Day Twenty-Five

-John Phandal Law

-Anjum Wasim Dar – Gold

-Gaynor Kane – Wolf And Witness Tree

Pax – Paska (25 AWD and JPL)
Once in another place, a man walked from a tomb
Once in another time, a flotilla amassed, little boats
to rescue those pushed to the edge of the sea
Easter: renewal, peace and indelible memory,
the little boats are sailed by no-one. They drift,
or, in exploded light, gleam against a sulphur sky
The sea is no safe passage
The passageways run under the ground, as safe as tombs.

-Lesley James

Seasickness
After JPL25

just
still
floating
alone on
inkless seas
no sail no anchor
no forward motion
incessant rocking
constant rocking
of the waves
and tides
to send
me off

– Jamie Woods

Unorthodox Easter
A stark wooden cross
pierced the blue April sky.

Far away, a gilded cross was carried,
reverently transported
by robed and pious men.

They light a candle and fires rage.
Whispered prayers order death.
Voices and eyes raised to Heaven,
their leader fresh from slaughter
makes the sign of the cross.
Jesus wept.

-Tim Fellows

The Skiff …
to JPL-25

… awaits my calm sea.
I shinny up thin shadows.
Aspire to New Moon.

Barbara Leonhard

 

Shipwreck: A Tanka (AWD25 + JPL25)

Murder in the crow’s
nest. One hurricane emptied
life, the next righted
the hull. Gulls squabble on deck.
Heaven fills the sails with gold.

—Lynne Jensen Lampe

Illusions
(inspired by all three images)

To see a magic galleon
(aureoled in gold
sailing a tropical sea)
in the wreck on the strand

to hear the wolf call
(dominating the night
voice full of dark and glitter
hard as stars)
in the howl of the dog chained in the garden

it’s enough to change the filters

but each new tide
still loosens the timbers
and the dog still watches
the house door with longing
in vain.

-Jane Dougherty

AWD25 – Gold

Do not accept it if you are told
value resides only in that which
can be sold/ trust your eyes and
soul to assess what is truly gold

As you sail towards your personal
horizon, be alert to the essential/
dismiss all views of preciousness
of metal as nothing but ephemeral

Storms may break the vessel before
landfall but of this you may be sure/
you will swim easily towards sunrise
when unencumbered by the material

-Peter A.

Soul (AWD 25 Gold)

Her shape is a wineglass drawn in water:
thoroughbred lines, a full-hipped stern,
discreet curve forward to narrow bow,
a towering golden mast: below
a paradise of old teak glows
the shade of conkers pocket-rubbed.
Look up from the helm, see living sails
blown tight: smacked by southerly gust
she beats like a soul through summer sky.

-Lesley Curwen

25. [Gold AWD25]

Agh! We be pirates,
Of course we Agh!

Fleetly floating, with a following
Tied to nothing but a swift
Shipping water in a stormy
See there’s gold on that there
I landed here with you here.
Be treasure.
Be dragons.
Be the spot I can put an X on.

Peg-legged, hook-handed,
patch upon my eye, I have
a map, if you want it, now
we’ve come to a safe harbour.

-Math Jones

Peace & Quiet (JPL25)

It’s the calm before a storm
Tempest is our nature
To rage, to ravage
What is harmony?
Lost
Undone by the very existence
Of mankind
It’s the quiet before a storm
Silence seems not in our nature
To roar, to wail
True peace, unattainable
Tranquility, serenity
Few, far between
Enjoy
While you can

-Carrie Ann Golden

Bios And Links

-John Phandal Law

is 68. Lives in Mexborough. Retired teacher. Artist; musician; poet. Recently included in ‘Viral Verses‘ poetry volume. Married. 2 kids; 3 grandkids

-Gaynor Kane

Gaynor Kane lives in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where she is a part-time creative, involved in the local arts scene. She writes poetry and is an amateur artist and photographer. In all her creative activities she is looking to capture moments that might otherwise be missed. Discover more at gaynorkane.com

Twitter @gaynorkane

Facebook @gaynorkanepoet

Instagram @gaynorkanepoet

-Anjum Wasim Dar

started drawing at St Anne’s Presentation Convent High School, Rawalpindi.
Drawing was taught as a Core subject from  Kindergarten.
Anjum learnt the  skill of  Still Life, Sketching,  Landscape Drawing, Coloring  and Shading  She recalled the scented wax crayons and black  paper sketch books vividly.

Subject of Fine Arts at Intermediate level at Govt.College for Women Rawalpindi,   was stopped by the Indo Pak War of 1965. Anjum continued her passion for art privately.
Her job as a Teacher Instructor allowed her to pursue Art work designing and preparing  Thematic Bulletin Boards and Low cost teaching Aids with the Fauji Foundation Teacher’s Training Institute Rawalpindi. www.faujifoundation.org.
This won her the National Education Award 1998.
 
Completing  a Course in Graphic Designing  at NICON Academy Rawalpindi , Anjum began working as a Digital Artist, On Line, registered her Own Firm CER Creative Education Resources 2004 and is a Member of DRN Drawing Research Network UK  and www.bigdraw.org.uk
https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/tracey/drn/
 https://sites.google.com/site/cerprofessionaldevelopment/
With her artistic skills she plans and conducts “Environment Awareness Workshops for Children” and is a member of www.unep.org and www.earthday.org
CER Participated in World Environment Day and Earth Day Programs 2011-2013
“Face of Climate Change”
Anjum  loves Nature, landscapes and abstract imagery. Works with pencils, crayons and  the Software ArtRage 2.0  and MyPaint.

Anjum Wasim Dar’s Art Portfolio  can be accessed  here:

https://www.artwanted.com/anjuartwriter/gallery/

-Merril D. Smith

lives in southern New Jersey near the Delaware River. Her poetry has been published in several poetry journals and anthologies, including Black Bough Poetry, Anti-Heroin Chic,  Fevers of the Mind, and Nightingale and Sparrow. Her first full-length poetry collection, River Ghosts, is forthcoming from Nightingale & Sparrow Press.  Twitter: @merril_mds  Instagram: mdsmithnj  Website/blog: merrildsmith.com

-Lesley James(she/her)

is a teacher and writer. She was shortlisted for Love Reading UK’s 2022 Very Short Story Award. Featured flash can be found in The Broken Spine, FullHouseLitMag and RoiFaineant. Kathryn O’Driscoll selected her poem Empty for Full House’s 2021 mental health live reading and forthcoming podcast. Brian Moses, The Dirigible Balloon and Parakeet Magazine have published some of her writing for children.

-Lynne Jensen Lampe

has poems in or forthcoming from Figure 1, Olney Magazine, Yemassee, Moist Poetry Journal, and elsewhere. Also to come is her chapbook Talk Smack to a Hurricane (Ice Floe Press, 2022) about mothers, daughters, and mental illness. She was a 2020 Red Wheelbarrow Poetry Prize finalist. Born in Newfoundland and raised in the Deep South, she lives in mid-Missouri where she edits academic books and journals. Visit her at https://lynnejensenlampe.com. Twitter: @LJensenLampe.

–Barbara Leonhard’s

work appears in various online and print publications. She earned both third place and honorary mention for two poems in Well Versed 2021. She is currently writing her first poetry collection about her relationship with her mother, who suffered from Alzheimer’s. From that memoir collection, her poem “Marie Kindo Cleans My Purse at Starbucks” was voted Spillwords Publication of the Month of January and February 2022. Barbara was also voted Spillwords Author of the Month of October 2021 and recognized as a Spillwords Socialite of the Year in 2021. You can follow her on WordPress at https://www.extraordinarysunshineweaver.blog.

-Math Jones

is London-born, but is now based in Oxford. He has two books published: Sabrina Bridge, a poetry collection, from Black Pear Press (2017), and The Knotsman, a collection of verse, rhyme, prose and poetic monologue, which tell of the life and times of a C17th cunning-man. Much of his verse comes out of mythology and folklore: encounters with the uncanny and unseen. Also, as words written for Pagan ritual or as praise poems for a multitude of goddesses and gods. He is a trained actor and performs his poems widely.

-Caroline Johnstone

is an author and poet from Northern Ireland now living in Scotland. She has been published widely including Poetry Scotland, The Blue Nib and Marble Poetry. She loves spending time with her grandchildren, curling up with a good book and champagne or cocktails in no particular order. 

-Lesley Curwen

is a poet and sailor living in Plymouth. She often writes about loss, rescues and the sea.

Her work has been published in anthologies from Arachne Press, Nine Pens, Quay Words, Slate, snakeskin, and soon by BrokenSpine and Broken Sleep.  

Her poetic relationship with sound has been helped by her work as a BBC broadcaster, editing words on screen.

-Carrie Ann Golden

is from the mystical Adirondack Mountains now living on a farmstead in the Red River Valley of North Dakota (USA). She writes dark fiction and poetry. A Deafblind, her work has been published in places such as GFT Press, Doll Hospital Journal, The Hungry Chimera, Asylum Ink, Piker Press, Edify Fiction and others. You can find her on her writing blog as well as Medium and Twitter.  

-Jen Feroze

lives by the sea in Essex with her husband and two small children. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in a variety of publications including Ink Sweat & Tears, Chestnut Review, Atrium and The Madrigal. Her first collection, The Colour of Hope, was published in 2020 and she’s currently working on a chapbook of poems about early motherhood. 

-Paul Brookes

is a shop asst in a supermarket. Lives in a cat house full of teddy bears. First play performed at The Gulbenkian Theatre, Hull.  His chapbooks include The Fabulous Invention Of Barnsley, (Dearne Community Arts, 1993). A World Where and She Needs That Edge (Nixes Mate Press, 2017, 2018) The Spermbot Blues (OpPRESS, 2017), Please Take Change (Cyberwit.net, 2018), As Folk Over Yonder ( Afterworld Books, 2019). He is a contributing writer of Literati Magazine and Editor of Wombwell Rainbow Interviews, book reviews and  challenges. Had work broadcast on BBC Radio 3 The Verb and, videos of his Self Isolation sonnet sequence featured by Barnsley Museums and Hear My Voice Barnsley. He also does photography commissions. Most recent is a poetry collaboration with artworker Jane Cornwell: “Wonderland in Alice, plus other ways of seeing”, (JCStudio Press, 2021)