Poem in Progress - Violet Bottles

Violet Bottles courtesy of Pinterest

Violet Bottles

She imagines Paris, the Eiffel Tower, 

drinking coffee in an outdoor cafe

while people watching, strolling through

lavender fields on a Sunday morning.

The outdoor flea market spreads itself open 

like a pair of butterfly wings, 

inviting the curious and creative

a place to inhabit if only for an hour;

remnants of the past to reinvent, 

treasures for the present tense.

Perched upon a white-washed wooden table,

vintage bottles of light to dark hues

of violet, mysterious yet translucent.

Her starling voice barters for their beauty

and for the first time she is not afraid

to sing in front of strangers.

Paris, one day, mon ami,

but for today the bottles will do,

carrying dreams of travel and escape

deep inside her shy violet heart.

~ May 18, 2013 ~

Recently Published in Jellyfish Whispers

~ My poem The Hours is currently posted at Jellyfish Whispers.  Thanks again to editor A.J. Huffman for all the work she does running so many different journals.  I don't know how she does it.

~ Submissions are at a standstill for Poppy Road Review.  I've never seen it like this but I'm sure it happens from time to time.  If it continues this way for another month, I may have to close the journal due to lack of interest from readers and poets.  It's always a gamble when you start a journal, you just never know if it's going to work out or not.

~ Received a .PDF copy of The Rockett Review's inaugural issue.  Seems like a decent journal and I recognized a couple of the other poets published there, so that was cool.

Recently Published in Napalm & Novocain

~ Received acceptances from Napalm & Novocain, Jellyfish Whispers, and Pyrokinection from editor A.J. Huffman who runs the Hurricane Press.  It was a big surprise because I originally sent her 3 poems just for Pyrokinection but I guess each one fit better into the different themed journals.  I am definitely okay with this and appreciate that she took the time to read each poem and place them in the correct journal.

~ Submissions for Flutter Press have slowed down tremendously.  I decided to nix the reading fee for now as I know the economy has a lot to do with that.  People don't have much these days and even spending something like $6 has to be carefully thought out.  

The Rockett Review Acceptance

~ Received an acceptance from The Rockett Review, a new literary journal that I found on Duotrope.  I wasn't sure if I had any poems available that fit their theme of the past but I was able to dig out a few.  Every time I send out a submission, I get nervous.  There is never a guarantee that the editor(s) will like what you send, no matter how many times you've been published or where.  I can't wait to read their inaugural issue and see who else is in it.  

Woman, Come Undone Review

Image courtesy of Pinterest

~ Poet Ha Kiet Chau asked me to write a review for her debut chapbook, Woman, Come Undone.  I had published one of her poems in Flutter and just really loved her style of writing.  Her use of imagery and metaphor is exquisitely detailed and she tends to focus her writing on women and Asian themes, both which I can definitely relate to.  Her poems can be lengthy but well worth the read.

Bird by Pablo Neruda

Bird

It was passed from one bird to another,
the whole gift of the day.
The day went from flute to flute,
went dressed in vegetation,
in flights which opened a tunnel
through the wind would pass
to where birds were breaking open
the dense blue air -
and there, night came in.

When I returned from so many journeys,
I stayed suspended and green
between sun and geography -
I saw how wings worked,
how perfumes are transmitted
by feathery telegraph,
and from above I saw the path,
the springs and the roof tiles,
the fishermen at their trades,
the trousers of the foam;
I saw it all from my green sky.
I had no more alphabet
than the swallows in their courses,
the tiny, shining water
of the small bird on fire
which dances out of the pollen. 

~ Pablo Neruda