Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 22
Go Where the Sidewalk Ends
March 2023 Continued - Early April 2023
Buy
Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 22 (lulu.com)
Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 22 – Go Where the Sidewalk Ends features the best poetry and fiction from 78 internationally renowned poets and authors who bring their own original take on twenty-first century life and society. Some of us stay on the sidewalk of life but these poets and authors delve deeper and fearlessly Go Where the Sidewalk Ends. Join them and discover poems and stories of fantasy and folklore, dystopia, magical realism, romance, and anything hiding deep in-between the cracks.
Where
the Sidewalk Ends
by Shel Silverstein
There is a place where the
sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.
Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.
Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.
“1) I walk
down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk
I fall in.
I am lost...
I am hopeless.
It isn't my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.
2) I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don't see it.
I fall in again.
I can't believe I'm in the same place.
But it isn't my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.
3) I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in...it's a habit
My eyes are open; I know where I am;
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.
4) I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.
5) I walk down another street.”
― Portia Nelson, There's a Hole in My Sidewalk: The Romance of
Self-Discovery
Thank you to the
following esteemed poets and fiction authors for their superb poetry and
fiction featured in Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 22 – Go Where the Sidewalk
Ends:
Lynda Tavakoli
Rustin Larson
Amy Abdullah Barry
Kevin McManus
Lynn White
Alexander A. Klimenko
Antonia Alexandra
Klimenko
John Drudge
Christina Chin and
Uchechukwu Onyedikam
Michael Lee Johnson
Alan Catlin
Ryan Quinn Flanagan
Samo Kreutz
Lilija Valis
Ed Lyons
Jackie Chou
Clive Gresswell
Julie A. Dickson
Sterling Warner
Mykyta Ryzhykh
John Zedolik
Patricia Furstenberg
Ivan de Monbrison
Stephen Kingsnorth
Karen A. VandenBos
John Harold Olson
Wayne F. Burke
Hamant Singh
Pawel Markiewicz
Greg Patrick
Sharon Waller Knutson
Ken Gosse
Laura Grevel
j. lewis (Jim Lewis)
Terry Sanville
Adele Kenny
Michael Theroux (‘Teru’)
Taghrid Bou Merhi
Bob MacKenzie
Ann Taylor
John Doyle
Lara Dolphin
Richard Puglisi
Alison Hurwitz
David Chorlton
Lewis LaCook
Irene Koronas
Daniel Y. Harris
Dimitrie Anghel –
Translated by Ana Neagu
Early April 2023 Poetry
and Fiction
Jonathan Butcher
RC deWinter
Steve Klepetar
Cheryl Snell
Joseph A. Farina
Wai Mei Wong
Gordon Ferris
Debarati Sen
Chris Blake
Nolcha Fox and Ken
Tomaro – Poetry Collaboration
Miranda Clarity
John Riley
Linda Imbler
Dan Provost
Ann Privateer
MT Williams
Deborah A. Bennett
Wojciech Brzoska –
Translated by Adam Zdrodowski
Scott Thomas Outlar
Alec Solomita
Elizabeth Mercurio
Terry Wheeler
Rose Mary Boehm
Contents
Editorial Poems by
Strider Marcus Jones Pages
March 2023 Continued -
Poetry and Fiction
Lynda Tavakoli
1. Dead Dog 17-19
2. Gone
3. Is This What I Do?
Rustin Larson
1. Four Crows 19-22
2. Yellow Canoes
3. Chiropractor
4. Matches
5. Happy Pills
6. Blue Jay
7. Angry Wife
8. Almond Fish
Amy Abdullah Barry
1. Delhi 22-25
2. Terminal
3. Off-Roading in the Malaysian Jungle
Kevin McManus
1. Everything was this Moment 26-29
2. A bell in the white morning
3. A Pagan Place
4. A cold wind from the lake
5. Opened ground
Lynn White
1. Still Searching 29-31
2. The Dying of the Light
3. The Place Where the Stars Are
Buried
Alexander A. Klimenko
1. Found in the Rushes 32-34
2. Manhattan Waltz
3. Through the Umbrella
Antonia Alexandra
Klimenko
1. Heart’s Compass 34-42
2. Art Isn’t Dead – It’s Still Dying
3. La Vie en Rouge
4. Our Lady
John Drudge
1. At a Café in St. Mark’s Square 43-45
2. New Machines
3. Summer Skies
4. The Edge of Town
5. Walking Through Walls
Christina Chin and Uchechukwu
Onyedikam
1. Five Tan-Renga - Poetry Collaboration 46-47
Michael Lee Johnson
1. I Age 48-50
2. Crypt in the Sky
3. Priscilla, Let’s Dance
4. Willow Tree Poem
Alan Catlin
1. Self-Portrait as Greek Tragedy 51-52
2. Nightmare with wind farms in it
3. Desertion: A Still Life
4. Overheard: Two English Majors Talking
5. Lady’s Room Graffiti
6. Last light on lilacs in winter
Ryan Quinn Flanagan
1. Cake Jumping Out of Strippers is Just
Vomiting 52-56
2. Trading Barbs
3. When the Guns Fell Silent
4. Making the Train
5. Sacred Cows Make the Best Cheeseburgers
Samo Kreutz
1. Hide and seek 56-58
2. Seeding time – Haiku Sequence
3. Bonfire
4. Tempest within
Lilija Valis
1. Poetry is not a Book 58-59
Ed Lyons
1. In the Maze – Epic Poem 60-70
Jackie Chou
1. The Rain on My Parade 70-72
2. The Rose
3. The Sky
4. Windows to the Soul
Clive Gresswell
1. Aching 72-74
2. Talk
3. Rose
Julie A. Dickson
1. Grey People 75-77
2. Door to Door
3. Untitled Poem
4. Table for One
5. Untitled Poem
Sterling Warner
1. Shapeshifting with Louise Erdrich 78-81
2. Wood Winds
3. Inked Opus
4. Autumn Nuts
5. Daze & Nights
Mykyta Ryzhykh
1. Five Untitled Poems 82-83
John Zedolik
1. Agreeable Empyrean 83-86
2. Exceptional Moment
3. Already Worked Out
4. Fugitive Relief
5. Projector
Patricia Furstenberg
1. Beyond the Seagulls’ Nest – Short Story 87-90
Ivan de Monbrison
1. The thieves 90-92
2. The fire that follows me
3. Masturbation
Stephen Kingsnorth
1. Re-Incarnation 93-97
2. Whitebeam
3. Dance of Zalongo
4. Tree
5. Trews Weir
Karen A. VandenBos
1. Dancing With Joy 97-101
2. Tending to Sorrow
3. Illusions of Childhood
4. The Initiate
5. The Curandera: Walking Between Two
Worlds
John Harold Olson
1. Life is beautiful and tissue thin 101-104
2. Fields of Mighty War
3. How did we get off that break-down
lane?
4. Mistakes
5. God
Wayne F. Burke
1. Speed Racer 104-109
2. Piss Test
3. Innocent
Hamant Singh
1. Mahaphralaya 109-111
Pawel Markiewicz
1. Tree-like sonnet 111-112
2. Gods and Goddesses
Greg Patrick
1. City of Refuge Hawii - Pu’uhonua o
Honaunau 112-114
Sharon Waller Knutson
1. The Chicken Dance 114-117
2. Crow’s Feet
3. Watching the Neighbours
4. Family Tree
5. Arizona Monsoon
Ken Gosse
1. One Hundred-Words, No More, No Less 117-120
2. The Noir Clown Tavern (Three Limericks)
3. Menage a Few - Sonnet
4. Over the Edge of the Final Frontier
5. The Giant Plastic Crystal Ball Candy
Dispenser
Laura Grevel
1. The Ravens Are Back 120-123
2. Songlines
3. Goddess of Beaver Lagoon
j. lewis (Jim Lewis)
1. to live again in snow 124-126
2. nobody leaves without singing the blues
3. blue sky falling
Terry Sanville
1. Panther Meadows – Flash Fiction Story 126-129
Adele Kenny
1. Exactly Then 129-131
2. When the Last Wisp of Magic is Gone
3. Even If You Could Explain It Completely
4. What to Expect of Heaven
Michael Theroux (‘Teru’)
1. Beyond the Veil 132-135
2. Slim Catman
3. That Gnawing Feeling
4. Four Magics
5. Half Moon Riding Low
Taghrid Bou Merhi
1. I Need Your Voice 135-136
2. Bliss of Love
Bob MacKenzie
1. The Friend Who Dies – Short Story 137-140
Ann Taylor
1. Closed, Do Not Enter 140-144
2. Saint Kinga’s Salt Chapel
3. Constellation Pegasus
4. Orders from Your Fairy Godmother
John Doyle
1. Gathering Thoughts 145-153
2. Hutch McKeller (Song for a Dirty
Double-Crossing Fink)
3. Amhran na Maidine
4. Smoke-Charred Wooden Sheds Still
Standing
5. Lucas
6. Marchegg Railway Station, Austria
7. Light Up Mr. Lightfoot’s Stogie
8. Sandinistas y Contras
Lara Dolphin
1. Pray For Me Saint Brigid 153-155
2. A Jawn for the New Year
3. Turritopsis Dohrnii Visits the Woods
Hole Science Aquarium
4. Edward Hopper’s Google Autocomplete
Predicts Cape Cod
5. Surrender
Richard Puglisi
1. Poem of the Summer 156-157
2. The Beginning – Passage I
3. The Beginning – Passage III
Alison Hurwitz
1. Photo Synesthesia 158-160
2. March Comes In
3. Early Spring, North Carolina
4. Movement
David Chorlton
1. Woodpecker 160-163
2. Paw Prints
3. Moth on a Summer Night
4. The Feathered Call
5. Craniotomy
Lewis LaCook
1. Coffee on Kentucky avenue 163-166
2. Truckin’
3. Flying ointment, limited liabilities
4. The Black River is empty
5. Explanation
6. The county line
Irene Koronas
1. Excerpts from gnostos, Volume VII 167-169
Manuscript of the Grammaton Series
Daniel Y. Harris
1. Excerpts from The Metempsychosis of 170-172
Salvador Dracu, Volume VI Manuscript
Of the Posthuman Series
Dimitrie Anghel –
Translated by Ana Neagu
1. A Nibelung’s Dream 172-176
2. The Rainbow
3. Trance
4. Ghosts
5. And if…
Early April 2023 Poetry
and Fiction
Jonathan Butcher
1. An Evening’s Afterglow 176-178
2. Someone’s Dropped a Sword
3. A Badly Wrapped Scar
RC deWinter
1. air song 178-180
2. dinner at café surprise
3. fever talk
4. 3399
Steve Klepetar
1. Painful Light 181-183
2. Beyond the Trees
3. The Man in the Dark Blue Suit
Cheryl Snell
1. Stay Safe – Flash Fiction 183-184
Joseph A. Farina
1. Manifest destiny 184-187
2. Behind closed doors
3. through rose coloured eyes
4. Streets of shade, sidewalks of silence
5. evensong
Wai Mei Wong
1. Five Short Poems 188
Gordon Ferris
1. Words spoken 189-191
2. If
3. The door
4. White lies
Debarati Sen
1. Five Haiku Poems 191-192
Chris Blake
1. Daoism 192-195
2. Orchards
3. Kissing Scarlett Johansson
Nolcha Fox and Ken
Tomaro – Poetry Collaboration
1. Names 196-199
2. Untitled Poem
3. Trees Hide
4. If you want it bad enough
Miranda Clarity
1. Inner Cravings of a Lost Soul 200-204
2. My Soul Walks Within
3. The Love Triangle of the Sun, the
Earth, the Moon
4. I Miss
5. Riddle Is Me
John Riley
1. If Only 204-207
2. Untitled Poem
3. The Colonel’s Last Battlefield
4. Beneath
5. After a Talk With a Friend
Linda Imbler
1. Yggdrasil’s Collapse 208-211
2. Admiring Brains
3. Rendezvous at the Intersection
4. A New Broom
5. Dilemma
Dan Provost
1. Kaleidoscope of Fragmented Sequences
212-214
2. The Poor Kid (Pincus Form)
3. Ordinary (If I’m Permitted to Comment)
Ann Privateer
1. Life 214-215
2. Dessert
3. Reflections
MT Williams
1. Feathers Falling 215-216
Deborah A. Bennett
1. Five Haiku Poems 216-217
Wojciech Brzoska –
Translated by Adam Zdrodowski
1. Untitled Poem 217-220
2. playing in the sand
3. first come, first served
4. rucksack
5. rainstorm is reflected in the puddles
Scott Thomas Outlar
1. Fit to Burst – Short Story 220-222
Annette Towler
1. House among the Rich 223
Alec Solomita
1. Skid 224-225
Elizabeth Mercurio
1. The Politician – Flash Fiction Story 225-227
Terry Wheeler
1. distant place 228-231
2. coronation
3. Babylon
4. Wichita lineman
Rose Mary Boehm
1. Aristos in North London 232-237
2. Beginnings
3. Language skills
4. Madrid
5. Preparations for the inevitable
Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 21
Underground Poets
February 2023 Continued - Early March 2023
Buy
Lothlorien
Poetry Journal Volume 21 (lulu.com)
Lionmouth Door Knocker
At
any given moment in the middle of a city
there’s a million epiphanies occurring,
in the blurring of the world beyond the curtain
From Let Them Eat Chaos by Kate Tempest
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
The
caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.
From I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya
Angelou
The Road Not Taken
Two
roads diverged in a wood, and I —
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.
From The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
here
is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart
From i carry your heart with me by EE Cummings
Thank you to the following esteemed poets and fiction authors for their brilliant poetry and fiction contributions to Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 21 – Underground Poets:
Gary Bills
Antonia Alexandra Klimenko
Steve Klepetar
Hedy Habra
Nolo Segundo
Rose Mary Boehm
Ken Gosse
Mihaela Melnic
KB Updike Jr
Ceinwen E Cariad Haydon
John Harold Olson
Nolcha Fox
Greg Patrick
Ursula O’Reilly
Wayne F. Burke
Marianne Szlyk
Leslaw Nowara
Irma Kurti
J.D. Isip
Louise Ceres (MT Ceres)
David Mampel
Julie A. Dickson
Steve Spence
E.P. Lande
Frances Gaudiano
David Conte
Terri Metcalfe
Thomas Elson
Irina Tall (Novikova)
L. Sydney Abel
Fran R. Schumer
Ian Mullins
Alfredo Quarto
Dominic Rivron
Michael Neal Morris
Michael La Bombarda
Greg Bell
Norman Cristofoli
Prithvijeet Sinha
Christina Chin and Uchechukwu
Onyedikam
Bob MacKenzie
Karen Warinsky
Tim Suermondt
Wendy Webb
Michael H. Brownstein
Christine Tabaka
Lawrence Wilson
Oormila Vijayakrishnan Prahlad
Roy J. Adams
Laura Stamps
Christopher Barnes
Marina Richie
Daipayan Nair
Snigdha Agrawal
Cliff Wedgbury
KB Ballentine
Paul Ilechko
Gabor Gyukics
Joseph Farley
Patrick Connors
Susan Wilson
Mark Young
Elena Malec
Gale Acuff
Marie C. Lecrivain
Darren Lynch
Jay Passer
Angel Edwards
Bob Eager
Sushant Thapa
Contents
February 2023 continued
Gary Bills
1.
The Practical Impossibility of
Spring
17-21
2.
If the Trees Are Brave
3.
Etruscan Frescoes
4.
To Turn With Shells
5.
Late Hours
6.
Love’s Young Dreams
7.
Haunted
Antonia Alexandra Klimenko
1.
My Dark
Angels
21-26
2.
Thou Art
3.
Under the Corner of Your Pillow
Steve Klepetar
1.
Out of
Town
27-29
2.
A New Roof
3.
Who You Meet
Hedy Habra
1.
Once Upon a Time in Prague, a
Word
29-32
2.
Untold Tale(s) of Unfinished Tapestry
Nolo Segundo
1.
A Child’s Christmas
Carol
32-37
2.
After Costco, Before Ukraine
3.
Love Is Not Known
4.
Ocean City
5.
Tasting Eternity
Rose Mary Boehm
1.
Mbaya – Short
Story
37-40
Ken Gosse
1.
My First and
Only
41-43
2.
Commence Advancing
3.
Often Upon A Time, Long, Long Ago
4.
When Some Totals Don’t Add Up
5.
A Valentine’s Day
Epitaph
Mihaela Melnic
1.
A Reason
Enough
44-45
2.
If Time Is Ours
3.
History
KB Updike Jr
1.
Agarial’s Plight – Flash Fiction
Story
45-47
Ceinwen E Cariad Haydon
1.
the
first
47-50
2.
Four Leafed Clover
3.
Thin Skinned
John Harold Olson
1.
Lost at the
Fair
50-53
2.
My Autumn Girlfriend
3.
Quarterback Sneak
4.
Hammock
Nolcha Fox
1.
Everything
moves
54-55
2.
Make a space
3.
Grief is a wilted
4.
Stay in place
5.
Twelve Months
Greg Patrick
1.
Lady of the Dark Horses – Prose
Poem
56-66
2.
Huntsman After Night – Prose Poem
Ursula O’Reilly
1.
Queen of the
Fae
66-68
2.
Waiting
3.
Rascal
4.
Faery Queen
Wayne F. Burke
1.
Friends
69-71
2.
Black Shoe
3.
Cold Snow World
4.
Untitled Poem
5.
Dream
Marianne Szlyk
1.
At Lake
Greenbelt
71-75
2.
Why I Walk Up Rockville Pike
3.
After Dwight William Tryon’s “Winter” (1893)
4.
Winter: Central Park
5.
On the First Day of the New Year
Leslaw Nowara
1.
What can’t be said of the
sparrow
75-78
2.
Distinguishing marks
3.
Magic bullets
4.
Maybe you can make it in time
5.
The protest
Irma Kurti
1.
Delicate
Souls
79-82
2.
People Want Your Smile
3.
The Spectacle of the Sky
4.
Only a Shadow
5.
An Autumn Day
J.D. Isip
1.
The Blue
Morphos
82-85
2.
Arwen at the River
3.
Heroes
4.
Ariel
5.
El Roi
Louise Ceres (MT Ceres)
1.
Charyia Seastorm’s Shanty – short
version
86-88
2.
Bone Song
3.
The Western Gate
4.
Eleri Imole
David Mampel
1.
The Accidental Light – Short
Story
89-93
Julie A. Dickson
1.
Caroline doesn’t
scream
93-96
2.
Single Bird
3.
I am a rock
4.
First Apartment
5.
Biting
Steve Spence
1.
Mobiloil
Arctic
96-99
2.
Facing the Demons
3.
Slow to Clear
4.
Smoothing the Transitions
5.
Drawing us in
E.P. Lande
1.
Wishes – Short
Story 100-103
Frances Gaudiano
1.
Doctor
Mermaid
104-106
2.
The Barnacle’s Penis
3.
The Boxing Day Swim
4.
At the bottom of the stairs
David Conte
1.
Milo Meets His Match – Short
Story
107-109
Terri Metcalfe
1.
Christmas
Time
109-113
2.
Into the City on a Whim
3.
Atoms
4.
Hitching
5.
Winter Sunrise Over Galway
Thomas Elson
1.
Years and Yearbooks
113-116
2.
Ecce Homo
3.
How to Start Your Day Without Coffee
Irina Tall (Novikova)
1.
Pass the moments with the pain of
words
116-121
2.
In the abyss of fallen doubts
3.
Heart Pinched
4.
A couple of lines, face and eyes curled up like a big snake
5.
Heart in the last beat
6.
There is a cup in your hand, and there is black water…
7.
Shadows leave blue marks on the transparent curtain…
8.
blue mug
9.
The Bus Travels – Flash Fiction Story
L. Sydney Abel
1.
Crown of
Thorns
121-123
2.
Touching You
3.
Aspect Immediate
4.
Rip Us Apart
5.
Come Together
Fran R. Schumer
1.
First
Snow
123-127
2.
R.I.P.
3.
Market Hill Road
4.
Parade
Ian Mullins
1.
Taking
Control
127-131
2.
All At Sea
3.
Cancelling
4.
Get Lucky
Alfredo Quarto
1.
River
Stones
131-135
2.
For All of You
3.
The Song of the Wild Geese
4.
Butterfly Clouds Dim the Light of Reason
5.
Ripples Across Lake Constance
Dominic Rivron
1.
The Tower – Flash Fiction
Story
135-137
Michael Neal Morris
1.
slow
waking
137-139
2.
August
3.
Sacked
4.
After Frost
5.
Climb
Michael La Bombarda
1.
The Golden
Age
140-144
2.
An Elegy for My Mother
3.
Walking Up Lafayette Street
4.
A Young Lady
5.
Vermont
Greg Bell
1.
Offering!
145-149
2.
T’ai Chi Moon
3.
Moon Song
4.
27 Astral Waves
5.
The Key
Norman Cristofoli
1.
Vision in the
Woods
150-153
2.
Akhenaten
3.
Angel Number Three
4.
Child’s Poem by the Irish Sea
5.
The Gathering
Prithvijeet Sinha
1.
Ringlets
153-159
2.
Mt. Luna
3.
Part One
Christina Chin and Uchechukwu
Onyedikam
1.
Ten Poems – Poetry
Collaboration
159-162
Early March 2023 – Poetry and Fiction
Bob MacKenzie
1.
earth that is me breathes every
moon
163-168
2.
mourning dove
3.
the thoughts unspoken the lady aged
4.
tolerance
5.
sunrise through a bottomless mug
Karen Warinsky
1.
Where Greatness
Lay
169-173
2.
Judy Woodruff Makes it Palatable
3.
Nazi Breakfast
4.
Precipice
5.
Toward the Horizon
Tim Suermondt
1.
Like
Moths
173-177
2.
Samurai
3.
Nathan Road
4.
The Agenda
5.
The Coolness of the Day
Wendy Webb
1.
Eden: Birds and
Beer
177-183
2.
To the People of a Hundred Years’ Time
3.
Heaven’s Smile (Glosa)
4.
Beneath the Oak in Summer
Michael H. Brownstein
1.
Subtitle Within the Mould of
Cheese
183-184
2.
Scream Writing
Christine Tabaka
1.
Nothing Will Ever Be the Same
Again
184-186
2.
The End is in Sight
3.
Learning to Climb the Mountain
Lawrence Wilson
1.
Detectable
186-189
2.
Myth Making
3.
Remember This
4.
Spiral Learning
5.
Thorns
Oormila Vijayakrishnan Prahlad
1.
Deciduous
189-192
2.
Bokeh
3.
Icarus
4.
Kintsugi
5.
Endings
Roy J. Adams
1.
Blasting Elvis and Buddy
Holly
193
2.
My Heart Trembles
Laura Stamps
1.
Bullet
194
Christopher Barnes
1.
Townscape
21
195-196
2.
Townscape 22
3.
Townscape 23
4.
Townscape 24
5.
Townscape 25
Marina Richie
1.
Last
Race
197-199
2.
Longing – a Cinquain Poem
3.
Evensong
4.
Questions for Raven Watchers
5.
I Want
Daipayan Nair
1.
Ten Senryu
Poems
200-201
Snigdha Agrawal
1.
All In the Eyes – Short
Story
202-204
Cliff Wedgbury
1.
black
scarf
204-206
2.
by Oxford circus
3.
tea with dad
KB Ballentine
1.
After the Flames,
Flight
206-209
2.
To Catch the Light
3.
Fragments of Grace
4.
Hiraeth
Paul Ilechko
1.
Sonnet for Mountain
Ash
209-214
2.
Once in Sinai
3.
Thanksgiving Sonnet
4.
Nation Building
5.
Burning Landscape Sonnet
Gabor Gyukics
1.
deep sea calm at low
tide
214-216
2.
deep sea calm at high tide
3.
present is god’s sandwich wedged between past and future
4.
aim and look aside
5.
small coffee with two cubes of sugar
Joseph Farley
1.
Quackers – Short
Story
216-219
Patrick Connors
1.
Juice
219-220
Susan Wilson
1.
Aerial
Views
220-222
2.
Its My Turn to Learn
3.
Trailing Links
4.
Mira Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
Mark Young
1.
Baedeker
223-226
2.
Melancholy
3.
Today’s List
4.
Ersatz in the 21st Century
5.
incidental molasses
Elena Malec
1.
Simply
Magic
226-228
2.
Recognition
3.
The Biology Lesson
Gale Acuff
1.
Nobody lives forever, not even
228-231
2.
Someday I’ll die but I don’t want to die
3.
I hate everybody-no, that’s not true
4.
I’ll go to Hell when I die for the sin
5.
Everybody wants go to Heaven
Marie C. Lecrivain
1.
Fortunes Bitch - Short
Story
231-235
Darren Lynch
1.
Breath of
Winter
236-238
2.
The Tavern of Swallows
3.
Bridge of Conception
4.
The Break of Cronus
Jay Passer
1.
Squeamish like a Dumbass in Cahoots with
Fascists
239-240
Angel Edwards
1.
Phantom
Harem
240-241
Bob Eager
1.
Trash Bag Therapy
241-242
Sushant Thapa
1.
Loaded
Mind
242-243
Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 20
End of December 2022 - Early February 2023
Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 20 – Masks of Many Colours
features 247 pages of the best contemporary poetry, fiction and fantasy from
more than 70 internationally renowned poets and fiction authors. Join them,
with or without masks, on this journey through life and its myriad
relationships, real and imagined, where folklore, romance, realism and dystopia
mingle and merge casting light on secrets and shadows.
"It's in literature that true life can be found. It's under the mask of fiction that you can tell the truth."
- Gao Xingjian.
"Wit is often a mask. If you tear it you will find either genius irritated or cleverness juggling."
- Khalil Gibran.
"Would you make no distinction between hypocrisy and devotion? Would you give them the same names, and respect the mask as you do the face? "
- Moliere.
"I've never been able to understand the seriousness of it all, the seriousness of pride. People talk, act, live as if they're never going to die. And what do they leave behind? Nothing. Nothing but a mask."
- Bob Dylan.
"You trade in your reality for a role. You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask."
- Jim Morrison.
"Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within."
- James A. Baldwin.
"Humor is the mask of wisdom."
- Friedrich Durrenmatt.
"Every profound spirit needs a mask."
- Friedrich Nietzsche.
Virtue has a veil, vice a mask."
- Victor Hugo.
"Stripped of all their masquerades, the fears of men are
quite identical: the fear of loneliness, rejection, inferiority, unmanageable
anger, illness and death."
- Joshua L. Liebman.
"The trouble with a mask is it never changes."
- Charles Bukowski.
"Mortals are equal; their mask differs."
- Voltaire.
"It was a dance of masks and every mask was perfect because
every mask was a real face and every face was a real mask so there was no mask
and there was no face for there was but one dance."
- Leonard Cohen.
"It’s true, we’re locked in an image, an act, and the sad thing is, people get so used to their image, they grow attached to their masks."
- Jim Morrison.
"Society is a masked ball, where everyone hides his real character, and reveals it by hiding."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson.
"Life is a mask through which the universe expresses itself."
- Frank Herbert.
Tale
Of A Tub
by Sylvia Plath
The photographic chamber of the eye
records bare painted walls, while an electric light
lays the chromium nerves of plumbing raw;
such poverty assaults the ego; caught
naked in the merely actual room,
the stranger in the lavatory mirror
puts on a public grin, repeats our name
but scrupulously reflects the usual
terror.
Just how guilty are we when the ceiling
reveals no cracks that can be decoded? when washbowl
maintains it has no more holy calling
than physical ablution, and the towel
dryly disclaims that fierce troll faces lurk
in its explicit folds? or when the window,
blind with steam, will not admit the dark
which shrouds our prospects in ambiguous shadow?
Twenty years ago, the familiar tub
bred an ample batch of omens; but now
water faucets spawn no danger; each crab
and octopus -- scrabbling just beyond the view,
waiting for some accidental break
in ritual, to strike -- is definitely gone;
the authentic sea denies them and will pluck
fantastic flesh down to the honest
bone.
We take the plunge; under water our limbs
waver, faintly green, shuddering away
from the genuine color of skin; can our dreams
ever blur the intransigent lines which draw
the shape that shuts us in? absolute fact
intrudes even when the revolted eye
is closed; the tub exists behind our back;
its glittering surfaces are blank and
true.
Yet always the ridiculous nude flanks urge
the fabrication of some cloth to cover
such starkness; accuracy must not stalk at large:
each day demands we create our whole world over,
disguising the constant horror in a coat
of many-colored fictions; we mask our past
in the green of Eden, pretend future's shining fruit
can sprout from the navel of this
present waste.
In this particular tub, two knees jut up
like icebergs, while minute brown hairs rise
on arms and legs in a fringe of kelp; green soap
navigates the tidal slosh of seas
breaking on legendary beaches; in faith
we shall board our imagined ship and wildly sail
among sacred islands of the mad till death
shatters the fabulous stars and makes us real.
Thank you to the following internationally
renowned poets and fiction authors for their superb contributions in this
volume of Lothlorien Poetry Journal:
End of December 2022 - Poetry and Fiction
Marilyn Humbert
Martin Ferguson
Dr. Anissa Sboui
Jeremy Proehl
Christina Chin, M.R. Defibaugh and Linda
Ludwig
Tom Laughlin
Dr. Anushna Biswas
Neil Fulwood
Snighda Agrawal
Dennis Daly
Joseph A. Farina
Scott C. Kaestner
John Doyle
Lee Clark Zumpe
January 2023 – Poems and Fiction
Lauren Scharhag
John Drudge
Richard Skinner
Antonia Alexandra Klimenko
Keith Snow
Lorraine Caputo
Ace Boggess
Susan Wilson
Nate Jacob
Margaret Duda
Ram Krishna Singh (R.K. Singh)
Shelley Tracey
Jim Meirose
Miriam Manglani
Susan Isla Tepper
Neal Whitman
Sharon Whitehill
James Higgins
Dr. Mona Bedi
Angela Hoffman
Mykyta Ryzhykh
Gina Maria Manchego and Richard M. Ankers
Ozan Baygin
Shelly Blankman
Gary Glauber
Deborah A.
Bennett
Digby Beaumont
Lilija Valis
Rustin Larson
Michael T. Young
Ryan Keating
Nathan Anderson
Matthew Borczon
Royal Rhodes
R.A. Clarke
Ken Allan Dronsfield
Amanda Erin Miller
Gordon Ferris
Ken Goodman
Margaret Duda
February 2023 – Poetry and Fiction
Hansha Teki
Julie Ann Thomason
R. Gerry Fabian
Barbara Anna Gaiardoni
Mariel Herbert
Stephen House
Linda King
Bhuwan Thapaliya
Samuel Armen
Ivars Balkit
Nancy Taylor
Jeanne Griggs
Gabriel Awuah Mainoo
Kenneth M. Kapp
Borkhan
Contents
Editorial Poems by Strider Marcus Jones Pages
End of December 2022 - Poetry and Fiction
Marilyn Humbert
1.
In-between-time
16-17
2.
Lost in the City
3.
Gariwerd
Martin Ferguson
1.
Landing
Clear
17-20
2.
A Devil
3.
Anting
4.
Cohabiter
5.
Hypnagogia
Dr. Anissa Sboui
1.
Alone – Flash
Fiction
21-26
2.
The Moody Bookworm – Short Story
Jeremy Proehl
1.
Cedar
26-30
2.
Mourning Dove
3.
I Do Not Speak
4.
Shadow
5.
Mercy
Christina Chin, M.R. Defibaugh and Linda
Ludwig
1.
Early birds - Collaborative
Cherita
30-31
2.
Community park
3.
Call for rain
Tom Laughlin
1.
Finding Woodrow in the Walker
Museum…
32-36
2.
In the Woods
3.
I am a long way away
4.
You, Ocean
5.
Wood Originally
Dr. Anushna Biswas
1.
Heads in
Heaven
36-39
2.
Grey Scape
3.
In Quest of Dream
4.
Waiting for Gaze
5.
Death of an Escapist
Neil Fulwood
1.
L’Esprit De
L’Escalier
40-43
2.
Drive It Like It’s Stolen
3.
Three Vultures Look at a Poet
4.
Lunch Break, Late Shift
5.
Recidivist
Snighda Agrawal
1.
Ten Tanka, Haiku and
Senryu
43-45
Dennis Daly
1.
Bypassing the All-Souls
Lounge
46-47
2.
Ash Wednesday at the All-Souls Lounge
3.
Boethius Has Second Thoughts at the All-Souls Lounge
Joseph A. Farina
1.
Eustius at
Christmas
48-54
2.
Eustius at forty
3.
Eustius at Sixty-five
4.
Eustius clay
5.
getting festive
6.
Eustius on the shore
Scott C. Kaestner
1.
The Rhythm of
Incandescence
54-56
2.
Wonder
3.
Nuclear Codes
John Doyle
1.
Hot Potatoes (for Abstaining
Comrades)
57-59
2.
Iwaskingofthefuckinghill
3.
Autumn Bedding Plants for Sale
4.
Abnormal Service Resumed
Lee Clark Zumpe
1.
Dread of the Blackk Gor – Short
Story
59-64
January 2023 – Poems and Fiction
Lauren Scharhag
1.
Medusa Browses the Beauty
Aisle
65-70
2.
The Ghost Forest
3.
Curse of the Spider Woman
4.
Snakes and Boxes
5.
Root
John Drudge
1.
Another
Place
71-74
2.
Autumn in the Valley
3.
Disintegration
4.
New Math
5.
The Search
Richard Skinner
1.
Lavender
(remix)
74
Antonia Alexandra Klimenko
1.
Glass
Nobodies
74-79
2.
Of Papa Who Sang in the Opera
Keith Snow
1.
Moth
Poem
80-81
2.
Ignorance is Abyss
3.
United Sarcasm
Lorraine Caputo
1.
The
Hunt
81-83
2.
Spirit Bolom
3.
Wisdom
4.
Animal Dreams
Ace Boggess
1.
All that is Offered, I
Embrace
83-86
2.
Street Sweeper
3.
Best Advice
4.
A Good Lover Knows How to Sing
5.
Neruda for You
Susan Wilson
1.
How Far is Near? How Near is
Far
86-89
2.
Diva on a Dive
3.
Goodbye Sam, Hello Samantha
4.
The Man with the Hat
5.
Exiled to Freedom
Nate Jacob
1.
Mortgaging
Paradise
90-95
2.
Bright Eyes and a Cloud of Coffee
3.
Barista as Superhero
4.
The Heart Wants
5.
A Senseless Joke
Margaret Duda
1.
Seeing Gracie Hall – Short
Story
95-103
Ram Krishna Singh (R.K. Singh)
1.
Tanka and Haiku
Poems
103-105
Shelley Tracey
1.
The Properties of
Glass
106-108
2.
Kindling
3.
Seeing in the dark
4.
Waitingscapes
Jim Meirose
1.
Out the End of the Dark – Short
Story
109-114
Miriam Manglani
1.
Dream Lover
114-118
2.
The Big Lice
3.
Falling to New Heights
4.
Ode to My Breasts
5.
My Father’s Yahrzeit
Susan Isla Tepper
1.
Oblivion
118
Neal Whitman
1.
The Last
Laugh
119-122
2.
Pepperoni Pizza just before Bedtime
3.
If I Say It Won’t Work, My Clients Go All In
4.
A Punch in the Nose or a Bop on the Head
5.
Martial Law
Sharon Whitehill
1.
Ode to the
Mushroom
123-128
2.
Water Snakes
3.
The Perverted Imp
4.
A Several World
5.
Bits and
Pieces
James Higgins
1.
Torn
Photograph
128-133
2.
Trying on Hats
3.
Time
4.
Train Watch
5.
Flight
Dr. Mona Bedi
1.
Six Haiku
Poems
133-134
Angela Hoffman
1.
Regret
134-137
2.
Threads
3.
loVe
4.
Commitment
5.
We Were In It Together
Mykyta Ryzhykh
1.
Poem -
Untitled
137-138
2.
Poem - Untitled
3.
Poem - Untitled
Gina Maria Manchego and Richard M. Ankers
1.
Other Autumns – Flash
Fiction
139-141
Ozan Baygin
1.
The Fig Tree – Translated by Sila Ellie
Kutu
141-142
2.
Anthill in Handprint
3.
Bad Trip
Shelly Blankman
1.
The
Villain
143-147
2.
Legacy
3.
Remembering Freya
4.
The Dark Window
5.
Tropes
Gary Glauber
1.
Option
147-153
2.
One Bad Man Leads to Another
3.
Crisis of Reflection
Deborah A.
Bennett
1.
Five Haiku
Poems
153-154
Digby Beaumont
1.
Falling in
Love
154-155
2.
What’s Mine is Yours
3.
The Nature of Being
Lilija Valis
1.
Neighbourhood
Star
155-160
2.
Eight
3.
10
Rustin Larson
1.
Poem Beginning in Iowa and Ending in Round Top..160-166
2.
Hamburgers
3.
Transplants
4.
Photos from 1947
5.
Bottle and Glass
Michael T. Young
1.
By Phoenix
Fires
167-171
2.
Learning the Right Words
3.
The Land of Sweet Dreams
4.
Mistaking Each Other for Gods
5.
Finding the Song
Ryan Keating
1.
To
Seeking
171-174
2.
Flamingos in the Salon
3.
Stretch
4.
Or My Skin
5.
Elisha and His Servant
Nathan Anderson
1.
Empty Sentence + Vanity
+
175-181
2.
Glass Magnolia House
3.
Levitating [sentence]=pulp
4.
Persimmon Symphony (otherwise)
5.
Promulgated (tepid+tepid+tepid)
Matthew Borczon
1.
My third year of
college
182-183
2.
On the drive to work I pretend I am someone else
3.
The vet
Royal Rhodes
1.
Bog
Boy
184-189
2.
Halley’s Comet
3.
Hansel and Gretel
4.
Childhood
5.
Being Young in Truro
R.A. Clarke
1.
Friday – Flash Fiction
Story
190-192
Ken Allan Dronsfield
1.
Beckoning Sea (version
3)
192-195
2.
Weightless in Snow
3.
Of Sallow
4.
Dead Sunflowers
5.
Sonnet of the Silent Man
Amanda Erin Miller
1.
The Past is
Here
196-198
2.
Rockabye
3.
The Amethyst Forest
Gordon Ferris
1.
The Brood – Short Story
198-205
Ken Goodman
1.
empty glass on picnic
table
205-208
2.
envy
3.
when I stood in Emily Dickinson’s bedroom
4.
apologies to DT
5.
their names
Margaret Duda
1.
American
Tragedy
209-214
2.
Harmony on the Hudson 1927
3.
Home After Forty-Five Years
February 2023 – Poetry and Fiction
Hansha Teki
1.
Five Parallel Form Poems
215-216
Julie Ann Thomason
1.
Golden
Manifestation
217-218
R. Gerry Fabian
1.
Exchanging Glances with Dangerous
People
219-221
2.
Charting Failure
3.
Childhood Secrets Revisited
Barbara Anna Gaiardoni
1.
Five Haiku and Senryu
Poems
221-222
Mariel Herbert
1.
Ten Sijo, Haiku and Senryu
Poems
222-223
Stephen House
1.
freak
224
Linda King
1.
that middle
space
225-226
2.
the new melancholy
Bhuwan Thapaliya
1.
coming
home
227
Samuel Armen
1.
Subterranean
Drama
228-229
2.
Unstressed
Ivars Balkit
1.
You Seeking I Seeking
You
229-231
2.
Alas ashes, alack lashes
3.
Redux from Redux
Nancy Taylor
1.
The Song of
Cinderella
231-232
Jeanne Griggs
1.
Premonitions
232-234
2.
Home for the Holidays
Gabriel Awuah Mainoo
1.
sermon
235-238
2.
Relieving the soul from its winter
3.
Whispering
4.
Trails – Four Tanka Poems
Kenneth M. Kapp
1.
Like Roses – A Tale from the Times of the… 239-240
Kushal Poddar
1.
On the First Day of the
Year
241-242
2.
Fish
3.
Kerouac
4.
Narrative
5.
Winter Estuary
Borkhan
1.
Leaf
243-246
2.
sea talk
3.
I never knew you
4.
Dust, friend
5.
I am an idiot
Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 19
The Rhapsody of Words
End of November 2022 - Mid December 2022
Buy
Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 19 – The Rhapsody of Words
features the best fantasy and contemporary poetry and fiction from over70
internationally renowned poets and fiction authors. Join them on this journey through life and its myriad relationships,
real and imagined, where folklore, romance, realism and dystopia mingle and
merge casting light on secrets and shadows.
Thank you to the following internationally renowned poets and fiction authors for their superb contributions in this volume of Lothlorien Poetry Journal:
End of November 2022 Poets and Fiction Authors
John Tustin Edgar Rider Lynn White Fabrice B. Poussin
R.W. Haynes Edward Lee Darren Lynch Michael H. Brownstein
Ivan de Monbrison Ron Wilkins Tony Stowers
Amita Sarjit Ahluwalia Relvin Gonzalez Rodriguez
Pawel Markiewicz Karoly Bari–Translated by Gabor G. Gyukics
December 2022 – Poets and Fiction Authors
Heath Brougher Christina Martin John Drudge
Adele Ogier Jones Ed Lyons Ursula O’Reilly John Doyle
Lara Dolphin E. Martin Pedersen Karen A. VandenBos
J.B. Hogan Laura Stamps Paul Demuth Susan Taylor
Lawrence Moore Ann Privateer Henry Wolstat
Sharon Waller Knutson Steve Klepetar Linda King
Wayne F. Burke – from Out of My Mind
Julie A. Dickson Antonia Alexandra Klimenko
J.D. Nelson Mary Anna Scenga Kruch
Mike Gallagher Margaret Coombs John Brantingham
Carella Keil Terry Wheeler Lynda Tavakoli
R.W. Stephens Margaret Duda Stephen A. Rozwenc
Aftab Yusuf Shaikh Wendy Webb John Harold Olson
Becky Parker Bruce Robinson Mary Ray Goehring
Nolo Segundo Lithica Ann Joshua St. Claire
Nolcha Fox Jim Hart Gina Maria Manchego
Roseanne Freed Ken Gosse Yuu Ikeda Palash Mahmud
Kimberly Kuchar Eavonka Ettinger
M.R. Defibaugh Christina Chin
LindaAnn LoSchiavo Livio Farallo Amrita Valan
Poetry is a way of taking life by the throat. – Robert Frost
Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance. – Carl Sandburg
Poetry is life distilled. – Gwendolyn Brooks
Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words. – Edgar Allan Poe
There is no Frigate like a Book / To take us Lands away, / Nor any Coursers like a Page / Of prancing Poetry. – Emily Dickinson
If you tell a novelist, ‘Life’s not like that’, he has to do something about it. The poet simply replies, ‘No, but I am.’ – Philip Larkin
As a poet I would say everything should be able to come into a poem but I can’t put toothbrushes in a poem. I really can’t. – Sylvia Plath
Contents
Editorial Poems by
Strider Marcus Jones Pages
End of November 2022 -
Poetry and Fiction
John Tustin
1. The Ghost of Blaze Foley 16-20
2. It Rarely Comes Down All At Once
3. Somebody Terrible
4. She Writes a Letter
5. Waiting for the Birds to Return
Edgar Rider
1. Slither On Gutter Snake Soul… Short Story 21-23
Lynn White
1. Green Dragon 23-25
2. Metamorphosis
3. I was Always Afraid of Rabbits
Fabrice B. Poussin
1. In Search of the Word 26-29
2. Noise
3. Ritual
4. Little Thing
5. Symphony
R.W. Haynes
1. The Wheels 30-34
2. Not Enough Betrayal
3. Demanding Humiliation
Edward Lee
1. This Inexplicable Need 34-37
2. Lies/Truths
3. Wife and Child
4. Silence
5. Rope for Soul
Darren Lynch
1. The Dust of Heaven 38-40
2. The Dance of Eventide
3. The Requiem House
Michael H. Brownstein
1. Cloud Vapours 40-41
2. Individuality
Ivan de Monbrison
1. The Snake Man 41-43
2. The Target
Ron Wilkins
1. Innocence 43-48
2. The Silence Between
3. Sieste
4. Mayhem in the Rubens Room
5. Exceptions
Tony Stowers
1. Into the Valley of the Clones 48-53
2. The Ticket Inspector
3. The Problem with Chocolate
4. Being British Abroad
Amita Sarjit Ahluwalia –
A Trilogy of Descort Poems
1. Stay Put 54-56
2. Pale Hands
3. Dilemma
Relvin Gonzalez Rodriguez
1. The Butcher – Short Story 56-59
Pawel Markiewicz
1.1 Arethusa and Alpheus – Eight Sonnets 59-63
Karoly Bari–Translated from
Hungarian by Gabor G. Gyukics
1. Journey at Night 64-74
December 2022 – Poems
and Fiction
Heath Brougher
1. The Poetry Addict 75-77
2. Anti-Ode to the Crooked Police in York,
PA
3. Monopolie
4. Roulette
5. Built to Vomit Vaseline
Christina Martin
1. The Invisible Voice 77-79
2. Bare Places
3. Wind Haiku
John Drudge
1. A Long Thin Spring 79-80
Adele Ogier Jones
1. Poets on St. Cecilia’s Day 81-82
Ed Lyons
1. Friendship Sonnets
82-88
2. In Those Moments
3. Welcome to Your Evening, Love
Ursula O’Reilly
1. In Primrose Wood 89-91
2. Gnomes
3. Magic Found
4. Where Roses Bloom
5. Voices
John Doyle
1. Sound Techniques Studio, London: 1971 92-95
2. The Brothers Horwitz and Their Associate
Mr Feinberg
3. A Stranger Animal
4. Song for Huzama Habayeb
5. The Experiment
Lara Dolphin
1. Not, Not, Pennsylvania’s Laureate 96-98
2. Wikipedia Bronde and the Case of the
Missing Multiverse
3. The Revanchist Lego Dragons of Cornwall
4. Haibun – Deep Time Meal
5. Tree of 40 Fruit Harvest (a sijo)
E. Martin Pedersen
1. Amazon Lesson 99-102
2. bird baths
3. The Graveyard Two-step
4. In the Tunnel
5. Their seven-story apartment building
Karen A. VandenBos
1. We Wanted for Nothing 102-105
2. Born of Many Mothers
3. Sing the Stars Home
4. Running for Too Long
5. Of Wool and Waves
J.B. Hogan
1. If I Were Elon Musk 106-107
2. Our Time
3. Primer
Laura Stamps
1. Yellow
- Prose Poem 108
Paul Demuth
1. The Ball Bearing 109-110
2. Magpie
3. Masque
Susan Taylor
1. Morgana, Caught in Her Own Spell 111
Lawrence Moore
1. Cupped Inside My Hand 112-114
2. Kaleidoscope
3. Another Vicious Storm
4. Crystal Blue
Ann Privateer
1. My Life 114-115
2. My Childhood
3. Dreaming
Henry Wolstat
1. Forever a Runner 116-118
2. Basque Coast Tour
3. Running
4. The Rain in Spain
Sharon Waller Knutson
1. Cactus Wren 118-123
2. Buzzard
3. Gila Monster
4. After the Cat Dies
5. Abandoned
Steve Klepetar
1. Sweatshirt 123-126
2. Black Wings
3. Long Days
Linda King
1. lines from the blue notebook 126-128
2. love poem to the existentialists
Wayne F. Burke – from Out
of My Mind
1. sinners 128-131
2. sitting on a park bench
3. pick up the words again
4. storm
5. feeling alone and lonely
6. 9 billion years
Julie A. Dickson
1. The Perhaps 131-134
2. Winter burns cold
3. Touching Time
4. Making Music
5. Yielding
Antonia Alexandra
Klimenko
1. November 134-140
2. Twilight
3. Insomnia
J.D. Nelson
1. Ten Haiku Poems 141-142
Mary Anna Scenga Kruch
1. Until the Light Fails 142-145
2. Uncapped
3. Morning Glories
4. For My Father, Gidio
Mike Gallagher
1. Ten Haiku and Senryu Poems 146-147
Margaret Coombs
1. The Panther 148-150
2. The Visitor
3. Trance Song
John Brantingham
1. Since COVID 151-154
2. Grass Farm
3. All the Way at the End of August
4. They’ve All Gone Away Now
Carella Keil
1. Stilettos in the Rain 154-155
2. Infinity
Terry Wheeler
1. safe 156-159
2. luna
3. the solid mandala
4. after the gold rush
Lynda Tavakoli
1. War and Want 159-162
2. Game On
3. St. Symphorien Cemetery, Mons
R.W. Stephens
1. Etienne 162-166
2. Three Churches
3. Angst
4. Ha’penny
Margaret Duda
1. Coming to America 166-169
2. Hungarian Angels Trimmed Our Tree
Stephen A. Rozwenc
1. Oh, All About the West Wind 169-172
2. Poem - Untitled
3. Poem - Untitled
Aftab Yusuf Shaikh
1. Kings’ Crowns (English Ghazal) 172-174
2. Havoc (English Ghazal)
3. Ebrahim
Wendy Webb
1. Driving Down Under, or Dreaming the
Emerald Isle 174-177
2. Elijah in the Walled Garden
3. Volodymyr’s Bear (Michelangelo’s David,
Villanelle)
4. Treasure Chest Gift
John Harold Olson
1. Understanding Your Air-cooled
Volkswagen Engine177-182
2. Rotator Cuff
3. Sunday
4. Road to Cripple Creek
Becky Parker
1. The Willow’s River 183-187
2. Goldilocks, Resembled
3. It’s cold here
4. It’s time to catch the metro
Bruce Robinson
1. Tork Is Cheap 188-191
2. Customer Relationships in the
Postmodern Era
3. Birds on Parole
4. 4:31
5. Caffeine Rondelet
Mary Ray Goehring
1. Courir de Mardi Gras – Mamou, La 191-197
2. Invocation
3. Medusa: The Reproductive Life of Jellyfish
4. Reservoir
5. What April Showers Bring
Nolo Segundo
1. On Finding a Dead Deer in My Backyard 197-203
2. Tasting Eternity
3. On the Way to the Ballet
4. What Is Ego
5. What Is This Thing Called Love
6. My Dreams Are Like Poems
7. Now That I Am Old
Lithica Ann
1. Ten Haiku, Senryu and Monoku Poems 203-204
Joshua St. Claire
1. Ten Haiku Poems 205-206
Nolcha Fox
1. Why did you look back? 206-208
2. Snow stars
3. Clouds blanket
4. You send your hands
5. Pull yourself together
Jim Hart
1. Mother Load 209-213
2. Secrets
3. Remembering
4. Perfect Timing
5. Lucky Break
Gina Maria Manchego
1. The Cowboy and His Hometown Girl 213-215
Roseanne Freed
1. Datura 216-220
2. Middle Schoolers Today
3. “In the middle of war, he’s asking for
poems”
4. Can my words dance the tango while
California burns?
Ken Gosse
1. Eight Senryu Poems 220-221
Yuu Ikeda
1. Indelible Clouds 222
2. Hazy Night
Palash Mahmud
1. Horizontal Lines of Lady Lazarus 223
Kimberly Kuchar and
Eavonka Ettinger Collaboration
1. Tan-Renga, Haiku and Tanka Poems 224-225
M.R. Defibaugh and
Christina Chin Collaboration
1. Five Tan-Renga Poems 225-226
LindaAnn LoSchiavo
1. Golden Shovel: At Night Alone 227-229
2. Golden Shovel: Untimely Death
3. Speculative Poeming
4. Secrets of the Night: A Golden Shovel
5. Cento: Benighted Night
Livio Farallo
1. outback 230-235
2. lay of the land
3. climate dream
4. one last trip
5. my answer
Amrita Valan
1. Morning 235-241
2. Asana
3. Packing
Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 19 – The Rhapsody of Words
features the best fantasy and contemporary poetry and fiction from over70
internationally renowned poets and fiction authors. Join them on this journey through life and its myriad relationships,
real and imagined, where folklore, romance, realism and dystopia mingle and
merge casting light on secrets and shadows.
Thank you to the following internationally renowned poets and fiction authors for their superb contributions in this volume of Lothlorien Poetry Journal:
End of November 2022 Poets and Fiction Authors
John Tustin Edgar Rider Lynn White Fabrice B. Poussin
R.W. Haynes Edward Lee Darren Lynch Michael H. Brownstein
Ivan de Monbrison Ron Wilkins Tony Stowers
Amita Sarjit Ahluwalia Relvin Gonzalez Rodriguez
Pawel Markiewicz Karoly Bari–Translated by Gabor G. Gyukics
December 2022 – Poets and Fiction Authors
Heath Brougher Christina Martin John Drudge
Adele Ogier Jones Ed Lyons Ursula O’Reilly John Doyle
Lara Dolphin E. Martin Pedersen Karen A. VandenBos
J.B. Hogan Laura Stamps Paul Demuth Susan Taylor
Lawrence Moore Ann Privateer Henry Wolstat
Sharon Waller Knutson Steve Klepetar Linda King
Wayne F. Burke – from Out of My Mind
Julie A. Dickson Antonia Alexandra Klimenko
J.D. Nelson Mary Anna Scenga Kruch
Mike Gallagher Margaret Coombs John Brantingham
Carella Keil Terry Wheeler Lynda Tavakoli
R.W. Stephens Margaret Duda Stephen A. Rozwenc
Aftab Yusuf Shaikh Wendy Webb John Harold Olson
Becky Parker Bruce Robinson Mary Ray Goehring
Nolo Segundo Lithica Ann Joshua St. Claire
Nolcha Fox Jim Hart Gina Maria Manchego
Roseanne Freed Ken Gosse Yuu Ikeda Palash Mahmud
Kimberly Kuchar Eavonka Ettinger
M.R. Defibaugh Christina Chin
LindaAnn LoSchiavo Livio Farallo Amrita Valan
Poetry is a way of taking life by the throat. – Robert Frost
Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance. – Carl Sandburg
Poetry is life distilled. – Gwendolyn Brooks
Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words. – Edgar Allan Poe
There is no Frigate like a Book / To take us Lands away, / Nor any Coursers like a Page / Of prancing Poetry. – Emily Dickinson
If you tell a novelist, ‘Life’s not like that’, he has to do something about it. The poet simply replies, ‘No, but I am.’ – Philip Larkin
As a poet I would say everything should be able to come into a poem but I can’t put toothbrushes in a poem. I really can’t. – Sylvia Plath
Contents
Editorial Poems by Strider Marcus Jones Pages
End of November 2022 - Poetry and Fiction
John Tustin
1. The Ghost of Blaze Foley 16-20
2. It Rarely Comes Down All At Once
3. Somebody Terrible
4. She Writes a Letter
5. Waiting for the Birds to Return
Edgar Rider
1. Slither On Gutter Snake Soul… Short Story 21-23
Lynn White
1. Green Dragon 23-25
2. Metamorphosis
3. I was Always Afraid of Rabbits
Fabrice B. Poussin
1. In Search of the Word 26-29
2. Noise
3. Ritual
4. Little Thing
5. Symphony
R.W. Haynes
1. The Wheels 30-34
2. Not Enough Betrayal
3. Demanding Humiliation
Edward Lee
1. This Inexplicable Need 34-37
2. Lies/Truths
3. Wife and Child
4. Silence
5. Rope for Soul
Darren Lynch
1. The Dust of Heaven 38-40
2. The Dance of Eventide
3. The Requiem House
Michael H. Brownstein
1. Cloud Vapours 40-41
2. Individuality
Ivan de Monbrison
1. The Snake Man 41-43
2. The Target
Ron Wilkins
1. Innocence 43-48
2. The Silence Between
3. Sieste
4. Mayhem in the Rubens Room
5. Exceptions
Tony Stowers
1. Into the Valley of the Clones 48-53
2. The Ticket Inspector
3. The Problem with Chocolate
4. Being British Abroad
Amita Sarjit Ahluwalia –
A Trilogy of Descort Poems
1. Stay Put 54-56
2. Pale Hands
3. Dilemma
Relvin Gonzalez Rodriguez
1. The Butcher – Short Story 56-59
Pawel Markiewicz
1.1 Arethusa and Alpheus – Eight Sonnets 59-63
Karoly Bari–Translated from
Hungarian by Gabor G. Gyukics
1. Journey at Night 64-74
December 2022 – Poems and Fiction
Heath Brougher
1. The Poetry Addict 75-77
2. Anti-Ode to the Crooked Police in York,
PA
3. Monopolie
4. Roulette
5. Built to Vomit Vaseline
Christina Martin
1. The Invisible Voice 77-79
2. Bare Places
3. Wind Haiku
John Drudge
1. A Long Thin Spring 79-80
Adele Ogier Jones
1. Poets on St. Cecilia’s Day 81-82
Ed Lyons
1. Friendship Sonnets
82-88
2. In Those Moments
3. Welcome to Your Evening, Love
Ursula O’Reilly
1. In Primrose Wood 89-91
2. Gnomes
3. Magic Found
4. Where Roses Bloom
5. Voices
John Doyle
1. Sound Techniques Studio, London: 1971 92-95
2. The Brothers Horwitz and Their Associate
Mr Feinberg
3. A Stranger Animal
4. Song for Huzama Habayeb
5. The Experiment
Lara Dolphin
1. Not, Not, Pennsylvania’s Laureate 96-98
2. Wikipedia Bronde and the Case of the
Missing Multiverse
3. The Revanchist Lego Dragons of Cornwall
4. Haibun – Deep Time Meal
5. Tree of 40 Fruit Harvest (a sijo)
E. Martin Pedersen
1. Amazon Lesson 99-102
2. bird baths
3. The Graveyard Two-step
4. In the Tunnel
5. Their seven-story apartment building
Karen A. VandenBos
1. We Wanted for Nothing 102-105
2. Born of Many Mothers
3. Sing the Stars Home
4. Running for Too Long
5. Of Wool and Waves
J.B. Hogan
1. If I Were Elon Musk 106-107
2. Our Time
3. Primer
Laura Stamps
1. Yellow
- Prose Poem 108
Paul Demuth
1. The Ball Bearing 109-110
2. Magpie
3. Masque
Susan Taylor
1. Morgana, Caught in Her Own Spell 111
Lawrence Moore
1. Cupped Inside My Hand 112-114
2. Kaleidoscope
3. Another Vicious Storm
4. Crystal Blue
Ann Privateer
1. My Life 114-115
2. My Childhood
3. Dreaming
Henry Wolstat
1. Forever a Runner 116-118
2. Basque Coast Tour
3. Running
4. The Rain in Spain
Sharon Waller Knutson
1. Cactus Wren 118-123
2. Buzzard
3. Gila Monster
4. After the Cat Dies
5. Abandoned
Steve Klepetar
1. Sweatshirt 123-126
2. Black Wings
3. Long Days
Linda King
1. lines from the blue notebook 126-128
2. love poem to the existentialists
Wayne F. Burke – from Out
of My Mind
1. sinners 128-131
2. sitting on a park bench
3. pick up the words again
4. storm
5. feeling alone and lonely
6. 9 billion years
Julie A. Dickson
1. The Perhaps 131-134
2. Winter burns cold
3. Touching Time
4. Making Music
5. Yielding
Antonia Alexandra
Klimenko
1. November 134-140
2. Twilight
3. Insomnia
J.D. Nelson
1. Ten Haiku Poems 141-142
Mary Anna Scenga Kruch
1. Until the Light Fails 142-145
2. Uncapped
3. Morning Glories
4. For My Father, Gidio
Mike Gallagher
1. Ten Haiku and Senryu Poems 146-147
Margaret Coombs
1. The Panther 148-150
2. The Visitor
3. Trance Song
John Brantingham
1. Since COVID 151-154
2. Grass Farm
3. All the Way at the End of August
4. They’ve All Gone Away Now
Carella Keil
1. Stilettos in the Rain 154-155
2. Infinity
Terry Wheeler
1. safe 156-159
2. luna
3. the solid mandala
4. after the gold rush
Lynda Tavakoli
1. War and Want 159-162
2. Game On
3. St. Symphorien Cemetery, Mons
R.W. Stephens
1. Etienne 162-166
2. Three Churches
3. Angst
4. Ha’penny
Margaret Duda
1. Coming to America 166-169
2. Hungarian Angels Trimmed Our Tree
Stephen A. Rozwenc
1. Oh, All About the West Wind 169-172
2. Poem - Untitled
3. Poem - Untitled
Aftab Yusuf Shaikh
1. Kings’ Crowns (English Ghazal) 172-174
2. Havoc (English Ghazal)
3. Ebrahim
Wendy Webb
1. Driving Down Under, or Dreaming the
Emerald Isle 174-177
2. Elijah in the Walled Garden
3. Volodymyr’s Bear (Michelangelo’s David,
Villanelle)
4. Treasure Chest Gift
John Harold Olson
1. Understanding Your Air-cooled
Volkswagen Engine177-182
2. Rotator Cuff
3. Sunday
4. Road to Cripple Creek
Becky Parker
1. The Willow’s River 183-187
2. Goldilocks, Resembled
3. It’s cold here
4. It’s time to catch the metro
Bruce Robinson
1. Tork Is Cheap 188-191
2. Customer Relationships in the
Postmodern Era
3. Birds on Parole
4. 4:31
5. Caffeine Rondelet
Mary Ray Goehring
1. Courir de Mardi Gras – Mamou, La 191-197
2. Invocation
3. Medusa: The Reproductive Life of Jellyfish
4. Reservoir
5. What April Showers Bring
Nolo Segundo
1. On Finding a Dead Deer in My Backyard 197-203
2. Tasting Eternity
3. On the Way to the Ballet
4. What Is Ego
5. What Is This Thing Called Love
6. My Dreams Are Like Poems
7. Now That I Am Old
Lithica Ann
1. Ten Haiku, Senryu and Monoku Poems 203-204
Joshua St. Claire
1. Ten Haiku Poems 205-206
Nolcha Fox
1. Why did you look back? 206-208
2. Snow stars
3. Clouds blanket
4. You send your hands
5. Pull yourself together
Jim Hart
1. Mother Load 209-213
2. Secrets
3. Remembering
4. Perfect Timing
5. Lucky Break
Gina Maria Manchego
1. The Cowboy and His Hometown Girl 213-215
Roseanne Freed
1. Datura 216-220
2. Middle Schoolers Today
3. “In the middle of war, he’s asking for
poems”
4. Can my words dance the tango while
California burns?
Ken Gosse
1. Eight Senryu Poems 220-221
Yuu Ikeda
1. Indelible Clouds 222
2. Hazy Night
Palash Mahmud
1. Horizontal Lines of Lady Lazarus 223
Kimberly Kuchar and
Eavonka Ettinger Collaboration
1. Tan-Renga, Haiku and Tanka Poems 224-225
M.R. Defibaugh and
Christina Chin Collaboration
1. Five Tan-Renga Poems 225-226
LindaAnn LoSchiavo
1. Golden Shovel: At Night Alone 227-229
2. Golden Shovel: Untimely Death
3. Speculative Poeming
4. Secrets of the Night: A Golden Shovel
5. Cento: Benighted Night
Livio Farallo
1. outback 230-235
2. lay of the land
3. climate dream
4. one last trip
5. my answer
Amrita Valan
1. Morning 235-241
2. Asana
3. Packing
Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 18
Poets in the Van of the Tuatha Dè Dannan
Lothlorien Poetry
Journal Volume 18 – Poets in the Van of the Tuatha Dè Dannan features the best
fantasy and contemporary poetry and fiction from 72 internationally renowned
poets and fiction authors. Join them on this journey through life and its myriad relationships,
real and imagined, where folklore, romance, realism and dystopia mingle and
merge casting light on secrets and shadows.
POETS and AUTHORS
David Adès
Susan Wilson
Mark A. Fisher
Patricia Furstenberg
Alan Catlin
Pravat Kumar Padhy
Ken Gosse
Elancharan Gunasekaran
Robert Fleming
Bernard Pearson
Christina Chin and Uchechukwu
Onyedikam
Pawel Markiewicz
John Harold Olson
Sushant Thapa
Ryan Quinn Flanagan
Sherry Steiner
John Drudge
Kelly Sargent
Richard Weaver
Jessica Weyer Bentley
David J. Delaney
Nolcha Fox
Dennis Daly
Elena Malec
Douglas K. Currier
Linda Imbler
Laszlo Aranyi –
Translated by Gabor Gyukics
Randy Barnes
Margaret Kiernan
Raymond Alexander Turco
Lynda Tavakoli
John Grey
Celestine Woo
Steve Klepetar
Lea Nagy – Translated by
Helene Cardona
Scott Thomas Outlar
Renee Williams
Alec Solomita
Smitha Sehgal
Ahmad Al-Khatat
Robert (Roibeard) Shanahan
Rose Mary Boehm
Gordon Scapens
Stephen Kingsnorth
RC deWinter
Bradford Middleton
Rustin Larson
Jeanna Louise Ni
Riordain
Elliot Slater
Elaine Reardon
Peter J. Donnelly
Liza Wolff-Francis
Wayne F. Burke
Jackie Chou
Damon Hubbs
Amita Sarjit Ahluwalia –
A Trio of Odes
James Moran
Kushal Poddar
Abigail George
David Alec Knight
Marianne Tefft
AE Reiff
Laura Daniels
Samo Kreutz
Digby Beaumont
Bel Schenk
Clive Gresswell
Angel Edwards
Neal Whitman
Greg Patrick
Santosh Bakaya
petro c.k.
Contents
Editorial Poems by Strider
Marcus Jones Pages
End of October 2022 -
Poetry and Fiction
David Adès
1. Today’s Weather 16-22
2. A Blink of Time’s Eye
3. Such is the Gifting, Such the Receiving
4. Making My Way
5. Beyond Blue
Susan Wilson
1. The Easy Beats 23-26
2. Feed Thy Fear
3. The Blessed Angel Teddy of Tralee
4. The Acorns of Anguish
5. Out of Space
Mark A. Fisher
1. rain shadow 26-28
2. hike
Patricia Furstenberg
1. White on Blue 28-29
2. Sapphire Planet
3. Light, Evanescent
4. Blue Flower
5. If They Call You White Rose
Alan Catlin
1. Seven Untitled Poems 30-33
Pravat Kumar Padhy
1. I am a woman 33-39
2. The Living Fossil
Ken Gosse
1. Consensus for the Census 39-41
2. Sonnetiquette
3. Where has all the Magic Gone?
4. A Courtly Gesture
5. Natural Songs
Elancharan Gunasekaran
1. Five Tanka Poems 42-43
Robert Fleming
1. Interview (I) with the Forest (F) 43-45
2. Sores came before the nose
3. When all water is drained what is left?
4. When diplomacy fails turn to goats
5. Lung Apple
Bernard Pearson
1. Approaching Halloween 45-46
Christina Chin and Uchechukwu
Onyedikam
1. Seven Poems – Poetry Collaboration 46-48
Pawel Markiewicz
1. Autumnal Sonnet 48-50
2. Flower-like Sonnet
3. The Flower-like Second Sonnet
John Harold Olson
1. Oceanside 50-51
2. Circe
Sushant Thapa
1. Fare-thee-well 51-52
November 2022 – Poems and
Fiction
Ryan Quinn Flanagan
1. Wads 52-56
2. End Tables for the End Times
3. Twist Enough Stories and All You Have
Are Pretzels
4. Don’t Be All the Rage
5. Only the Best
Sherry Steiner
1. A Bowl of Fruit 57-62
2. Pearls Wrapped in Diamonds
3. Five Times Three
4. That Steady Rhythm
5. Where Daisies Go To Die
John Drudge
1. Across the Bank 63-66
2. Around Town
3. As Tears Glisten
4. Moving On
5. Night’s Lament
Kelly Sargent
1. Drought 66-68
2. Revelation
Richard Weaver
1. Callahan’s Irish Social Club 68-71
2. Reptilian Brain Grammar
3. Front Porch
4. A Tortoiseshell Rabbit Sits
5. A Cat Sneezed at a Large Animal Clinic
Jessica Weyer Bentley
1. A Widow’s Daybreak 71-72
David J. Delaney
1. Time no longer Rules 72-77
2. Male Dilemma
3. Why I Live Where I Live
4. Waking
5. Captured Moments
Nolcha Fox
1. Grief is a 77-79
2. Alone
3. What’s Wrong with the Old Normal?
Dennis Daly
1. Three Untethered Psalms Composed by…Faustus 79-81
2. Playing Pinball at the All-Souls Lounge
Elena Malec
1. single room 81-82
2. the branch
Douglas K. Currier
1. Last Dance 82-85
2. Dancefloors
3. Ballast
4. Lasts
5. Fast Food
Linda Imbler
1. Quite the Collection 85-89
2. The Only Letter from Ultima Thule
3. The Perfect Form
4. All Those Saints
5. Dreams Sent from the Moon
Laszlo Aranyi –
Translated by Gabor Gyukics
1. Gerilla Perseus 89-91
2. The Ghost Diver
Randy Barnes
1. The Gates of Heaven 91-93
2. Stabs On the Rise
3. Travelin’ Dustbowl Blues
4. Disguise Meant to Mumble
5. Glandular Wreckage
Margaret Kiernan
1. Voice for the Wolf 93-96
2. Geranium Pots and Keys – Poetry Essay
Raymond Alexander Turco
1. The Ship of My Brothers 96-99
2. The Shepherd of Many Turns
3. The Gods Who Rule the Earth
4. Letters
5. That Empty Jar
Lynda Tavakoli
1. What It Does to You 100-101
John Grey
1. A Maine Winter 101-105
2. A Boy at a Father’s Grave
3. Early to Bed in a Fishing Port
4. How We See Ourselves
5. This Hold
Celestine Woo
1. The Sound of Silent Snow 106-116
2. My Mother’s Wedding
3. Filigree
4. Exoskeletal
5. False Lashes
Steve Klepetar
1. Lesson 116-119
2. Lullaby
3. The Same Disease
Lea Nagy – Translated by
Helene Cardona
1. Sharp 119-120
2. The Furious and the Mad
Scott Thomas Outlar
1. Lizard Crown – Short Story 121-123
Renee Williams
1. Midnight Hour 124-129
2. Bears
3. Father’s Day
4. Ghosts
5. Saturation: The Story of a Life
Alec Solomita
1. Folies Bergere 130-131
Smitha Sehgal
1. In Hamlet’s Name 131-133
2. How Women Become Poems in Our Town
Ahmad Al-Khatat
1. Distance Burnt 133-135
2. Immigrant Dream
3. Simple Orders
Robert (Roibeard) Shanahan
1. Brigid 135-140
Rose Mary Boehm
1. A Matter of Faith 141-144
2. Curses
3. Louise
4. Music Under Cover of Night
5. Prayer
Gordon Scapens
1. A Measure of Winter 145-149
2. Being Human
3. You’ll Know
Stephen Kingsnorth
1. Moment 149-153
2. Connections
3. Mugs
4. Past Death
5. Following the Grain
RC deWinter
1. entropy 154-157
2. Christmas Corpse
3. upon close inspection
4. starting over
5. lullaby for Ukraine
Bradford Middleton
1. The Inevitable Comes As No One Cares 158-160
2. A Routine Kjnd of Guy
3. Roll and Spark Until Madness Comes to Save
Me
4. I Dream
5. And When I Wake It’ll Start All Over
Again
Rustin Larson
1. Corridor X 160-166
2. Maslow
3. It’s a Damned Interesting Thing to Say
4. Two Scenes in Late Winter
5. Archangel
Jeanna Louise Ni
Riordain
1. Clair-Obscur 167-170
2. Strafsingen
3. Death Camp
4. Untimely
Elliot Slater
1. Confession – Short Story 170-175
Elaine Reardon
1. The Banshee 175-177
2. Thanksgiving
3. November
Peter J. Donnelly
1. Margot Asquith 177-180
2. Beatrix Potter
3. Mary Ann Evans
4. My Fourth Visit
Liza Wolff-Francis
1. Tale of the Ghost of a Wolf – Flash Fiction
Story 180-182
Wayne F. Burke
1. Honey 182-184
2. Death
3. A Fat Man in a Car
4. Vacay
Jackie Chou
1. Haiku, Senryu and Tanka Poems 184-186
Damon Hubbs
1. Fog Deer, Southern Catskills 187-190
2. Toadstone
3. Deadheading
Amita Sarjit Ahluwalia –
A Trio of Odes
1. The Flow of Time (Pindaric) 190-194
2. Ode to the Deegha Malda Mango
(Horatian)
3. Restlessness (Irregular)
James Moran
1. The Burning Attar of Alabast – Flash Fiction 195-196
Kushal Poddar
1. The Way We Depart 197-199
2. Winter
3. Hibernation
4. Fields
Abigail George
1. The alone bird in the blue forest 200-206
2. The angel tongue of a man…
3. Anemones and bee killers, darling
David Alec Knight
1. Fighting Hell to Hold 207-210
2. City of Crows
3. This Street
4. As Conflict Corrodes
5. His Ninth Life is With Me
Marianne Tefft
1. Osuna 210-214
2. The Roots of Trees
3. Hummingbird Days
4. Rainbow Country
5. You Have Never Seen the Ocean
AE Reiff
1. Lebensraum Burgers A Space Odyssey 214-223
2. Gravediggers on Ben Bulben
3. Description of the Self
Laura Daniels
1. Joe 223-226
2. Nomenclature Ghazal
3. Progressive Garden Stating
4. Sitting by Myself
5. Sensuality of Cooking
Samo Kreutz
1. Seven Haiku Poems 226-227
Digby Beaumont
1. One-Man Band 228
Bel Schenk
1. Some things go unnoticed, but then
again others.. 228-229
2. We wanted to be adults that spring
Clive Gresswell
1. Battle Royal 230
Angel Edwards
1. Guardians 230-231
Neal Whitman
1. Ten Haiku/Senryu Poems 231-232
Greg Patrick
1. Allhallowtide Revels 233-237
Santosh Bakaya
1. The Grumpy Man at the Door 237-240
2. Do…do…do
3. The Howling Owl
petro c.k.
1. Sugar and Crematory 241-242
2. Inhaling Osiris
3. Remember That Little Doubt
4. Don’t Bogart the Norm
5. That Birds Dredged Idyllic Beds
Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 17
Landscapes of the Mind
Lothlorien Poetry
Journal Volume 17 – Landscapes of the Mind features outstanding poetry and
fiction from 70 internationally renowned poets and authors who explore the life
and landscapes of the mind through folklore, romance, realism and dystopia.
“Happiness is the
settling of the soul into its most appropriate spot.”
- Aristotle
“If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in
terms of energy, frequency, and vibration.” ― Nikola Tesla
“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s
peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their
own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away
from you like the leaves of Autumn.” ― John Muir
“We all
have a dark side. Most of us go through life avoiding direct confrontation with
that aspect of ourselves, which I call the shadow self. There’s a reason why.
It carries a great deal of energy.” ― Lorraine Toussaint
“I mean,
language fascinates me anyway, and different words have different energies and
you can change the whole drive of a sentence.” ― Alan Rickman
“I have a
feeling that I make a very good friend, and I’m a good mother, and a good
sister, and a good citizen. I am involved in life itself – all of it. And I
have a lot of energy and a lot of nerve.” ― Maya Angelou
Ian J McKenzie
Heidi Slettedahl
Jim Lewis
Nolcha Fox
DeWitt Clinton
TAK Erzinger
Ken Allan Dronsfield
Livio Farallo
Dana Trick
Nolo Segundo (L.J. Carber)
Marka Rifat
Joseph A. Farina
R.C. Thomas
Erik T. Johnson
John Doyle
Margaret Kiernan
John Drudge
Marie C. Lecrivain
Clive Gresswell
Louise Heywood
Ed Lyons
Dr Elizabeth V. Koshy
Christopher Barnes
Dr Anushna Biswas
Mark Young
Michelle Reale
Steve Klepetar
Ursula O’Reilly
Michael La Bombarda
Mikki Aronoff
Gary Bills
Karen A. VandenBos
Wayne F. Burke
Mandy Beattie
Mohibul Aziz
Joan Leotta
Jake Tringali
Bonnie Scherer
Petrouchka Alexieva
Jim Meirose
Wendy Webb
Brian J. Alvarado
Sharon Waller Knutson
Bobby Parrott
Sandra Kolankiewicz
Chad Parenteau
Jasna Gugic
Vyacheslav Konoval
Angela Hoffman
Bruce Morton
Auriane Loreley
Louis Kasatkin
Antonia Alexandra Klimenko
Laurence Levy-Atkinson
Sally Quon
Jonathan S. Baker
Bob Eager
Christina Chin and Jim Young
Nolo Segundo (L.J. Carber)
Anna Eusthacia Donovan
Richard Fleming
Marka Rifat
David Estringel
Amita Sarjit Ahluwalia (Amita Paul) –
Zejel Trilogy
Henry Wolstat
Amit Parmessur
Robin Ouzman Hislop
Amrita Valan
Christopher Collingwood
Contents
Editorial Poems by Strider Marcus
Jones
Pages
End of September 2022 - Poetry and
Fiction
Ian J McKenzie
1. A
Cracked
Pot
16-20
2.
Mercury Rising
3.
The Coffee Drinkers
4.
Talking to Buddha
Heidi Slettedahl
1. Paper
Calendars
20-22
2.
Untitled Poem
3.
Final Clearance
4.
The Cycle
Jim Lewis
1.
August has
Whispered
22-25
2.
Extinguished
3. Her
Father’s Shadow
4.
Sonnet of Envy
5.
Relevance
Nolcha Fox
1.
Enthusiasm Without a
Plan
26-27
2.
Moonlight and Shadows
3. At
Precisely the Time
4.
Stranger
DeWitt Clinton
1. A
Simple Zero Sum
Conundrum
28-33
2.
Troubled
3. On
Fire
4.
Yes, Dear, Only I Didn’t Say Yes Dear
5.
And That’s the Way It Is
TAK Erzinger
1.
Mid-life
33-36
2. In
(im) Perfect Agreement
3. In
Between Days
4.
Waterway
Ken Allan Dronsfield
1.
Soft Silky
Breeze
36-39
2.
Meadows in the Sky
3.
Dipping the Falcon’s Wing
4.
Shaken Not Stirred
5. Obsequy
– Burial Rites
Livio Farallo
1.
Imposters
39-46
2.
Transitory Storms
3.
Protein Alley
4. A
Classroom Without Supper
5.
Kafka Said
Dana Trick
1.
Grieving
Paradox
46-48
2.
How to Mourn a Creator
3.
How to Mourn a Creator II
Nolo Segundo (L.J. Carber)
1. An
Old Poet’s Walk Through an Old Graveyard
49-55
2.
Sentience
3.
Will My Soul Fly?
4. I
Have Been to Places of Great Death
5.
Vanity and Dust
Marka Rifat
1.
Extempore – Flash Fiction
Story
55-56
Joseph A. Farina
1.
Dominion of Shadows
Returning
57-58
2. Sun
Dress
3.
Cold Front
4.
Last Swim
5.
Enduring
R.C. Thomas
1.
Ten Haiku
Poems
59-60
Erik T. Johnson
1.
Parable
61-65
2. I
Am the Woman
3.
Facelessly True
4.
The Witch Hunt
5.
The Gone for Good
October 2022 – Poems and Fiction
John Doyle
1.
Coaling Tower, Marion,
Ohio
66-72
2.
The Rapture
3.
Just
4.
Fugazi
5.
Psychological Warfare
6.
Song for Elmore James
7.
Saturdays and Sundays
Margaret Kiernan
1.
Pig-slayer
72-74
2.
Fishmongers’ Elegy
John Drudge
1. A
Narrow
Path
74-77
2.
Pressure
3.
Stirred Up
4.
Footsteps
5.
Rambling
Marie C. Lecrivain
1.
Haiku
77-79
2.
Tanka
3.
Strength (viii)
Clive Gresswell
1.
Tears Trace
Down
79-80
2.
Albion Fracture
Louise Heywood
1.
Midnight in the
Wychwood
81
Ed Lyons
1.
The Temptation of
Galahad
82-83
2.
Reply to the Protestant
3.
Waiting without Knowing
Dr Elizabeth V. Koshy
1.
Yearning for Yet Another Round of
Play
83-85
2.
Charmed by the Sun
Christopher Barnes
1.
Propaganda
26
86-89
2.
Propaganda 27
3.
Propaganda 28
4.
Propaganda 29
5.
Propaganda 30
Dr Anushna Biswas
1.
Life of
Sissyphus
89-92
2.
Light Women Exude
3.
Vice Strikes Thrice
4.
The Way I Am
Mark Young
1. A
Session in
Hell
92-95
2.
De-sert/des-ert
3.
Meanwhile, at the Globe Theatre
4.
Freedom
Michelle Reale
1. My
Father’s
X-Ray
95-96
2.
When Summer Begins to Die
3.
Plenary, 1972
Steve Klepetar
1. On
the
Ferry
97-99
2.
City Bus
3.
Until the Light Returns
Ursula O’Reilly
1.
Strange House
99-101
2.
Hidden
3.
Heatwave
4.
Watcher
Michael La Bombarda
1. If
Poets Were
Painters
102-104
2.
Seascape
3.
Leaf Blowing
4.
Looking Back
Mikki Aronoff
1. In
Which I Visit the Goddess
Henwen… 104
Gary Bills
Six Pantoum Poems
1.
Sleeping
Mandolin
105-108
2.
The Cries of Birds
3.
Change Among the Statues
4.
Above the Malverns
5.
Quests
6.
The Elf
King
Karen A. VandenBos
1.
Sometimes I
Wish
109-113
2.
Just Because
3. Taste
of Freedom
4.
Blue Twilight
5.
The Bitch of Boulder
Wayne F. Burke
1.
Friends
113-116
2.
Catholic
3.
Play
4.
Cosmology
5.
Advice
Mandy Beattie
1.
Raven
Signpost
116-120
2.
Decoupage of Autumn
3.
Leaving the Ark
4.
Corvid’s Eye of Hag-stone
5.
Stroma: A Leaving and Returning
Mohibul Aziz
1.
Train
Journey
121-123
2. To
My Iranian Friend Jhila
Joan Leotta
1.
Mike’s
Mountains
123-126
2. My
Neighbour Died Last Night
3.
Listening to Sunset
4. A
Haiku About the Sun
5.
Why I Love the Moon More
Jake Tringali
1.
How to Pronounce
Wolf
127-130
2.
Untitled Poem
3. I
Just Ate a Columbian Ant
4.
The Villanelle of The Liege
5. The
Shape and Wonder
Bonnie Scherer
1.
Haiku and
Senryu
130-131
TS S. Fulk
1.
The Forest
Wife
131-134
2.
Salvage
3. A
False Fresh Start
4.
The Prisoner
5.
Old Magics
Petrouchka Alexieva
1. My
Heart
135-137
2. I
Want You
3. I
Was Never This Far
4.
Don’t Tell Me
5. If
I Ask You
Jim Meirose
1.
Out From Our Moon-Men – Short
Story
138-141
Wendy Webb
1.
Gifts from My
Mum
141-144
2.
Audiologically Sound
3.
Butterfly On Glass
Brian J. Alvarado
1.
jot them down, ask them later
144-146
2.
perigee
3.
outliers
4.
ultimate sacrifice
Sharon Waller Knutson
1.
Temperatures in Triple
Digits
147-151
2.
Father’s Day 2022
3. Watching
Over Ben
4.
All My Sorrows Soon Forgotten
5.
July 16, 2022
Bobby Parrott
1.
Sweet Grass Woven Through My
Chest…
151-155
2. We
Take Laughter Seriously
3.
Ukuleles
4.
The Suitcase Logic of a Stuttering Smokestack
5.
Robotic Shrubberies of the Well-Weeded Mind
Sandra Kolankiewicz
1.
Considering the
Magnolia
155-157
2.
Brood Parasite
3.
Meanwhile in Houston
4.
Irreconcilable Differences
5.
Stripped Bare
Chad Parenteau
1.
Two Tanka
Poems
157-158
Jasna Gugic
1.
Disquiet
158-161
2.
You
3.
Silence
4.
Hope
5.
Life
Vyacheslav Konoval
1.
Painful
Condition
162-165
2.
Feat of Tankers
3.
Nightmare of Russians
4.
Bohdana, She is a Woman, a Defender
5.
Ukrainian Coolon
1.
Baptism by Water
Bath
165-168
2.
Boundaries Are Hard to Define
3.
Skinny-dipping in the Church Basement
4.
Compressing Time into Wide-open Moments
5.
When Clouds Break Open
1.
Museum
(Berlin)
168-169
2.
Statues
Auriane
Loreley
1.
The Tale of a Queen Who Turned Into a Bird 170-174
2.
Cena, the Bloodthirsty Land
3.
Guardian of Ichor (or: The Blood of the
Gods)
Louis
Kasatkin
1.
Heavy Metal
4.0
174-176
2.
Heavy Metal 3.0
3.
Heavy Metal 2.0
Antonia
Alexandra Klimenko
Laurence Levy-Atkinson
1.
Say the
Roses
181-183
2. We
Can’t Escape Witches
3.
Preparing the Soil
Sally Quon
1.
Imagine
183-185
2.
Dreams of Flying
3.
Moonlight
Jonathan S. Baker
1.
Unopened
185-186
2.
County Roads
3.
Ed’s Fire
Bob Eager
1. Peritoneal
Exit Site
Poem
187
Christina
Chin and Jim Young
1.
Five Renga
Poems
187-188
Nolo
Segundo (L.J. Carber)
1.
The Day I Remembered My Soul – Non-Fiction
189-195
Anna
Eusthacia Donovan
1.
Dreaming
Spider
196-199
2.
Lightning
3.
When We Were Birds
4.
Time
5.
Skeleton Birds
Richard
Fleming
1.
The Big Guy – Short Story/Flash
Fiction 199-201
Marka Rifat
1.
Drawing the Line – Short
Story
201-202
David
Estringel
1.
A Scene Outside the Window of a Country Church 203-205
2.
Dusk
3.
Fall
4.
Winter Comes
5.
Return of the Holly King
Amita
Sarjit Ahluwalia (Amita Paul) – Zejel Trilogy
1.
A Short
Zejel
206-208
2.
A Classic Zejel
3.
A Jewelled Zejel
Henry
Wolstat
1.
Cape Cod
September
208-210
2.
The Merry Month of May
3.
Morning Walk
4.
A Fresh Baguette
5.
Toronto Visit
Amit
Parmessur
1.
Five Haiku
Poems
211
Robin
Ouzman Hislop
1.
Axial Perspectives – Epic
Poem
212-222
Amrita
Valan
1.
Rising in The
Fall
222-234
Christopher
Collingwood
1.
A Detour Invites the Golden Dancer
235-237
2.
The Past Reclaimed in Silent Lies
Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 16
Voices from the Dreamtime
September 2022 Continued
Buy
Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 16 - Voices from the Dreamtime,
features the contemporary free verse/rhyming/experimental poetry, short stories
and flash fiction of 65 internationally renowned poets and fiction authors.
Journey with us into the Dreamtime to explore and enjoy poems and stories that
linger and haunt. Discover poems of enchantment, fantasy, fairy tale, folklore,
dreams, dystopian, flora and fauna, magical realism, romance, and anything
hiding deep in-between the cracks.
Cover Image Painting – Aboriginal-painting-Greetings by-Melanie-Hava-Brolga
We let life live us, instead of us living life. — Helen M. Ryan
Aborigines believe in two forms of time. Two parallel streams of activity. One is the daily objective activity to which you and I are confined. The other is an infinite spiritual cycle called the "dreamtime," more real than reality itself. Whatever happens in the dreamtime establishes the values, symbols, and laws of Aboriginal society. Some people of unusual spiritual powers have contact with the dreamtime. — Peter Weir
Yesterday and today and tomorrow are not an arrow that shoots from past to present to future; rather all tenses, and sleeping and waking, mix and cohabit in an atemporal duration beyond clocks and calendars. The Aboriginal world began long ago when the Ancestors sang in Dreamtime the cosmic rhythms that give shape to the things we see, and it is the beginning right now, when a living Tiwi sings the Dream songs that continue, or are, the world. — Huston Smith
Originality has nothing to do with producing something ' new' - it is about seeking the source, the primordial ground from which you draw and have always drawn your being. It comes about when one works from one's origins, it is the dance of the eternal return ... and is as ancient as the Dreamtime. — Billy Marshall Stoneking
Lothlorien Poetry Journal is a contemporary literary journal featuring free verse/rhyming/experimental poetry, short stories, flash fiction, and occasional interviews with poets. Journey with us on the road to poems that linger and haunt https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/
Discover poems of enchantment, fantasy, fairy tale, folklore, dreams, dystopian, flora and fauna, magical realism, romance, and anything hiding deep in-between the cracks.
Lothlorien Poetry Journal nominates for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net.
Help spread the beauty of Lothlorien Poetry Journal. Submit, follow, join the site, and invite your friends.
Copyright 2022. All Rights Reserved. The artists have reserved their right under Section 77 Of the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the authors of their work.
Cover Image – Aboriginal-painting-Greetings by-Melanie-Hava-Brolga
ISBN
978-1-4709-6833-5
Imprint: Lulu.com
Contents
Editorial Poems by Strider Marcus Jones Pages
September 2022 Continued - Poetry and Fiction
Anna Maria Mickiewicz
1. The
Cottage and Old Tree 16-18
2. Regents
Park
3. The
Ballad of Penzance
4. Canvas
in Cornwall
5. Miracles
of Socrates
John Grey
1. What
If 18-23
2. The
Dangers of Living in Society
3. Separation
Prerequisite
4. Separation
Prerequisite (ii)
5. The
Jewelled Honeybee
6. Matriarch
Elaine Reardon
1. In
These Hard Times 23-26
2. Provence
of Winter
3. Guenevere
Remembers Long After
4. Guenevere
To Her Teacher, Long After
John Drudge
1. Background 26-29
2. Into the
Hills
3. New
Beginnings
4. Survival
5. The
Birth of Europe
Elizabeth Reames
1. Thorin
Oakenshield and I Get Stoned… 29-36
2. The
Boxer (or, What Survived the Fire)
3. An Elegy,
Upon Parting from Long Held Griefs
Harris Coverley
1. A Semi-Untitled
Story – Flash Fiction Story 36-39
Cynthia Anderson
1. The
Friend Who Finally Arrives 39-43
2. Grandmother
Returns to Sedona Through My Eyes
3. Petal
and Gale
4. The
Woodcutter
5. Iphigenia
Tom Brami
1. God’s Stars,
or the Automatic Screen 43-47
2. Manifesto
Destiny
3. Vampire’s
Kiss
4. How
they Fought TV
5. Father’s
Photo of the Actor
Hedy Habra
1. To Henriette 47-51
2. Open-Air
Cinema in Heliopolis
Michael H. Brownstein
1. Strength 52-53
2. Synonyms
3. Sometimes
You Have To Pay Attention
Sharon Ferrante
1. Three
Haiku 53-54
2. I Want
That Cactus
Ryan Quinn Flanagan
1. Gleefully
the Butcher Cleaves, He Cleaves 54-57
2. Flipping
my Mattress, I Think of Gymnasts
3. Bag of
Guppies
4. The
Coo Birds Coo No More
5. Weather
Vane
6. Away,
Away Say Distant Telescope Stars
Carol Tahir
1. Music
of Escape 57-58
2. The
Pool
Luis Cuauhtemoc Berriozabal
1. Less
Than Immortal 59-62
2. Beginners
of Sorts
3. On the
Porch
4. Grandiosity
Blues
Shelly Jones
1. Reflections
from Mimisbrunnr 63
John Doyle
1. Lasting
Impressions 64-66
2. Crazy
Times at the Staff Barbecue and Friday Night…
3. Bland
4. Everyone
from the Ramones is Dead
petro c.k.
1. Meagre
Hopings 66-68
2. Imaginary
Good Friends
3. Extension
Denser
4. After
Dumping Out the Coffee Offal
5. Telemetry
for Hours
Michael Lee Johnson
1. My
Life 69-71
2. Jesus and
How He Must Have Felt
3. Most
Poems
4. Poets in
the Rain
Mara Adamitz Scrupe
1. The
Better Desires
72-90
2. and
every range has its story
3. Root
Cellar Dugout or Harmony According to…
4. incaendo
5. Dumbarton
Oaks…
Dan Provost
1. Mirror 91-93
2. View
from the Window
3. Lonely
at the Pub
Dr Mona Bedi
1. Five
Senryu Poems 93-94
Dr Koshy A.V.
1. Jesus
is in the Details – Short Story 94-95
Carolyne Van Der Meer
1. At
Felix Leclerc House, Vaudreuil 96-100
2. Black
Bird, Grocery Store Parking Lot, St. Bruno
3. The
Sound of Snow in Dudswell
4. Parc
de la Promenade Bellerive, Montreal Est
5. The
Journey of Robert Merriam
Louis Kasatkin
1. Sans
Culottes 101-103
2. Night
and the City
3. Leadership
Contest
4. Maria
Alvarez: Scenes from an Undistinguished Life
Laura Stamps
1. Lazy –
Flash Fiction 103-104
Damen O’Brien
1. The
Drawing of Lots 104-109
2. Medium
Testimony
3. The
Aerodynamics of Mythical Creatures
4. The
Market
5. Tyranny
Michele Rule
1. Attached 109-110
2. Flow
Jack Galmitz
1. He Is
Risen 110-112
2. March with
the Zappatistas
3. Evasive
Action
Emily Bilman
1. The
Lightkeeper 112-115
2. Hubris
3. Synchronicity
4. The
Body-Dam
5. Challenger
Perry McDaid
1. Swallowing
Aneto – Short Story 116-124
Rose Mary Boehm
1. Life
and Death Tree 125-128
2. Waves
3. The
Prophet’s Vision
4. Snow
5. yin
and yang
Terry Wheeler
1. the
old people 128-132
2. while
sheep bleat
3. new
day
4. Walt
Whitman
Jeannie E. Roberts
1. The
Ethereal Effect, Stirred, Not Shaken 132-136
2. The
Wilderness of Survival
3. Sacred
Moments with the Flowers in My Garden
4. Viceroys
Visit a Villanelle of V’s
5. Water,
It Animates Life Wherever It Flows
Kyle Hemmings
1. winter
kills 136-137
2. club
kids
3. dancin’
w/jack and Jill
4. jack
and Jill as prophets
5. after
hours
Lorette C. Luzajic
1. The
Meerkat – Short Story 138-140
Michael Pollentine
1. Cancer
Sticks 140-142
2. Obscura
3. Container
4. Why
Neera Kashyap
1. Dawn 143-144
2. Senryu
Poems
Dennis Williamson
1. Late
Rain 144-146
2. What the
Devil Grew in Eden
3. Zap!
Cindy Rinne
1. Rest
is a Form of Resistance 146-150
2. Mark
Time
3. Fins
to Feathers
4. Dear
Snowy Owl
David Parsley
1. When
Samantha Left 151-155
2. Van
Gogh’s Pipe
3. What the
Bullets Found
Julia Kaylock
1. Little
fish 156-158
2. At the
intersection of receding lines
3. Water always
wins
Michael James O’Neill
1. The
Boy That Was and Is – Flash Fiction 158-160
Dr Ajanta Paul
1. Caesura 160-163
2. Tonight
I Shall Sleep
3. Distance
Greg Patrick
1. Samhain’s
Eve Song – Prose Fiction Story 164-168
Skaja Evens
1. In the
Town Formally Known as Torah 168-170
2. Separating
the Signal from the Noise
3. Fall
or Fly
John Copley Alter
1. Spinning 170-178
2. Three
transpositions of Wang Wei…
3. Autumn
Dusk, Mountain Home
4. The
monosyllabic suicide note
L. Acadia
1. Omkarasana 178-181
2. To My
Grandfathers
3. Flightpath
of a Cicada
Peter J. Donnelly
1. The
Shrew 182-185
2. Services
3. Waking
Up
4. Granny’s
Roast Dinners
5. My
Second Letter to Rosemary
Margaret Duda
1. Fostering
to Freedom 186-196
2. Gifts
from a Stranger
3. Losing
Everyone She Loved
4. On the
Wall Forever
5. Amber
Alert in Oswego County
1. The Sacred White Elephant 197
Angel Edwards
1. In for the long long con 198
Pawel Markiewicz
1. In the bewitched aviary. The sonnet… 199-200
2. Poem of not-Hindu for Goddess Krishna
Christina Chin and
Uchechukwu Onyedikam
1. Tanka collaboration 201-202
Daipayan Nair
1. Haiku 203-204
Geetha Ravichandran
1. Haiku and Senryu 205
Stephen House
1. in a whisper 206
John Harold Olson
1. Beach Grass 207
Debendra Lal - Translated
by Pitambar Naik
1. The Wild 208-210
2. Dad
3. Ram
Edilson Afonso
Ferreira
1. On War and Love 210-213
2. Chronology of the Pleasures
3. Desires
4. Gloomy Days
5. Rewriting Paradise – Pandemic Midsummer
Night’s Dream
C.G. Inglis
1. Dundas Square 214-215
2. King Palace
3. Highway
Irene Voth
1. Choices 215-218
2. When It Comes to Cats
3. Spaces
Ramesh Dohan
1. Eclipse of the Heart 218-219
2. Diaspora
3. Solitude
Vipanjeet Kaur
1. Frozen Memories 220-223
2. A Hazy Outline
3. Gulmohar Tree: The Glowing Flame
David Leo Sirois
1. Night-blooming jasmine 224-234
2. Nectar is the Best Medicine
3. Sacred Sound
4. Rotting Rue Dejean
5. From Words Heard or Seen in Dreams
Angel Edwards
1. Awake While Dreaming 234-235
POETS and FICTION AUTHORS
Anna Maria Mickiewicz
John Grey
Elaine Reardon
John Drudge
Elizabeth Reames
Harris Coverley
Cynthia Anderson
Tom Brami
Hedy Habra
Michael H. Brownstein
Sharon Ferrante
Ryan Quinn Flanagan
Carol Tahir
Luis Cuauhtemoc Berriozabal
Shelly Jones
John Doyle
petro c.k.
Michael Lee Johnson
Mara Adamitz Scrupe
Dan Provost
Dr Mona Bedi
Dr Koshy A.V.
Carolyne Van Der Meer
Louis Kasatkin
Laura Stamps
Damen O’Brien
Michele Rule
Jack Galmitz
Emily Bilman
Perry McDaid
Rose Mary Boehm
Terry Wheeler
Jeannie E. Roberts
Kyle Hemmings
Lorette C. Luzajic
Michael Pollentine
Neera Kashyap
Dennis Williamson
Cindy Rinne
David Parsley
Julia Kaylock
Michael James O’Neill
Dr Ajanta Paul
Greg Patrick
Skaja Evens
John Copley Alter
L. Acadia
Peter J. Donnelly
Margaret Duda
Angel Edwards
Pawel Markiewicz
Christina Chin and Uchechukwu
Onyedikam
Daipayan Nair
Geetha Ravichandran
Stephen House
John Harold Olson
Debendra Lal - Translated by Pitambar Naik
Edilson Afonso Ferreira
C.G. Inglis
Irene Voth
Ramesh Dohan
Vipanjeet Kaur
David Leo Sirois
Angel Edwards
Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 15
Nighthawk Shadows
August Continued - Early September 2022
Buy
Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 15 – Nighthawk
Shadows features the best contemporary poetry and fiction from
fifty-eight internationally renowned poets and fiction writers. Read their exhilarating
Nighthawk tales from the light and shadows.
“I thought the most beautiful
thing in the world must be shadow.”
― The Bell Jar
“The brightest flame casts the
darkest shadow.”
― A Clash of Kings
“Some people seemed to get all
sunshine, and some all shadow…”
― Little Women
“There is strong shadow where
there is much light.”
― Götz von Berlichingen
“Every man carries with him
through life a mirror, as unique and impossible to get rid of as his shadow.”
― The Dyer's Hand
“What men call the shadow of the
body is not the shadow of the body, but is the body of the soul.”
― A
House of Pomegranates
“Oh, beloved, and there is nothing
but shadows
where you accompany me in your dreams
and tell me the hour of light.”
― 100 Love Sonnets
“Awakened ones are like the cool
shadow of a tree. Light is harsh because of ego. Shadow has all the qualities
of light except the ego. It is compassionate towards darkness also but it never
steps into darkness.”
―
“Only he whose bright lyre
has sounded in shadows
may, looking onward, restore
his infinite praise.
Only he who has eaten
poppies with the dead
will not lose ever again
the gentlest chord.
Though the image upon the pool
often grows dim:
Know and be still.
Inside the Double World
all voices become
eternally mild.”
― Sonnets to Orpheus
“as the shadows assume
shapes
I fight the slow
retreat
now
my once-promise
dwindling
dwindling
now
lighting new cigarettes
pouring more
drinks
it has been a beautiful
fight
still
is.”
― You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense
Lothlorien Poetry Journal is a contemporary literary journal featuring
free verse/rhyming/experimental poetry, short stories, flash fiction, and
occasional interviews with poets. Journey with us on the road to poems that
linger and haunt https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/
Discover poems of enchantment, fantasy, fairy tale, folklore, dreams,
dystopian, flora and fauna, magical realism, romance, and anything hiding deep
in-between the cracks.
Lothlorien Poetry Journal nominates for the Pushcart Prize and Best of
the Net.
Help spread the beauty of Lothlorien Poetry Journal. Submit, follow,
join the site, and invite your friends.
Copyright 2022. All Rights Reserved. The artists have reserved their
right under Section 77 Of the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988 to be
identified as the authors of their work.
Cover Image Photograph – Nighthawks
– Painting by Edward Hopper
ISBN 978-1-4709-9688-8
Imprint: Lulu.com
Contents
Editorial Poems
by Strider Marcus Jones Pages
August 2022
Continued - Poetry and Fiction
Sterling
Warner
1. Sky Fires 17-20
2. Touchstone’s Crown
3. Viviane’s Almanac
4. Phantom Ship Fibonacci
5. Lisbeth Flashing
Wendy Webb
1. Pecking Chicken Feed 1920s to 2020s 21-26
2. Caps, Melodies and Motorbikes
3. Father’s Day 2022 - 1965
4. Walk to Weybourne Station
5. Dreaming a New Dream
Alex Budris
1. Take Your Muddy Shoes Outside 26-33
2. Adoinos (Death Of)
3. This Is Not An Exit
4. Sitting Alone on Ben’s Porch
Elana Malec
1. New York deli 34-35
2. Shooter
3. candour revisited
J.B. Hogan
1. Will We Never Wake 35-37
2. This Milky Spiral Above
3. Ever Even Here
Fay L.
Loomis
1. Lost in the Plaza – Short Story 38-39
George Gad
Economou
1. Crumbling Walls 39-47
2. The LakeHouse
3. Turtledoves on the Windowsill
4. Ghost Love
Chris
Bullard
1. Amaryllis 48-50
2. Orpheus Famous of Name
3. Alice in Analysis
4. Ghosts
5. Household Objects
Nadia Arioli
1. Hole Shapes 50-53
2. Watching Perry Mason with a Mouth Full
of Vomit
Rp Verlaine
1. Exquisite 53-58
2. For Masha Bruskina
3. Drinking to Li Po – for filia
4. Ever Present Yet Invisible
5. Hooking Up
Tatjana Bijelic
1. A Balkan Woman Archetype in Transition 59-62
2. Persephone’s Letter to Demeter
3. Peaceful Stranger
Tom Bakelas
1. detritus 62-65
2. fig fork
3. souvenir
Carol Tahir
1. A Mother’s Comfort 65
Robert Walton
1. Only Two Silvers – Short Story 66-69
Stephen Anderson
1. Under the Olive Tree 69-72
2. Bandwagon
3. Fortitude of a Modern Day Godiva
4. Resettlement
5. the fall
Kyle
Hemmings
1. Five Senryu Poems 73
John
Raffetto
1. Blind Walls of Twisted Love 74-76
2. Nocturnal Fever
3. Firefly Night
4. Planet Motives
Arthur Turfa
1. The Lament of Heloise 77-78
2. The Patte Mall-Center of my Universe
3. Often in Motion I Remember Him – for AT
Aine Rose
1. Blood Brothers 79-84
2. Mi
3. Spinning Class
4. Sunset
5. Where’ll we go
6. Canteen
Andrew Cyril
Macdonald
1. A lost verve shelters the tone 85-86
2. In it a mortal game wires
3. It’s the happy sky’s abundance
Greg Patrick
1. Fitzgerald’s Dream – Prose Poem 86-89
Patricia
Furstenberg
1. Tread Where There’s No Path 89-92
2. The Chart on My Hands
3. Cold Under the Sturgeon Moon
Stephen A.
Rozwenc
1. Oh, All About The West End 93-95
2. Poem - Untitled
3. Poem - Untitled
Susan Tepper
1. Dead 96
Steve
Klepetar
1. Island Song 97-99
2. A Cup of Wine
3. The Opening
John Harold Olson
1. Frozen Woods – Flash Fiction 100
Ursula
O’Reilly
1. Mislaid 101-103
2. Carousel
3. The Day the Pixies Came
4. Life
Michael Ball
1. The Beard Brushes the Stones 103-107
2. Faith in Fasteners
3. Exorcism by Furniture
4. The Fatal Kindness
5. Yesteryear’s Bowl
6. Oak Traitor
Amrita Valan
1. Profound 108-117
2. Now is the Only Time
3. Cessation
4. Nondescript Voices of the Evensong
Stephen
Kingsnorth
1. Swaddling 118-122
2. Scrabble
3. Hoops
4. Splashers
5. The Wizard was Late
Peter Penda
1. Poets 123
Lynn White
1. After Time 124-127
2. Like Alice
3. Little Sister Lost
Victor
Kennedy
1. Diamonds 127-128
2. Idol (a tree)
Cheryl Snell
1. Commitment – Flash Fiction Story 128-130
Robin Ouzman
Hislop
1. Dialogue with the Trees – Epic Poem 131-145
Prithvijeet
Sinha
1. Paradise 146-150
2. Bejewelled
David James
1. A Walk by the Lake 150-154
2. In the End, You Have to Say Something
3. A Cycle for the Unborn
4. The Last Straw in Leelanau
Ivan Jenson
1. Afterglow 155-158
2. First Impression
3. Love Abuse
4. Deep Advice
5. Arts and Crafts
David Alec
Knight
1. The Last Night of Hidetsugu 159-163
2. Illumination
3. Digging Machines
4. Almost Angling
5. Indwelling
Wayne F.
Burke
1. from Out of My Mind – Poem - Untitled 163-166
2. Poem – Untitled
3. Van Gogh the insufferable “fixer”
4. Poem – Untitled
5. sunset
Madhu Gangopadhyay
1. The Lingering Fragrance 166-168
2. Emptiness
3. Parturition
4. Aniline Dyed Heart
Chad
Parenteau
1. Suburban Jesus Tanka 169
2. Groomer Jesus Tanka
3. Anti-Woke Jesus
Angel
Edwards
1. Scared Rabbits 170
Alec
Solomita
1. In the Home 171
Ken Gosse
1. The Flowers that Bloom in the Spring 172-173
2. The Learning Curve
3. Guttle Language
4. A Phrase by Many Other Words
5. Pirate Weddings: (You Can Dress Him Up…)
Dr Anissa
Sboui
1. The Quranic School 174-177
2. Read to Lead
3. Dancing with the Wall
4. The Little Thief
Gordon Ferris
1. When my genie appears 177-179
2. Who Are You?
3. The Outsider
John Wesick
1. On the Day of My Cancelled Surgery 180-183
2. Dangerous Vegetables
3. Packing A Life
4. Jeff Cottrill’s Pink Blanket
5. Tara Elliott’s Horseshoe Crabs
Richard Long
1. Auger 183-186
2. Dream Big
3. Sanctuary Light
4. The Desert of Lost
5. The Good Semblance
Samo Kreutz
1. Imperfectnesses 186-188
2. Summer Poem
3. Aging
4. New Places – Haiku Sequence
5. Melancholy -in the autumn
Ajit Kumar Bhoi
– Translated by Pitambar Naik
1. Our Hunger is your Curiosity 189-193
2. The Fate of the Burnt Bricks
3. The Moon Over My Village
4. Tracing the Roots to the Earth
5. Tree
Early
September 2022 – Poetry and Fiction
Jodie
Baeyens
1. Deliver Us from Evil 193-196
2. Goddess Body
3. Mommy, put the stars on
Clive
Gresswell
1. Poem - Untitled 196-200
2. in memory of sean bonney
3. meanwhile
4. Poem - Untitled
5. Poem - Untitled
6. Poem - Untitled
Susan Wilson
1. Chain Gang 201-205
2. Lamentable
3. Saturday Girl
4. They Didn’t Close the Bus Stop
5. Old Rain in the City
Mark Parsons
1. Bottle and Sell It 206-225
2. Mask
3. Salesmanship…The Guest…Re-writes
4. Poem - Untitled
Salamot Fakoya
1. The Act of Staring 226-228
2. A Ritual
Alex Antiuk
1. Pet Shop Boys – Flash Fiction Story 228-232
Ngozi Olivia
Osuoha
1. There Is Dignity In Labour 233-235
FEATURED
POETS & FICTION WRITERS
August 2022
Continued - Poetry and Fiction
Sterling
Warner Wendy Webb Alex Budris
Elana Malec J.B. Hogan
Fay L. Loomis
George Gad
Economou Chris Bullard
Nadia Arioli Rp Verlaine
Tatjana Bijelic
Tom Bakelas Carol Tahir
Robert Walton
Stephen Anderson Kyle Hemmings
John
Raffetto Arthur Turfa Aine Rose
Andrew Cyril
Macdonald Greg Patrick
Patricia
Furstenberg Stephen A. Rozwenc
Susan Tepper Steve Klepetar John Harold Olson
Ursula
O’Reilly Michael Ball Amrita Valan
Stephen
Kingsnorth Peter Penda Lynn White
Victor
Kennedy Cheryl Snell
Robin Ouzman
Hislop Prithvijeet Sinha
David James Ivan Jenson
David Alec Knight
Wayne F.
Burke Madhu Gangopadhyay
Chad
Parenteau Angel Edwards
Alec
Solomita Ken Gosse Dr Anissa Sboui
Gordon Ferris John Wesick
Richard Long
Samo Kreutz
Ajit Kumar Bhoi
– Translated by Pitambar Naik
Early
September 2022 – Poetry and Fiction
Jodie
Baeyens Clive Gresswell Susan Wilson
Mark Parsons Salamot Fakoya Alex Antiuk
Ngozi Olivia
Osuoha
Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 14
Living in the Worlds Between Worlds
Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 14 – Living in the World
Between Worlds features outstanding contemporary poetry and fiction from fifty-six
internationally renowned poets and fiction writers. Join them on their journey
where realism and fantasy share a dystopian world.
“Far more often [than asking the question 'Is it true?']
they [children] have asked me: 'Was he good? Was he wicked?' That is, they were
far more concerned to get the Right side and the Wrong side clear. For that is
a question equally important in History and in Faerie.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, Tolkien
On Fairy-stories
“Our ancestors said to their mother Earth: 'We are yours'. Modern Humanity said to Nature, 'You are mine'. The Green Man has returned as the living face of the whole earth so that through his mouth we may say to the universe: 'We are one'.”
― Sharon Brubaker, The Blossoming
The truth of Nature is a part of the truth of God; to him who does not search it out, darkness; to him who does, infinity. — John Ruskin
Cernunnos was a god of the wild who ruled over pristine nature and uncivilized ways. Animals were his subjects, and free-growing fruits and vegetable his bounty. Classical depictions of the deity included gatherings of animals such as elk, wolves, snakes, and aurochs. Such gatherings were possible thanks to Cernunnos’ abillity to bring natural enemies into peaceful communion with one another. This ability may have cast Cernunnos as a protector and provider amongst rural tribes and hunters.
Similarly, Cernunnos may have
been a fertility god or god of life. In some classical societies, the natural
world was the origin of all life. Under this schema, the god of the wilds would
also have served as a god of life, creation, and fertility.
Gregory Wright
POETS and AUTHORS
Robert
(Roibeard) Shanahan Helga Kidder Rustin Larson
Ursula O’Reilly John Wesick
Michele Rule
Susan Tepper Edwin Staples Dr. Elizabeth V. Koshy
John Bennett Katie Nickas M. R. Defibaugh and Christina Chin
Angel Edwards Nolo Segundo Stephen Kingsnorth
Rose Mary Boehm Julian Grant Tatjana Bijelic
Allan Lake Madelyn Morrissey John Drudge
Louis Kasatkin Freya Pickard John Tustin
Mokhira Eshpulatova – Translated by Hilola Mirzayeva
Uchechukwu Onyedikam Stephen Guy Mallett
Roger Harvey Steve Deutsch Linda Imbler
John Doyle Dana Trick Rob McKinnon
Thomas Davis Damon Hubbs Lee Clark Zumpe
Matthew Freeman Chris Courtney Martin
David L O’Nan
Early August 2022 – Poetry and Fiction
J.D. Nelson Antonia Alexandra Klimenko
David Leo Sirois Nolcha Fox John Sweet
Juliet Wilson Joshua Martin
Lorelyn De la Cruz Arevalo Dr Anissa Sboui
Fotoula Reynolds Dr Stephen Paul Wren
Poems from John Dorsey by Scott Preston & Kim Stafford
Julia Vaughan Steven Bruce Gina Manchego Zufall
Jeanna Ni Riordain Daipayan Nair
Contents
Editorial Poems
by Strider Marcus Jones Pages
July 2022
Continued - Poetry and Fiction
Robert
(Roibeard) Shanahan
1. I Born in Amniotic Infused Grief – Epic
Poem 15-45
Helga Kidder
1. Closing In 45-48
2. When Rain Speaks
3. Listening
4. Symphony in Four Movements
5. Dear Scale
Rustin
Larson
1. The Midway 49-54
2. The Cottage on the Hill
3. Shelter
4. Real Peace
5. California
Ursula O’Reilly
1. Shelter 54-57
2. Eagle Rises
3. Greatest Love
4. Free As The Wind
John Wesick
1. Abscissa 57-60
2. Arrogance
3. I Love the Smell of Covid in the
Morning
4. Uncle Stan’s Advice
Michele Rule
1. Confinement 60-61
2. Foot Loose
Susan Tepper
1. Tree to Tree – for Ukraine 61
Edwin
Staples
1. Somebody 62-66
2. A Thousand Books
3. Rides of Life
4. Did You Hear?
5. Invisible Servants
Dr.
Elizabeth V. Koshy
1. A Summer Reverie!