F 1.24. Fuath Colum-KOIS(Holt1916)

F 2.24. boitata

F 3.24 Black Eyed Children

 

Eyes of Fire and Chill (Inspired by F2. 24 Boitata and F3.24, Black-eyed Children)

Eyes take in the light, reflect and refract,
heated observation burns with fury–
a gaze that combusts to protect,
regenerating by fire to make the world right,

and then the opposite,

dead souls with eyes of bottomless black.
What makes us turn children into demons—
brightest hope dashed and fears projected,
we see the monsters within.

-Merril D Smith

Forest spirits

Through the dark trees
Firehead runs
rings with ropes of retribution
binding the hunters of flesh
in meanders of madness.

Through the dark of river water,
fire serpentines,
each glowing scale scalding with sin,
a finger crooked, beckoning
into the pits of Hell.

Beneath the dark stars,
fire weaves
hypnotic dances in the air, sucking
the lighters of fires into an inferno,
of their own making.

Beneath the stars, between the trees
and in the dark of river water
Firehead and fire snake, forces of the primal earth
run and wind, binding the forest
tight with love.

-Jane Dougherty

 

Urban Legend Storytime (F3.24 The Black-Eyed Children)

Slash of moon carves the shadows
Fingering jagged shapes on the wall.
We huddle, white-eyed
And whisper
lurid tales to shiver our spines
Delighting in our fright.

Recitations incantations.
Tales we know so well
we’ve stitched them into our skin
to worry them at night
with quivery fingers

We suture the dark with them,
sewing sinuous threads of story
into the fabric of night
and our bedsheets.

They haunt us
like the black-eyed children who lurk
outside the door.

-Jacqueline Dempsey-Cohen

Bios and Links

-Jane Dougherty

lives and works in southwest France. A Pushcart Prize nominee, her poems and stories have been published in magazines and journals including Ogham Stone, the Ekphrastic Review, Black Bough Poetry, ink sweat and tears, Gleam, Nightingale & Sparrow, Green Ink and Brilliant Flash Fiction. She blogs at https://janedougherty.wordpress.com/ Her poetry chapbooks, thicker than water and birds and other feathers were published in October and November 2020.

-Eryn McConnell

is a poet originally from the UK who now lives in South Germany with their family. They have been writing poetry since their teens and is currently working on their second collection of poems.

-Spriha Kant

developed an interest in reading and writing poetries at a very tender age. Her poetry “The Seashell” was first published online in the “Imaginary Land Stories” on August 8, 2020, by Sunmeet Singh. She has been a part of Stuart Matthew’s anthology “Sing, Do the birds of Spring” in the fourth series of books from #InstantEternal poetry prompts. She has been featured in the Bob Dylan-inspired anthology “Hard Rain Poetry: Forever Dylan” by the founder and editor of the website “Fevers of the Mind Poetry and Art” David L O’ Nan. Her poetries have been published in the anthology “Bare Bones Writing Issue 1: Fevers of the Mind”. Paul Brookes has featured her poetry, “A Monstrous Shadow”, based on a photograph clicked by herself, as the “Seventh Synergy” in “SYNERGY: CALLING ALL WRITERS WHO ARE PHOTOGRAPHERS” on his blog “The Wombwell Rainbow”. She has been featured in the “Quick-9 interview” on feversofthemind.com by David L’O Nan. She has reviewed the poetry book “Silence From The Shadows” by Stuart Matthews. Her acrostic poetry “A Rainstorm” has been published in the Poetic Form Challenge on the blog “TheWombwell Rainbow” owned by Paul Brookes. She also joined the movement “World Suicide Prevention Day” by contributing her poetry “Giving Up The Smooch” on the blog “The Wombwell Rainbow”, an initiative taken by Paul Brookes.

-Gaynor Kane

from Belfast in Northern Ireland, had no idea that when she started a degree with the OU at forty it would be life changing.  It magically turned her into a writer and now she has a few collections of poetry published, all by The Hedgehog Poetry Press Recently, she has been a judge for The North Carolina Poetry Society and guest sub-editor for the inaugural issue of The Storms: A journal of prose, poetry and visual art. Her new chapbook, Eight Types of Love, was released in July. Follow her on Twitter @gaynorkane or read more at www.gaynorkane.com

-Dave Garbutt

has been writing poems since he was 17 and has still not learned to give up. His poems have been published in The Brown Envelope Anthology, and magazines (Horizon, Writers & Readers) most recently on XRcreative and forthcoming in the Deronda review. His poem ‘ripped’ was long listed in the Rialto Nature & Place competition 2021. In August 2021 he took part in the Postcard Poetry Festival and the chap book that came from that is available at the postcard festival website. https://ppf.cascadiapoeticslab.org/2021/11/08/dave-garbutt-interview/.

He was born less than a mile from where Keats lived in N London and sometimes describes himself as ‘a failed biologist, like Keats’, in the 70’s he moved to Reading until till moving to Switzerland (in 1994), where he still lives. He has found the time since the pandemic very productive as many workshops and groups opened up to non-locals as they moved to Zoom. 

Dave retired from the science and IT world in 2016 and he is active on Twitter, FaceBook, Medium.com, Flickr (he had a solo exhibition of his photographs in March 2017). He leads monthly bird walks around the Birs river in NW Switzerland. His tag is @DavGar51.

-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

-Jacqueline Dempsey-Cohen,

a retired teacher and children’s library specialist, considers herself an adventurer. She has meandered the country in an old Chevy van and flown along on midnight runs in a smoky old Convair 440 to deliver the Wall Street Journal. She is a licensed pilot, coffee house lingerer, and finds her inspiration and solace in nature in all its glorious diversity. Loving wife and mother, she makes her home in the wilds of Portland OR. www.MudAndInkPoetry.art 

“Spirits of the Night”

On dark moonless nights, star-shine unveils purple daytime forest shade.
Shadow trees, leaf-whisper in song. In dreams, I dance alone.
Deep sky reflects my soul-spirit, loneliness, my chaperone.

Here is the link to my post: https://colleenmchesebro.com/2022/10/22/spirits-of-the-night-sijo/

How Did It Go?

I tried my first sijo… and I admit it was a bit intimidating. There is a rhythm that I’m not sure I found.

The idea is to write this sijo in three lines with a 3-4-4-4 grouping pattern in the first line; the second line echoes the 3-4-4-4 grouping with more details, and the third line is 3-5-4-4. I struggled with the line pattern, so I broke this down into syllables of 16-14-15, for around (45) 44-46 syllables.

I’ll have to work with this form some more to perfect it. Notice the punctuation and capitalization—this Korean form varies from the Japanese forms.

© Colleen M. Chesebro

Park
We walk as autumn sun retreats, softly warming leaf strewn paths
Zig-zag the mossy nailed-wood fence. Sunlight glints on many eyes;
Hyena smile, tigers yawn, lions stretch out, meerkats stand tall.

How Did It Go?

I had to channel the haiku to get going on this one. The long lines are a little tricky to handle at first but hopefully it gets there. As a Korean form, bonus points for the coincidental fact that Park is one of the most common names in Korea.

-Tim Fellows

Autumn hunting

I wish the wind would blow away
the sounds of a hundred deaths

of gunshot echoing across meadow
woods and through thinning trees

the skies bird-flutter—
if only feather-hail was mortal as lead.

La chasse de l’automne

Que le vent emporte ce vacarme,
sourd et sournois, que la paix

revient dans ces bois, où des plumes volètent
comme des feuilles mortes,

couleur de sang et de l’argent,
mais parfois comme des pièces d’or.

How did it go?

Better than expected. Almost didn’t take up this challenge as I’m not a fan of the syllable-counting forms transposed from a different linguistic culture. It’s too much like formal art, bonsai trees, fish in ponds and the vegetation arranged just so. But I gave it a go, and got something from it after all. It struck me that this form is adapted to a style of imagist poetry I associate with French, so I wrote a second version, which I think I prefer.

-Jane Dougherty

Blossoming trees we were married beneath are bare branches now
leaves have fallen, winding a sheet of gold over new-turned beds.
As the veil grows thinner, we shall sleep still together, here.

How Did It Go?

I really enjoyed this. I love writing short, imagistic poems, like in the various Japanese forms, so this worked really well for me. The bit I had to keep working on for a while was the ‘twist’ and it was difficult to know whether mine was twisty enough! I experimented with the third sentence both ways round (either beginning with ‘we shall..’ and ending on ‘thinner’ or vice versa) before deciding on the way it now stands. I’d read that sijo are traditionally untitled, so have left mine untitled – another bit of a poetry-god-send as titles can be really tricky!

-Louise Longson

Bios and Links

-Colleen M. Chesebro

is a Michigan Poet who loves crafting syllabic poetry, flash fiction, and creative fiction and nonfiction. Colleen’s syllabic poetry has appeared in “Hedgerow, a Journal of Small Poems,” and in “Poetry Treasures,” and “Poetry Treasures 2: Relationships,” including several other online poetry journal publications. You can find her poetry books on Amazon.com.

F 1.23. Enbarr

F 2.23. saci

F 3.23 La Planchada The Ironed Lady

Manannán calls the new herd

At the edge, you can believe it into being. Skittish bay, water rolling
its whited eyes. Foam on the haunch. Have you been listening, have you

used all the ears twitching at throat, wrists? Repeat that old, soft spell, all salt
promises you know it: clucks to cantrip the tongue’s valley, any restless field

to solid endless. You are severed from your line and bleeding centuries and ghosts
who do not know that have still ploughed here. Each wave, her furrow of dark’s

deep. Each ridge starred bright white: mother light’s jasmine, wind-dancing lines.
The first step drags weight, machinery reluctant to let you go. The second crescents

the rich blue dirt. This wound fills. Water rushes your shape rising from the moon
of the hoof, pulses you wild. You the thing that flows, no fence in any direction.

-Ankh Spice 

How We See Them (Inspired by all three images)

Our basest natures conjure up
the one-legged imps, foul-smelling
creatures of the night,
and grief-stricken women in white,
who tend the ill with guilt-tinged care–
but the white-maned waves gallop
across the world, into the air, magnificent,
the swiftest creatures,
nature and imagination, alive.

-Merril D Smith

Enbarr

There was beauty then unsullied,
when you trod sea foam,
leaping lightly the troughs of waves,
mane flowing with seabirds’ wings,
racing between islands, green, blue,
bearing lovers from haven to heaven and back,

and if there was unhappiness,
it was none of your doing.

Beauty then you were,
and I wish the world was galloped
by white horses again.

-Jane Dougherty

Take a Sip of Wish (F2.23 Saci)

He arrives in a whirlwind of wishes
swirling around him in eddies of canary light
Feathered filaments of hope tickling the sky.
His red cap ready to snatch
daring you to capture him, bottle him.

Take a sip of wish everyday –
Will you taste the lemon tang of the open road?
Will it slick your lips with buttery lover’s kisses
or the sticky syrup of babies?
Drink deeper for the unami of love
And wealth’s bitter ale.

Tease your tastebuds, test your heart,
Take a sip of wish
Until you suck your dreams dry.

-Jacqueline Dempsey-Cohen

Bios and Links

-Jane Dougherty

lives and works in southwest France. A Pushcart Prize nominee, her poems and stories have been published in magazines and journals including Ogham Stone, the Ekphrastic Review, Black Bough Poetry, ink sweat and tears, Gleam, Nightingale & Sparrow, Green Ink and Brilliant Flash Fiction. She blogs at https://janedougherty.wordpress.com/ Her poetry chapbooks, thicker than water and birds and other feathers were published in October and November 2020.

-Eryn McConnell

is a poet originally from the UK who now lives in South Germany with their family. They have been writing poetry since their teens and is currently working on their second collection of poems.

-Spriha Kant

developed an interest in reading and writing poetries at a very tender age. Her poetry “The Seashell” was first published online in the “Imaginary Land Stories” on August 8, 2020, by Sunmeet Singh. She has been a part of Stuart Matthew’s anthology “Sing, Do the birds of Spring” in the fourth series of books from #InstantEternal poetry prompts. She has been featured in the Bob Dylan-inspired anthology “Hard Rain Poetry: Forever Dylan” by the founder and editor of the website “Fevers of the Mind Poetry and Art” David L O’ Nan. Her poetries have been published in the anthology “Bare Bones Writing Issue 1: Fevers of the Mind”. Paul Brookes has featured her poetry, “A Monstrous Shadow”, based on a photograph clicked by herself, as the “Seventh Synergy” in “SYNERGY: CALLING ALL WRITERS WHO ARE PHOTOGRAPHERS” on his blog “The Wombwell Rainbow”. She has been featured in the “Quick-9 interview” on feversofthemind.com by David L’O Nan. She has reviewed the poetry book “Silence From The Shadows” by Stuart Matthews. Her acrostic poetry “A Rainstorm” has been published in the Poetic Form Challenge on the blog “TheWombwell Rainbow” owned by Paul Brookes. She also joined the movement “World Suicide Prevention Day” by contributing her poetry “Giving Up The Smooch” on the blog “The Wombwell Rainbow”, an initiative taken by Paul Brookes.

-Gaynor Kane

from Belfast in Northern Ireland, had no idea that when she started a degree with the OU at forty it would be life changing.  It magically turned her into a writer and now she has a few collections of poetry published, all by The Hedgehog Poetry Press Recently, she has been a judge for The North Carolina Poetry Society and guest sub-editor for the inaugural issue of The Storms: A journal of prose, poetry and visual art. Her new chapbook, Eight Types of Love, was released in July. Follow her on Twitter @gaynorkane or read more at www.gaynorkane.com

-Dave Garbutt

has been writing poems since he was 17 and has still not learned to give up. His poems have been published in The Brown Envelope Anthology, and magazines (Horizon, Writers & Readers) most recently on XRcreative and forthcoming in the Deronda review. His poem ‘ripped’ was long listed in the Rialto Nature & Place competition 2021. In August 2021 he took part in the Postcard Poetry Festival and the chap book that came from that is available at the postcard festival website. https://ppf.cascadiapoeticslab.org/2021/11/08/dave-garbutt-interview/.

He was born less than a mile from where Keats lived in N London and sometimes describes himself as ‘a failed biologist, like Keats’, in the 70’s he moved to Reading until till moving to Switzerland (in 1994), where he still lives. He has found the time since the pandemic very productive as many workshops and groups opened up to non-locals as they moved to Zoom. 

Dave retired from the science and IT world in 2016 and he is active on Twitter, FaceBook, Medium.com, Flickr (he had a solo exhibition of his photographs in March 2017). He leads monthly bird walks around the Birs river in NW Switzerland. His tag is @DavGar51.

-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

-Jacqueline Dempsey-Cohen,

a retired teacher and children’s library specialist, considers herself an adventurer. She has meandered the country in an old Chevy van and flown along on midnight runs in a smoky old Convair 440 to deliver the Wall Street Journal. She is a licensed pilot, coffee house lingerer, and finds her inspiration and solace in nature in all its glorious diversity. Loving wife and mother, she makes her home in the wilds of Portland OR. www.MudAndInkPoetry.art 

-Kyla Houbolt’s

first two chapbooks, Dawn’s Fool (Ice Floe Press) and&n

F 1.22 Ellen trechend

F 2.22. Gerrit – Blue

F 3.22 The Succubus

Ridden home

Three minutes, it takes
for a sun to sling her net
of rays. At darksfall, five more
to heave home the catch.
In the ticks of lattice
between, we hang. Fished
and aquiver, mouthing
against the coming lift
to vault-blue air. Certainty.
Golden silk holds us
thrashing brief
together. As the webbing
is settling, and only
in that egg-time, the trick
fails and shows the shadow
that rides the few—
cruel navies spurred ashine
and deep into the gill.
Few can refuse the hook
and fewer still the bit.
Silver knife of moon slips in
so sharp to slit the net:
pray sharper still
for the mercy.

-Ankh Spice

 

Triangles and Circles (Inspired by all 3 images)

Full moon wanes then waxes,
maiden becomes matron, then crone,
future slips into present and passes–

every triangle a part of a circle,
each point an in-between
we focus on, a tip of the infinite.

We transform the mysterious
into gods, turn gods into demons
with claws and wings,
three-headed for the trinity of things.

We demonize the other,
fear desires and dreams,
unexplained light might be scary
but darkness of the mind scares me more.

-Merril D Smith

 

Dark nights (based on the statue of the succubus)

Such wild nights in the days
when woman was the root of all evil,
a vessel overflowing with sin.

She would come in the night, the succubus,
a lascivious spirit but oh so real,
to seduce an innocent sleeper.
Feeding on his maleness,

she would steal his seed, the demon,
reduce him to a weeping penitent,
enfolded in the merciful arms of the Church,
to receive comfort and release from his torment.

Meanwhile, in the next room,
what of the incubus at work, seducing a woman,
a girl, holding her trapped in her sleeping bed
and filling her with devil seed and a witch baby?

There would be no pity for the seduced this time,
nor the offspring, because the incubus
was a euphemism for her brother, uncle, neighbour,
and the woman is always to blame.

They were wild nights then
in those far off, dark days,
and they are wild, dark nights still,
because the woman is forever
and ever to blame.

-Jane Dougherty

Bios and Links

-Jane Dougherty

lives and works in southwest France. A Pushcart Prize nominee, her poems and stories have been published in magazines and journals including Ogham Stone, the Ekphrastic Review, Black Bough Poetry, ink sweat and tears, Gleam, Nightingale & Sparrow, Green Ink and Brilliant Flash Fiction. She blogs at https://janedougherty.wordpress.com/ Her poetry chapbooks, thicker than water and birds and other feathers were published in October and November 2020.

-Eryn McConnell

is a poet originally from the UK who now lives in South Germany with their family. They have been writing poetry since their teens and is currently working on their second collection of poems.

-Spriha Kant

developed an interest in reading and writing poetries at a very tender age. Her poetry “The Seashell” was first published online in the “Imaginary Land Stories” on August 8, 2020, by Sunmeet Singh. She has been a part of Stuart Matthew’s anthology “Sing, Do the birds of Spring” in the fourth series of books from #InstantEternal poetry prompts. She has been featured in the Bob Dylan-inspired anthology “Hard Rain Poetry: Forever Dylan” by the founder and editor of the website “Fevers of the Mind Poetry and Art” David L O’ Nan. Her poetries have been published in the anthology “Bare Bones Writing Issue 1: Fevers of the Mind”. Paul Brookes has featured her poetry, “A Monstrous Shadow”, based on a photograph clicked by herself, as the “Seventh Synergy” in “SYNERGY: CALLING ALL WRITERS WHO ARE PHOTOGRAPHERS” on his blog “The Wombwell Rainbow”. She has been featured in the “Quick-9 interview” on feversofthemind.com by David L’O Nan. She has reviewed the poetry book “Silence From The Shadows” by Stuart Matthews. Her acrostic poetry “A Rainstorm” has been published in the Poetic Form Challenge on the blog “TheWombwell Rainbow” owned by Paul Brookes. She also joined the movement “World Suicide Prevention Day” by contributing her poetry “Giving Up The Smooch” on the blog “The Wombwell Rainbow”, an initiative taken by Paul Brookes.

-Gaynor Kane

from Belfast in Northern Ireland, had no idea that when she started a degree with the OU at forty it would be life changing.  It magically turned her into a writer and now she has a few collections of poetry published, all by The Hedgehog Poetry Press Recently, she has been a judge for The North Carolina Poetry Society and guest sub-editor for the inaugural issue of The Storms: A journal of prose, poetry and visual art. Her new chapbook, Eight Types of Love, was released in July. Follow her on Twitter @gaynorkane or read more at www.gaynorkane.com

-Dave Garbutt

has been writing poems since he was 17 and has still not learned to give up. His poems have been published in The Brown Envelope Anthology, and magazines (Horizon, Writers & Readers) most recently on XRcreative and forthcoming in the Deronda review. His poem ‘ripped’ was long listed in the Rialto Nature & Place competition 2021. In August 2021 he took part in the Postcard Poetry Festival and the chap book that came from that is available at the postcard festival website. https://ppf.cascadiapoeticslab.org/2021/11/08/dave-garbutt-interview/.

He was born less than a mile from where Keats lived in N London and sometimes describes himself as ‘a failed biologist, like Keats’, in the 70’s he moved to Reading until till moving to Switzerland (in 1994), where he still lives. He has found the time since the pandemic very productive as many workshops and groups opened up to non-locals as they moved to Zoom. 

Dave retired from the science and IT world in 2016 and he is active on Twitter, FaceBook, Medium.com, Flickr (he had a solo exhibition of his photographs in March 2017). He leads monthly bird walks around the Birs river in NW Switzerland. His tag is @DavGar51.

-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

-Jacqueline Dempsey-Cohen,

a retired teacher and children’s library specialist, considers herself an adventurer. She has meandered the country in an old Chevy van and flown along on midnight runs in a smoky old Convair 440 to deliver the Wall Street Journal. She is a licensed pilot, coffee house lingerer, and finds her inspiration and solace in nature in all its glorious diversity. Loving wife and mother, she makes her home in the wilds of Portland OR. www.MudAndInkPoetry.art 

F 1.21. Dobhar-chú

F 2.21. Curupira

F 3.21 AnneBoley Hever

 

Guardians of the Wild (F2.21 Curupira)

Secrets twine themselves into forest vines,
Sending tendrils of hot breath deep into dense foliage
Prickling necks.
Creatures on backward feet prowl, track the
Stink of hunters sweating bloodlust and greed.
Orange pelts flicker fire amidst the flame flowers,
A mere breeze of falling blossoms and butterfly wings.
Unheeded
Until they slip inside sleep and untwine the hunters’ minds.

Jacqueline Dempsey-Cohen @boscoedempsey

Every forest needs its Curupira (F2.21 Cupupira)

Your hair
deer-fox-squirrel-red
sun-fired in a glade
a vision-flash
caught in the tail of the eye

you pass
stopping the noise of the guns
with your trailing footsteps
prey but what and where?

Dogs sniff
question the air
the wild scent almost familiar
but not quite.

You trace your backwards path
in and out shooing deer and hare
before you
confounding and confusing

and sometimes in the half-shadow
when the sun turns a blind eye
your fearful wild magic
turns a man into a pig

makes him run squealing
into the line of fearful hapless fire
that shakes the jays from the trees
shrieking with laughter.

Anne Boleyn (Inspired by 3.21 Anne Boleyn)

drifts through the Tower walls,
and roams headless at Hampton Court,
at Hever, she walks beside a tree
where she and Henry courted.

Or here, she comes bejeweled, the “B”
about her neck, her dark eyes without
their brilliant flash–
trapped in-between,
seeking peace, searching for release–

another victim of lust, a cast-off plaything,
a pawn in men’s power games.
Does it matter if she was willing
if bound she must be
to satisfy ambitious–
the second sister offered, the first
to become queen.

Was this always her fate–
haunted and haunting–
another spirit lost in time,
another woman in white, red, or grey.

-Merril D Smith

The last Curupira

—————-Curupira: Recently Extinct. A Great ape species believed related to the Orang. Restricted to Amazon basin. Distinctive anatomy of feet, with toes facing backwards to give confusing footprints. Aggressive only in defence of nursing mothers (any species) or hunters shooting excess game in their area. Diet: unknown. Vocalisations: high pitched, reputed to be louder than Howler Monkeys.

So we rose before dawn and walked
through the green vines and understory
chopping with our machetes
as we went—progress was slow.
Wasn’t it already the ’80’s
and here we are hunting the last
Curupira. Bonuses all round when we kill it.

Last “protector of the forest”, (Our Forest!)
and “nursing Tapirs”. We got the tracking
tip—the trail is backwards. Now getting fresher.
We load the sub-machine guns, ear-muffs on,
up ahead a twig cracks.
The world screams.

-Dave Garbutt

When Day-dreaming About Sweet Brazilian Fruit (F2.21 Cupupira)

Hanging over the edge of her hammock
hand brushing smooth surface of lily lake,
hair waterfalling into blossoms, she feels
a gentle breeze on bare breasts,
a caress of calf; wakens to see a figure,
fur covered—the colour of a guarana
and passion fruit cocktail. Looking into
his buriti irises and jaboticaba pupils
she is hypnotised but fights against his power
knowing that just one kiss will shrivel her skin.

-Gaynor Kane

Bios and Links

-Jane Dougherty

lives and works in southwest France. A Pushcart Prize nominee, her poems and stories have been published in magazines and journals including Ogham Stone, the Ekphrastic Review, Black Bough Poetry, ink sweat and tears, Gleam, Nightingale & Sparrow, Green Ink and Brilliant Flash Fiction. She blogs at https://janedougherty.wordpress.com/ Her poetry chapbooks, thicker than water and birds and other feathers were published in October and November 2020.

-Eryn McConnell

is a poet originally from the UK who now lives in South Germany with their family. They have been writing poetry since their teens and is currently working on their second collection of poems.

-Spriha Kant

developed an interest in reading and writing poetries at a very tender age. Her poetry “The Seashell” was first published online in the “Imaginary Land Stories” on August 8, 2020, by Sunmeet Singh. She has been a part of Stuart Matthew’s anthology “Sing, Do the birds of Spring” in the fourth series of books from #InstantEternal poetry prompts. She has been featured in the Bob Dylan-inspired anthology “Hard Rain Poetry: Forever Dylan” by the founder and editor of the website “Fevers of the Mind Poetry and Art” David L O’ Nan. Her poetries have been published in the anthology “Bare Bones Writing Issue 1: Fevers of the Mind”. Paul Brookes has featured her poetry, “A Monstrous Shadow”, based on a photograph clicked by herself, as the “Seventh Synergy” in “SYNERGY: CALLING ALL WRITERS WHO ARE PHOTOGRAPHERS” on his blog “The Wombwell Rainbow”. She has been featured in the “Quick-9 interview” on feversofthemind.com by David L’O Nan. She has reviewed the poetry book “Silence From The Shadows” by Stuart Matthews. Her acrostic poetry “A Rainstorm” has been published in the Poetic Form Challenge on the blog “TheWombwell Rainbow” owned by Paul Brookes. She also joined the movement “World Suicide Prevention Day” by contributing her poetry “Giving Up The Smooch” on the blog “The Wombwell Rainbow”, an initiative taken by Paul Brookes.

-Gaynor Kane

from Belfast in Northern Ireland, had no idea that when she started a degree with the OU at forty it would be life changing.  It magically turned her into a writer and now she has a few collections of poetry published, all by The Hedgehog Poetry Press Recently, she has been a judge for The North Carolina Poetry Society and guest sub-editor for the inaugural issue of The Storms: A journal of prose, poetry and visual art. Her new chapbook, Eight Types of Love, was released in July. Follow her on Twitter @gaynorkane or read more at www.gaynorkane.com

-Dave Garbutt

has been writing poems since he was 17 and has still not learned to give up. His poems have been published in The Brown Envelope Anthology, and magazines (Horizon, Writers & Readers) most recently on XRcreative and forthcoming in the Deronda review. His poem ‘ripped’ was long listed in the Rialto Nature & Place competition 2021. In August 2021 he took part in the Postcard Poetry Festival and the chap book that came from that is available at the postcard festival website. https://ppf.cascadiapoeticslab.org/2021/11/08/dave-garbutt-interview/.

He was born less than a mile from where Keats lived in N London and sometimes describes himself as ‘a failed biologist, like Keats’, in the 70’s he moved to Reading until till moving to Switzerland (in 1994), where he still lives. He has found the time since the pandemic very productive as many workshops and groups opened up to non-locals as they moved to Zoom. 

Dave retired from the science and IT world in 2016 and he is active on Twitter, FaceBook, Medium.com, Flickr (he had a solo exhibition of his photographs in March 2017). He leads monthly bird walks around the Birs river in NW Switzerland. His tag is @DavGar51.

-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

-Jacqueline Dempsey-Cohen,

a retired teacher and children’s library specialist, considers herself an adventurer. She has meandered the country in an old Chevy van and flown along on midnight runs in a smoky old Convair 440 to deliver the Wall Street Journal. She is a licensed pilot, coffee house lingerer, and finds her inspiration and solace in nature in all its glorious diversity. Loving wife and mother, she makes her home in the wilds of Portland OR. www.MudAndInkPoetry.art 

-Kyla Houbolt’s

first two chapbooks, Dawn’s Fool (Ice Floe Press) and Tuned (CCCP Chapbooks), were published in 2020. Tuned is also available as an ebook. Her work has appeared in Hobart, Had, Barren, Juke Joint, Moist, Trouvaille Review, and elsewhere. Find her work at her linktree: https://linktr.ee/luaz_poet. She is on Twitter @luaz_poet.