Robin Ouzman Hislop

Meet the Poets of Poetic Bond V1.

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THE POETIC BOND VI ISBN-13: 978-1539334682
The Only ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL POETRY ANTHOLOGY
actively sought specifically from New Media, Social and Professional Networking
 
Available at The Poetic Bond
&
Amazon.com The Poetic Bond VI
 
William DiBenedetto – time comes uninvited / 7-May-15
William DiBenedetto is a freelance writer and editor living in and loving Seattle since 1994. Born many years ago in New York City, he grew up in Northern Virginia and worked as a journalist in Washington D.C. He graduated from the University of Virginia with a degree in English.
 
Will Walsh – Onion Creek, Utah / As I live and breathe / Evolution of Human Movement I describe nature in a mystical context, illuminating the life and moods of wild places. I also write to encourage people toward their potential, and to thrive without greed, mayhem, hate, or anger. Our actions promoting tolerance, mutual respect, and cooperation will contribute to a more just and peaceful world. http://quietjourneys.blogspot.com/
 
Wendy Joseph – This is America / In my house there are books / when the water rises
Wendy Joseph sailed on cargo ships worldwide for ten years. She holds two Master’s in English, and this is her second appearance in the Poetic Bond. She is also a playwright, actor, and novelist. She lives in the wilds of Washington State with very remarkable people and two cats. www.wendyjosephwrites.com www.facebook.com/TheWitchsHand
 
Swaizi Vaughan – E-Turn Next Left Dead In / Prepubescent Khonsu
Swaizi Vaughan was born in Gainesville, Texas and has always remained true to her emotions in their rawest form.
She is inspired by all things but often illustrates love. Her poignant thoughts and feeling adorn the pages of her
first book to be released in 2017 entitled, Love’s Lobotomy.
 
Rowland Hughes – Lemon Soap / A Valley Funeral
Rowland is a Welsh writer and poet. To care for his brother, he was taken out of school at 14 years old.
Ill health forced him to retire from work as a Local Authority Assistant Surveyor in 1997.
He writes in bustling cafés or in the tranquil confines his shed. www.rowlandhughes.com
 
Robin Ouzman Hislop – Tenochtitlan / In Bed
On line Editor at Poetry Life and Times, Artvilla.com & Motherbird.com. His latest publications are a collection of poems All the Babble of the Souk & Key of Mist a translation from Spanish of the poetess Guadalupe Grande both are published by Aquillrelle.com for further information with reviews and comments see Author Robin .
 
Pushpita Awashti – In my heart of hearts / Words in the Dark
Poetess, fiction writer, translator and literature ambassador, Professor Pushpita Awasthi has dedicated her life for the expansion and proliferation of humanity oriented literature. She taught 20 years university at India. Five years she worked at Indian Embassy now settling in the Netherlands as director of Hindi Universe Foundation. www.pushpitaawasthi.com, https://nrcwebwinkel.nl/boeken/het-beeld-in-de-rots-the-statue-in-the-rock
 
Neetu Malik – dancers / the pianist / wanderer
Neetu weaves life experiences and observations into her poetry and short stories. Fascinated by human nature and its complexity, she strives to convey its intricacies, struggles, and emotions through vivid and visual poetry, often drawing pictures with words to create images that seize and crystallize the transient moments of life. facebook.com/neetuwrites
 
Nana Tokatli – Wheat Fields
Nana Tokatli , painter and poet, is Greek. Graduate of the Fine Arts School of Athens. Has 17 solo shows. Since 2000 writes poetry in greek and in english, short stories in greek. Publications in english: 2003 “to the counter-point” received 5 stars at AbeBooks, UK. 2015 “the Rondo symphony”.
 
Michael Bunny – Cards
My name is Michael, I’m an 18 year old poet / writer / lyricist from Israel. I started writing when I was around the age of 7, and have always been passionate about expressing myself through words.
 
Miklos Mezosi – An Iamblified Inquiry
A published author and scholar, Miklos Mezosi writes on literature and opera. Miklos, who was a Mellon fellow at Edinburgh University,authorized a book on Russian opera. He has published two poetry collections. He writes in Hungarian, English, Latin and Greek.His English poetry is published in anthologies in the UK. http://www.linkedin.com/in/miklosmezosi http://ibs-b.academia.edu/MiklosMezosi
 
Marli Merker Moreira – Drifters
Forever, I am a teacher of literature. Writing emerges from loving words and music. As a Brazilian with German roots and a long university experience in the US, I value the multicultural mosaic of people, beliefs, and cultures. I dream of peace and freedom for us all.
 
Madalena Fine – Lost Letter From Love
Madalena Fine is an anglo-portuguese creative writing student from Sussex. Her writing explores relationships and identity. She was spurred to writing again in 2015, after a public reading of Warsan Shire’s “What they did yesterday afternoon”. Madalena’s bedside reading includes Warsan, Grace Nichols, John Agard, Caroline Bird, Wendy Cope and others…
 
Linda Mills – Abide / Winter Sleep
Nearly blind from birth, language fills my life. I flex my words to communicate this world as I experience it.
For years I’ve had poetry published in magazines around the world and more recently online. Now retired, I am able to write and to travel with my very supportive husband.
 
Lawrence W. Lee – Cynic / Still Life
I have made a good living as a professional artist for almost fifty years. I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain.
I have known love and loss in near equal measure. I am interested in almost everything, but have special fondness for language and subatomic physics. I continue to paint. http://lawrenceleeart.com
 
Kwai Chee Low – Cold Winter, Warm Heart
Kwai Chee Low from Malaysia has a love for the English Language from a young age. He started writing poems since 2010 and submitted them to Poemhunter.com and Allpoetry.com. He finds it very gratifying and fulfilling expressing his thoughts and feelings into poems and haiku. He is also a member on LinkedIn.
 
Judith Neale – One Cleft Moon
Jude Neale is a poet, spoken word performer, opera singer and mentor. Her last book, A Quiet Coming of Light, was a finalist for the Pat Lowther Award, best poetry collection by a Canadian female.
 
Joseph J. Simmons – 1914
Joseph Simmons entered college a physics major, graduated an English major, began sharing evening s with other poets. He spent years in federal contracts, now writes, publishes, tries to sharpen and refine his voice and vision.
 
Jill Angel Langlois – If the Wind Blows / I remember silence
Jill Angel Langlois grew up in Park Forest, IL. Her poems and short stories appear in literary magazines, nationally. Collections: Scattered Petals explores the healing power of nature. Whiskey Nights inspired by whiskey and music. “Tell Me The Story,” a memoir, portrays growing up adopted, reuniting with her birth mother.
 
Ian Colville – A Cliché for our Time / Ploughing
Ian Colville was born in Scotland, but is presently exiled in England where he is open-mic regular at Ouse Muse in Bedford. Ian has over 50 poems published in curated magazines and anthologies, including The Poetic Bond. When he’s not writing, he’s reading, and sometimes he goes cycling… for hours. http://iainthepoet.blogspot.co.uk/
 
Hongvan Nguyen – Becoming
Hongvan Nguyen is an English and philosophy graduate from George Mason University. She is the author of two collections of poetry, Under the Stone, and The Chickadees. Her third book, Crossing Places, is in the publication process and will be out on the market by the end of 2016.
 
Greg Mooney – Insecurities
I am an active duty United States Marine, I am 3 classes away from my bachelors in Marketing, currently writing a book that will be dedicated to a deceased friend.
 
GK Grieve – The Final Moment Before The Death of Swans / Addict
Travelled here and there, picked up a few observations, my book “The Final Moment Before The Death of Swans” is to be published in November. Website under construction. Still married. All in all, tickety-boo.
 
George C Robertson – Engraved / A Burning Desire
Worked for many years in telecommunications in the UK and abroad. His Kindle novel Terror at the Towers relives his Human Shield time in 1990s Kuwait. George has been praised for his humorous verses and short stories, published in English and Scots. Song lyrics commended; looking for a music partner/promoter. geo.dor@tiscali.co.uk
 
George Carter – When I got there
George showed an interest in poetry and music from an early age, and is currently working towards university
intent on pursuing a career in music and sound.
 
Diane Collette – Fields of Asphodel
Hails from Bucharest, grew up in Jupiter & traveled the globe in US uniform and is now Corporate Analyst in NYC area.
My love of writing came to fruition over many years while in military life, seemed like pleasant way to deal with tough times, emotions and life in all its wonder.
 
Diane Burrows – Speechless / Take a Look at the Hills
At 9 years old, my teacher predicted: you’ll be a poet. Since then, encouraged by adverts for poetry, I have written in many published anthologies and I was awarded prizes at a poetry- readings. Thanks to the encouragement of Poetic Bond, here I am back again, enjoying sharing my contributions.
 
Cigeng Zhang – Hey, Starling / Special Reunion / Wa Lan (瓦蓝）/ One-line Tide
Cigeng Zhang is a freelance English translator from China. She started writing English poems in 2012. Her poems ‘Drunk Smile’, ‘What Was Left’, ‘The Moon, The Poet’, ‘At 8 O’clock’ and ‘Still for You’ were included in the Poetic Bond III, IV and V respectively since 2013.
 
Christine Anderes – The Ossurary of James / The Unquiet Heart
Christine Anderes …a conservationist and passionate animal advocate is currently working on three collections of poetry and a series of critical essays attesting to the beauty and resilience of nature using lyricism and humor to bring more mindfulness to the critical state of the planet and its inhabitants.
 
Carey Link – Blur Distinctions
Carey Link is from Huntsville, Alabama. She has been writing poetry for over twenty years. Link’s two collections of poetry are What it Means to Climb a Tree (Finishing Line Press) and Awakening to Holes in The Arc of Sun (Mule on a Ferris Wheel).
 
Bonnie Roberts –Cautionary Steps of Love
Publisher at Mule on a Ferris Wheel; poet; activist; ocean-swimmer; silent retreatant; dog “herder”; graduate poetry-writing professor; Fulbright Scholar; NEH Fellow; winner, an Alabama Book of the Year Award.
 
Bonnie J. Flach – At the Crossroads
Bonnie J. Flach – Poet, writer & photographer, for the non-profit “Ocean Artists Society” & member of the Shelter Island Art Assoc. in San Diego. Bonnie writes primarily, but not limited to, poems & stories on nature, wildlife and indigenous people themes. She also submits her poem for The Australian Times Poetry electronic magazine
 
Betty Bleen – Grandma’s Jesus / The Cutting Edge
Betty Bleen’s poetry appears bi-weekly in the Ohio Chinese American News, Columbus, Ohio. She has read at various venues in and around Columbus. Her book of poetry, Bad Red Shoes, is available on Amazon and she has contributed to three anthologies. Betty lives with husband Doug and Mittens the cat. www.toocutetoboop.com https://www.facebook.com/poet.BettyBleen/
 
Belinda Dupret – Isobel
Belinda Dupret won her first poetry competition aged 9 – never won another! She’s been a music promoter; freelance writer; Television Journalist and PR Chief, working in 6 different countries including New Zealand, Australia, and the USA. Her life experience means she brings a world of humanity and imagination to her writing.
 
Beki Behar – Procession
Rebecca Behar is a French writer, poet and slam performer. She has published fiction and children stories, CDs of poetry and music, philosophy and literary criticism. Recent book published : “Poèmes urbains” (Edilivre)
 
Amanda Eakin – The Broken Repairman
Amanda Eakin is an Ashland University graduate who enjoys reading, writing, and surreptitiously looking for grammar errors in social media. She taught English for a few years and is currently enjoying her time in a Communication Center for a Fortune 500 company
 
Trevor Maynard – Take Flight / crushed
Published three books of poetry, the last GREY SUN, DARK MOON, in 2015; appeared in several magazines, as well as performing open mic sessions. Also edited several books of poetry, written and directed plays in London and Edinburgh. Married to Jo, has four children, eight grandchildren, and two cats. www.trevormaynard.com
 
 

          At 8 o’clock
           
          At 8 O’clock in the morning
          She saw the sun as a hawthorn
          She saw the cloud as an oleander
          She saw the chimney as a river
          Who did appear over there?
          Surprised, on crutches was an old man
          Sitting in a boat along a canal
          Singing aloud an odd song —
          In front of me there is a devil
          Going to catch the Monkey King
          Going to seize the trip taker
          The devil is weird and tempting
          She is a White Bone Demon
          At 8 O’clock, this morning …
           
          Cigeng Zhang

 
 
37 poets from 12 Countries Canada, China, England, France, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Malaysia, Netherlands, Scotland, Spain, USA, and Wales THE POETIC BOND VI
 
 
 
 
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Key of Mist. Guadalupe Grande.Translated.Amparo Arróspide.Robin Ouzman Hislop
 
goodreads.com/author/show/Robin Ouzman Hislop
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http://www.amazon.com. All the Babble of the Souk. Robin Ouzman Hislop
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https://www.amazon.com/author/robinouzmanhislop
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Nominated for the Push Cart Prize. Key of Mist. A Poem by Guadalupe Grande. Translated from Spanish.

by
Poetry Life and Times 
  Key of Mist is an excerpt from the collected poems Key of Mist
 
key-of-mist-thumb

                                                                  KEY of MIST

I

Behind the fence there´s a ditch
and behind the ditch
there´s a chest devastated by the journey.
Who arrives here and how
and after perhaps?
Who arrives and says and names
and leaves their hands stuck to this fence
as stamps are stuck to envelopes,
to return where 
to return to then
to return to later, never again?
       The compass rose rolls amongst the rubble,
       rolls on the banks of gravel,
       on the edge of ash,
       and leaves its petals of distance,
       its shipwreck of durum-wheat and pollen,
       beneath the wheels of the car which has just passed.
Time for the word time
         amidst the rubble of the tower of babel.

II

But now there´s the ditches:
       water ditches
       light ditches
       gas ditches
       ditches for words.
I am spelling
while telling myself
that it can´t be today,
that there is too much rush,
that life´s a disaster
or nonsense
or a useless disquiet,
and due to that, today there´s no time:
                                                             time for nothing, time for what.

III

I open the door, switch on the light,
turn on the tap:
I´d like to know whom to call.
The sound of traffic enters through the window;
I hear the rumours of travellers
I listen to the sound of the inhabitants
         and builders
                           of this language without words.

IV

I speak in gurgles
as if a key of mist
were laid across my throat,
a key fogged up by noise,
a key flooded by light,
      a gas key
      a water key
      a doorless key,
      a definitely shadowy key
buried inside my throat,
in the ditch of my bewildered throat.

V

Behind each fence there is a ditch,
behind each ditch there is a journey.

         The compass rose crosses
         the city tunnels:
         from its smoky petals it brings
         forth mossy farewells,
         the empire of forget-me-nots,
         paper for unwritten letters,
         humiliated stamps
         and a devastated chest in the building 
         of music
                       or language
                                           or city noise.

Under the asphalt of these roads
the tower of babel grows
sad and useful.

VI

I turn on the tap in the kitchen
and while water runs through the sink
I wonder which words 
this thread of order and cleanliness is spelling,
which key I should switch to, to understand
the language of fences, the language
of ditches,
the underground sound
of migrating birds
opening without any key this city´s gates,
           without a key,
           at last, 
                                      at last.

LA LLAVE DE NIEBLA

I

Detrás de la valla hay una zanja
y detrás de esa zanja
hay un pecho desolado en el viaje.
¿Quién llega hasta aquí y cómo
y luego tal vez?
¿Quién llega y dice y nombra
y deja sus manos pegadas a esta valla,
como se pegan los sellos a las cartas,
para volver a dónde
para volver a entonces
para volver a luego nunca más?

Rueda la rosa de los vientos por los escombros,
rueda a la orilla de la grava,
al borde de la ceniza,
y deja sus pétalos de distancia,
su polen náufrago y candeal,
bajo las ruedas del coche que acaba de pasar.

Tiempo para la palabra tiempo
        entre los escombros de la torre de babel.

II

Pero ahora están las zanjas:
        zanjas de agua,
        zanjas de luz,
        zanjas de gas,
        zanjas para las palabras
que pronuncio
mientras me digo
que hoy no puede ser,
que hace mucha prisa,
que la vida es un desastre
o un disparate
o un desasosiego inútil,
debido a lo cual hoy no hay tiempo:
         tiempo para nada, tiempo para qué.

III

Abro la puerta, enciendo la luz,
abro el grifo:
quisiera saber a quién llamar.
Entra el sonido del tráfico por la ventana;
oigo el rumor de los viajeros,
escucho el sonido de los habitantes
           y de los constructores
                    de este idioma sin palabras.

IV

Hablo a borbotones,
como si tuviera una llave de niebla
atravesada en la garganta,
una llave empañada por el ruido,
una llave anegada por la luz,
         una llave de gas,
         una llave de agua,
         una llave sin puerta,
         una llave definitivamente umbría,
enterrada en mi garganta,
en la zanja de mi desconcertada garganta.

V

Detrás de cada valla hay una zanja,
detrás de cada zanja hay un viaje.
         La rosa de los vientos cruza
         los túneles de la ciudad:
         trae entre sus pétalos de humo
         el musgo de las despedidas,
         el imperio de los nomeolvides,
         papel para cartas no escritas,
         humillados sellos
         y un pecho desolado en la construcción
         de la música

                           o el lenguaje
                                             o el ruido de la ciudad.
Bajo el asfalto de estas calles
crece la torre de babel
triste y útil.

VI

Abro el grifo en la cocina
y mientras corre el agua por el fregadero
me pregunto qué palabras pronuncia
este hilo de orden y limpieza,
qué llave debo abrir para entender
el lenguaje de las vallas, el idioma
de las zanjas,
el sonido subterráneo
de las aves migratorias
que abren sin llave alguna las puertas de esta ciudad,
         sin llave,
         por fin,
                                por fin.

 
 

guadalupe-grande-2001
 
 
GUADALUPE GRANDE
Madrid, 1965.
 
 
She has written the following books of poetry: El libro de Lilit (1995), La llave de niebla (2003), Mapas de cera (2006) and Hotel para erizos (2010).
 
 
She has been translated into French in the book Métier de crhysalide (translation by Drothèe Suarez and Juliette Gheerbrant (2010) and into Italian, in the volume Mestiere senza crisalide (translation by Raffaella Marzano (2015). She made the selection and translation of La aldea de sal (2009), an anthology of Brazilian poet Lêdo Ivo, together with poet Juan Carlos Mestre.
 
 
Her creative work extends to the territory of photography and visual poetry.http://guadalupegrande.blogspot.com.es/
 
 
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
 
 
Amparo Arróspide (Argentina) has published five poetry collections: Presencia en el Misterio, Mosaicos bajo la hiedra, Alucinación en dos actos y algunos poemas, Pañuelos de usar y tirar and En el oído del viento, as well as poems, short stories and articles on literature and films in anthologies and international magazines. She has translated authors such as Francisca Aguirre, Javier Díaz Gil, Luis Fores and José Antonio Pamies into English, together with Robin Ouzman Hislop, who she worked with for a period as co-editor of Poetry Life and Times, a Webzine. Her translations into Spanish of Margaret Atwood (Morning in the Burned House), James Stephens (Irish Fairy Tales) and Mia Couto (Vinte e Zinco) are in the course of being published, as well as her two poetry collections Hormigas en diáspora and Jacuzzi. She takes part in festivals, recently Transforming with Poetry (Leeds) and Centro de Poesía José Hierro (Getafe).
 
 
Robin Portrait July Sotillo 2016 by Amparo
 
 
Robin Ouzman Hislop is on line Editor at Motherbird.com, Artvilla.com & Poetry Life & Times, his recent publications include Voices without Borders Volume 1 (USA), Cold Mountain Review (Appalachian University, N.Carolina), The Poetic Bond Volumes, Phoenix Rising from the Ashes (an international anthology of sonnets) and The Honest Ulsterman. His last publications are a volume of collected poems All the Babble of the Souk & Key of Mist, a translation from Spanish of the poems by the Spanish poetess Guadalupe Grande, both are published by Aquillrelle.com and available at all main online tributaries. For further information about these publications with reviews and comments see Author Robin..
 
 
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
 
 

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Announcement. Collected Poems. Key of Mist. Translated from Spanish

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guadalupe-grande-2001

GUADALUPE GRANDE
Madrid, 1965.

She has written the following books of poetry: El libro de Lilit (1995), La llave de niebla (2003), Mapas de cera (2006) and Hotel para erizos (2010).

She has been translated into French in the book Métier de crhysalide (translation by Drothèe Suarez and Juliette Gheerbrant (2010) and into Italian, in the volume Mestiere senza crisalide (translation by Raffaella Marzano (2015). She made the selection and translation of La aldea de sal (2009), an anthology of Brazilian poet Lêdo Ivo, together with poet Juan Carlos Mestre.

Her creative work extends to the territory of photography and visual poetry.http://guadalupegrande.blogspot.com.es/

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Amparo Arróspide (Argentina) has published five poetry collections: Presencia en el Misterio, Mosaicos bajo la hiedra, Alucinación en dos actos y algunos poemas, Pañuelos de usar y tirar and En el oído del viento, as well as poems, short stories and articles on literature and films in anthologies and international magazines. She has translated authors such as Francisca Aguirre, Javier Díaz Gil, Luis Fores and José Antonio Pamies into English, together with Robin Ouzman Hislop, who she worked with for a period as co-editor of Poetry Life and Times, a Webzine. Her translations into Spanish of Margaret Atwood (Morning in the Burned House), James Stephens (Irish Fairy Tales) and Mia Couto (Vinte e Zinco) are in the course of being published, as well as her two poetry collections Hormigas en diáspora and Jacuzzi. She takes part in festivals, recently Transforming with Poetry (Leeds) and Centro de Poesía José Hierro (Getafe).

robin-portrait-july-sotillo-2016-by-amparo

Robin Ouzman Hislop is on line Editor at Motherbird.com, Artvilla.com & Poetry Life & Times, his recent publications include Voices without Borders Volume 1 (USA), Cold Mountain Review (Appalachian University, N.Carolina), The Poetic Bond Volumes, Phoenix Rising from the Ashes (an international anthology of sonnets) and The Honest Ulsterman. His last publications are a volume of collected poems All the Babble of the Souk & Key of Mist, a translation from Spanish of the poems by the Spanish poetess Guadalupe Grande, both are published by Aquillrelle.com and available at all main online tributaries. For further information about these publications with reviews and comments see Author Robin..

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

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In Bed. A Poem by Robin Ouzman Hislop.

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The homestead El Caserio i Bizkerre lodged upon the wall

      has a large gable’s end symmetry, slightly

skew whiff in the canvass that encompasses it. I wonder if

      she’s painted herself from within to without

 
 

Where she stands now, a cut out dark silhouette, on a patch

      before the facade of splotches, daubs of windows

doors, heraldry shields, terraces, hatches. Two doors, right side

      sharp, left a blur but can i enter, what will i see

 
 

      She knows she’s concealed from me?

what will i find, dusty jars, a winding stairway, creaking

      floorboards, a chest of drawers, which i will open

to secret treasures, but no, i am without with her dark silhouette.
 
 

      What is that luminous blob suspended above

her head by almost invisible silvery strands of arms embedding it?

      All in the foreground, the sharp, the blur, paths

to each door, blotches of rockery, smudged plants, dollops
 
 
Of green lawn. Overhead, a red angle roof, in the sharp, crows

      swarm in a blue sky, where it blurs, branches

stretch to entangle, notch the gable corner in weird distortion.

      Beside this painting is another, a naked Madonna

 
 

A faceless oval she kneels, arms clasped behind her sleek black

      parted hair, her armpits bared to reveal the taut

of her breasts, her curves in orange & gold dust.

      Is it she who waits behind these doors?

 
 

      When night falls the sea is a distant death

is The Bed that is a Tree hewn from the stump

      of an olive tree, drilled as a bed

post, as a mould for the rest, around which the chamber
 
 

      Was built, waiting for us to enter?

She is more beautiful than her painter & we know it

      but perhaps if we enter together

the splashes of paint will be softer than our creaking bones.

 
 
* In Bed. Italics. The Bed that is a Tree. Kim Lansky. Italics. The Odyssy. Book xxxiiv.

 
robin2705

 
Robin Ouzman Hislop, born UK, a reader in philosophy & religions, has travelled extensively throughout his lifetime but now lives in semi- retirement as a TEFL teacher and translator in Spain & the UK.
 
Robin was editor of the 12 year running on-line monthly poetry journal Poetry Life and Times. In 2013 he joined with Dave Jackson as co-editor at Artvilla.com, where he presently edits Poetry Life & Times, Artvilla.com, Motherbird.com.
 
He’s been previously published in a variety of international magazines, later publications including Voices without Borders Volume 1 (USA), Cold Mountain Review (Appalachian University, N. Carolina), The Poetic Bond Volumes (thepoeticbond.com) and Phoenix Rising from the Ashes (a recently published international Anthology of Sonnets). His last publication is a volume of collected poems All the Babble of the Souk available at all main online tributaries
 

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Miriam C Jacobs Reviews All the Babble of the Souk.

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Poet Robin Ouzman Hislop’s first full-length collection, All the Babble of the Souk, is appropriately titled. With a remarkably consistent ear for the market’s noise, for “[t]he broken lights of the bazaar/spangled] with glistening promise/in the eyes of the dusky beggar …” (Laminations in Lacquer ) Hislop’s poems, many of them cinematic-style montages of sounds and images, show us the metaphoric souk of the world, on the beach or in the street, its glitter, its sadness, its ragtag glory:
 
“pets, flower pots framed captive in a moment
outside the house of the painter, a robot
in chains with an alms bowl” (“Departures”)
 
These impressions are not confined to the scenic. Individuals, too, flash like rich arcades:
 
“there is not time enough to love
before the tram whisks her away
a creature of the costume of the moment
in a parade of parts.” (“In the fish-eye window”)
 
So marked is Hislop’s interest in the external world, readers may long for a glimpse of the speaker. It comes rarely. There are one or two musings on the phenomenon and surprise of feeling oneself age, the odd disjointing of it, but otherwise these poems proclaim their perhaps unique impersonality. In “Laminations in Lacquer” we sight what is, perhaps, the poet, but in third person, one who rises, observes, and then folds in at last with the “throng”:
 
“Below the rift of its eye
the sealed beak that will open
gleams on the lee …
in a room that roams without corners
he must rise with a chalice of blood for lips of shades
where the vertigo edge of the flower distills the dish
together with the quantities of immeasurable throng
on watery groves billowing with ivy bowers
sprung over hidden lairs of concealed hoards.
Night begins and the dogs draw nigh
scavenging for scraps
yapping at the walker’s naked ankles
in the dust of unknown alleys.”
 
Among other reoccurring themes – shadows, mirrors, the moon – is Hislop’s interest in physics. In a variety of contexts he reflects on time and infinity, the imagination-daunting galaxies, quantum theory and space:
 
“Man cannot live on myth alone
he shall earn his soil somehow, between
the Big Bang, the Big Slam ….”
 
One admirable quality in this work is that souk places us firmly in the precariousness of the current moment in history. These poems are exactly right for the age, and who we are now, those of us born 1945-1960, with our particular view of past and present, our grasp of the sciences and technologies that have overtaken the known world in our lifetimes.
 
“The world is a patchwork quilt,” Hislop concludes in “Lucky hat day,”
‘stitched up to the hilt its seams/which we quarter in our dreams
on which our edifice is built …”
 
 
Jacobs recent head
 
 
MIRIAM C. JACOBS is a alumnus of the University of Chicago and teaches college writing, literature and humanities. Jacobs is the editor of Eyedrum Periodically, the art/literature journal of Eyedrum Art & Music Gallery, Atlanta. Her poetry has appeared in Jewish Literary Journal, The East Coast Literary Review, Record Magazine, The Camel Saloon, Bluestem: the Art and Literary Journal of Eastern Illinois University, The King’s English, and Oklahoma Today, among other publications. Her chapbook of poetry, The Naked Prince, was published by Fort!/Da? Books in September 2013.
 
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Solaris. A Poem by Robin Ouzman Hislop

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I'm out of the Station
out of the shuttle
perched on this moving 
crumbling Mimoid 

in its shimmering ocean
                        disintegrating
like an ancient city in ruins
                        like a Pompeii in lava.

Suddenly there's Snow's voice 
in my brain, she's gone Kelvin 
she's gone, she was just a projection.

The ocean laps at my booted feet
as if to anoint them
as porous stalagmites slide underward.

It's in my blood, but not my blood
our crystals are alien, i hear 
Snow's voice again, like an echo
                            she was just a projection

& you, Snow, what are you, i yell
as the stalactites fall to dust – 'Snow!' 

 
* Solaris Stanislaw Lem
 
robin2705

 
Robin Ouzman Hislop, born UK, a reader in philosophy & religions, has travelled extensively throughout his lifetime but now lives in semi- retirement as a TEFL teacher and translator in Spain & the UK.
 
Robin was editor of the 12 year running on-line monthly poetry journal Poetry Life and Times. In 2013 he joined with Dave Jackson as co-editor at Artvilla.com, where he presently edits Poetry Life & Times, Artvilla.com, Motherbird.com.
 
He’s been previously published in a variety of international magazines, later publications including Voices without Borders Volume 1 (USA), Cold Mountain Review (Appalachian University, N. Carolina), The Poetic Bond Volumes (thepoeticbond.com) and Phoenix Rising from the Ashes (a recently published international Anthology of Sonnets). His most last publication is a volume of collected poems All the Babble of the Souk available at all main online tributaries
 

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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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Tenochtitlan. A Poem by Robin Ouzman Hislop.

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Who is to say?
 
O Tenochtitlan, lake city
of floral rooftops, white washed walls
trim green gardens, aqueducts
& clean swept alleyways
 
that you should fall
 
to ruin
to colossal wreck.
 
Your God’s cruel laughter
ruler of havoc, chaos, destruction
that final mockery
you knew too well
to shelter from
city of magic, bathed in blood.
 
*
 
Who is to say?
 
An Aeon
 
a fated sun in its fifth heaven
the prophecy must be fulfilled
 
when they came with their plague, their lust
to tread your sacred warrior
blood matted hair, immersed in feculence
en plein air of unassuaged sacrifice, into dust
not a death of feathers & flowers.
 
*
 
Who is to say?
 
As you tossed your hapless
victim’s corpse, gouged heart devoured
on the sacrificial stone slab, down
the great pyramid steps to the suffering poor beneath.
 
Your captive, who was your self
whose steps you’d rehearsed, unto their final agony.
 
Whose flesh, prohibitive for you, you must share
in scattered pieces on the base maize porridge
in your neighbours’ clean kept homes

      but not to the wretched poor

the phantom watchers, who must only crave for more.
 
*
 
Who is to say?
 
that you thought of tomorrow
that it belonged to the deed
what it was to be human.
 
Not so, your new world order conquerors
who raised to the ground & levelled all before them
until nothing remained.
 
Your conquerors, who thought only of tomorrow.
 
***
 
Tenochtitlan, great lake city that for two centuries was the capital of the Atzec empire, built by the warring Mexica tribes of the Atzec peoples & destroyed by the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes in 1519.
 
Italics. Ozymandias. Percy B Shelly.
 
Italics. Inga Clendinnen. Atzecs
 
***
robin2705
 
Robin Ouzman Hislop, born UK, graduate in philosophy & religions, has travelled extensively throughout his lifetime but now lives in semi- retirement as a TEFL teacher and translator in Spain.
 
Robin was editor of the 12 year running on-line monthly poetry journal Poetry Life and Times. In 2013 he joined with Dave Jackson as co-editor at Artvilla.com, where he presently edits Poetry Life & Times.
 
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 Volumes (thepoeticbond.com) and Phoenix Rising from the Ashes an international Anthology of Sonnets. His recent publication of collected poems All the Babble of the Souk published Aquillrelle.com is also available at Lulu.com & Amazon.com.
 
 
 
www.facebook.com/PoetryLifeTimes
www.facebook.com/Artvilla.com
robin@artvilla.com
editor@artvilla.com
 
 
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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Richard Vallance Reviews All the Babble of the Souk. Collected Poems. Robin Ouzman Hislop.

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Review of All the Babble of the Souk by Richard Vallance
 
If “All the Babble of the Souk” is anything but memorable — as it surely is — it is so because of its sweeping portrayal of the tumultuous market that is humankind. The “babble” of this bazaar is that of all the markets in the world — irrespective of nation, language, culture or race or for that matter, at the symbolic level, of any manifestation of our nature, be it “good” or “evil”, which are not opposing psychological or spiritual states as all too many naïvely imagine, but rather their subtle blending in our psyche. There is no suggestion of the presence or absence of God or a “god”. It is irrelevant. There is just humanity.
 
The poems, mostly quasi free form, some of them highly reminiscent of haiku, range from very short to a few pages long. Except for one poem and one only, Scale Free, in which we come face to face with some of the most beautiful imagery in the entire collection, and I quote:
 
A cuckoo taunts
high in the mountain
where are you?
 
there is not a single question to be found in the rest of the book. All the rest of the poems consist only of statements, some of them brief, others rather too long for my taste and some even downright convoluted. When this approach to poetry composition is carried to its extreme, it can and sometimes does result in the overly prosaic. That is the only real quarrel I have with this collection. Fortunately, there are only only a handful of poems which are painfully prone to the prosaic. Among these are Mannequins, the whole series Maps 1,2,3,4, The Prisoners, Non Linear and in particular Rust (which reads more like a scientific tract than a poem), none of which have any real appeal to me.
 
The rest of the poems run from agreeable at the very least to the truly amazing. Among those poems agreeable to the mind and/or the ear I count: Passage, At the Party, Here Comes the Moon, Multiverse, The Pine at the Summit and Wind upon a River. Others like these will more or less please the reader. But as everyone knows, we all have our own preferences for the kinds of poetry we like. The poems which appeal more to one person appeal less to another. The aforementioned choices are merely my own.
 
Next come poems which display remarkable talent, such as: After Dylan on the Ninth Wave (which I for one particularly like), Africa North (haiku-like), A Witch for Halloween (in which we find some of the most striking chthonic imagery in the book), Core (commendable for its brevity, economy of verse & imagery), Entanglements (haiku-like), Sequence 1 & 2 (haiku-like) and Story of a Rose.
 
I have a marked preference for the poet’s haiku-like poems. Haiku have always strongly appealed to me. In fact, I myself, along with Robin Ouzman Hislop and so many other truly talented haijin, have composed a considerable number of poems of this nature, many of which were published in the print quarterly, Canadian Zen Haiku (2004-2010), which is now out of print. Brevity is the soul of wit, and indeed of the memorable. It is Robin Ouzman Hislop’ s more compact poems which please me the most. There are exceptions, poems which are not haiku-like or are somewhat lengthier. There are some truly memorable lines in these poems. For instance, we have:
 
from Africa North:
A winnowing canvass tosses corn
and
... as fireflies in the blazing day.
and finally
In the gloaming a solitary reaper reaps its shadow.
(Reminiscences of Wordsworth’ s, The Solitary Reaper, one of the most astonishingly beautiful poems in English.)
 
from After Dylan on the Ninth Wave, there are a considerable number of memorable lines, which you can explore for yourself. The poem is not quite up to Dylan Thomas… a very tough act to follow!
 
and from Core:
reaching my eye’s peninsula
…
sudden scene, solitary strand
 
All of the poems in this class pleased me a great deal.
 
Now we come to the downright brilliant poems, of which there are naturally only a few. I might as well cite them all. They are Scale Free ( a series of haiku-like lines & almost pure haiku), A Split Second Later’s Late, Laminations in Lacquer, Lucky Hat Day and Red Butterflies, all of which had a powerful psychological and spiritual impact on me. Here are just a few of the lines from these truly remarkable poems which really struck me, and I mean really —
 
from A Split Second Later’s Late:
… a serpent’s spit according to legend.
 
from Laminations in Lacquer, the gripping lines:
Fireworks like a diaphanous lithograph
print an emblazoned sky
on the craggy mountains of the night
where comets play at kites
& glistening the eerie beak hisses.
 
and from Red Butterflies, where we find some of the most highly inspired, truly imaginative lines:
but as a collage on shifting sands…
…
A sword brazed in a fire
that does not distinguish
between the battle
& the field.
 
I believe we can safely say that the poet has achieved a level of poetic style and content which can hardly disappoint. Some of the poems in in “All the Babble of the Souk” remind me of T.S. Eliot’s “The Wasteland”. Perhaps the most striking feature of this volume is the poet’s portrayal of humanity, which deprives us of any escape from the darker, more insidious depths of our human condition. The most striking imagery in the entire collection forces itself on the least flattering trait of of our nature, our tendency towards — I might as well say it flat out — bestiality, which leaps to the fore in the poet’s all too frequent comparison between homo sapiens and apes (King Simian, seeking simian), gorillas, baboons and other fierce beasts of that ilk, all the way to neanderthals, Australopithecus and the odious nocturnal lupine, the proverbial werewolf. Lines such as: the hairless ape, go ape, going bananas… all mercilessly zero in on our ape-like nature bedeviling our s0-called civilized veneer.
 
There is also frequent reference to eating meat, and being eaten (we grow the meat we eat, those she didn’t eat alive, children simply to feed her, how they like human flesh, to be consumed by hell), all the way through to witchcraft and Zombie imagery. The dreadful presence of these creatures of the night inexorably lurks just beneath the thin veneer our blasé urbanity.
 
To cut to the quick, the most memorable qualities of Robin Ouzman Hislop’s poetic gifts are his penchant for economy of lines and the puissant imagery of the chthonic. Where these features dominate any poem, they impel it towards the nonpareil! Such poems soar. When it works, it works supremely well. As for the rest, there is much to please the reader.
 
Overall rating: 3.75/ 5
 
Richard Vallance
 
 
Richard Vallance
 
 
Richard Vallance, meta-linguist, ancient Greek & Mycenaean Linear B, home page: Linear B, Knossos & Mycenae, https://linearbknossosmycenae.wordpress.com
 
PINTEREST Boards: Mycenaean Linear B: Progressive Grammar & Vocabulary,
 
https://www.pinterest.com/vallance22/mycenaean-linear-b-progressive-grammar-and-vocabulary and, Knossos & Mycenae, sister civilizations, https://www.pinterest.com/vallance22/knossos-mycenae-sister-civilizations
 
Also poetry publisher, 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 Press, Victoria, B.C., Canada. © August 2013. 35 illustrations in B & W. Author & Title Indexes. 257 pp. 315 sonnets & ghazals in English, French, Spanish, German, Chinese & Persian.
 
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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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