Day 23
Ponton de peche by Terry Chipp
Scheming by Marcel Herms
MH23
Scheming
Reduced to fog and blur
words of malice
dissolving eye color, the mouth
droops with the weight
of so much poison, eventually
skin and flesh slough away,
bone, sun bleached,
is all that remains,
a few teeth,
echoes of plots
in a hollow
reliquary
TC23
Ponton de peche
Blue of sea, blue of sky
long legged, stilts, the place
above those below,
a thicker atmosphere,
the unwary are harvested,
scaled, consumed,
on a pleasant day
we could live here,
sleeping, cooking, watching
the pelicans scout bait fish,
blue of tongue, blue of eye
sunrise reveals
shore has not receded
waves still strain
at the fetch
no word can contain.
-Peach Delphine
(Scheming)
“Separate Days at The Abandoned Building”
The back of old schematics: good as any scrap to dither over twenty-first century plans
A home for all types of creatures; openly inviting
The couple believe there is life in the old girl yet
(Ponton de Peche)
“Selfie Time”
Ultimate extreme photo opportunity!
Guess how much it costs
“At the Edge”
It’s quiet here at least
Devoid of distractions
Irking manifestations will climb
Failing, they slide slow motion into nothing
The edge of the world isn’t so bad
-Lydia Wist
SCHEMING ALONE
I used to scheme with others
under railway bridges
and in rusty sidings.
Our words were sharp-edged
and intended to wound.
After a series of leaks
I now scheme alone,
in a sky hut where:
I fish the lonely clouds
for rumour and innuendo.
Someone is spilling the beans.
It may be me, I can’t be sure.
But there are definitely some sauce
stains on my orange jumper.
© Dai Fry 22nd November 2020.
Scheming
Let’s move something big
Let’s be shocking
Let’s pull the moon from its orbit
and dance around its fire in Central Park
Let’s make waves in the Amazon
with a Triceratops
and trace a giant Pentangle
in the stars
Let’s be outrageous
and use the Big Dipper
to scoop up Cherry Garcia
and dress each other in fireflies
— Gayle J. Greenlea
Ambitions
They wade out from the river bank,
picturesque cabanes, gaily painted,
unheated dens, their little boys’ forts
with drawbridge against invaders and
private notices stuck on the track.
They perch above the floodwaters,
squat herons,
fisher kings of the water,
trawling the mud for catfish
and other bottom feeders.
Sheds on stilts, worth more
than city centre stone
to those who would be gods,
enthroned,
the river at their feet.
-Jane Dougherty
Scheming
What to do next? Give me your hand.
Together we’ll figure it out.
Play the hand we’re dealt,
cards on the table.
But don’t tip our hand.
Play close to the vest.
It’s all here in black and white
for us to take in hand, to set right.
-Holly York 2020
:: echo ::
do you know the dark corner
behind damask
where music plays?
do you know why the tree died
why the paint smudged?
some know and remember the years
less for some than others
some paint tidy all realism while
others paint a different way
i know why the tree died . i do
i know that the stove ticks when lit
..sbm..
.Scheming Prison
The Blue hour
starts argument:
quiet contemplation
segregated;
each lost catch
jointly bemoaned
-Sarah Reeson
Bios and Links
-Terry Chipp
grew up in Thurnscoe and ia now living in Doncaster via Wath Grammar school, Doncaster Art College, Bede College in Durham and 30 years teaching.
He sold his first painting at the Goldthorpe Welfare Hall annual exhibition at the age of 17 and he haven’t stopped painting since.
He escaped the classroom 20 years ago to devote more time to his artwork. Since then he has set up his own studio in Doncaster, exhibited across the north of England as a member of the Leeds Fine Artists group and had his painting demonstrations featured on the SAA’s Painting and drawing TV channel. Further afield he has accepted invitations to work with international artists’ groups in Spain, Macedonia, Montenegro and USA where his paintings are held in public and private collections. In 2018 he had a solo exhibition in Warsaw, Poland and a joint exhibition in Germany.
His pictures cover a wide range of styles and subjects from abstract to photo-realism though he frequently returns to his main loves of landscape and people.
Visitors are welcome at his studio in the old Art College on Church View, Doncaster.
e-mail: terry@terrychipp.co.uk
Facebook: Terry Chipp Fine Art Painting
Instagram: @chippko.art
-Marcel Herms
is a Dutch visual artist. He is also one of the two men behind the publishing house Petrichor. Freedom is very important in the visual work of Marcel Herms. In his paintings he can express who he really is in complete freedom. Without the social barriers of everyday life.
There is a strong relationship with music. Like music, Herms’ art is about autonomy, freedom, passion, color and rhythm. You can hear the rhythm of the colors, the rhythm of the brushstrokes, the raging cry of the pencil, the subtle melody of a collage. The figures in his paintings rotate around you in shock, they are heavily abstracted, making it unclear what they are doing. Sometimes they look like people, monsters, children or animals, or something in between. Sometimes they disappear to be replaced immediately or to take on a different guise. The paintings invite the viewer to join this journey. Free-spirited.
He collaborates with many different authors, poets, visual artists and audio artists from around the world and his work is published by many different publishers.
-Jane Dougherty
writes novels, short stories and lots of poems. Among her publications is her first chapbook of poetry, thicker than water. She is also a regular contributor to Visual Verse and the Ekphrastic Review. You can find her on twitter @MJDougherty33 and on her blog https://janedougherty.wordpress.com/
-Peach Delphine
is a queer poet from Tampa, Florida. Infatuated with what remains of the undeveloped Gulf coast. Former cook. Has had poems in Cypress Press, Feral Poetry, IceFloe Press, Petrichor. Can be found on Twitter@Peach Delphine
-Dai Fry
is a poet living on the south coast of England. Originally from Swansea. Wales was and still is a huge influence on everything. My pen is my brush. Twitter:
Web: http://seekingthedarklight.co.uk
-Susan Darlington
Susan Darlington’s poetry regularly explores the female experience through nature-based symbolism and stories of transformation. It has been published in Fragmented Voices, Algebra Of Owls, Dreams Walking, and Anti-Heroin Chic among others. Her debut collection, ‘Under The Devil’s Moon’, was published by Penniless Press Publications (2015). Follow her @S_sanDarlington
-Holly York
lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her two large, frightening lapdogs. A PhD in French language and literature, she has retired from teaching French to university students, as well as from fierce competition in martial arts and distance running. She has produced the chapbooks Backwards Through the Rekroy Wen, Scapes, and Postcard Poetry 2020. When she isn’t hard at work writing poems in English, she might be found reading them in French to her long-suffering grandchildren, who don’t yet speak French.
-Gayle J. Greenlea
is an award-winning poet and counselor for survivors of sexual and gender-related violence. Her poem, “Wonderland”, received the Australian Poetry Prod Award in 2011. She shortlisted and longlisted for the Fish Poetry Prize in 2013, and debuted her first novel Zero Gravity at the KGB Literary Bar in Manhattan in 2016. Her work has been published in St. Julian Press, Rebelle Society, A Time to Speak, Astronomy Magazine, Headline Poetry and Press and The Australian Health Review.
-Helen Allison
lives in the North East of Scotland. Her first poetry collection ‘ Tree standing small’ was published in 2018 with Clochoderick Press. Her work has appeared in journals and magazines in print and online and she is working towards a second collection.
-Lydia Wist
Like someone who tries out hats or other samples before making a final decision, experimenting with different ideas and techniques is how Lydia spends some of her time. This allows for other portions of time to speak through the lens of fiction, creative nonfiction and art. You can find her work at Cargo Collective , Lydia Wist Creative and on Twitter @Lydiawist.
Website links:
https://cargocollective.com/lydiawist
https://www.facebook.com/lydiawistcreative/
-Sarah Connor
lives in the wild, wet, south-west of England, surrounded by mud and apple trees. She writes poems to make sense of the world, and would rather weed than wash up.
-sonja benskin mesher
-Liam Stainsby
holds a bachelor in English Literature and Creative Writing and is a secondary school teacher of English and Creative Writing. Liam is currently writing his first, professional collection of poetry entitled Borders that explores poetry from all around the world. Liam also Co-Hosts a movie discussion podcast entitled: The Pick and Mix Podcast. Liam writes under the pseudonym ‘Michael The Poet’
Links: WordPress: https://michael-the-poet.com/
Twitter: stainsby_liam
Instagram: Michael The Poet
-Sarah Reeson
is 54, married and a mother of two, who has been writing and telling stories since childhood. Over the last decade she has utilised writing not just as entertainment, but as a means to improve personal communication skills. That process unexpectedly uncovered increasingly difficult and unpleasant feelings, many forgotten for decades. Diagnosed as a historic trauma survivor in May 2019, Mental health issues had previously hindered the entirety of her adult life: the shift into writing as expression and part of a larger journey into self-awareness began to slowly unwind for her from the past, providing inspiration and focus for a late career change as a multidisciplined artist.
Website: http://internetofwords.com
-Gaynor Kane
is a Northern Irish poet from Belfast. She has two poetry pamphlets, and a full collection, from Hedgehog Poetry Press, they are Circling the Sun, Memory Forest and Venus in pink marble (2018, 2019 and Summer 2020 respectively). She is co-author, along with Karen Mooney, of Penned In a poetry pamphlet written in response to the pandemic and due for release 30th November 2020. Follow her on Twitter @gaynorkane or read more at www.gaynorkane.com.
Anindita Sengupta
is the author of Walk Like Monsters (Paperwall, 2016) and City of Water (Sahitya Akademi, 2010). Her work has appeared in anthologies and journals such as Plume, 580 Split, One and Breakwater Review. She is Contributing Editor, Poetry, at Barren Magazine. She has received fellowships and awards from the Charles Wallace Trust India, the International Reporting Project, TFA India and Muse India. She currently lives in Los Angeles, California. Her website is http://aninditasengupta.com
Pingback: November Ekphrastic Challenge: Day 23 – Jane Dougherty Writes