Poet of the Month: Mykyta ryzkyh
This Lonely Unease by Edward Lee
Over the Threshold by Dibyasree Nandy
as the party ends by Joseph A Farina
Everything Is Burning by Glen Armstrong
Capitalism Is the Only Viable System We Have for Organizing Progress: A Cento by Michael Brockley
Climate-connected Conflicts by Ndaba Sibanda
Poet of the Month: Mykyta ryzkyh
gods don’t write poetry
because they don’t feel pain
pain over everything in the world
and it doesn’t hurt me anymore
fighting gods can turn into monsters
What kills us makes us immortal
When we die we take the whole world with us
It’s written in the sacred book of assassins.
So says the pain in the hearts of widows
birds die flying in the windows
and then the last song begins
The last song of the bird is unmistakable
the last song of a bird is better not to know and not to hear
other free birds sit in the trees
fear of freedom in feathers sits in the trees
people sit around blood and murder
people sit inside the blood and murders
the google translator can’t stand the screaming of the letters
and the book of killers explodes unable to remain silent
sometimes it seems that people start wars because
it’s easier to hate the living
it’s easier to rejoice in the dead
Mykyta Ryzhykh from Ukraine is the winner of the international competition Art Against Drugs and some Ukrainian awards; laureate of the literary competition named after Tyutyunnik, Lyceum, Twelve, named after Dragomoshchenko. Nominated for Pushcart Prize.
This Lonely Unease by Edward Lee
A lifetime of trying on
different people
has left me standing
in cold rooms
longer than is healthy,
for body,
or mind,
and I have yet
to find someone who fits,
and so I must continue seeking,
no matter the cold
that I swear has begun
to invade my soul,
the lonely nights
becoming more lonely,
the silence louder.
Edward Lee’s poetry, short stories, non-fiction and photography have been published in magazines in Ireland, England and America, including The Stinging Fly, Skylight 47, Acumen, The Blue Nib and Poetry Wales. His poetry collections are Playing Poohsticks On Ha’Penny Bridge, The Madness Of Qwerty and A Foetal Heart.
He also makes musical noise under the names Ayahuasca Collective, Orson Carroll, Lego Figures Fighting, and Pale Blond Boy.
His blog/website can be found at https://edwardmlee.wordpress.com
Over the Threshold by Dibyasree Nandy
The feel of grass, not wood, beneath the feet
Beyond the cloying door, a land unknown
Drowning in the trills of birds, braving sleet
One step ahead, away by the wind borne.
Over the threshold, mighty mountains loom
Shadows on the cage of bricks scare no more
Emerald trees, florets of ruby bloom
The untrodden road speaks of unheard lore.
Hems of clothes trailing, dusty; shroud unveiled
Faded orders, chipped plates in kitchens cold
For years festering… In pain, long since dwelled
Summer-tide beckoned, the silver seas called.
No chains bind, wrists strong; the inviting dawn
To the golden meadows, the heart is drawn.
Dibyasree Nandy (she/her) is from Kolkata, West Bengal. She is 30 years old and began writing during the lockdown period of the Covid-19 situation. She has authored poetry collections (more than 400 haiku, 200 sonnets, free verses, rhyming poems, ekphrastic forms), novellas, short-story ensembles and full-length fiction. Her individual prose and poetry pieces have appeared in around 60 anthologies and magazines. She has two Master degrees in science and technology.
as the party ends by Joseph A Farina
there was music playing downstairs
sitting in the dark, pretending to be cool
when we were falling apart
there’s laughing in the corner
I see you close smiling at him
here in the shadows you can’t see me cry
the invited couples start holding each close
kissing and slowdancing without any shoes
I move towards to ask you as you take my hand
we dance but not as close as before
I try to guess what your thinking
but I can’t be sure
I’d wanted tell you I love you
but I was only thirteen ,would it have meant anything
would it have been believed
walking back home
both of us feeling alone
feeling the pieces letting us go
a ghost of my teens
my immaculate grade school love
I kiss your memory with my prose
Joseph A Farina is a retired lawyer in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. drawing from his profession and his sicilian-canadian back round, he is an internationaly award winning and published poet. Several of his poems have been published in Quills Canadian Poetry Magazine,The Wild Word,The Chamber Magazine, Lothlorian Poetry Journal,Ascent ,Subterranean Blue and in The Tower Poetry Magazine, Inscribed, The Windsor Review, Boxcar Poetry Revue , and appears in many anthologies including: Sweet Lemons: Writings with a Sicilian Accent, Canadian Italians at Table, Witness from Serengeti Press and Tamaracks: Canadian Poetry for the 21st Century . He has had poems published in the U.S. magazines Mobius, Pyramid Arts, Arabesques, Fiele-Festa, and Philedelphia Poets . He has had two books of poetry published— The Cancer Chronicles and The Ghosts of Water Street and an e-book,Sunsets in Black and White.
Everything Is Burning by Glen Armstrong
The young people pool their money
for a pack of Djarum Blacks.
The problem of consciousness
is a problem of limitation.
•
One of them is secretly writing
a story about a tree
that falls in love with a bicycle.
Chain and padlock
have had their suspicions
from the start.
Glen Armstrong (he/him) holds an MFA in English from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and edits a poetry journal called Cruel Garters. His latest book is Night School: Selected Early Poems.
Social Media:
https://www.facebook.com/glen.armstrong.5
Illustrious by David Flynn
Illustrious.
Well, that I’m not.
Born in a small Southern town.
Father a purchasing agent in a textile mill.
Drank.
Mother broke her back.
Then five degrees, including a doctorate.
Dr. Flynn.
Then
not much.
But
I have lived in Japan, Israel, Macedonia, Ukraine, Indonesia, and
Nashville.
Nashville a lot.
I have met
other non-illustrious people
by the thousands.
I have written
a lot.
Published a lot in magazines.
Have a daughter, granddaughter, grandson.
The grandson is 1.
Own
not much.
Read
a lot.
Struggle
every second of every day of every week of every year of every decade.
So there I am.
Illustrious?
Nah.
That’s for the TV people.
I am my own brain.
Good enough?
Nah.
But for today I can sit here,
not satisfied,–
I am never satisfied,–
but alive
enough.
David Flynn was born in the textile mill company town of Bemis, TN. His jobs have included newspaper reporter, magazine editor and university teacher. He has five degrees and is both a Fulbright Senior Scholar and a Fulbright Senior Specialist with a recent grant in Indonesia. His literary publications total more than 240. He lives in Nashville, TN.
Life Tips Haiku by Jay Bond
If sad, draw a tree
press firmly, tips cast to sky
repeat carelessly
If you keep seeing
a cerise sports car, it means
all hope is lost
If lost, stand by cloud
fold together until mix
springs. lightly. edge on
Jay Bond is an Australian who returned in 2020 to her city of birth, Melbourne, after a few decades teaching in Asia and the United States, now refocusing on writing.
Published writer of poetry: Luna and Meanjin magazines, early 1980s; more recently in Litterateur Rw magazine, Argotist Online Poetry.
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Identity by Ananya Sarkar
I am not you and you are not me
So don’t frown when I don’t say
the things you want to
Walk that perfect life
Smile that perfect smile
that you want to and would always do
Because
I am not you and you are not me
A choice made not by me alone
But both of us.
Ananya Sarkar is a short story writer, poet and book reviewer from Kolkata. Her work has been published in The Times of India, Muse India, Woman’s Era, New Woman, 4indianwoman, Children’s World, KidsWorldFun, Induswomanwriting, Conversations Across Borders, Indian Ruminations, Earthen Lamp Journal, Spark, The Madras Mag, Teesta Review and Borderless.
She won the first prize in both the Story Writing Contest by the American Library, Kolkata as part of the Fiction Festival 2008; and Induswomanwriting Poetry Contest, 2012. She was also a prize winner in the LoudReview Review Writing Competition, 2012 and Writers’ HQ Story Competition, 2016. She was longlisted for the Wordweavers Flash Fiction Competition 2014 and the Wordweavers Short Fiction Competition 2015. Ananya has also interviewed writers C Y Gopinath, Swapna Dutta, Kavita Kane and Richa Wahi, and accessibility consultant Shivani Gupta. Ananya has conducted poetry and story sessions at Lampshade Writers and Kahini, respectively.
Apart from reading and writing, she loves to go for long walks, stargaze and imagine the seemingly impossible. She can be found at just_1ananya on Instagram and ananya7891@gmail.com
Capitalism Is the Only Viable System We Have for Organizing Progress: A Cento by Michael Brockley
I came from a ghost Eden, where the horses ran back to their stalls, and histories were preserved in unmatched Tupperware. A place so deep inside America it couldn’t be seen. An auction barn where St. Joseph asked how a poor man could stand such times and live. I prayed in the strip malls of Bangor, Maine and revised the beatitudes of California until even the cliches resembled new foxes. I traveled through Napa Valley with a satyr’s heart. A Lazarus carrying the last fireflies to the Queen of Versailles. I flirted with Florida house hunters who wore red sweaters and had cokes with their idols and cakes with their icons. In Colorado my father scoured and stacked dishes while I scaffolded emptiness until it became the language of the moon. Faith embedded grime in my nails and knuckles. Hydraulic fluid. Slivers of steel. I strong-armed the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere into composing love letters to the wolf of Wall Street while God was waiting for a bus. My love for money the only scent I believed in.
Credits for the Cento: Capitalism Is the Only Viable System We Have for Organizing Our Economy: A Cento
“Capitalism Is the Only Viable System We Have for Organizing Our Economy,” Lucy Turnbull
“Ghost Eden,” Erika Meitner
“The Horses Run Back to Their Stalls,” Linda Gregerson
“A History,” dawn lonsinger
“Ode to Tupperware,” dawn lonsinger
“I Come from a Place So Deep Inside America It Can’t Be Seen,” Kari Gunter-Seymour
“St. Joske’s,” Deborah Paredez
“How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live,” Bruce Springsteen
“Prayer in the Strip Mall, Bangor, Maine,” Stuart Kestenbaum
“The Beatitudes of Malibu,” Rowan Ricardo Phillips
“Fox News,”dawn lonsinger
“Napa Valley,” Brigit Pegeen Kelly
“The Satyr’s Heart,” Brigit Pegeen Kelly
“Poor Lazarus,” Laura Da’
Grave of the Last Fireflies, Isao Takahata
The Queen of Versailles, Lauren Greenfield
“Florida Doll Sonnet,” Denise Duhamel
“House Hunters,” Kevin Prufer
“The Red Sweater,” Richard O. Legaspi
“Having a Coke with You,” Frank O’Hara
“The Idol and the Icon,” Gina Franco
“Cake,” Noah Eli Gordon
“In Colorado My Father Scoured and Stacked Dishes,” Eduardo Corral
“Letting the Emptiness Become My Government,” Marcus Jackson
“Language of the Moon,” Major Jackson
“My Faith Gets Grime under Its Nails,” Sarah Ghazal Ali
“Steel,” Kwame Dawes
“Poem for the Poorest Country in the Western Hemisphere,” Danielle Legros Georges
“On the Sale by Auction of Keat’s Love Letters,” Oscar Wilde
The Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort
“More Money Than God,” Richard Michelson
“While Waiting for the Bus,” Eliot Khalil Wilson
“I Know You by Your Scent,” Ricardo Aleixo
Michael Brockley is a retired school psychologist who lives in Muncie, Indiana. His poems have appeared in the Tom Waits online anthology, Whiskey Mule Diner, Wordpeace, and Ekphrastic Review. Poems are forthcoming in Down in the Dirt, Vagabond Dissent, Jasper’s Folly Poetry Journal, and The Parliament Literary Journal.
Climate-connected Conflicts by Ndaba Sibanda
It is an irrefutable conflict threat multiplier
in more than one way or shape or size or color.
It has the effect of worsening political, social,
economic and cultural tensions and conflicts.
For it escalates cases and situations of water
scarcity, food insecurity and resource competition.
From time to time, it causes conflicts and violence
as displaced groups fight for farming and grazing land.
Environmental conflicts spring up as people’s clashing
interests, views and values on land come to the fore.
Climate conflicts happen as populaces differ on public land
use, private land development ,waste disposal and hazards.
Climate change is a conflict threat multiplier as it spurs
migration, overexploitation, land degradation and grabbing.
Ndaba Sibanda is a Zimbabwean-born poet, novelist, and nonfiction writer who has a passion for themes and topics around conservation, nature, development and justice. He believes that he is a poet in prose, and hence he has never looked back since building and marching into the very first poetry pharmacy in the world, where poetry … and poetry and poetics are the most tonic threesome prescriptions!
Sibanda has received the following nominations: the National Arts Merit Awards (NAMA), the Mary Ballard Poetry Chapbook Prize, the Best of the Net Prose and the Pushcart Prize. Sibanda`s book Notes, Themes, Things And Other Things: Confronting Controversies ,Contradictions And Indoctrinations was considered for The 2019 Restless Book Prize for New Immigrant Writing in Nonfiction.Ndaba`s book titled Cabinet Meetings: Of Big And Small Preys was considered for The Graywolf Press Africa Prize 2018. Sibanda is a three-time Pushcart nominee. He can be spotted landscaping, lurking, lounging and even lost on various and many media networks.
Links:https://www.amazon.com/Books-Ndaba-Sibanda/s?rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_27%3ANdaba+Sibanda
https://www.pagespineficshowcase.com/ndaba-sibanda.html.
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