Day Eleven

Evening Canal by Terry Chipp

by MJ Saucer

de anatomische by Marcel Herms

MEN TOOK ME

As I lay drowsy woozy,
not really myself.
Men came and wheeled
me away.
They pierced me
then stabbed me deep.
They cut stuff out,
sewed up the holes
with a needle and thread.
I slept on in small death.
I could have sworn
I’d had no dreams at all.
But when I awoke
there they were
back at my bedside.
“We hope we don’t
have to do this again”
they said, smiling
all the while.

-© Dai Fry 10th November 2020

With Time to Kill

We’re yet to dream
but still too far
for this waking world
from this crowded bar

Where in the air
of summer nights
beneath neon sounds
and howling lights

Call out to Him
to guide to sleep
the children of night
from upon their feet

While I exchange
his final slumber
for wicked winds
and joyless wonder

A dream made gold
from once was gone
and guided by night
I, to Oberon

Still in the air
a call to yonder
this night of feasts
to starve no longer

Though for a time
as far as it seems
all is not golden
in the darkness of the dream

And yet beset upon his charm
Morpheus unbound
would break that dream
upon the ground

Broke through the rain
of nights before
this tempered touch
met the fallen shore

And all this time
we waited still
by the dim flicker beat
with time to kill.

-Liam Stainsby

Anatomical Evening

alimentary, show
canal dreams, flat
between each speech,
picture’s perfect;
saviour, lost
red polls, make cross

-Sarah Reeson

Postcards

Sighs of longing fill the airport lounge,
of those enticed by images unpeopled,
the idyll in their silence,
architectural lines of stone rising from water
or empty piazze, parklands scattered with birds,
yet they draw such crowds,
the world is sinking beneath their weight.

The lines of summer migrants gather, swarm,
flying hither and yon to see what cannot be seen
beneath the crawling locust-skin
of crunching, clacking, insect-clicking hordes.

If stillness ever fell, would they listen,
would they hear the voice that asks, why?

-Jane Dougherty

“Pastry and Pears”

Where passionate focus
Prepares the fruit
Saves all the parts
Using multiple methods
Has a great deal of fun
Planning, experimenting, tasting, sharing
Makes tight fitting igloos
To house the main attraction
Goes back to the drawing board
Presents delicate edible art
Adorned with silk spun sugar
And the option for ice cream
Pastry and Pears is
Community and connections
Time to unwind
In a very special place

-Lydia Wist

(De Anatomische Les)

“Peculiar Specimens”

Medical student:
Solemn, respectful
But you still have to handle
The parts, so there’s that

Thief
You view me as a
Demon; I guess that I am
Trying to survive

Cadaver
Students cut open
My body. I died selling
Bodies to students

(Evening Canal)

“Journeys Home”

We return home wondering what that means for others elsewhere.
Perhaps they drive from door to door down expansive roads neverending.
Or walk a short distance, some nights making the journey longer to enjoy the crisp air.

We rock gently in the gondola, appreciating the unique architecture and engineering that make this particular journey possible.

It’s beautiful here and we’re nearly home.

Our place is just around this corner.

We’re used to the ride being a slow one.

Something I read about the river Styx nudges at my consciousness.

-Lydia Wist

Anatomy of the Anthropause

There are no dolphins in the canals of Venice,
though it was a romantic myth in the blight

of pandemic. Swans are a more common sight
as humans isolate indoors. Goats did revolt in San

Jose and took a trip down the Great Orme to gorge
on flowers and peek through windows in Llandudno.

Wild boars brought their babies to snuffle and forage
in Haifa and flamingos flocked to Narta Lagoon looking

for love. Sea cows swarmed Hat Chao Mai, while in
Santiago, cougars scaled apartment walls and penguins

roamed parking lots in Cape Town. Fluffles of baby
bunnies raided Christchurch as cows sunned on beaches

in Corsica and peacocks strutted the streets of Dubai.
Macaques squatted in empty bazaars in Jaipur as ducks

owned the boulevards of Paris and foxes slinked through
burroughs of London. Coyotes played at Dodger Stadium

as geese waddled to movie theatres in New York.
Jaguars prowled Tulum, while Floridian loggerheads

lumbered to the sea in peace. Slaughters of iguanas
lounged undisturbed in the Bahamas as Sika deer

used pedestrian crossings in Nara. In the Anthropause,
Animals take back what’s theirs.

-Gayle J Greenlea

Evening Canal

One of the candy-striped pali di casata
must have been struck by a runaway gondola
giving it an inclination
toward the bridge, which is not
the Bridge of Sighs that prisoners crossed
from interrogation rooms
in the palace of the doge.
Reflecting
on the beauty of the world
they were leaving behind, they would sigh,
then follow their sad arc to the underground
cells, passing through infinite circles of hell.

-Holly York 2020

BRUISES

I peel the apple.
Dig a kitchen knife
into the soft brown flesh
to remove the damage.

Remember the time
you lay in the bath
and I ran a finger
down the line of your legs.

Paused at the curve
of your ankle bone
to gently kiss better
the bruise that ripened there.

-Susan Darlington

Evening canal

Water binds us, canal
is not creek or the inner hydraulics,
flowing salty, moving hand
and tongue, water defines us,
seeps into our foundations, mirrors
sky, realm of azure, cloud.
We float heavy cargoes
down the writhing waters,
arterial flow without clotting,
each face a doorway
of uncertainty, subsidence
the dark eye of dream,
what swallows, swallows
us whole, water constricts
coiling about, squeezing
the land
out of us.

=Peach Delphine

MH11 De Anatomische

Owned, but not
property, no limits, no
boundaries, how they disassembled
and reconstructed this form
always a different interpretation
of the same idea, functionality
is for furniture, the gasping
mouth of pleasure, the fishhook
pulling me from depth, examined
and contorted, the broken form
must reconstitute itself, the spectacle
of dissolution
another entertainment.

MSJ11

We bruise as we sweeten
ripening in sacks of shadow,
each day grows more tender
as flesh reveals its handling,
taste of this form, trucked
from beyond despair,
all she offered was love, a tree
of verdure and bees, heavy
with promise, each pear a day
without sorrow.

-Peach Delphine

..day 11..

:: nothing ::

dissecting the thing
into pieces
and chucking it into the canal

it is nothing
no more

..sbm..

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.

www.marcelherms.nl

www.uitgeverijpetrichor.nl

-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:  

@thnargg

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 30^th 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 

Podcast available on Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Anchor, Breaker and many more platforms This episode aired on 07th November 2020 and I was joined by poets Eileen Carney Hulme, Karen Mooney, David L O’Nan and Liam Porter. The links to their websites, blogs or Twitter pages are all listed below… Eileen Carney Hulme is […]

Eat the Storms – The Podcast – Episode 10 — Eat The Storms

Day Ten

Counting the days by Marcel Herms

Elfin by Terry Chipp

BOW MY HEAD

I bow my head as
words pour down
from your heavens.
Like stormed crows,
torrential and overwhelming.
My mind, soaking
short circuit wet.
Emotion’s coat
is a tight
rubber swimming cap.
I cannot think
but still
you squall and rage.
I can hear nothing
through this tempest.
Words continue
around my head
like arrow tips
or angry bees
all buzzing.
I realise;
We’ve both forgotten
why I’m here.

© Dai Fry 9th November 2020.

COUNTING THE DAYS

I count the days
until I lose you.
It makes this kiss
taste all the sweeter
knowing the betrayal
our love is founded on
will subtract the pain.

-Susan Darlington

Waiting

There is child count-down waiting,
birthday, Christmas,
Friday afternoon at school,
party, balloons, friends waiting;

there is parent waiting for birth pangs,
taxis, planes,
the rush of the new on the horizon,
party, balloons, friends waiting;

there is the solitary anguish of hospital waiting,
news, waiting for the worst,
the phone that doesn’t ring waiting,
waiting in the rain till dark;

but the measure is finite,
the piece of string has a beginning and an end,
the longing will fade,
the pain and grief pass on slow wings,

it is the waiting for nothing, the counting
of minutes until the next hour of nothing begins,
the next day, week, year of the same
screaming nothingness but black bitter bile,
the waiting without end,
that is the death of the soul.

-Jane Dougherty

High Fives All Around

Doodles on the blank page of time,
we can only scratch the surface grime
with too few fingers for the count.
So we’ll trace hash marks to the end
of days. What is the number of fives
it will take to tally up our lives?

-Holly York 2020

In Time

For time –
adverse; in some profound sense of obligation.
Where we are expected to know well enough of
of peace –
and of certainty
and to be happy, in resign, for what is familiar –
with these belated notions of idealism.
Instead I find amnesty in the uncertainty
of the new.
Profundity in conflict.
The path ahead is foreign and my feet – unsettled
under the pull of the freshly unearthed soil
with our one and only certainty –
that all things are fated to return there –
in time.

-Liam Stainsby

The Dreaming

Stars to flesh, flesh to dust,
earth to make the trees stand up
and leaves, love’s greening: Hope returned.
Then bending, turning, flaring, burning, flickering
falling flames. A hush of leaves, a flash of awe,
anxious winter’s silent pause: endings, muted
death of love. Remains of seasons in our hands
casting ashes to the wind in coffee spoons
to rain, to rain.

– Gayle J Greenlea

Counting the days

She counted the days of lockdown, drawing gates on the wall, it seemed appropriate since she didn’t get further than her gate. She used the big black crayon from the grandkids toybox and covered the Laura Ashley wallpaper – what did it matter, the world was going to hell in a handcart anyway. She named the garden birds – willy the wagtail, dick the robin, Roy the pigeon. On day ninety-three, eighteen and half gates later, the crayon snapped and so did she.

-Gaynor Kane

Elfin

Night bird flowering
in my mouth, marking every day
empty, stars press against eye,
pain of all this enduring,
we are the blood of thicket
leaf and bole, born to palmetto
and oak, feel the shade
of our palms, see how darkness
is where moonflower blooms
watch as stars populate
absence of day, vermillion
settles into sea, come
as we abandon the lights
of habitation, roofs not living,
doors without leaves.

-Peach Delphine

(Elfin)

“This Kind”

Embraces the outdoors
Chooses nature exclusively
Takes shelter under shifting canopies
Sleeps with the earth and is not afraid of it
Runs it’s races with giddy streams
Holds civil council with each other and other beings
What you’ve heard about them: likely not true
Strongest people you’ve (n)ever met
Extended their lives by years
True custodians of this planet

(Counting down the days)

“Are You Fazed?“

Country by country making an effort
Act by act guiding the off-course
Cell by cell phasing out prisons
Colloquial English: “fazed”=bothered
Or not bothered about something that’s yours,
Or not yours; someone that’s you, and not you
The goal of judicial systems is changing
We’re counting down the days to
Effective solutions and preventive measures

-Lydia Wist

. day 10 .

:: numbers ::

did you see the fairy folk fluttering
moth mouths and mismatch

the day came clear with numbers
written backwards

did you know that or did you google to find out

touch lightly in case wings
disintegrate to dust

tread lightly my dears
count them
steadily

..sbm..

Counting the Elfin

how long before
return to the West
together, touched;
mists shroud thought
simplicity behests,
future; again, as one

–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.

www.marcelherms.nl

www.uitgeverijpetrichor.nl

-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:  

@thnargg

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 30^th November 2020.  Follow her on Twitter @gaynorkane or read more at www.gaynorkane.com.