Lana Bella… A Face In An Endless Sea

 

A Face In An Endless Sea

Into the waking sea of stirring succubi,
I walk through the cobblestone with
measured insolence. It is my life and
yet it is not. It is a known street yet
serpents edge the ground my feet have
not trodden upon. A revised life. While
it is endured on a rewritten script. Like
curious pages from an aged notebook,
flush of spell-casting recipes and archaic
theorems. Drafted in inked calligraphy
from my hand held within someone else’s.
I am thinking I ought to shake away the
cold fingertips that I cannot slake. And
what it would be like to will my private
thoughts, and travel without fragmented
memories. But my verbal bones are deep-
seated and buried, pack together to guard
the centermost. Leaving bare the external
skin. To which I persist on as a compressed
infection, neither growing smaller in mass
nor vanishing into a fictional poem. Yet,
I know not with certainty whether I am
the vast sky or its dispersed molecules.
Or just a face in an endless sea.

 

Lana Bella has a diverse work of poetry and flash fiction published and forthcoming with Anak Sastra, Atlas Poetica, Bareback Magazine, Bewildering Stories, Beyond Imagination, Buck-Off Magazine, Calliope Magazine, Cecile’s Writers’ Magazine, Dead Snakes Poetry, Deltona Howl, Earl of Plaid Lit, Eunoia Review, Eye On Life Magazine, Family Travel Haiku, First Literary Review-East, Five Willows Literary Review, Foliate Oak Literary, Garbanzo Literary Journal, Global Poetry, Ken*Again, Kind Of A Hurricane Press, Literary Orphans, Marco Polo Arts Literary, Mothers Always Write, Nature Writing, New Plains Review, Poetry Pacific, Snapping Twigs, Spank The Carp, The Camel Saloon, The Bangalore Review, The Bleeding Lion, The Commonline Journal, The Criterion Journal, The Higgs Weldon, The Screech Owl, The Voices Project, Thought Notebook Undertow Tanka Review, Wordpool Press, Beyond The Sea Anthology, War Anthology: We Go On, Wilderness House Literary Review, Featured Artist with Quail Bell Magazine. She lives bi-continents, in the US and the coastal town of Nha Trang, Vietnam, where she is a wife of a novelist, and a mom of two frolicsome imps.

Copyright © 2016 by Lana Bella

 

 

 

 

 

 

Linda M. Crate… in love with egypt

 

in love with egypt

when everyone fawned over the tropics
i was the girl that fell in love
with egypt,
and i wanted to know all her secrets
to see into the heart of pyramids;
and to discern the wisdom
of dead and ancient pharaohs—
cleopatra stole my heart when i was twelve,
and she and her country have never
given it back;
i want to see the nile but i can go without
seeing it’s crocodiles,
and i want to see the pyramids
ditch the tour guide and find out secrets that no one
was able to decipher in the past because
mystery intrigues me—
want to dig out the heart of egypt and see what it
means,
to see with pyramid eyes
dance with pyramid legs and feel the rays of ra
against my face.

 

Linda M. Crate is a Pennsylvanian native born in Pittsburgh yet raised in the rural town of Conneautville. Her poetry, short stories, articles, and reviews have been published in a myriad of magazines both online and in print. Recently her two chapbooks A Mermaid Crashing Into Dawn (Fowlpox Press – June 2013) and Less Than A Man (The Camel Saloon – January 2014) were published. Her fantasy novel Blood & Magic was published in March 2015.

Copyright © 2016 by Linda M. Crate

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gary Beck… Belated Understanding

 

Belated Understanding

The sounds of construction
do not reassure the needy
that all is well,
while the rich profit
and the poor do without.
In a dual economy
where a few have plenty
and many struggle
to provide for loved ones,
a new building going up
only reminds the deprived
they do not matter
to the privileged.

 

Gary Beck has spent most of his adult life as a theater director. He has 8 published chapbooks. His poetry collections include: Days of Destruction (Skive Press), Expectations (Rogue Scholars Press). Dawn in Cities, Assault on Nature, Songs of a Clerk, Civilized Ways (Winter Goose Publishing). Perceptions and Displays will be published by Winter Goose Publishing. His novels include: Extreme Change (Cogwheel Press) Acts of Defiance (Artema Press). Flawed Connections has been accepted by Black Rose Writing. His short story collection, A Glimpse of Youth (Sweatshoppe Publications). His original plays and translations of Moliere, Aristophanes and Sophocles have been produced Off Broadway. He lives in New York City

Civilized Ways, is a 138 page poetry volume. Available on paperback with a retail price of $11.99, and eBook with a retail price of $5.99. The ISBN is: 978-1-941058-22-0. Published through Winter Goose Publishing and available now through all major retailers. For more information or to request a review copy, contact Winter Goose Publishing at info@wintergoosepublishing.

Watch the Civilized Ways video:

Copyright © 2016 by Gary Beck

 

 

 

 

 

 

Steven Jacobson… Sea by the Bay

 

Sea by the Bay

shoal barrier and sea breeze shifts,
intensifies and immerses the wave’s impact
on the craggy contoured coast-line.
rhythm and repetition carries
a melodic memory inscribed and imprinted
by each wave with complex circumvolution.
ocean regales and refreshes with each
breath of water spewed crashing
on the shoreline. pebbled beach
mottles the sandy landscape. rocky
terrain cloaks and covers with giant boulders
interspersed, entrenched with stability
and solidity along the bay’s entrance.
waves mark and measure, without
time to count on and continues
to slap the sea-beach with drunkard
and drenching promise, God’s eternal measure.

 

Steven Jacobson was born and raised in the Midwest. He has attended multiple classes from the Loft Literary Center, promoting all levels of creative writing. His goal is to write a second book, the first book called “Spiritual Gait” was published in 2014.

Steven Jacobson is a poet. His poetry has appeared in access press, calvary cross, linnet’swings, burningword, the glasscoin, nazar-look (romanian publication), praisewriters, enoiar review, penwoodreview, littleredtree, message in a bottle and most recently red fez and pending indiana voice journal, leaves of ink and stray-light.

Copyright © 2016 by Steven Jacobson