Poetry from J.J. Campbell

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on an old radio
 
the pain of another
birthday alone, just
the bottles of courage
and some music on
an old radio
images of the few
girlfriends of the past
rush by throughout
the night
you can’t help but
think what your life
could have been
sometimes being
passed over is a
blessing
it’s all those other
times that you
understand why
rejection leads to
a lonely death
not everyone can
stomach the bitter
pills

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Elizabeth Hughes’ Book Periscope

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Thomas Montasser’s A Very Special Year
A Very Special Year is a delightful and captivating book about a small very special book store. Valerie takes over running the book store when her Aunt Charlotte has suddenly gone somewhere and just left a note for Valerie to look after her book store for her.
Valerie and her boyfriend do not understand why the aunt just doesn’t close the store. It does not seem to be doing all that well financially and they do not think many people even read actual books anymore. Valerie stays and tries to bring the bookkeeping and bookstore up to date. On many of the days when she does not have much to do, she sits down with one of the many books and reads while she drinks a cup of tea or coffee. She comes to realize how magical reading can be. She comes to realize how the feeling of the pages, the feeling of the cover and the smell of the different books can be just as captivating as reading the books themselves. She becomes so immersed in reading the many different stories she tries to save the bookstore from closing.
Then she comes across a book called A Very Special Year. The book only goes so far and does not seem to be completed. Valerie thinks the book is just a defective one that got through at the publishers. Then a man comes in and sees it sitting in the wastebin. He asks if he could purchase the book. Valerie tells him it is not a complete copy and tells him he can just have it. He convinces her to take remuneration for the book. This is a delightful book that was originally written in German and then translated to English. I really enjoyed this book. It could be enjoyed by a wide variety of ages.
Synchronized Chaos Magazine encourages you to request this book by name and have it ordered for you at your local bookstore!
Being Seen by Anlor Davin
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This is a very deep and important (in my opinion) book on autism. What sets this book apart from other books on autism, is that Ms. Davin is autistic. It is her journey through life as an undiagnosed autistic child and through part of her adult years until she is finally diagnosed. It tells of the heartbreak and pain, both physical and emotional, of being different in a time when “different” is both not understood and frowned upon. This is a very informative and important book for people who are or may know someone that has been diagnosed or may have not been diagnosed yet of autism. I found this memoir to be very educational and informative. It is well written and I highly recommend reading it.
The Weekenders by Mary Kay Andrews
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This book is a suspenseful murder mystery that will not disappoint fans of Mary Kay Andrews. If you have not read any of her books, I highly recommend them.
The Weekenders takes place on Belle Isle, a fictional island off the coast of South Carolina. The story has many twists and turns. It will definitely keep the reader on the edge of their seat throughout the whole book. When you think you have the murderer figured out, you will find out you were wrong.
It is the story about a family that owns most of the island, the husband of the main character dies mysteriously and everyone finds out he had a rather sinister side to him. He was the CEO of Belle Isle Enterprises and was secretly going to negotiate to turn the island into a huge tourist attraction while borrowing money from his in-laws and others to fund his project.
Then everyone finds out that all of his “projects” fell through and he is found dead. Then everyone is a suspect until the killer is found. This is a really great read for all mystery buffs and will not disappoint. I highly recommend The Weekenders.
Synchronized Chaos Magazine encourages readers to request The Weekenders by Mary Kay Andrews from their local bookstores. 

Poetry from Mahbub

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Melody

The world itself a melody

where every instrument is playing with music

we sing together, we dance together

we laugh together, cry together,

die together, born together,

enjoy the whole item of beauty

with a melody that is going on always among us

proud of our birth

always hand in hand a splash of water

try to fly in the brown sky

time after time

run after the wave of the  ocean

we wander on the grass, ponder over things

break the heart again built

stand together

fall dividing

all are fixed as if from long day and night

circling the ground  there is a harmony

to bend on each other

to cross the unparalleled

beats the drum  more loudly

that weaves the heart into melody.

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Poetry from J.D. DeHart

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Sucrose

Published at Poet Community

 

Sickly sweet

the swirl of today’s news

sitting on my empty

stomach. Syrupy

on my lips and on

the roof of my mouth.

An ideal that when tasted

does not blend so well,

overstaying its welcome.

Sucked through a straw,

then spat back out,

better left roadside alone.

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Poetry from Stella Pfahler

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God’s Square Mile

I imagined you struck by lightning, paralyzed and hanging in the air or above my bedside

isaiah 58:11 reading beneath you

I wanted to write you into verse psalm after psalm say it back to me echo like Presider: Congregation:

there is nothing like touch in electricity your hands

in water beneath a tall black sky

brushstrokes simmering beneath skin  draw me a riverside, blanketed in peaks considering the largeness on each side

and the smallness in the middle

you sheared the plastic off a car door handle with close­cut careful nails and murmured “cows” at every intersection whenever they appeared

 

 

 

 

Creative nonfiction from Doug Hawley

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I Won’t Take Manhattan

Not that Manhattan, the Big Apple, Bright Lights Big City, this is the little apple, dim lights, little city in Kansas.

I ended up there after my third year of a math Ph.D. program at the University of Oregon in Eugene.  I didn’t care for Eugene, and I was a poor Ph.D. candidate.   When not studying, I spent my time drinking, consuming a controlled substance, getting fat and hanging out with other unmarried male graduate students.  It was an unpleasant life of my own making.

My thesis advisor decided to take a job at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas.  I didn’t think that anyone else in the department would take me as a student, so I decided to go with him despite the Kansas horror stories.  Oregon has mountains, trees, lakes and canyons, but Kansas not so much.  Another four of his students also followed him.

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