Poet of the Month: Ndaba Sibanda
A Dangerous Journey by Edilson Afonso Ferreira
I Return Always to Taste it Always by Shola Balogun
The Trinity by Thomas M. McDade
The Cookie Crumbles by Paula Hackett
Poet of the Month: Ndaba Sibanda
A Dance With Nature And Life
They thirsted for a touch of freshness
A touch to wash away their dryness
A new week ushered in: Sunday morning greeted them in style
A pleased pair of ears received pattering sounds: a dream shower
It poured down and enriched the land. Nature`s love was live!
Land was quenched of thirst, plants healed of pangs of dehydration
Rivers roared in celebration, dams hugged inflows in humming ways
Farmers were ready to farm, fauna and flora flourished as if feted
Cut Down
They bought lawn mower after lawn mower
as if they had lots of cash or they had grassland
yet they wanted to bid on government contracts
to cut the unkempt hair of government officials!
They brought razor blade after razor blade
as if they wanted to cut the long nails of officials
yet all they sought to do was to move from shop
to shop in order to cut down the prices of goods!
An Orgy Of Bondage And Plundering
He had an insatiable hunger for all things
That clanked like capitals and cartels
He had the disorder of grabbing all—
And a compulsion to cheap labor
His cluster, his colony and all
Were founded on captivity
Oh Africa, oh dear Africa
You surely don’t want
Or warrant any pain
And a rain of drain
Anymore, anytime
For an official’s gain
Ndaba Sibanda has contributed to the following anthologies: Its Time, Poems For Haiti- a South African anthology, Snippets ,Voices For Peace and Black Communion. He edited Free Fall (2017). The recipient of a Starry Night ART School scholarship in 2015, Sibanda is the author of Love O’clock, The Dead Must Be Sobbing and Football of Fools. His work is featured in The New Shoots Anthology, The Van Gogh Anthology edited by Catfish McDaris and Dr. Marc Pietrzykowski, Eternal Snow, A Worldwide Anthology of One Hundred Poetic Intersections with Himalayan Poet Yuyutsu RD Sharma scheduled for publication in Spring/Summer 2017 by Nirala Press and Seeing Beyond the Surface Volume II.
Spoons by CL Bledsoe
A fuzzy-headed daisy, shocking the humus
of my little life, the eye is drawn and can’t
help but delight in your color.
I set down the corpse of my long-dead world,
to better see you tumble across the living
room. Your wrists are thinner
than my hopes. I hope you never understand
any of this. Just know that when you wake,
it’s enough, and when you sleep,
the quiet holds its breath so as not to disturb.
You say, “I don’t want to learn right now!”
When I try to tell you stories
of the dead, though living. Later, you settle
into the back seat and say, “Tell me a story
about the time Aunt Cookie
dug a pool in the yard with spoons.” I dodge
potholes, interjecting plot points with curses
and tell a story about the woods
I used to cry in. You deserve more than the dying
world I’ve given you. But it’s all we have.
Let’s make a new one.
CL Bledsoe’s latest poetry collection is Trashcans in Love. His latest short story collection is The Shower Fixture Played the Blues. His latest novel is The Funny Thing About… Bledsoe lives in northern Virginia with his daughter and blogs, with Michael Gushue, at https://medium.com/@howtoeven.
Passion by Edward Lee
Your beauty shattered
the air in my lungs,
leaving me speechless,
forced to communicate
with my fingers
on your pale skin;
you answered me,
your breath drawing deeply,
repeatedly, with a song silently,
endlessly sung.
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 and Smiths Knoll. His debut poetry collection “Playing PoohsticksOnHa’Penny Bridge” was published in 2010. He is currently working towards a second collection.
He also makes musical noise under the names Ayahuasca Collective, Lewis Milne, Orson Carroll, Blinded Architect, Lego Figures Fighting, and Pale Blond Boy.
His blog/website can be found at https://edwardmlee.wordpress.com.
An End by Edward Lee
for PW
And that is it,
isn’t it, your life ends,
but our lives continue on,
days falling into nights,
nights renewing into days,
always, even as we wish
for time to slow, stop,
for just a moment, an hour,
a day, some amount
of time so we might catch our breath,
hold it, fall into senselessness,
that the pain of your absence
might recede from our hearts,
that we might know some of the peace
you now know, pain no longer curling
your being, your very soul,
that we might think of you
without tears staining our breath,
that we might grief
without grieving, and smile
without guilt, or regret.
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 and Smiths Knoll. His debut poetry collection “Playing PoohsticksOnHa’Penny Bridge” was published in 2010. He is currently working towards a second collection.
He also makes musical noise under the names Ayahuasca Collective, Lewis Milne, Orson Carroll, Blinded Architect, Lego Figures Fighting, and Pale Blond Boy.
His blog/website can be found at https://edwardmlee.wordpress.com
A Dangerous Journey by Edilson Afonso Ferreira
Sometimes I venture to make a risky journey.
I go to the past, long ago, distant and perilous.
The road I take has been built entirely by me,
in very hard a way no one at least dreams of.
Rough a path and full of so many deviations,
that even me, well used to, I go so timorous.
Now, I see that there were no other choices,
for only this way would lead me where I am.
Where and what I must be ever since I was.
In this visit, I see friends, lovers, enemies,
grandfathers and cousins, see also myself.
Then, undoubted alive, they talk to me,
ask for news and soon we are laughing,
like old comrades absent for so long.
On leaving, one or other intend to follow me,
but I don’t feel confident and go home alone.
I suspect that past is jealous of its deeds
and always hides how has weaved them.
I think it must be visited as few times
as one is capable of.
Edilson Afonso Ferreira, 75 years, is a Brazilian poet who writes in English rather than in Portuguese. Largely published in international journals in print and online, he began writing at age 67, after retirement as a bank employee. Nominated for The Pushcart Prize 2017, his first Poetry Collection, Lonely Sailor, One Hundred Poems, was launched in London, November 2018. He is always updating his works at http://www.edilsonmeloferreira.com.
I Return Always to Taste it Always by Shola Balogun
You are the muse ink of my poem song.
Let me be your poet prophet to tell
The glorious coming of your glorious laughter.
Shola Balogun, poet,playwright and filmmaker has been featured as a guest writer and contributor,especially in the areas of poetry, post colonial studies and dramatic criticism to various magazines,anthologies and journals. He studied Theatre Arts at the University of Ibadan. Balogun lives in Lagos,Nigeria.
The Trinity by Thomas M. McDade
A cap and tweed coated, wiry gent boards the train
nose bleeding, hand over a blackened eye he holds
out an empty coffee cup to catch contributions
no words accompany phlegmy volleys of “Ahem”
smiling as coins drop, he tilts and bobbles thanks
A gum-chewing troubadour strums an electric guitar
that’s the tint of the panhandler’s blot, a tad shinier
a Yank in a yachting lid and a mismatched suit
pumps his cane as if once the song and dance kind
is the pretty, pixie-headed arm jewelry a stowaway?
She looks more mistress than daughter or wife
her breathy accent conjures a quaint crepe shop
close your eyes and poof: breathe Left Bank air
as they dawdle along navigating the crosswalks
the crowded sidewalks she’s nearly carrying him
Leaning against a wall by a fragrant flower stall
she holds a lacy handkerchief to his allergy flow
his boating cap drops top first attracting a medley
of coins and himself, mistress, wife or daughter
slide warily down to share laughs bawdy or not
Thomas M. McDade is a 73 year-old resident of Fredericksburg, VA. He is a graduate of Fairfield University, Fairfield, CT. McDade is twice a U.S. Navy Veteran.
Phantom by David Estringel
On eery nights as tonight,
Your phantom plagues me.
A scintilla of buried delight
That only the graves see.
Your eyes beset my soul
As if to a beast I’ve been sold.
You’ve become a raucous ghoul,
And I find an abode in your cold.
A haughty banshee’s rage resides in you,
But how oblivious you are.
Cadaverous face and feral shadow too,
And a glimmer of purity shrieks from afar.
David Estringel is an avid reader, poet, and writer of fiction, creative non-fiction, & essays. His work has been accepted and/or published by Specter Magazine, Literary Juice, Foliate Oak Magazine,Terror House Magazine, Expat Press, 50 Haikus, littledeathlit, Down in the Dirt Magazine, Route 7 Review, Setu Bilingual Journal, Paper Trains Literary Journal, The Elixir Magazine, Soft Cartel,Harbinger Asylum, Briars Lit, Open Arts Forum, Cajun Mutt Press, Former People Journal, The Ugly Writers, Writ in Dust, Cephalopress, Twist in Time, Merak Magazine, Salt Water Soul, Cherry House Press, Subterranean Blue Poetry, Printed Words, Sunflower Sutras, Tulip Tree Publishing, Salt, PPP Ezine, Digging through the Fat, Haiku Journal, and The Good Men Project. He is currently a Contributing Editor (fiction) at Red Fez, Lead Editor/columnist at The Good Men Project, and an editor/writer at The Elixir Magazine. David can be found on Twitter (@The_Booky_Man) and his website at http://davidaestringel.com.
High on Orion by Bruce McRae
November’s darkened star,
winter threatening violence,
winds playing with knives,
floods coming to cleanse the soil,
another cord of wood stacked
and windows shuttered,
hunger unsettling the animals.
Once a year the world turns,
leaning back, slanting west.
Once a year Orion rises.
His stars bloodied.
His belt loosened.
The disgraced hunter come
to slaughter the beasts of the Earth.
Bruce McRae, a Canadian musician currently residing on Salt Spring Island BC, is a multiple Pushcart nominee with over 1,400 poems published internationally in magazines such as Poetry, Rattle and the North American Review. His books are ‘The So-Called Sonnets (Silenced Press), ‘An Unbecoming Fit Of Frenzy’ (Cawing Crow Press) and ‘Like As If” (Pski’s Porch), Hearsay (The Poet’s Haven).
The Cookie Crumbles by Paula Hackett
Fragrant, beautiful,
with secret ingredients
that make her a wonder.
But then there’s a wearing away,
not like a precious stone
that time embraces,
but with rodents carrying her away on their backs. At times whole families
taking slivers, chunks, slices,
or a crumb for the rogue insect.
The cookie crumbles
as the strangers feast.
.
Paula Hackett’s poetry is influenced by her life experiences growing up in Berkeley during the vibrant and explosive 60’s. The daughter of novelist Paul Hackett, she studied under John Beecher, Angela Davis and Grover Sales. She has written lyrics in collaboration with her brother John Hackett, for many great jazz composers including Teddy Edwards, John Handy, Ivan Lins, Joe Sample, Eddie ‘Cleanhead’ Vinson, and Cedar Walton. Her life long love of jazz is reflected in her many poems about musicians and in her CDs with pianists Rudi Wongozi and Connie Crothers. Her discography is represented in the images and links below.
PPP Ezine 