Dream
by Ron Olsen
There were three in the room
Two men and a girl
Standing there
Without expression
Looking back at me
Dressed mostly in black
They were dead
That I knew
And they would not talk
Even while I implored
“Talk to me”
And so one did
The older one
Apparently in charge
“Exorcism 101” he said
As he shut the door in my face
© 2015 Ron Olsen / all rights reserved
Robin Ouzman Hislop was editor of the 12 year running on line monthly poetry journal Poetry Life and Times from 2005, previously edited by Sara Russell, after its closure in 2008, he joined with Dave Jackson editor/admin as co editor at https://motherbird.com & Artvilla.com in 2013 & now edits both Poetry Life and Times with its Facebook page PoetryLifeTimes .
He’s been previously published in a variety of international magazines, which include Voices without Borders Volume 1 (USA), Cold Mountain Review, Appalachian University N Carolina, The Poetic Bond series and an Anthology of Sonnets Phoenix Rising from the Ashes. His publications include All the Babble of the Souk and Cartoon Molecules collected poems and Key of Mist the recently published Tesserae translations from Spanish poets Guadalupe Grande and Carmen Crespo
visit Aquillrelle.com/Author Robin Ouzman Hislop for more information and reviews, him performing some of his work at Performance (University of Leeds) and his latest volume of collected poems at Next-Arrivals .
Submittals may be sent to robin@artvilla.com or editor@artvilla.com Please refer to our submittal guidelines at any of the sites.
Circle
by Ron Olsen
Does any of it really matter?
Beyond the golden moment of now?
It seemed so important at the time
Irreplaceable
Unforgettable
Even immortal
A circle with no beginning or end
Protagonist on one side
Antagonist on the other
A story told ten thousand times
Somehow new with each new telling
Never to be forgotten
Leaving onlookers stunned
And silent
Pondering the profound new implications for their lives
Never to be forgotten
Except that it was
Eventually it vanished
And no one remembered
Immortality washed away
By several generations
Of the newest thing
The oh so meaningful
Newest thing
It seemed so important at the time
But as the circle continued to turn
None of the performance held fast
Only the truth of the golden moment
Which was gone as quickly as it had appeared
Until its next appearance
A story told ten thousand times
Somehow new with each new telling
As greatness and nobility continue to exist
Only so long as we remember
Only so long as we have one another
Only so long as we continue to care
Otherwise it dies with us
A phoenix that cannot rise
Meaningless
Finished
Without purpose
With no golden moment left
To give us another chance
At now
To care more for one another
Than for the story
And yet
It seemed so important
At the time
© 2015 Ron Olsen / All rights reserved
Ron Olsen is a Los Angeles based essayist and poet. More of his work can be found here.
Rutherfordium
Janet Kuypers
from the “Periodic Table of Poetry” series (#104, Rf)
7/3/14
And when I get that engagement ring…
I don’t want Zirconium, I want a diamond!
I want something stronger!
Even the band,
everyone wants Gold,
but Platinum is stronger,
even Tungsten
(which has a cool goth sound to it)…
What’s the strongest element out there – Iridium?
Hey, that’s the stuff that was in the asteroid
that killed all the dinosaurs!
‘Cuz that stuff’s so strong that it’s brittle
and can’t even be bent into a wedding band…
But I want the biggest, strongest ring on my finger
because I want EVERYONE to know
that I’m gonna be the bride!
Because I’ve really had my heart set
on this one amazing man, Ernest.
(Isn’t that the coolest name, Ernest?
I mean, I’m being earnest with you,
that’s his name, and it sounds so cool!)
You see, he’s from the Rutherford family
and I’m so taken with him.
Oh, and get this, he was born in New Zealand
and now lives in the U.K. — this man
must know the world,
and I think I’m gonna melt!
But the things is, whenever he’s around
he’s only around for fleeting moments,
he mixes with friends
and his isotopes are around for as long as an hour,
but sometimes only for ten minutes,
and sometimes just for a minute or two…
So I ever get the chance to be with him
long enough to tell him how I feel.
My friends tell me not to bother,
because his radioactive personality
(that I’m so drawn to)
means that if I get too close
he might be trouble for me.
Well, I may not be the smartest girl
if he is such a strong and intelligent man,
but I’ve been doing all the research I can
about him. When it comes to researh,
I want to work with him,
and I want to learn.
I only hope he’ll let me.
i.)
Is the plot,
at my window with a broken wing.
ii.)
Time unreal,
to the last syllable of recorded time.
iii.)
That is the question,
to quantum or not to quantum, mind.
iv.)
Race against extinction,
a computer brain outside time without extension.
v.)
Before the apocalypse,
a history of births and deaths and trinkets of fame.
vi.)
To mimic or simulate,
A multiverse machine, the name of the game, bring it on.
vii.)
Time real, Newton and Einstein
out of sync, motion observed from a position of rest.
viii.)
Onto an indeterminate future,
Consciousness, particle physics, the genome and time real.
ix.)
End game is the name of the game,
space quartered in the loop of quantum gravity.
x.)
Time real,
at my window with a broken wing.
Robin Ouzman Hislop Editor of the 12 year running on line monthly poetry journal Poetry Life & Times. (See also its Wikipedia entry at Poetry Life and Times). He has made many appearances over the last years in the quarterly journals Canadian Zen Haiku, including In the Spotlight Winter 2010 & Sonnetto Poesia. Previously published in international magazines, his recent publications include Voices without Borders Volume 1 (USA), Cold Mountain Review, Appalachian University N Carolina, Post Hoc installed at Bank Street Arts Centre, Sheffield (UK), Uroborus Journal, 2011-2012 (Sheffield, UK), The Poetic Bond II & 111, available at The Poetic Bond and Phoenix Rising from the Ashes a recently published Anthology of Sonnets: Phoenix Rising from the Ashes. He has recently completed a volume of poetry, The World at Large, for future publication. He is currently resident in Spain engaged in poetry translation projects.
robin@artvilla.com
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