Poetry Page 2-Fall 2007
Mindful, Mindless, October Date
by Michael Lee Johnson
Mindful of my lover running late, as common as tying your shoestrings; I'm battered as an armadillos shell; I put my bands around my emotional body armor native to myself and walk like a stud in darkness. Everything in October has a shade of orange you know-- a hint of witch and goblin. In the leaves between my naked feet and toes, as I pace my walk in the parking lot, I count them-- I count them color chart fragments and bites: oranges, reds, still mostly greens. Barefooted the time of the tear, the year-fragmented.
I am male battered in a relationship tested without my testosterone no sexual rectification or recharging of my batteries needed.
I lie limp. Native to myself-- mindless of my lover running late.
Then she arrives.
Bio: Michael Lee Johnson lives in Itasca, IL. after spending 10 years in Edmonton, Alberta Canada during the Vietnam War era. He is a freelance writer, and poet. He has been published in USA, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Scotland, Turkey, Fuji, Nigeria Africa, India, United Kingdom, Thailand, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Michael Lee Johnson is a member of Poets & Writers, Inc and Directory of American Poets & Fictions Writers: http://www.pw.org/. He is a member of The Illinois Authors Directory. Illinois Center for the Book: http://www.illinoiscenterforthebook.org/directory.html He has published 145 poems in 2007 to date. He is the author of: The Lost American: From Exile to Freedom. http://www.iuniverse.com/bookstore/book_detail.asp?isbn=0-595-46091-7. The book is also listed at Amazon.com, & Barnes & Noble. Visit his website at: http://poetryman.mysite.com/. He is now the publisher, editor of Poetic Legacy: http://www.poetriclegacy.mysite.com/ Poetic Legacy is now open for submissions.
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Out Here
by Julie L. Moore
It’s possible to forget
out here, twenty miles from the base,
watching cinnamon-hued horses, smooth
as suede, grazing in their field,
foal at her mother’s teat,
brook noisy as a boy
sloshing in last night’s rainwater,
morning still steam-tinged—
when three F-16’s shoot by,
raking the landscape, pulling
up my eyes. And while the mare
simply bows, tugging
at a tuft of grass, my tongue
becomes dry as gauze,
tasting war
not so far away.
Bio:
Julie L. Moore's chapbook, Election Day, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2006. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in many publications, including Sou’Wester, The Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, Blueline, River Oak Review, Flint Hills Review, The Chaffin Journal, and Christianity and Literature. In addition, her poetry won Second Honorable Mention in the 2006 National Poet Hunt Contest judged by Laurence Lieberman and appeared in the winter 2007 issue of The MacGuffin. Another poem was selected “Editor’s Choice” in the fall 2006 Fairfield Review. Moore lives in Cedarville, Ohio and directs the Writing Center at Cedarville University. |
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NOW
by Ashok Niyogi
let me gift pink knickerbockers from my Calcutta Montessori to my children's children for their photo-op with a 'critter' in Barnes&Noble
with love that grows like orchids on woodwork damp with tears that drown dreams dreamt through years now adrift in flurries of Siberian snow
the tap of a walking stick to travel with through the bazaar that has lonely shops who buy and sell props sent as attachments
which I download and save in the dust gathered around my father's photographs
Bio: Ashok Niyogi is an Economics graduate from Presidency College, Calcutta. He made a career as anInternational Trader and has lived and worked in the Soviet Union, Europe and South East Asia in the '80s and '90s. At 52, he has been retired for some years and has been cashew farming, writing and traveling. He divides time between California, where his daughters live, Delhi and the Indian Himalayas. He is increasingly involved in his personal spiritual quest and has undertaken serious study of scripture. He has published a book of poems, TENTATIVELY, [iUniverse, Lincoln, NE - 1995] and has been extensively published in print and on-line magazines in the USA, UK, Australia and Canada. Numerous chapbooks of his poems have been brought out by SCARS Publications, UC-Davis, Slow Trains and others. Ashok writes about life.
MY LOVE
by JA Howe
I will meet you at the end of the universe
Once all the quasars have sung their tunes
In a flash of light, there I’ll be
Wandering amidst quadrillion moons
We’ll sort out the comets together
Surf on Doppler waves
We’ll be tanned by the crisping of hundreds of suns
And watch the black holes breathe
Yes we’ll meet at the end of the universe
To watch the lights fade out one by one
And I’ll kiss your lips and hold your hand
In the brilliance of the very last sun.
Bio: JA Howe's poetry has been seen in Illumen and surprisingstories.com. Her website is : http://howewriter2000.4t.com
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