Aankhen Poetry 2 Line in Urdu Fonts

Qabil e daad yeh aankhein hain k in aankhon sy,

Khud hi paamal huy aor khud hi tamaasha dekha...!!!

 

Ankhon k aansoo thy magr hm khamosh rahy,

Is tawaqaa par shayad tu palat kr dekhy...!!!

 Nigahein bolti hain, Zaid,

Muhabbat paglon ki guftfu hai...!!!

Qiyamat khaiz hain tumhari aankhein,

tum aakhir khawab kis ky dekhty ho...!!!

Sirf hathon ko na dekho, kabhi Aankhon ko bhi parho,

Kuch sawaali bohat khud'daar hua krty hain...!!!

Tum Samandar ki baat krty ho sahib,

Log aankhon main doob jaty hain...!!! 

Us ki Aankhein sawaal karti hain,

meri Himmat jawab dy jati hai...!!!

\

Woh Aankhein kr rahi hain jo baras  jany ki tiyari,

in ko kon batlaaye, keh abhi Sawan nahi aaya...!!!

Letters to God

A great deal of my mail
comes from fans � fans of all ages.
The scholarly, the curious,
the disbelievers write and ask

how? why? when? what for?
did you fly? melt? scream? cackle?
appear? disappear? produce?
sky-write? deal with monkeys?

etc., etc., etc.



Actress Margaret Hamilton quoted on Hyperallergic, 3 April 2016. Submitted by Howie Good.

Nizamuddin Dargah

Khusro dariya patriarchy ka, ulti wa ki dhaar,
Mard karein sajda andar, aurat karein baahr.
 

A Contest and Some Inspiration

Narrative magazine's Eighth Annual Poetry Contest opens May 18, and to get you in the mood, every day leading up to the contest they are featuring a superlative poem, by a master or an emerging writer. Here are 30 poems to inspire you.

And here's a look at last year's winners.

Good Friday Wishes Quotes with Pictures

"Be this we know love, that 

he laid down his life for us".

Good Friday

"May your faith in 

Lord bring peace to 

your heart this 

Good Griday 

and always".

Good Friday

"It was my sin 

that nailed him there".

Good Friday

"Christmas and Easter can be 

subjects for poetry, but Good Friday, 

like Auschwitz, cannot. The reality 

is so horrible it is not surprising 

that people should have found 

it a stumbling block to faith".

Good Friday

"Let his light shine on you.

and bless you with his goodness.

this good firday an always".

Good Friday

"Jesus went to the 

cross because God 

is holy and sin 

must be punished".

Good Friday

Step two

although the thought that we wasted
money, misplaced our trust and threw away
our time sickens us to no end, we must

accept these logic-defying feats of idiocy
as learning experiences; otherwise, we will walk
no further on the NAA no-path. We must

say it again and again,
we�ve been toe fooled, we�ve been toe fooled, we�ve been
toe fooled.

are we home yet, Shanti? This must become our
anti-mantra, a non-affirmation
affirmation capable of penetrating our ether-filled minds,

helping us to admit that Jesus.com has nothing to
do with Nostradamus. Now is the time when we must
learn to question every Tom, Dick and Guru who shops

in a health food store, see that the only implants in
need of removal were inserted by the most dangerous E.T.
of all: Earth�s very own Extortion Terrestrials.

this is a difficult task indeed, for only those who�ve put their
inner children to bed know the difference between retail
spirituality and spiritual retaliation.



Excerpt from 12 Steps For The Recovering New Ager, New Age Anonymous. Submitted by Ana Prundaru.

Muhabbat Urdu Poetry Pictures Two Line for FB Pages

Hoti Hain Muhabbat Main Kuch Raaz Ki Batein,

Aisy Hi To Is Khail Main Haara Nahi Jaata...!!!

Saath Thy To Har Lamha Hansty Thy Hum,

Hongi Jb Jb Palkein Namm To Yad Aongi...!!!

Mery Haathon Ki Lakeeron Main Yeh Aib Hai,

Main Jisy Bhi Chhoo Loon, Wo Mera Nahi Rehta...!!!

Muhabbat Mili To Neend Bhi Apni Na Rahi.. Sahib,

Gumnaam Thi Zindagi To Kitna Sakoon Tha...!!!

Bohat Ajeeb Hain Is Muhabbat Aor Ishq Ky Faisly,

Koi Wafa Ky Liye Roya To Koi Wafaa Kr Ky Roya...!!!

Us ny kaha bata main kesy manoon tery dard ko,

Main nay kaha keh tu ishq kr aor phir haar jaa...!!

Aadatein Mukhtalif Hain Humari Duniya Walon Sy,

Muhabbat Kam Krty Hain, Lakin Lajawaab Krty Hain...!!!

Kuch Nahi Mila Bas Aik Sabaq Dy Gai Muhabbat,

Khaak Ho Jata Hai Insan, Khaak Sy Bany Insaan K Pichy...!!!

Kitni Jaldi Door Chaly Jaaty Hain Woh Log.. Janab,

Jinhein Hum Zindagi Bhar Khona Nahi Chahty...!!!

Review of The Architecture of Chance in Trumpet

Issue 5 of Poetry Ireland's literary pamphlet Trumpet (Spring 2016) carries Michael S. Begnal's review of The Architecture of Chance - in a piece also discussing Trevor Joyce's Rome's Wreck and Peter O'Neill's The Dark Pool.

Begnal describes the book's devices as "similar perhaps to Dada, Oulipo or the more recent Flarf poets" and remarks that despite such practices often being looked upon as "rarefied or merely academic exercises" the work is in fact "deeply engaged with the world, at times outright political". He uses examples as varied in approach as 'XXXXX', 'From Something to Nothing', 'Prime Time' and 'Two Nudes' to discuss the book's concerns (its "wry socioeconomic critique" among others) and concludes with the view that The Architecture of Chance "manages to be continually engaging, often surprising, and frequently funny".

My thanks to Michael Begnal for his perceptive and generous reading of the book, and to Poetry Ireland's Paul Lenehan for commissioning it for Trumpet.

The issue also features an essay by Enda Coyle-Greene - arising out of last year's cross-stream: ways of writing project - in which she writes about the composition of her poem 'Metathesis'.

Other articles in Trumpet 5 include reviews of books by Breda Wall Ryan and Connie Roberts, an appreciation of C. K. Williams by Michael O'Loughlin, a piece on poetry in Belfast by Stephen Connolly, and poems by Blake Morrison, Doireann N� Ghr�ofa and Gabriel Rosenstock.

4 AM in the Morning

I saw my dad was on my mom
and my mom said
Go to the office.

My dad was hitting her
and when my dad left
he took my phone.

His friend
was blocking the stairs.
His friend�s name is James

and my dad kicked my mom
and he told me
to go in my room.

But I went to go get
my mom�s friend
who lives in our back house.

My dad knocked on my door
to the patio and I opened it
and he came in

and told me
to close the door
to the family room.

Then I heard yelling
and I came out
and my dad was hitting my mom.

It happened
at 4 am
in the morning.



An excerpt from a police report generated by boxer Floyd Mayweather�s young son, Karoun on 9 September 2010. Submitted by Richard King Perkins II.

Editorial Notes

dear PP Friends,

before leaving for beijing on a medical trip, we hope the earlier-than-usual release of this issue finds you all well and happy!

to all submitters in particuar: there are two important changes we are introducing to our revised submission guidelines:
1. when submitting to PP, please paste up to 5 poems together with a brief 3rd person bio note in the body of an email to us - this will help reduce our computer time;
2. for those who have work accepted, please wait at least one year after publication in PP to submit new work again - this will allow us to feature more authors.
in addition, please be reminded: we prefer shorter truly lyrical poems...


in this issue, we are honoured to feature 2 visual artists and 73 poetry creators. 

happy reading!

-PP editorial team

POETRY PACIFIC (5.1): COVER PAGE

POETRY PACIFIC

[spring issue 2015]

Cover Photo: Rowan Blair Colver

Cover photo by Rowan Blair Colver

bionote

I am an English writer and creative artist, author of many varied books and contributor to several blogs and magazines. Having established a back catalogue of written material already, my focus now is upon encouraging others to try art for themselves. This has taken form of my company, Alternative Fruit Creative Arts which aims to provide inspiration and resource to the international creative arts community. This is a new project for me and so far I am very happy with progress. My poetry continues and I write most days, either poetic stories, small ditties, or versed escapism. My work mostly touches on the emotive side of life, exploring feeling, philosophy, psychology and the human condition as a whole. Creative arts is yet another doorway to this landscape of my work, and I hope many walk through it to discover their own passion along the way.
http://rowanblaircolver.com
http://alternativefruit.com

3 Poems by Allen Qing Yuan

IN NOCTE

Astronauts say their dreams are like earth dreams
Where they drift soundlessly in a fifth dimension
Where our love vacuums time

The great pioneers of our people want
To find where these fertile figments fit in the starscape
Good men raging into the good night

Our Blue Marble is only our birthplace
Born from stardust, we are simply searching for our origin
In the Cimmerian shades circling the celestial lights,
We continue our decade-old interstellar Odyssey

Into the night, we go as earthlings
In nocte, we go as �bermensch

WHEN YOU�RE WORKING

I admire the way your soul shines through your midnight nail polish,
adore the way your hair has cozily settled into a messy fist,
don�t mind how your black turtleneck is neck to neck with you,
laugh at how new distressed stonewash jeans de-stress you,
get entranced by that one black earring amidst the sparkling ones,
love the gentleness of your voice that seizes my everything,
love the way your smile cracks me as if I were pavement,
As I crumble into pieces mumbling something so flagrant.

SO HELP ME GOD

We on an ultralight beam, a sunbeam from a starstream

I knit my dreams night-to-night, seam by seam

And even though I coded my spirit in C plus plus

You found my faith, and lit up my trail in trust

My ice keeps me frozen, I�m never going to hell

Chance follows Kanye West, he�s never going to fail

This part is His, nobody else speak

No one can judge

Glory be to God

This is a God dream

This is everything

If he don�t trust you, I�m gon shoot you

I wanna sleep with you in my arms

Your silence is also a charm

I wanna wake up with you in my eyes

You liberate me of my lies

I just wanna feel liberated

Don�t get too loud

I been

thinking

about my

ceilings

I been

sealing

my soul

in layers I cannot unfold

They don�t wanna see me love you

I guess I get what I deserve don�t I?

Bionote

Allen Qing Yuan , born in Vancouver in 1995, is a 2-time Pushcart nominee and the author of Traffic Light (2013). Co-editing Poetry Pacific, Allen currently attends the University of British Columbia as a business major. Since grade 10, Allen has had poetry appear in more than 70 literary publications across 16 countries, which include Cordite Poetry Review, Literary Review of Canada, Shampoo and Spillway.

Allen is also the co-founder of a popular clothing brand Above the Movement. for more, please visit his websites::
- www.facebook.com/Above.The.Movement
- www.abovethemovement.com
- Twitter: @ATMovement

- Instagram: @abovethemovement

5 poems by rob mclennan

The little nothings, 

                   The words are already there, you just have to read them
                   Lesley Yalen, the beginnings in 

Numerically, thin. A coral silence. We spring up, formidable. Snow-fell, fall. Equilibrium. Love, a poison. Daffodil. Landscape, postures. Light slants, disappoints the stones. Geometry was fashioned to be lonely. Lacunae, swish. Such analytical capacity. A mark of stairwells, kings. The rains came. I work hard at this. All likeness disappears. Depreciates. My tongue grew pebble-strength. The neighbour skunks: made for the underside, foundations. 

Our endless, numbered days 

                   what touches in what language
                   Rob Budde, Dreamland Theatre 

About to go broke, home. Faint circles through our head. At birth, the sacred brain. To summarize a platitude. Cut off from the world. An echo, beauty. Winter, spring: unwinds. An autumn purge. Laughter. Sings, blue. Demands, unbroken sentence. Bordering the colours, wind. Enticements. You would not be neutral. A legend in youth. This ghost on fire. Seven dwarves. Carved out from a future time. Clouds flex muscles, take a head count. The car ice-coating. Frozen down to asphalt. Fractured. An authority we can�t justify. Fear of falling, opens. Empties into lungs. 

Acceptance Speech: 

                   I love the ology of clouds
                   Mary Ruefle, Trances of the Blast 

Disorient, a shape. Cohere. What matters would be, antibodies. Truth. I want this, ambivalence. Branches: allusions wrestle, wing. Says one: forbid, thoroughly. What would have been excluded. Coiled, hammer, anvil. Reluctant patterns, boundary. Says one: we dismantle, endlessly thorough. Biopsy: linguistic. I am not ambition: all my roads repeat, interior, repeat. Winning. Snow-branch weight a study, low to ground. This brutal, excessive heat. 

The opposite of harm, 

                  Pain�s absence, like a footprint in snow
                  but the iron had eaten into my flesh 
                  there was nothing, nothing to record
                  Hillary Gravendyck, Harm 

Choraled, breathless. Bleach, and honey. Mirror-flat, unspooled. Or simply, pulses. Last. What worries me is this. If you could breathe. Medicinal. The underside, of linen coolness. Bright lights. Blade, a scalpel. Thorned. Reenergize, the empty cells. A stuttered brightness, braille. What sky of onion skin. Bedazzled. Soup. I want what, she. This lettered calm. A perilous scene of contact, right this second. Listen, wind. If you could breathe. Words cut excess, list. Into the lungs, absorbed. A cradle. Deep exhale, rust-red. If you could breathe. Grey-crumpled ash, a smear. Estrange. This bandaged, battered montage. 

A study in silver

Here I saw blue. Accordingly, sank. Like a hole in the ground. A tremendous intention. Through what sparks can�t penetrate. Determined, and framed. A lifetime might pass. I moved very quickly. Showered prose into interior. Walls shored up to buttress. Declared, and pushed back. How shallow the dead breathe; how quickly. The light caught the furrows. Protected. The beauty of style, and braids. Plural. Rearranged, into. We knew not what. Meaning was short lived, slick, and without fixed dimensions. Of absolute discretion. Pure. Devoured on the spot. Intermittent. We are of the present. Abandoned, by years. Skeletal, the story matters. Follow scattered directions. Step forth, and create. From this day, the firmament. 

Bionote

Born in Ottawa, Canada�s glorious capital city, rob mclennan currently lives in Ottawa. The author of nearly thirty trade books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, he won the John Newlove Poetry Award in 2010, the Council for the Arts in Ottawa Mid-Career Award in 2014, and was longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize in 2012. His most recent titles include notes and dispatches: essays (Insomniac press, 2014) and The Uncertainty Principle: stories, (Chaudiere Books, 2014), as well as the forthcoming poetry collection If suppose we are a fragment (BuschekBooks, 2014). An editor and publisher, he runs above/ground press, Chaudiere Books, The Garneau Review ( ottawater.com/garneaureview ), seventeen seconds: a journal of poetry and poetics ( ottawater.com/seventeenseconds ), Touch the Donkey ( touchthedonkey.blogspot.com ) and the Ottawa poetry pdf annual ottawater ( ottawater.com ). He spent the 2007-8 academic year in Edmonton as writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta, and regularly posts reviews, essays, interviews and other notices at robmclennan.blogspot.com 

6 Drawings by Denny E. Marshall

2020 vision

maze

the electric side

three walls to hide behind

barely there

Bionote

Denny E. Marshall has had art, poetry, and fiction published. Some recent credits include artwork at Front Porch Review , poetry at Decades Review , and fiction at Postcard Shorts . Denny does have a personal website with previously published works. The web address is www.dennymarshall.com. 

2 Poems by Allison Thorpe

The Vote Enters the Kingdom

For the women of Saudi Arabia
Swaddled in her robes
my dawning cry
celebrates this breath
I am a check mark
a chad
a box finally filled
a spell
a veiled glance
a hook's earthy meat�
cast me

Climb

Somewhere in Kentucky a forsythia
offers its yellow echo to the sun.
A long-haired woman haunts a window,
wonders what to do with an hour,
how to outlast the day,
follows a jet's silver glint in the dull sky.
She opens the curtain to more light,
but only questions wash the room.
How often do we look up
for warmth, beauty, answers?
Do we ache the bird's easy wing,
the chic of god's tongue
as we propel ourselves
into the star-blind wild,
dreaming that vast
and oh so incredible blue?

Bionote 

Allison Thorpe is a writer from Lexington, KY. Recent chapbooks include Dorothy's Glasses (Finishing Line Press, 2015) and What She Sees: Poems for Georgia O'Keefe (White Knuckle Press, 2015). A Pushcart nominee, she has appeared in such journals as The Citron Review, South 85 Journal, Appalachian Heritage, Misfit Magazine, Two Hawks Quarterly, Gingerbread House, Big River Poetry Review, Black Fox Literary Magazine, The Meadow, and Meat for Tea: The Valley Review. 

5 Poems by Neil Ellman

Look at the Heart of the World 

(Roberto Matta Echaurren, etching and aquatint) 

It is there
not at the center
but just below the surface
of the world
the heart that beats
to the rhythm
of an ancient drum
first heard
then seen
as pulsing seas
and the motion of wind
through trees 

Watch how it creates
a world
from the insistence
of its blood
and how it persists
in rippling dunes
and the urge
of throbbing flesh. 

Look at the heart
of the world
and count its days. 

Energ�a atomica 

(Joaqu�n Torres-Garc�a, painting) 

The fishes of the sea
the birds that soar
beyond the clouds
the stars themselves
in the dimness of the night
the houses inhabited
by shadow-ghosts
of who we were
where we once lived
everything we touch
and sometimes see
get their energy
from the infinitesimal
we barely know
and cannot see�
such enormity from
the smallest of things
that dance on the waves
of a never-ending sea. 

Fish Magic 

(Paul Klee, painting) 

Beneath the waves
impervious
to light
tiny fish perform
their magic show;
their sleight of hand
defies the hook
and net;
their illusions
make them invisible
to the fisherman�s
keen eye;
they survive
by trickery
and artifice. 

Door 

(Helen Frankenthaler, painting) 

From entrance to exit
from this to another
a portal between
this world and others
as tangible as a reflection
in the back of the eye
or prophesies delivered in flame
as if they were real
a door swings on hinges
of opposites
opening, closing
going somewhere
then returning
to where it began. 

The Birth of the World 

(Joan Mir�, painting) 

Out of the disorder of tea leaves
in a porcelain cup
an alphabet of things to come
a word, a world, then many,
repeated as infinite phrases
in the unremitting babble of stars
a world divined
from dregs of tea
as if there were a meaning 

Bionote 

Neil Ellman, a poet from New Jersey, has published more than 1,200 poems in print and online journals, anthologies and chapbooks throughout the world. His latest chapbook, Mind Over Matta (Flutter Press, 2015) is based on the works of the Chilean abstract-surrealist, Robert Matta Echaurren. 

5 Poems by Michael Bartholomew-Biggs

MORNING 

This morning is clear as its conscience. 

Spring-loaded lambs have much to do:
they nibble, suckle, chew an itching limb
and waste no curiosity
on random darts by phantom mice,
wind-startled in the longest grass.
The mother-sheep, attentive but unfussy,
make secret husky-toned announcements,
repeated bleats of mutual reassurance
familiar as a nursery rhyme. 

Somewhere else a shotgun kicks the air.
A low slow magpie flaps across the field
in sorrow for a promise to be broken. 

REFLECTING 

Spring bluebells over wooded slopes
celebrate retaking of the ground
with flourishes of colour and assertive song
birds declare possession of all trees. 

Look, you say, and listen, you exclaim.
This green world only shines for you
to mirror back at me with joy
and hope to strike and glimpse a glint
that answers you from underneath
the tarnish that�s attached itself
to my too-long neglected senses. 

Woodland blossoms spreading sudden fragrance
persuades you to believe the summer�s promise
is arriving with the wheeling swallows. 

Perhaps you think this year they will not leave us. 

ENDGAME 

He has to learn to handle anger
he�s been trying to deflect
with grievance-words that don�t reflect
how puppets dangled into danger
feel when cheated of the chance
to influence their own advance.
He holds no ground he can defend. 

He�s lost the freedom to pretend
the rules that put him in this place
include exceptions for his case.
He�s isolated in a crowd
and misinterprets all the signs
which others read between their lines;
and any move he tries is disallowed. 

AGENDA 

If Jonah had been keen to visit
Nineveh in any case �
to marvel at its architecture
or to try the local spices �
he�d have had more ground for doubting
it was God Who�d sent him there. 

And then he might have been content
to fit a bit of casual preaching
on the side. Just making contact ,
I can almost hear him say,
but nothing over-obvious.
No need of scaring anyone 

least of all myself.
It�s not
enough for two to have the same
itinerary. Both must know
the other knows beforehand why
the journey�s really necessary. 

EMMANUEL 

Where can we meet him?
We�ll pick out some distant point of light
and walk away from ourselves
towards an �X� that marks the spot �
assuming neither stamina nor compass
will betray us. 

We�re leaving rough shelters
and provisions by the path in case
we must fall back on ourselves.
Starting on a risky journey
is no no time to lose our common sense
of self-importance. 

We�ve grown good at folding
maps we�ve often read and cannot change.
Now we must plot for ourselves
the landscape�s lie the way we please;
there we can tell whoever lets us do so
Be god without us . 

Bionote 

Michael Bartholomew-Biggs is a retired mathematician living in London. He is poetry editor for London Grip ( londongrip.co.uk ) and also co-organiser for the reading venue Poetry in the Crypt. His latest collections are Fred & Blossom (Shoestring Press, 2013) and Pictures from a Postponed Exhibition (with artwork by David Walsh) published by Lapwing Press (2014). 

3 Poems by Erren Geraud Kelly

Twentynine Palms, California

ruby slippers lie
in the desert like
quarter notes
maybe a little girl
was here
a lovely desert
rose?
if no one hears the
sound
is it still music? 

59th Street Bridge, New York City 

a girl I know lives not far
from the bridge
she makes me take my shoes
off
every time I come over
and I love coming over
to watch the breeze in
her walk
her body is a soprano
saxophone
I hear the islands when
she talks
she tells stories with
her camera
but she is still a mystery
the best stories are
the ones yet to be
told
even after all these years
I think of walking hand in
hand with her over that
bridge
taking her in my arms
and loving her till the
tears flow
I wonder does she know
if it wasn't for her
I might jump off
the bridge
to see if I could
fly
but the thought of
her face
and the music of
words
wil always keep me high
and so I walk over the
bridge
a saxophone song like a
poem
that always leads me to
her 

A Kiss

It was a kiss
But nothing to stop
The presses
Over
Even if the tide stopped
And the lights over the
Desert
Paled next to your
Skin
It was no big deal
Though i admit
For a moment i thought
Through your lips
Destiny revealed itself
To me 

Bionote

I am a pushcart nominated poet based in Los Angeles. I have been writing for 25 years and have over 100 publications in print and online in such publications as Hiram Poetry Review, Mudfish, Poetry Magazine(online), Ceremony, Cactus Heart,Similar Peaks, Gloom Cupboard, Poetry Salzburg and other publications. My most recent publication was in " In Our Own Words," a Generation X poetry anthology; I was also published in other anthologies such as " Fertile Ground," Beyond The Frontier " and other anthologies. My Work can also been seen on Youtube under the " Gallery Cabaret," links. I am also the author of the chapbook, " Disturbing The Peace," on Night Ballet Press. I recieved my B.A. in English-Creative Writing from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. I also love to read and I love to travel, having visited 45 states and Canada and Europe. The themes in my writings vary, but i have always had a soft spot for subjects and people who are not in the mainstream. But i never limit myself to anything, i always try to keep an open mind. 

3 Poems by Randall Karlen Rogers

It Might Be True (but I beg to differ)

I walked out of Nowhere
last night
and went to that Somewhere
I've never really been
comfortable in,
by myself.
I left the wind
with the rain,
I sought out the thunder
of sunny days.
I learned that
tragedy, at length,
is no prelude
to unhappiness. 

The Way 

And massive venous 

bursts
of electricity,
escaped me.
I searched for
the "Nohawk",
on bald men,
men with only fringes
for hair. I
capsized a few
floating Chinese lanterns,
and fast losing
confidence, I wondered
suddenly, as if dumbstruck,
how could I have done
anything, so correct,
and for so long!
I splayed confidence.
Apparently,
I fit in,
and this time I
could eat,
and chewing in
public didn't
bother me. 

It Might Be True (but I beg to differ) II

I walked out of Nowhere
last evening
into a better state
than I had yesterday.
At times I've been
to the best state
which should not
be engaged in too
long, before moral
rot outmaneuvers
lingering lack of
desire, and flagging
interest. 

Bionote 

I am Randall Karlen Rogers, fifty-four, I live in Rapid City, South Dakota, USA. Wild Bill Hickock was killed near here, in the historic city of Deadwood, South Dakota. From 2000 to 2013 I lived in Thailand and Cambodia, running a cool small property hotel and bar. Now I'm here, cowboy-ed and countrified in South Dakota! I do hope all goes well. I cook, I read, I write, I play guitar. Other than that, I really don't do a lot of nothing. 

5 Poems by Jackson

Please wait to be seated 

Please wait to be seated.
You will be shown to good seats
but you will have to surrender. 

Stand there and wait.
You may be given a public place,
in the centre of the faces and voices,
or a private booth:
a watching space, a listening hush.
You will be ushered by good-looking attendants
but you will have to surrender. 

Observe the rituals.
Listen carefully, ask
clearly and quietly,
behave with respect. 

And let a hungrier person go before you
and let a weaker person hold onto you.
Then wait in silence.
You will be shown. 

From Coracle 

When you dance 

When you dance it�s as if
you gather the music
into yourself,
into the softness
of your diaphragm and belly,
and smear it through your body,
along the long cords of you �
tendons, neurons, axons, veins
spine, lungs, bowels, hips �
and extrude it down the pipes of your lean limbs. 

When you dance you keep your arms
straight by your sides, point and wag
and jerk your hands,
quiver your body like a zephyred leaf,
and stare at your feet, which you shuffle. 

When you dance it�s as if your legs
and arms
and eyes
are pulled toward ground
by the music�s grand
unified force. In all my life 

you�re the only one
I�ve ever met
who dances
like that. 

From lemon oil ; First published in the author's chapbook q finger (PressPress 2011) 

If the rain

If the rain works away our concrete
and steel, to reach and feel
original stone and earth 

If it wears away the metal
rings and brick boxes around street trees
so greenfleshed lives can sway, scented,
in their shelter 

If it knocks out the electric
lines and stops
our train, traps
it for vines and mudwalls 

If it slops the style
out of our hair and the makeup
off our faces, hoses off
our lowrise jeans and highrise boots,
our ghoulgear and bling,
our multitoned helpnessness and hope 

If it grows on our backs
fur and homespun and moss 

From Coracle 

The fisherwoman 

The fisherwoman
in her boat
under the sky,
deep blue above,
deep blue below,
hat
salty, skin
rippled,
waiting,
the fisherwoman
sings.
A soft song
o my love, o my lord,
carry me, float me, rock me, rescue me
a soft song for the fish and the sky
and the broad ocean and all the things on islands
that call to her.
Buildings, streets, people, suits
on green islands
across the ancient ocean,
the endless sleeping sea.
Through the light she sees the islands
and the fish watch
and wait.

From Coracle ; First published in Pixel Papers 

haiku sequence August 2013 

the haiku poet
broad feet
in delicate shoes 

small white feather
facing the stratus sky
a beggar's hand 

spring in the Cultural Centre
lavender tangles
with banksia 

in the city
no-one notices
the ten-metre wall 

a spring seedling
three tiny leaves meet
an enormous shoe 

wind blows out my candle
but not the one
on the banksia bush 

at last a bird
comes close enough
to write about

Bionote

Jackson, based in Western Australia, seeks poems that work whether declaimed loudly or whispered in the mind. She has published two full-length collections and recorded an album . Her poems have appeared in many magazines and will appear in The Western Australian Poetry Anthology forthcoming from Fremantle Press . Jackson is the founding editor of Uneven Floor poetry magazine, unevenfloorpoetry.blogspot.com . She is a doctoral candidate at Edith Cowan University. She offers poets a low-cost help service, Tactful Online Poetry Feedback . Visit Jackson and read more of her poems at proximitypoetry.com . 

4 Poems by Jerry McGinley

COLD DECEMBER NIGHT 

Cold December night,
the soft white belly of the moon
bounces light against my window. 

A ghost taps my shivering shoulder,
startles me from dreams of an emerald river,
asks, Do you remember who I am? 

I�m the fiend who stole your dove,
the one with golden gossamer wings,
that perched in your dogwood tree. 

I�m the brute makes you quaver in your sleep,
who makes you scream at icy stars,
and makes you cower at your own shadow. 

I just stopped by to remind you
that your dove still coos for you, alone,
in her cage of iron chains in my dank lair. 

ORANGE MOON 

Orange moon teeters
above the horizon
like a ripe peach,
its bronze craters
home to writhing witches. 

Soon the rising moon
will pale its ginger hue
like a bent old man
scaling celestial steps,
searching for immortality. 

FOX TRACKS 

Fox tracks in the snow
leading toward or from
something immortal. 

SUMMER MOON 

Summer moon 

so still, voices calling
from the other side�
on the still water
a canoe glides without
disturbing the glassy lake. 

Bionote 

Former publisher of Lake City Lights Magazine and Yahara Prairie Review, Jerry McGinley has recently published in Camel Saloon, Foliate Oak Literary, and Burningword Literary Journal. His latest books are LAKE REDEMPTION and THIS OMINOUS BIRD. 

4 Poems by John Murphy

LOVE

He loves the way when her hair is up
wispy strands float out from her neck
and the velvet contours of her upper
arms mould into the shoulders
and she rests the side of her head
on her palm and says yes,
I�d like a cup of tea and throws
the cushion at him when he says
I would too. He loves the way when
late for work she pecks his cheek
and he sees the day�s challenge
in her eyes and he fades into
her background the sound of
scraping toast and meowing cat
as she hikes her jacket over
her shoulders and slams the door.
He loves the way when she returns
she flops on the sofa, pinches her nose
and gives him the news, who�s
screwing who and the idiot
in the BMW, such arsehole drivers
and the cat brings her back gently
into the house as it kneads her chest
and the kids drag her up to
help stick luminous stars
on their bedroom ceiling, lying
with them on the floor in the dark
looking up at the universe expanding
through transience into days, weeks, years. 

THERE IS NO CONNECTION BETWEEN THE WORD AND THE THING IT REPRESENTS 

Apart from the pen, the hand holding it,
the nerves, tendons and muscles
moving with ancient electricity trickling
words that slip and slide, drop 

to the next line, survive crossings out
and hasty scribblings.
The pen�s imperfections chasing
images of sunlight through raindrops, 

exploding into colours on drooped
flower heads and glistening lawns,
giving words to life like perfume
drifting across a candle-lit table 

on a warm Mediterranean terrace.
Pictures waft up from the page
capturing the essence of love and hate
and the small leavings behind them: 

daubs and shadows, suggestions of sepia
and quiet, dusty gazebos of the mind
bursting with exotica.
I give them to this page, 

flowers bellowing colour, the smell of love
settling at last from slippery meanings.
Look carefully and you�ll see my child wavering
like a tightrope walker across the wet grass... 

WAR 

I
It slicks through the air faster
than morality or forgiveness,
rents the keen slice of flesh
and bone in an instant
to a shatter of blood and shards.
Forehead, chest, shoulder, shoulder,
signed on the body, the holy trinity
that cannot stop that furrowing
of borders or the sharp eye
of the refugee looking for peace
along the hill�s silhouette.
They enclose with shade and spillage.
Flesh and bone, he wobbles like jelly
on the end of a shovel. 

II
Tuesday was a yellow flash,
Sunday, white smoke flowers
blossomed on the hillside.
The woman with the smiling
eyes a kaleidoscope of red
tumbling flesh and skin.
Grey clouds spread
shadows over flowers
in graveyards,
a child who held a buttercup
under her best friend�s chin
became a casualty.
The earth is still flat.
We will all fall off the edge. 

DAVID LYNCH�S WET DREAM

I 

Was it the blue paper she said he should buy
or was it the yellow? He squinted, focussed
on the squashed fly stain on the wall above his desk.
She seemed upset about something.
He leaned back in his chair, tapped his pen
along his teeth, moving his jaw,
making a popping sound. The door opened,
a woman walked in and sat on the chair opposite.
She placed her bag on the floor
next to the chair and unbuttoned
her blouse which she removed, folded
and placed on top of her bag.
She reached behind her and unclasped
her bra, shrugged it off and placed it on top
of the blouse. She sat back, looked at him.
What are you doing? he said. You are the doctor?
she said, her voice bland, unhurried. No, he said.
She leant forward, picked up her bra,
blouse, bag and stood. He stood.
They looked at each other, eye to eye.
Two rooms down, a light bulb fizzed,
flickered and popped into darkness. 

II 

Surveying the crack in the wall
he steps back, confused, unsettled.
He�d plastered over a smaller crack
just yesterday and now it had spread.
He had noticed a slight rumble,
a momentary and faint alteration in
his daily background vibrations,
a slight attenuation of air over his skin.
He thought about the two men
sitting in the car outside since yesterday.
He wondered if they were still alive.
He could see, through the binoculars,
that they don�t move, hadn�t moved.
He knew it was all arranged,
things were in motion,
it�s now or never.
He stares at the crack.
His heart beats and beats. 

Bionote 

John Murphy is a retired lecturer and musician living in Surrey, UK. He has been published in many journals and magazines and is editor of The Lake , His book, The Thing Is... was published in 2009.