BB14

Yuki’s fantasia (OVP14)- Bracken Magazine

 

SFM14

AB14

Which Direction Hope? (BB14)

Last Wednesday the sun danced
only on the other side of town.
I drove west on Broadway
in a heavy rain, passing through
sheets of water at one house
into bright light at the next.

Lynne Jensen Lampe

Each Line Towards A Perfect August

From blossoms come the drawn fruit
Saturated in light a late summer window
We choose a place a dock with chairs
Sit in the criss-cross patterns of formal
arrangements

Robert Frede Kenter

Parents (all images)

Their house was low, thick with stone mullioned windows
that defended against the scarce light, cold and pale.

Fires blazed in the grate well into spring,
started again before summer was truly over.

She baked and cooked and painted, created with silks
and oils and watercolours, painted her garden with flowers.

He read and wrote and papered the inside of his melancholy head
with longings and regrets that stretched back centuries.

She dug and coaxed colour and life from the nut-shells
of seeds, looked always ahead to their flowering.

He sailed his paper boats backwards, into the wind
over the hills, the curling waves, cliffs black beneath the gorse.

They’re both gone now. I hope she tied him tight enough
with woodbine, so he could haul them both home.

Jane Dougherty

Choosing the Right Size Pot for your New Plant (BB14)

sometimes the pot
is just too big for the seedling
the only thing for it to feed on in the shadows is fear
roots will reach out
with dehydrated despairing
anything that grows in the shadows is bitter
furious and withering
overdosing light deficiency
everything in the shadows is dead

Jamie Woods

Strawberry Stars

Inspired by BB14, OvP14, SarahFM14 “Strawberry Stars”

When dawn kisses night
and tucks downy covers
around strawberry stars,
listen for the song

faint at first, a quiver of light
through the window,
but carrying
every syllable ever uttered
every note ever sung–
violet light turned rose
then dandelion bright,
time-shifted, space-scattered
lines that travel as paired parallels,
sparkling and shadowed. Constant couples
like fruit waiting to be consumed.

Merril D Smith

Strawberry Stars (SFM14)

Strawberry stars shine;
a cheesecake moon rests in a
blackberry sauce sky.

Window (BB14)

The low sun tries to illuminate
the low-beamed room. Its beams
diminish as it rises, casting a shorter
shadow as the room cools. Stone
walls and floors are ice blocks.
An empty bowl on a wide ledge
covered by the criss-cross
shadow patterns from the window
frames. Outside the grass and plants
had begun to grow uncontrolled.
The cold, the sadness, of the last time
he would be in this room.

Tim Fellows

Poetic Response to all four Artworks

AB -14

Whose chairs are these? who placed them here
who was so kind, who for the old, cared?
for long awake on foamy floor, fearing the crashing of the wave,with all the floods storms and earthquakes, I know the Beast is near
I cannot think -as I scan the vast sea
of sleeping am I awake to the Truth
Are we all wood or are there soul mates unseen, waiting to Save us from another great flood?

BB-14

I too watch from grilled window, beauty merges and emerges, it is not the last but just a cover, as the year end crosses over,
colours, lights, birds and leaves, quietly doze off.
Is it the afternoon nap?
Time, nature’s enrapture as, I click my camera, to capture…
Absent is the flora and the fertile soil, perhaps free from cativity-
I wonder-I hear a step outside the small squared window
I smell a whiff of scented tobacco-perhaps one who lived here, passed by-unseen as the flowers in the terracotta pot-

OVP-14

Address to a Gentle Tree
Gentle Tree, Your Leaves Branches Trunk and Roots,
It is with profound pleasure that I am rooted here to open before you the cuts and streaks , chinks and bars, splits and splinters , shavings and bits of the strangest poetic expressions you would ever have previously heard in your wooden life.
What happens to trees and their growing strengths, colors, parts and logs, will be unraveled expressed and waved in my poetic party-
Nature Speaks to Us-
Messages, silently to perceive
Time to Pray and not to grieve
Begin Gratitude and Receive
O Gentle Tree
The Best is yet to be-
I the colored pencil, descendant of your ancestry
Request you all to wait and believe.

SaraFM 14

Ah Childhood joys the sweets- but wait-a harsh reminder
In History, The Queen dealing with poverty of the people said
If you cannot eat bread, eat cake, or else-be dead-
Here a tempting set of bakery items, fresh, spreading aroma
of buns and chocolate cookies, tempt the appetite
But Alas, these sweet types and no more for me -the 2 type
Lovely as they are I love them-
the eyes have a full feast_the taste, a full treat –

Anjum Wasim Dar

Mother of Clay

IMAGE BB14

She studied at the Slade –
art ran through her veins.
Get a proper job
her parents quaffed.

But she rebelled
and followed her heart.
Hepworth was her kindred spirit
they shared a studio and the same men.

This bowl was her last creation
stoneware, glazed and fired beautifully.
I can see her now
at the wheel

hands laid gently
praying onto the clay
sculpting her dreams
into vessels of love.

And now as I look out towards infinity
and see all the fragments, shards and dust
she is still there
smiling back at me.

Paul Dyson

Bios and Links

Oormila Vijayakrishnan Prahlad

is an Indian-Australian painter, poet, and improv pianist. She is a self-taught artist who has been painting and exhibiting for over 20 years. Her work has been featured in several journals including Amsterdam Quarterly yearbook, Pithead Chapel, Two Thirds North, Kissing Dynamite Poetry,  and Stonecoast Review. She has been nominated multiple times for the Best of the Net. She lives and works in Sydney on the traditional lands of The Eora Nation.  Find her @oormilaprahlad and www.instagram.com/oormila_paintings

Sara Fatima Mir

Born on the 26th of July, 2007, in Islamabad , Sara Fatima is a Pakistani of Kashmiri origin. Gifted by nature with an inborn aesthetic sense, she is passionate about art. It is not just a hobby for her, rather it is a well settled heart and soul, way of life which inspires her to visualize the fine beauty and form in the world around. She has won numerous art competitions at school level. She is a natural artist and has completed the following two Courses : a) Graphic Designing -2020 b) Resin Art Skills -2022 from the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) Finishing School, Islamabad Capital Territory Pakistan. This learning has further enhanced her artistic skills . International Participation in Art and Poetry Project: Rucksack A Global Poetry Patchwork 2022 A Poetry Project by Ms Antje Stehn of Italy and Mamta Sagar of India. Sara made a Teapot with the help of dried teabags. A requirement .Its image is on display at the Poetry Museum Italy. Sara Fatima Mir believes Art connects people by portraying their lives. Different people, different drawings, different stories. Using all sorts of mediums, she flaunts her amateur talent and aspires to learn more to become the best version of herself. Please Follow her on Instagram @sketchfilez

Beth Brooke

is a Dorset-based poet and her writing is grounded in the Wessex landscape and history. Her debut pamphlet, A Landscape With Birds was published by Hedgehog Poetry in July 2022. Her second pamphlet, Transformations, will be published by Hedgehog next year. The poems are all inspired by the work of Dame Elisabeth Frink, the sculptor and artist.

Aaron Bowker

based in the United States is a super self-critical Virgo, walking a path between worlds while dabbling in art, photography, and poetry. Poems have been featured in Failed Haiku, Cold Moon Journal, The Wombwell Rainbow, and Heterodox Haiku Journal, with art featured in The Hooghly Review, The Wombwell Rainbow, and Black & White Haifa/Haisha. Special thank you to Jerome Berglund for being my mentor and pushing me to limits otherwise unexplored.

Robert Frede Kenter

is a writer, pushcart nominee & visual artist with work in many venues, on line and in print, incl: Storms Journal, Anthropocene, Fevers Of, Acropolis Journal, CutbowQuarterly, Anti-heroin chic and many others, as well as books including EDEN (2021) a visual poetry collection, and Audacity of Form (ice floe press, 2019). Work in anthologies: Book of Penteract (Penteract Press, 2022), and Seeing in Tongues, an anthology forthcoming from Steel Incisors (2023). Robert is publisher & EIC of Ice Floe Press, www.icefloepress.net.

Jamie Woods

Swansea-based Jamie Woods is poet-in-residence at the charity Leukaemia Care. His work has been published in Poetry Wales, Lucent Dreaming, Ink Sweat & Tears and more. Jamie’s debut pamphlet Rebel Blood Cells is out in June, and can be pre-ordered from https://www.punkdust.com/shop
https://www.jamiewoods77.com

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.

Paul Dyson

is from Swinton, Rotherham, in the West Riding of Yorkshire.
He says –

“We all have an urge to be creative
whether it’s art, poetry, music . . .
or just putting together flat pack furniture,
being creative keeps us alive and feeling human”

Paul gave up his day job 5 years ago to dabble in art, poetry and music, and hopes the passion in his Art reaches and touches the hearts of fellow humans too.

Merril D. Smith

lives in southern New Jersey near the Delaware River. Her poetry has been published in journals including Black Bough Poetry, Anti-Heroin Chic, Acropolis, and Humana Obscura, and anthologies, such as the recent Our Own Coordinates: Poems about Dementia (Sidhe Press). Her full-length poetry collection, River Ghosts, was published by Nightingale & Sparrow Press, and was a Black Bough Poetry Book of the Month.

Twitter: @merril_mds  Instagram: mdsmithnj  Blog: merrildsmith.org

Tim Fellows

is a writer from Chesterfield in Derbyshire whose ideas are heavily influenced by his background in the local coalfields, where industry and nature lived side by side. His first pamphlet “Heritage” was published in 2019. His poetic influences range from Blake to Owen, Causley to Cooper-Clarke and more recently the idea of imagistic poetry and the work of Spanish poet Miguel Hernandez.

Lynne Jensen Lampe’s

debut collection, Talk Smack to a Hurricane (Ice Floe Press, 2022) concerns mother-daughter relationships, mental illness, and antisemitism. Her poems appear in many journals, including THRUSH, Figure 1, and Yemassee. A finalist for the 2020 Red Wheelbarrow Poetry Prize, she edits academic research in mid-Missouri, where she lives with her husband and two dogs. Visit her at https://lynnejensenlampe.com; on Twitter/Spoutible @LJensenLampe; or Instagram @lynnejensenlampe.

Frank Colley

lives in South Yorkshire and has been writing poetry all his life. He is an active member of the Read to Write Group and has performed his poems at a wide variety of venues including CAST in Doncaster. His poems have appeared in several anthologies.
He is an admirer of Edward Thomas. His collection “The Story of Soldier A” was published by Glass Head Press in 2022. His self published pamphlet “The Nantcol Sonnets” both are available on eBay.

Kushal Poddar

The author of ‘Postmarked Quarantine’ has eight books to his credit. He is a journalist, father, and the editor of ‘Words Surfacing’. His works have been translated into twelve languages.

Twitter- https://twitter.com/Kushalpoe

Anjum Wasim Dar

migrant Pakistani of Kashmiri origin. MA English Literature & American Studies. MA in History, Punjab University. Scholarship holder for distinction in English Language -.Post Graduate Diploma in TEFL and Certificate of Proficiency in English, Cambridge University UK.
International Poet of Merit, Bronze Medal Award Winner, ISP USA-2000, Short Story Writer, Author of Novel for Young Adults, “The Adventures of the Multi Colored Lead People”.
Former Head of English Department at PAF AIR University . Islamabad.
Digital Artist with Focus on Ekphrastic Poetry.
Poetry Blog : http://poeticoceans.wordpress.com
Short Story Blog : http://storiesmiracles.wordpress.com
Three Poems published in “A Bouquet of Triple Colors. Anthology of Bangladeshi Pakistani and Indian Poets 2022”. Amazon.com