaves in a wind storm
nothing could live there
but nothing and nothing equals something.

“Of course, I remember you.”

What is worse?

I am always amazed
anyone even remembers me
I don’t even remember me.

Who needs more than one universe?
I miss the idea of the Big Bang
ripping our order asunder
I miss me
an unassailable closed circle.

The cost of space persists
even when you have removed yourself
from the equation.

Explode my memories
ignited by infinite perceptions
it only matters what others think of me.

I am only a universe of leaves wavering
before an intense storm to be shredded
I was swirling and upended even then
a perpetual nonentity.

I cannot live here
for there may be no secret within
no deep meaning
the vacuum is just that
empty, I am only
who you tell me I am.

For how do you chart
the astronomy of the invisible?

Andrea DeAngelis is at times a poet, writer, shutterbug and musician living in New York City. Her writing has recently appeared in Tin House, Angle and Poppy Road Review. (www.andreadeangelis.com) Andrea also sings and plays guitar in the indie rock band MAKAR (www.makarmusic.com)

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This I Believe

I believe in life.

I believe in love.

I believe in goodness.

I believe in nature.

I believe in rambling in the rain and sloshing through the snow.

I believe in chasing rainbows and butterflies.

I believe in riding on carousels and caressing camellias.

I believe in petting dogs and stroking horses.

I believe in singing to the stars and dancing in the dark.

I believe in watching fish act funny and watching funny boys catch fish.

I believe in swimming in the sea and sunning in the meadow.

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molten blue and amethyst

by

Christina Murphy

molten blue and amethyst Nereids

decorated with borders of sky and sea;

this is how the heart knows longing

and accepts moments of chaos in between

let random wisps of vapor form the clouds

into images of magical creatures;

let the colors of the sun mend all grief

from dust to dust into twilight

for the vine clings only as long as

the tree survives, and the beginnings of

closure are cobbled together into visions that

break the encasements of flames and loss

the counterpoint of the visible is silence,

as the hopes and fallacies of desire sparkle

like so much stardust at the peripheries of time

as sea nymphs gather near some axis real or imagined

Christina Murphy’s poems appear in a wide range of journals and anthologies, including, in PANK, La Fovea, Pear Noir! and Hermeneutic Chaos Literary Journal, and in the anthologies Let the Sea Find its Edges, edited by the distinguished Australian poet, Michael Fitzgerald-Clarke, and in Remaking Moby-Dick, edited by Trish Harris and published by EU Art Line. Her work has been nominated multiple times for the Pushcart Prize and for the Best of the Net Anthology. 

Roots 

Born from a seed,

My foundation begins from well below.

I hold the earth in my feet

And expel the atmosphere from my lungs.

The wind and rain batter my soul,

But I remain strong, less a few dead leaves,

A haven to the needy and less fortunate,

And a shelter to the homeless.

Often neglected and abused,

But the dead wood is shed.

More powerful I grow,

And more useful I become.

Across the world my ancestors traveled,

Yet here my place remains,

A beacon to the lost

And a champion to the uncertain.

Unsold Stories Writing Competition

Encouraging the Voice of Underground Artists

Indeed art can be a reflection of the society, and a sort of documentation for the evolution or degeneration of the human mind over centuries.

For a very long time there was a concept named “Capitalism in Art” that has been dominating the art industry. The concept reveals how art is based on the demand of the audience, thus it is surely directly related to profit. Many artists chose to go with the flow, and follow the current dominating trend or “fashion” of art and produce what the audience demands, and many others chose to create their own art.

Underground Artists have proven the powerful magnitude of their new ideas. Audience surrounding them and following them were further proof that the “market” demands new ideas, new trends, and art-lovers demand evolution rather than stability.

Sherine Elbanhawy the CEO of Rowayat Publishing and Mahmoud Mansi the CEO of The Forgotten Writers Foundation collaborated together to create the “Unsold Stories” writing competition. Both organizations launch their own writing competitions but the message behind their collaboration is that people and even companies with the same cause should cooperate instead of compete.

The idea of the competition is to write a short story (fiction or non-fiction) ranging from 1500 to 5000 words about an artist who tends to be concerned about making a difference, delivering a new message, expressing new feelings, and inspiring people, rather than one who is concerned about making profit and fame. Moreover, this competition is not merely created for writers. On the contrary, it is done to encourage different individuals in the world of art to experience the power and glamor of writing.

Rowayat offers the 1st winner EGP 2500 monetary prize and his/her winning story will be published in the third issue of Rowayat, published on Jan 25th 2015. The 4 runner-ups will be published online on the Rowayat website.

Have you ever thought which is more beautiful, the artwork or the artist? And who shall be the true artistic reader, the one who contemplates the output or the source? This competition and the production of the winning stories will surely give a hint about that.

1st Panel Jury Members: Keith Borg (Malta), Elizabeth Mastrangelo (USA), Gintare Laurinaviciute (Lithuania), and Mahmoud Mansi (Egypt).

Detailed Guidelines: http://www.rowayat.com/competition/

Welcome everyone to October’s issue of Synchronized Chaos Magazine. This month our contributors bring us thoughtful pieces which strive to reflect authentic experience.

Ann Tinkham’s travel memoir “Ode to the Archipelago” conveys a realistic sense of island travel through a plethora of sensory details.

Charles Schneider’s novel A Portrait in Time, reviewed by Bruce Roberts, details a quest for the truth behind the origin of several nineteenth century masterworks, with time travel as a literary device. If only historians could all talk with visitors from the past!

Tony Longshanks le Tigre relates the dreariness of homelessness in the first installment of his story “The Crystal Unicorn.” The small details of the narrator’s struggle to adapt to day-to-day life on the streets give readers a way to identify and empathize with him. He’s a person trying to get by, keep his office job and find a place to sleep, not a melodramatic pitiable character or a statistic.

Michelle Chouinard’s piece “The One that Got Away” also pulls readers into the character’s story through specific events, making them feel the pain of her strained family relationships. The complex details make the character an individual, so people can relate to her, while the abstract name reflects how her experience is common to many more people.

Thomas Cannon’s short story “How to Hold a Lesbian Engagement Party” uses the format of an instruction list for party planning to work in humorous observations on human nature. As in Choinard’s piece, the details make the story memorable and authentic.

Ryan Hodge explores how video game developers learned how to create an authentic sense of fear in a simulation in his monthly column Play/Write. Kayne Belul evokes a sense of abasement through a simple, graphic image in his poem, and Matt Pasca comments through descriptive poetic prose on the way certain experiences linger in our minds, remaining with us sometimes for years as we process them with greater layers of depth and meaning.

Elizabeth Hughes reviews, in her monthly Book Periscope column, along with a variety of suspense novels, a nonfiction book from Dr. John Berger on the potentially dramatic effects of climate change. The natural world is a complex system where things continually change and where we must stay aware of the consequences of our actions.

Human societies also reflect the effects of their members’ values and behavior, and poet Philip Fried’s new collection Angry Love, as reviewed by Christopher Bernard, reawakens the prophetic voice to decry the ills of secular society.

Another ‘prophet’ here, William Jefferson, looks at the videos the ISIL group in Iraq has produced of their recent murders, and suggests that messages are powerful, for good or evil. So, we need to recognize the impact of our words and choose to use them for positive ends.

Luke Usry’s poetry expresses a vague sense of visceral and psychological pain, along with dissociation and detachment. Neila Mezynski echoes and builds upon that sense of loss and impermanence by pairing an experimental prose poem evoking the sensation of restless hurry with a piece reminding us poignantly through an old woman’s small treasure that nothing we strive for lasts forever.

Ayokunle Adeleye continues his series on the medical system within Nigeria, examining the relationship between doctors and consultants and highlighting the role of and need for fully trained physicians in handling crises such as the Ebola epidemic. In another essay, he also calls for Nigerian elected representatives to put the needs of the country and their constituents above their own desires for power and money, to demonstrate authentic servant leadership.

Virginie Colline contributes a short piece on Paris’ Sacre-Coeur, expressive in its simplicity. Her writing points readers to look at the cathedral themselves, rather than attempting to reproduce it in words.

Anthony Langford’s poetry expresses the strain of living through constant, subtle injustice, staying where you don’t fit. Sean Lynch’s poetic speakers also seem alienated from the world, arguing with others and disappearing into drink, yet find solace by observing scenery through a window.

Dr. Debra Trock, in a lecture at Oakland’s Chabot Space and Science Center reviewed by Cristina Deptula, relates how flowering plants and animals who pollinate them have evolved together over time and specialized to meet each other’s needs.

Finding one’s own niche, one’s own place to belong, and then adapting to that niche, can be a useful survival strategy. The challenge is, then, to find ways to live authentically within a niche available to you. We hope that the works in this issue provide guidance and insights on how to make that happen.

Contributor Announcement, from William Jefferson:

Essay Contest!

Now Open: Essay contest on the characterization of Lucifer, from William E. Jefferson. Send in a 300 word essay about the Devil, and have a chance to win a whole assortment of awesome prizes, including a Kindle and an Amazon gift card! Jefferson is the author of the Estillyen series, a thoughtful meditative novel where a young couple find peace and meaning on a fantasy island where they help monks restore and illuminate old manuscripts and bring an old recluse back to humanity after a terrible accident. More info here: http://www.estillyen.com/lucifers-speech-essay-contest/

Commercial announcement from our magazine’s partner, software developer Rui Carvalho: 

If you are a writer or a poet and dream to show your work to the world, then we believe we have the best of opportunities to share with you. 
For a small donation you can have your book presented as an e-book app for Windows Phone or Kindle. 
Details are the following: 
Windows Phone or Kindle with up to 40 poems – (donation 40 USD)
Rui M. Publisher ISBN – (donation 10 USD)
Annual maintenance – (donation 10 USD per year)
Revision of the text – (donation 50 USD)

Part of the funds will go to Rui Carvalho and enable him to continue the work he does creating apps for health and environmental nonprofits, and the rest will go to Synchronized Chaos Magazine.

Public domain image from George Hodan. http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=20679&picture=glass-wall&large=1