Poet of the Month: Robert Beveridge
March haiku near the QEW by Terry Trowbridge
The Manna of the Nighttime Stroll by John Grey
Please Stay by Petrouchka Alexieva
Witchy Halloween by Michael Lee Johnson
Transparent Men and Women by Yuan-Hongri
Poet of the Month: Robert Beveridge
Images of Amanda Yoder
Your hair floats in the wind
frames your features
like a brown thicket
your silver cross
cold in the morning
framed by your gentle breasts
Ring, serrated,
slipped onto your thumb
a curled-up dragon napping
your dress flows
down your body
rainwater unfortunately opaque
Serpents
There are snakes on the path. Snakes.
The path continues into the forest
beyond them; all we have to do is step.
The darkest part of the wood awaits.
Robert Beveridge (he/him) makes noise (xterminal.bandcamp.com) and writes poetry in Akron, OH. Recent/upcoming appearances in Of Rust and Glass, The Museum of Americana, and Quill and Parchment, among others.
March haiku near the QEW by Terry Trowbridge
My toes left twiggy
prints in the snow, each hop was
colder than the last.
Seasons here might have
features you don’t expect. Still,
look for snow, birds, births.
Now the rabbits set
their clocks by streetlights, sounds made
by commuter cars.
Our toads are burrowed
and even that evidence
is hid under twigs.
Terry Trowbridge is a Canadian PhD candidate in Socio-Legal Studies. His poems have appeared in The New Quarterly, Carousel, subTerrain, paperplates, The Dalhousie Review, untethered, The Nashwaak Review, Orbis, Snakeskin Poetry, M58, CV2, Brittle Star, Lady Lazarus Experimental Poetry, The American Mathematical Monthly, Canadian Woman Studies, The Mathematical Intelligencer, The Canadian Journal of Family and Youth, The Journal of Humanistic Mathematics, The Beatnik Cowboy, Borderless Magazine, Fine Lines, and many, many more. His lit crit has appeared in Ariel, Hamilton Arts & Letters, Episteme, Studies in Social Justice, Rampike, and The /t3mz/ Review.
Poems by Mykyta Ryzhykh
people love dogs
gods love people
no one believes in love
***
what are we looking for instead of freedom?
a man walks by himself along the road
and the road seems to him a path to paradise
what do we do in times of war?
only to go on and seek peace
only to live at any cost price
what is man in essence?
The whole range of despair from red to white
and that child that walks along the front road
where will he get to?
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.
The Manna of the Nighttime Stroll by John Grey
A discrete moon,
misty tracing from tree to tree,
distant details vanquished,
stars twinkle like the muted chuckles
of mourners at a wake –
in the woods,
life-forms sleep or hunt
converse to day’s routine –
with people, approaches to dark
go their separate ways,
some to restorative repose,
others to match their lights with neon –
I prefer the company of a river
reduced to nothing but
the flow of its sounds –
and the breeze of course,
those fluttering demoiselle feathers –
ah, how easily the world
erases all that’s unnecessary –
I can fall into the pleasant pace
of my thoughts.
I can so easily begin.
John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident, recently published in Sheepshead Review, Stand, Washington Square Review and Floyd County Moonshine. Latest books, “Covert” “Memory Outside The Head” and “Guest Of Myself” are available through Amazon. Work upcoming in the McNeese Review, Santa Fe Literary Review and Open Ceilings.
Please Stay by Petrouchka Alexieva
Please stay,
I need you next to the fire.
Your lovely face in the sky
My simple desire is
Dance with me in their time.
Please stay,
‘Till the evening dives slowly
Into your heavenly eyes.
I know, the stars will glow shortly,
I will cushion you
With all the clouds above us.
Please stay, don’t run,
I’ll give you the sweetest dream…
I’d like to see how the sun
Will golden your beautiful skin.
Please stay, don’t go anywhere,
I need you. I swear…
Ms. Petrouchka Alexieva is a well-known as a feminist and a LOVE poet, well-known scholar and TV persona. She is a life-time member of four Distinguished Scholar Societies; a Cum Laude graduate at CSULA (2009) and “All American Scholar Award“recipient (2008). Speaking 8+ languages, her literary and scholarly works, photo-documentaries were highlighted in varieties of venues, on ”Daheli Live!” TV show, opening ceremonies and numerous open mics.
For her outstanding life-long achievements, Ms. Alexieva’s name was included two times among the most distinguished Earth’s citizens list of NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover (2003) capsule and Science Laboratory Rover (2011) list, for which she has awarded with honorable certificates.
Witchy Halloween by Michael Lee Johnson
Inside this late October 31st night,
this poem turns into a pumpkin.
Animation, something has gone
devilishly wrong with my imagery.
I take the lid off the pumpkin’s headlight
and the pink candles inside.
Demons cry, crawl, split, fly outsides —
escape through the pumpkin’s eyes.
I’m mixed in fear with this scary, strange creation.
Outside, quietly tapping Hazel the witch,
her broomstick against my windowpane rattles.
She says, “nothing seems to rhyme anymore,
nothing seems to make any sense,
but the night is young.
Give me back my magical bag of tricks.
As Robert Frost said:
“But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep.”
Michael Lee Johnson lived ten years in Canada during the Vietnam era. Today he is a poet in the greater Chicagoland area, IL. He has 272 YouTube poetry videos. Michael Lee Johnson is an internationally published poet in 44 countries, has several published poetry books, has been nominated for 5 Pushcart Prize awards, and 6 Best of the Net nominations. He is editor-in-chief of 3 poetry anthologies, all available on Amazon, and has several poetry books and chapbooks. He has over 443 published poems. Michael is the administrator of 6 Facebook Poetry groups. Member Illinois State Poetry Society: http://www.illinoispoets.org/.
Transparent Men and Women by Yuan-Hongri
Translator Wit lee
Transparent men and women
Men and women more beautiful than colored butterflies
Maybe really a group colored butterflies
Dancing from Zhuangzi ‘s big dream
But I see cities, crystal transparent cities
Like city’s dream, city’s love
Through the walls could reach the other shore
Light, may transcend time
Above the sea surface of time, boats of light are flying
On a little island
I see other men and women
This calendar tells us a window
After days are still another days
It is the illusion of days that besiege us
Justas my flesh is my own shadow
Yesterday’s leafs and water drops
Pebbles I played with in my childhood
The sun I see for the first time
Those all things are smiling in a house of light
Eyes of men and women
Eyes more charming than the rainbow
On vibrant morning
In intoxicating dusk
Flying water drowned men and women
I found one sun in my own chest
I discovered cities in my head
The water of the past turned into crystal, diamond
There are stars sailing in my bones
Ah, a young girl in dream
Maybe came from some day a hundred years ago
Still I miss that moment
That vision disappeared when I wake up
That momentary smile, how warm it was
Who made you appear in my dream?
I believe in dream, as I believe in the sun
And in dreamland I saw another me
Shadows of Phoenix and Unicorn
Once in dream came down
On the mountain top
I dreamed a house of heaven
Blood is another river
Blood in my body also has its own dream
I set foot on a ladder of days
But on the other mountain
LeisurelyI’m flying
Shadows of men and women
Blooms in a smile
The seasons of men and women
Days are like pieces of stones
I opened an photo album sealed for many years
I saw Yellow Emperor rambling in the city
One shadow is among many shadows
On another wild field
Ancient years are shouting and fighting
On grassland all kinds of flowers are laughing
Living in glass I
Don’t know their names
Water of yearning, water of sweet and fragrant spring
Flyfrom inside rocks
A girl is like a colorful flyingphoenix
Only dream tells us the illusory of time
Outside time’s gate
There is another sun
Who was playing games inside ancient rocks
Igniting gold piece by piece
On pieces of transparent boulders
Drawing seas and cities
I was sitting in a house filed with light
With a picture album hold in my hand
In the buildings of ancient times
Caught sight of the future emperors
Who’s blood was the plum flower drinking
Which girl’s song was it singing
When I got up
I saw a white jade, glittering its smile
In the age when rock drifted fragrance
Queen Mother of the West was a witch
Tow eyes have intoxicated the handsome and strong MU Tianzi
This is a gold sculpture
But I don’t know
Am I in times of heaven or mundane?
On days when Goddess stepped on auspicious clouds
Where am I?
On which star
Still preserves my house of past?
Form east to west
There is a road of gold
Perhaps there is a blonde
To be my companion of tomorrow
The earth is a crystal jade
In lover’s mouth
Atmosphere is as sweet as wines
And in one dreamland
I’m still a baby
Every city and county I passedby
Have all left my shadow
Thousand years after they will still be golden and shining
Bread that I eat was my own blood
A girl that I loved once loved me a thousand years ago
I saw in the arms of the rocks
Girls were lying down, cheeks fresh and red
Skins were as transparent as jade
Hieroglyphs and letters
Were glittering and shining on the sun
God is holding a brush in his hand
Waving a pen in heaven
Those cities of gold and silver
In an eye’s twinkling flew toward the human world
On the edge of a big river bank
There was one house of mine
A garden yieldedfull of golden fruits
On the other mountain, red plum blossomed spreading the top
My shadow turned into a Kylin
In the house builtwith white jade
I wrote down a volume of poetry
Each line of verse is a star in the blue sky
A tortuous, quite and secluded path
Walked through from a garden
The sun shed its golden drizzle
Golden spiral ladders
Was in another crystal sky
I opened my own head
There are more suns
Spinning ,singing
Girl of light, petal of smile
On a lake green-jade-like
Reflecting the red houses
A cluster of green leaves transmit bright red lips
Smiling faces of the alley paved by stones
To where shall it lead me?
Blooming peach tree of early spring
Upon the hillside ,bees of sunlight are buzzing
Through the street of trams and crowd
In front of the glorious and magnificent mansions
Look up forward a piece of crystal blue sky
In the thoughts of white clouds
Is the city beautiful?
Along the street of billboards and neon lights
Big trees covered with green hair
Enable me miss the distant mountains and the clear springs
Children’s smiling faces are no unfamiliar
Black jade eyes, pink lips
At this moment, men and women flow stream endlessly
It was fashion and vanity that noised the street
I planted myself here
Left a thousand shadows
To cultivate a thousand gardens
To pave the gold onto road like the stones
Let every stone melt into crystal
In wind language there were sounds of stars
Rocks and pine trees of distant mountains
Poetry rhythm of the sea
There were underground burieddreaming words of ancient people, blooming red flower
And there were remote poems I eager to go back
Every single green tree beside the street loves us
Under the hot sun, wordless green shade
Every flower has its own language
People with crystal eyes
Will see flower’s smile
Ah, every time the sun rises
We all woke up from death
The dead us,where have been kept?
Do not belittle a stone
It hummed the song of universe
The young girl’s smiling face of the very days
Turned into a white cloud
Upon the mirror face of the sky
All the saints could be seen
I was silent in the fire, went through
The flame of men and women
In the high streets and back lanes of cities
Wind of time blown colorful flags
Under the blue sky, river of life is flouring and rushing
I tried to open the memory door
On another planet
Leisure and happy time
The night of death subsided
And on the red clouds of dawn
Golden smile face of the sun
The initial men and women
Men and women without names
Men and women created God
The initial poets were a couple of lovers
When the blood started to sing
I heard the language of the sun and stars
On some wonderful and joyous occasionsthe sun smiled outside the window
A young girl walked into your window
Her eyes are two stars
Came from ancient space
How transient this prosperity in front of us
This street, city of labyrinth
The old man sitting on the street playing with chess
Still missing thehouse of gone away
The young girl of that very year was still walking past the street
Only turned into a transparent shadow
Tomorrow is in white clouds’ hometown
Tomorrow’s sun is still smiling and silent
Every moment of mine is departing me
Big birds of time were darting in the sky
Brightly coloured feathers
Glitter in the sky, knowingnowhere to leisurely fly down
In a palace
I’m an old man, sitting on golden chair
Missing me
I walked into a stone
Saw another sky
On a vast sea
There was an island of peach flower
Days of riding a Phoenix
Where are my companions
Walking on the street of Wangfujing
I miss the Yellow emperor riding a dragon up to the heaven
Light is my only food
Light of the sun, moon, and stars
Became my bones
Ancient Greek and Rome
Is now in front of me
Poems of Homer and Sappho
Turned into my sweet spring
Many countries I travelled
Flying in the space-time of words
A thousand years and ten thousand years
Made me lament: transience
And now every drop of blood today
Is all a ruby
Every inch of the land I’ve stepped on
Is all ancient gold
Whose jade body am I walking on?
Ancient sweet and beautiful songs
Enables me fall in love with the ancient girl
In a transparent jade
Will your laughter be preserved?
Sometimes on one star
I saw your beautiful face
Ah, golden words
Stars of east and west
How many poets’ kingdom they have entered?
Strings of shiningglorious names
Engraved on the chest of the sun
Upon the ocean of the sky
How many happy gardens are there?
I’m just fluttering away
Making a temporary farewell from the mundane world for a millennium
When Sappho returns again
A new song must be chanted
Days of labyrinth in front of us
Time played the strings of the sun and the moon
Words flied from the stars
I walked into the days of phantom overlapped
I can’t tell the past from the future
Now I’m alone and unconventional
And under the sun I lost the shadow
Is this body accompanied me
The narrow boat of time?
Above the waves of the Three Gorges
I galloped forward
Understand the songs of green shade
Drink a wine of silent time
A golden daisy
During my midnap
Turned into a girl
Poplars and willows on lake shore stand by each sides
Are they still waiting
The lovers strolling in the evening?
The sunset is waving a handkerchief of twilight
The light of love
Is soaring in the clean breeze
Pairs of star eyes
Where are they twinkling today?
On whose forehead they are inlaid
Singing and chanting to me now?
I stepped across the gates of light
Having no idea where to wake up from drunken sleep
In the labyrinth weaved by the light
Drink up the sweet wine of words to my heart’ content
Those golden smiling faces
Come from east and west
In the kingdom of poetry
Bosom friends and partners everywhere abound
I lingeredabout in day times
Opened doors and windows in the wall of light
Had a sweetdeep sleep in the white jade case
Dreaming of my own footprints
Radiating golden light in the sky
Loneliness became God
Will loneliness hear the words of sky?
Swim across the long river of shadow
I’m a shadow forgetting himself
In a house by the street
What kind of time there have been ?
Every day on the earth
Flame of time, burns endlessly
Let red lips of lovers fade
Black hair run into dust
Smell the fragrance of the mud
Whose love do you think and recollect?
Everything is colorful and transparent
Every stone keeps its own memory
A pile of shattered stone statues
Smile at me in the sun
Maybe we’d known each othera thousand years ago
Blood of stone is golden and transparent
Time flower is gold and precious stones
Where are the charming figures today?
Left rolls and volumes poetry of light behind
Those shadows are still brilliant
Vivid and bright-colored as ever in transparent words
A withered flower has a beautiful memory
An instant bloom embraces eternity
Memory walks to memory, where shall we go?
The first drop of water turned into an ocean
All things I witnessed come from the past
Tomorrow will born in my palm
By whom the chess pieces of the stars are driven?
In whose eyes the earth is also a chess piece
I watched my own life on the earth
Drinking water, having meals, heart full of yearning
Another me perhaps always keep me accompany
Only he knows my secrets
Words I said may have been said
Roads I traveled may have been traveled
I seem to be repeating one by one the me of the past
On my tired days, eagerfor fall down and die
Like zhuang Zi,became a free butterfly
As soon as I wake up, I see the sun
Auspicious clouds spread their fragrance beside me
Rivers flowed out from the embrace of the mountain
Again back to the ancient sea
My memory ocean maybe is just ahead
Where is the time hidden exactly?
Come with no sign and go with no trace
Upon the mirror surface of time
Only see my own shadow
My songs can be heard by the stars
Walk on the city street
White clouds walk with me
I walked into a church
Caught a sight of Jesus holding a baby in his arms
God stands in heaven,waits and watches us
My god is myself
I sat in the heaven, looked at myself
A big seven-colored bird
Spread the wings of sky
Watched me walking on the earth
Death’ black night curtain
Covered heaven of gold and silver
At this moment where do I live on earth?
Drink up all this glass of wine
Blood of time is brewed into nectar
No time for hesitation and hovering
Not to be sad in the face of heaven
What cannot be retained is the shadow one after another
My songs are a paradise that will not wither
Who is not hungry and thirsty in city desert?
Colorful sand and gravel accumulated into time
Flame refined out transparent bones
Drink the bright jade body
More brighter and glorious than diamonds
In pavilions of sky,read volumes of golden books
In time and space labyrinth,write volumes of poetry
In the world of mortals, who is my bosom friend?
Caress a street tree, listen to the whisper of the green leaves
Transparent crystal world, countless brilliant smiling faces
Open the wall thus can walk into
A house full of laughter
Tomorrow is just a landscape
Long has been hanging in the balcony of sky
The sun walked forth and back in the sky
Made tomorrow’s lunch prepared
Let me sit down and caress the time’s silk
Cut it to make you a new dress
Walk into the bosom of the sun
Through the flame
And turn into a beam of pure light
Glass of the blue sky, melted in the flame
You will see the young girl singing on the star
Garden of earth blossom once again
The human world is full of transparent butterflies flying all around
Labyrinth city, colorful river
Wind blows flags of dream
In whose blood the ancient song is sounded?
The Hurrying footsteps beat the drum for an expedition
Those eyes glisteringstarry bright
Seems contain ancient sweet spring
A seed of gold
Is sprouting on your palm, full of bloom
Beijing, August 1998
Bio of the author：Yuan Hongri (born 1962) is a renowned Chinese mystic, poet, and philosopher. His work has been published in the UK, USA, India, New Zealand, Canada, and Nigeria; his poems have appeared in Poet’s Espresso Review, Orbis, Tipton Poetry Journal, Harbinger Asylum, The Stray Branch, Acumen, Pinyon Review, Taj Mahal Review, Madswirl, Shot Glass Journal, Amethyst Review, Fine Lines, and other e-zines, anthologies, and journals. His best known works are“Platinum City”and “Golden Giant”. His works explore themes of prehistoric and future civilization.Its content is to show the solemnity,sacredness and greatness of human soul through the exploration of soul.
Bio of the translator: Wit Lee, whose Chinese name is Li Hui, and pen name is Muzihuixin. She is a female poet born in Jining ,Shandong province, and now lives at the foot of Mountain Taishan. She is an editor of Taishan University Journal, a member of Taian Writer’s Association and Taian Poets’ Association. She has published many poems and one poetry book: Beyond Time
Email:3112362909@qq.com Hongri Yuan Phone:+86 15263747339
Address:No.18 middle school Yanzhou District ,Jining City, Shandong Province, China
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