Poetry Is Labor and Work Poetry is labor and work. People should be paid for their labor and work. Asking people to pay to consider their poetry is exploitative. Taking advantage of people’s desire for an audience is exploitative. Taking advantage of people’s desire for exposure is exploitative. Exploiting labor isn’t thoughtful or beautiful. Yes, this goes for contests as well.
Category Archives: CHAOS
Poetry from Taylor Dibbert
Too Late If you find yourself Thinking that Marriage counseling Might help Your troubled marriage, You are Almost certainly Too late. Taylor Dibbert is a writer, journalist, and poet in Washington, DC. He’s author of the Peace Corps memoir “Fiesta of Sunset,” and the forthcoming poetry collection “Home Again.”
Mixed media from Phil Demise Smith
I have often thought about the relationship between what was and what is and about the motion of the stillness that is “now” (see my attached homage to Mondrian). In “Still Is , As Is“ I’m using the vastness of definition and context and the vision that language and paintings provide in order to illustrate my experience of living within the vibrant, alternating current of yin yang alternatives – the back and forth, the yes and no, the right and wrong of real life….things move ahead within the stillness of now. They move through time in order for the chaos to become what is. What is, is born from what was, while remaining still, as is. It’s the oxymoron of still moving.
Phil Demise Smith
Poet, musician, artist, gallerist, teacher. Was the editor /publisher of Gegenschein Press and owner/producer at NYC performance loft- The Gegenschein Vaudeville Placenter from 1976-1978. Published in numerous magazines mostly in the 1970’s and 80’s and has had numerous chapbooks published including What I Don’t Know For Sure (Burning Deck), Periods, selected writings 1972-1987 (Gegenschein Press), History of Pre-Diction w/ drawings by Gérard Sendrey (Gegenschein Press). Has given numerous poetry readings in the U.S. and Europe. Began playing music in 1975 and has written over 200 songs and performed with numerous bands at NYC clubs (i.e. CBGB’s, Max’s Kansas City, Folk City, The Bitter End etc) – most recent recording (2021) being a vinyl record album Growing in the Dark with AnDna. In 1987 began to paint and since has had numerous one person and group shows in the U.S. and Europe including an exhibition at the The Musée Création Franche in Bégles, France and has work in many collections including in the collection of the Musée d’art brut, Montpelier, France. Was owner/gallerist of Outsider Art at A Gallery @ Wares For Art (1996-1999).
Photography from Isabel Gomez de Diego
Stories from Niles Reddick
A Hawk’s Meal
Kelly was mowing their front yard when the snake landed on her arm. She figured it was from a tree, and it tightened its grip on her arm like a boa constrictor and lunged at her face hitting her glasses and cracking them. She ran right over her rose bush, the lawn mower spitting red petals and thorns, and she screamed “Help me, Jesus” twice, shaking her outstretched arm. Her disabled husband heard her and moved down the ramp of the carport with his cane as quickly as he could, hearing Kelly holler for Jesus.
Jesus didn’t come swooping down from heaven to save her, but the hungry hawk that had picked up the snake in a field of peas about a half mile down the road and then lost its grip and dropped it onto Kelly circled back and nose-dived toward her arm, its claws slicing her arm while grabbing hold of the snake. As Bud made his way to the yard, he waved his cane and hollered, “Get!” several times.
When the hawk had a firm enough grip, it took off with the snake writhing in the sky, and Bud got Kelly to the emergency room where she was treated for lacerations and bruising. The doctor told Kelly that the right glass in her eyeglasses was cracked and kept the snake’s venomous bite from her eye even though her readers had to be trashed.
Ghost of Lincoln
We never thought we’d see a ghost through binoculars in the White House from our view on E street by the South Lawn. We’d hiked from our hotel early in the evening with a light fog settling over the city. Along with our binoculars, we had a 35-millimeter camera with zoom lens, so we could get any close ups of the Obamas, but my friend Grant said, “Damn. That looks like Abraham Lincoln standing by the window.”
“Let me see,” I said. “By God, you’re right. Get some pics. He’s wearing a dark suit and a top hat.” He took the camera, focused, and snapped about twenty shots.
“I hope I caught him. He didn’t move and then evaporated.”
“We might even be on one of those reality TV shows if his image is on the film once it develops.”
“That would be cool.”
“Yes, it would.”
The Lincoln room was just a couple of windows to the right of the rotunda on the second floor. I’d looked at it online, since I knew those areas were off limits on our tour the next day. Lincoln may have been the most iconic of all the ghosts seen in the White House. He’d been seen by first ladies Grace Coolidge, Lady Bird Johnson, and Jacqueline Kennedy. He’d also been seen by Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, both of whom had been guests in the Lincoln bedroom. First lady Eleanor Roosevelt also reported feeling Lincoln’s presence as she worked in her office in the Lincoln bedroom, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s valet once ran screaming from the White House after seeing Lincoln’s ghost. Even the Ronald Reagan family had some experience with Lincoln’s ghost. The Reagan’s dog Rex stood at Lincoln’s door and barked and barked, and Reagan’s daughter Maureen and her husband had reported ghostly images when they stayed in the Lincoln room.
“Why would he haunt that area? It wasn’t his bedroom. It was his office and his Cabinet room at the time.”
“I’m not sure. I think Laura Bush redid the room, but the rosewood bed was purchased by Mrs. Lincoln along with some of the furniture. It was where Lincoln first read the Emancipation Proclamation to his Cabinet, and there’s a copy framed and hung on one of the walls. Of course, Lincoln himself had ghostly experiences there when he was President. He reported hearing the ghost of former President Jackson swearing and stomping around.”
“That’s wild and wasn’t there something about a child?”
“Yes, the Lincoln’s son Willie died at twelve from Typhoid Fever and had been seen by some staff of President Grant. Maybe he’s looking for his son or maybe he’s just thinking about the massive loss of life in the Civil War.”
“Most places aren’t nearly as haunted.”
“Why do you think that is? Age?”
“No, I think it’s because of the stress and the energy expended. Lincoln’s term had to be one of the most stressful. I’m sure all presidential terms have their own anguish, but his must have been incredibly difficult.”
“Yes, I think so.”
When they returned home to Illinois, the two friends had a great ghost story to share, and of all the photos snapped, one of them showed a grainy image of what might be perceived as Lincoln.
“Looks like that picture of Jesus someone saw on a slice of bread.” We both laughed.
“Or the Virgin Mary in a cloud.” We laughed more.
“Or what about that potato ship shaped like Elvis?” We laughed less because the joke was already getting old, and we both saw our reality show appearance evaporate just like the ghost of Lincoln.
“Yeah, they call seeing images that aren’t there pareidolia. Maybe we didn’t see Lincoln at all.”
“Maybe.”
Niles Reddick is author of a novel, three collections, and a novella. His work has been featured in over thirty collections and anthologies and five hundred magazines and journals including The Saturday Evening Post, PIF, New Reader, Forth, Citron Review, Right Hand Pointing, Nunum, and Vestal Review. He is a five time Pushcart, a two time Best Micro nominee, and a two time Best of the Net nominee. His newest flash collection If Not for You has recently been released by Big Table Publishing.
Essay from Santiago Burdon
In Support of the Palestinian People
I have been receiving some rather vexatious comments from people I know casually through Social Media. I have been unfriended by many due to my position concerning the Palestinian and the Israeli Zionist conflict that has recently culminated into an atrocious and horrific war. Once again exemplifying the inhumane treatment humans are capable of inflicting upon their fellow man. It seems my position supporting the Palestinian people and detesting the persecution they have been subjected to since the illegal occupation of Arab and Palestinian homes, farms and businesses by Jews, has angered them. Israel has inflicted horrendous acts against the Palestinian people for over 70 years.
Appears the United Nations appropriated Real Estate they didn’t own. The British Mandate supported by the United Nations and advocated by the United States allocated land area to Zionist leaders for settlement 1917. Later amended to accommodate WWII Jewish refugees.
This Mandate granting property to the Jewish people extended rights of land ownership despite the property being owned and lived upon in some instances for generations of Arab and Palestinian families . They never took into consideration the legal rights of the Palestinian land owners. Prior to the British annexation of the territory it was part of the Ottoman Empire. An astonishing fact is the people were treated humanely and were extended all the rights of every other Ottoman citizen. Not so under Israeli occupation.
In 1948 Israel declared independence demanding to be recognized as an independent nation by the United Nations. 30 countries voted against the declaration but it passed anyway. No longer would Israel recognize the conditions of the British Mandate.
Soon after the new government implemented laws discriminating against Palestinians. The land allocated by the United Nations wasn’t large enough to support the immigration of millions of Jewish refugees. Israel determined it was entitled to areas inhabited by thousands of Arab and Palestinian people. The military quickly attacked Palestinians living in those areas with Israel forcefully confiscating the land. Over 726,000 Palestinians were evicted from their homes and thousands more were massacred. That was the start of Israel’s solution to living in harmony with other people in the region as they had proclaimed.
Since then Israel has adopted the practice of Apartheid. Their main objective during over 70 years of occupation is the genocide of the Palestinian people. Here’s Amnesty International’s report of their investigation into Israel’s actions.
Amnesty International has analyzed Israel’s intent to create and maintain a system of oppression and domination over Palestinians and examined its key components: territorial fragmentation; segregation and control; dispossession of land and property; and denial of economic and social rights. It has concluded that this system amounts to apartheid. Israel must dismantle this cruel system and the international community must pressure it to do so. All those with jurisdiction over the crimes committed to maintain the system should investigate them.
February 2020
The Israeli persecution of Palestinians is extensive and too many to list.
Let me tell you, if my home was taken from me, evicted from my homeland, tortured, my people murdered and every other crime possible was levied against me, I would have no qualms about picking up a weapon and rage against Israel. Maybe I’m the one that should unfriend those of you advocating Israel’s atrocious treatment of Palestinian men, women and innocent children.
I’m unable to understand and far from accepting anyone’s support of Israel. Either you are an evil and sadistic person or just an uninformed. And if those descriptions aren’t accurate then I deduce that you’re just an ignorant idiot.
Poetry from J.J. Campbell
------------------------------------------------------------------------- a glorious death mice in the attic where is the hole here comes the nightmares at three in the morning lucid dreams of a glorious death but you can't help but wonder if you are jack ruby instead sixty years later and no one wants the truth what if our own lives are a conspiracy that would make as much sense as god or the big bang theory being on every channel known to man otis redding is on the radio now a little slice of the truth --------------------------------------------------------- face the world alone first hard freeze winter will soon be here it gets harder every year to face the world alone the songs get sadder the days move along at a snail's pace you don't have the guts for the shotgun in the corner or the brains to get yourself out of this situation determined to simply run out the clock a red x for every remaining day -------------------------------------------------------- the entire bottle everyone ordered a fruity wine i asked for the strongest bottle of liquor they had the entire bottle sir? you see what these clowns are drinking yes, the entire bottle they wanted a light evening to go over quarterly notes i wanted to be either dead or somewhere else 110 proof with a glass of ice i had no interest in the glass there was a reason i enjoyed working remotely so damn much ------------------------------------------------------------------- to see the trees the leaves are changing colors summer trying to hang on of course, it will probably snow next week i can remember going miles and miles as a child to see the trees now, just go on youtube and watch a few videos the way we are destroying the earth those videos might be the only way the future generations will understand what we once had ------------------------------------------------------ struggling to find a meal swimming in treacherous waters another warm day in early november leaves piling up on the streets stray cats struggling to find a meal the last love of my life has said goodbye and the shotgun in the corner gets more appealing by the day a misunderstanding becomes the edge of a knife hope is the last dancer for the night you ever wonder why the tornado spared a place like this apparently, mother nature also knows how to work a pole J.J. Campbell (1976 - ?) is stuck in the suburbs, wondering where all the lonely housewives have gone. He's been widely published over the years, most recently at Dumpster Fire Press, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Horror Sleaze Trash, The Asylum Floor and The Beatnik Cowboy. You can find him most days on his mildly entertaining blog, evil delights. (https://evildelights.blogspot.com)