A review of Portals and Piers

The following link
http://versewisconsin.org/Issue111/reviews/anderson.html


is to a review of our book done in Verse Wisconsin
www.versewisconsin.org

A rousing success...

Woodland Pattern Bookstore ( www.woodlanpattern.org ) in Milwaukee just held it's 19th annual Poetry Marathon. This is an awesone event where poets, storytellers and sometimes musicians get 5 min. to show their wares. 10 presenters fill each hour from 10 am 'til 1 am the following morn. Each presenter is asked to get $35 in pledges and the money collected goes towards all of the great things that WP does in the community to support the arts.

Aside from all of that wonderfullness... Susan Firer http://www.susanfirer.com/ a former Milwaukee Poet Laureate and current prof. at UW-Milwaukee has asked for one of my pieces. She wishes to publish it in the Shepherd Express online poetry column www.expressmilwaukee.com which she edits, It is a tremendous honor to have someone of Susan's renown ask to publish one of my poems. I will let all know when it comes out.

A poem for Uncle Grant

The Conquistador

for Grant Keller

 

We all gathered

sharing stories and laughter

and of course, some tears

we were sad, not for your parting
from this world, rather
for your parting from us
we laughed again at the pictures
-one of you dressed as a conquistador
has stuck in my memory
I think of you and how you conquered
life’s challenges, blazing
your own trail through each
new jungle you faced
you set off  to see the world
along with it’s beauty, you witnessed
its underbelly, returning home
you turned to seek a salve
for wounds apparent or otherwise
undaunted by the rituals
of marriage, fatherhood and divorce
-or so it seemed,
 then as you aged, or maybe
 it was our aging and perspective,
chinks in the armor appeared
we were allowed into the heart
of a man who had seen it all
and stared it down
for so many years
we only saw the face
of the warrior,
a soldier to the end
rest now dear uncle
your fight is done
you have vanquished all
save for Man’s ultimate enemy

a little poetry to soothe the soul

#4

(Tea)

Orange peel and lemon,

spiced with coriander seed,

purple verbena -

decaf mandarin orchard

celestial seasonings

#5

(Dragonfly)

The dragonfly swoops

a blur of silvery- green

aerial assaults

 mosquito clouds are dispersed

fireworks play second fiddle

#6

(Morning)

bird-song and green tea

blades of grass collecting dew

tepid mug in hand

I drink deeply the morning

tasting its spice on my tongue

These poems are called Tanka, they are an old Japanese form of poetry similiar to Haiku.

The scheme is 5-7-5-7-7.

Traditionally, like the Haiku they are not named only numbered

Verse Wisconsin

I will have a poem published in the July issue of Verse WI www.versewisconsin.org

Northlawn

re-posted from brawlerlit.com

June 15, 2012

Brawler 7

Since the announcement of our “Best of Milwaukee” anthology, Brawler has grown even more wealthy with submissions, and before we do anything, we’d like to thank everyone who has sent us their work. The new Submittable site has been a dream.
We felt like this issue is going to mark a turning point in Brawler, because it’s the first material we’ve put out since becoming print-minded. For this occasion, we’ve decided to finally use a photo of Jack Johnson. We’ve thought about it many times before, because if you type “brawler” or “boxer” into Google, this man comes up. He’s also historically one of the most celebrated and controversial fighters of all times. Brawler strives to break noses and barriers with the work we choose to publish.

Brawler

Milwaukee has a new literary magazine please check it out...
www.brawlerlit.com

you may find someone you know within the "pages" wink,wink