BB29

Before the rains (OVP29)- Indianapolis Review. Also exhibited at The epping Arts Show, Sydney.

SFM39

AB29

Explanations

How to explain
the perfect prism of a day,
replication sustained in mirrored patterns,
a chimera of shapes and hues

wind-surfed from another realm,
the gift of dreams, that mind-sea space,
or collisions of electric light,
like glittering jewels

on the diadem circling our world,
a tilted laurel wreath,
self-contained but fragile
as an egg of robin blue—

flawless moments treasured
but rare, impossible to catch or hold–
tossed rings from a moving carousel.

Merril D Smith

Mood rings
(Sara FM Galaxy Rings)

It’s all to do with temperature.
Nothing to do with mood.
Sorry to shatter your illusions.
I’m not just being rude.

Put a ring upon your finger,
on a thumb or a big toe.
Put your digit in hot water,
and happily, you will go.

Open the fridge door.
Your ring will turn black.
Nothing has changed internally.
It’s due to the temperature lack.

Then somewhere in the middle
Your stable and in control.
Then when it turns to violet
You’re a loving caring sole.

So just a little reminder
Just in case you’re getting lost.
If It’s warm it’s a happy feeling.
When it’s cold, then there’s a frost.
It’s a chemical reaction, not meaning.

Frank Colley

Perspectives (all images)

Some see in a curling wave a challenge,
a beast to be bridled and broken,
shivered excitement, trembling, every cell
submerging the small quiet murmurs of awe.

Some trawl with avid eyes landscapes
for photogenia to capture and frame,
glossing over water’s mirror-surface,
ignorant of the glinting beauties below.

Stars hang unnoticed, dimmer than neon glare,
galaxies Hubble-coloured,
are netted in Webb-capture, dazzling,
enhanced for our jaded palates.

I wonder, does the dunnock admire
a work of beauty, a creation,
a piece of turquoise sunset sky, or hear only
the beating core where a child lies curled?

Jane Dougherty

The Chase

I try to keep up with you
skimming the surface
tracking the ways the wind
twists and turns
keeping an eye on the swells
but as the distance closes
you find another gear
the wind carries you
as it would a feather
until I can only make out a dot
in the distance.
You never look back.

Egg

Blue egg in the woods
sharp against the greens and browns
an unfulfilled bird

Tim Fellows

Blueshell (AB29)
grounded stranded
unbranched unnested
even if it life heats
beak battles through shell
it’s already lost

Jamie Woods

Image SaraFM29

In Ancient Greece

Incest was common
amongst the Gods
purifying the bloodline
in ancient Greece.

Cleopatra, her parents
both brother and sister –
she married her sons,
there’s no shame in ancient Greece.

Three purple rings
gave entry for lovers
‘access all areas’
for the few in ancient Greece.

But the rings were copied
and lovers were many
the guards now suspicious
of their Queen in ancient Greece.

So a plan was devised
an asp was disguised
with gown and ring
the sting was set in ancient Greece.

A bite on the lip
the venom was quick
that’s how we murder
in ancient Greece.

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