Day Fourteen

-Anjum Wasim Dar – Ocean Pearl

-John Phandal Law

-Gaynor Kane – Glasgow Dawn

Half-Life
After JPL14

Pollution and pollen,
a lifetime, a half-life ago.
Blurred stains of nostalgia linger
Like the smell of your dead grandads favourite cigarettes.

Ahead, unknown, yet to be tested.

Front, left, a sulphuric,
sepia-drenched uncertainty,
an inbetween state,
a fractured wreckage.

– Jamie Woods

Perfect
The silence was unexpected;
surrounded by a million souls,
the river still, the air touching
her face, cool in the orange dawn.
Nothing seemed broken here,
everything in its place,
poised for another circuit of the sun
that was making its usual entrance.
The single piece of litter
bothered her more than it should.
Everything should be perfect,
eyes closed in the golden river.

-Tim Fellows

The River Reflects Morning (GK14)

Glasgow. A river town in Scotland
and Missouri. I’ve strolled
in the shadow of Clyde Arc bridge,
2000 miles away, but can only
imagine the morning air
clinging to muddy water
one county over—breezes
ruche the surface, hide
fish and stones in gentle pleats,
a river only as blue as the sky.
Sunlight glances off glass
panes, squares of fire set
into warehouse walls.
I walk the weeds
before the tugs run
the river, before the smell
of coffee and bacon,
before the man I met last
night wakes to an empty bed.

—Lynne Jensen Lampe

Fly-Tipped Rubble In A Field (JPL14)

One day people will scrape the years
from these remains,
examine them
with a forensic attention
to the composition of the clay,
the angle of their curve,
the nature of the structure they
formed a part of.
All that done,
they may conclude
this tangle of red tile and
grey conglomerate
was left there by some
supplicant as an offering
to the gods, though
to what end remains unknown.

-Beth Brooke

JPL14 (Working Title ‘Horses for Courses’)

The fourteenth day of this month
marks an anniversary of such sadness
that I choose to distract my mind
with a proposition that pottery is more
useful than poetry. Though one
should avoid being caught in traps of
false equivalence, two facts I do
admit; I fear my poems will not always
hold water and if ever I throw a
pot it will speak with a crack in its voice.

-Peter A.

The Song of the Sea

What’s in the song of the sea, she said.
Its waves ebb and flow, I replied.
And the shell holds the fear of all the sea dead
And the wailing of widows, who cried.

It’s cargoes of spice; it is treasure and rum,
The selkies, merfolk, shanty tunes;
First sight of new shores, echoes of home,
The storm, and the pull of the moon.

It’s pirates, invasions, peacetime and war,
Coracles, rafts, yachts and great ships –
Our Island’s Story, it’s myths and folklore,
With the hymn of our lives on its lips.

-Caroline Johnstone

-Caroline Johnstone (JPL14)

No mean city (Glasgow Dawn GK14)

Through the window of a high-rise office,
lie sun and shadows, green copper turrets,
weathervanes no one else but me can see.

To the north, are flats where an old woman
turns on her kettle in the early dawn,
and a man lies dying in the hallway
from another dirty score.

In the east, church spires are monuments
to wealth in the midst of poverty,
the irony of their juxtaposition
unnoticed in redeveloped slums.

In the West, tobacco-rich thick-walled town houses
hide the loneliness of the student not out on the lash,
the history of a city built on slavery and sugar.

In the South, child prostitution goes unnoticed
among human waste and overcrowded slums
where rats in the sewer and councils
ignore the unloved and unlovely.

In the centre, where the cafes and shops sit
cheek by jowl with gangland killings,
a man with a dog lies frozen under cardboard,
commuters close their eyes, as if that’s normal.

My granny sang me lies and lullabies, said
she belonged to Glasgow, dear old Glasgow town.

-Caroline Johnstone

–Vicky Allen

AWD14 Ocean Pearl

on
sea bed
a ball of brightness
unexpected phosphorescence
shines where no one looks
pearl balanced on
earth’s wet
breast

-Lesley Curwen

14. [Ocean Pearl AWD14]

As beautiful as I am, I cannot tell,
Does anyone see me?
And do they take me for the one
Unique thing that I am?
Layered on by my shell-fish saliva,
My crustacean spit,
(This rugged case made great
Sacrifices for me.)
I will not be strung into a row,
In amongst the others,
When I am the only one to know,
The only one.

-Math Jones

14 JPL and AWD
Last night, we heard explosions very close / a phosphorus flash through the chemical smoke /daylight earth by the power station churned terracotta /shattered pipes / the sewage empties in clean water / the bodies unwashed/ we have no power.

-Lesley James

JPL14

The land
Attempts to hide
Its scars through
Dirt and stone
Only to be crushed
By beasts

-Carrie Ann Golden

-Beth Brooke

Dawn on the River (Inspired by AWD14, “Ocean Pearl” and GK14, “Glasgow Dawn”)

Marigold and tangerine, spirits
awakened by the sun,
dive from the sky to glide through windows
and float, shimmering, atop the blue river–

shapeshifters, soon they will transform
from brilliant flowers to snowy doves
and ghostly galleons sailing out to sea,

where a diver will find a great white pearl–
in the sunset, it glows with orange light.

– Merril D.  Smith

Bios And Links

-John Phandal Law

is 68. Lives in Mexborough. Retired teacher. Artist; musician; poet. Recently included in ‘Viral Verses‘ poetry volume. Married. 2 kids; 3 grandkids

-Gaynor Kane

Gaynor Kane lives in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where she is a part-time creative, involved in the local arts scene. She writes poetry and is an amateur artist and photographer. In all her creative activities she is looking to capture moments that might otherwise be missed. Discover more at gaynorkane.com

Twitter @gaynorkane

Facebook @gaynorkanepoet

Instagram @gaynorkanepoet

-Anjum Wasim Dar

started drawing at St Anne’s Presentation Convent High School, Rawalpindi.
Drawing was taught as a Core subject from  Kindergarten.
Anjum learnt the  skill of  Still Life, Sketching,  Landscape Drawing, Coloring  and Shading  She recalled the scented wax crayons and black  paper sketch books vividly.

Subject of Fine Arts at Intermediate level at Govt.College for Women Rawalpindi,   was stopped by the Indo Pak War of 1965. Anjum continued her passion for art privately.
Her job as a Teacher Instructor allowed her to pursue Art work designing and preparing  Thematic Bulletin Boards and Low cost teaching Aids with the Fauji Foundation Teacher’s Training Institute Rawalpindi. www.faujifoundation.org.
This won her the National Education Award 1998.
 
Completing  a Course in Graphic Designing  at NICON Academy Rawalpindi , Anjum began working as a Digital Artist, On Line, registered her Own Firm CER Creative Education Resources 2004 and is a Member of DRN Drawing Research Network UK  and www.bigdraw.org.uk
https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/tracey/drn/
 https://sites.google.com/site/cerprofessionaldevelopment/
With her artistic skills she plans and conducts “Environment Awareness Workshops for Children” and is a member of www.unep.org and www.earthday.org
CER Participated in World Environment Day and Earth Day Programs 2011-2013
“Face of Climate Change”
Anjum  loves Nature, landscapes and abstract imagery. Works with pencils, crayons and  the Software ArtRage 2.0  and MyPaint.

Anjum Wasim Dar’s Art Portfolio  can be accessed  here:

https://www.artwanted.com/anjuartwriter/gallery/

-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

-Lesley James(she/her)

is a teacher and writer. She was shortlisted for Love Reading UK’s 2022 Very Short Story Award. Featured flash can be found in The Broken Spine, FullHouseLitMag and RoiFaineant. Kathryn O’Driscoll selected her poem Empty for Full House’s 2021 mental health live reading and forthcoming podcast. Brian Moses, The Dirigible Balloon and Parakeet Magazine have published some of her writing for children.

-Lynne Jensen Lampe

has poems in or forthcoming from Figure 1, Olney Magazine, Yemassee, Moist Poetry Journal, and elsewhere. Also to come is her chapbook Talk Smack to a Hurricane (Ice Floe Press, 2022) about mothers, daughters, and mental illness. She was a 2020 Red Wheelbarrow Poetry Prize finalist. Born in Newfoundland and raised in the Deep South, she lives in mid-Missouri where she edits academic books and journals. Visit her at https://lynnejensenlampe.com. Twitter: @LJensenLampe.

-Math Jones

is London-born, but is now based in Oxford. He has two books published: Sabrina Bridge, a poetry collection, from Black Pear Press (2017), and The Knotsman, a collection of verse, rhyme, prose and poetic monologue, which tell of the life and times of a C17th cunning-man. Much of his verse comes out of mythology and folklore: encounters with the uncanny and unseen. Also, as words written for Pagan ritual or as praise poems for a multitude of goddesses and gods. He is a trained actor and performs his poems widely.

-Caroline Johnstone

is an author and poet from Northern Ireland now living in Scotland. She has been published widely including Poetry Scotland, The Blue Nib and Marble Poetry. She loves spending time with her grandchildren, curling up with a good book and champagne or cocktails in no particular order. 

-Lesley Curwen

is a poet and sailor living in Plymouth. She often writes about loss, rescues and the sea.

Her work has been published in anthologies from Arachne Press, Nine Pens, Quay Words, Slate, snakeskin, and soon by BrokenSpine and Broken Sleep.  

Her poetic relationship with sound has been helped by her work as a BBC broadcaster, editing words on screen.

-Carrie Ann Golden

is from the mystical Adirondack Mountains now living on a farmstead in the Red River Valley of North Dakota (USA). She writes dark fiction and poetry. A Deafblind, her work has been published in places such as GFT Press, Doll Hospital Journal, The Hungry Chimera, Asylum Ink, Piker Press, Edify Fiction and others. You can find her on her writing blog as well as Medium and Twitter.  

-Jen Feroze

lives by the sea in Essex with her husband and two small children. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in a variety of publications including Ink Sweat & Tears, Chestnut Review, Atrium and The Madrigal. Her first collection, The Colour of Hope, was published in 2020 and she’s currently working on a chapbook of poems about early motherhood. 

-Paul Brookes

is a shop asst in a supermarket. Lives in a cat house full of teddy bears. First play performed at The Gulbenkian Theatre, Hull.  His chapbooks include The Fabulous Invention Of Barnsley, (Dearne Community Arts, 1993). A World Where and She Needs That Edge (Nixes Mate Press, 2017, 2018) The Spermbot Blues (OpPRESS, 2017), Please Take Change (Cyberwit.net, 2018), As Folk Over Yonder ( Afterworld Books, 2019). He is a contributing writer of Literati Magazine and Editor of Wombwell Rainbow Interviews, book reviews and  challenges. Had work broadcast on BBC Radio 3 The Verb and, videos of his Self Isolation sonnet sequence featured by Barnsley Museums and Hear My Voice Barnsley. He also does photography commissions. Most recent is a poetry collaboration with artworker Jane Cornwell: “Wonderland in Alice, plus other ways of seeing”, (JCStudio Press, 2021)

Day Thirteen

-Anjum Wasim Dar – Earth

I

-Gaynor Kane – Beneath Statue of Christ

-John Phandal Law

A Whole New World – Written With Jen Feroze’s Five Year Old Daughter

After Anjum Wasim Dar

There are no people there
not yet, anyway. No doctors,
no parents. No-one.

That’s why it’s magical still,
this whole new world.
It’s really far away from here
but not so different, really.
There are deserts and trees.
There are flowers and waves.
I suppose there will be cities one day.
But at the moment
the water is made of music.
Listen.

-Jen Feroze and her five year old daughter

I.N.R.I.
(after Girl beneath statue of Christ, GK13)
We sang cross-legged on cold floors
– the wise man built his house
Builds his dead writhing idols
– upon the rock
out of stone out of fear on a hill
– and the rain came tumbling down

Sitting among clocks and petals
in nature rests innocence
all sun rays and buttercups
a ladybird lands on her hand
tickles her arm as she watches on
in awe and scientific discovery.

– Jamie Woods

-Vicky Allen

Lighthouse
The Earth is swirling,
melting, we gasp
in its heavy air,
claw at its unyielding land.
The seas we try to escape on
are choking.
As our eyes close in prayer,
we glimpse the lighthouse
as it flickers one last time.

-Tim Fellows

JPL13 (An Irregular Sonnet)

Move in closer, so I can tell the tale
quiet as it deserves to be related.
When all are positioned comfortably
I shall begin and there will be no
stopping me; I’ll freewheel downhill
relentlessly until the story ends so
there is no point in raising your hand
to question me – you’ll be ignored.
Entranced by the blue calmness of these
waters, he speculated why someone
would pick this location for a lighthouse.
Taken by the view, he failed to notice
the wild elements discussing his fate and
the wise birds fleeing the scene…

-Peter A.

Broken Stitches (AWD13 + JPL13)

Bitterns and gulls
prick the saffron sky,
run a threaded needle

in and out of gunmetal
blue moiré. Rain softens
hillsides, nudges structures

into sea. Nature will win
if winning means erasure.
At ground level, our

oil slick of a planet
mutes light. But seen
from space—floating in azure

glow, a cowry shell
now empty, speckles
of mountains, trees

and open pit mines.
When the stars listen.
they hear waves whimper.

—Lynne Jensen Lampe

Blue

(inspired by Earth by Anjum Wasim Dar

Blue the planet and green,
spinning,
alone in space,
ours.

Such beauty, we say
in all the hues of perception,

from God-woven thoughts of a benign despot,
to the apotheosis of natural creation,
the happy union of gas, rock, fire and water.

Such beauty, we repeat and repeat,
content to invoke
beauty, awe, God, Gaia, eternity etc. etc.
so loud we don’t have to hear the warnings,

so selective in what we see,
the spinning doesn’t remind us
of water going down the plug.

-Jane Dougherty

I Denied You
To GK13 Girl Beneath Statue of Christ

When I died at age 7
You spared me. But I awoke
To the stone-tablet draft of the Bible.

Your dad was a bad ass. Jealous
And punishing. Kids told me
That I was going to hell

For having long hair.
For smiling. For dancing.
I denied you, Christ.

My dad was the preacher,
So in Sunday school, I was not supposed to
Call them liars and deny you.

For years, I stuffed you in a pillow slip
Cried. Felt shame
For turning my back on you.

Christmas, a day that fatigued trees.
Easter, an egg toss. How I loved the games
And gifts. I forgot you.

They cast your image in a manger
And on a donkey, and then a cross.
“Suffer the children,” you taught.

I weave you laurels
From a wealthy meadow
But cannot reach your granite crown.

-Barbara Leonhard

GK13 Girl beneath statue of Christ

I remember a secret place, tree-nook
where we tucked blue velvet scraps
a tender shrine for a carved statue
slightly chipped, of the BVM.

Two of us kneeled, palms pressed
new grass tickling our sockless legs
as we burbled hail marys, our fathers
and glorybes, comparing rosaries.

Mine, the best, had a holywater vial
at its heart. I thought God would be
impressed. We both asked to be nuns
but He had way more sense.

-Lesley Curwen

13. [Earth AWD13]

It’s as if we’re walking on the eye of God,
Isn’t it? This place? Such clarity of air,
The sea so encompassing, the earth
In it’s deep mud depth, and the greenery,
Oh! Cycling into goldery. Oh, and then
The light! Let there be light! And there was!
As if He’s looking at us, can I say He? Do you
mind?
As if we’re walking [Ow!] on the eye [Ouch!],
Taking steps across His [Owww!] iris, slipping
On His tears, how He must love what He sees!

-Math Jones

13 AWD and GK
The convoys and a head of state travel
divergent paths. In a vortex where bodies are strewn,
who can be trusted? The child amongst flowers
at the foot of Christ is the child wrapped in scarves on the road.
Faces in the windows of the bus
whose windows have been shot out
turn away, from the camera, cold.

-Lesley James

GK13

A child’s mind
Where dreams and reality
One and the same

-Carrie Ann Golden

(Un)tethered (Inspired by AWD13, “Earth,” and JPL13)

He is weightless, untethered
to the Earth he sees rising in blue
before him
white cloud swirl-figures dance across

home

where moonglade silvered the grey-green sea,
but brighter were the beacon lights
that once glowed high and low
as birds on beach and in the sky
warned off intruders
with star-echoed songs–

in space, he thinks he hears them now,
star-birds, like him, so far from home.

-Merril D. Smith

Bios And Links

-John Phandal Law

is 68. Lives in Mexborough. Retired teacher. Artist; musician; poet. Recently included in ‘Viral Verses‘ poetry volume. Married. 2 kids; 3 grandkids

-Gaynor Kane

Gaynor Kane lives in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where she is a part-time creative, involved in the local arts scene. She writes poetry and is an amateur artist and photographer. In all her creative activities she is looking to capture moments that might otherwise be missed. Discover more at gaynorkane.com

Twitter @gaynorkane

Facebook @gaynorkanepoet

Instagram @gaynorkanepoet

-Anjum Wasim Dar

started drawing at St Anne’s Presentation Convent High School, Rawalpindi.
Drawing was taught as a Core subject from  Kindergarten.
Anjum learnt the  skill of  Still Life, Sketching,  Landscape Drawing, Coloring  and Shading  She recalled the scented wax crayons and black  paper sketch books vividly.

Subject of Fine Arts at Intermediate level at Govt.College for Women Rawalpindi,   was stopped by the Indo Pak War of 1965. Anjum continued her passion for art privately.
Her job as a Teacher Instructor allowed her to pursue Art work designing and preparing  Thematic Bulletin Boards and Low cost teaching Aids with the Fauji Foundation Teacher’s Training Institute Rawalpindi. www.faujifoundation.org.
This won her the National Education Award 1998.
 
Completing  a Course in Graphic Designing  at NICON Academy Rawalpindi , Anjum began working as a Digital Artist, On Line, registered her Own Firm CER Creative Education Resources 2004 and is a Member of DRN Drawing Research Network UK  and www.bigdraw.org.uk
https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/tracey/drn/
 https://sites.google.com/site/cerprofessionaldevelopment/
With her artistic skills she plans and conducts “Environment Awareness Workshops for Children” and is a member of www.unep.org and www.earthday.org
CER Participated in World Environment Day and Earth Day Programs 2011-2013
“Face of Climate Change”
Anjum  loves Nature, landscapes and abstract imagery. Works with pencils, crayons and  the Software ArtRage 2.0  and MyPaint.

Anjum Wasim Dar’s Art Portfolio  can be accessed  here:

https://www.artwanted.com/anjuartwriter/gallery/

-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

-Lesley James(she/her)

is a teacher and writer. She was shortlisted for Love Reading UK’s 2022 Very Short Story Award. Featured flash can be found in The Broken Spine, FullHouseLitMag and RoiFaineant. Kathryn O’Driscoll selected her poem Empty for Full House’s 2021 mental health live reading and forthcoming podcast. Brian Moses, The Dirigible Balloon and Parakeet Magazine have published some of her writing for children.

-Lynne Jensen Lampe

has poems in or forthcoming from Figure 1, Olney Magazine, Yemassee, Moist Poetry Journal, and elsewhere. Also to come is her chapbook Talk Smack to a Hurricane (Ice Floe Press, 2022) about mothers, daughters, and mental illness. She was a 2020 Red Wheelbarrow Poetry Prize finalist. Born in Newfoundland and raised in the Deep South, she lives in mid-Missouri where she edits academic books and journals. Visit her at https://lynnejensenlampe.com. Twitter: @LJensenLampe.

-Math Jones

is London-born, but is now based in Oxford. He has two books published: Sabrina Bridge, a poetry collection, from Black Pear Press (2017), and The Knotsman, a collection of verse, rhyme, prose and poetic monologue, which tell of the life and times of a C17th cunning-man. Much of his verse comes out of mythology and folklore: encounters with the uncanny and unseen. Also, as words written for Pagan ritual or as praise poems for a multitude of goddesses and gods. He is a trained actor and performs his poems widely.

-Caroline Johnstone

is an author and poet from Northern Ireland now living in Scotland. She has been published widely including Poetry Scotland, The Blue Nib and Marble Poetry. She loves spending time with her grandchildren, curling up with a good book and champagne or cocktails in no particular order. 

-Lesley Curwen

is a poet and sailor living in Plymouth. She often writes about loss, rescues and the sea.

Her work has been published in anthologies from Arachne Press, Nine Pens, Quay Words, Slate, snakeskin, and soon by BrokenSpine and Broken Sleep.  

Her poetic relationship with sound has been helped by her work as a BBC broadcaster, editing words on screen.

-Carrie Ann Golden

is from the mystical Adirondack Mountains now living on a farmstead in the Red River Valley of North Dakota (USA). She writes dark fiction and poetry. A Deafblind, her work has been published in places such as GFT Press, Doll Hospital Journal, The Hungry Chimera, Asylum Ink, Piker Press, Edify Fiction and others. You can find her on her writing blog as well as Medium and Twitter.  

-Jen Feroze

lives by the sea in Essex with her husband and two small children. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in a variety of publications including Ink Sweat & Tears, Chestnut Review, Atrium and The Madrigal. Her first collection, The Colour of Hope, was published in 2020 and she’s currently working on a chapbook of poems about early motherhood. 

-Paul Brookes

is a shop asst in a supermarket. Lives in a cat house full of teddy bears. First play performed at The Gulbenkian Theatre, Hull.  His chapbooks include The Fabulous Invention Of Barnsley, (Dearne Community Arts, 1993). A World Where and She Needs That Edge (Nixes Mate Press, 2017, 2018) The Spermbot Blues (OpPRESS, 2017), Please Take Change (Cyberwit.net, 2018), As Folk Over Yonder ( Afterworld Books, 2019). He is a contributing writer of Literati Magazine and Editor of Wombwell Rainbow Interviews, book reviews and  challenges. Had work broadcast on BBC Radio 3 The Verb and, videos of his Self Isolation sonnet sequence featured by Barnsley Museums and Hear My Voice Barnsley. He also does photography commissions. Most recent is a poetry collaboration with artworker Jane Cornwell: “Wonderland in Alice, plus other ways of seeing”, (JCStudio Press, 2021)