Becca Menon Reviews Cartoon Molecules

 

Don’t read this book. Swim in it.
 
We’re all always floundering through the frequently fetid waters
of jargon, cliché and manipulation around us anyhow.
But in Cartoon Molecules , you plunge into –
or sometimes get knocked over by – bracing waves.
 
Like, let’s say Greekish words in  Cartoon Molecules
– Proem – bowl you over.
 
Okay, just hold your breath and hang on, because who’s splayed out there on the shoals speaking up for you?
 
The least pretentious fellows you ever met, Tweedledee and Tweedledum.
They’re as clueless as you:

 
ditto – we know not what we do
dum    that’s what makes a story
  (Carton Molecules)

 
These pieces are pieces of everybody’s mind, not necessarily lovely, but that’s just one of the reasons they’re recognizable. Robin Ouzman Hislop opens the inside of his head,
and lo and behold, it turns out to be your own, stuck, as we all are,

 
here now
in time’s traffic jam
where all landscapes blend
 (Eternalism (power in the block universe)

 
and
 
words might have been our downfall
 
the voice that’s the voice in our head tries to shrug off the very language it is composed of, since
 
perhaps from now on
we should just go on
downstream
heading for the ocean’s waves
(Orphean Twist)

 
Bracing. Isn’t that the job of poetry?
 
~ Becca Menon, author of “The Riddle and The Sphinx” and others
 
 
 

www.BeccaBooks.com
 

 
Aquillrelle.com/Author Robin Ouzman Hislop & Amazon.com Author Robin Ouzman Hislop

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Weeds. A Poem by Becca Menon

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AGarden_and_chimney_pot_-_DSC06780.JPG

 
 
 

Weeds

 

for David

 
 
 
 

      Because they are seeing determined seeds
      of nameable, nearing death in his body,
      he goes in his garden to pull the weeds,
      working tranquilly, editing God.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Known for her musical storytelling craft, Becca Menon’s works have been hailed internationally from the Middle East to the United Kingdom. This American translator and author of books of verse narrative has shorter works in print and online. Hear readings and discover other mischief at www.BeccaBooks.com ~

 
 
 
 
Cartoon-Molecules/paperback/Robin Ouzman Hislop
 
www.facebook.com/PoetryLifeTimes
 
robin@artvilla.com

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Bhodi. A Poem by Becca Menon

medusa_by_caravaggio-bodhi

 

 

Bodhi

                                                Medusa in her silent shout;

                                                Tathagata, thus gone, blown out;

                                                Enlightenment, the perfect breath:

                                                Perfect knowledge equals death.

 

 

 

becca-menon-photo1

 

Becca Menon is an American writer whose largely narrative poetic works, based in myth, fairy tale, folklore and Scripture have been hailed internationally in countries such as Iran, India, Iraq, Canada and the United Kingdom as well as the United States. Some shorter works, essays and translations appear in print and online in publications that include Parnassus, Mezzo Cammin, Kritya, Antiphon and others. She is associate editor of Phoenix Rising¸ a multilingual sonnet anthology.

beccabooks-colophon-jpg

www.BeccaBooks.com

Editors note: Image of Medusa

By Caravaggio – Transferred from en.wikipedia. Original uploader was Hugh Manatee at en.wikipedia.Later version(s) were uploaded by Ghirlandajo at en.wikipedia., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4067729

www.facebook.com/PoetryLifeTimes
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robin@artvilla.com
editor@artvilla.com

Key of Mist. Guadalupe Grande.Translated.Amparo Arróspide.Robin Ouzman Hislop

goodreads.com/author/show/Robin Ouzman Hislop
http://www.aquillrelle.com/authorrobin.htm
http://www.amazon.com. All the Babble of the Souk. Robin Ouzman Hislop
www.lulu.com. All the Babble of the Souk. Robin Ouzman Hislop
https://www.amazon.com/author/robinouzmanhislop
http://www.innerchildpress.com/robin-ouzman-hislop.All the Babble of the Souk

 

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Flunking the Turing Test. A Poem by Becca Menon

                           Come on, body, what’s with the chronic wincing
                           We’ve heard these gripes before.  What good do they do?
                           Stop whining!  And anyhow, who’s in there?  Are you
                           Even real, like really the Real Me, the Pain Me – or Not-Me?
                           Belly, “You’re hungry!” and “Ow!” just aren’t convincing.
                           Ears?  Eyes?  Hacked or hackneyed…  I? think? I’m a Bot-me.

 becca-menon-photo

 

Becca Menon is an American writer whose largely narrative poetic works, based in myth, fairy tale, folklore and Scripture have been hailed internationally in countries such as Iran, India, Iraq, Canada and the United Kingdom as well as the United States.  Some shorter works, essays and translations appear in print and online in publications that include Parnassus, Mezzo Cammin, Kritya, Antiphon and others.  She is associate editor of Phoenix Rising¸ a multilingual sonnet anthology.     www.BeccaBooks.com.




 
 
www.facebook.com/PoetryLifeTimes
www.facebook.com/Artvilla.com
robin@artvilla.com
editor@artvilla.com

 
 

Key of Mist. Guadalupe Grande.Translated.Amparo Arróspide.Robin Ouzman Hislop
 
goodreads.com/author/show/Robin Ouzman Hislop
http://www.aquillrelle.com/authorrobin.htm
http://www.amazon.com. All the Babble of the Souk. Robin Ouzman Hislop
www.lulu.com. All the Babble of the Souk. Robin Ouzman Hislop
https://www.amazon.com/author/robinouzmanhislop
http://www.innerchildpress.com/robin-ouzman-hislop.All the Babble of the Souk

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The Wife of Pain.Poem.Sonnet.Becca Menon

 

***

I’ve learned deceptiveness since he moved in:

How to distract him from a brutal rage or try

To trick his jealous need for all of my

Attention — yet defend him when I grin

Contentedly for loved-ones who suspect

 His secret violence; to take the blame

 For something that I’ve done or some neglect

 That sets him off, and hide the sticky shame

 I feel for letting him destroy my life.

 And while it never stops confounding me

 To realize that it’s true I am his wife,

 There’s one thing that I face with honesty:

 Because it was by illness we were wed,

 This demon, Pain, will always share my bed.

 ***

Becca Menon (1958― ) of New York City writes formal, often narrative poetry that makes use of both received and nonce forms. Her verse novel A Girl and Her Gods (2008) led poet Katha Pollitt to declare “No poet I know of writes anything like this ― Becca dances to a tune of her own Panpipes, and the reader follows, entranced,” while Herb Leibowitz, Editor of Parnassus, wrote that her “language is supple and nuanced {and} her sleight-of-hand as a story-teller keeps the reader from worry about what technical devices she uses;…” Poet Mark Rudman, editor of Pequod, noted that her poetry is “playful, philosophical, and subversive.” Also a translator and prize-winning author of nonsense, Becca has works appearing in numerous print and on-line journals, both nationally and internationally. To learn more, please visit BeccaBooks.com

***

This sonnet is pre-published with the permission of the Editor-in-chief from:

 Richard Vallance, editor-in-chief. The Phoenix Rising from the Ashes: Anthology of sonnets of the early third millennium = Le Phénix renaissant de ses cendres : Anthologie de sonnets au début du troisième millénaire. Friesen Presse, Victoria, B.C., Canada. © 2013. approx. 240 pp. ISBN Hardcover: 978-1-4602-1700-9 Price: $28.00 Paperback: 978-1-4602-1701-6 Price: $18.00 e-Book: 978-1-4602-1702-3 Price: TBA

300 sonnets & ghazals in English, French, Spanish, German, Chinese & Persian.

30 sonnets in this anthology are to be pre-published by our permission in Poetry Life & Times (UK) which has exclusive sole rights prior to the publication of the anthology itself.


Readers may also contact Richard Vallance, Editor-in-Chief, at: vallance22@gmx.com for further information.

http://vallance22.hpage.com/

 

 

 

 

 

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