Ejection Seat

alert the authorities, on the run
dragging in its wake tear-stained foundling stars
an abyss large as a million suns
whose direction cannot deviate from
hurtling toward outcomes won’t be undone
in a corpulent mass of majesty
through telescope, the horrors just begun
deadbeat ball of gas using royal ours
persona non grata once hosts did shun

How Did It Go?

For whatever reason, this form proved to me one of the more difficult personally to wrap my head around and find the rhythm, create unity within. Something about interspersing of dead, rhymeless line-endings and varying schemes always seem to throw a writer, in once sense it disagrees with natural inclinations toward O.C.D. but then again the circular circuit and return with the repetition of the first stanza sort of bookending this formulation also feels very satisfying when concluding. One of those also which begs intriguing questions as to how and where one should or shouldn’t capitalize or punctuate. I opted for a minimalistic strategy, also observed some examples which have been more traditionally framed. A quite unique and interesting approach I’m glad Paul encouraged the community to attempt, look forward to seeing how other participants grapple with its distinctive challenges.

Jerome Berglund

Sleight of Hand

Memory was a district I left.
Often living in
Incessant rain. Cleft
We are to the rock of a nightmare.
At the edge of the moulting, deftly,
When all summer’s melodies,
Fill a flatbed truck, bereft.
Find abandoned, a rusting tin,
Place last wildflowers, display the theft.

Robert Frede Kenter

Bios and Links

Jerome Berglund

has many poems in a variety of forms including haiku, senryu and tanka exhibited and forthcoming online and in print, most recently in the Asahi Shimbun, Blōō Outlier Journal, Bones, Bottle Rockets, Cold Moon, Failed Haiku, Frogpond, Haiku Dialogue, Japan Society, Modern Haiku, Poetry Pea, Ribbons, Scarlet Dragonfly, Seashores, Time Haiku, Triya, Tsuri-dōrō, Under the Basho, Wales Journal, and the Zen Space. His first full-length collection of poetry Bathtub Poems was just released by Setu Press.