The Blood Vortex (OVP15)- The Minison Project

 

SFM15

AB15

BB15

 

While Walking

Inspired by BB15, OVP15, AB15

While walking cross the dales and hills
I met a man, a giant in repose,
seated, chaired by sparkling rill.

He sat in silence, then spoke into the air
As if I could be anyone
Or perhaps as if I wasn’t there.

But then he looked into my eyes
and told me of a massive bird
charcoal-hued who flew through fired skies

that raged in orange, vermillion,
as bleached tree stalks like rooted ghosts
admonished in the shadowed black.

He stopped his tale, and that was that
not another word he said,
and so, I left him where he sat

to travel on, left wondering.

Merril D Smith

Bloodied (OVP15)

Black veined vines invite
Beckon and contract
Into the bloodied forest
Into the beetle-shell night
Into your beautiful
Violent rubied heart

Jamie Woods

Harbinger (all images)

Burnt leaves in a paper tea pot
Brewing ruminations after
Talking to the Man
On the hill, a City Father
Who stole
The land in a signature of power
A Harbinger –
An albatross wingspan
Along the path.
Wildfires in whirling crimson
Ouroboros.

Robert Frede Kenter

 

The Call of The Blood OVP15

The wings of my ribs oscillate.
The blood flows as always, but now
I know, hear it blow a wind within,
whispering, “I’ve been worse than I am.
These jiffies bear the joy of my sins.”

In the vortex of veins flowers the Spring.
When you call I live the conundrum-
should I step out or stay by the age-old fire
that will burn me out one day,
and on every other day it warms or chokes me,
and no pill can control the swing.

When you call the whispering turns its stream,
analyses and translates your words and phrases.
In the blood vortex today is the Spring. Tomorrow?
I don’t know. If I answer you it will be true for the moment.

Kushal Poddar

Tree Phoenix (AB, BB, OVP)

Winds will come when the birds have flown into a far blue,
winds too wild to speak a tongue we understand,
their fiery breath uprisen from the tormented core.

Black roots will unclench, and birdless boughs will lift,
spread, leaf-fledged with pinion memories, wild and fiery.

We may watch in awe, the last trees rising in Phoenix flames,
but the ash will blow cold in the wild wind, and we may never follow.

Jane Dougherty

Tea (SFM15)

Water pulls flavour
from the scented, dark brown leaves;
we discard the bag.

The Wise Man and the Angel

The angel came down to see the wise man.
No shining light, no golden wings
of heavenly feathers.
Just a handbag and sensible shoes.
They tell me you are wise
she said, but how do they know?
The wise man sat in his chair,
arms folded over the bag on his knees.
His hands and face were wrinkled,
brown like chocolate, hair grey
as a winter sea flecked with white.
The angel was reminded of a bear
emerging from winter sleep. He moved
his arms and peered into the bag.
The angel leaned in anticipation. The man
looked up, shrugged, and closed his eyes.
The angel smiled, unfurled her wings
and rose into the sky.

Tim Fellows

Looking Out

IMAGE BB15

I woke that Friday morning
to an alien landscape.
Goodbye North Yorkshire Moors,
open spaces, heather and sheep.
No more ‘Just Me’ as far as the eye could see –
I woke up in an art gallery.

How can you be too popular?
That’s what they said
I was too popular.
Too many visitors
bringing automobiles
dropping litter.

I know I’m not a Giacometti or The Thinker
but I still have my limbs in tact
unlike my classical cousins.
I wasn’t even consulted about the move,
loaded in the back of a van like a criminal
and deported!

Gone are the magnificent views of God’s own county
just Gormleys to the left of me
a Damien Hirst to the right.
I’m stuck in the middle
with Wei Wei, Miro and Moore.
I wish I could become popular once again
but sadly not, my soul remains on those Moors.

Paul Dyson

Larger than Life (BB15)

We didn’t want her gravesite
to be like all the others. No
headstone with the inscription
“Dutiful wife, devoted mother”

ringed with cherubs and pink
carnations in summer, plastic
roses in fall. She prepaid
for the plot and composting

coffin and requested my guacamole
for the wake, but that was it. So I
called Donna. After all, she helped
craft the Fremont Troll in Seattle.

On the anniversary of Mother’s death
ten of us met at the cemetery—
nine to unload the statue and one
to carry a case of champagne.

Aunt Lil said we were meshuggah,
but I need a lap to climb
into and a mother to talk to
even if she doesn’t respond.

Lynne Lampe

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

 

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

This book can be easily read and understood by even non-poetic minds as it is the general public that suffers the most during wars or any other emergency so it is obvious that they can connect emotionally with this book.

Bios (Abel Johnson Thundil & Spriha Kant):

Abel Johnson Thundil:

Abel Johnson Thundil is a young poet from India. He runs a poetry blog called ‘Amaranthine, an original poetry blog. His poems are sometimes sentimental, sometimes dark; but always with a madness that’s very enjoyable. His works have appeared in Terror House Magazine, The Pangolin Review, and Luminescence (Rosewood publications, India). His first anthology ‘The Bleeding Rose: Poems of Love and Loss’ was published by Allbooks.inc.
Purchasing links
Blog: https://www.abelamaranthine.com/?page_id=9
Amazon Kindle: https://www.amazon.in/Wilted-Tragedy-Abel-Johnson-Thundil-ebook/dp/B0BG95TGHP/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=H0CIVL4UV8D3&keywords=wilted%3B+poems+of+modern+tragedy&qid=1666888623&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIwLjcxIiwicXNhIjoiMC4wMCIsInFzcCI6IjAuMDAifQ%3D%3D&s=digital-text&sprefix=wilted+poems+of+modern+tragedy%2Caps%2C277&sr=1-1
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/ww/en/ebook/wilted-6
Spriha Kant:

Spriha Kant is an English poetess & literary book reviewer.
Her first published poetry “The Seashell” was published online in “Imaginary Land Stories.”
The poetries of Spriha have been published in the following anthologies:
1) Sing, Do The Birds of Spring
2) A Whisper Of Your Love
3) Hard Rain Poetry: Forever Dylan
4) Bare Bones Writing Issue 1: Fevers of the mind
5) Hidden in Childhood
6) A Glitter of Miles
“Hard Rain Poetry: Forever Dylan” & “Bare Bones Writing Issue 1: Fevers of the mind” have been published in fourteen countries, namely:
1) United States
2) Canada
3) Australia
4) India
5) United Kingdom
6) Spain
7) France
8) Italy
9) Mexico
10) Netherlands
11) Poland
12) Turkey
13) Sweden
14) Japan
“Hidden in Childhood” became the #1 bestselling book on Amazon. This book consists of poems from about 150 globally acclaimed poets and poetesses, out of which most have been featured on NPR (National Public Radio), BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation), and the New York Times. The wonderful Japanese painter “Hikari” featured this book in her exhibition in Tokyo in Japan.
All the proceeds of the anthology book “A Glitter of Miles” went to the “Senior Staffy Club” (UK), a charity that helps older Staffordshire Bull terriers.
Reviews on the books of critically acclaimed poets and poetesses by Spriha that have been released so far are as follows:
1) The Keeper of Aeons by Matthew MC Smith
2) Nature Speaks of Love and Sorrow by Jeff Flesch
3) Washed Away: A Collection of Fragments by Shiksha Dheda
4) Spaces by Clive Gresswell
5) Silence From the Shadows by Stuart Matthews
6) Breathe by Helen Laycock
7) Woman: Splendor and Sorrow: Love Poems and Poetic Prose by Gabriela Marie Milton
8) These Random Acts of Wildness by Paul Brookes
9) Othernesses by Paul Brookes
10) Turbulent Waves by Verde Mar
Spriha has collaborated on the poetry “The Doorsteps Series” with the well-known Southern Indiana poet “David L O’ Nan.”
Spriha has participated in the following events celebrating the launches of the books:
Nature Speaks of Love and Sorrow by Jeff Flesch
As FolkTaleTeller by Paul Brookes
Shedding light on the details about Spriha Kant’s quote published as an “Epigraph” below:
Her poetic quote “An orphic wind storm blew away a sand dune that heaped all our love memories upon one another.” has been published as the epigraph in the book Magkasintahan Volume VI By Poets and Writers from the Philippines under Ukiyoto Publishing in the year 2022.
Features of Spriha Kant (Interviews & Others):

1) Quick-9 Interview on feversofthemind.com (Interview Feature)
2) #BrokenAsides with Spriha Kant on the brokenspine.co.uk (Interview Feature)
3) Creative Achievements in 2022 on thewombwellrainbow.com

Invitation to Spriha Kant as a guest of honor:
Spriha graced the award-winning show “Victoria in Verse” as a “guest of honor” in “Bloomsbury Radio, London,” hosted by Victoria Onofrei which broadcasted on January 29th, 2023 at 6 P.M. as per the time standard in London in which she recited her poetry “The Tale of a poltergeist”.
Encomiums on Spriha Kant:

The Nepalese poetess “Mingmar Sadhana” praised her highly for her literary achievements through her following words:

“There is a saying in Nepali, ‘Hune biruwako chillo paat’ (meaning a plant
with potential for growth has glossy leaves), and I feel it fits you perfectly,
Spriha! Sharing in the joy and pride of your achievement, poetic milestones”

The American poet “Verde Mar” said the following words about her in praise:

“Spriha Kant has a wondrous ‘force of nature’ spirit that shines like the North
Star and her poetry are revered by our fabulous writing community on social
media.”

Links to features of Spriha Kant:

https://thebrokenspine.co.uk/2022/12/07/brokenasides-with-spriha-kant/

https://feversofthemind.com/2022/09/13/a-fevers-of-the-mind-quick-9-interview-with-poetess-spriha-kant/

#CelebrateYourCreativeAchievementsOf2022 Calling all poets/short prose writers/artworkers between 26-31st December I want to celebrate your creativity over the last year. Please email me a list, plus bio, links and so on. Soon as possible. Today we celebrate the achievements in 2022 of Spriha Kant

AB13
BB13

Burgeoning Eucalypt (OVP13)- Patchwork Literary

 

SFM13

Beach (AB13)

Tides are relentless
No matter how hard the rock
the water will win

Cake (SFM13)

There’s nothing like a cake
to take your blues away
whatever cake you bake
will improve a dreary day
Brownies, sponge, cheesecake too
I don’t really care –
Biscuits and pies also do
the same job, to be fair.

Tim Fellows

Simoom

OVP13

The eyes multiply everything
seen through the window
of this Bedouin tent.

I halve down the number
of the arid trees
swaying to Simoom.

Splitting in two – my cairns of reality,
thus I stay in touch with
my senses and bridge those with the scene,

with the goat skin bayt al-shar,
rugs and cloth curtains,
heat and the void

I dig and dig desperately
for meaning. Didn’t they say
in zero mind finds a proof and a theorem?

I halve my proofs. A part truth is no verity.
In wind shivers the roof summit.

Kushal Poddar

This Be The Verse About Apples Not Falling Far From The Tree (BB13)

Too many inherited traits:
Rosey noses, pipped eyes, dimpled chins;
Tired, predictable facial expressions;
Bad habits and deepening obsessions.

Apples grow too heavy for the branch,
Fall straight down, hard on the grass:
Some will roll a little way;
Some will get scrumped and cidered.

Scatter your children like a sycamore tree,
Let them helicopter and spiral.
Help them escape your faults and miseries
Or they’ll leave you in a cheap nursing home to die.

Jamie Woods

Myths (all images)

Isle of Apples and life never-ending,
desert land of unicorns and manticores,
that send red-raging sands, hoof-trod, flying.

Land of plenty, salmon-wise in its dripping juice,
and wasteland of thirst, blooming in brilliace
humming with bright birds where water falls,

abundance of sweet honey, and deer
caught with the west wind in our hair,
and pressed fruit, sorbets and the slick fire of mead,

we walk in myth, dream in legends,
our feet rooted in clay, arms spread,
winged, we feel our feathers fledge.

Jane Dougherty

Online Dating

IMAGE Sara fm13

I created my love bio @ e-partner.com,
I wanted to look younger,
cultured, photo-shopped
a phew pounds lighter.

I was looking for someone special,
masculine, muscles, tattoos
and a hairy chest.
Someone to satisfy my dark days.

So I found my beefcake and ate him up,
so sweet he was on my tongue.
He brought muffins, croissants, cheesecake,
the chocolate brownies clinched it for me.

Finding a lover online is never easy
you just have to accept your cookies
forget about the calories
and life can be so sweet.

Paul Dyson

Seeds of Truth (BB13)

Me, afraid
of heights?
spiders? Nope.
Apples. Not
because of Eve
& the Garden.
No, I’m afraid
of disappointment.
The promise
of a juicy crunch
then a bite
of mealy flesh.
I’m afraid
of what apples say
about aging &
imperfection.
Pedigree. Status.
Do you fill
your fruit bowl
with organic
heirloom varieties
or red delicious?
Do you avoid
those with bruises
or waxy skin?
Disdain apples
packed in
a plastic bag?

Lynne Jensen Lampe

Between the Light and the Dark is an Exquisite Corpse

What can you make with Apples?
Muffins and pie, cookies and brownies
Butter and tea, cheesecake and bowers.
So hungry as I draw –
Outside the curtain of an orchard –
Circuitous with curtains atlases
and navigational branding epistolary.
Understanding is lost to the blossoms.

Who shall labour – who do they belong to?
Trees like wind stations. Blowing thru
blue-grey skies, so many apples
in abundance – To gather them up
from the yards, behind the compounds
before they turn rotten, to
gather them, where they fall.
As soon as I have the energy to rise and
put down reading this fascinating book
On Tropes of Imperialism: ‘Writings from
An indentured Sailor-scribe
in His Majesty’s Employ’:

— “We arrived at the
Shore of an unknown land. Rocks
And sea, sea and rocks, our Captain
Down with Scurvy, rats scurrying
Up and down the decks – We
Shall have to repair the ship before
We can head further. Attend to our
Role as seed bearers of culture and
Civilization. The world
Is a strange and terrifying place. Today,
We named this Island for the King. Though
Half of us are near dead. There are no
Fruit bearing trees. It is exhilarating
In its way

To map the abounding emptiness. This
Morning from ship, I spoke to the
Tumbling boulders of Monster-Shaped
Demons rising as if from out of the
Sea, I spoke to the endless wind.”

Robert Frede Kenter

Fallen Apples (BB13)

A man in white trousers guarding apples
Someone is knocking them from the branches
The cider makers are the chief suspects
But school children have also been accused
Then a local farmer let his pigs out
The village was up in arms about it.

The police were called in to keep order.
They said it was a case for special branch
That’s how the newspapers got hold of it.
Then out of the blue came a weatherman
He said it was due to very strong winds
That were expected at this time of year
The authorities followed protocols
And declared the apples were all windfalls

Frank Colley

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