-Boze Burger by Marcel Herms
-Jeremiah by Terry Chipp
Burger, Jeremiah
Another fist aloft
Dude watches on
phallic metaphor
in Ray-Bans, read
how chaos binds
image, to minds
-Sarah Reeson
Girl Power
We pump our fists skyward, victory!
Sparks fly, splashes of milky light,
Fire and ice, like the first lipstick shade
we girls bought from Kresge’s at thirteen
then went for a celebratory burger and malt
at Diana’s Sweet Shoppe. We would not
be allowed to wear it to school but soon
our mothers would take us to Sperry’s for training bras.
Rumor had it that Bonnie Burke stuffed hers
with knee socks. Girlhood augmented.
–Holly York
Life in the Age of the Post-Modern Poet
Sex in the age of the post-modern dreamer –
his soul is cast to sea – and what we see, he suffers –
endlessly. The poet holds eternity
to the burning light – as he does the empty page
where you – live in the corners of his mind
where all the old poets have been, and died –
and he sings for them, as though they might hear him.
Hear the night – she is alive within the footsteps of ghosts.
The writer keeps them awake
and writes his stories for their fated souls
the ones here, numbing the mind –
the ones bleeding through the page
cradled in the arms of darkness,
the post-modern poet –
seeks redemption in the night
and dreams through the day.
-Liam Stainsby
Cool Jeremiah
Jeremy’s cool,
he’s the dude you know.
Sitting in the corners,
dark smokey rooms.
Jezza’s cool,
he don’t say much.
This is fortunate as
thinking is not his forte.
Jerry’s cool.
Even in school,
he smoked the right stuff
and hung with the crew.
Jeremiah’s cool.
Babylonians knew this too.
He handled the long journey
and wrote a book, its true.
-© Dai Fry 4th November 2020.
Jeremiah’s Cup
The days of hamberders and covfefe
are over. The mad king dances,
punching air. Angry fists pick their
target. So many enemies, diminishing
allies. Days grow thin in number,
untethered. Praise dims. Even
the apparatchiks are silent. The balloted
Oracle portends doom, the hero
rides. Jeremiah’s cup has spilled its chaos.
Banking streams run dry, the future
an empty desert. The false god fades.
Cherry trees return to the garden
and roses prosper.
-Gayle J. Greenlea
THE LITTLE TOUCH
It was just a little touch
he said when she screamed,
reeled back from his fingers
as they groped the sequins
on her moonshine skin.
He’d appeared out of nowhere:
a crack from behind the trees,
a sigh from the night air.
Now his breath – warm and briny –
was on her face; filling her lungs.
-Susan Darlington
:: frogs ::
day five brought two voices
one day
same segregation
a night of stars
***
sickly child and predetermined words
flicker from page to
flicking the power fails
while some follow the mass
others raise fist protest
***
nothing was ever promised
nothing ever came fair, an invented entitlement
where no one is entitled
we have one pause
a tadpole before the jumping frog
comes wet and creaking
we forget the punctuation
we look at the pictures
only
..sbm..
Finding the north
And when the dust has cleared
and the cheering’s done,
when the victor’s corpse has raised clenched fist
and been carried over the ropes,
when the prophets are revealed as crack heads,
their graffitied texts washed clean,
will we find the way?
The north still draws those who know,
who listen to the pull of the earth
and whisper to the over-arching sky,
those who, like the homing geese,
take the broad world in their hands and say,
this and only this matters,
the turning of life and more life,
sheltered beneath soft wings.
-Jane Dougherty
(Cool Jeremiah)
“Accidental God”
Effortless, suave
Speaks little, loves often
Other’s bills paid, no question
Been mistaken for Lennon;
ZZ Top – all the members
Too cool for a nickname
Finds diamonds routinely
Goes to bed early
Not always blasé
Walks hours under moonlight
Not always for the fight
Never seen him that way
(Bose Burger)
“It’s Complicated”
Power to the people
Talisman active
Zip wires 4eva
Neva stop runnin
A waste of an arm
Future not founded
War paint of splendour
Gleeful distraction
Noise in the background
Is vacuum choking
Individuals in motion
Speedboats buzz skidding
Hands raised in class
Flames licking aching
Mists dousing hillsides
Nature cold swimming
-Lydia Wist
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
-Hokis
Hokis is an American Poet of Armenian descent. She is senior editor of Headline Poetry & Press and a regular contributor to Reclamation Magazine. Her work is found digitally and in numerous print anthologies, including SMITTEN (Indie Blu(e), Oct 2019), Pandemic Poetry Anthology (Gloucester Poetry Festival, Oct. 2020), and Heron Clan VII(Heron Clain). You can her digital work and information on her debut collection, UnBecoming, at hokis.blog.
-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 my 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.
The Wombwell Rainbow 