| February 2002 | Café Society's Poetry News Update |
| February 2002 | Café Society's Poetry News Update |
Andrena Zawinski |
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| Andrena Zawinski, Feature Editor of http://www.PoetryMagazine.com is author of Traveling in Reflected Light, a poetry collection published by Pig Iron Press as a Kenneth Patchen competition winner. Zawinski’s individual poems have appeared in Nimrod International Journal of Fiction and Poetry, Gulf Coast, Paterson Literary Review, Talking River Review, Quarterly West and elsewhere. Her poetry has appeared online at PoetryMagazine.com, Adirondack Review, ForPoetry, Pedestal and at other sites. Zawinski has won awards for poetry of social concern, for free verse, for researched based non-fiction, and has been four times nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Pittsburgh Magazine named her One to Watch in Literature in their inaugural Excellence in the Arts Awards, and the Associated Writing Program featured her in their Pittsburgh conference as An Up and Coming Writer. Michelle Boleyn of www.bobkaufman.com (aka) www.beatitudepoetry.com says of her poetry: "Your poetry speaks of America and the transitions of the soul...One Sunday a month, a group of poets from all over the Bay Area meet in a living room or on a deck in San Francisco to exchange poetry news, and read and discuss their poetry. Andrena Zawinski is a member of this group which may be accessed at www.thirteenways.org/ Zawinski, Pittsburgh born and raised, now lives in Oakland, CA. She is also Co-chair of the Bay Area Poets for Peace, http://www.poets4peace.com/911.htm |
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GREATEST HITS chapbookPublished by Pudding House*
(*Click link and scroll down to GREATEST HITS |
| Poetry L & T: | When and why did you first start writing poetry, Andrena? |
| Andrena: | Like most people I wrote a flurry of poems-for-the-drawer as a teenager
about unrequited love or on how no one understood me, usually weakly
informed by whatever poetry I had most recently stumbled upon. I
continued to write more seriously after that, had a few small
publications under a pen name that I never showed to anyone except the
first poet-teacher I had as a freshman in college, Paul Zimmer, who
encouraged me to publish. At that time I was a very young single-mother
of a toddler as well as a full-time student, so I thought that notion
was a preposterous and self-indulgent one.
I stopped writing for a few years, then later joined the Writing
Project
for teachers who write at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania.
I was fortunate to meet and work with a few fine poets of some stature
who became my turning point, as they helped me to take my writing
seriously--especially the poets Lynn Emanuel, Len Roberts, and Jim
Daniels. After that, I began to write with more discipline, to publish
widely, to teach poetry workshops, to do what I do now.
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| Poetry L & T: | Who are your favorite classic poets?
|
| Andrena: | My favorite poets are contemporary American poets. They include C. K. Williams for his lush and powerful long lines, Adrienne Rich for the contemplative complexity of her work, Carolyn Forche and Martin Espada for the political consciousness and sensibilities - but there really are just too many for me to mention. Although I hold an advanced university degree and teach in post-secondary education, my initial literary foundation was not a very rich one growing up in a working-poor community skirting an industrial urban center with grandparents who were illiterate immigrants and parents who never finished secondary school. My early indulgence in literature was considered frivolous as the emphasis was on preparation for work and assimilation into the American mainstream. I do, however, recall being swept away back then by the rhythm and music of Dylan Thomas, the depth and confessionalism of Sylvia Plath, the brave and breathy voice of Allen Ginsberg. Those three, I believe, gave me the kind of permission to speak that Ginsberg for himself had attributed to Blake. But those poets, like many others, were ones I found on library shelves and were part of my self-educating. |
| Poetry L & T: | What kind of poetry is favored by www.PoetryMagazine.com? |
| Andrena: | The only real criteria is quality. The Senior Editor could speak best to this, as I have been responsible mostly for the poets we feature. There are usually two Featured Poets in each issue whose poetry is accompanied by biographies and photographs, and the digizine averages around thirty contributing poets in the Current Poets section of each issue. I personally prefer fresh looks at common subjects, an attention to metaphor and line and rhythm, often with the creative employment of some degree of narrative. I also like some forms, if matched with appropriate subject matter and language and skill: the unrhymed sonnet, pantoum, villanelle, and the like. It is easier to say what I do not like: forced end-rhyme, greeting card verse, loopy logic, word games, or pornography. I don't like locker room antics or toilet scenes, needless to say. Decision making goes on in the New Jersey office and is within the purview of the editor and publisher, but I do make recommendations from out here in the San Francisco Bay Area that are more often than not accepted. The digizine also strives to include international submissions and a diversity of poets. There is a Women's Issue for March in conjunction with our National Women's History Month in which an attempt is made to display in the pages as many poems as possible written by or about women. April is celebrated as National Poetry Month by including as many of the past Featured Poets in the Current Poets section. Every May is a special Children's Issue in the Current Poets section. |
| Poetry L & T: | In your poem First Kiss, I like the way you captured the build-up to
the
kiss, coupled with the exciting atmosphere of a holiday romance. Were
you touring around all of Europe at that time?
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| Andrena: | I was actually enjoying a getaway in the West Virginia Panhandle in a small and historic spa town where the mountains are as wild and wonderful as the state's slogan boasts. First Kiss is one of those rare poems that appeared as it was happening in real life, and I just had to write it down--which is probably why the build-up for the kiss is there and believable. (There is something to the adage Write What You Know.) And it was a first kiss. And I am, ten years later, still kissing that same person, one with whom I have traveled widely--so, it seems my imagination wasn't as wild as I thought at the poem's end. |
| Poetry L & T: | Which poets recently featured at www.PoetryMagazine.com do you
particularly like?
|
| Andrena: | Sandra M. Gilbert is one of my recent favorites. Her poetry is learned and mature, some of the best testimony of loss and grief and healing. Also Kim Addonizio as the best of the bad-girl poetry, sassy and honest with a sophistiation of language. Those two are both from the Bay Area, which has no shortage of fine writers. PoetryMagazine.com has also been honored by poets like the Texas laureate, Walt MacDonald, who asked to be considered and was accepted as a Feature Poet. There are just so many wonderful past poets that have appeared like Jane Hirshfield and Annie Finch, Kevin Prufer and Ed Ochester. And there are so many upcoming: Tony Hoagland, Virgil Suarez, Alicia Ostriker, and many others from all over. |
| Poetry L & T: | What do you dislike to see in the work of new poets? |
| Andrena: | I dislike bad imitations of good poets upon which non-writers sometimes
school their students to satisfy curricular requirements. I also think
there are too many training camps for poets now in the MFA programs
that
sometimes serve as puppy mills providing a lot of false hope for a good
home. New poets should certainly be informed by established poets, but
should not err in mimicking particular poems or poets.
I also dislike the resistance to revision I have seen in some of my own
students, the belief in an infallible muse that is something more than
our own creative thought or imagination. An imagination that deserves
attention to crafting.
I also dislike the forced end rhyme more typical to new poets
than experienced ones. I think it might come out of habit, or out of
the
way we teach reading as a memory tool for young children combined with
what we have in song lyrics. In my opinion, end rhyme served its
purpose
among the bards traveling village to village pre-printing press, so I
would like to see new poets experiment more with slant rhyme and
alliteration unless they have a natural talent as metrical masters.
Too
much vocabulary (and thereby content) is sacrificed otherwise, keeping
serious subjects at arm's length.
I also would like to encourage new poets to make sure their work first
sits well on the page, then as spoken word, and not the other way
around.
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| Poetry L & T: | I enjoyed reading your poem Beached Here (First Summer Apart). Are you often inspired by the sea? |
| Andrena: | The sea, wind, and light all figure heavily into my body of work as universal symbols. The sea is a good place to let go of purposeful thinking so that clarity can come. Beached Here is a poem of reconciling loss. The sea is a good place to do that, a kind of cathedral of nature whose mere existence helps put things in perspective. I have written much on loss in its various constructs, especially the loss of my mother who I found dead over three years ago. Some of that work is in an online chapbook solicited from me: http://trfn.clpgh.org/tpq/elegies.html |
| Poetry L & T: | If a good friend of yours emailed you a sub-standard poem which she was considering for www.PoetryMagazine.com, would you let her down gently, be brutally honest... or pretend your email program crashed? |
| Andrena: | My poet friends know that I see rejection as something that does not happen merely as a result of personal taste, though often it does. It depends upon what the publication is looking for, space and timing as well. Usually friends will submit several poems for consideration, and rarely will all of those appear in the digizine, just as with any other publication. But, as I said, I usually solicit Feature Poets, even though at times I drum up work for special issues in the Current Poets section. I make confidential recommendations to the editor--if the work comes through me--but she makes the final decision. |
| Poetry L & T: | I would be interested to know more about your poetry group associated with the website http://www.thirteenways.org/ - this appeals to me especially as you meet in San Francisco, I have been to the Bay area and loved it... |
| Andrena: | Thirteen Ways was originally and for many years called The Valley of Saying. I was lucky to stumble upon it. When I arrived on the West Coast a little over two years ago, I volunteered to do some work with Robert Hass' University of California at Berkeley Lunch Poems Reading Series. Zack Rogow, who runs the shows, and I exchanged books. He showed my work to his writing group, and they invited me to join. We meet once a month over a pot luck and chat; then we read and discuss poems we think are almost done for which we want feedback. We also go north up the coast to Sea Ranch for an annual weekend writing retreat near a rough and rugged sea. I am fortunate to have come upon a community of writers early in my move across the country. |
| Poetry L & T: | As a poet, what do you find to be the most inspiring aspect of San Francisco? |
| Andrena: | Everything is inspiring. Every day blossoms, quite literally. But I mean the whole Bay Area by that. San Francisco is a 7x7 mile city, a playground that is sometimes all glitz and glamour, sometimes downtrodden and downright stinky like any major city. There is never want for anything to do in culture or the arts. Most of all I love the temperate climate, the fog rolling in, the fact that flowers a bloom all year round, that people can spend so much time outside, that there is a coast and there are mountains and sea, farms and vineyards right next to an urban center and quaint cafe communities. I feel very blessed to be here as I have lived most of my life landlocked. What I really like best here is the state-of-mind, open and fair and accepting. And, of course, that I am near my son again who lives here. |
| Poetry L & T: | Did you ever go to Amsterdam in your travels through Europe? I ask this because of the similarities between Amsterdam and San Francisco. |
| Andrena: | I have never been to Amsterdam other than to make flight connections, so the first images that pop into my head are stereotypical from the media. I imagine you mean the freewheeling and liberal nature regarding gender expression when you associate San Francisco to what I have heard of Amsterdam. San Francisco is, however, compared to many places from Pittsburgh to Paris as it is so very diverse with a bit of something to satisfy everyone. |
| Poetry L & T: | Finally Andrena, what advice would you give to a young poet who wanted to improve their poetry enough to have work accepted by a paying publisher? |
| Andrena: | Read, study, listen, write. Gather together some fine individual publication credits in journals you respect before even considering assembling a manuscript to submit to publishers. Subscribe to at least one or two fine journals, substituting them for others yearly -- read them carefully figuring out what makes a poem you like the poem you like, and study it for the fine machine it must be with all its gears clicking and shining. Study in workshops, retreats, conferences, classes with poets whose work you admire -- not just with poets who are famous. Go to poetry readings regularly that are given by seasoned writers, not just the ones where you and friends read your own work, although those are important as well. Go to learn rather than to seek recognition; consider yourself your own best teacher. |
| Poetry L & T: | Thank you for the interview, Andrena. |
| Dear Poets,
This issue features an interview with Andrena Zawinski from California, poet and Features Editor of PoetryMagazine.com.
Featured Poets this month include Ward Kelley, Cyril Wong, Jan Theuninck / ORC(°1954), The Quill, William DeVault, Üzeyir Lokman ÇAYCI, Richard Vallance, Ian Thorpe and Jan Sand. Many poems this month are presented in more than one language. Those of you who love romantic poetry will enjoy the work of William DeVault, whose work I first found on AuthorsDen - very rich and evocative.
There is a Valentine feature this month - a page of short love poems by various poets, find them on the link below this letter.
The Vallance Review this month explores the sonnet Winter Uplands by Archibald Lampman.
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Any comments on this issue or back issues can be emailed to me on the link at the bottom of the page. Please indicate whether you would like the comments to go into the Letters section. Announcements are always welcome, you can also promote poetry books here.
Poetry submissions should be in plain text in the body of an email, with a small jpeg author picture attached, also a bio, with the URLs of any ezines mentioned, so that they can be shown as links. This increases the chance of inclusion, especially for late submissions. Pictures are best at a maximum of 520 pixels across, otherwise they take ages to arrive by email, especially in bitmap or TIFF format. Further submission guidelines are available on request.
Best Regards, |
love poems by various contributors
Richard Vallance reviews sonnets, both classic and modern.
Featured Poets this month include Ward Kelley, Cyril Wong, Jan Theuninck / ORC(°1954), The Quill, William DeVault, Üzeyir Lokman ÇAYCI, Richard Vallance, Ian Thorpe and Jan Sand. Many thanks to all contributors.
Ward Kelley has seen more than 1100 of his poems appear in journals world
wide. A Pushcart Prize nominee, Kelley's publication credits include such
journals as: ACM Another Chicago Magazine, Rattle, Zuzu's Petals, Ginger
Hill, Sunstone, Spillway, Pif, 2River View, Melic Review, Poetry Life &
Times, Thunder Sandwich, The Animist, Offcourse, Potpourri and Skylark.
Recently he was the recipient of the Nassau Review Poetry Award for 2001.
Kelley is the author of two paperbacks: "histories of souls," a poetry
collection, and "Divine Murder," a novel; he also has an epic poem, "comedy
incarnate" on CD and CD ROM.
Quote from Ward:
Formerly I managed distribution centers in Pennsylvania, Ohio, California,
Arizona and Illinois. My wife and I now live outside of Indianapolis and are
currently toiling with much determination on our second crop of children,
having adopted four wonderful girls and fostered several others."
Of the 1162 published pieces, some have found their way into:
POETRY COLLECTIONS & NOVEL
"comedy incarnate" on CD ROM
"histories of souls" an ebook & POD
"comedy incarnate" on AUDIO CD
"the naming of parts" an ebbok
NEW: "Divine Murder" a novel, paperback
Of the 1008 published pieces, some have found their way into:
PRINT MAGAZINES:
INTERNET:
signaled you are ready. And would
My greatest potency is my caprice;
I give, I give freely, a bestowal, then
your own. I never expect you to
acknowledge you have pointed me out
always come when beckoned, be assured,
your body, I will always come quickly to you
circumstantial places, such as the kiss
a mountain; and when it reveals itself
righteousness that emanates from the
of which you are an essential one. Yet
of souls; most of us stride forth with this
see it decay with preternatural speed,
humans as before, so we continue as such
such urgency here in the dark, such an odd
soon becomes clear they are tools who only
when they strike the rocks of bewilderment.
glints in the black, but ask them to stop and they
think to scoop them into Mason jars to exhibit
We seek and seek to dominate at least
circumstances of our lives; yet there is
always, in the end, assimilates us and
or stones who bear nothing personal, just two
refinement before they discard the bones
Artist's note:
nature of the collective human heart who
destroyed by all of us who only know how
moments of our lives, and later we are
are required to assume such contradictory natures
must wear these bodies. One can only pray we learn
Artist's note:
is from Singapore, and has published two books of poems there:
Squatting Quietly and The End Of His Orbit. He started writing about five years ago when his obsession with horror novels and short stories first
began. Cyril says:
NOTE: To order or enquire about Cyril's books, click the email link at end of his poetry selection.
A broken finger,
From a paper throat.
A leg of shadow extends
The flickering and the flickering.
A path parting across the green
That when we meet after the worse of endings,
Most of them for boredom, fewer for loneliness -
Behind a bluer sky each moment of departure.
Hung on partings like a muted cloud, while
ORC(°1954) was born in Belgium in 1954 where he lives and works as painter and poet ;
autodidact, he is an abstract artist, active in different substyles;
most of his work and poetry are based on his social and political convictions;
considered as a lone crusader, he's building alliances for a new society.
A few works can be found on his website - click here.
Also find information about ORC (°1954) on:
and more of his poetry on these sites:
PAPIRAC
PAPIRAC
PAPIRAC
ta sale gueule est ton premier délit
homme de l'éternelle errance -
on te doit un peu de tolérance !
your ugly face is your first crime
man of the eternal wandering
you need some respect !
je grootste misdaad is je gezicht
eeuwig rondtrekkende man -
we moeten je wat meer respect !
(ROGER C. WORLEY)
Published - Stand A Alone, Scroll Artist Magazine .. E_Zine - Twice winner at PoetryDownUnder - Two winner at Point of life - Two winner at Poetic Links - Published around the world on the net. From Alaska to Belgium.
The Quill runs these websites for poets:
Poet's note - "I am a poet who writes whatever happens to come into the gray matter... I believe in making the reader smile. There is to much pain and suffering in the world. I have been given a Nick name 'The Master Quill guru of the twisted tales.' Once you read my writings you shall know why..."
NOTE:
List your site ..at
Playmate, Million $ Baby,
assemblies of perfect configuration
Big Hog, Shanghai-La, Lou lV,
allowing the ladies to
another like Memphis Belle,
Underground like moles,
With their tools they slap
Where five hundred feet above
The earth shakes and trembles
Yet! even today at an old hotel and
From the kitchen comes the sound from below.
Tommy knockers!
For when it starts blooming,
Then the petals drop one by one
That is why I give you
You can take anywhere
Its ever living never dying
Having a flare for writing he wrote a tale of a frog.
Emerson, Longfellow and Thoreau ... and that he should
A stream of books followed, gaining
The worlds greatest humorist had taken
With his long white hair and smoking cigar,
And with its departure ...
WARD KELLEY
"As for me, I'm a 51 year old business executive with 3,600 people in the
division reporting to me. I only mention this because in a sense the daimon
that propels my occupation also propels my poetry. For instance, Gertrude
Stein once said, "If Mr. Robert Frost is at all good as a poet, it is because
he is a farmer -- really in his mind a farmer, I mean." So in my mind am I a
businessman who writes poetry, or a very minor poet successful at business?
Who knows? Yet I tread carefully with this balance for fear my daimon will
leave me, or my greed will taunt me for decades.
by Kedco Studios (Las Vegas, NV)
by Word Wrangler Publishing, Inc. (Montana)
by Artvilla (Tennessee)
by Shyflower Press (Minnesota)
by Word Wrangler Publishing, Inc. (Montana)*
*Editor's Note: I have read "Divine Murder"
and thoroughly recommend this compelling story concerning the divine, the diabolical
and the struggles of two mortals to discover their momentous destiny.
ACM, Another Chicago Magazine
Ginger Hill
The GSU Review
Limestone
The Listening Eye
The Lucid Stone
Mad Poets Review
Nassau Review
The Old Red Kimono
Porcupine Literary Magazine
Potpourri
Rattle
River King
Skylark
Spillway
Sulphur River Review
Sunstone
Adirondack Review
The Animist
Ariga
Big Bridge
Lynx: poetry from Bath
Melic Review
Oblique
Offcourse
The Paumanok Review
Pif
Poetry Life & Times
Poetry Magazine.Com
Pulse
Pyrowords
Renaissance
The Rose & Thorn
San Francisco Salvo
Sonata
Thunder Sandwich
2River View
Unlikely Stories
Zuzu's Petals
Delivering the Poem
© Ward Kelley
I do not always come when called,
do not always run to your side when
you really have me so predictable?
this you will readily admit, for what
allow you to name it, and keep it as
admit you know me, although I do
on many occasions; and where I refuse to
like any good lover who has attended
when you suffer most, for this is our bond.
Injected
© Ward Kelley
Meaning is the strongest yet most
ephemeral of balms. It hides in odd,
of a child or the chance sunset behind
it consumes you with the keen sense of
eternal universe and all its components,
meaning only stays within the luckiest
uranium core of understanding only to
leaving us the same searching, scrapping
until the next random injection of meaning.
A Fleeting Flash
© Ward Kelley
Artists labor in the nighttime of our souls,
fireflies, perishing quickly, yet there is
consequence of unrequited effort that it
happen to produce light by the sparks raised
Why they exist so, they cannot say, these little
immediately fly away as though you might now
to your parents who are moved to kindly smile.
Assimilates Us
© Ward Kelley
My personality is not important; indeed
it may be unnatural in its incessant desires
to strengthen a certain perpetuation.
some small amount of the loves or what
we might come to recognize as the loves or
nothing we can truly dominate, for
whatever we do manage to conquer,
helps blur our personalities. At last we
take these bodies and place them under slabs
dates, as though the only relevance is a particular
era in which our souls have again attempted a
they must lug around, bones who always
manage to congeal into temporary personalities.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) was a geologist, paleontologist,
philosopher-theologian and priest. Leaving his teaching career at the
Catholic Institute in Paris where his superiors charged him with unorthodox
views, he spent twenty years in China, and participated in the discovery of
Peking man. Writing in "The Phenomenon of Man," he said, "Between animal
branches or phyla of low 'physical' endowment, reactions are limited to
competition and eventually to elimination. The stronger supplants the weaker
and ends by stifling it. The only exceptions to this brutal, almost
mechanical law of substitution are those (mostly functional) associations of
'symbiosis' inferior organisms -- or with the most socialized insects, the
enslavement of one group by another. With man (at all events with
Post-Neolithic man) simple elimination tends to become exceptional, or at all
events secondary. However brutal the conquest, the suppression is always
accompanied by some degree of assimilation.
Saints For Brief Moments
© Ward Kelley
It is not intelligence we must increase,
but instead we must defuse the contrary
would think to pity the very ones who are
to consume. We are all saints for brief
all demons. So we weep or kill, and
since we're forced to consume, those of us who
the proper way to weep, or the proper way to kill.
Barbara Tuchman (1912-1989) wrote in her "A Distant Mirror" regarding the
weapons of war invented during the 100 Years War, "For belligerent purposes,
the 14th century, like the 20th, commanded a technology more sophisticated
than the mental and moral capacity that guided its use."
CYRIL WONG
"I wrote a few bad stories, then stumbled unto literature in my early Secondary School days. I
came out as a gay man during this time and went through the usual coming out anxieties. I had a
difficult relationship with my parents, which spawned a lot of my first few poems at that time,
which may be found in my first collection Squatting Quietly, published in Singapore. My themes
diverged from then on to include more philosophical expositions on life and on the nature of love.
More and more about love, as I entered one relationship into another, which led to my second book
during my university days, The End Of His Orbit, which was reviewed in the local papers here."
What We May Call This
© Cyril Wong
Holding each other's gazes
like lonely hands across a field of dark,
we may call this love
for the crippling inability to define this,
as our solitudes rise and fall like wings
on a single butterfly,
each destination in time a gratifying flower.
Fundamental
© Cyril Wong
It returns in the midst
Of a grateful embrace,
And then I understand,
Presently at least, its
Simplicity, so pure to
Mention the misted glass,
The leaden curtains still
As truth on either side
Of the sky would reveal
But too little, too much.
Even the blanket pressed
Upon our bodies, fact
Of its heaviness, fails
To bear on its plainness.
While I compose this, it
Flickers like night vision,
Brief instants of sudden
Clarity. I note just
How tenderly it hides,
As blood under these veils
Of flesh, as the movement
Of clouds overhead, as
The long sighs of the man
Or woman fast asleep
Beside and inside us.
Elegy
© Cyril Wong
The tulip died,
A hand shivering
Open, each petal
Each tongue of leaf
Swimming out
Path Across The Green
© Cyril Wong
Grass shake their shoulders
In a dance of wind and light
From that tree at noon over
Stillness is sudden in its return -
Closes gently back unto itself.
A Bluer Sky
© Cyril Wong
If this turns to friendship, it only means
That one of us will suffer.
There will only be this skein of words between us -
Rising out of our mutual space of breath, leaving
And one of us will cling on to its blue,
The other rides on a wing of word away from here.
Happiness
© Cyril Wong
If you stepped into my childhood
One morning to ask: Are you
happy? I would say Yes, if
It was a morning I awoke to
Wind and rain streaming
In from the unbolted window,
When these elements of weather
Had not yet taken on their
Metaphors of sorrow.
I would be preparing to go
To school, a bag of books
Heavy upon my shoulders.
My parents would be patient
In the car, ready to take me
Along on their way to work.
Once again, I would remind
Myself that this is the start
Of something new, the road
Of another morning sprinkled
With old leaves and sunlight.
Not much has changed
In this respect: the belief
That each morning signifies
A beginning - false starts
With even falser endings,
How I have always lived my life.
At least, then, I could attest
To the full significance of
That word - the hint of a laugh
Wholehearted at its onset -
As I climbed into the back
Of my parents' car, the ovals
Of their heads shut like clams -
Only now I know they fought
Even then, except in private,
Hiding the interminable sound
Of their marriage ripping.
And I would be dreaming
Of the marks on the classroom
Table I occupied, the smell
Of my best friend's body
Whenever he came so close to
Nudge me playfully in the ribs.
Happy? Sure I was, the trees
Smiling and waving all the way
To school, a child humming
Over the lullaby of the engine
And the drumbeats of rain
Upon the windshield; awake
To the present, oblivious
To its variations of slumber.
Jan Theuninck - ORC(°1954)
Charlotte's Web at Artvilla
"Stalag Zehn B"
© ORC(°1954)
le feldwebel est devenu général
le docteur du camp , professeur
et nous les juifs - c'est banal -
on est resté juif - pas d'erreur
"Stalag Zehn B"
© ORC(°1954)
the feldwebel became a general
the campdoctor , a professor
and we the jews - it's banal-
we stayed jewish - no error.
"Stalag Zehn B"
© ORC(°1954)
Der Feldwebel ist General geworden,
Der Arzt des Lagers, Professor,
und wir , die Juden - es ist banal -
wir sind jüdisch geblieben - keinen Zweifel !
© ORC(°1954)
Le vrai pouvoir de l'après-guerre
est toujours celui des "Uebermenschen"
et cette "démocratie" ne sait se faire
que sur le dos des "Untermenschen" !
PAPIRAC
© ORC(°1954)
The real post-war power
is still the one of the "Uebermenschen"
and this "democracy" can't be realized
but on the back of the "Untermenschen" !
© ORC(°1954)
Die richtige Nachkriegsmacht
gehört noch stets den "Uebermenschen" zu
und diese "Demokratie" kann sich nur realisieren
auf den Rücken der "Untermenschen" !
© ORC(°1954)
De werkelijke naoorlogse macht
is nog steeds de macht van de "Uebermenschen"
en deze "democratie" kan alleen gerealiseerd
op de rug van de "Untermenschen" !
FILS DU VENT
© ORC(°1954)
exilé dans ton propre pays
SON OF THE WIND
© ORC(°1954)
stranger in your own country
ZOON VAN DE WIND
© ORC(°1954)
banneling in je eigen land
JAN.THEUNINCK@village.uunet.be
THE QUILL
The Poets' Porch
Poets Yellow Pages
Alpha Poets
Inclusion on these sites is mostly by invitation, but published poets can ask for an email submission form by emailing The Quill using the email link at the end of his featured poems.
Due to a large amount of Virus HOAXES, The Poet's Porch now list in Poet Resource center three locations to check the facts. SO, in doubt..check Poet Resource center.
Poets Yellow pages.com
TATTOOED LADIES
© The Quill 2002
In misty cirrus clouds
of frosted, deep-gray,
legendary matrons danced.,
like ballerinas, risking their
earthly existence, night n' day.
Photo Fanny Lilly, Our Gal Sal,
Axis Nightmare, Shoo Soo Baby,
Pacific Princess and the famous
Memphis Belle exhibited their
to tempt and seduce.
Flattering until a nemesis
was within the latitude of
their cherished escorts ...
Frenesi, Nooky Booky, Old Crow,
Window Maker, and Ridge Runner,
who would systematically dispatch
the awestruck beguiled foe ...
conclude their legislated promenade
of administering dissolution upon
the enemy's own soil.
For some it was the last gamble:
a place in the history
of Air Craft fame and
what was called Nose
Art ...
Tommy Knockers!
© The Quill 2002
You can hear them but,
seeing them is another matter.
covered in stone dust and dirt.
Using dynamite,picks and shovels
they work the subterranean quarry.
ripping the earth in the search for Gold.
the support beams in the tunnel at
the end of their shift.
the cook in the kitchen hears the sound.
So, he makes ready a feast for the hungry
miners below.
the mine shaft belches dirt.
Fate found the miners on their
way to dinner, beneath the town.
dinner house in the Sierras. Just north of Sonora,
late in the evening, when the dining room
is full of tourists chowing down.
Eyes popping, faces freezing, everyone
sitting in shock and awe.
The cook acknowledges the noise underfoot.
on the way, for supper, you all.
My LOVE !
© The Quill 2001-2002
A rose holds a secret
only few ever know.
It reflects our existence
like no other blooming flower does.
unlike others, come the evening
it does not close.
repeating this cycle daily
until it can open no further.
until none are remaining.
Its life is over finished
done.
my hand drawn red rose.
It will always be in blossom
and never to drop a single petal.
it needs no water or special care.
as my... LOVE!
Auguries of Halley's Comet
© The Quill 2001-2002
In 1825 from the depths of heaven it arched across
the dark evening skies, marking the birth of a young
boy
who during his life stated "I was born on the tail of
a comet and I shall perish on the tail of a comet."
Which resulted in finger pointing from eastern
literary
so and so's who basically told him he was not worth a
grain
of salt compared to the giants of the day like ...
find another field in which to make a living.
Yet, in spite of them all, and a twist of fate...
he wrote in simple words ... a book that endures the
test of time.
him readership around the world.
Oxford acclaimed him as an icon.
Followed by Dartmouth, Yale and others.
on the world of critics who stated that
"every time they needed to criticize someone's
work they found themselves reading his latest book ...
instead of doing what they should be doing."
he become the most requested author
and writer of all times ...
Then came 1910....
And from the depths of space
Halley's comet returned ...
the world said goodbye to Samuel Longhorn Clemens ...
Mark Twain.
Poetry Life & Times is now a nominating site for The Poet's Hall of Fame.
Nominations from the JANUARY 2002 issue:
J.P. Dancing Bear and Jerry Jenkins
Congratulations!
Bienvenue chez la toute nouvelle revue bilingue canadienne portant sur la posie sur l'Internet:
Poetry in Emotion
la poesie s'mouvoir
Volume 1, no. 1, Autumn, 2001
Vous pouvez enfin lire le tout premier numéro de cette
revue trimestrielle (celui de l'automne, 2001).
http://poesieinemotion.homestead.com/
The featured artist for our first issue is the American
poet, Mykael-Eagleton Mize.
L'artiste en vedette de notre premier numéro est un
pote américain, qui s'appelle Mykael-Eagleton Mize.
Should you have any comments or suggestions,
Si cela vous pique de nous faire des commentaires ou
des suggestions,
Val Magnuson Galactic Poet Award
of this Quarterly E-Zine is now online (See link
following parallel French text):
Pour vous y acheminez, vous n'avez qu' cliquer
sur le lien suivant:
please
feel free to sign our Guest Book.
n'hésitez pas signer notre petit Livre d'or!
MILLENNIUM DAWN anthology, by Kedco Studios Artist Profile Press. An exciting collection of award-winning poetry and short stories. Enquiries to Elaine Davis at kedco-ap@juno.com
The Perils of Norris started in August 2000. To catch up on past episodes, click the links below, then your browser's Back button to return.
#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 #16 #17 #18
Mail me on: pinky@redcity.demon.co.uk
with poems, letters or poetry news,
by 14th February (latest) for March, as February is a short month.
