FC McBride Has Poem Anthologized

Songs of Eretz Poetry Review is pleased to announce that Frequent Contributor Lauren McBride had a poem included in Kepler's Cowboys, a print anthology that features stories and poems set on worlds discovered by the Kepler Space Telescope (pictured) http://hadrosaur.com/keplers-cowboys.html.

"Green Thread" by Vivian Finley Nida

Songs of Eretz Poetry Review is pleased to present “Green Thread” by Vivian Finley Nida.  Nida is a Teacher/Consultant with the Oklahoma Writing Project, affiliated with the University of Oklahoma.  Her work has appeared in the Oklahoma Writing Project Centennial Anthology, Oklahoma English Journal, and Westview:  Journal of Western Oklahoma.  Nida holds a BA in English and an MS in Secondary Education from Oklahoma State University and is a retired teacher of English, Creative Writing, and Advanced Composition.  She lives with her husband in Oklahoma City. 

Green Thread

Vivian Finley Nida

        

At the kitchen table the girl swings

bare feet above polished jade linoleum

sips sweet tea, mint sprigged, embroiders

stems to support first apron’s wide-eyed daisies

Outside they bow to St. Augustine runners visiting

Nandina stretching behind them

The air conditioner wakes from a dream

of glaciers, blows his Arctic breath

        

Like a pine frosted by the wind

she shivers to the porch and

backs against warm shingles in honeysuckled air

shoos an iridescent fly

Envious, she looks at Kitty in her fur coat

who brushes legs and pleads

with emerald eyes for arms to hold

Glad for the company she crosses

the lawn, passes weeping willow, heads

to the other side where she sits

in flowered clover, pierces and threads

stems, chains necklaces and searches

for four-leafed rarities

that stretch luck

Poet’s Notes:  This began as an exercise using a color in the title and continuing to present it without restating it.  As soon as the kitchen floor came to mind, I knew green was my color.  With its association to new beginnings, I placed myself as a child there and the images of this carefree time simply unfolded—a stretch of luck!

Editor’s Note:  I was transported to a happy place as I read.  The green thread is woven throughout in a magical way. 

"Harbinger of Spring" by Sierra July, Frequent Contibutor

Harbinger of Spring

Sierra July

She thought she would sprout wings

When her back began to ache

Instead what pushed through her skin

Were petals, pink and gold

Layered about each other like delicate scales

She at first felt crushing fear and disgust, but

Once outside, the wind touched her new appendages

And scattered them far beyond what her eyes could see

Where they touched the earth, flower buds grew

In a thousand different shapes and hues

Poet's Notes: This one is inspired by a show called Haibane Renmei where mystery surrounds a set of girls who sprout wings. Instead of ordinary feathered wings, I thought it would be cool if their appendages were made of something else. With the thought of spring, the appendages easily became flower petals, and my character became the Harbinger of Spring, similar to winter's Jack Frost about whom I've also written poems.

FC Lee Has 3 Poems Published, Wins Contest

Songs of Eretz Poetry Review is pleased to announce that Frequent Contributor Mary Soon Lee has had three poems published. "Sheep" and "Traveling," both of which are part of The Sign of the Dragon, appeared in Ship of Fools #76, a print-only publication http://meadhall.homestead.com/Ship.html.  "Advice to a Houseplant" appeared in Nanotext, another print-only publication.

In addition, Lee’s poem "Hero," first published in Star*Line, won the 118th weekly Poetry Nook contest. It is also part of The Sign of the Dragon and may be read at http://poetrynook.com/forum/contest-winners/118th-weekly-poetry-contest-winner-hero.

"Namaste: An Experiment of Poetic Yoga" by Terri Lynn Cummings, Frequent Contributor

Namaste:  An Experiment of Poetic Yoga

Terri Lynn Cummings

Existence drifts on a miles-long stream

Flowers lift their faces

while the past sweeps past in currents

Each bloom, the face of an ancestor

fades in and seeds our voices

As rain finishes with us

air sharpens, life deepens

all futures speak in unison

We blow through the straw

of childhood, gasp

at clouds of raspberry

orange, and lemon

Sunrise sings for the universe

in which we grow

No place to sit on fluid time

since Moon circles

full bellied, feet aching

waits for music to stop

Life moves to hold still

Fingers and palms press together

in greeting. Opposing sides harmonize

Poet’s Notes:  Ideas for this poem were born from a collection of paintings. Local visual artist Beth Pemberton had asked me to write brief poems for an upcoming exhibition of her work. Her paintings included serene landscapes and contemporary drawings. One painting named “Namaste” inspired this longer poem for Songs of Eretz Poetry Review.

"Indiana End Times" by Ross Balcom, Frequent Contributor

Indiana End Times

Ross Balcom

there were cannibals

in the cornfields

the rhymes of Riley

and the songs for mother

were lost in a vortex

of blood and madness

the Wabash ran dark;

the face of evil moved

upon its waters

the farmer tore out his eyes

and juggled them like blind suns

the sky went out

the Hoosier folk-soul

was flayed and slain

on infinite smoking altars

and we staggered helpless

down the cow-path

of perdition

Poet's Notes: Apocalypses are popular these days, so I thought I would treat Indiana (my birth state) to one. An apocalypse entails suffering, and Hoosiers certainly deserve that.  The "Riley" referenced in the second stanza is the beloved Indiana poet James Whitcomb Riley (1849-1916), who often rendered his verse in Hoosier dialect. Like much of Riley's work, this poem has a rural orientation.

FC Reinhart Has His First Poetry Collection Published

Songs of Eretz Poetry Review is pleased to announce that Pski's Porch Publishing has just released invert the helix, Frequent Contributor John Reinhart's first full-length poetry collection.  According to Reinhart, the seventy-nine pages of poetry contained in invert the helix represent the experimental side of his work with hints of Aram Saroyan and Rob Stuart as well as Reinhart's own brand of visual and surreal moments.  The book is available in trade paperback for twenty dollars here:

https://www.amazon.com/invert-helix-John-Reinhart/dp/0997870664/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1487475976&sr=1-1.

“Equinox” by Ron Wallace

Songs of Eretz Poetry Review is pleased to present “Equinox” by Ron Wallace, the winner of the 2017 Songs of Eretz Poetry Award Contest.  His bio may be found here:  http://eretzsongs.blogspot.com/2017/01/announcing-winner-of-2017-songs-of.html.

Equinox

Ron Wallace

September is ending in the west

          a low roll of thunder

                    a broken promise of rain.

The fireflies have all faded,

not a cicada is singing

          there’s just the twist of a lid

that echoes in the night

out beyond  the backporch light

where the last moon of summer drops

          just over the centerfield fence

                    above my extended glove.

One last walk-off home run by Yogi tonight

brings the season to a close

          breaks my heart

finds me already missing April

moving into May,

June, July and August

as they spiral into the coming of cooler nights.

         Soon the dark will deepen

into shades of  the first autumn night,

and somewhere out there

          in the pitch of distance

                    unlit and unwanted,

I sense October, hovering,

haunting me like a goddamned ghost

          rattling chains and old broken baseball bats

in summer’s aftermath.

Poet’s Notes:  As the autumn equinox was approaching on February 22, 2015, the great New York Yankee Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra (pictured) passed at the age of 90. That started the thoughts that became this poem. This changing of seasons from summer to fall always moves me to reflect on the passing of youth. Berra, being a childhood favorite of mine, exiting this plane as summer and baseball were drawing to a close, brought me a longing for more summer, more youth, more time. 

Editor’s Note:  I enjoy the mood Ron creates here as well as the interesting comparisons between weather and baseball.  He captures many competing feelings here, not least among them the ambivalence we have for change, competing with the powerful feelings generated when we experience the exact moment of change.

"hemmed in" by John Reinhart, Frequent Contributor

hemmed in

on all sides,

I still find space

late at night

back by the compost –

symbol of rebellious

life – Thoreau’s swamp –

to pee outdoors,

justified as a means

to keep coyotes and foxes

at bay, despite the dog

and the mange that finished

them off years ago,

while my chickens squabble

over Henrietta, late arrival,

and the goats look plaintively

at their empty manger

as if Christmas could answer

their dreams

--John Reinhart

Poet's Notes:  Self-Reliance, wondrous celebration of individuals, though Crusoeian ruggeds need not apply. This is pervasive individualism in conjunction with social progress, contradictory at the molding surface of popular discourse, but leveling out just like that zigzag course of a thousand tacks, which sounds sharp, or at least pointy. I mean, why not have a voyage of a thousand stuffed raccoons? or beanbag chairs? or jello? And if contradiction is problematic, it is only because we cannot see the moon's reflection through the transparent eyeball we may or may not have become, will become, or will have become, depending on how tense 19th century American literature makes you.

"Winter Morning" by David Pring-Mill, Frequent Contributor

Winter Morning

David Pring-Mill

Being from a hot and humid South,

I let myself enjoy

the crunch of snow,

with all its novelty.

I stepped mostly on snow

Just for the sound, never minding

that it was less slippery

than the sections of ground covered

in a barely visible layer of ice.

In Starbucks, the young barista

could not resist her own yawn,

And her mouth spread widely, seeming

almost like an exaggerated yawn,

And she did it right in a customer’s face, inadvertently,

as he stepped up to order, and then upon completion

of her yawn, she laughed at herself

and it was a wonderful, goofy laugh

with a snort, and the customer smiled too.

There was a marble counter along the side

of the coffee prep area, with only two stools,

resembling a bar; and at the bar, there was an old man seated

wearing an armed forces cap, and although the man was old,

his hair white, his skin wrinkled, I could tell

he had been handsome in his youth.

It was somehow very easy to envision the younger him,

And then I saw him sitting at a bar, decades ago,

existing there in the purity of the moment as he was now,

with a beer instead of a coffee,

with carnage still vivid and not yet fused

to abstract glory; instead, with the world still at stake,

the victors unknown, the ladies all stylish…

With café americano in hand,

I smiled as I tread carefully down icy blocks.

A modern girl emerged from a building,

with black glasses, reddish hair,

and her coat was powder blue,

The lightest shade of blue I have ever seen

in a coat, and a seasonal thought came to me again,

That women look so beautiful in winter

when they are bundled, when they have their mittens

and scarves, and the color of their hair seems so pronounced

spilling out over their coats from under wool hats or beanies;

It strikes upon the male protective instinct I think, but

They seem so dainty as winter tries to pummel this land,

With lines of stinging cold and white trickling through

the tree-bearing mountains,

With chiaroscuro

in every step and shadow.

More strangers emerge to cross my path.

The old woman with frizzy white hair

and Coke bottle glasses who seemed so eager

to throw her empty paper cup away

after spotting a small wastebin by the bus stop.

Her beady eyes practically lit up as if

she was unwrapping a present, when really

she was gifting her trash to the landfill.

I saw also the little Native boy

who broke up the layer of ice that had crusted

over the brownish, frosted grass,

And for this self-appointed task,

he used both his little boots

and a marker he pulled from his backpack.

His goal was to smash it all up

into smaller ice chips,

to satisfy some wondrous curiosity.

And I am glad for winter and all challenges.

I remember summers here, going through the muck

of pebbled beaches, lifting rocks, watching

crabs scuttle out from under the rocks.

I felt guilty then, having displaced them

from their comfort and hiding,

but looking up now I ask the sky,

“God, if I am ever under a rock, will you —

or better yet, a childlike force,

an innocent and playful force —

come along to lift that rock?

So that I will be made to scuttle

and find somewhere new?

So that I will not find too much comfort

in some dark, protective place

with a weight over me?”

Poet’s Notes:  This is one of my more journalistic poems, capturing a morning when I went to a Starbucks to pick up my café americano (venti, black) and then subsequently walked around on icy sidewalks. I freely admit that all of these characters were real, but fortunately the law does not require me to purchase their life rights. Nonetheless, I thank these strangers for their cameos in my poem.

FC Lee Has 2 Poems Published

Songs of Eretz Poetry Review is pleased to announce that Frequent Contributor Mary Soon Lee has had two poems from her epic poem The Sign of the Dragon published recently in other venues:

"Seventeenth Lesson" is online at Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, where incidentally fellow FC Rowe is an editor: http://www.heroicfantasyquarterly.com/?p=2157; and "Daunted" is in Dreams & Nightmares #105 http://dreamsandnightmaresmagazine.com/order.htm.

Songs of Eretz has been pleased to publish many of the poems from Mary’s The Sign of the Dragon series.  Those interested may enjoy those poems here:  http://eretzsongs.blogspot.com/search?q=the+sign+of+the+dragon.

Songs of Eretz Frequent Contributors (and Its Editor) Dominate the Winter 2017 Edition of Star*Line

The contents of the latest edition of Star*Line, the Journal of the Science Fiction Poetry Association, is noteworthy for the number of poems by Songs of Eretz Frequent Contributors and its editor:

Editor Steven Wittenberg Gordon:  one poem

FC Mary Soon Lee:  four poems

FC Lauren McBride:  three poems

FC John Reinhart:  three poems

The SFPA is a group anyone interested in speculative poetry may join for a fee, which includes a subscription to Star*Line--see SFPoetry.com/join.html.  Those interested in purchasing a copy the latest issue for five dollars should look here:  http://www.sfpoetry.com/sl/issues/starline40.1.html.

FC Reinhart Has 4 Poems Published

Songs of Eretz Poetry Review is pleased to announce that Frequent Contributor John Reinhart recently had three poems published in Quatrain.Fish http://quatrain.fish/ and another poem published in issue 23 of Eye to the Telescope http://eyetothetelescope.com/archives/023issue.html.

FC Reinhart Publishes Chapbook

Songs of Eretz Poetry Review is pleased to announce that Frequent Contributor John Reinhart’s chapbook, “Horrific Punctuation”, was released by Tiger's Eye Press http://www.tigerseyejournal.com.