Poet's Ink Review

October 2008

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Welcome to the October 2008 issue of Poet's Ink Review. Our theme for the month is short poems, poems of four lines or less. While that may sound easy, it's actually quite difficult to fit a good poem into so few lines. Each word has to really count. I hope you enjoy these poems, and if you'd like to learn more about writing short poems, check out these articles on haiku and writing short poems.

Pose

In this photograph
of us--your funeral black,
my bridal white--there is no gray,
only empty space between.

Megan Arkenberg

Wish

I wish some days
that only beauty mattered
and I could learn to love you
all over again.

Megan Arkenberg

Megan Arkenberg is a student in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where she writes fantasy fiction and short form poetry. Her work has recently appeared in Aoife's Kiss, Byzarium, 3Lights Gallery, and Modern English Tanka. When not writing, she can be found painting, playing piano, or editing the fantasy e-zine Mirror Dance.

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remember spring
touching your hand
thunder rumbles

Lynette Shoup

Lynette spent most of her school years in Anchorage, Alaska where her love for writing poetry began in a ninth grade English class. It never stopped! Currently, she lives in Pennsylvania with her two children. Her poetry has been published by Blue Mountain Arts and Cherry Blossom Review.

Linda

I gave Linda Roses.
Yellow Roses. Like Texas.
Likes windows in a church.
Flowered thorns.

Kenneth P. Gurney

Kenneth P. Gurney lives in Albuquerque, NM. He was educated in Art and Computer Science, but a friend and good conversation lead him to poetry in the early 1990s. In the past he edited/produced: Hodge Podge Poetry, Tamafyhr Mountain Poetry, and Origami Condom. “Linda” appeared in the self-published chapbook Tomorrow is Now Begun.

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Kayak on the pond,
Two paddles pull the water:
Two hearts of one mind.

Robert Demaree

Robert is a retired educator/administrator who lives in Wolfeboro, N.H. and Burlington, N.C. His book of poems, Fathers and Teachers (Center Ossipee, N.H.: Beech River Books, 2007), is available on-line at Amazon.com.

Love's Child

no one who experienced
unconditional love as a child
can ever become a poet

Branch Isole

Monsters

There's a monster
living under my bed
That's what the one
in the closet said

Branch Isole

Branch Isole writes of issues and emotions surrounding personal responsibility, choice, and avoidance. His style and presentation, known as “voyeurism poetry,” engages the reader in common life themes often experienced but not always voiced.
You can visit his website at www.manaopublishing.com.

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just before dusk
discovering
migrating geese

Laura LeHew

Well on her way to being a crazy cat lady, Laura resides in sunny Oregon with her husband and their five “children.” Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in such journals as Alehouse Press, Arabesques Review, Outrider Press, PMS, and Untamed Ink. Her chapbook Beauty is forthcoming in May 2009 from Altered Crow Press.

Crickets

Crickets hide inside
Pumpkins blush in the garden
Daylight erases itself by six
What’s with all these zucchinis?

Patty Barnes

James and Joanne

In the smoke filled room
His silence choked her
Like Stage IV throat cancer

Patty Barnes

Patty is the author of A WORKBOOK FOR HEALING: Adult Children of Alcoholics. She is also a published poet. Today, she breeds Labradoodles and enjoys Maine's quiet life.

Cold Outside

Wrinkled lips sit
Across pools of burgundy,
Hanging memories to dry.

Benjamin Nardolilli

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You didn’t close the door completely
A little bit of heaven still got through

Benjamin Nardolilli

Benjamin is a twenty three year old writer currently living in New York City. His work has appeared in Houston Literary Review, Perigee Magazine, Canopic Jar, Lachryma: Modern Songs of Lament, and Baker’s Dozen. In addition he was the poetry editor for West 10th Magazine at NYU and maintains a blog at mirrorsponge.blogspot.com.

The Universe

A body of water
Spilling
Onto the cupped hands
Of God

Luigi Monteferrante

Luigi is a Canadian-Italian author with poems published in Neon, Yellow Mama, Wordslaw, and the forthcoming issues of Poesia (Indiana Bay) and Kudos Writing. His short stories have been published in Chicago Quarterly Review and Happy. He has recently completed his second novel. “The Universe” is from a poetry collection entitled Breaking News from the Daily Grind.

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I weep for our love,
My sorrow is cavernous,
But you were so thin and
I was so ravenous.

Charlie Stewart.

Charlie lives with his family in North Yorkshire. A former singer/songwriter with the cult band Laughing Gravy, his poetry has been published in England, The United States, Canada and India. He is currently the poetry editor of Sotto Voce.

In My Eyes Only

beauty from a train
apple orchards,
freshly plowed fields,
cow-dung and shoestrings

Sydnee Elliot

Sydnee resides in Las Vegas, Nevada where she is writing a new novel, Getting What You Deserve, and editing Polly Brilliant's Wild Dance. She has had several short stories published in literary magazines. Poetry Greece, published on the island of Corfu, Greece featured Ms. Elliot as artist of the month and printed several of her poems along with her paintings.

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I see a lamp post
it feels lonely
because it is on

Colin Gilbert

Colin has an upcoming poem in Waterways and was the winner of the 2006 Chicago State University Hughes, Diop, Knight Literary Award. He can be reached via his email address at colinrgilbert@yahoo.com.

Buzz

We went at our passion fervent and swift,
Such as two yellow jackets tearing into a moth,
We gorged on the brain and worked down the abdomen,
Leaving wings to catch the breeze like ashes.

Robert Louis Henry

Robert lives in Tennessee where he's studying music production. His first book, And the Household, is forthcoming in 2008 with PublishAmerica. He can be contacted at njaim-music@hotmail.com.

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The song of toads
After summer storms
Calms the soul, breaks the heart

Jason Sturner

Jason Sturner lives in Geneva , Illinois and works at an arboretum. He has published one full-length book of poetry, titled KAIROS, and two chapbooks: 10 LOVE POEMS and SELECTED POEMS 2004-2007. Please visit www.jasonsturner.blogspot.com.

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Nearly empty parking lot
Red jeep with Jesus fish
Who will save me

Joseph Carfagno

Joseph Carfagno was born in Brooklyn but lives in Connecticut.

haiku #17

fresh love, untextured
glides smoothly across clean sheets
creases come with time

J Brasseur

J has been writing poetry for over thirty years, but has not been published since the 1980's. She lives in Virginia with her husband, two children and two dogs.

Water’s Rest

It was a grey so soft, that fading sky
suffused with blue and pallid gold,
it bid the lake lie still, caressed the eye,
and all my being to quiet told.

Murray Alfredson

Murray is a retired librarian and lecturer, and a former Buddhist Associate to the Multi-faith Chaplaincy at Flinders University. He graduated in German and history from the University of Melbourne and holds a research masters degree from the University of Wales. He began to write poetry in undergraduate days. He resumed in retirement. He has published poems and essays on Buddhism, spirituality and inter-faith matters in journals in Australia and the UK.

Pines

the brooding pines
scratch at the tattered curtain of the sky
as if it were a human thing
and could bleed.

Adam Tod Leverton

Adam has been published a few times, and at one time had a serious ambition to be a poet. Now he considers his poems like Bonsai which he would like to share with those who appreciate the art of his Bonsai. He can be contacted at atleverton@yahoo.ca.

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What is it we fall into when we fall out of love?
How many spears can forgiveness break?

Do the angels of judgment expire?
Who made the hollows in which I sleep?

Phayvanh Luekhamhan

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What time is it, where you are?
How fares the boatman, and his wife?
How do you bid adieu to the August fog?
Answer me honestly, or sing me a song.

Rolf Parker-Houghton and Phayvanh Luekhamhan

Rolf teaches mathematics to dyslexic boys at the Greenwood School, in Putney, Vermont. He lives at the school with his wife, Cynthia, who is a sculptor, and their son, Morgen Gareth Hammer Parker - Houghton.

Phayvanh writes and dreams in Montpelier, Vt. She was recently a poetry resident at Soul Mountain and is a proud Kundiman fellow.

Tree Hugger Autopsy

When they cut me open
and count the rings around my heart,
they will find I loved like a child.

Nick Orf

Nick has been published in Oak Bend Review, Word Slaw, Juked, Boston Literary Magazine, Mad Swirl, and others.