Zen-like life-Force >
the flow of ideas quickens beyond chronicle..
My last liberal cup
of coffee astral projected
from Hyde Park to Riverside
one late weekday morning..
No longer ‘agreeing’
with conservative ideas,
I now live and breathe them;
In other words,
no longer a liberal
transformed.
Two Visions of O’Keeffe
by
Christina Murphy
The snow is a flute of multiple blessings,
a pale blazing of crystal light that renews
the loving heart and gathers up the world
into the exultations of a white-cold sky
from circumference to core
Sea winds flower in the twilight
and rocks sing softly to waterfalls;
and everywhere, always,
there is the desire to know
what light there is within the light
that splits darkness into a silver moon
lifting, like an eagle, into a peaceful sky
Christina Murphy’s poetry is an exploration of consciousness as subjective experience, and her poems appear in a wide range of journals and anthologies, including, PANK, Dali’s Lovechild, and Hermeneutic Chaos Literary Journal, and in the anthologies From the Roaring Deep: A Devotional in Honor of Poseidon and the Spirits of the Sea, The Great Gatsby Anthology, and Remaking Moby-Dick. Her work has been nominated multiple times for the Pushcart Prize and for the Best of the Net Anthology.
Amanda Clay’s Rebel Song
Rebel Song is a modern day love story set in Arelanda in Europe. It is exciting and will keep you reading from the first page to the last. It is the story about the prohibited love between Princess Elyra and the winemaker Rogan. Her father, the king, and Pantone keep the rich very rich and do not care about the poor or the ones who fought wars for Arelanda and their king. Rogan is part of a rebellion to overcome the royals when he meets and falls in love with Princess Elyra. They know that being in love can be very dangerous, yet their love does not waver. Then when things get worse……Buy Rebel Song today to find out what happens in this exciting love story between the Princess and the Winemaker. I absolutely loved the book and know that you will too!!
Rebel Song may be ordered here: http://www.amazon.com/Rebel-Song-Amanda-J-Clay-ebook/dp/B00PTC7KWA/
Dale Wiley’s The Intern
The Intern is a murder mystery with humor. I love those. It is the story of Trent Norris who is an intern with the National Endowment for the Arts and is in the wrong place at the wrong time and who does something quite stupid that gets him framed for murder among other things. You will laugh your way through this thrilling page turner. A must have for the mystery lover. I highly recommend it.
Dale Wiley’s novel may be ordered here: http://www.amazon.com/Intern-Dale-Wiley-ebook/dp/B00USSDLPA/
A Rose in the Desert is a fantasy with plenty of suspense and adventure. It is the story of 14 year old Ethyrin who is the nephew of the King of Arandia. The King wants Ethyrin killed. Ethyrin runs and goes to Calimshaan with his cousin Prince Irudan who is leading an envoy there. Calimshaan is known as the City of Delights, the king and others also want him dead. Ethyrin meets Nuara, a girl that was kidnapped and sold into slavery. She is made to sing at the King’s whim because she has the most beautiful voice around. Ethyrin and Nuara both escape to find a way to get Nuara home with her people. On the way they encounter dangers and every adventure imaginable. This would make a great gift for the tween or teen in your life. I highly recommend it.
Louis Piechota’s novel may be ordered here: http://www.amazon.com/A-Rose-Desert-Louis-Piechota-ebook/dp/B00IJMZQL4
(cover not yet available)
The Shoebox will make you laugh and make you want to cry. It is the story of Jessica who gets the chance of a lifetime to go to Ireland for her company. While there she makes many friends and meets a guy….Read The Shoebox and see how Jessica compares relationships to shoes. It is a fun, quick read, and I know you will enjoy it as much as I did.
Tracy Ploch’s novel may be ordered here: http://www.tracyploch.com/
LIBRARIES
When I was a child, the only library to which I was exposed was in my school. I don’t think I really understood the value it represented at that time. By the time high school arrived, it seemed we were in that library a great deal of the time. Eventually, after graduation, I wound up working in our main central library and it was a Civil Service position. I remember being quite nervous about taking that exam but, thankfully, I passed it.
I started work there and was given a tour of the library. There were 3 floors plus a basement and a sub-basement. It was all quite confusing at first. In fact, the sub-basement was a little scary and I thought I never want to go down there. There were so many departments to learn about. My first job was inspecting the new books as they arrived, processing the information and entering the pertinent facts regarding that book on file cards. All cards, from time to time, were taken down to the catalogs on the first floor and filed properly in drawers. It was interesting but I hoped for a promotion eventually. It finally happened after a year or less after I was hired. There was an opening in the public relations department and I was transferred to that office. I worked for a very nice woman who taught me the parts of that job for which I was responsible. It really was fun as well as work because I had the opportunity to take spot announcements to the downtown radio and TV stations and meet some of the staff in those offices. Learning and experiencing the behind the scenes work at a library gave me also an opportunity to participate in some of the events held at that library. There, quite often, it may seem that a library is a boring place to be. But the opposite is what is true. A library is alive with stories of the past, the history of so many different cultures, scientific discoveries, our galazy and so much more. There are also phones ringing with people seeking help or being directed to the proper department, students sitting at tables pouring over books to find much needed answers to their projects or papers and many people coming in to the library to have personal conversations with the librarians. There are multiple floors to explore, art to be seen, children listening intensely to a librarian reading a story book to them and enjoying the beautiful architecture of so many of the libraries.
My experience in that library prepared me for other jobs in the future. It taught me the “stick to it and you can get the job done” as well as good interactions with people and maturing in the way to think and work.
Responders
There are scattered pieces of stale rye bread in the patchy snow of Sloan’s Lake Park. The geese ignore them. The old man who put them there gets on his bicycle and begins to ride away, but he doesn’t get far before he falls over onto the unyielding pavement. Pinned by his bicycle, he’s hurt and perplexed. He’s been riding a bike for over seventy years and has never lost his balance before.
I call 911, even after the old man sees me pull out my cell phone and snaps: Don’t call 911. I don’t want to argue with him. He’s too confused to make a judgment. I just do what I think is right.
The EMT’s put him in the back of the ambulance. What about his bike, I ask.
I don’t know, says one. I don’t know about bicycles. We just take the people. Bicycles have to fend for themselves.
Really? That’s your answer? You must be new.
The First Responder doesn’t respond.
I end up taking the bicycle for the old man. I don’t want the responsibility, but I’m the only one there. I’m not looking forward to returning it to him. He’ll probably be pissed at me for calling 911. He might even get violent. But I’m not worried. I can outrun an old man who can’t even manage to stay on his bike anymore.
I watch the ambulance drive toward St. Anthony’s Hospital. The geese have decided that the rye bread is safe, and are busy eating it. Goose shit is all over the grass, as usual.
That night, I’m in a dark closet, stretched out on the shoes, lots of shoes, footwear for all seasons, cowboy boots with horse shit still on, thongs with grains of sand, rain boots running with water, espadrilles, high top sneakers, shoes with cleats. I’m writhing, allowing all those shoes to fuck me in the ass, make me their bitch.
Clothes hang above me. Inside each shirt is an evil spirit, in every jacket a Nazi. I scream: Oh Lord, why hast thou forsaken me?
The closet door opens. A woman vaguely familiar (I think I was married to her) yells: Get out, you fucking party crasher.
I need medical marijuana to ease this bad trip.
Happy April and Happy Easter to those who celebrate. This month’s contributors create a sense of suspense, an uneasy creative tension throughout the issue.
Leonard Traumel’s lecture at the Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland, California, reviewed here by Cristina Deptula, shows how leading physicists and cosmologists say that much of our universe is composed of ‘dark’ matter and energy, about which we know next to nothing. Poet Kira Burton urges us to embrace dissonance and confusion, while Neil Ellman’s poetry comments on paintings whose protagonists are perched between love and disaster, beauty and death.
San Francisco’s Fashion Tech Week reflected the influence of high technology, startup culture and environmental concerns on San Francisco’s emerging fashion aesthetic. Returning poet Tony Longshanks LeTigre describes social contradictions within the same city, where during the same week he can visit a renowned botanical conservatory for free and be harassed for napping briefly in a public park.
Sonny Zwierkowski’s poetry presents images that carry hints of unreality and disconnection: empty foreclosed homes, people who have trouble speaking to each other, a backyard view reflected in a pool of water. Joshua Dunlap’s poetry and prose vignettes tell stories with themes that have resonated with people throughout human history: striving for accomplishment versus living in the moment, fighting with others to prove oneself, contemplating mortality in the midst of vibrant life.
Russell Sivey presents a relationship where there is simultaneously passionate love and intense conflict.
Joan Beebe’s gentle, thoughtful pieces convey the earth’s natural renewal in spring and the rhythms of her childhood working on a family farm. Yi Wu’s poetry presents spring as fragile, almost tipsy and clumsy in how it clears away frost. Patrick Ward also contributes a pleasant piece about growing beans in his garden, and in later pieces encourages acceptance and respect for those who are somehow outside the mainstream, even those who seem scary at first glance. Ward also points to the existence of cruelty and evil in one of his pieces. Again, the complexity of life involves both good and bad, compassion and malice.
Ann Tinkham’s travel essay, like Patrick Ward’s work, comments on the lives of those who are different. She portrays a moment of tension in a family whose baby has Down’s syndrome and wonders if we can broaden our concept of ‘having it all’ to encompass ‘welcoming all.’ Shawn Nacona Stroud’s poetry conveys themes of family and loyalty, showing the beauty of building a history with loved ones. His final piece describes a near death experience, reminding us that we are all vulnerable. Laurie Byro’s work embraces all, love, memory, travel, grief, separation, culture, the foreign, prayers, through lush imagery.
Elizabeth Hughes reviews titles in her Book Periscope column where protagonists must make choices that determine their character and destiny. In K.C. Simos’ Ambrosia Chronicles, the characters within the adventure trilogy slowly grow into themselves, discovering their supernatural powers. In pastor Stephen White’s self help guide Saving Dr. Jekyll, Destroying Mr. Hyde, the author gives advice on how to live a moral life and overcome one’s addictions and bad habits. Characters and readers must choose to show courage and do the right thing even when faced with constant danger and pressure to give in to temptation.
Ryan Hodge, in his monthly Play/Write column, discusses how the most interesting video games encourage characters to solve problems in more creative ways than simply shooting as many enemies as possible. As one game demonstrates, sometimes peace can be even more complex and interesting to maintain than war.
In his lengthy poem about the provenance of a clock, Christopher Bernard reminds us that most of us are inextricably connected to others. Nigerian political columnist Ayokunle Adeleye urges his fellow citizens to turn away from selfishness in the social and political spheres. Laura Kaminski and David Subacchi advocate for tolerance and nonviolence in the wake of killings of civilians within Nigeria by terrorist group Boko Haram. Warwick Newnham presents the moral chaos still present in post-colonial Myanmar/Burma through a vignette about drunken sailors, lovers and fireworks.
There’s plenty of chaos in this issue, but also plenty of love and understanding and creativity. These pieces point to a way forward where we embrace complexity while acknowledging our pasts and accepting and honoring our connections with others.
Announcement from our partner Rui Carvalho, who has worked with poet Janine Canan and other writers here:
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Now you can publish your e-book for Windows or Windows Phone, with your poetry, tales or novel, for only a donation of the following amounts:
a) annual donation 10 USD (maintenance);
b) price per page 1 USD;
c) authorize the inclusion of automatic ads in 10 % of the pages (at least and only if you aren’t happy with this).
For more information please contact Rui M. Publishing at:
ruiprcar@gmail.com
Best regards.
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High tension power lines from George Hodan, http://www.hodanpictures.com