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Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 33

Vortex Voyagers

February 2024 Continued

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Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 33 (lulu.com)

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 33 – Vortex Voyagers features the best fantasy and contemporary poetry and fiction from 73 internationally renowned poets and fiction authors. Join these Vortex Voyagers on this journey through life and its myriad relationships, real and imagined, where folklore, mythology, realism and dystopia mingle and merge casting light on secrets and shadows.

 

The Image is more than an idea. It is a vortex or cluster of fused ideas and is endowed with energy.

Ezra Pound

 

Like the Borg in Star Trek, empire says to you that resistance is futile. Those who don’t know that Christ resisted the Borg like Roman Empire, will be sucked into the vortex of today’s empire.

Peter Hall

 

Fog Portrait by Carl Sandburg

RINGS of iron gray smoke; a woman’s steel face … looking … looking. Funnels of an ocean liner negotiating a fog night; pouring a taffy mass down the wind; layers of soot on the top deck; a taffrail … and a woman’s steel face … looking … looking. Cliffs challenge humped; sudden arcs form on a gull’s wing in the storm’s vortex; miles of white horses plow through a stony beach; stars, clear sky, and everywhere free climbers calling; and a woman’s steel face … looking … looking …

 

Featured Poets and Fiction Authors

 

Antonia Alexandra Klimenko Randy Barnes Kelly Moyer  Gary Bills Jennifer Gurney Paul Tristram Susan Wilson  Kushal Poddar Rekha Valliappan Steve Klepetar Debarati Sen 

John Drudge Lynda Tavakoli John Doyle Tina Negus  John Grey Kim Ports Parsons Michael Lee Johnson  Laura Stamps Ira Rosenstein Joan Leotta Dr Ralph Monday 

Kathleen Chamberlin Gopal Lahiri Amanda Niamh Dawson Peter Mladinic Wendy Webb Nolo Segundo Lilija Valis John Harold Olson Mary Bone Alan Catlin Carol Tahir  

Mohibul Aziz Jay Passer Julie A. Dickson John Sweet  Nancy Tinnell Alec Solomita 

B.L. Bruce Bruce Hunter  Danielle Page Duane Vorhees Anushna Biswas

Michael H. Brownstein Kelley White Eric Robert Nolan  Daniela Rodi Scott C. Kaestner Martina Reisz Newberry Jerome Berglund Sal Rochelle David Alec Knight  Fay L. Loomis Daniel Cyran Karen O’Leary & Paul Callus  P.C. Scheponik Maria Teresa Sisti 

Wayne F. Burke  Roberta Beach Jacobson Stephen Jarrell Williams Rachel Dill 

Giulio Magrini Dr Randy Brooks Jackie Chou  M.J. (Michael Joseph) Arcangelini 

Mona Dash  Stephen A. Rozwenc Salvatore Difalco Rick Hartwell  Pawel Markiewicz Christopher Barnes

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 32

Wild Swans

December 2023 Continued - Early February 2024

Click to BUY PRINTED BOOK

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 32 (lulu.com)

congratulations dear contributors to Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 32 – Wild Swans. I am honoured and delighted to publish your superb poetry and fiction from the months of December 2023 Continued – Early February 2024 in this stunning volume and have attached your free PDF Copy. The printed book is now available from today to purchase from lulu.com by clicking the link below-

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 32 (lulu.com)

I hope you will consider purchasing this stunning 244 page feast of 79 internationally esteemed poets and fiction writers for your personal published collections, family, friends and libraries. Thank you for your continuing contributions and support of Lothlorien Poetry Journal my Fellow Lothlorians. Every purchase helps me to continue publishing Lothlorien Poetry Journal and is deeply appreciated.

Warmest wishes,

Strider Marcus Jones – Editor in Chief. Xx

 

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 32 – Wild Swans features the best contemporary poetry, fantasy and fiction from 79 internationally renowned poets and fiction authors. Join these Wild Swans on this journey through life and its myriad relationships and situations, real and imagined, where folklore, mythology, realism and dystopia mingle and merge casting light on secrets and shadows.

 

Tie your heart at night to mine, love, and both will defeat the darkness like twin drums beating in the forest against the heavy wall of wet leaves. Night crossing: black coal of dream that cuts the thread of earthly orbs with the punctuality of a headlong train that pulls cold stone and shadow endlessly. Love, because of it, tie me to a purer movement, to the grip on life that beats in your breast, with the wings of a submerged swan, So that our dream might reply to the sky's questioning stars with one key, one door closed to shadow.

Pablo Neruda

 

The swan, like the soul of the poet, By the dull world is ill understood.

Heinrich Heine

 

Those who awaken never rest in one place. Like swans, they rise and leave the lake. On the air they rise and fly an invisible course. Their food is knowledge. They live on emptiness. They have seen how to break free. Who can follow them?

Gautama Buddha

 

Swans in the winter air
A white perfection have

W. H. Auden

 

The evening advanced. The shadows lengthened. The waters of the lake grew pitchy black. The gliding of the ghostly swans became rare and more rare.

Wilkie Collins

 

I like relativity and quantum theories because I don't understand them and they make me feel as if space shifted about like a swan that can't settle, refusing to sit still and be measured; and as if the atom were an impulsive thing always changing its mind.

D. H. Lawrence

 

The Wild Swans at Coole

BY WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS

 

The trees are in their autumn beauty,

The woodland paths are dry,

Under the October twilight the water

Mirrors a still sky;

Upon the brimming water among the stones

Are nine-and-fifty swans.

 

The nineteenth autumn has come upon me

Since I first made my count;

I saw, before I had well finished,

All suddenly mount

And scatter wheeling in great broken rings

Upon their clamorous wings.

 

I have looked upon those brilliant creatures,

And now my heart is sore.

All's changed since I, hearing at twilight,

The first time on this shore,

The bell-beat of their wings above my head,

Trod with a lighter tread.

 

Unwearied still, lover by lover,

They paddle in the cold

Companionable streams or climb the air;

Their hearts have not grown old;

Passion or conquest, wander where they will,

Attend upon them still.

 

But now they drift on the still water,

Mysterious, beautiful;

Among what rushes will they build,

By what lake's edge or pool

Delight men's eyes when I awake some day

To find they have flown away? 

 

 Wild Geese | by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting–
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

 

THE BUSHMAN SPEAKS

(Note: The occasion for this speech is the arrival of an expedition headed by a European in a Bushman werf around the year 1900.) 

This desert is our life.

From the dry earth we gather roots and melons.
Over the endless sands we hunt the gemsbok and the springbok.

Sometimes the ga roots are shrivelled and bitter.
Sometimes men are sick with thirst and hunger.

When there is water we drink and sing and clap our hands.
When there is food we eat and dance and clap our hands.

The eland does not come to us and ask to be eaten —
one must know how to make the arrow and poison it
and where to look and how to hide and shoot. . . .

What man is so foolish as to expect more? To expect

the rain to be always falling, his eggs full of water and
his stomach full of meat?

You have strong animals to carry you.
You have much food and water.
Your digging sticks are hard and sharp.
Your shooting-sticks are like lightning.

You are a powerful man and a good man.
I can see that in your eyes.

But what you offer is a dream.

You can give us water and meat.
You can fill our hands with tobacco and perfect beads.

But you cannot give us happiness.

A man can only drink so much and then he is full.
If a man is always eating honey, he tires of it and becomes sick.

And even if all life were sweet —
what man is not food for lions and dogs?
A man who has tasted in his life no bitterness will find death very bitter.

My mouth longs for sweetness
but sweetness brings bitterness
and in the end they are one.

So I ask you:
Take your digging sticks and your shooting-sticks.
And do not leave them behind.
Go to the green lands you came from.
We shall walk in this desert as we always have.

 

FEATURED POETS & FICTION AUTHORS

December 2023 Continued – Early February 2024

 

Simon MacCulloch  Nancy Machlis Rechtman  Sterling Warner

Antonia Alexandra Klimenko  Andy Perrin  Steve Sibra

John Tustin  Robert Witmer  Kathylynne Somerville

Bruce Hunter Abel Johnson Thundil  Kenneth M. Kapp

Kushal Poddar  Linda H.Y. Hegland  Mark Young

Ankur Jyoti Saikia  Isabel Cristina Legarda  George Vance

Chris Collins  Dan Smith  Barbara Leonhard

Victor Kennedy  Jane Blanchard  Townes-Thomas

Bonnie Meekums  John Drudge  Elizabeth Marino

Steve Klepetar  Kelly Moyer  Moe Seager

Dibyasree Nandy  J.D. Nelson  Wendy Webb

Ken Gosse  Robina Rader  Jayanta Bhaumik

R.I. Karoly  Allan Lake  Ceinwen E. Cariad Haydon

Joshua Green  Esmorie Miller  Fred Johnston

Karen A. VandenBos  Roger Haydon  CLS Sandoval

J.B. Hogan  Deepa Onkar  John Doyle  Jennifer Gurney

Tony Dawson  Lynn White  Fabrice Poussin

Gopi Kottoor  Amrita Valan  Christopher Fried

Cyril Simsa  Charles A. Perrone  Sarah Das Gupta

C.S. Hughes  Christina Chin  Michael Shoemaker 

Bradford Middleton  Philip Butera  Snigdha Agrawal

Michael Ceraolo  Petrouchka Alexieva  O.P. Jha

Concetta Pipia  Terrence Sykes  Xenia Giagli

Oonah V. Joslin  Steve Deutsch  Elizabeth Marino

Daipayan Nair  Angel Edwards  Thompson Emate

Don Edwards  Anise Algin  Mark Hendrickson

               

Contents

 

                                                                                Pages

 

December 2023 Continued – Poetry and Fiction

 

Simon MacCulloch

1.       Dreamer                                                         17-21

2.       Garden of Remembrance

3.       Joy

4.       Assumption

5.       Bird Song

Nancy Machlis Rechtman

1.       Inside the Waterfall                                                  21-25

2.       Origins

3.       It’s 2:00 AM

4.       Heat on the Big Screen

5.       Untouched

Sterling Warner

1.       Ochre Flash                                                   26-30

2.       Road Rage Cinema

3.       Water Bottle

4.       Hooked on Half-wit Devices

5.       Supermarket Chariots

Antonia Alexandra Klimenko

1.       The Gaza Stripped                                         31-33

Andy Perrin

1.       Winter’s Silhouettes                                                 33-35

2.       The Escape

3.       That High Distant Hill

4.       An Old Rusty Bicycle

5.       To Linger   

Steve Sibra

1.       Biscuits                                                          36-37

2.       Gunpowder Flash

3.       A Ballroom of Tempests

John Tustin

1.       Armchair                                                       37-42

2.       Heroes and Villains

3.       He’s Your Lover Now

4.       That Sad and Broken-Hearted Girl

5.       Waiting for Li Ch’ing-Chao                         

Robert Witmer

1.       A Toy Gun with Real Bullets                                   42-46

2.       Addled Stop

3.       A Few Words Worth

4.       The Curse of the Colonel

5.       Spacetime

 

January 2024 – Poetry and Fiction

                      

Kathylynne Somerville

1.       Mommy Makeover                                                  46-50

2.       The Flirtation of a Fantasy

3.       Chemical Bonding

4.       I Almost Died

5.       Stuff It        

Bruce Hunter

1.       The Rooks in the Sycamores at the Tomb of Dunn  51-55

Abel Johnson Thundil

1.       Giving Birth                                                 55-56

2.       Guidance

Kenneth M. Kapp

1.       Kalman’s Head – Short Story                                  57-59

Kushal Poddar

1.       The Boy Left in The Attic                                        59-61

2.       Winter Trapped in The Room

3.       The Social Contracts Made at A Mortuary

4.       The Orbit of The Tired Stalker

5.       Weighing The Leaves

Linda H.Y. Hegland

1.       A Love Worthy of the Word                                    61-63

2.       The Heat of Stilled Days

3.       Suspension

Mark Young

1.       As simple as a page borrowed from a botanical…   63-67

2.       A Dick is a Strange Compass

3.       The Caribou

4.       Porcupine gumbo

5.       Things and How They Seem

Ankur Jyoti Saikia

1.       Florescence                                                    67-68

2.       Roadside haiku

3.       Burnt-out

4.       Wax, wane, repeat

5.       Ecliptic kiss

Isabel Cristina Legarda

1.       Self Portrait as a Chartres Cathedral Sculpture…    68-71

2.       The Lady and the Falcon

3.       Behind the Blue Drape

George Vance

1.       A Wall in Crete                                              72-73

Chris Collins

1.       Presence of Being                                          74-77

2.       Primal Scream-Primal Cry

Dan Smith

1.       The Ram Inn                                                           77-81

2.       Antonin Artaud Throws Down at the Lame-o- Poetry…

3.       The AI like us had good intentions

4.       Attaining the top rung…

Barbara Leonhard

1.       As for Death                                                            81-82

2.       I Wish the Words

3.       There Was a Knock

4.       My Mother Haunts My Twitter Feed

Victor Kennedy

1.       Canoe Lake, 1988                                         83-84

2.       I Have Heard the Wild Wolves Sing

Jane Blanchard

1.       Tristan and Iseult                                          85-86

Townes-Thomas

1.       The mystic in the fens                                             86

Bonnie Meekums

1.       A precarious balance                                               87-89

2.       Protecting the Young

3.       A tiny thing to hold

4.       The dance of spine-woman

5.       Finding my way home

John Drudge

1.       Birth of a Tear                                                         90-93

2.       Morning in France

3.       Letting Go

4.       Of You

5.       Returning

6.       You in Venice

Elizabeth Marino

1.       Never Be Shamed For Your Survival                      94

Steve Klepetar

1.       Christmas Eve 2023                                                95-96

2.       Vodka

3.       Festival

Kelly Moyer

1.       The Christmas Sweater – Short Story                      97-99   

Moe Seager

1.       River Traffic                                                            100

Dibyasree Nandy 

1.       She Knew of the Thorn                                 101-103

2.       Black Ocean               

J.D. Nelson

1.       10 Untitled Monostich Poems                                  104-105

Wendy Webb

1.       Developments                                                          105-109

2.       Put on Your Dancing Shoes, Honey

3.       Page, Page Against the Lying Screens of Night (Villanelle)

4.       Who Cooks, Who Plays, Who Capsizes?

5.       Death of a Little Girl By Stages

Ken Gosse

1.       A Sweeping Kingdom                                             110-112

2.       Calico Tats

3.       Felinity

4.       Cataclysm

5.       Sharing the Peanut Butter

6.       Pollywoggles

7.       Monty’s Parrot

Robina Rader

1.       An Italian Chapel in the North Sea                          112-114

Jayanta Bhaumik

1.       For a love poem with beeps and pauses                   114-116

2.       Consideration, a pointless journey

3.       For a pith-chemistry bracketed in me

R.I. Karoly

1.       Eight Haiku Poems                                                  117-118

Allan Lake

1.       Neither Prodigal Nor Weary                                    118-120

2.       Through Solitary Pane

Ceinwen E. Cariad Haydon

1.       Aftermath                                                      120-124

2.       Driftwood

3.       A monkey in silk is a monkey no less

4.       What Do Babies Weigh

5.       Dilemma

Joshua Green      

1.       The Bloom – English Sonnet                                   124-126

2.       An Engagement by the Sea – English Sonnet

3.       The Library Field – Spenserian Sonnet

Esmorie Miller

1.       One Less Looking Glass                                126-131

2.       For Mothers & Fathers & Other Folks Who Parent

3.       An Ode for My Friends On (Our) Precarity

4.       Creator, I am Contrasted and Juxtaposed!

5.       A Cleansing by Fire, Known Also as Grief 

Fred Johnston

1.       Lines on Leaving a Madhouse                       132-134

2.       Tethys in the Bath House

3.       Counterweight

4.       That’s All

5.       Weather

Karen A. VandenBos

1.       Sounds of a Distraught Lullaby                     135-137

2.       Beneath Black Pointed Hats

3.       When All Women Were Birds

4.       Just Another Pretty Face

5.       The Resilience of Hope

Roger Haydon

1.       Not a Fable – Flash Fiction Story                            138-139

CLS Sandoval

1.       Alexandrine Realization                                 139-142

2.       Before bed, I

3.       Missed Meeting

4.       The Conversation that Never Started

5.       The Path of Most Resistance

J.B. Hogan

1.       Last Phone Call                                              142-144

2.       Isolation

3.       Regret

Deepa Onkar

1.       Box of Broken Jewels                                              144-147

2.       The Daydreaming Pen

3.       Walking in Second Avenue

4.       Transient

John Doyle

1.       Radio Killed the Digital Star                                   147-152

2.       Mexilhoeira Grande

3.       Edwin

4.       Darkness Falling: County Wicklow

5.       Gethsemane Cemetery, Kentucky

6.       Airplanes

7.       The Girl from College Who Wasn’t Half as Kooky…

Jennifer Gurney

1.       Haiku Poems                                                           153-154      

Tony Dawson

1.       The Night Before Christmas – Flash Fiction Story  154-157

Lynn White

1.       The Usual Santas                                           157-161

2.       Wrapped Up

3.       Beam Us Up

4.       Abracadabra

Fabrice Poussin

1.       As if Merlin                                                   161-165

2.       Breakfast of Champions

3.       Done with you

4.       Joy of the Knife

5.       Love Pathetic

Gopi Kottoor

1.       Today                                                            165-166

2.       The Flowering

3.       Cuckoo Clock

Amrita Valan

1.       Mobius, Meristem Metamorphosis                          167-171

Christopher Fried

1.       Life Turns Tragic for Mr Charles Beaumont           171-173

2.       Roar

3.       The Peeled-Back Facts

4.       Culture Warrior

Cyril Simsa

1.       Colophony – Short Story                               173-179

Charles A. Perrone

1.       Making Sense of Five Superior Questions               179-181

2.       The Fate of Chosen Garb

3.       From a Distance

4.       Memo to the Curious

5.       Casting Fate 

Sarah Das Gupta

1.       The Fishy Cloak – Short Story                      182-184

 

February 2024 – Poetry and Fiction

 

C.S. Hughes

1.       How to Be a Cockatoo…                               184-192

2.       Yowl

3.       On the Impossibility of A De-Anthropocentric Distance

          In Poetry 

Christina Chin

1.       Never shop before food                                 192-193

Michael Shoemaker 

1.       The Road to Beyond                                                193-196

2.       Almost Everything Is Unseen

3.       The Corner of One’s Eye

4.       Rag Rug

Bradford Middleton

1.       The Warmth of the Sun                                 197-200

2.       The Sun Came Today

3.       A Routine in Lock-Down

4.       Contemplating Escape as the Days of Old Return to Haunt

5.       Saturday Afternoon Home Alone

Philip Butera

1.       As the Aperture Opens Wide                                   200-205

2.       The Cheek Kiss

Snigdha Agrawal

1.       Reluctant bed fellow                                                206-208

2.       Trapped Miners – Triku Series  

Michael Ceraolo

1.       J.B.                                                                208-212

2.       The Lincoln Trilogy

Petrouchka Alexieva

1.       Aurora’s Cosmic Ballet                                  213-216

2.       In a Rescue Team

3.       White Owl in Winter Mid-Night

4.       Salvage of Broken Heart

5.       Seven Roses on the Bench 

O.P. Jha

1.       For Victoria Amelina                                              217-218

2.       Talking Eyes

Concetta Pipia

1.       To Be Present: A Dance with Existence                   218-222

2.       In the Meadow of Moments

3.       Beneath the Shattered Sky – Flash Fiction

Terrence Sykes

1.       Prague Symphony                                         222-224

Xenia Giagli

1.       Pink                                                               225-229

2.       On remembering (Orange)

3.       A farewell to innocence

4.       Her

5.       The God of Big Things

Oonah V. Joslin

1.       Year of the Dragon 2024                               230

Steve Deutsch

1.       Erato                                                              231-232

Elizabeth Marino

1.       When You Open a Door                                232

Daipayan Nair

1.       Ten Haiku Poems                                          233-235

Angel Edwards

1.       Celebrity Light                                             235-237

2.       Nightmare Rules

3.       Nightmare

4.       Retreat

Thompson Emate

1.       Untitled Poem                                                          238

Don Edwards

1.       Cold Water                                                    239

Anise Algin

1.       Moonlighting love                                         240

Mark Hendrickson

1.       I Thought, I Saw                                            241-242

 

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 31

Free Spirits

December 2023

Click to BUY PRINTED BOOK

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 31 (lulu.com)

Congratulations dear contributors to Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 31 – Free Spirits. I am honoured and delighted to publish your superb poetry and fiction from the month of December 2023 in this stunning volume and have attached your free PDF Copy.

The printed book is now available from today to purchase from lulu.com by clicking this link -

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 31 (lulu.com)

I hope you will consider purchasing this stunning 244 page feast of 70 internationally esteemed poets and fiction writers for your personal published collections, family, friends and libraries. Thank you for your continuing contributions and support of Lothlorien Poetry Journal my Fellow Lothlorians. Every purchase helps me to continue publishing Lothlorien Poetry Journal and is deeply appreciated.

Warmest wishes,

Strider Marcus Jones – Editor in Chief. Xx

 

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 31 – Free Spirits features the best contemporary poetry, fantasy and fiction from 70 internationally renowned poets and fiction authors. Join these free spirits on this journey through life and its myriad relationships, real and imagined, where folklore, mythology, realism and dystopia mingle and merge casting light on secrets and shadows.

The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.

Albert Camus

To keep our faces toward chance and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.

Helen Keller

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.

Albert Einstein

Be The Peace You Wish To See In The World!

Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

POETS and FICTION AUTHORS

Catfish McDaris Amara Meredith John Drudge Karen A VandenBos Steve Klepetar Lynda Tavakoli Luis Cuauhtémoc Berriozábal Kathryn MacDonald Cliff Wedgbury Shivangi Mishra Stephen Kingsnorth Concetta Pipia Eric Brown Holly Payne-Strange J.J. Campbell Kelly Moyer Gordon Scapens Elena Ershova John Doyle Smitha Vishwanath Gifford Savage Jennifer Gurney Gary Bills Tricia Lloyd Waller David M Blake Ron Rosenstock and Gabriel Rosenstock Dr Bikram Kumar Mohapatra Kenneth M Kapp Claudia Wysocky Ikechukwu Henry Nolo Segundo Philip Butera Michael La Bombarda Snigdha Agrawal Aaron Lynn Mike Zone Wendy Webb Alan Morrison Sharon Waller Knutson A J Dalton Myrtle Thomas Wayne F Burke Mykyta Ryzhykh Michael E Theroux ‘Teru’ Douglas Richardson Ayesha Siddiqa Khan R W Stephens Lorie Greenspan Ed Lyons Sam Szanto Jason Ryberg Joseph A Farina Ed Ahern Linda Imbler Wayne Russell Linda King Duane L Herrmann Jon Wesick Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca John Harold Olson Mary Bone Arthur Turfa Jayanta Bhaumik Angel Edwards Toyb ben Uilliam David Barber Lan Qyqalla Avantika Vijay Singh Mubarak Said Duane Vorhees

 

Contents

Editorial Poems by Strider Marcus Jones                          Pages

December 2023 – Poetry and Fiction

 

Catfish McDaris

1.       Gringo Loco                                                  17-19

2.       Never Eat Barbequed Seagulls

3.       Supernatural

4.       Five Finger Discount

Amara Meredith

1.       Water on Mars                                                         19-22

2.       Every Storm a Serenade

3.       Civil Twilight

4.       Summerlands

5.       The Water Labyrinth

John Drudge

1.       As Winter Begins                                          22-25

2.       Journeys

3.       Rural Impressions

4.       Escape

5.       Messages

Karen A VandenBos

1.       Stillness Comes with Secrets                                   25-28

2.       Be Not Afraid

3.       Child of the Marshlands

4.       Begin

5.       Orb Weaver

Steve Klepetar

1.       Water and Sand                                             28-30

2.       Cruelty

3.       Chocolate Sauce   

Lynda Tavakoli

1.       Unknown 99                                                            31

Luis Cuauhtémoc Berriozábal

1.       Block Party                                                    32-36

2.       The Voices in My Head

3.       Shine Out

4.       Out of My Control

5.       Count the Stars                         

Kathryn MacDonald

1.       Moontreader                                                            36-38

2.       Follow Birds and Dreamers

3.       Of Sages & Seas & Butterfly Wings                

Cliff Wedgbury

1.       My love sold revolutionary newspapers                  39-43

2.       blind date

3.       French kissing

4.       ant

5.       kiss

6.       waving with molly

Shivangi Mishra

1.       Wild in Restraint, Pristine as Unkempt                    43-44

Stephen Kingsnorth

1.       all trades                                                       44-47

2.       Early Learning

3.       Conceit

4.       Blokes

5.       Shaken Still

Concetta Pipia

1.       The Drizzling Dream                                               47-50

2.       tiny lens, tinier shutter

3.       Harmony’s Embrace

4.       Love’s Flight

5.       In the Echoes of Despair

Eric Brown

1.       Black Squirrels in the Dooryard                    51-56

2.       Ode to Charon

3.       Hymn to Mintha

Holly Payne-Strange

1.       Strange Gifts                                                            56-62

2.       Wind Whipped Waves

3.       No Ordinary Man

4.       Disappear Diamond

J.J. Campbell

1.       a blistered fucking ego                                   63-67

2.       the lust for gun violence

3.       ruin me

4.       say hello to god

5.       fishnets and a long cigarette

 

Kelly Moyer

1.       Mother Pomegranate and the Orphan Child             68-71

          - Short Story

Gordon Scapens

1.       Fleeting Contentment                                               72-75

2.       Voters

3.       Directions

4.       Excuses Not Required

Elena Ershova

1.       What You Are – Such Your Life                             75-77

John Doyle

1.       I Regard These Things as Dood Investments           77-80

2.       The First Thing They Say on Monday Morning is…

3.       Alice

4.       It Tore My Heart to Pieces When I Heard the Levee…

5.       An Unfortunate Habit of Making Enemies

Smitha Vishwanath

1.       Tarot card reader -  a satirical poem                        81-83

2.       New World Order

Gifford Savage

1.       Shemen Zayit (tree of oil)                                        83-84

Jennifer Gurney

1.       Clouds                                                                     84-88

2.       Haiku

Gary Bills

1.       Annunciation                                                          89-95

2.       Not Darkness but Day

3.       Uplands Orchard

4.       Weighing Winter

5.       Swifts and Shadows

6.       Night Magnolia

7.       Epiphany

8.       Wine Glass

9.       Puddle

10.     Fishing Spell

Tricia Lloyd Waller

1.       She Wants to Ask Where He Has Hidden It             95-100

          - Short Story

David M Blake

1.       And if the heart’s a rock                                101-102

2.       Sad in another time zone

3.       Into the Green

Ron Rosenstock and Gabriel Rosenstock

1.       Faroe Islands – A photo haiku sequence                  103-105

Dr Bikram Kumar Mohapatra

1.       A Bare Solitude                                             105-108

2.       In the Moments of the Setting Sun

3.       The Monologue of a Dwarf

Kenneth M Kapp

1.       I Heard It from a Friend – Short Story           109-110

2.       Out on the Prairie – Flash Fiction Story

Claudia Wysocky

1.       Heaven and Hell                                            111-114

2.       Thoughts On Cars?

3.       Foolish Understanding

4.       Redacted   

Ikechukwu Henry

1.       Sinned – Short Story                                               114-120

Nolo Segundo 

1.       Quintessence of Dust                                               120-128

2.       A Child and Eternity

3.       For I Can Hear Life

4.       Existing Without Time

5.       When Flowers Die

6.       Echoes of God

7.       When An Old Man Dreams

8.       I Too Wanna Live

9.       A Poem Is Just a Tease

10.     The Face of the Buddha               

Philip Butera

1.       A Raven Among Crows                                 129-132

2.       They Are Balloons

Michael La Bombarda

1.       Walking for Inspiration                                 133-136

2.       Doctor’s Visit

3.       Stuyvesant Park

4.       Excavation

5.       High Up

Snigdha Agrawal

1.       Cutting Board                                                          136-138

2.       Wine Bottle

3.       Capitulation

Aaron Lynn

1.       Dancing Little Skull                                                138-139

2.       Nascent Aura

Mike Zone

1.       Parking lot meditation                                              140-142

2.       Nocturnal promises

3.       The greatest number

4.       Frequency

Wendy Webb

1.       Strange Artistic Temperament Vanishes – F/Fiction          143-147

2.       To Autumn’s Pleasant Sounds of Nothing

3.       Breathing Through the Pain

4.       SHUSH! Naughty Moon

Alan Morrison

1.       Whats App Mr Time?                                              148-156

2.       Liskeard Eighty-Six

3.       Bruised Fruit

Sharon Waller Knutson

1.       Heir to the Throne                                         157-161

2.       Larry and Gerry Gene

3.       Uncle Worship

4.       The Big Red Barn

5.       Friday is Fish Night

A J Dalton 

1.       Loki’s Lament                                                         162-166

2.       The Misery and Mirth of Mjölnir

3.       Viking Winter

4.       Odin Wayfarer

5.       A Girl’s Vision

Myrtle Thomas

1.       Invisible Realms and Regions                                  166-169

2.       Borders of a Bedroom

3.       Where Natural Light Wanders

4.       A Daughter of Eve Born from The Morning

Wayne F Burke

1.       Irish Lit. 101                                                           169-171

2.       From the Rib Comes the Juste

3.       Memorabilia

4.       ditty

5.       Ku

6.       Words on the Hit List:

Mykyta Ryzhykh

1.       who are happy                                                         172-174

2.       This poem smells blue

3.       Haiku

4.       Haiku

5.       Untitled Poem

Michael E Theroux ‘Teru’

1.       Divine Remains                                             174-178

2.       Rebirth

3.       Fall to Winter in the Valley

4.       Redemption Bones

5.       To My Muse

Douglas Richardson

1.       The Pharmacist                                              178-180

2.       Set My Alarm: A Winter Strategy

3.       It’s True You Were Eccentric

4.       Pop Culture Continuum

Ayesha Siddiqa Khan

1.       Salt                                                                181-183

2.       Red

3.       Stay up tonight

R W Stephens

1.       Haiku – Ekphrastic Escher Series 2 - Liberation      183-184

2.       Encounter

3.       Liberation

4.       Square Limit

5.       Circle Limit IV (Heaven and Hell)

6.       Dragon

Lorie Greenspan

1.       Whack the Retchling!                                              185-192

Ed Lyons

1.       A Christmas Fantasia – Short Story                         192-194      

Sam Szanto

1.       Athena                                                                     195-197

2.       Merope

3.       The Coat Stand Grows Old

Jason Ryberg

1.       Late Afternoon in Early November                         197-202

2.       Some Sort of Grand Unifying Metaphor…

3.       Big Plans

4.       Exurbs of The Great American Dream

5.       Keep Moving

Joseph A Farina

1.       ghosts of water street: epilogue                      202-204

Ed Ahern

1.       The Recognition                                            204

Linda Imbler

1.       Wild Moon                                                    205-208

2.       Counterfeited Glory

3.       Defanged Pain

4.       Death On the Run

5.       Fate of the Devil’s Victory

Wayne Russell

1.       At Night                                                       209-213

2.       Sometimes

3.       The Ruins

4.       Universal Dreams

5.       âmes jumelles (twin souls)       

Linda King

1.       Somewhere beyond reason                                      213

2.       Space will replace all of you

Duane L Herrmann

1.       Circle and Circle                                            214-217

2.       Those Few

3.       Open the Door

4.       Listen To…

5.       The Way 

Jon Wesick

1.       Another Asshole with a Chapbook                          217-219

2.       The Great Wall At Badaling

3.       Lisa Asked Me

4.       Null and Valid

5.       Pelicans Patrol the Sky

Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca

1.       Packing                                                          219-221

2.       Lost

3.       The Forest

John Harold Olson

1.       Saturday Snow                                              221

2.       Rowboat

 

 

Mary Bone 

1.       Hope on the Road to Nowhere                       222-223

2.       Blue River

3.       Resting on My Laurels

4.       Mad Woman

Arthur Turfa

1.       Pilsner Urquell in West Berlin                       223-228

2.       Viaticum

3.       Plot 2 Row 30 Grave 30 – PVT Edmond Schollaert

4.       Winning the Powerball

Jayanta Bhaumik

1.       For a love – poem with beeps and pauses                228-229

2.       For a pith – chemistry bracketed in me

Angel Edwards

1.       Haiku – Adult Flower                                              230     

Toyb ben Uilliam

1.       Garlic – Flash Fiction                                              230

David Barber

1.       Le Dernier Chevalier du Graal                       231 

Lan Qyqalla

1.       In the Theatre of Tragedy                              232-236

2.       One Day

3.       Lora in Adriatic

4.       Lora in the Rain

5.       Lora

Avantika Vijay Singh

1.       A water nymph                                              237-238

Mubarak Said

1.       Elasticity                                                        238-239

2.       All Wait To Decay

3.       Transformation

Duane Vorhees

1.       The Obligations of a Freedman                      240-242

2.       Sanctified

3.       A Mind Rewinds

4.       Siege

5.       Unlusting

 

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 30

Threads of Fate

November 2023 Continued

Click to BUY PRINTED BOOK

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 30 (lulu.com)

Congratulations dear contributors to Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 30 – Threads of Fate. I am honoured and delighted to publish your superb poetry and fiction from the month of November 2023 continued in this stunning volume and have attached your free PDF Copy.

The printed book is now available from today to purchase from lulu.com by clicking this link -

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 30 (lulu.com)

I hope you will consider purchasing this stunning 244 page feast of over 70 internationally esteemed poets and fiction writers for your personal published collections, family and friends. Thank you for your continuing contributions and support of Lothlorien Poetry Journal my Fellow Lothlorians. Every purchase helps me to continue publishing Lothlorien Poetry Journal and is deeply appreciated.

Warmest wishes,

Strider Marcus Jones – Editor in Chief. Xx

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 30 – Threads of Fate features the best fantasy and contemporary poetry and fiction from over 70 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.

There's nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be... ― John Lennon

The Poets/Authors

Steve Klepetar Mandy Beattie John Drudge Cynthia Bernard Joseph A. Farina Lynda Tavakoli Stephen Bett Tobi Alfier Mark Novak Barbara Di Sacco Jonathan Butcher Luanne Castle Nolo Segundo Angela Kosta – Translated by Dilip Mewada Giulio Magrini Teresa O’Connor Diskin Julian Matthews John Harold Olson Catherine Arra Marcus Whalbring Wendy Freborg Bruce Hunter Mary Bone Steven Bruce Christina Chin & Uchechukwu Onyedikam Duane L. Herrmann Robina Rader Dominic Rivron Kathleen Chamberlin Ryan Quinn Flanagan Jacqueline Jules Jonathan S. Baker Khedidja Chergui Stephen Anderson Rose Mary Boehm Jim Murdoch Anne Archer Peter J. Donnelly Michael Carrino Julie Sampson Jonathan Humble Ursula O’Reilly Joshua Martin Joshua Britton Zach Keali’i Murphy Snigdha Agrawal Kushal Poddar Daniela Voicu Sunil Sharma Mohibul Aziz Maya Daneva Taylor Dibbert Alessio Zanelli Stephen Philip Druce Jay Simpson Paul Tristram Maria Downs Wayne Russell Sarah Das Gupta Maria Teresa Sisti Samo Kreutz Nidhi Agrawal S.C. Flynn Wendy Webb Richard Weaver Myrtle Thomas Sushant Thapa R.S. Art Ó Súilleabháin David Parsley George Gad Economou Chris Sahar Pawel Markiewicz

Fate is the raw materials of experience. They come uninvited and often unanticipated. Destiny is what a man does with these raw materials. — Howard Thurman

Man does not control his own fate. The women in his life do that for him. Groucho Marx

Art is a revolt against fate. All art is a revolt against man's fate. Andre Malraux

Most gods throw dice, but Fate plays chess, and you don't find out til too late that he's been playing with two queens all along. Terry Pratchett

 

Simple Twist of Fate

Bob Dylan

 

They sat together in the park
As the evening sky grew dark
She looked at him and he felt a spark
Tingle to his bones
'Twas then he felt alone
And wished that he'd gone straight
And watched out for a simple twist of fate

 

They walked alone by the old canal
A little confused, I remember well
And stopped into a strange hotel
With a neon burning bright
He felt the heat of the night
Hit him like a freight train
Moving with a simple twist of fate

 

A saxophone someplace far off played
As she was walking on by the arcade
As the light bust through a beat up shade
Where he was waking up
She dropped a coin into the cup
Another blind man at the gate
And forgot about a simple twist of fate

 

He woke up, the room was bare
He didn't see her anywhere
He told himself he didn't care
Pushed the window open wide
Felt an emptiness inside
To which he just could not relate
Brought on by a simple twist of fate

 

He hears the ticking of the clocks
And walks along with a parrot that talks
Hunts her down by the waterfront docks
Where the sailors all come in
Maybe she'll pick him out again
How long must he wait?
One more time for a simple twist of fate

 

People tell me it's a sin
To know and feel too much within
I still believe she was my twin but I lost the ring
She was born in spring
But I was born too late
Blame it on a simple twist of fate

Songwriters: Bob Dylan

 

Contents

Editorial Poems by Strider Marcus Jones                              Pages

November 2023 Continued – Poetry and Fiction

Steve Klepetar

1.         Concert in the Park                                                     17-18

2.         Coloured Squares

3.         A Different Name

Mandy Beattie

1.         Sinclair Bay                                                                18-20

2.         Buddleja Davidii

3.         Flotsam in Longshore Drifts

4.         The Flow Country

5.         The Hill o’ Many Stanes

John Drudge

1.         Autumn in the Village                                                21-23

2.         Into the Stream

3.         Pearl

4.         Something Like Sorrow

5.         The Poet

6.         The Wavering Sun

Cynthia Bernard

1.         In the Laundry Room                                                 24-28

2.         Intersection

3.         Daddy

4.         In my kitchen at midnight

5.         Fault Lines

Joseph A. Farina

1.         ghosts of water street                                                  29-32 

Lynda Tavakoli

1.         The Winding Sheet                                                     33

Stephen Bett

1.         Runnin’ in the Gaps                                                    34-37

2.         Ba Ba Ba (rockin & a-rollin’)

3.         What you do to me                            

Tobi Alfier

1.         Something She’s Not Saying                                      37-40

2.         A Slice of Lourdes

3.         King Cake

4.         At the Country House One Sunday in Summer                     

Mark Novak

1.         Board Pounder                                                            41-48

2.         Break on Through

3.         Thelwall’s Lament

4.         The Ode of Convict Mike     

Barbara Di Sacco

1.         Share                                                                           48-53

2.         All in one spiral

3.         Voice of life

Jonathan Butcher

1.         A Red Brick Wormhole                                              54-55

2.         Trial Separation

3.         A Gift Empty of Gestures

Luanne Castle

1.         The Stranger                                                               56-60

2.         Forever

3.         When I Bravely Attended My 50^th High School Reunion

4.         Is It Theft if It Fills an Absence

5.         When a Leaf Falls

Nolo Segundo

1.         When Flowers Die                                                      61-66

2.         When An Old Man Dreams

3.         When Angels Come

4.         When I Leave You

5.         When Death Was Free to Roam the World

6.         When the Heart Breaks

Angela Kosta – Translated by Dilip Mewada

1.         For My Mother                                                           67-69

2.         You Are a Lady

3.         A Piece of Bread

Giulio Magrini

1.         To the Small Press Publishers                                    70-75

2.         The Revelation of Her Embrace

3.         Cruising the Aisles of the Whole Foods Dream

4.         They Will Live Forever In Us, In Our Tuscan Fields

Teresa O’Connor Diskin

1.         I Have News for You                                                  75-77

2.         Sonnet Without End

3.         The Long Now

4.         Staring Po-faced at Us

Julian Matthews

1.         The Coffee Grinder – Flash Fiction Story                  78-79

John Harold Olson

1.         Love Is a Flavour                                                       80

Catherine Arra

1.         It’s Your Fairy Tale                                                   80-84

2.         Orphan Hero

3.         Cut Down to Size

4.         How Do You Write an Elegy

Marcus Whalbring

1.         An Imaginary Garden with Real Toads in It              85

Wendy Freborg

1.         Some Things My Mother Made for Me                     86-88

2.         On Discovering Shared Diagnosis

3.         Junior High

4.         Waiting for You

5.         We Have a Problem with Mornings

Bruce Hunter

1.         There is a Road                                                           89-93

2.         Riffs

3.         Dark Water

Mary Bone

1.         Spa Day                                                                     94

2.         The Harvest

3.         Tiny Pincers

Steven Bruce

1.         Limits                                                                         95-96

Christina Chin & Uchechukwu Onyedikam

1.         Five Tan-Renga Poems - Collaboration                     97-98

Duane L. Herrmann

1.         Morning Dreaming                                                     99-102

2.         Wind Did

3.         When Salmon Doesn’t Explode

4.         Stars Shine

5.         Hills Up

Robina Rader

1.         Trains in the Night                                                      103-104

Dominic Rivron

1.         Thirty-Nine Flash Fiction Story                                 104

Kathleen Chamberlin

1.         All My Yesterdays                                                     105-109

2.         Now and Then

3.         Blood Echo

4.         Escape

5.         Grief’s Burden   

Ryan Quinn Flanagan

1.         Chance Meeting in the Hall                                        109-112

2.         Yakuza Glory

3.         Head Shop Rastafarian

4.         Patsy Maker

5.         Everyone Hoping to Be Redeemed like Expired Coupons

Jacqueline Jules 

1.         Tricking the Troll                                                       113-115

2.         What I Learned from My Mother’s Mahogany Table

3.         Things That Make Me Sigh

4.         Statistically Speaking               

Jonathan S. Baker

1.         Late Night                                                                   116-117

2.         I’m sorry I haven’t finished the book yet

3.         Living the dream

Khedidja Chergui

1.         Ethereal whispers                                                       118-121

2.         It was but a mirage

3.         The Last Sky

Stephen Anderson

1.         The Then and Now of It                                             121-125

2.         Betrayal

3.         Cosmos

4.         Telegram

5.         Voyages

Rose Mary Boehm

1.         Bartering your Soul for Salvation                              125-129

2.         Bigger and Better

3.         Childhood Love Pains

4.         Gladrags and Bling

5.         My Cars Were Male

Jim Murdoch

1.         It’s Complicated                                                         129-132

2.         Happiness is a Pair of Glasses

3.         Purity

4.         Shrinkflation

5.         Small Losses

Anne Archer

1.         Stories                                                                        132-135

2.         On reading frank: sonnets

3.         Rise

4.         Murmuration

5.         We never

Peter J. Donnelly

1.         Fairfax House                                                             135-138

2.         Unexpected Things

3.         Your Seven Years in Dulverton

4.         Middleham

5.         Housing Maintenance, Repairs Section

Michael Carrino

1.         Tsukimi                                                                      138-141

2.         One Autumn Morning in Montpelier, Vermont…

3.         Hotel Vermont

4.         In the North Country

5.         You Want to Know

Julie Sampson          

1.         What we did next                                                        141-147

2.         Farewell

3.         The idyll of the luminous dream

4.         I came here

5.         Copse

Jonathan Humble

1.         What’s It All About, Albert?                                      148-152

2.         Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle

3.         Towards a Theory of Everything…

4.         Clearance

5.         Drifting

Ursula O’Reilly

1.         Good Samaritan?                                                        152-155

2.         Nightfall

3.         Have You Seen

4.         Storm

5.         Photograph

Joshua Martin

1.         Geological Accommodation Process                         155-159

2.         Stoic Tandem Creating Waves

3.         Stump, then Stunned, As a Horse Relents

4.         Sheltered Quotation Tribute

Joshua Britton

1.         If I Killed Somebody – Flash Fiction Story               159-161

Zach Keali’i Murphy

1.         Faults                                                                          161

Snigdha Agrawal

1.         Substance                                                                    162-164

2.         Minds Unknown

3.         Great Expectations

4.         Rewinding Times

Kushal Poddar

1.         Strawberry Moon                                                        164-167

2.         City, 2023

3.         Girl With a Plastic Cola Bottle On Her Head

4.         Bodhi

5.         The Tattoo

Daniela Voicu

1.         Insipid Blue                                                                167-169

2.         Birds

3.         Stone in time

4.         Hungry poem

5.         Poetic bazaars

Sunil Sharma

1.         Validation – Short Story                                             170-173          

Mohibul Aziz

1.         Reality                                                                        174-175

2.         Labyrinth

3.         Smile Flashes Like the Knife

Maya Daneva

1.         Haiku Poems                                                              176

Taylor Dibbert

1.         Living and Loving                                                      177

Alessio Zanelli

1.         Sky Resort                                                                  177-181

2.         What Parallels the Chute

3.         Drop the Pestle

4.         The Silver Elephant

5.         A Hill Runner’s Casual Wacky Thoughts

Stephen Philip Druce

1.         Planet Zugon                                                               182-185

2.         Planet Ugolaz

3.         Planet Vorludian

Jay Simpson

1.         Well Matched                                                            185-187

2.         Locks Without Keys

3.         Potent Insight

4.         Solitary Confinement

5.         Emotive         

Paul Tristram

1.         Clingy-less                                                                 188-192

2.         Claude at 28

3.         In Between Chapters

4.         That Clock’s Been Tough Today

5.         Chaos Magic and the Cut-Up Technique

Maria Downs

1.         An Image of Heaven                                                   192-197

2.         Forgotten Worlds

3.         Peaceful Bliss To Place

4.         Rich Verdant Green

5.         Rose 

Wayne Russell

1.         Inaccessible                                                                198-200

2.         Don’t Take My Sunshine Away

3.         Bird of Prey

4.         Dream Chain

Sarah Das Gupta

1.         Golden Chains                                                            200-202

2.         The White Hare

3.         That Other Country

Maria Teresa Sisti

1.         Haiku Poems                                                              203

Samo Kreutz 

1.         Haiku Poems                                                              204-205

Nidhi Agrawal

1.         Infidelity                                                                     206-207

2.         Bard of Blood – On the battlefield

3.         It’s an unbearable spectacle

4.         Homicide without hunger

S.C. Flynn

1.         Labour                                                                        207

Wendy Webb

1.         Flight to Paradise                                                       208-211

2.         Suncatchers in Broad Daylight

3.         David (Pantoum)

4.         Mooring a Voice Diamond-Bright in Norfolk

5.         The White Elephant is a E…T…        

Richard Weaver

1.         Freddy Rat twerks                                                      212-214

2.         Blind Owl

3.         Rat Trap Revolution

4.         Your crooked little heart

5.         Hardscrabble

Myrtle Thomas

1.         The Ocean Within                                                      215-217

2.         The Unborn

3.         Things I’ve Found in Dreams 

Sushant Thapa

1.         Way                                                                            218

R.S.

1.         Echoes of Departure                                                   219-221

2.         As Golden Tresses Feather Through

3.         A Solitary Spring’s Melody

4.         Stop all the Clocks (Inspired by W.H. Auden’s poem)

Art Ó Súilleabháin 

1.         A Laburnum speaks to me                                          221-225

2.         Clinker built

3.         Building a workshop

4.         The hill of the lights

5.         What Naoise, Daragh. Radha and the unborn must learn

David Parsley

1.         What the Future Dares                                                226-228

George Gad Economou

1.         A Toast to Billion-Old Deaths                                   229-232

2.         Battle Ready

3.         Yapping in the Wrong Places

4.         Drowning But Saved

5.         Envisioning the Bar

Chris Sahar

1.         The Evergreens                                                           232-236

2.         Speak to Me Nothing

3.         On Being a Composer

4.         Cheetah (Stanzas 1-4)

5.         A Memory

 

Pawel Markiewicz

1.         The amaranthine fairy                                                237-239

 

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 29

Amplified Voices in the Murmurs of Infinity 

October 2023 Continued - Early November 2023

BUY PRINTED BOOK

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 29 (lulu.com)

Welcome to Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 29 – Amplified Voices in the Murmurs of Infinity. Lothlorien Poetry Journal is a contemporary literary journal featuring free verse/rhyming/experimental poetry, short stories and flash fiction. Journey with these 72 internationally renowned poets and fiction authors whose voices are amplified in the murmurs of infinity. Immerse yourself in poems and stories that linger and haunt. Discover sublime works of fantasy, fairy tale and folklore, dreams and dystopia, nature and magical realism with romance and anything hiding deep in-between the cracks.

 

Earth, moon, sun and human beings all represent dots, a single particle among billions. All of us live in the unfathomable mystery and infinitude of the universe.

Yayoi Kusama – Portrait 2015

 

Auguries of Innocence by William Blake

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour…

 

We are travellers on a cosmic journey, stardust, swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity. Life is eternal. We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share. This is a precious moment. It is a little parenthesis in eternity.

Paulo Coelho

 

We cross infinity with every step; we meet eternity in every second.

Rabindranath Tagore

 

A Breath of love can take you all the way to infinity

Rumi

 

Suffering is permanent, obscure and dark, And shares the nature of infinity.

William Wordsworth

 

There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition.

Rod Serling

 

I think that the leaf of a tree, the meanest insect on which we trample, are in themselves arguments more conclusive than any which can be adduced that some vast intellect animates Infinity.

Percy Bysshe Shelley

 

 

Correspondences by Charles Baudelaire

 

Nature is a temple where the living pillars

Let go sometimes a blurred speech—

A Forest of symbols passes through a man's reach

And observes him with a familiar regard.

Like the distant echoes that mingle and confound

In a unity of darkness and quiet

Deep as the night, clear as daylight

The perfumes, the colours, the sounds correspond.

The perfume is as fresh as the flesh of an infant

Sweet as an oboe, green as a prairie

—And the others, corrupt, rich and triumphant

 

Enlightened by the things of infinity,

Like amber, musk, benzoin and incense

That sing, transporting the soul and sense.

 

 

Contents

 

Editorial Poems by Strider Marcus Jones                              Pages

 

October 2023 Continued – Poetry and Fiction

 

Wendy Webb

1.         Turning the Tide                                                         17-20

2.         Sticks & Stones, Sorry – Won’t

3.         Right Joke, Wrong Town

4.         Love on the Marshy Horizon

5.         Telestich Places Rocks on View (Acrostic)

Steen W. Rasmussen

1.         God Is A Place                                                            21-22

2.         A Pointless Poem

3.         Soulspotting

Margaret Duda

1.         The Chaos of Butterflies                                            23-25

2.         Above the Old County Jail

Darren Lynch

1.         Astral Holdings                                                          26-29

2.         Words

3.         Violet Mirrors

4.         Beyond

5.         An Artist

Hedy Habra

1.         Or What Else Could We Do But Raise Our Hands?  29-33

2.         Hall of Mirrors

3.         I Always Knew I Was a Sibyl at Heart

4.         Vanishing Point         

Kushal Poddar

1.         The Lunar Triumph                                                    34-35

2.         After Reading Stephen King

3.         Twilight Evolution

Meg Freer

1.         Final Petal                                                                   36-39

2.         Voices for Whom All Is Dark

3.         June Blues

4.         Wanting Times of Anticipation

5.         Tag Team

                                   

Ryan Borchers

1.         The Feast – Flash Fiction Story                                 39-40               

Angela Hoffman

1.         Welcome the Inevitable                                              40-42

2.         I’ll Wear My Magenta

3.         I’ll Be Your Brown

4.         Wild Things

5.         You’re My Window  

Edilson Afonso Ferreira

1.         Stumbles, Ambushes and Spells                                43-47

2.         Fallen into Oblivion

3.         Days of Fury

4.         Fears and Feelings

5.         Passage to Paradise

Snigdha Agrawal

1.         Faith, Hope and Charity                                             47-49

2.         Make believe world

Joshua St. Claire

1.         Ten Haiku Poems                                                       49-51

James Croal Jackson

1.         Operatic Pop                                                               51-54

2.         Cashing Out

3.         Megan Visits Pittsburgh

4.         Wall-Pounding Street-Squawking

5.         Forty Years from Now

Lynda Tavakoli

1.         For Those Who Wait – Short Story                            54-59

Douglas G. Cala

1.         Orwellian Tale                                                            60-63

2.         Unfolding

3.         Byproduct of Tutelage

4.         Methodical Moriarty

Karen O’Leary & Paul Callus (Collaboration)

1.         Five Tan-Renga Poems                                              64-65

Joseph Bernard Shaw

1.         Where Living Was                                                     66-69

2.         Dream House

3.         To the Moon

4.         Starboy

Jeanna Ní Ríordáin

1.         Upward Mobility                                                        70

2.         Crossing the Channel

Mark Young

1.         The Soft Machine                                                      71-72

2.         aka The Song Dynasty

3.         Café terrier

4.         The Super Bowl Winner Sat on the Grass

5.         Trip Wire Sentience

J.B. Hogan

1.         The Burden of Expectation                                        73-74

2.         The Illusion of Success

3.         The Triumph of Failure

Farideh Hassanzadeh

1.         Isn’t It Enough?                                                          74-78

2.         Pen Pal Poem

3.         A woman’s desk

4.         That Dark Side of the Cities

5.         Posthumous poem: Memories of a dead woman from

            walking in her city

John Grey

1.         In the Far North of New Hampshire                          78-83

2.         The Mist Is

3.         Her Physical World

4.         The Child I Used to Be

5.         The Wait

Madeleine French

1.         Paper Piecing                                                             83-85

2.         Sol y Sombra

3.         Slicing Strawberries

Les Wicks

1.         The Day Before an Election                                       85-91

2.         Chicken Little

3.         Wand Chalice Book & Blade

4.         An Aspiration for Firmaments

5.         There’s talk about the newest wave…

Mykyta Ryzhykh

1.         Five Untitled Poems                                                   91-92

Michael Ceraolo

1.         Eight Weeks: A Play of Voices                                  93-100

Duane Vorhees

1.         For All My Friends                                                     100-103

2.         This Vessel Is Only

3.         At This, Our Nuremberg

4.         Jeremiah? PollyAnna?

5.         Re-Sartour Resartus

Danielle Riccardi

1.         Dreamwork & the Self                                               103-104

Michael McCormick

1.         Poker night                                                                 104-105   

River West

1.         The Glass Man                                                           105

j. lewis (Jim Lewis) 

1.         on the anniversary of my death                                  106-110

2.         breakfast of champions

3.         i am riding a dead horse home

4.         colour drought

5.         scraping the barrel’s bottom               

Susan Waters

1.         There is an Autumn Within Us                                   111-112

2.         No

3.         The Lie

Stephen Kingsnorth

1.         Heroes’ Odyssey                                                         112-116

2.         After Bubble-Wrap

3.         Pickings

4.         Flushed

5.         Father Wept

Kelly Moyer

1.         The Remove                                                               116-118

2.         Limerence

3.         Sleep Well

Terry Wheeler

1.         last supper                                                                   118-122

2.         krishnamurti farewells annie besant

3.         papal bulls

4.         stum

5.         patrick bourke

Tina Negus

1.         Bewitched?                                                                 122-124

2.         Hobbit Questions

3.         Hobbity Hill

R.P. Singletary

1.         Nimble up there – Short Story                                    125-126

Lara Dolphin

1.         How to find Yeston and Kopit’s Phantom                 126-129

2.         How to Find the Tree that Owns Itself

3.         [She Sails Off to the Cab]

4.         Brandolini’s Climate

5.         Invocation Over Athelas

Keith Snow

1.         Egg Roles                                                                   129-130

2.         The Glaring

3.         Visceral

John Yamrus

1.         Paul                                                                             130-134

2.         he found her

3.         her mouth

4.         Tina

Teresa Godfrey

1.         Five Haiku Poems                                                      134-136

2.         Words

3.         Inside the Earth

4.         Song

Derek Thomas Dew

1.         Totality                                                                       136-139

2.         Frozen Entrees

3.         Drip Gas Fever

4.         Survivor Guilt

5.         Striking, Strikeon

Roisin Browne

1.         Malachy – Flash Fiction                                             140-141

Christopher Barnes – Epigrams in Mist

1.         Ubiquitous Entertainment                                          142-144

2.         Food Minus Thought

3.         Unctuous Organism

4.         Take the Air

5.         Bailiff’s Budget

Shamik Banerjee – Five Sonnets

1.         In Autumn                                                                  144-146

2.         On My Disappointment From a Surmise

3.         A Dissociation

4.         Gulmarg Valley

5.         If I Consider Winter As My Foe

 

Jennifer Gurney

1.         Ten Short Form Poems                                               147-148

Nolo Segundo

1.         When I Leave You                                                     149-157

2.         Memories Travel Without the Weight of Time

3.         In My Grandmother’s Day

4.         An Aging Wife

5.         A Child and Eternity

6.         What to Tell the Children

7.         What Poetry Is

Myrtle Thomas

1.         The Scent of Autumn and Love                                 157-159

2.         Dust and Roses

3.         Found Between a Net of Stars and Footprints

Eric Robert Nolan

1.         Essay – Requiescat in Pace – Dennis Williamson     160-162          

Henry Wolstat

1.         On the Acela                                                               162-164

2.         Spirit of the Peddler

3.         Aging Thoughts

Santosh Bakaya

1.         The Ramblings of a Forgotten Wordsmith                164-168

2.         The Rooster of Memory

3.         And Time Scurried Past

4.         Do I Really Matter?

Francisc Edmund Balogh

1.         Invoking                                                                      169-171

2.         Your tower

3.         Flowers of twilight

4.         It is snowing

5.         Late thrills

John Harold Olson

1.         7 and Albatross                                                           172

Shoshauna Shy

1.         The Thrice-Divorced Woman in the Locker Room   173-177

            Braids Her Hair

2.         Electricity

3.         The Artist Arrives to Pack Up Her Show, Learns

            Nothing Sold

4.         Homemade from Scratch

5.         The “Chosen” Child Chooses

Marc Isaac Potter

1.         Yellow Truck                                                             177-184

2.         Homage to My Mother

3.         Wyoming

4.         Postulation

5.         Making Progress        

Rick Hartwell

1.         Inevitable Judas                                                          184-185

Joan Leotta

1.         The Language of a Leaf Bouquet                               185-188

2.         Listening to Trees

3.         Stormy Day Stillness 

Chris Butler

1.         I was written by AI                                                     188-190

2.         Orange Orangutan

3.         Blue Balloon

4.         Truth

5.         Death is Not the End

Wilda Morris

1.         Walking Guanajuato                                                   191-195

2.         Hot Chocolate at la Biblioteca

3.         Souvenirs of Mexico

4.         Picnicking in Rural Mexico, 2007

5.         Florrie Finds Me in Mexico

Jack D. Harvey

1.         Icarus Reduced                                                           196-201

2.         Socrates Said

3.         Steinmetz

Sherry Steiner 

1.         The Key of A                                                              201-202

Jim Meirose

1.         Discovery of a Wonderfully Wild New Planet          203-204

            Short Story

 

Early November 2023 – Poetry and Fiction

 

Marieta Maglas

1.         Still Living                                                                 205-207

2.         Losing Hope

Edward Lee

1.         What Is                                                                        207-208

2.         A Danger Only To Myself, But Still a Danger

3.         In Your Eyes  

Lynn White

1.         Once There Were Fairies                                           209-211

2.         Fairies

3.         Magic

4.         Never Never Land

Greg Patrick

1.         To Harvest the Fair                                                     212-215 

Christina Chin & Uchechukwu Onyedikam

1.         Five Tan-Renga Poems - Collaboration                     216-217

Ken Gosse

1.         Verbena by Any Other Scent Would Smell So          218-220

            Sweet

2.         Seasonal Greetings

3.         Unsteeling His Nerves

4.         Oh Dear Mama (To Me She Is So Wonderful!)

Angel Edwards

1.         The Ghost of the Ghost Train                                     221

2.         Haiku

Jahnavi Gogoi

1.         July – Villanelle Poem                                               222

Nolo Segundo

1.         Poet Eternal - Essay                                                    223-226

                                                                       

                       

Contents

 

Editorial Poems by Strider Marcus Jones                              Pages

 

October 2023 Continued – Poetry and Fiction

 

Wendy Webb

Steen W. Rasmussen

Margaret Duda

Darren Lynch

Hedy Habra

Kushal Poddar

Meg Freer

Ryan Borchers

Angela Hoffman

Edilson Afonso Ferreira

Snigdha Agrawal

Joshua St. Claire

James Croal Jackson

 

Lynda Tavakoli

Douglas G. Cala

Karen O’Leary & Paul Callus (Collaboration)

Joseph Bernard Shaw

Jeanna Ní Ríordáin

Mark Young

J.B. Hogan

Farideh Hassanzadeh

John Grey

Madeleine French

Les Wicks

Mykyta Ryzhykh

Michael Ceraolo

Duane Vorhees

Danielle Riccardi

Michael McCormick

River West

j. lewis (Jim Lewis) 

Susan Waters

Stephen Kingsnorth

Kelly Moyer

Terry Wheeler

Tina Negus

R.P. Singletary

Lara Dolphin

Keith Snow

John Yamrus

Teresa Godfrey

Derek Thomas Dew

Roisin Browne

Christopher Barnes – Epigrams in Mist

Shamik Banerjee – Five Sonnets

Jennifer Gurney

Nolo Segundo

Myrtle Thomas

Eric Robert Nolan          

Henry Wolstat

Santosh Bakaya

Francisc Edmund Balogh

John Harold Olson

Shoshauna Shy

Marc Isaac Potter

Rick Hartwell

Joan Leotta

Chris Butler

Wilda Morris

Jack D. Harvey

Sherry Steiner 

Jim Meirose

 

Early November 2023 – Poetry and Fiction

 

Marieta Maglas

Edward Lee

Lynn White

Greg Patrick 

Christina Chin & Uchechukwu Onyedikam

Ken Gosse

Angel Edwards

Jahnavi Gogoi

Nolo Segundo

                                                                        

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 28

Messengers 

September 2023 Continued - Early October 2023

BUY PRINTED BOOK

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 28 (lulu.com)

Welcome to Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 28 – Messengers. Lothlorien Poetry Journal is a contemporary literary journal featuring free verse/rhyming/experimental poetry, short stories and flash fiction. Journey with these 73 superb poets and fiction authors as metaphysical messengers on the road. Immerse yourself in poems and stories that linger and haunt. Discover sublime works of fantasy, fairy tale and folklore, dreams and dystopia, nature and magical realism with romance and anything hiding deep in-between the cracks.

 

Whenever you have truth it must be given with love, or the message and the messenger will be rejected.

Mahatma Gandhi

 

Love is the way messengers
from the mystery tell us things

Rumi

 

I'm a messenger. I'm one piece of a giant jigsaw puzzle.

Simon Sinek

 

People want to listen to a message, word from Jah. This could be passed through me or anybody. I am not a leader. Messenger. The words of the songs, not the person, is what attracts people.

Bob Marley

 

As a writer you have a duty to be a messenger.

Jay Griffiths

 

Coincidence is a messenger sent by truth.

Jacqueline Winspear

 

Every word is a messenger. Some have wings; some are filled with fire; some are filled with death.

Mary Oliver

 

Still let my tyrants know, I am not doomed to wear
Year after year in gloom, and desolate despair;
A messenger of Hope comes every night to me,
And offers for short life, eternal liberty.

Emily Bronte

 

Old and New

by Dejan Stojanovic

If an ancient man saw planes two thousand years ago

He would've thought they were birds

Or angels from another world

Or messengers from other planets.
 

Every new machine would have surprised him—

The car, TV, radio, phone, camera.
 

He would've thought he was a savage

Who didn't understand.
 

If he saw a computer,

Watching people talking on the internet,

He would have thought it was a civilization

Much more advanced and ahead of his.
 

And if he stayed longer among the messengers

He would have learned that every child had the knowledge

And understanding of these things

Or how to use all of them.
 

Yet, after a while, he would have noticed

That none of them were advanced enough

To be labelled as those who know more

Than the one who said: I know nothing.

 

 

Messenger

By Mary Oliver

 

My work is loving the world.

Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird—

equal seekers of sweetness.

Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.

Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.

 

Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?

Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect? Let me

keep my mind on what matters,

which is my work,

 

which is mostly standing still and learning to be

astonished.

The phoebe, the delphinium.

The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.

Which is mostly rejoicing, since all ingredients are here,

 

and these body-clothes,

a mouth with which to give shouts of joy

to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,

telling them all, over and over, how it is

that we live forever.

 

POETS & FICTION AUTHORS

September 2023 Continued - Poetry and Fiction

 

Gordon Ferris

Barbara Di Sacco

John Yamrus

Sharon Waller Knutson

Russell Dupont

Snigdha Agrawal

Zak Wardell

David Chorlton

Wayne F. Burke

Michael Durack

Inam Hussain Begg Mullick

Duane Vorhees

Royal Rhodes

Dr Mona Bedi

Duane L. Herrmann

Steve Klepetar

Sarah Das Gupta

Rustin Larson

Wendy Webb

John Drudge

Angela Townsend

John Doyle

Patricia Walsh

Ryan Quinn Flanagan

 

Antonia Alexandra Klimenko

Simon MacCulloch

Tina Negus

Sushant Thapa

Kushal Poddar

David Alec Knight

Kim Olmtak Gomes & Christina Chin         

Dallas Lee

Mary Bone

Wayne Garry Fife

Matthew James Friday

Neil Higgins

Deborah A. Bennett

Tony Dawson

Paul Tristram

Carla Maria Kovsca

Ken Gosse – Six Epitaffies

Elizabeth Weiss

Allen Ashley

Christian Ward

Nancy Machlis Rechtman

Frederick Pollack

J.J. Campbell

Tohm Bakelas

Kathryn MacDonald

J.D. Isip

Angel Edwards

Damon Hubbs

Emily Bilman

Robert Witmer

Andrea Damic

Gifford Savage

Clive Aaron Gill

Louis Efron

Dana Trick

Robert Cooperman

Jamal Uddin 

Charley Chow

 

Early October 2023 – Poetry and Fiction

 

Kenneth M. Kapp

Cliff Wedgbury

Jay Simpson & Randy Barnes

Nina Zivancevic

Greg Patrick

David Jibson

Smitha Vishwanath

Alec Solomita

Mandy Beattie

                                                                       

                       

 

Contents

 

Editorial Poems by Strider Marcus Jones                              Pages

 

September 2023 Continued - Poetry and Fiction

 

Gordon Ferris

1.         Beauty’s Kiss                                                              17-19

2.         Safe Fantasy

3.         Winter Comes

Barbara Di Sacco

1.         Feet like rocks                                                             19-24

2.         Garconniere

3.         Space time

4.         The Pizzica

John Yamrus

1.         the woman                                                                  24-27

2.         he stuck his

3.         nobody

4.         the only books

5.         the hurt

Sharon Waller Knutson

1.         Toddler Houdini                                                         27-32

2.         Octogenarian Cowboy

3.         Ballad of Big Bad Bob

4.         Cousins

5.         Some Have It. Some Don’t.

Russell Dupont

1.         A Muffled Voice                                                        32-36

2.         On The Road

3.         Past Or Prologue

4.         One Red Shoe

5.         So Now          

Snigdha Agrawal

1.         Upon Your Breast                                                      37-39

2.         Faithful Friend

3.         Checkmate

Zak Wardell

1.         Double A sides                                                           39-42

2.         Bogeymen

3.         1981 Space Odyssey  

David Chorlton

1.         Spider Rock                                                                42-45

2.         Trading Post

3.         Land Alive

4.         Navajo Dusk

5.         Reservation Midnight             

Wayne F. Burke

1.         Emily Dickinson                                                         46-48

2.         Clouds

3.         N.C. (1926-68)

4.         Broke Back

5.         Bang   

Michael Durack

1.         Second Place                                                              48-51

2.         Agnostic

3.         Writing Poems

Inam Hussain Begg Mullick

1.         A Gymnast Disrobes the Universe                             51-57

2.         A libidinous cat

3.         In your hands

4.         Inamorato Travels Through the Seasons & Thunderstorms

5.         Amorino Breathing

Duane Vorhees

1.         An Essay Concerning Human Understanding            57-59

2.         Confessions

3.         Dowser

4.         Properties

5.         Persistent Relevance of Etymology

Royal Rhodes

1.         Remember, body…                                                    60-63

2.         The Man Who Lost His Shadow

3.         Sundown

4.         The Call

5.         The Pardon

Dr Mona Bedi

1.         Haiku                                                                          64

Duane L. Herrmann

1.         The World Once                                                         65-68

2.         Twilight Transition

3.         How to Eat a Book

4.         Missing Myself

5.         Midnight Softens

Steve Klepetar

1.         All My Other Lives                                                    68-70

2.         House Fire

3.         The Centaur’s Blood

Sarah Das Gupta

1.         Puck, by any other name…                                        70-73

2.         Beware the Hare!

3.         It is dark here

4.         Midsummer 1595 (Prose Poem)

Rustin Larson

1.         Flower Mountain                                                        74-79

2.         Back to Sleep

3.         Black

4.         Sparky

5.         McChild McMartin

6.         Random Episodes of the Time Tunnel

Wendy Webb

1.         Strange Meeting                                                        80-84

2.         Bee Sparking ashes

3.         June’s Cold (Pantoum)

4.         Bringing Woodland Indoors/Out (Pantoum)

5.         Sailing into the Storm (Pantoum)

John Drudge

1.         Damned                                                                      85-87

2.         Long Roads

3.         No Hate

4.         Gone

5.         Misfire

6.         Racing

Angela Townsend

1.         Chew on This – Flash Fiction                                     88-90

John Doyle

1.         Bernard                                                                       91-97

2.         Fugazi

3.         Paris Junk, 1979

4.         Two Red Lights on the Tail Wagon of the Liner

5.         Vivian

6.         Sometimes Eugene Landy Got it Right

Patricia Walsh

1.         Fearless Praying                                                        97-100

2.         Acquired Tattoo

3.         Trip Switch

Ryan Quinn Flanagan

1.         Never Marry a Cashier…                                           100-103

2.         The Girl with the Driftwood Legs

3.         4 Windows

4.         You’re Going to Wreck Mommy’s High

5.         The Tattoo Matcher of Jalisco

6.         The Night of the Tequila

Antonia Alexandra Klimenko

1.         The Other Option                                                       104-110

2.         Untitled Poem

3.         Neither This Nor That

Simon MacCulloch

1.         The Tree of Life                                                         111-115

2.         Sun Bird

3.         Crock of Gold

4.         Effusion

5.         Jack O’Lantern

Tina Negus

1.         Dolmen at St. Vivien                                                  115-118

2.         Green Man, green mysteries

3.         Peacocks

Sushant Thapa

1.         Aesthetics                                                                   119-120

Kushal Poddar

1.         The Ancestral Serpent Hibernates                              120-122

2.         Club Underground

3.         The railings

4.         The Way We Realise the Facts About Our Families   

David Alec Knight

1.         I Knew Your Beauty Then                                         122-125

Kim Olmtak Gomes & Christina Chin  

1.         Tan-Renga Poems – Collaboration                            126-127               

Dallas Lee

1.         Book of Paper and Ink                                                127-129

2.         Dear Elvis in Heaven

3.         Milky Way Band

4.         Vulture Religion

Mary Bone

1.         The Outcast                                                                130

2.         Baggage

Wayne Garry Fife

1.         The King’s Decision – Short Story                            131-133

Matthew James Friday

1.         Fishing for Poems                                                       134-136

2.         Something Wonderful this Way Comes

3.         The Moth

Neil Higgins

1.         Death’s Corner                                                           137-138

2.         Infused

3.         The Siren’s Song

Deborah A. Bennett

1.         Five Haiku Poems                                                     139

Tony Dawson

1.         Death of a Plumber – Flash Fiction                           140-142

Paul Tristram

1.         Another Ritual Down                                                 143-146

2.         Ponies x’s 3, & my friend Jessica (a Landscape Oil..Canvas)

3.         Anti-Public

4.         Old Woman Falling Off a Balcony

5.         Ambivalent Catacombs

Carla Maria Kovsca

1.         Nuvolario – Short Story                                             147-152

Ken Gosse – Six Epitaffies

1.         A Fading Glimmerick                                                152-153

2.         Quoth the Maven Nevermore

3.         Breathless in Anticipation

4.         Don’t Beat Your Wife!

5.         Good Riddance

6.         A Token Farewell

Elizabeth Weiss

1.         My Mother As Warrior For God                                154-158

2.         Saratoga Racetrack

3.         My Mother on the Soccer Field

4.         After Fifty

5.         Lost FootagE

Allen Ashley

1.         My Mirror Never Lies – Flash Fiction                       159-161

Christian Ward

1.         Tiger                                                                           162-163

2.         Uprooted are the trees with forgotten names

3.         Don’t judge me with your owl-faced periscope

4.         Hunting for beginners

Nancy Machlis Rechtman

1.         Riding the Tilt-A-Whirl                                             164-166

2.         Saving Myself

Frederick Pollack

1.         Attempt                                                                       167-171

2.         The High Point

3.         Option

4.         The Civilian

5.         Goof

J.J. Campbell

1.         a partially full moon                                                   172-176

2.         the stupid teenage shit

3.         you would have locked it

4.         all the tricks and treats

5.         having been a child

Tohm Bakelas

1.         Ten Short Form Poems                                               177-178

Kathryn MacDonald

1.         She Sings Only at Twilight                                        179-182

2.         Company of Wayfarers

3.         A Blizzard Blows

4.         Phantasm

5.         Beloved          

J.D. Isip

1.         Imagine                                                                       183-186

2.         Frog and Toad Are Friends

3.         Impressionism

4.         The Walking Dead

5.         Sharks in the Streets

Angel Edwards

1.         Last days of summer                                                  187

2.         Haiku – Strawberry Moon Glow

Damon Hubbs

1.         My Irish Poet Friends Sure Don’t Smile at Saratoga 188-191

2.         Riddle of Steel

3.         Dog Star

4.         On Our Way

Emily Bilman

1.         Intermezzo, a dream                                                   192-194

2.         A reminiscence

3.         Antagonist

Robert Witmer

1.         A Pigeon Is a Dove                                                     194-197

2.         Dreadful Speech

3.         The Dew’s Sweet Slumber

4.         Satori

5.         Ijin

Andrea Damic

1.         People                                                                        197-199

2.         Precarious Existence 

Gifford Savage

1.         Turning                                                                       199-200

2.         Brief Encounter

Clive Aaron Gill

1.         My Best Friend – Short Story                                    201-205 

Louis Efron

1.         Writers Eulogy                                                           206-210

2.         Arcadian Eyes

3.         God’s Garden

4.         Short Circuit

5.         Rooms Without Nightlights

Dana Trick

1.         Ghosts, Spirits, Poltergeists                                       211-215

2.         La Llorona

3.         Darkness

4.         Monster, Demon, Oni, Devil

5.         Changeling

Robert Cooperman

1.         First Ride with My Father                                          216-219

2.         First Driving Lesson

3.         Me and Parnelli Jones

4.         A Country Drive

5.         Breakfast with My Father

Jamal Uddin 

1.         Fall View from the Opera House                               220-222

2.         Satyriasis

3.         Burning Green

4.         No ball

Charley Chow

1.         Ballade of the Cresset                                                 223

Early October 2023 – Poetry and Fiction

 

Kenneth M. Kapp

1.         Bragging Rights – Short Story                                   224-227

Cliff Wedgbury

1.         doodlebug                                                                   227-228

2.         matinee

3.         tea with dad   

Jay Simpson & Randy Barnes

1.         Line Up – Jay Simpson                                              229-233

2.         Once Lived – Randy Barnes

3.         Riddle – Jay Simpson

4.         Shadow Play – Randy Barnes

5.         Courting Chaos – Jay Simpson

6.         Boomtown Benders – Randy Barnes

7.         High Wire – Jay Simpson

8.         Block and Mortar – Randy Barnes

Nina Zivancevic

1.         Am I wrong or something deeper is going on…        233-237

2.         On translation

3.         Taming the demons

4.         Russian roulette

5.         The Russian 

Greg Patrick

1.         Rebel’s Heart – Short Story                                       238-243

David Jibson

1.         Things I Learned from Reading My Own Memoir    243-249

2.         Notes from the Lake County Jail

3.         Fugitive Memories

4.         Fathers’ Hopes for the Sons

5.         Nothing’s Going On

Smitha Vishwanath

1.         The Novice Artist                                                       250-251

2.         Ekphrastic Sonnet – Bathers at Asnieres - Seurat

Alec Solomita

1.         Mourning                                                                    252-255

2.         Time Passes, Listen…Time Passes

3.         In the Earliest of Days

Mandy Beattie

1.         Song-Stitch in Time                                                   256

                                                                        

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 27

Magicians with Words 

August 2023 - Early September 2023 

Buy

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 27 (lulu.com)

Welcome to Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 27 – Magicians with Words. Lothlorien Poetry Journal is a contemporary literary journal featuring free verse/rhyming/experimental poetry, short stories and flash fiction. Journey with these 70 superb poets and fiction authors, herein Magicians with Words on the road. Immerse yourself in their spells cast in poems and stories that linger and haunt. Discover sublime works of fantasy, fairy tale and folklore, dreams and reality, dystopia, nature and magical realism with romance and anything hiding deep in-between the cracks.

Her Kind by Anne Sexton 

I have gone out, a possessed witch,
haunting the black air, braver at night;
dreaming evil, I have done my hitch
over the plain houses, light by light:
lonely thing, twelve-fingered, out of mind.
A woman like that is not a woman, quite.
I have been her kind.

I have found the warm caves in the woods,
filled them with skillets, carvings, shelves,
closets, silks, innumerable goods;
fixed the suppers for the worms and the elves:
whining, rearranging the disaligned.
A woman like that is misunderstood.
I have been her kind.

I have ridden in your cart, driver,
waved my nude arms at villages going by,
learning the last bright routes, survivor
where your flames still bite my thigh
and my ribs crack where your wheels wind.
A woman like that is not ashamed to die.
I have been her kind.

-Anne Sexton

“Once, poets were magicians. Poets were strong, stronger than warriors or kings — stronger than old hapless gods. And they will be strong once again.” ― Greg Bear



“Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.“ ― Plato



“Poetry is the lifeblood of rebellion, revolution, and the raising of consciousness.“ ― Alice Walker



“Trees are poems the earth writes upon the sky, We fell them down and turn them into paper, that we may record our emptiness.” ― Kahlil Gibran



“A poet's work is to name the unnameable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world, and stop it going to sleep.“ ― Salman Rushdie



"Poetry is like a bird, it ignores all frontiers." ― Yevgeny Yevtushenko



“Poetry is what happens when nothing else can.” ― Charles Bukowski



“When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the area of man's concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.“ ― John F. Kennedy



"In a war situation or where violence and injustice are prevalent, poetry is called upon to be something more than a thing of beauty." ― Seamus Heaney

 

Thank you to the following Poets & Authors for their superb contributions of Poetry and Fiction in Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 27 – Magicians with words:

 

Fred Johnston

Karen A. VandenBos

John Doyle

Lynne Kemen

Kushal Poddar

Wendy Webb

Damon Hubbs

Dr. Anushna Biswas     

Charles Rammelkamp

Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca

Philip Butera

Snigdha Agrawal

Ahmad Al-Khatat

Lynda Tavakoli

Steve Klepetar

Dr. Koshy A.V.

Cheryl Snell

Rustin Larson

Barbara Leonard

James Walton

Myrtle Thomas

Neil Fulwood

Sharon Whitehill

Dan Raphael

Lynn White

Joseph A. Farina

Ann Privateer

Patrick B. Osada

Santosh Bakaya

Parker Fendler

Hifsa Ashraf and R.C. Thomas           

Stephen House

Persephone Ezra

Bonnie J. Scherer

Stephen Kingsnorth

Julie A. Dickson

Dr. Charles A. Stone

Nolcha Fox

Mohibul Aziz

Andrea Potos

Sterling Warner

Ursula O’Reilly

Gary Bills

Marie C. Lecrivain

Eddie Heaton

Susan Isla Tepper (Art on Blog by Digby Beaumont)

Cliff Wedgbury

Mandy Beattie

Michael Shlain

Emmie Christie

Chuck Kramer

Sharon Ferrante

Mark Hendrickson

Marcia Mitrowski

John Harold Olson

Dr. Emily Bilman

Nolo Segundo

Marguerite Doyle

James Penha

Jessica Weyer Bentley 

Allan Lake

 

Early September 2023 – Poetry and Fiction

Linda H. Y. Hegland

GJ Hart

Samo Kreutz

Bernard Pearson

Ninko Kirilov

Dr. Anissa Sboui

Michael H. Brownstein

Stephen A. Rozwenc

 

Contents

Editorial Poems by Strider Marcus Jones                              Pages

August 2023 - Poetry and Fiction

Fred Johnston

1.         Motif on an Old Scots Ballad                                     17-19

2.         News Just In

3.         Canticle

Karen A. VandenBos

1.         Crow Medicine                                                           19-24

2.         Swamp Sisters

3.         Daughter of Spider Woman

4.         Thirteen Birthed Daughters

5.         An Ordinary Day

John Doyle

1.         My American Poet Friends…                                    24-29

2.         Beauparc Level Crossing, County Meath…

3.         The Low Days

4.         Donnie James, Rio

Lynne Kemen

1.         Childhood Is a Blur                                                    29-32

2.         Barn’s Burnt Down

3.         Dog & Boy’s Delight

4.         A Found Poem

5.         Icicles

Kushal Poddar

1.         Near the Red Light                                                     33-34

2.         The See-Through Dress Sun Wears Today

3.         That Last Train          

Wendy Webb

1.         Perspectives, Entranced (Ekphrastic)                         35-39

2.         I Wandered Bowderstone to Grasmere…

3.         Pressing for a Pulse

4.         Lighter Evenings

5.         Tanka

6.         Senryu

7.         Village Sign (Triolet)

8.         Shuck Up, After Dark (Limerick)

Damon Hubbs

1.         Dancing at Le Phonographique with Sylvia Plath     40-43

2.         Pail Shop Corners

3.         The Kings of Rattlesnake Hill

4.         Impressionists

Dr. Anushna Biswas

1.         Bleeding Land                                                            43-46

2.         Dreary Night

3.         Chasing Mirage

4.         Brown Dawn

5.         Jumping Bumps                      

Charles Rammelkamp

1.         One Night on Second Avenue                                                46-49

2.         The Howl

3.         Jo Boobs        

Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca

1.         Bombay Fish Market                                                  49-52

2.         Ancestral Shipwreck

Philip Butera

1.         When a Dragon Blocks My Way                               52-57

2.         There Was a War Going On Back Then…

Snigdha Agrawal

1.         Love rhythms                                                             58-60

2.         Calming strategy

3.         Senryu

Ahmad Al-Khatat

1.         Asking The River                                                       60-61

2.         Let My Grief Flourish

3.         Her Laugh

Lynda Tavakoli

1.         Pathfinders                                                                 62-65

2.         Aftermath

3.         First Day at School

Steve Klepetar

1.         Even Then                                                                   65-67

2.         Praise

3.         The Final Verse

Dr. Koshy A.V.

1.         My Friend from Manipur – Short Story                     68-70

Cheryl Snell

1.         Big – Flash Fiction Story                                           70-72

Rustin Larson

1.         August                                                                        72-75

2.         Today Sounds Like a Washing Machine

3.         Raising Myself

4.         Courtyard

Barbara Leonard

1.         In the Meadow, Red Viburnum                                 75-79

2.         Collateral Damage

3.         Carrying the World in a Broken Laundry Basket

James Walton

1.         Daydream on a Season’s Ticket–Flash Fiction Story 80-81

Myrtle Thomas

1.         My Name Written in the Stars                                   82-84

2.         Walking Through Old Seasons

3.         Autumn Once Again

Neil Fulwood

1.         Beecham                                                                     84-86

2.         Reiner

3.         Jochum

4.         Harnon court

Sharon Whitehill

1.         Hiraeth                                                                                   86-91

2.         La Dame Aux Comelias

3.         Burning Mouth Syndrome

4.         Accidental Expressionism

5.         Sixteen

Dan Raphael

1.         [no title fits]                                                                91-94

2.         Even Almost Winter

3.         Sampling Autumn

Lynn White

1.         Temptation                                                                 95-98

2.         Underworld

3.         The Empty House

Joseph A. Farina

1.         American Anthems                                                     98-100

Ann Privateer

1.         Over and Over Again                                                 100-101

2.         Unaware

Patrick B. Osada

1.         Warming (The Lighthouse)                                        101-104

2.         Nothing

3.         Warning

4.         Magpies

Santosh Bakaya

1.         Dreamscape [a Haibun]                                              105-107

2.         The Fractured Reality

3.         The Octogenarian and the Dachshund   

Parker Fendler

1.         The Outlaw and the Snake                                         108-109

Hifsa Ashraf and R.C. Thomas

1.         Five Tan0Renga Poems - Collaboration                    110-111               

Stephen House

1.         occasionally I read Harry and Meghan Stories…      112

Persephone Ezra

1.         The Fools Ballad                                                        113-115

2.         Sin Waves

3.         Syntaxi Cabs

Bonnie J. Scherer

1.         Ten Short Form Poems                                               119-120

Stephen Kingsnorth

1.         Peddle Car                                                                  120-126

2.         Up The Creek

3.         Poster Paint

4.         Copperhead

5.         Western Ghats

6.         Within Range

Julie A. Dickson

1.         Ocean of hello                                                            127-130

2.         Memory

3.         Promise of water

4.         Lost at Sea

5.         Hanging plant

Dr. Charles A. Stone

1.         In the Dream                                                              130-132

2.         Suppressed

3.         Follow Me Home

Nolcha Fox

1.         An Instant                                                                   133-134

2.         Someday I’ll Be in Love with Light

3.         The Hard Road

4.         Fugitives

5.         A pretend Haiku

Mohibul Aziz

1.         The Same Candles                                                      135-137

2.         Intercontinental

Andrea Potos

1.         Sometimes, the Air                                                     137-140

2.         Muse Arrives in an Early Morning Hour

3.         My Mother and Gratitude

4.         Her Decision

Sterling Warner

1.         Rainforest Awakening                                                140-144

2.         Carrie’s Theatre

3.         Universal Arcs

4.         Hep

5.         Pins & Needles Wonderland

Ursula O’Reilly

1.         Objects                                                                        144-147

2.         Reflections

3.         Guests

4.         Irish Coffee

5.         Inside The Parenthesis of Being

Gary Bills

1.         Baldur                                                                         147-153

2.         Silly, Beautiful Things

3.         Unease

4.         October Flight

5.         Swarmies

6.         Winter Journey

7.         Winter Mosaic: Chedworth Roman Villa

8.         Markers

9.         Foggy Christmas

10.       Solstice Balefires

Marie C. Lecrivain

1.         The Star (XVII)                                                          153-157

2.         Saint Sinéad

Eddie Heaton

1.         one lost                                                                       157-159

2.         virtual non-reality

Susan Isla Tepper (Art on Blog by Digby Beaumont)

1.         Visit                                                                            159-160

Cliff Wedgbury

1.         Ahakista                                                                      160-161

2.         distances

3.         memory

Mandy Beattie

1.         The Feminine Misaligned & Maligned                      161-165

2.         First Lady of Flowers

3.         The End is Another Beginning

4.         Song – Stitch in Time

5.         Yang-Fur is Not Yin-Fur       

Michael Shlain

1.         An Ode to Nothing                                                     166-168

2.         La Dissidence

3.         The Sorcerer

Emmie Christie

1.         Diagonal Attraction                                                    169-170

Chuck Kramer

1.         Seasonal Transformations                                          171-175

2.         Poetry Today

3.         St Francis and the Animals

4.         Weatherman

5.         Home

Sharon Ferrante

1.         What Is Wicca                                                             175-176

2.         We Previously

3.         Cherita

4.         Tanka

5.         Haiku

Mark Hendrickson

1.         The River Has a Bucket List, Too                              177-178

2.         BarbieHeimer, The Summer’s Hottest Trend

Marcia Mitrowski

1.         While Reading Szymborska’s “Monologue of a        179-182

            Dog” with My Cat

2.         The Blue Truth

3.         Hold On

4.         Whose Time

5.         Peace Bridge  

John Harold Olson

1.         Doing Our Best                                                           183

2.         105 At Midnight

Dr. Emily Bilman

1.         Double Bind – Short Story                                         184-204 

Nolo Segundo

1.         Wrestling With God                                                   204-209

2.         The Gifts of God

3.         When I Pray

4.         Does God Get Lonely

5.         Where The Soul Hides

6.         Once, One Cell

Marguerite Doyle

1.         Lament for Hy-Breasal                                               210-214

2.         The Haunting of Loughshinny

3.         Snow Globe…After James Joyce

4.         Grandmother’s Alternative Bedtime Tale

5.         Demon Cream…After Bulgakov

James Penha

1.         In Equilibrium – Flash Fiction Story                         214-215

Jessica Weyer Bentley 

1.         The Tender Transformation                                       216-217

2.         The Virtue of Bathsheba

3.         The Mourning of Fille

Allan Lake

1.         Gone Viral                                                                  218-219

2.         Your Legacy

Early September 2023 – Poetry and Fiction

Linda H. Y. Hegland

1.         Sing My Song                                                             220

GJ Hart

1.         Time and Time and Time Again                                221-223          

Samo Kreutz

1.         Blossoming                                                                 223-225

2.         A piece of my poem

3.         No boundaries – Haiku Sequence

4.         Sleep and Wakefulness – Haiku Sequence

Bernard Pearson

1.         Dark Lord                                                                   225 

Ninko Kirilov

1.         Saturday Morning                                                       226

2.         A Girl on a Beach

3.         Anhedonia 2

Dr. Anissa Sboui

1.         Of Rebirth and Mother Earth                                     227-233

2.         to breathe, or not to breathe

3.         Pregnant with Paper

4.         the drowning youth

5.         slavery

6.         Arab Lives Matter

Michael H. Brownstein

1.         In the Heat of a Sleep                                                 234

2.         An Island Floats Down the Missouri

3.         Sun Storm

Stephen A. Rozwenc

1.         Afterlife Hindsight                                                     235-236

                                                                       

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 26

Peaceful Interludes 

June 2023 Continued - July 2023 

Buy

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 26 (lulu.com)

Welcome to Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 26 – Peaceful Interludes. Lothlorien Poetry Journal is a contemporary literary journal featuring free verse/rhyming/experimental poetry, short stories and flash fiction. Journey with these 70 superb poets and fiction authors on the road,  sharing peaceful interludes and immerse yourself in their poems and stories that linger and haunt. Discover sublime works of fantasy, fairy tale and folklore, dreams and modern dystopia, nature and magical realism with romance and anything hiding deep in-between the cracks.

 

 

Letter from Albert Einstein to His Daughter Lieserl

 

In the late 1980s, Lieserl, the daughter of the famous genius, donated 1,400 letters, written by Einstein, to the Hebrew University, with orders not to publish their contents until two decades after his death. This is one of them, for Lieserl Einstein.

 

…”When I proposed the theory of relativity, very few understood me, and what I will reveal now to transmit to mankind will also collide with the misunderstanding and prejudice in the world.

 

I ask you to guard the letters as long as necessary, years, decades, until society is advanced enough to accept what I will explain below.

 

There is an extremely powerful force that, so far, science has not found a formal explanation to. It is a force that includes and governs all others, and is even behind any phenomenon operating in the universe and has not yet been identified by us.

 

This universal force is LOVE.

 

When scientists looked for a unified theory of the universe they forgot the most powerful unseen force.

 

Love is Light, that enlightens those who give and receive it.

 

Love is gravity, because it makes some people feel attracted to others.

 

Love is power, because it multiplies the best we have, and allows humanity not to be extinguished in their blind selfishness. Love unfolds and reveals.

For love we live and die.

 

Love is God and God is Love.

 

This force explains everything and gives meaning to life. This is the variable that we have ignored for too long, maybe because we are afraid of love because it is the only energy in the universe that man has not learned to drive at will.

To give visibility to love, I made a simple substitution in my most famous equation.

 

If instead of E = mc2, we accept that the energy to heal the world can be obtained through love multiplied by the speed of light squared, we arrive at the conclusion that love is the most powerful force there is, because it has no limits.

 

After the failure of humanity in the use and control of the other forces of the universe that have turned against us, it is urgent that we nourish ourselves with another kind of energy…

 

If we want our species to survive, if we are to find meaning in life, if we want to save the world and every sentient being that inhabits it, love is the one and only answer.

 

Perhaps we are not yet ready to make a bomb of love, a device powerful enough to entirely destroy the hate, selfishness and greed that devastate the planet.

 

However, each individual carries within them a small but powerful generator of love whose energy is waiting to be released.

 

When we learn to give and receive this universal energy, dear Lieserl, we will have affirmed that love conquers all, is able to transcend everything and anything, because love is the quintessence of life.

 

I deeply regret not having been able to express what is in my heart, which has quietly beaten for you all my life. Maybe it’s too late to apologize, but as time is relative, I need to tell you that I love you and thanks to you I have reached the ultimate answer! “.

 

Your father Albert Einstein

 

Contents

 

Editorial Poems by Strider Marcus Jones                              Pages

POETS and AUTHORS

 

June 2023 Continued- Poetry and Fiction

 

Wendy Webb

John Brantingham

C.X. Turner

Dennis Camire

Jay Maria Simpson

petro c.k.

Kadambari Kaul

Mark Young

Jeanette L. Miller

Steven Sibra

Daniel de Culla

Jim Meirose

Lavana Kray

Mikal Wix

 

July 2023 – Poetry & Fiction

 

Peycho Kanev

Antonia Alexandra Klimenko

Gary Bills

Margaret Duda

John Drudge

Katherine E. Winnick

Maurizio Brancaleoni

Linda Imbler

Wayne F. Burke

Dr. Anissa Sboui

Kushal Poddar

Cleo Griffith

Robert McCarthy

Barbara Di Sacco

Joe Kidd

Mahua Sen

Paul Demuth

Rose Mary Boehm

John Harold Olson

Nolcha Fox

Ken Gosse

Linda H.Y. Hegland

John Yamrus

Artemis Rose Archer

Nathan Anderson

Lorie Greenspan      

Burgess Needle

Nancy Kennedy

Rp Verlaine

Adele Ogiér Jones

Tom Holmes

Chyrel J. Jackson

Benjamin Bennett-Carpenter

Glenis Moore

Allan Lake

Lyris D. Wallace

Rick Hartwell

JL Huffman

Sushant Thapa

Alec Solomita

Irma Kurti

Philip Butera

Daniela Rodi

Raymond Alexander Turco

Angel Edwards

Daipayan Nair

Desiree Batiste 

Peter Mladinic

Amrita Valan

Prithvijeet Sinha

Tina Hudak

Michael Lee Johnson

Gail White

Sandeep Sharma

Bridget Houlihan

Elliot M. Rubin

                                                                       

 

 

Contents

 

Editorial Poems by Strider Marcus Jones                              Pages

 

June 2023 Continued- Poetry and Fiction

 

Wendy Webb

1.         Rethreading Garments                                                17-21

2.         Joie De Vivre, After

3.         To My Father, On Shaving

4.         Bike Ride, Earlham

5.         The Meaning of Mundesley

John Brantingham

1.         Butterfly Summer                                                       21-24

2.         Orange Summer Newt

3.         Chicken of the Forest

4.         Small Columns of Stone

C.X. Turner

1.         Ten Short Form Poems                                               25-30

2.         Sunflowers

3.         Stem

4.         Reconnecting

5.         Shoreline

6.         Rescue

Dennis Camire

1.         After Her Ex Takes His Own Life…                         30-36

2.         For the Bread Baker and His Conjoined Twins

3.         For the Black Bear Biologist Tagging Hibernating Bears

4.         Upon Learning Her Husband only has a few Months…

Jay Maria Simpson

1.         Dancing on the Frozen Stars                                      36-40

2.         The Loneliness Factory

3.         The Dancer

4.         Three Ways

5.         Train Tracks Wisdom and Bullshit   

petro c.k.

1.         Nitrogenase Ecclesiastes                                            41-43

2.         Hey Day Huggers

3.         Jethro Mothra

4.         Logarithm Begin the Juju

5.         Urticaria Jr.

Kadambari Kaul

1.         On Love                                                                      43-44

2.         Song of Life   

Mark Young

1.         Returning from foreign war zones                             44-47

2.         A double cypher

3.         Installing the new wi-fi extender

4.         Doubles Entendre

5.         Potpourri                     

Jeanette L. Miller

1.         First Snowfall                                                             47-50

2.         My White Dresses, Her Red Shoes

3.         A Crone Speaks from the Forest

4.         Me, My Aunt & Cousin, My Mother…

5.         Two Grandmothers Plus My Mother

Steven Sibra

1.         Blue Cheese                                                                51-52

2.         Pebbles

3.         Shattered

Daniel de Culla

1.         Where Are You Going?                                              53-57

2.         When the Frog Grows Hairs

3.         This Flower

Jim Meirose

1.         Something Seemingly Not Even a Road–Flash/F      57-58

Lavana Kray

1.         Five Photo Poems – (words only)                              58-59

2.         Honeycomb – Flash Fiction/Haibun

Mikal Wix

1.         A Farewell from the Sloth of Space                           60-63

2.         The Old Man in the Sky

3.         Parliament

 

July 2023 – Poetry & Fiction

 

Peycho Kanev

1.         A Note on the Pillow                                                  63-65

2.         At the End

3.         The Twin

Antonia Alexandra Klimenko

1.         Holding On                                                                66-70

2.         Selfie

Gary Bills

1.         The Watchers from the Flood                                     71-79

2.         Graven Flowers

3.         Country Burr – Short Story

Margaret Duda

1.         Ask for Whom the Bell Tolls                                     79-83

2.         My Catholic Mother’s Jewish Sister

3.         Where Did It Come From?

John Drudge

1.         Alchemy                                                                    84-87

2.         Another Morning

3.         Depths

4.         Into the Wind

5.         Journey

6.         Spirit

Katherine E. Winnick

1.         Haiku                                                                          88

Maurizio Brancaleoni

1.         Bird Haiku – Translation Italian-English                   89-91

Linda Imbler

1.         Le Passe-muraille                                                       91-94

2.         The Well

3.         Hordes

4.         Vigil Within the Vernal Equinox

Wayne F. Burke

1.         Dream                                                                        95-98

2.         Bought-a-Gun

3.         You Are Loved

Dr. Anissa Sboui

1.         The Desired Heaven                                                   98-101

2.         The Quranic School

3.         God Spoke to Her

4.         I Lyric to the Critic

Kushal Poddar

1.         Loops                                                                          102-104

2.         The Dry Spell

3.         Halo-rainbow around my sins

4.         The Obscene Gesture of a Milestone

5.         Where the Nuclear Power Plant Melted Down

 

Cleo Griffith

1.         For You Who Remember                                           105-107

2.         Gifts

3.         Glow from Old Lanterns

4.         White Chevy Silverados

Robert McCarthy

1.         Exequy                                                                        108-113

2.         Fissiparity

3.         Many Loves, None of Them True

4.         Undistinguished Aridity

5.         Prayer in Winter

Barbara Di Sacco

1.         Canio                                                                          113-116

2.         Music is Female

3.         Puppet

Joe Kidd

1.         Dream of Kings                                                          116-119

2.         Night Falls Upon the Silent and the Still

3.         October Rose

4.         Solstice – part one   

Mahua Sen

1.         Anamnesis                                                                  120-121

Paul Demuth

1.         The Shipwreck’s Bar                                                  122-123

2.         Hoop Anchor Top Egg

3.         Sunday               

Rose Mary Boehm

1.         Advent                                                                        123-127

2.         Crossing Illegally from Germany into Germany

3.         Feierabend

4.         Guilt

John Harold Olson

1.         Gloria or Prodigal Blues                                             127-129

2.         Untitled Poem

3.         Untitled Poem

Nolcha Fox

1.         Haiku                                                                          129-130

2.         Storm

3.         If sleep was an elevator

4.         Fork

 

Ken Gosse

1.         Not Enough Hair on My Chinny-chin-chin               131-133

2.         Desert Deuces for Dessert

3.         When the Dawn Came Up Like Thunder

4.         Abruptus Interuptus

5.         Breaking Up is Hard to Dooby Dooby Do…

Linda H.Y. Hegland

1.         Old Chevy Truck and Prairie Choirs                          133-136

2.         Wishes on a Falcon/Freeing Falling Stars

John Yamrus

1.         LEDA was a dancer                                                   137-142

2.         did you ever

3.         it was

Artemis Rose Archer

1.         Sliver of Moon                                                          142-144

2.         Bumble

3.         Maple

4.         Like a Songbird

Nathan Anderson

1.         Collapsing into Symphony                                         144-150

2.         Hatchet rings as [anti]-bells

3.         Lopsided [not] Dromedary [touch]

4.         Medical Reduction (vanishing)

5.         Telegraph//Inhalation

Lorie Greenspan      

1.         i am                                                                             151-154

2.         My turtle

3.         The curves of grace

4.         first, on a road of whales

5.         Playful

Burgess Needle

1.         All That Is Left                                                           155-159

2.         Gift of Goodness

3.         Kiss of Jojoba Oil

4.         Tucson Rose After Rain

Nancy Kennedy

1.         To the Patron Saint of Lost Causes                            160-163

2.         Night Song

3.         Daughter of Ophelia

4.         White Plastic Buttons

5.         Fait Accompli

Rp Verlaine

1.         A.I. Interactive                                                           163-168

2.         Plethora

3.         Escape Has Its Benefits

4.         That Drunken Night

5.         Inside The Parenthesis of Being

Adele Ogiér Jones

1.         Haiku for the longest day of the year                         169-170

Tom Holmes

1.         A Long-Forgotten Story with Shoes – Short Story    171-178

Chyrel J. Jackson

1.         Nature’s Incubator                                                      179-181

2.         Limitless Devotion

3.         Rushing

4.         Broken

5.         My Heart is Happiest Watching Ezra Dance

Benjamin Bennett-Carpenter

1.         Every Day                                                                   182-184

2.         Equality of Day

3.         They Jump

Glenis Moore

1.         A glass darkly                                                             184-185

2.         In the dark

Allan Lake

1.         Annual Report                                                            185-186

Lyris D. Wallace

1.         Moments                                                                     186-190

2.         Motionless Feet

3.         Keep Running

4.         A Beginning

5.         Still We Move

Rick Hartwell

1.         Nurse Says                                                                  190-191

2.         Street Safety

3.         Ribbons in the Sea

JL Huffman

1.         Haiku/Senryu                                                              192

Sushant Thapa

1.         The Awakened Heart                                                  193

Alec Solomita

1.         Lunch Poem                                                                194-195

Irma Kurti

1.         The Naked Day                                                           195-198

2.         Come Back to Me

3.         Without A Homeland

4.         Your Voice Won’t Reach Me

Philip Butera

1.         Some Friends are Black Mirrors                                199-200

Daniela Rodi

1.         Haiku                                                                          201-203 

Raymond Alexander Turco

1.         The Apocryphon of Remus – Short Story                  203-207

Angel Edwards

1.         From Love Withdraw - Lyrics                                   208

Daipayan Nair

1.         Haiku                                                                          208-210

Desiree Batiste 

1.         Following Greatness                                                   210-216

2.         Hourglass

3.         On the Floor

4.         She is Not Me, but I am Her

5.         The River

Peter Mladinic

1.         Message in a Bottle                                                    216-220

2.         Up and Out

3.         Chapter from an Egyptian Novel

4.         Selfie

Amrita Valan

1.         Hocus Pocus – an Ekphrastic poem                           221-225

2.         Impermanent Eternity

3.         Your Dominance of My World

Prithvijeet Sinha

1.         Go Into the Crevice                                                    226-230

2.         Dying Breed  

Tina Hudak

1.         Poughkeepsie – Short Story                                       231-234

Michael Lee Johnson

1.         Summer is Dying                                                        235-237

2.         Bowl of Black Petunias

3.         Memories Past

4.         Now That I Desire

 

Gail White

1.         I Can Imagine                                                             237-238

2.         The Innocent

3.         The Old Dame Looks Ahead

Sandeep Sharma

1.         Rhymeopause, Baldness and all that stuff                 239-240

Bridget Houlihan

1.         Spring (I)                                                                    240-243

2.         Last Moments

3.         Corks

4.         Spring (II)

5.         Shower of Leaves

Elliot M. Rubin

1.         moon dreams                                                              244-245

2.         my newest son

3.         oxford

                                                                       

 

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 25

Crows in Boots Walking 

June 2023 

Buy

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 25 (lulu.com)

Congratulations dear contributors to Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 25 – Crows in Boots Walking. I am honoured and delighted to publish your superb poetry and fiction from the month of June 2023 in this stunning volume and have attached your free PDF Copy. The printed book is now available from today to purchase from lulu.com by clicking the link below-

Buy Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 25 (lulu.com)

I hope you will consider purchasing this stunning 242 page feast of 75 internationally esteemed poets and fiction writers for your personal published collections, family and friends. Thank you for your continuing contributions and support of Lothlorien Poetry Journal my Fellow Lothlorians. Every purchase helps me to continue publishing Lothlorien Poetry Journal and is deeply appreciated.

Warmest wishes,

Strider Marcus Jones – Editor in Chief. Xx

 

Welcome to Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 25 – Crows in Boots Walking. Lothlorien Poetry Journal is a contemporary literary journal featuring free verse/rhyming/experimental poetry, short stories and flash fiction. Journey with these 75 superb poets and fiction authors on the road, walking with crows and immerse yourself in poems and stories that linger and haunt. Discover sublime works of fantasy, fairy tale and folklore, dreams and dystopia, nature and magical realism with romance and anything hiding deep in-between the cracks.

 

 

“Not cry. Fly.
“I can’t fly,” Bran said. “I can’t, I can’t…”
How do you know? Have you ever tried?
The voice was high and thin. Bran looked around to see where it was coming from. A crow was spiraling down with him, just out of touch, following him as he fell. “Help me,” he said.
I’m trying, the crow replied…
The crow took to the air and flapped around Bran’s hand.
“You have wings,” Bran pointed out.
Maybe you do too.
Bran felt along his shoulders, groping for feathers.
There are different kinds of wings, the crow said…
Bran was falling faster than ever. The grey mists howled around him as he plunged toward the earth below. “What are you doing to me?” he asked the crow, tearful.
Teaching you how to fly.
“I can’t fly!”
You’re flying right now.
“I’m falling!”
Every flight begins with a fall, the crow said. Look down.”

― George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones

 

 

“On a bare branch a crow is perched - autumn evening”

― Bashō

 

 

People once believed that when someone dies, a crow carries their soul to the land of the dead. But sometimes, something so bad happens that a terrible sadness is carried with it and the soul can't rest. Then sometimes, just sometimes, the crow can bring that soul back to put the wrong things right.

 

-James O'Barr

 

 

That thou art blamed shall not be thy defect,
For slander's mark was ever yet the fair;
The ornament of beauty is suspect,
A crow that flies in heaven's sweetest air.

 

William Shakespeare

 

 

Crows don’t take from you,” Dean said. “They give your soul wings.

 

Caitlin Kittredge

 

 

The way a crow Shook down on me The dust of snow From a hemlock tree Has given my heart A change of mood And saved some part Of a day I had rued.

 

-Robert Frost

 

 

POETS & AUTHORS

 

June 2023 - Poetry and Fiction

 

Bob MacKenzie

C L S Sandoval

Ryan Quinn Flanagan

Savannah Hernandez

Mark Hendrickson

Lynda Tavakoli

 

Nolo Segundo        

Duane Vorhees

Angel Edwards

Alec Solomita

Keith Snow

Walter Bargen

 

Snigdha Agrawal

J.J. Campbell

Pawel Markiewicz

Patricia Furstenberg

John Doyle

Thomas Elson

 

Michael E. Theroux (Teru)

Ken Kapp

Wayne F. Burke

Inam Hussain Begg Mullick

Wendy Webb

John Harold Olson

 

Margot Block

John Yamrus

Henry Wolstat

Dr. Anissa Sboui

 

Greg Patrick

Angel Edwards

 

Robert Cooperman

Cindy Ellen Hill

Stephen A. Rozwenc

Susan Isla Tepper

George Gad Economou

Amanda Niamh Dawson

 

Vernon Frazer

Louisa Muniz

Jack D. Harvey

Joan Leotta 

Jerome Berglund

Michelle Rule

 

Christina Chin,

Marjorie Pezzoli

Katie Mohr

Sherry Grant

Oladejo Abdullah Feranmi

Sushant Thapa

 

Julie Ann Thomason

Diarmuid ó Maolalaí

Sarah Davies

Richard D. Houff

Myrtle Thomas

Fabrice Poussin

 

Jackie Chou

Alan Catlin

Shelly Jones

Christopher Barnes

Joan McNerney

Kushal Poddar

 

Ceinwen E. Cariad Haydon

Clarke Zlotchew

Mykyta Ryzhykh

Robert Witmer

Linda King

Timothy Resau

 

Anthony Fagan

Ursula O’Reilly

Mike Zone

Maria Teresa Sisti

Laura Stamps

Stephen Kingsnorth

 

Karen O’Leary & Paul Callus

Terry Wheeler

J.D. Nelson

Santosh Bakaya

David Alec Knight

                                                                       

 

Contents

 

Editorial Poems by Strider Marcus Jones                                Pages

 

June 2023 - Poetry and Fiction

 

Bob MacKenzie

1.        peace                                                                         17-19

2.        even this matters

3.        study in white

4.        the artist

5.        Rouge

C L S Sandoval

1.        Amidst the Crowd                                                  20-23

2.        Away from You

3.        Blank

4.        Daily Impact

5.        Effects of My Betrayal

Ryan Quinn Flanagan

1.        He Went to the Bahamas, His Luggage…                     23-27

2.        Mechanically Separated Cars

3.        He Said the Hadron Collider Sounded Bad…

4.        If You’re So Gutted, Why Don’t You Become…

5.        Swami Salami

Savannah Hernandez

1.        Shattered Shell – Flash Fiction Story                            27-28

Mark Hendrickson

1.        Mid-West Living (or My Apologies)                               28-29            

Lynda Tavakoli

1.        Garden                                                                                  29-31

Nolo Segundo

1.        A Morning’s Walk                                                   32-39

2.        Come and Draw Strength From Me

3.        The Look In Her Eyes

4.        Will My Soul Fly?

5.        A Passing Glance

6.        When Sedate Age Remembers Crazy Youth  

Duane Vorhees

1.        A New Study In Scarlet – Short Story                40-41             

Angel Edwards

1.        Take Time                                                                 41-43

2.        At War

Alec Solomita

1.        The Dying Gaul                                                        43-44

Keith Snow

1.        Semi Unconscious Stream                                               44-46

2.        If Poems Were Promoted Like Movies

3.        Lost City Found Behind Big Lot…

4.        Sanctuary

Walter Bargen

1.        Domestic Doubts                                                    47-51

2.        Great Salt Lake

3.        Ultima Thule

4.        Little League

5.        Return to the Sea

Snigdha Agrawal

1.        Five Haiku Poems                                                   52-53

2.        Five Micro Poems

J.J. Campbell

1.        further away                                                                        54-57

2.        for over thirty years

3.        tripping the night away

4.        without ever having to wait in line

Pawel Markiewicz

1.        The responsive awakening of springtide                     58-59

2.        The Druid – Flash Fiction

Patricia Furstenberg

1.        When Man Birthed Art                                         60-66

2.        A Life in Yellow and Blue

3.        The Vanishing Dragons

4.        When Her Body Whispered

5.        After a Lurid Dream

John Doyle

1.        I’ve Got to Be in Nicaragua by Noon                             66-70

2.        Don’t Dream, It’s Over

3.        Ben

4.        Hospitals

5.        The Groovy Gang from the Liberal Arts College Drama…

6.        Algorhythms

Thomas Elson

1.        What’s Left to Hear                                                           70-73

2.        The Boathouse

3.        His Butterfly

Michael E. Theroux (Teru)

1.        Sunday Morning Nap                                                       74-77

2.        Touch

3.        Riptide of the Soul

4.        Odd

5.        Life’s Wine

Ken Kapp

1.        D’aneter, a Porpoise with a Purpose – Flash Fiction            78-79

Wayne F. Burke

1.        Class President                                                        79-82

2.        Bad Day

3.        Fog

4.        Aphorism

5.        Local # 27

Inam Hussain Begg Mullick

1.        Love Cosmic                                                             83-84

2.        Inamorato Takes a Walk

Wendy Webb

1.        Reflections Into Fall (Palindromedary Sonnet)          85-89

2.        Valley of the Tiger’s Shadow (Glosa)

3.        If I Had…A Daughter

4.        Where’s It Going?

5.        At Cross Purposes

John Harold Olson

1.        Shore Patrol                                                             90-92

2.        El Cajon Boulevard

3.        Cornelia and Portia

Margot Block

1.        Five Untitled Poems                                                          92-94

John Yamrus

1.        he was in                                                                  95-98

2.        i worked

3.        he said

Henry Wolstat

1.        A Beam of Light                                                      99-100

2.        Returning Home

Dr. Anissa Sboui

1.        Her Own Portrait Is Painted                                            100-102

2.        I was safer

 

Greg Patrick

1.        Derry Nights I Dream of Fire                                           103-108   

Angel Edwards

1.        At the Edge of Paradise – Short Story              108-121

Robert Cooperman

1.        Reciting “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”121-124

2.        Chekhov’s Gun

3.        A Game of Chess

4.        Writing the Great American Novel               

Cindy Ellen Hill

1.        All Hallow’s Eve                                                       125-127

2.        Hounds

3.        March Snowfall (Spring Equinox)

4.        Picking Fiddleheads

5.        Night Frolic

Stephen A. Rozwenc

1.        Four Haiku Poems with French… Translations           128-129

Susan Isla Tepper

1.        Crunch in the Night                                                           129

George Gad Economou

1.        screaming driver                                                     130-133

2.        a fairytale

3.        all those wasted nights

4.        we stayed

5.        eternal infamy

Amanda Niamh Dawson

1.        Soul’s Flight                                                             134-135

2.        Nature’s Art

3.        History Holds

Vernon Frazer

1.        Doubled Back                                                                     135-139

2.        Game Patriots

3.        Drunk on Promise

4.        Living Down the Good Life

5.        Vacation Refuge on Vacation

Louisa Muniz

1.        Gone Missing                                                                      140-143

2.        Persephone

3.        Invocation

Jack D. Harvey

1.        You’re Only Dead Once                                        143-149

2.        Michael the Paphlagonian

3.        The Persistence of Beatrice

4.        Playing with Fire

5.        Melissa

Joan Leotta 

1.        Reading Neruda on War While Waiting…                    150-151

Jerome Berglund, Michelle Rule, Christina Chin,

Marjorie Pezzoli, Katie Mohr & Sherry Grant

1.        Five Linked Form Collaborative Poems                        151-155

Oladejo Abdullah Feranmi

1.        Song sets                                                                  156

Sushant Thapa

1.        Carrying a Novel                                                     156-157

Julie Ann Thomason

1.        Twelve Haiku Poems                                                         157-159

Diarmuid ó Maolalaí

1.        Mongrels                                                                  160-163

2.        The kitchen table

3.        A patch-furred dog

4.        Carrion

5.        Making Things Warm

Sarah Davies

1.        Moonscaper                                                             164-167

2.        The museum of you

3.        Memento

4.        The Scholar

5.        Fragmental

Richard D. Houff

1.        A Hometown Story                                                167-171

2.        The Paper Route

3.        My Disassembled Head

Myrtle Thomas

1.        Catching Fireflies Until Twilight                          172-173

2.        Soul Searching

Fabrice Poussin

1.        Beauty Masks                                                                      173-177

2.        Script 2021

3.        Sign of Being

4.        True Believers

5.        What if?

 

Jackie Chou

1.        The Performance                                                    178-180

2.        Not Another Hallmark Love Poem

3.        The People-Eater

4.        Red

Alan Catlin

1.        First Snow                                                                181-182

2.        Untitled Poem

3.        Untitled Poem

4.        Seaside Still Life Winter

Shelly Jones

1.        Requiem                                                                    183-184

2.        Echo

3.        On Listening to the Patter of Melting Snow

Christopher Barnes

1.        Fragments 26                                                                      184-185

2.        Fragments 27

3.        Fragments 28

4.        Fragments 29

5.        Fragments 30

Joan McNerney

1.        Falling Asleep                                                                     186-189

2.        Nightscape

3.        Lost Dream

4.        Beach

5.        When I Was New

Kushal Poddar

1.        I Couldn’t Catch That                                                        190-191

2.        Enamel

3.        Emergency Benevolence 

Ceinwen E. Cariad Haydon

1.        After Visiting Dove Cottage                                             192-195

2.        Internal Dialogue Whilst Waiting for Transport

3.        Lachrymose

4.        Unprecedented Weather

5.        Moving On

Clarke Zlotchew

1.        Honey and Grapes – Short Story                                    196-202 

Mykyta Ryzhykh

1.        Five Untitled Poems                                                          202-203

 

Robert Witmer

1.        Placibo Domino in regione vivorum                              203-205

2.        A Snapshot of Our Times

3.        Cast Out

4.        Little Boy Blue

5.        Unto Zophos Descends the King of Byblos

Linda King

1.        in this short transit                                                206-207

2.        lines of stones in a fallow field

3.        the crows at happy hour

Timothy Resau 

1.        dear kierkegaard – Short Story                          208-210

Anthony Fagan

1.        No New Messages                                                  211-212

2.        I Kissed Your Lips

3.        Brave Face

4.        Doll’s House

Ursula O’Reilly

1.        Beautifully Cracked                                                            213-215

2.        Between the Cracks

3.        Cracked Box

4.        Not Broken

Mike Zone

1.        The Crown                                                                216-221

2.        Social distortion

3.        Train of thought

4.        Dreaming blue

5.        Peninsula Gardens

Maria Teresa Sisti

1.        Six Haiku Poems                                                     221-222

Laura Stamps

1.        Accessorizing                                                                       222-223

2.        Boy or Girl

3.        How to Manifest Your Dreams 

Stephen Kingsnorth

1.        Joint Enterprise                                                       224-228

2.        Dyslexic Games

3.        Lengths for Width

4.        Rows

5.        Growing Patch

 

Karen O’Leary & Paul Callus

1.        Two Tan-renga Poems                                          228-229

Terry Wheeler

1.        earworms (kylie dub)                                                        229-232

2.        come on in my kitchen

3.        madame george

4.        lost highway

5.        old treetops nocturne

J.D. Nelson

1.        brain zaps                                                                 233-234

2.        oscillating fields

3.        junior light

4.        villa alegre

5.        sinistar

Santosh Bakaya

1.        The Nocturnal Gab Fest                                        234-237

2.        Red Tape

3.        The Broken Cup

David Alec Knight

1.        On Spec                                                                     238-241

2.        Leave To Arrive

3.        Crows, Dying On the Winds

4.        Beware of Poet Dancing

                                                                       

 

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 24

Variations in the Triangle 

May 2023 Continued

Buy

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 24 (lulu.com)

Congratulations dear contributors to Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 24 – Variations in the Triangle. I am honoured and delighted to publish your superb poetry and fiction from the month of May 2023 continued in this stunning volume and have attached your free PDF Copy. The printed book is now available from today to purchase from lulu.com by clicking the link below-

Buy Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 24 (lulu.com)

I hope you will consider purchasing this stunning 254 page feast of 70 internationally esteemed poets and fiction writers for your personal published collections, family and friends. Thank you most sincerely for your continuing contributions and support of Lothlorien Poetry Journal my Fellow Lothlorians. Every purchase helps me to continue publishing Lothlorien Poetry Journal and is deeply appreciated.

Warmest wishes always,

Strider Marcus Jones – Editor in Chief. Xx

 

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 24 – Variations in the Triangles features the best poetry and fiction from 70 internationally renowned poets and authors who bring their own original take on twenty-first century life and society. These poets and authors delve deeper and fearlessly search for truth, understanding and freedom exposing variations in the triangles of life.  Join them and discover poems and stories of fantasy and folklore, dystopia, magical realism, romance, and anything hiding deep in-between the cracks.

 

 

Nature is an endless combination and repetition of a very few laws. She hums the old well-known air through innumerable variations.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

 

There are no variations except for those who know a norm, and no subtleties for those who have not grasped the obvious. — C.S. Lewis

 

 

There are infinitely many variations of the initial situation and therefore no doubt indefinitely many theorems of moral geometry. — John Rawls

 

 

It struck me that favourable variations would tend to be preserved and unfavourable ones tend to be destroyed — Charles Darwin

 

 

Water Source and earthbound substance in endless theme and variation. There is need of rest, renewal and appreciation of the ever-changing landscape. — Lynne Hurd Bryant

 

 

Repetition makes us feel secure and variation makes us feel free.

Robert Hass

 

Change is upsetting. Repetition is tedious. Three cheers for variation!

Mason Cooley

 

Nature is so delightful and abundant in its variations that among trees of the same kind there would not be found one which nearly resembles another, and not only the plants as a whole, but among their branches, leaves, and fruit, will not be found one which is precisely like another.

Leonardo da Vinci

 

 

It would be possible to describe everything scientifically, but it would make no sense; it would be without meaning, as if you described a Beethoven symphony as a variation of wave pressure.

Albert Einstein

 

 

There are patterns which emerge in one's life, circling and returning anew, an endless variation of a theme — Jacqueline Carey

 

 

Life set itself to new processions of seed-time and harvest, the skin newly turned to seasonal variations, the very blood humming to new altitudes. — Mary Hunter Austin

 

 

The thoughts which the word "God" suggests to the human mind are susceptible of as many variations as human minds themselves. — Percy Bysshe Shelley

 

 

There are not many original shapes or silhouettes
only a million variations. — Charles James

 

 

Featured Poets/Fiction Authors

 

Randy Barnes

Margaret Duda

Ryan Quinn Flanagan

Antonia Alexandra Klimenko

John Grey

Andrea Potos

Stephen A. Rozwenc

Mary Grimm           

AE Reiff

Susan Wilson

Massimo Fantuzzi

Patricia Furstenberg

Duane Vorhees

Lara Dolphin

Stephen House

Farah Ali

Dr Charles A. Stone

j. lewis

Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca

John Doyle

Ammanda Selethia Moore

Rick Hartwell

Lark Beltran

Peter J. Donnelly

Lynn White

Rustin Larson

Snigdha Agrawal

Philip Butera

Karen Lynn Kerekes

Steve Klepetar

Jennifer Lagier

 

Fadrian Bartley

Angel Edwards

Samo Kreutz

Karen A. VandenBos

Joseph A. Farina

Julie Ann Thomason

Kushal Poddar

Catherine Zickgraf

Damon Hubbs   

H.K.G. Lowery

Abel Johnson Thundil

Ed Ahern

Patricia Nelson

Dr Ralph Monday

Julie A. Dickson

D.R. James

Cliff Wedgbury

Nolcha Fox

Arthur Turfa

Sharon Waller Knutson

J.B. Hogan

Aariona Harris

Ken Gosse

Tony Pena

Michael H. Brownstein

Kelley White

Tony Brewer

R.W. Stephens – Ekphrastic Escher Series 1

Kathleen Chamberlin

Steven Fortune 

Bartholomew Barker

Jonathan S. Baker

Tony Dawson

John Tustin

Linda M. Crate

Paul Sohar

K.G. Munro

Joe Bisicchia

Kenneth M. Kapp

Hifsa Ashraf and Oscar Luparia – Collaboration

 

 

Contents

 

Editorial Poems by Strider Marcus Jones                                Pages

 

May 2023 Continued - Poetry and Fiction

 

Randy Barnes

1.        Opinions Consigned to Eruptive Causes                      17-19

2.        Blind Honey Bends the Wires

3.        A Pill for Your Troubles

4.        Minute Correction

5.        Wandering Caseload

6.        Take Two

Margaret Duda

1.        Keepers of the Faith – Short Story                                20-27

Ryan Quinn Flanagan

1.        Bob Marley Breaks into a Limbo Outside the Toyo   28-31

2.        Leaf Erikson

3.        The Charleston Bridge Crossing

4.        The Bet

5.        Good Evening, from the Russian Underground

Antonia Alexandra Klimenko

1.        KALEIDOSCOPE                                                        32-36

2.        Green

3.        Old Friends

John Grey

1.        Any Moment Now                                                  37-41

2.        Isaac

3.        Boundaries at the Fast Food Restaurant

4.        The Little Match Girl and the Dragon Slayer

5,        Survival Tactics      

Andrea Potos

1.        Poem to 4:40 PM ON March 20, Spring Equinox       41-43

2.        When My Mother Called

3.        On Dreams

4.        After Not Being Chosen to Read at the Emily Dickinson…

5.        Three Acorns from Emily’s Yard

Stephen A. Rozwenc

1.        Ten Haiku Poems                                                    44-46

Mary Grimm

1.        Dorothy Wordsworth Undercover-Flash Fiction       47-49             

AE Reiff

1.        Earth Descending in the Lovely                          50-55

2.        The Road to Zion

3.        New Troy

4.        Leviathan Spread

5.        Squid Hats

Susan Wilson

1.        Every Ten Years                                                      56-58

2.        City Lunch Rendezvous

3.        I’ve Been Listening to…

4.        One for Sorrow

5.        Weekend Working

Massimo Fantuzzi

1.        Full August Lost and Found                                             58-62

2.        Ash

3.        Witchery, a Pastorale

4.        Barcarolle

5.        Tender Afternoon on Cream Crocheted Wool

Patricia Furstenberg

1.        Life Lived Backwards and Upwards                               63-67

2.        Speaking Stones

3.        Prophecy

Duane Vorhees

1.        We Are the Progeny of the Big Bang                            67-69

2.        Some Four or Five Descents Since

3.        That Ancient Gentrification

4.        Amphibians

5.        Correct Attribution

Lara Dolphin

1.        When There Are No Cracks                                             70-71

2.        The Park That If You Had More Than One Life…

3.        The Park That Fills You With Sudden Inexplicable

            Curiosity

Stephen House

1.        how much – prose poem                                     72

Farah Ali

1.        Starling Theatre                                                     73-79

2.        To Walk In Ancient Woodland With You

3.        Intertidal Zone

4.        Witches’ Circle

5.        Love Apothecary – Haiku Sequence

Dr Charles A. Stone

1.        Morning Rituals                                                      79-80

2.        Fair Share

j. lewis

1.        every cancer is my mother                                              81-82

Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca

1.        This is the City                                                        83-84

2.        Give Me Oil in My Lamp

John Doyle

1.        The Liminal Figures                                                            85-88

2.        Inertia 101

3.        Love Song for the Year 2019

4.        Jesus Christ, Mr Dubois and Those Dreams of Voodoo

Ammanda Selethia Moore

1.        Looking Down Glen Canyon Dam                                  88

Rick Hartwell

1.        Kaua’i, South Shore Morning                                          89

2.        Flowering Hibiscus

Lark Beltran

1.        Ylang-Ylang                                                               90-93

2.        All I Have Never Seen

3.        Fantasia

4.        Watching The Line

Peter J. Donnelly

1.        The Other Bennett                                                 93-97

2.        Despite the Myths

3.        Just a Few Lines

4.        Curlew

5.        Language and Music

Lynn White

1.        A Fishy Tale                                                              98-99

2.        Fish Out of Water

3.        Goldfish

Rustin Larson

1.        Seaplane                                                                   100-107

2.        Circus

3.        The Fort

4.        Tempest

5.        The Hobbyist

6.        The Urge to Paint

7.        Ghosts

8.        Instruction

9.        Amish Grocery

Snigdha Agrawal

1.        Dissenting Voices                                                   108-111

2.        Portrait of Her

Philip Butera

1.        The Reflection from a Million Mirrors Shattering     112-116

Karen Lynn Kerekes

1.        Suspended                                                                116-119

2.        Undiscovered

3.        Winter Haven   

Steve Klepetar

1.        The Markets of Eternity                                        120-122

2.        Twenty Questions

3.        The River of What Used to Be

Jennifer Lagier

1.        Acorn Woodpecker                                                            122-124

2.        Murder in the Afternoon

3.        Colibri               

Fadrian Bartley

1.        No Skin Is Too Thick                                                           124-127

2.        Cat-o-Nine Tail

3.        Wind and Whispers

4.        Rules of Attraction

5.        Wired and Remote

Angel Edwards

1.        Teddy the Teddy Bear       - Micro Story                                  128-129

Samo Kreutz

1.        Eight Haiku Poems                                                 130-131

Karen A. VandenBos

1.        And So It Goes                                                        131-135

2.        She Is Here

3.        The Devil’s Trumpet of Reality

4.        Dear Muse

4.        Moonbeams and Shooting Stars

Joseph A. Farina

1.        senescence                                                               135-137

2.        panorama

3.        anziani

4.        paper kisses, memory embraces

5.        black magic targa

Julie Ann Thomason

1.        The Acrobats Wheel – Flash Fiction                              138

Kushal Poddar

1.        Mirrorground Fair Narcissus                                           139-140

2.        The Village In The Shadow Of A Windmill

3.        Look Up Syndrome

Catherine Zickgraf

1.        You Still Walk Among Us                                      140-141

Damon Hubbs        

1.        Iceland (ii)                                                                141-145

2.        Briar Rose

3.        Pretty Mouths

4.        Hutch

5.        Sprezzatura! and the Birds of Paradise

H.K.G. Lowery

1.        Tinnitus                                                                     145-148

2.        Coincidentally Sat with Paul Muldoon…

3.        King Charles Spaniel Eulogy (Interlude)

4.        On Nero Playing A Lyre While Rome Burned

Abel Johnson Thundil

1.        Blue windows                                                                      149-150

2.        Unappreciated

Ed Ahern

1.        Sweet Petunia – Short Stoty                                           150-153

Patricia Nelson

1.        Igor Contemplates His Master                            153-155

2.        The Centaur Chiron

3.        The Uncertainty of Omens

4.        A Sybil’s Wish

Dr Ralph Monday

1.        Cultural Conversation Over Creamed Coffee             155-162

2.        All the Doubles Never Known

3.        Sand Painting a Promise

4.        An Appalachian Moon

5.        Love as a Cosmic Quandary

Julie A. Dickson

1.        The fabric of my world                                          162-165

2.        Dream boat

3.        Black Creek

4.        Beneath Scudding Clouds

5.        Blossom

D.R. James

1.        Mobius Trip                                                             165-167

2.        Cement Garden

3.        May:

4.        Gifts Retrievable

5.        State Cleaned on the Bluff

Cliff Wedgbury

1.        breakdown                                                               168-171

2.        teenage lover

3.        vest

Nolcha Fox

1.        Surviving the End                                                   171-175

2.        Incense of Absence

3.        Growing season

4.        Pebbles

5.        She used to

Arthur Turfa

1.        Islands                                                                                   176-179

2.        The Ball Field and the LA Club

3.        The Young Pretender in London

Sharon Waller Knutson

1.        Rooming with Bev in Butte                                              180-189

2.        Broken Hearts Club

3.        The Scottish Country Rock Band

4.        Social Media Unsavvy

5.        Howdy Doody Stranger

J.B. Hogan

1.        Warmth of Myth                                                    190-193

2.        What Is It That We Fear?

3.        Fall Into Winter

Aariona Harris

1.        Growing Up                                                             193-197

2.        Vacation

3.        Worn Book Pages

4.        Guilty Conscious

5.        Empath

Ken Gosse

College Musicians of Bremen – Four Stages of Life

1.        “I Love You, AB Baby!” ~                                    198-204

2.        The Grad Ass’s Magic Wand~

3.        A Fool’s Musical Follies~

4.        The Ancient Muxician – Stoned Sober~

Tony Pena

1.        Ding a Ling Ling                                                       204-206

2.        Hogtied

3.        Rubbed Wrong

4.        Small Dog in a Smaller Universe

5.        This cat got no tongue     

Michael H. Brownstein

1.        The Meaning of Mis-Identification                                207-208

2.        A Pause of Anger

Kelley White

1.        I asked the wind for help                                     208-211

2.        Ichneumonidae

3.        The Imposition of Ashes’

4.        In which Milo Gilman Plays the Part of “The Hanged Man”

5.        I saw the Sun Ra walking 

Tony Brewer

1.        Burlesque Dancer Retiring                                               211-215

2.        The Contract

3.        Embarrassment of Riches

4.        Floaters

5.        The Merwin Way

R.W. Stephens – Ekphrastic Escher Series 1

1.        Waterfall                                                                   216-217

2.        Ascending and Descending

3.        Ascending and Descending

4.        Other World

5.        Three Worlds

6.        Hand with Reflective Sphere

Kathleen Chamberlin

1.        Aurem Cordis                                                                       217-219

2.        If Wishes Were Horses

3.        Invisibility

4.        Losing You

5.        Spring Planting

Steven Fortune 

1.        Clerks                                                                         220-222

2.        Here Are the Options

3.        Destiny’s Spadework

4.        Reaper Prompt

 

Bartholomew Barker

1.        Mathias                                                                     223

Jonathan S. Baker

1.        Birdsong                                                                    224-225

2.        Beinn na Caillich

3.        Scribble Scrabble Scrotum Totem

Tony Dawson

1.        Homophone – Flash Fiction                                            226-227       

John Tustin

1.        Crush                                                                         227-232

2.        Over In a Minute

3.        The Silver Cross

4.        Sleeping While the Sun Was Out

5.        A Thick Purple Curtain

Linda M. Crate

1.        myths of every age                                                232-236

2.        love is everlasting

3.        we all need another

4.        the soul knows

5.        transformed anew 

Paul Sohar

1.        The Peace of Kha                                                    236-241

2.        In the Cathedral of the Night

3.        Kergaradec: Litany of Breton Dolmens

4.        Candles in the Wind

5.        The Oltec Altar

K.G. Munro

1.        Normality                                                                  241-243

2.        Access to Clean Water

3.        Closer To Me

Joe Bisicchia

1.        Dissipating Suns                                                      243-247

2.        Light

3.        Battle of the Milvian Bridge

4.        Knight of the Solstice

5.        Good Morning

Kenneth M. Kapp

1.        Daddy Longlegs Hits His Stride - Flash Fiction            247-249

Hifsa Ashraf and Oscar Luparia – Collaboration

1.        Five Haiga Poems                                                   250-251

                       

 

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 23

 Red Balloons 

April 2023 Continued - Early May 2023

Buy

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 23 (lulu.com)

Congratulations dear contributors to Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 23 – Red Balloons. I am honoured and delighted to publish your superb poetry and fiction from the months of April 2023 continued – Early May 2023 in this stunning volume and have attached your free PDF Copy. The printed book is now available from today to purchase from lulu.com by clicking the link below-

Buy Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 23 (lulu.com)

I hope you will consider purchasing this stunning 244 page feast of 70 internationally esteemed poets and fiction writers for your personal published collections, family and friends. Thank you most sincerely for your continuing contributions and support of Lothlorien Poetry Journal my Fellow Lothlorians. Every purchase helps me to continue publishing Lothlorien Poetry Journal and is deeply appreciated.

Warmest wishes always,

Strider Marcus Jones – Editor in Chief. Xx

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 23 – Red Balloons features the best poetry and fiction from 70 internationally renowned poets and authors who bring their own original take on twenty-first century life and society. Some of us stay on the ground of life but these poets and authors delve deeper and fearlessly soar in search of truth, understanding and freedom like Red Balloons.  Join them and discover poems and stories of fantasy and folklore, dystopia, magical realism, romance, and anything hiding deep in-between the cracks.

 

April 2023 Continued - Poetry and Fiction

 

Antonia Alexandra Klimenko

Damon Hubbs

Amara Goldwalker

Joshua Martin

Barbara Anna Gaiardoni

Charles Rammelkamp

Rhoda Tripp

Gordon Scapens

       

Angela Hoffman

Joshua St. Claire (Michael Winter)

Margaret Adams Birth

CL Bledsoe

Bonnie Scherer

Phil Wood

Michael Ball

Adele Ogier Jones

Saeed Ibrahim

Amber Winter

Don Krieger

Paul Callus and Karen O’Leary

Ken Kapp

Steen Rasmussen

Angel Edwards

John Harold Olson

Courtney Glover

Eddie Heaton

Santosh Bakaya

Mark Hendrickson

E.C. Traganas

John Doyle

Maurizio Brancaleoni

             

Raluca Balasa

Jodie Baeyens

David Alec Knight

Daya Bhat

L. Wayne Russell

Yvonne Zipter

Allan Lake

Nikola Popovic

Wayne F. Burke     

Paul Engel

Dana Trick

Raymond Berthelot

Marc Frazier

George Vance

zO-AlonzO Gross

Luis Cuauhtemoc Berriozabal

Ramzi Albert Rihani

Terrence Sykes

John Wesick

Keith Snow

Harry K. Stammer

Ram Chandran

Gopi Kottoor

Tekisui RC

Cleo Griffith

Mykyta Ryzhykh

Louis Kasatkin

Pawel Markiewicz

Wendy Webb

Paul Callus and Christina Chin – Collaboration

 

Early May 2023 – Poetry

 

Fred Johnston

Jeanna Ni Riordain

Nolo Segundo

Jane Rosenberg LaForge

John Drudge

Jennifer Pratt-Walter

Giulio Magrini

Sneha Madhusoodhanan

Dr Stephen Paul Wren

 

April 2023 Continued - Poetry and Fiction

 

Antonia Alexandra Klimenko

1.        Paris in the Afterlife                                                           17-19

Damon Hubbs

1.        Lounge Car                                                               20-22

2.        Quiet Car

3.        Sleeper Car

Amara Goldwalker

1.        Moonsurfer                                                              22-27

2.        Our Beach House on the Moon

3.        Neptunian

4.        The Bloody Gruelling Work of Joy

5.        Apollo Smile

Joshua Martin

1.        Productive Sticking Point                                     27-31

2.        Delayed Terrarium Fix

3.        Conclusive Gears

4.        adjusted eggshell momentum

5.        Sailing Spider Lamps

Barbara Anna Gaiardoni

1.        Five Haiku Poems                                                   32      

Charles Rammelkamp

1.        The Night They Raided the old Howard                       33-37

2.        The Bad Girl of Burlesque

3.        The TNT Girl

4.        America’s Most Beautiful Dancer

5.        The Bazoom Girl

Rhoda Tripp

1.        Three Haiku Poems                                                            38      

Gordon Scapens

1.        Conscience                                                              39-45

2.        Have And Have Nots

3.        Coffin Dancer

4.        Silent Communication                   

Angela Hoffman

1.        Drive Straight into Fear                                        45-47

2.        Deserted-ness

3.        Joy and Pain Are Married

4.        Mure-Made

5.        Leaven For Her Soul

Joshua St. Claire (Michael Winter)

1.        Ten Haiku Poems                                                    48-49

Margaret Adams Birth

1.        Tree House                                                               49-55

2.        Traumatic Amnesiac

3.        The Meadow of Their Common Song

4.        Help In Transit

CL Bledsoe

1.        Bird Feeder                                                              55-58

2.        The Cave

3.        Coffee Table

4.        The Dealer

5.        Dirt Love

Bonnie Scherer

1.        Six Senryu Poems                                                   59

Phil Wood

1.        A Boy Named John Ronald Reuel                                   60-61

2.        Alraune

3.        Silver Bullet

Michael Ball

1.        67 Cars                                                                      61-65

2.        Auxiliary Red

3.        Penn Station Shame

4.        Lover’s Necklace

5.        Redolence

6.        Absurd

Adele Ogier Jones

1.        Ten Tanka for Time                                                           66-67

Saeed Ibrahim

1.        Cast Out – Short Story                                          68-73

Amber Winter

1.        Five Triolets                                                             74-75

Don Krieger

1.        Cassandra, Daughter of Troy                                         76-78

Paul Callus and Karen O’Leary

1.        Two Tan-Renga Poems - Collaboration                        79

 

Ken Kapp

1.        Robin in the Hood – Flash Fiction Story                       80-81

Steen Rasmussen

1.        All For Naught                                                         81-83

2.        LEAFBLOWER

Angel Edwards

1.        Drunken Dine and Dosh                                       84-85

2.        Untitled Micro Story

John Harold Olson

1.        Sloppy Drunk on Fremont Street                                   85-89

2.        Doggos

3.        Cinecitta

4.        Denton, Texas

5.        Notes On Poetry

Courtney Glover

1.        The Dark Muses                                                      89-91

2.        Collector of Souls

Eddie Heaton

1.        giving birth                                                               92-95

2.        climate warriors arise

3.        complacency personified

Santosh Bakaya

1.        The Racing Horse                                                    96-99

2.        The Almond Drowning Ship

3.        When I Am No More Around

Mark Hendrickson

1.        The Time That Is Given Us                                               100-101

E.C. Traganas

1.        Beyond The Pale – Flash Fiction Story              101-104   

John Doyle

1.        St. Blaise Taught Me How to Sing the Blues               104-111

2.        Mise-en-scene

3.        The Smoke, The Moon, The Soft Soft Rain

4.        Østerbro

Maurizio Brancaleoni

1.        Five Haiku Poems                                                   112               

Raluca Balasa

1.        Five Years After Marriage                                                113-114

2.        Coffee Date At Barnes And Noble

Jodie Baeyens

1.        In My Life                                                                  114-118

2.        When the Muse Comes to Call

3.        Angel of Grief

4.        Heart of Fire

5.        Weal and Woe

David Alec Knight

1.        Iguana Flu In Fever Shades                                              119-121

2.        Pale Goth Beauty Under Black Light

Daya Bhat

1.        Fleuron                                                                      122

2.        Temple stairs

3.        Snow

L. Wayne Russell

1.        Questions of the Heart                                         123-127

2.        This One Life

3.        After The Snow Fell

4.        Nostalgia

5.        Always

Yvonne Zipter

1.        Lost in Wonder Land                                                         128-131

2.        Bees Knees

3.        Fortuitous

4.        Waiting to Hibernate

Allan Lake

1.        Found Poultry                                                                      132

Nikola Popovic

1.        The Redhead – Short Story                                              133-139

Wayne F. Burke     

1.        Rommel Swallows Cyanide                                              139-142

2.        October 21st

3.        Vein

4.        The Scary War

5.        Secrets

Paul Engel

1.        Winter                                                                                   142-145

2.        Spring

3.        Summer

4.        Autumn

5.        Night

6.        Dawn

Dana Trick

1.        Rivers                                                                         145-148

2.        Seas

3.        Darkness

4.        Trees and Forests

5.        Fairy, Faerie, Fey, Fair Folk

Raymond Berthelot

1.        What They Can’t Take Away                                           148-152

2.        Le Old Navy

3.        Flower Water – for J.B.

4.        That Town Best

5.        Impressionist

Marc Frazier

1.        The Way Here                                                                      152-156

2.        Moving

3.        What I’m Thinking During Therapy

4.        Shifting

5.        What Does It Take to Be Happy

George Vance

1.        Stumbled Upon Poem: November 5, 2010                 157-159

zO-AlonzO Gross

1.        chamomile Tea                                                       159-164

2.        Heaven CrieZ

3.        Virtue O’thornZ

4.        SinZ of My Poppa

5.        A Shepherd at daybreak

Luis Cuauhtemoc Berriozabal

1.        Make the Day Grey                                                            165-167

2.        Throw a Stone

3.        Unintended Stain

4.        Looking and Looking

Ramzi Albert Rihani

1.        Unscathed                                                                167-170

2.        Land on Higher Tier

3.        Delivery

4.        All is Fair in Love and War

Terrence Sykes

1.        Techno-Idiot                                                                        170-172

2.        Prophecy

3.        Transcendentalist Spontaneous Ascension…

4.        JUDAS

5.        I Still Remember

 

John Wesick

1.        cento 24                                                                   172-177

2.        Electric Car Crash Kills Three!

3.        Another Mass Imputing

4.        Rest Period at the Zen Retreat

5.        This Movie is Terminal

Keith Snow

1.        She Says Bad Juju                                                   177-180

2.        Saw an Iambic Meteor But It Faded

3.        My Next Piece

Harry K. Stammer

1.        spill 13                                                                                   180-181

2.        spill 12

3.        spill 11

Ram Chandran

1.        Eight Senryu                                                             182-183

Gopi Kottoor

1.        From a Hotel Terrace, The Ganges                              183-186

2.        A Photograph in the Woods

3.        Toy Pistol

Tekisui RC

1.        Memory of My Father                                                      187-190

2.        On Love

3.        Untitled

4.        Night Walk In Heavy Rain

5.        Twilight Again         

Cleo Griffith

1.        Come, Come                                                                        191-194

2.        Each Time

3.        Elizabeth

4.        Hard-Headed Child

5.        You, Hovering

Mykyta Ryzhykh

1.        Five Untitled Short Poems                                               194-195 

Louis Kasatkin

1.        Daily                                                                           196-199

2.        Horologion

3.        Serial

4.        The Girl With The Needle In Her Arm

5.        Empty Cinema

 

Pawel Markiewicz

1.        The Danube and Dreameries – Flash Fiction              200-203

2.        The Broken Soul in My Homeland – Flash Fiction

Wendy Webb

1.        Selkie of these Sovereign Shores                                   203-208

2.        Five Tanka Poems

3.        Symmetry at Eaton Park (Villanelle)

4.        At the End of the Rainbow

Paul Callus and Christina Chin - Collaboration 

1.        Five Gendai Tanka                                                  209-210

 

 

Early May 2023 – Poetry

 

Fred Johnston

1.        Dry Breaking                                                                        211-214

2.        How To Save A Life

3.        Pater Noster With The Island Nearing

4.        The Bird

5.        News Just In

Jeanna Ni Riordain

1.        In The Name of Art                                                215-217

2.        Fortune Teller

3.        Life Advice from a Best Friend

Nolo Segundo

1.        Ode To An Old Age Spot                                       218-222

2.        The Walking Wounded

3.        Now The Stars Hide

4.        Flying Over Vietnam, 1974

5.        Once I Sailed The Oceans

Jane Rosenberg LaForge

1.        Instant                                                                                   223-226

2.        Somnambulance

3.        Storms on the Sun

4.        The Length of Thirteen Years

John Drudge

1.        In the End                                                                 227-229

2.        Lizards on the Coast

3.        Ruins

4.        When Heaven Cries

5.        Wine Gods 

Jennifer Pratt-Walter

1.        All the Unmapped Stars                                       230-232

2.        In the Bones of the Fire

3.        Your Beauty

4.        I See How Things Are in the World

Giulio Magrini

1.        Better To Be Born An Animal                              232-238

2.        Daisy’s Final Diary Entry, Then Lost

3.        Discovering We Are Extinct – Public Martyr

4.        Discovering We Are Extinct – Personal Martyr

5.        The Old Man and the Moon in the Mirror…

6.        Turning The Channel from Your Lovely Pose To The

            Hate Picnic

Sneha Madhusoodhanan

1.        the clock, the room, and the me                                    239-240

2.        my beautiful Despair

Dr Stephen Paul Wren

1.        Pylon proteins                                                                     241-242

2.        Vingt

                       

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.

 

 There's a Hole in My Sidewalk

“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

Annette Towler

 

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)

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 21 – Underground Poets features the best contemporary poetry, fiction and fantasy from 70 internationally renowned poets and fiction authors. Join them, above and below ground, 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.

 

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

i carry your heart with me

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 21^st 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

Masks of Many Colours

End of December 2022  -  Early February 2023

Buy

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 20 (lulu.com)

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

Kushal Poddar

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 (lulu.com)

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 the journal of the sea animal living on land, wanting to fly in the air. Poetry is a search for syllables to shoot at the barriers of the unknown and the unknowable. Poetry is a phantom script telling how rainbows are made and why they go away.” — Carl Sandburg, from The Atlantic, March 1923.

 

“It is a test [that] genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.” — T. S. Eliot, from the essay "Dante." 

 

“Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity.” — William Wordsworth, from "Preface to Lyrical Ballads."

 

“We make out of the quarrel with others, rhetoric, but of the quarrel with ourselves, poetry.” — William Butler Yeats, from PER AMICA SILENTIA LUNAE.

 

Poetry is the deification of reality. – Edith Sitwell

Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary. – Kahlil Gibran

To find beauty in ugliness is the province of the poet. – Thomas Hardy

Poetry is the only art people haven’t yet learnt to consume like soup. – W. H. Auden

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

October 2022 Cont - Mid November 2022

Buy

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 18 (lulu.com)

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

September 2022 Cont - Mid October 2022

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Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 17 (lulu.com)

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

Angela Hoffman

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

Bruce Morton

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

1.       Hold On!                                                      176-180

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 (lulu.com)

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

Stephen A. Rozwenc

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

 

Stephen A. Rozwenc

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 (lulu.com)

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.”
― Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

 

“The brightest flame casts the darkest shadow.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings

 

“Some people seemed to get all sunshine, and some all shadow…”
― Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

 

“There is strong shadow where there is much light.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Götz von Berlichingen

 

“Every man carries with him through life a mirror, as unique and impossible to get rid of as his shadow.”
― W.H. Auden, 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.”
― Oscar Wilde, 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.”
― Pablo Neruda, 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.”
― Shunya

 

“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.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, 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.”
― Charles Bukowski, 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

July - Early August 2022

Buy

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 14 (lulu.com)

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!                                                    67

John Bennett

1.         The Marble Woman Above Athens                           67-76

2.         To Greece We Return

3.         In the Roman Wilderness

4.         Oedipus Can Not Cry

5.         Rupert Brooke and I Confront the Spinx – A Play in Two

            Parts

Katie Nickas

1.         Becoming a Tree – Short Story                                  76-82

M. R. Defibaugh and Christina Chin

1.         Eight Tan-Renga Poems                                             82-84

Angel Edwards

1.         Blind Faith                                                                  84-85

2.         Any Ghosts

3.         Cloud Wings - Haiku

Nolo Segundo

1.         On Eating an Orange and Seeing God                        86-90

2.         I Sing to Eternity

3.         Some Are Not Meant for This World

4.         Time Is a Magician

Stephen Kingsnorth

1.         Mysterish                                                                    90-92

2.         Lexiconography

3.         Gradle

4.         Thinplace

5.         Spellbonding

Rose Mary Boehm

1.         A good day for love in Madrid                                   93-98

2.         Aum Manu Padme Hum

3.         Dead Machines

4.         Goose lessons

5.         Some of My Rains

Julian Grant

1.         The Whispering Prince – Short Story                        98-100

Tatjana Bijelic

1.         What the Priest Didn’t Say                                         100-101

Allan Lake

1.         Small Meteorite                                                         102

 

Madelyn Morrissey

1.         1953                                                                            103-105

2.         Dormancy

3.         Salt

4.         My Fault

5.         Poem

John Drudge

1.         A Curious Art                                                             105-109

2.         Broken

3.         Close Shave

4.         Downswing

5.         Truth as Story

Louis Kasatkin

1.         Eeny, Meany, Miny…Murder – Short Story             109-110

Freya Pickard

1.         Dark Earth – 9 Haiku Poems                                      110-111

John Tustin

1.         Grieve                                                                         112-116

2.         The Grinder

3.         A Man Who Looked Like Me

4.         Ramblin’ Man

5.         This Homely Girl

Mokhira Eshpulatova – Translated by Hilola Mirzayeva

1.         The Forty-First Day – Short Story                             116-126

Uchechukwu Onyedikam

1.         Eight Tanka Poems                                                    127-128

Stephen Guy Mallett

1.         Acinetos and Syncrasis                                              129-130

2.         After Hui Ti Xiu and the Practice of Drawing Weeds

3.         Plank Length

4.         Theurgels

5.         The Loci of Fluid Points

Roger Harvey

1.         Breakfast with the Contessa – Short Story                 131-135

Steve Deutsch

1.         Accidie                                                                       136-138

2.         Poetry    

Linda Imbler

1.         In the Midnight of Time                                             139-142

2.         Fallen

3.         Future Numbed

4.         Learning to Breathe Courageously

5.         We Are

John Doyle 

1.         I Hope No-One Gets Angry With Me Today             142-146

2.         The 1970s

3.         Spiaggia Di Portobello Nord

4.         The Earwig

5.         Pat Hingle is a Component Part of the Multiverse               

Dana Trick

1.         Long, Ryu, Naga, Draco                                             146-148

2.         Quetzalcoatl

3.         Praise to the Kyorinrin

Rob McKinnon

1.         Snow Globes                                                              148-152

2.         Purple Jacaranda Flowers

3.         Hometown Visit

4.         Cluster Bomb

5.         Travelling North

Thomas Davis

1.         Carver of Birds                                                           152-160

2.         A Poets Age

3.         Woman, Wolf, and Bear

4.         Four Black Cormorants

5.         The Cougar

Damon Hubbs

1.         Hawk Tree                                                                  160-164

2.         Strawberry

3.         The Red Squirrel

4.         Witch’s Ladder

Lee Clark Zumpe

1.         Reservoir                                                                    164-167

2.         London, 1940

3.         Lillian

4.         Lautrec

5.         White Goddess

Matthew Freeman

1.         What We Are                                                              167-171

2.         Numb All Day

3.         More Charity Needed

4.         Who Cares

5.         Heartways

Chris Courtney Martin

1.         Capital Punishment                                                    171-176

2.         The Land, Lord, Is Scum

3.         (OB)Noxious Musings171

4.         The Words

5.         Rover

David L O’Nan

1.         A Quicksilver Trilling                                                176-185

2.         Callie’s Dad: Obituary

3.         Corpse Flowers

4.         Fishkill, NY

5.         The Lukewarm Train

 

Early August 2022 – Poetry and Fiction

 

J.D. Nelson

1.         midnight birthday poem                                             186-187

2.         earthling akin

3.         milk, um

Antonia Alexandra Klimenko

1.         On My Milky Way                                                     187-192

2.         Pierced-Tongue Pierced-Heart

David Leo Sirois

1.         Cinnamon Winter, Ginger Spring, Sugar Summer... 192-200

2.         Do you mind living in a haunted house?

3.         Heart-Rust

4.         from Words Heard or Seen in Dreams

Nolcha Fox

1.         Leaves are Lace                                                          200-202

2.         Miss Bunny

3.         Loose Head

John Sweet

1.         in the morning                                                             202-205

2.         the minotaur in defeat

3.         that summer on tracy street

4.         diode

5.         preliminary sketch for the human condition

Juliet Wilson

1.         Haiku and Senryu                                                       205-206

 

 

Joshua Martin

1.         Foundational Models Distil Facial Hyperbole           207-211

2.         Curiously Huddled

3.         tall change building fault

4.         Hit Parade Syndrome

5.         swinging/twitching

Lorelyn De la Cruz Arevalo

1.         Animalia                                                                     211-212

2.         Ventilator

3.         [bleep]

Dr Anissa Sboui

1.         Perfume                                                                      212-216

2.         The Co-Authored Poem

3.         Charm

4.         The Leopard Can’t Change His Spots

5.         Archaic Thoughts

Fotoula Reynolds

1.         The Duration of Life                                                  216-217

Dr Stephen Paul Wren

1.         Clearings in the Wood                                                217-219

John Dorsey by Scott Preston & Kim Stafford

1.         The River Bones                                                         219-220

2.         Mad Junction

3.         Pine Mountains

4.         Sun Worm

Julia Vaughan

1.         Colin                                                                           220-225

2.         Road Trips

3.         I am waiting

4.         Looking out the window

5.         Metamorphosis

Steven Bruce

1.         Fractured                                                                    226-228

2.         Solace

Gina Manchego Zufall

1.         Green Man – Short Story                                           228-231

Jeanna Ni Riordain

1.         A Trip to Garnish Island                                             232

Daipayan Nair

1.         Haiku, Senryu & Tanka Poems                                  233-234

 

 

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 13

Seeing Through a Poet's Eyes

June - Early July 2022

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 13 (lulu.com)

In Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 13 - Seeing Through a Poet's Eyes, discover poems of enchantment, fantasy, fairy tale, folklore, dreams, dystopian life, nature, magical realism, romance, and anything hiding deep in-between the cracks from seventy-seven world renowned poets and fiction writers.

Wine enters through the mouth,
Love, the eyes.
I raise the glass to my mouth,
I look at you,
I sigh. — W.B.Yeats

The soul is content to stay imprisoned in the human body ... for through the eyes all the various things of nature are represented to the soul. — Leonardo Da Vinci

Poets are people who can still see the world through the eyes of children. — Alphonse Daudet

Many eyes go through the meadow, but few see the flowers in it — Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

“Poetry is an awareness of the world, a particular way of relating to reality.” ― Andrei Tarkovsky, Sculpting in Time

“It is a mistake to talk about the artist looking for his subject. In fact, the subject grows within him like a fruit and begins to demand expression. It is like childbirth. The poet has nothing to be proud of. He is not master of the situation, but a servant. Creative work is his only possible form of existence, and his every work is like a deed he has no power to annul. For him to be aware that the sequence of such deeds is due and ripe, that it lies in the very nature of things, he has to have faith in the idea; for only faith interlocks the system of images for which read system of life.”
― Andrei Tarkovsky

 

POETS & FICTION AUTHORS Ryan Quinn Flanagan Ceinwen E. Cariad Haydon Steve Klepetar Louise Cole David L. O’Nan Lilija Valis Gary D. Maxwell Susan Tepper David B. Prather Christine Tabaka Sam Bartle Marianne Szlyk Tom Holmes Sushant Thapa Dr. Mona Bedi Toyb ben Uilliam Shelly Blankman J.D. Nelson Mihaela Melnic Victor Kennedy Oonah V. Joslin John Doyle Lynne Kemen Luis Cuauhtemoc Berriozabal RC deWinter Wayne F. Burke Gina Manchego Zufall Kevin McManus Sharon Waller Knutson Alec Solomita Nolcha Fox Gordon Ferris Wendy Webb Michael H. Brownstein Margaret Kiernan Petar Penda Kate Garrett Stephen Crowe Emmie Christie Ed Brickell Hedy Habra Vernon Fraser Elena Malec Adam Chabot Nathan Anderson Early July 2022 – Poetry and Fiction Antonia Alexandra Klimenko Richard Fleming Michelle Faulkner Joe Sebastian Anushna Biswas Ken Gosse Fay L. Loomis John C. Mannone Bharti Bansal Steve Klepetar Amita Sarjit Ahluwalia (Amita Paul) – Circular Forms Trilogy Julian Matthews Abby Ripley Kushal Poddar Edward Lee Jennifer Pratt-Walter Joshua St. Claire Christina M.R. Norcross Duane Vorhees Christina Martin Michael Igoe Jonathan Butcher Aliyah Warwick Mark Young Susanna Peremartoni Jack D. Harvey Raja Chakraborty Lynda Tavakoli Chad Parenteau Stephen House Christina Chin Giulio Magrini

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 12

Roads to Serendipity 

May - Early June 2022

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 12 (lulu.com)

Serendipity is known by many names including, synchronicity, fate, or even coincidence.

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 12 – Roads to Serendipity features outstanding contemporary poetry and fiction from sixty-nine internationally renowned poets and fiction writers. Join them on their Roads to Serendipity where realism and fantasy share a dystopian world.

"What you seek is seeking you."

    - Rumi

“The universe is always speaking to us… sending us little messages, causing coincidences and serendipities, reminding us to stop, to look around, to believe in something else, something more.”

   - Nancy Thayer

“We all move on the fringes of eternity and are sometimes granted vistas through fabric of illusion. Many refuse to admit it: I feel a mystery exists. There are certain times, when, as on the whisper of the wind, there comes a clear and quiet realization that there is indeed a presence in the world, a nonhuman entity that is not necessarily inhuman.”

  - Ansel Adams

What I look for is neither reality nor unreality but the subconscious, the instinctive  mystery of the human race.
  - Amedeo Modigliani

 

One aspect of serendipity to bear in mind is that you have to be looking for something in order to find something else.

  -Lawrence Block

"Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous."

   -Albert Einstein

POETS and FICTION AUTHORS

John Drudge Bertha Rogers Gordon Ferris Rafaella Del Bourgo  John Doyle

 Cynthia Anderson Steven Fortune Nolcha Fox  Mohibul Aziz  Salvatore Difalco

Geetha Ravichandran  Fahredin Shehu  Angel Edwards  G.J. Hart  Joe Sebastian

Matt Gilbert Alec Solomita Jeanna Ni Riordain Steve Klepetar  Sultana Raza

ScottWaters  Adele Ogier Jones  Fabrice Poussin  Lynn White  Ivan Peledov 

K.B. Ballentine  Stephen House  Bob Beagrie  Samo Kreutz  Dennis Williamson

John Patrick Robbins  Robert W. Stephens  Rebecca Dempsey  Kushal Poddar

Edward Lee  Amita Sarjit Ahluwalia ( Amita Paul )  Francisc Edmund Balogh

Alan Britt  Robert Fleming  Karol Nielson  Randy Barnes  Kim Ports Parsons

Stephen Page  Greg Patrick  Lynda Tavakoli  Richard M. Ankers   Shelly Jones

Duane Vorhees   B. Pargeter   George Gad Economou   Dr. Ajanta Paul 

Pawel Markiewicz  Antonia Alexandra Klimenko  David Alec Knight  Carol Tahir

Ninko Kirilov  Ana Nikvul – Translated by Petar Penda  Ralph Monday 

Deborah Purdy  Angel Edwards  Stephen Kingsnorth  Roger Harvey 

Ursula O’Reilly  Jim Meirose  William Allegrezza  Robert Walton

Janice D. Soderling  Karlo Sevilla  John Thomas Allen  A.E. Reiff

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 11

Windmills of the Mind

April - Early May 2022

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 11 (lulu.com)

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 11 - Windmills of the Mind features outstanding contemporary poetry and fiction from 70 internationally renowned poets and fiction writers. Join them on this journey through the Windmills of the Mind.

When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? perhaps to be too practical is madness. To surrender dreams — this may be madness. Too much sanity may be madness — and maddest of all: to see life as it is, and not as it should be!.

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

For neither good nor evil can last for ever; and so it follows that as evil has lasted a long time, good must now be close at hand.

Cervantes

Little did they suspect that the years would end by wearing away the disharmony. Little did they suspect that la mancha and montiel and the knight’s frail figure would be, for the future, no less poetic than sinbad’s haunts or ariosto’s vast geographies. For myth is at the beginning of literature, and also at its end.

Jorge Luis Borges

To destroy abuses is not enough; Habits must also be changed. The windmill has gone, but the wind is still there." ~old man G--- to Monseigneur Bienvenu Myriel

Victor Hugo

 

Like a circle in a spiral

Like a wheel within a wheel

Never ending or beginning

On an ever-spinning reel

As the images unwind

Like the circles that you find

In the windmills of your mind.


Michel Legrand

POETS and FICTION AUTHORS Contributors

John Doyle  RC deWinter  David Alec Knight  Antonia Alexandra Klimenko  Alan Catlin  Caroline Johnstone

R. Gerry Fabian  Yuu Ikeda  Phil Wood  Joan McNerney  Michael Ceraolo  Dana Trick  Ivan de Monbrison

Mini Babu  Sanjeev Sethi  Margaret Kiernan  CL Bledsoe  Mark Young  Susan Tepper  Paul Tanner  Gail Little

Duane Vorhees  Karen A VandenBos  Dr Stephen Paul Wren  Jade Nicole Beals  Petar Penda 

Roberta Beach Jacobson  Jerome Berglund  Lynda Tavakoli  Lawrence Moore  Charmaine Traynor-Ruitenberg

Ken Gosse  Dr Anushna Biswas  Koshy AV  Rp Verlaine  Sean Bronson  Robert Halleck  Stephen McQuiggan

Michael H. Brownstein  Mike Wilson  Christopher Barnes  Kevin Brown  Sharon Larkin  Alec Solomita

Victor Kennedy  Bryn Hammond  Wayne F. Burke  Diane G. Martin  Stephen Kingsnorth  Jay Passer

Ross Jackson  Gopikrishnan Kottoor  Subhankar Das

Early May 2022 – Poems and Fiction

Peter O’Neill  Antonia Alexandra Klimenko  Cleo Griffith  Peycho Kanev  Christina Chin  Digby Beaumont

Melanie Chartoff  John Grey  Nia Harries  John Riley  Ursula O’Reilly  Oz Hardwick  Wendy Webb

Paul Brookes  Amita Sarjit Ahluwalia/Amita Paul  DAH  Greg Patrick  Sarah Clancy  Peter Donnelly

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 10

On the Edge

March - Early April 2022

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 10 (lulu.com)

I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center. — Kurt Vonnegut

 

It's fun to be on the edge. I think you do your best work when you take chances, when you're not safe, when you're not in the middle of the road, at least for me, anyway.

Danny DeVito

 

To write is to stand at the edge of a bottomless well, unafraid of falling in. — Steven Ramirez

 

Welcome to Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 10 - On the Edge. LPJ is a contemporary literary journal featuring free verse/rhyming/experimental poetry, short stories, flash fiction, video poems and occasional interviews with poets. Journey with us on the road to poems that linger and haunt from seventy internationally renowned poets and authors.

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 from our seventy featured poets and authors .

 

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 2021. 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 – Ad Marginem (On the Edge), 1930 by Paul Klee has its point of departure in a purely formal idea of pushing plants and crystals from the four edges of the frame toward a meeting with the dark sun, which from the inner part of A fabulous world from far away, engulfed, covered with rust and lichen, and flecked with stains, seems to be rising up.

 

My sincere thanks to the following internationally acclaimed poets and fiction authors for their superb contributions to Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 10. i am honoured to publish your sublime work in LPJ. ~ Strider

 

March 2022 Continued:

 

Ceinwen Haydon  John Doyle  Karen A. Vanden Bos  John Brantingham

Kate Ennals  Ken Gosse  Margaret Duda  Gopal Lahiri  Margaret Kiernan

Gary D. Maxwell  Karen Mooney  Bruce Morton  Angel Edwards

John Copley Alter  Manuela Palacios  Fadairo Tesleem  David Russell

Jo-Ann Newton  Kushal Poddar  Carla Maria Kovsca  Milton P. Ehrlich Ph.D

Marie C. Lecrivain  Michael Lee Johnson  Adele Ogier Jones  T.K. Edmond

Amita Sarjit Ahluwalia  Duane Vorhees  Nolcha Fox  Bernardo Villela

Linda King  Richard Wayne Horton  Kika Dorsey  Mark Blickley  Gabby Gilliam

D.J. Tyrer  Sheila E. Murphy  Jon Moray  Laura Ann Reed  Frederick Pollock

Christina Chin  Victor Kennedy  Jan Napier  Greg Patrick  Ben Nardolilli

Diarmuid o Maolalai  Michael La Bombarda

 

Early April 2022

Laurie Kuntz  Steve Klepetar  Rose Mary Boehm  Daniel J. Flosi  Sunil Sharma

Ursula O’Reilly  John Drudge  Lilija Valis  Susan Tepper  J.D. Nelson  Kirsty Niven

Timothy Resau  Laurel Benjamin  Roy J. Adams  Janet McCann  Askold Skalsky

Peggy Everett  Michael Ball  Jack D. Harvey  Makhliyokhon Umirzakova

Steve Sibra  Angel Edwards  Ed Ahern  Nolcha Fox

 

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 9

DarkLight Days

February - Early March 2022

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 9 (lulu.com)

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 9 – DarkLight Days, features the sublimely original poetry and fiction of seventy internationally esteemed poets and authors. Join us on a journey of fantasy and realism through these DarkLight Days as metaphysical survivors marooned in a material world.

Lothlorien Poetry Journal is a contemporary literary journal featuring free verse/rhyming/experimental poetry, short stories, flash fiction, video poems 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 2021. 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 – Spiral Staircase 

 ISBN 978-1-4717-1142-8

Imprint: Lulu.com

 

The Poets /Authors 

Contents 

Editorial Poems by Strider Marcus Jones 

February – Mid March 2022 - Poems and Fiction

 

Rose Mary Boehm  Daniel Wade  Lilija Valis  John Doyle

Margaret Kiernan  Gary Bills  Nick Ingram  Milton Ehrlich

Sergey Gerasimov translates Alexey Tarasov  Mark Blickley

Ivan Jenson  Lawrence Moore  Paola Canale  Geetha Ravichandran

Michael H Brownstein  Peter J Donnelly Jim Meirose

Harris Coverley  Joy Gaines-Friedler Sterling Warner  Lara Dolphin

Stephen House  Richa Sharma  Joshua Martin Matt Sell

Toyb ben Uilliam  Gary D Maxwell  Linda Imbler  David Alec Knight

John Chinaka Onyeche  Sandrijela Kasagic translated by Petar Penda  

Luis Cuauhtemoc Berriozabal  Christina Martin  John Thomas Allen

Madhu Gangopadhyay  Matthew James Friday  Jade Nicole Beals

Ken Gosse  Piku Chowdhury  Alec Solomita  Jennifer Pratt-Walter

Ralph Monday  Steve Deutsch  Michael Wooff  Ngozi Olivia Osuoha

Ivan de Monbrison  Stephen A Rozwenc  Padma J Thornlyre

Jim Lewis 

Poetry and Fiction March 2022(1) 

Kevin McManus  Lilija Valis  PD Lyons  Steve Klepetar

Ann Privateer  Bob MacKenzie  Lynda Tavakoli  Rustin Larson

John Drudge  RC deWinter  Louis Kasatkin  Ursula O’Reilly

JD Nelson  Mihaela Melnic  Terry Wheeler  Antonia Alexandra Klimenko

Prosper Ifeanyi  Zvi A Sesling  Mitali Chakravarty  Joseph A Farina

Oonah V Joslin  Ed Lyons

 

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 8

Echoes Dancing with Shadows

January – Mid February 2022

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 8 (lulu.com)

American poet Carl Sandburg said "poetry is an echo asking a shadow to dance. " Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 8, features 74 internationally renowned poets and fiction writers as scintillating Echoes Dancing with Shadows including 2022 Pushcart Prize winner - Kurt Fuchs.

 

“Poetry is an echo asking a shadow to dance” –

                                                         Carl Sandburg

 

"Rather, I think one should write, as nearly as possible, as if he were the first person on earth and was humbly and sincerely putting on paper that which he saw and experienced and loved and lost; what his passing thoughts were and his sorrows and desires."

- Neal Cassady to Jack Kerouac

 

"If you believe you're a poet, then you're saved." - Gregory Corso

 

"I woke up as the sun was reddening; and that was the one distinct time in my life, the strangest moment of all, when I didn't know who I was—I was far away from home, haunted and tired with travel, in a cheap hotel room I'd never seen, hearing the hiss of steam outside, and the creak of the old wood of the hotel, and footsteps upstairs, and all the sad sounds, and I looked at the cracked high ceiling and really didn't know who I was for about fifteen strange seconds. I wasn't scared; I was just somebody else, some stranger, and my whole life was a haunted life, the life of a ghost. I was halfway across America, at the dividing line between the East of my youth and the West of my future." - Jack Kerouac

 

"And for just a moment I had reached the point of ecstasy that I always wanted to reach, which was the complete step across chronological time into timeless shadows, and wonderment in the bleakness of the mortal realm." - Jack Kerouac

 

The POETS/AUTHORS

 

Margaret Kiernan  Fred Johnston  Lisa Marguerite Mora  Peter Knight

John Drudge  Karen Mooney  Michael Igoe  Catherine Arra  Julian Matthews

Afiah Obeneewaa   Grace Danquah  Adrian David  Susan Tepper  Greg Patrick

Yuu Ikeda  Terry Wheeler  Pragya Suman  Rustin Larson  Imelda O’Reilly

Ryan Quinn Flanagan  Antonia Alexandra Klimenko  Steve Klepetar

Brittany Hause translations of Ricardo James Freyre  Peter F. Crowley

Fiona Perry  Paul Demuth  Lynn White  Eric Burgoyne  Sana Tampeen Mohammed

Ernesto P. Santiago  Debbie Robson  Gary D. Maxwell  Mandy Beattie

Gale Acuff  Mona Bedi  Sam Barbee  Kushal Poddar  Kim Malinowski

Julian O. Long  Rowena Newman  Heath Brougher  Hibah Shabkhez

Ken Gosse  Margaret Kiernan  Nicholas Alexander Hayes  Debbie Robson

Kurt Luchs  RC deWinter  Douglas V. Miller  David Ades  Alan Catlin

Ursula O’Reilly  Peter Magliocco  Dmitriy Galkovskiy  John Grey

Richard M. Ankers  Wayne F. Burke  Dana Trick  Ethan Vilu  Duane Vorhees

Les Wicks  David Alec Knight  Adele Ogier Jones  James Miller

Angel Edwards  Christopher Barnes  Amita Sarjit Ahluwalia  Daniel Nemo

Doris Wei Tan  GJ Hart  Ngozi Olivia Osuoha  Adrian David  Sunil Sharma

Joe Sebastian  Mohibul Aziz  Bhuwan Thapaliya  Salim Yakubu Akko

 

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 7

Beat Cafe

 November - December 2021

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 7 (lulu.com)

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 7 - Beat Cafe, features the outstanding poetry and fiction of over 60 poets and authors from our virtual Beat Cafe with their own modern day take on dystopian reality and fantasy. These internationally renowned poets and authors continue the revolutionary legacy of the original Beat Generation poets and authors and bring their own original take on twenty-first century life and society.

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 – Ed van der Elsken – Bohemian Life in Paris 1950-52 “It’s a sort of furtiveness … Like we were a generation of furtive. You know, with an inner knowledge there’s no use flaunting on that level, the level of the ‘public’, a kind of beatness – I mean, being right down to it, to ourselves, because we all really know where we are – and a weariness with all the forms, all the conventions of the world … It’s something like that. So I guess you might say we’re a beat generation.” ― Jack Kerouac “It really was a whole generation who were listening to Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Ella Fitzgerald, Sonny Rollins, James Moody, Fats Navarro and, a little bit later on, Mongo Santamaría and Chuck Berry, and these dozen or so guys gave them a voice. They led the way. They wrote what a whole generation wanted to read. The time was right and they seized the day by writing about their lives. They travelled, they got into scrapes, they got arrested, they got wasted … and they wrote about it. Isn’t that something?” ― Karl Wiggins, Wrong Planet - Searching for your Tribe Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life. — Jack Kerouac Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It's that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that's what the poet does. — Allen Ginsberg Artists to my mind are the real architects of change, and not the political legislators who implement change after the fact. — William S. BurroughsBiographical Notes

The Poets & Fiction Authors

Cait O’Neill McCullagh  Tom Bakelas  J.S. Watts  R.T. Castleberry  

Antonia Alexandra Klimenko  John D. Robinson  Janice D. Soderling  Greg Patrick 

Carrie Magness Radna   David Booth  Dr. Ajanta Paul  James Eric Watkins  

Mark Blickley  Mark Saba  Piergiorgio Viti  Angel Edwards  John Drudge  

Margaret Kiernan  Steve Klepetar  Ursula O’Reilly  John Dorsey  Gaynor Kane  

Alec Solomita  Susan Tepper   Johnny Francis Wolf  Oriana Ivy  David L. O’Nan 

Elizabeth Marino  GJ Hart  Lilija Valis  Richard Wayne Horton  RC deWinter 

Bruce Morton  Hedy Habra  Robert (Roibeard) Shanahan  Lorraine Caputo  

Dennis Villelmi (Williamson)  Oonah V. Joslin  Shine Ballard  Grace Danquah 

Jason Ryberg  Sister Louella Hickman  Andre F. Peltier  John Doyle  Karen Kerekes

 

Peter Lilley  Cheryl Snell  Ken Gosse  John Knoll  Ursula O’Reilly  Douglas V. Miller

Michael H. Brownstein  Rustin Larson  John Guzlowski  Adrian David  Meg Freer 

Dr Suleman Lazarus  Lynda Tavakoli  Kenneth Hickey  Robert Nisbet

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 6

Druids of Cernunnos - October - November 2021

https://www.lulu.com/en/gb/shop/strider-marcus-jones/lothlorien-poetry-journal-volume-6/paperback/product-w6dz5y.html?page=1&pageSize=4

“Once, poets were magicians. Poets were strong, stronger than warriors or kings — stronger than old hapless gods. And they will be strong once again.” ―Greg Bear.

Lothlorien Poetry Journal is a contemporary literary journal featuring free verse/rhyming/experimental poetry, short stories, flash fiction, video poems and occasional interviews with poets. Journey with us on the road to poems that linger and haunt https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/

In Druids of Cernunnos - Volume 6 of Lothlorien Poetry Journal, I am honoured to feature the work of more than seventy renowned poets and authors from the USA, Canada, Australia, India, Ireland, England, and most of Europe and South America. Like Druids, Poets are guardians of our past, present and future. This volume brings you mesmeric poems and stories of fantasy and folklore, dystopia and nature, with magical realism and anything hiding deep in-between the cracks about relationships and most aspects of life. Enjoy reading this superb eclectic collection by some of the finest contemporary poets and fiction writers.

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 2021. 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 - a black and white photograph of a Druid of Cernunnos.

Details

Publication Date

Jan 11, 2022

Language

English

ISBN

9781716010835

Category

Poetry

Copyright

All Rights Reserved - Standard Copyright License

Contributors

Edited by: Strider Marcus Jones

Specifications

Pages

244

Binding

Paperback

Interior Color

Black & White

Densions

Crown Quarto (7.44 x 9.68 in / 189 x 246 mm)

Thank you to the following esteemed poets and authors for your superb poetry and stories in Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 6 – Druids of Cernunnos. You have my sincere respect and appreciation. I am honoured to publish your work. ~ Strider 

 The POETS/AUTHORS 

Steve Klepetar Oonah V. Joslin Ivan de Monbrison Heather Cameron Jeremy Scott Mary Ellen Talley John Drudge Christine Tabaka Stephen Guy Mallett Antonia Alexandra Klimenko Robert (Roibeard) Shanahan Subraman David Russell Angel Edwards Adrian David Temani Nkalolang John Grey Adele Ogier Jones David L O’Nan Ursula O’Reilly Prince A McNally Margaret Kiernan Keith Hoerner Mona Bedi Scott Thomas Outlar M A Blickley Philip Dodd Sissy Pantelis Nathan Anderson Michael Lee Johnson Grant Tarbard Stephen House Dana Trick Vijay Nair GJ Hart Lara Dolphin J B Hogan Shelly Blankman John Patrick Robbins Lynda Tavakoli Ken Gosse Rose Mary Boehm Paul Edward Costa Jeanna Ni Riordain Alec Solomita David Parsley Lathalia Song Yash Seyed Bagheri J D Nelson Emma Jo Black John Drudge Mihaela Melnic A E Reiff Moe Seager Jyoti Nair George Sandifer - Smith Amrita Valan Kofi Fosu Forson Amita Paul Ryan Quinn Flanagan Candice Kelsey Edward Lee Jonel Abellanosa Stephen A Rozwenc Steven Deutsch S.C. Flynn Marie C. Lecrivain Silk Joshua Martin Margaret Kiernan Terry Wheeler Sandy Rochelle Alan Catlin Tricia Knoll R. Bremner Heather Sager

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 5

Metropolis Drift August - September 2021

https://www.lulu.com/.../paperback/product-rqzjg9.html..

“Once, poets were magicians. Poets were strong, stronger than warriors or kings — stronger than old hapless gods. And they will be strong once again.” ―Greg Bear.

Lothlorien Poetry Journal is a contemporary literary journal featuring free verse/rhyming/experimental poetry, short stories, flash fiction, video poems and occasional interviews with poets. Journey with us on the road to poems that linger and haunt https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/

In Metropolis Drift - Volume 5 of Lothlorien Poetry Journal, I am honoured to feature the work of seventy-seven renowned poets and authors from the USA, Canada, Australia, India, Ireland, England, and most of Europe and South America, bring you mesmeric poems and stories of fantasy and folklore, dystopia and nature, with magical realism and anything hiding deep in-between the cracks about relationships and most aspects of life.

 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 2021. 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 - a black and white photograph of lovers in Paris caught up in Metropolis Drift.

Maria: "We shall build a tower that will reach to the stars!" Having conceived Babel, yet unable to build it themselves, they had thousands to build it for them. But those who toiled knew nothing of the dreams of those who planned. And the minds that planned the Tower of Babel cared nothing for the workers who built it. The hymns of praise of the few became the curses of the many - BABEL! BABEL! BABEL! - Between the mind that plans and the hands that build there must be a Mediator, and this must be the heart.

Metropolis – Directed by Fritz Lang 1927

Thank you to the following esteemed poets and authors for your superb poetry and stories in Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 5 – Metropolis Drift. You have my sincere respect and appreciation. I am honoured to publish your work. ~ Strider 

 The POETS/AUTHORS 

 

Antonia Alexandra Klimenko  Steve Klepetar  Mihaela Melnic  John Drudge

Tobi Alfier  John Doyle  Marianne Szlyk  Jim Lewis (j. lewis)  beam

Tim Heerdink  Jeana Jorgensen  Marc di Saverio  Margaret Kiernan  GJ Hart

Susan Tepper  Ken Gosse  Lisa Reynolds  Michael J. Leach  Angel Edwards

J.D. Nelson  Sherzod Artikov  Joan McNerney  Alec Solomita  Kathryn Ann Hill

Michael Lee Johnson  Hazel Storr  Nick Newman  Pea Flower Tomioka

Alan Catlin  Dana Trick  Gary Bills  Adi Raturi  Andrew Cyril Macdonald

Joe Sebastian  Lauren Scharhag  David Estringel  RC deWinter  Sterling Warner

Ellen Chia  Moe Seager  Rose Mary Boehm  Philip Dean Brown  Iulia Gherghei

Ivan de Monbrison  Margaret Adams Birth  John Doyle  Adele Ogier Jones

Giovanni Mangiante  Elana Wolff  Marc di Saverio  Ginger Covert Colla

Luis Cuauhtemoc Berriozabal  Charlotte Cosgrove  John Drudge  Sarah Robin

Tyler Letkeman  Bob Beagrie  Louis Kasatkin  Amita Sarjit Ahluwalia

Tom Montag  Susan Tepper  Lynn Long  Randy Barnes

Antonia Alexandra Klimenko  Margaret Kiernan  Greg Patrick  Ben Douglass

Susan Tepper  R.W. Stephens  Howie Good  John Doyle  Zvi A. Sesling

Ursula O’Reilly  Stark Hunter  Geoff Sawers  John Patrick Robbins  Paul Ilechko

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 4

Sentient Souls

https://www.lulu.com/en/gb/shop/strider-marcus-jones/lothlorien-poetry-journal-volume-4/paperback/product-d7v4eg.html?page=1&pageSize=4

“Once, poets were magicians. Poets were strong, stronger than warriors or kings — stronger than old hapless gods. And they will be strong once again.” ―Greg Bear Lothlorien Poetry Journal is a contemporary literary journal featuring free verse/rhyming/experimental poetry, short stories, flash fiction, video poems and occasional interviews with poets. Journey with us on the road to poems that linger and haunt https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/ In Sentient Souls - Volume 4 of Lothlorien Poetry Journal, seventy-seven renowned poets and authors bring you mesmeric poems and stories of fantasy and folklore, dystopia and nature, with magical realism 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 2021. 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 black and white photograph by Markus Zaiser ISBN 978-1-7948-8738-1

Thank you to the following esteemed poets and authors for your superb poetry and stories in Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 4 - Sentient Souls. You have my sincere respect and appreciation. I am honoured to publish your work. ~ Strider

The POETS/AUTHORS John Drudge Rose Mary Boehm John Doyle Sara Clancy D. R. James Elle Renee Morgan Steve Klepetar Margaret Kiernan Bruce McRae Catherine Arra Ken Gosse Miriam Sagan Tohm Bakelas Adele Ogier Jones John Grey Amrita Valan Danny D. Ford Mihaela Melnic Jason de Koff Gulchehra Asronova Louis Kasatkin Angel Edwards Michael La Bombarda Yuu Ikeda Alec Solomita Susan Tepper Johanna Antonia Zomers Sheila Tucker Tom Montag Afiah Obenewaa Adrian David Andrena Zawinski Greg Patrick Ursula O’Reilly R. W. Stephens pj johnson Stephen House Patricia Walsh Scott C. Kaestner RC de Winter Stephen Anderson Kathryn Ann Hill Chris Campbell Linda Imbler Catfish McDaris Jana Hunterova & Mark Blickley Nicholas Alexander Hayes Agnes Vojta Alan S. Kleiman Cornelia Smith Fick Math Jones Candice James Michael J. Leach Sadie Maskery Richard D. Houff Josie Di Sciascio-Andrews Rustin Larson Lilija Valis Nodirabegim Ibrokhimova Chad Norman Kaci Skiles Laws Shelby Stephenson Rafaella Del Bourgo Jonel Abellanosa Lynn White Lawrence Moore Aysegul Yildirim Sherzod Artikov Michael Igoe Geoffrey Prince Chae Paterson

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 3

Flowers in Stones May - June 2021

https://www.lulu.com/en/gb/shop/strider-marcus-jones/lothlorien-poetry-journal-volume-3/paperback/product-5n5zzz.html?page=1&pageSize=4

Lothlorien Poetry Journal is a contemporary literary journal featuring free verse/rhyming/experimental poetry, short stories, flash fiction, video poems 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. Volume 3 of Lothlorien Poetry Journal features 240 pages of scintillating poetry and fiction from 61 world renowned poets and authors living in the U.S.A., Canada, Australia, England, Ireland, Peru and many more countries where poetry is a literary force for seed change in society. Enjoy this exciting blend of poetic styles and the sharing of cultural diversity that brings us all closer together in our rapidly changing world. If you like contemporary world poetry, this book is perfect reading for poets and fiction writers and those new to both genres. It is an excellent resource of teaching materials for teachers and students alike and will inspire the reader to enjoy writing poetry and fiction with confidence.

lorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/ 

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https://twitter.com/LothlorienJ

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 2 - Bard Songs and Tales

March 2021 - April 2021

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Edited byStrider Marcus JonesPaperback

Lothlorien Poetry Journal is a literary journal featuring free verse/rhyming/experimental poetry, short stories, flash fiction, video poems 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 2021. 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 – Pete Seeger Banjo, Annie Leibovitz. ISBN 978-1-300-15598-0 “If you have the words, there's always a chance that you'll find the way.” ― Seamus Heaney, Stepping Stones: Interviews with Seamus Heaney.

Details

Publication Date

Aug 25, 2021

Language

English

ISBN

9781300155980

Category

Poetry

Copyright

All Rights Reserved - Standard Copyright License

Contributors

Edited by: Strider Marcus Jones, By (author): Kevin M Hibshman, By (author): Lynda Tavakoli, By (author): Michael Lee Johnson, By (author): Lilija Valis

Specifications

Pages

252

Binding

Paperback

Interior Color

Black & White

Dimensions

Crown Quarto (7.44 x 9.68 in / 189 x 246 mm)

Lothlorien Poetry Journal's second published volume of poetry and prose features the exceptional poetry and fiction of 72 internationally renowned poets and fiction authors. Join us on our journey in Bard Songs and Tales. Be moved and inspired by their sublime individual poetic voices from every continent and discover that there is more to life that unites us than divides us..~ Strider

The Poets:

 

Kevin M. Hibshman Lynda Tavakoli Michael Lee Johnson Lilija Valis Joe Kidd Antonia Alexandra Klimenko Peter Magliocco RC deWinter John Drudge Jessica Stilling Kushal Poddar Margaret Kiernan John Grey Adele Ogier Jones Brian Rihlmann Kashiana Singh Donny Winter Pam Muller Stephen House Mary Grace van der Kroef Christopher Barnes Heather McQueen David Callin Patricia Walsh Steve Klepetar Jyoti Nair Moe Seager Bern Butler Jon Bennett Anabell Donovan Tom Montag Katherine Suto G.J. Hart Maisie Russel Terry Wheeler Iolanda Leotta William Derge Susan Tepper Glen Wilson Julie Stevens David Butler Pratibha Castle Kevin Ahern Christina Martin Laszlo Aranyi Dana Trick Stephen Paul Wren Allison Grayhurst Ken Gosse Tim Goldstone Catherine Zickgraf James Walton Joan Leotta J.D. Nelson Angel Edwards John Maxwell O’Brien Roisin Browne Oz Hardwick Gordon Ferris Richard D. Houff John Patrick Robbins Gerard Sheehy Rie Sheriden Rose Paul Koniecki Judith Skillman Robert Pegel Benjamin Adair Murphy Catherine Strisik Alec Solomita Afiah Obenewaa Gregory Brendan Patrick Anca Vlasopolos

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 1 - The Fellowship of the Pen

Selected Submissions from January and February 2021 

Paperback and E-book Now Available at Lulu.com

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  Edited byStrider Marcus Jones

Lothlorien Poetry Journal is a literary journal featuring free verse/rhyming/experimental poetry, short stories, flash fiction, video poems 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 2021. 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 – Arno Rafael Minkkinen Self-portrait, Foster’s Pond, 2000. ISBN 978-1-008-90450-7 “There are no strangers here; Only friends you haven’t met ” Yeats.

Details

Publication Date

7/14/2021

Language

English

ISBN

9781008904507

Category

Poetry

Copyright

All Rights Reserved - Standard Copyright License

Contributors

By (author): Lauren Scharhag, Steve Klepetar, Ryan Quinn Flanagan, Attracta Fahy, Antonia A Klimenco, J S Watts, Scott Thomas Outlar, Lorraine Caputo, John W Sexton, Louise Ceres, Moe Seager, Christine Tabaka, John Drudge, Denise O'Hagan, Edited by: Strider Marcus Jones

Specifications

Pages

228

Binding

Paperback

Interior Color

Black & White

Dimensions

Crown Quarto (7.44 x 9.68 in / 189 x 246 mm)

Lothlorien Poetry Journal's first published volume of poetry and prose features the work of sixty three internationally renowned poets and authors. Join us on our journey in The Fellowship of the Pen. Be moved and inspired by their individual poetic voices from every continent on Earth and discover that there is more to life that unites us than divides us. 

The Poets: 

J S Watts Steve Klepetar Lauren Scharhag John Drudge Antonia Alexandra Klimenco Gopal Lahiri Adele Ogier Jones John Grey Ceinwen E Cariad Haydon DAH Louise Ceres Michael Minassian Simra Sadaf Moe Seager Patricia Walsh Scott Thomas Outlar Yuu Ikeda J D Nelson Fotoula Reynolds Terry Wheeler Denise O’Hagan Max Heinegg Attracta Fahy Stephen House Lorraine Caputo Ryan Quinn Flanagan Laily Mahoozi Christopher Cadra Christine Tabaka G J Hart Lynda Tavakoli Prithvijeet Sinha Elizabeth Mercurio Robert ( Roibeard ) Shanahan Christina Martin Tim Heerdink Isobel Granby Poul Lynggaard Damgaard Jeanna Ni Riordain Tom Montag Susan Tepper John Patrick Robbins Angel Edwards John W Sexton Soodabeh Saeidnia Jonathan Butcher Patricia Nelson Michael Durack Kathryn Crowley Roger Haydon Sultana Raza Januario Esteves Margaret Kiernan Grant Tarbard Greg Patrick Marie C Lecrivain Steven Fortune Iulia Gherghei Arik Mitra Lisa Reynolds Ken Gosse Bruce Morton Will Nuessle