Chapbook Series

The chapbook “pillow fight” expresses the evolving effort of this poet’s search for forgiveness and contentment during the final decades of her life. As she walks around her farm in a verdant valley at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia, Marjorie Gowdy sees in the seasonal movement of birds, bears, and bobcats the struggles all creatures attempt to surmount. An individual may dig their own trap, building a refuge within their surroundings, but most of humanity shares a hunger for tranquility, a peace the natural world best offers. The landscape of the southern U.S. – mountains, ocean, and gulf, veins of deep tragedy – is Marjorie’s home. Writing is her comfort, one she has returned to again and again throughout her long life. Writing allows Marjorie to talk about joy and about pain, and it also has always permitted her to share stories of others in this world. Marjorie is fortunate to look out each morning at a broad, wild pasture and animals preparing for the next season of their lives. Many people are not so fortunate, but she has lived in their shoes at times as well. She has always been, and remains, perplexed by the small but intense fraction of the unkind, the impatient, and the greedy. She tells us that she has had great losses and has also tripped and fallen. While the losses and subsequent fall haunts her, Marjorie now strives to find ways to rise and find decency around her. “I fail daily at this,” Marjorie says, “but as one friend told me long ago: ‘You always seem to put your shoes on the next day.’” It is this poet’s wish that readers will also find in these poems ways to walk forward in peace.

In 2006, Peter Hoheisel's high school class had their 50th Reunion. Michigan Reunion begins with a brief reflection on that experience, and ends after a road trip through Lower Michigan, when he crosses the Mackinac Bridge and enters the Upper Peninsula, which he considers to be his spiritual home. Reading these individual poems, which is actually one long poem, we travel with him on a bittersweet journey of re-discovery.

From the poet: When my husband was diagnosed with bladder cancer, our first response was shock and then “why him?” He had rarely even been ill with a cold, and at 80 was in robust good health, his blood pressure consistently around 120/70 or lower. An avid in-door biker (an hour and a half each day, seven days a week) who follows a pretty healthy Mediterranean diet, he seemed like the last candidate for this disease. But cancer has an omnivorous appetite, and, unlike we humans, it doesn’t discriminate. It isn’t selective in its targets. As I wrote these poems, I didn’t consider publishing them because they were so personal. But when I reviewed what I’d done, I realized they needed readers because others will resonate with the emotions evoked. They aren’t just diary entries to be hidden away. And while I don’t like to publicize what my husband and I went through as a result of this diagnosis, I also realize my writing could be of value to others who are either experiencing something similar or who may do so one day. The first poem is entitled “Down the Rabbit Hole,” and Alice’s experiences in Wonderland aptly capture the disorientation we felt after receiving the cancer finding. It describes what I went through as I watched the urologist investigate my husband’s bladder with a cystoscope. Since we non-medical types don’t often get to actually see these cancers that grow in our bodies, I was fascinated at how innocent the growth looked. It, too, is part of nature, unaware of the havoc it produces in the lives it touches. And so, part of me, my writer self, was intrigued by this new world we’d entered. Of course, a cancer diagnosis also reminds us of the inevitable prognosis we all face: everyone dies. Cancer just makes that reality more vivid. It becomes a new neighbor that we can’t ignore, a dark cloud that hovers even during remission periods. In other words, we can never claim innocence again in terms of what lies ahead of us. Also, the quotidian comes more into focus and takes on new meaning These poems capture some of the emotions I went through as I helped my husband encounter the many surgical procedures, chemo therapy sessions, and radiation appointments he tolerated. As I state in the poem “Bend in Seasons,” “How super / natural the give and take / is between seasons, / as well as our mortality.” I hope you’ll join me on the journey I’ve been on.

High Water Lines is a swan song for the American dream, where the notion persists that anyone can still pull themselves up by the bootstraps to escape poverty. This is a collection of poems for the working poor, especially those that dwell in the places deemed “flyover country.” These poems are for anyone who has ever had to pick up and move to chase a job or escape eviction, for anyone who has ever had to punch a time clock or bust their hump for a measly tip, for anyone seeking a better life in another country, for anyone who is one emergency away from homelessness. Written in a time when wages have stagnated while the cost of living has skyrocketed, when millions of Americans are juggling multiple jobs to make ends meet while CEOs are raking in record profits, High Water Lines examines both the struggles as well as the dignity of labor. This is America: thrift-store shoppers, pawn shop patrons, housewives, veterans, farmers, day laborers, transients, dumpster-divers, oldsters on fixed incomes and Peanut Festival Queens. Woven throughout are related issues such as climate change and addiction. People make questionable choices trying to fill the void left by exhaustion and despair. Relationships suffer, children repeat their parents’ mistakes. But they are also survivors, finding creative ways to rise above their situation. In rising above, we maintain a sense of self. These poems are haunted by the past while facing an uncertain future. They bear witness to the departure of comfortable middle-class possibilities. Scharhag is an emerging voice in contemporary poetry. Her lines are as widely varied as the experience of the 99-percenters she champions. They can be as brief as a few lines, or span several pages. She offers verse that is at once profoundly personal and relatable, compassionate and analytical, bleak and irreverent. High Water Lines is a mirror for our American moment.

Toward a Peeping Sunrise follows an arc: it wakes (with its somewhat surreal opening), gathers momentum at “Dolly’s Broke” and “Ballast,” then mellows into the final two rhymed poems, the only two written in rhyme. “That this Blue Exists…” is a puzzle formed by the piecing together of titles of 14 authors’ works. This poem won the August 2017 Wilda Morris Poetry Challenge. Carole created the ‘Title Poem’ while reading Tyler’s A Spool of Blue Thread. Other authors came to mind as she worked through the “title” challenge, shaping the words into a narrative. Living amidst the bustle of NYC, following her college graduation, Carole dated a college classmate who took her to dinner at the Zukofsky’s. In awe of the author, but totally unaware of his prestige and his translations of the Latin poets, she sat dumb-mouthed throughout the dinner. Years later, she recalled the evening, eventually connecting Catullus with Zukofsky’s translations and recalling the dark blue and white drapes in the dining room. (And probably wishing to be home in her mother’s comfortable kitchen with her cheerful pink and green floral curtains.) Carole frequently walks with her husband on the trails at the nearby nature conservancy in her community. The reflective tones and orange colors of the autumn season led to the composition of “The Mellow Season.” The poem was accepted immediately upon submission to The Society of Classical Poets for publication one year hence. At its publication, more than twenty fellow writers contributed their comments at the site. Poet Joseph S. Salemi, editor and owner of Trinacria, called these autumn verses “a perfectly chiseled and polished poem.” He also said, “I love both the perfect metrics and the elegant diction.” The poem was selected for inclusion in the Society’s 2019 print anthology, Journal VII. Poet Amy Foreman called the poem “The perfect accompaniment to a hot cup of tea on this drizzly fall morning!” (These comments are archived at the site at October 14, 2018) Regarding “At the Luncheon Party,” writing ekphrastic descriptions is a current interest. Carole visited museum after museum and cathedral after cathedral as she traveled through France, Austria, and Italy during her student days. She enjoyed meeting significant paintings firsthand. Van Gogh and Renoir were favorites. Later she saw the Renoir at the Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. Carole is sister to two visual artists. Their work adds to her love of contemporary works and of the classical artists of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Little Suites is a collection of poems inspired by the author’s reflections on her childhood – delightful and tender moments, as well as trying and sometimes unpleasant moments that helped her develop as a humane being. Each poem individually contains thematic linking characteristics and together they form poetic suites joined by the common threads of memory, appreciation, innocence, curiosity, imagination, kinship, reality and growth. About the Poet: Deborah LeFalle is an active retiree who started writing in her 60s. In addition to writing she enjoys walking, engaging in the arts, digging into her family history, and spending time outdoors communing with nature. Poetry is the genre of writing she is drawn to most with inspiration for her poems often stemming from personal experiences. She lives a simple, gratitude-filled life in Northern California. Biography: Deborah LeFalle holds Bachelor’s degree in Political Science, a Master’s in Urban Affairs, and a Doctorate in Transformative Studies. Besides her academic writing, she has two published books of creative writing to her credit: Worthy (2017); and Bitty Brown Babe (2019). She has also been published in the following journals, magazines and anthologies: Garden of Black Joy: “Auntie Sisterhood” (forthcoming); Still Point Arts Quarterly: “On the Heels of Wonder”; The Haberdasher – Flumes: “Seasons”; The Same Magazine: “waiting for a glimpse”; De La Mancha Magazine: “Where I Find Peace”; Edify Fiction: “Two Days ‘til Christmas”; Third Wednesday: “Groove Interrupted”; Writing in a Woman’s Voice: “Achillea Outside My Window”; Catamaran Literary Reader: “A Keepsake from Nature”; Cherry Blossom Light: “Two More Haiku”; Muse Literary Journal: “In Defense of Linen”; Poetry Quarterly: “Darceen”; The Raven’s Perch: “Do Tell” and “Happenstancing with Hitch”; The Voices Project: “Prelude to Juice”; TimBookTu: “Stuck on Replay”; What Brings You Here?: “Family Reunion” and “Girls in Trees”; Willow Glen Poetry Project: “71 Redeux”; Winter Writes: “Kettle Tea” and “Thank You For” and “On My Way Walking”; You Share Project: “Growing Up Amid Wings”; California Quarterly: “When Do You Know You’re a Poet?”; ESME: “Commuter’s Love Affair”; Entropy/Enclave Final Poems: “Eluding Wisdom”; Field Notes – Interpretations of Nature: “The Creek in the Glen is Choking”; Icon: “House”; Penumbra: “The Visit” and “Lunar Love Letter” and “Waking Up”; Rockhurst Review: “Chris and Chris”; Silver Birch Press’ My Sweet Word Series: “Black Cherry and Me”; Sisyphus Quarterly: “Garden Party”; Miracles and Extraordinary Blessings: “Lesson in the Snow”; Reflections and Illuminations: “Day Before the Antique Dealer Comes”; and Scattered Acorns: “Two Haiku.”

Euonymus is a fragmentary story of rebirth. It focuses on the narrator’s struggles for survival, physical and spiritual, during an unforgiving winter. Although his identity remains vague, the dialogue he has with his God shows him to be stubborn and resilient in the face of ongoing hardship. His two children make cameo appearances, usually at odds with his desires. Euonymus is also a theophany, a work designed to evoke or invoke the appearance of God. In the form of a conversation with an unnamed divinity, the narrator alternatively pleas, demands, questions, laments, or prays for an understanding of what is required of him. The author’s use of an ambiguous first person pronoun ‘I’ makes it difficult to know always whether the narrator is speaking to or being addressed by the other. His world and its creatures share in the conversation. Plants, trees, resident animals each take part, giving a panoramic view of his situation. At the center of the meditation is euonymus—the common spindle tree, on the wood of which, according to lore, Christ was crucified.

Vaulted Skies is a book of snapshots focusing on the brief thoughts and glimpses that make up the "everyday-ness" of life. Small hopes, small fears, small failures, little victories—threaded together—are the real journeys taken by women, men, children toward whatever heaven they hope for or whatever hell they dread.

Dirty Handed Graspings is wide-ranging sample of Ed Ahern's poetry- wry, humorous, and deeply empathetic to the vagaries of our existence. Ed Ahern resumed writing after forty odd years in foreign intelligence and international sales. He’s had over two hundred stories and poems published so far, and four books. Ed works the other side of writing at Bewildering Stories, where he sits on the review board and manages a posse of five review editors. "Ed Ahern covers a wide expanse in his poetry in topics, forms and tones. Enjoy the fun and philosophy." Laurel S. Peterson Poet Laureate Norwalk, CT 2016-2019 "Ed Ahern has the ability to reflect on experience and share emotion succinctly. His writing invariablysecures empathy and respect, and commands the full attention of the reader." John Stocks Poetry Editor, Bewildering stories magazine "Ed Ahern's poems are at once playful and somber. They embrace life in its totality. The poet is precise, self-effacing, nimble, equally unafraid to live joyfully and to lift the curtains that lead to the shadows." Emerson Gilmore author of To Alice and her Cancer: a Chronicle and The Leesburg Poems

Driving Around, Looking in Other People's Windows is a poetry collection about a marriage falling apart in the face of illness and debt. Two young, idealistic poets try to move past the difficulties of their childhoods to make a life together, but good intentions aren't the same as good plans. Bledsoe's poems mix pathos and humor, joie de vivre and clinical depression. His language is spare but warm. He is struggling, not only with living, but with figuring out how to live, how to move through this world in a meaningful way, how to be a person. Ultimately, though the poems might deal with dark subject matter, there is hope. There has to be. About the poet: CL Bledsoe grew up on a rice and catfish farm in eastern Arkansas. He taught high school and college for a decade and now works as a technical writer in northern Virginia, where he lives with his daughter.

Alan Humason’s poetry examines the lives of ordinary people through a narrative exploration of every day events—dating, doing work, driving home, walking outdoors, loving—knowing that honest epiphanies can spring from the most modest of pastimes and contacts. He aims to be insightful and empathetic about the human condition in clear, vivid, evocative language. Taking an observant story-teller’s point of view, rarely writing in the first person, Humason quickly crafts engaging tales that pulse with character, a sense of place, and deeper meanings. The poems in this collection span four decades of work by the author. Taking a cue from the title piece, each poem here is a kind of painting, each visually based while evoking all the senses and a visceral, gut-level response. Along with their immediacy, these poems also look to pose certain questions: How do we reconcile our drives and desires with our shortcomings? How do we find peace—if we ever can? How do we interpret what we see and feel, and where can that lead us? At times the answers are abundantly clear; other times, they remain mysteries too elusive to unravel. The poems are also distinguished by their directness and brevity, with a simplicity of line that carries the reader steadily forward to the end—inviting, not demanding, a second, immersive read. The 18 poems of “The Impressionist Painter” create a heartfelt, brave, and thought-provoking collection, informed by raw experience, and shot through with care, longing, and hope.

In Socorro Prophesy, E. Doyle-Gillespie gives us stories at the edges of the human experience...places familiar, but kept at arm’s reach. We wrestle with the validity of these poems, straining to embrace the wholeness of our being. The campfires of story-spinners and myth-keepers draw us close, like ancient spirits visiting the truth of our human journey together. Along these roads, E. Doyle-Gillespie presents a truck with monsters, dark fears in the shadowy realm. He introduces icons that serve as totems of our secret worries, placeholders of our fears, with voices that seem to know about our fear of death. Through the language of poetry, E. Doyle-Gillespie reaches for the elemental, asking the reader to come to grips with the fragility of the human experience, with its ever-present demons, those in the darkness, those in the mirror.

About the Book: Poets such as Beth Ann Fennelly have explored the evocative, transformative nature of motherhood, but where is the fatherhood companion? Sidney Thompson generously answers with You/Wee—eighteen poems addressed prayer-like to his first-born daughter. Thompson serves as witness to his daughter’s conception, her birth, and her discoveries into toddlerhood, in addition to his own developments and discoveries as a father and child. The mother’s experience, too, is a source of wonder in Thompson’s work: “the girl oh I hope’s within her,” he writes, “is within you, so you, too, may survive/ one revolution after another.” These poems are songs authenticated by a precision so keen they must, in their candor, allow for the elusiveness of joy, the unease of affinity, its vigilance and expectation. You/Wee may begin “when the world is puddle-wonderful,” as E.E. Cummings simultaneously describes spring and childhood in “[in Just-],” but it progresses into a tangle of life’s and love’s most mature complexities, as it should, to reach beyond reach, both “far and wee.” About the Poet: Sidney Thompson earned an MFA in fiction from the University of Arkansas and a PhD in American fiction/African-American narratives from the University of North Texas. He lives in Fort Worth with his wife, Sara, a doula, and their four children and serves as a Writing Consultant for the William L. Adams Center for Writing at Texas Christian University, where he also teaches creative writing and African-American literature. Sydney Emerson, his first biological child, inspired this return to poetry, his first love. Praise for Sidney Thompson: “Thompson’s book You/Wee offers us lyric narratives on early fatherhood, childhood, and the dawn of some mysterious exchange. The poetry’s gift resides in how freely it moves from wit to wonder, from the quotidian and small, the messy even, to their more magnanimous embodiment in our affections. A truly moving collection.” —Bruce Bond, author of Frankenstein’s Children and Choir of the Wells “Thompson’s huge-hearted poems are filled with magic and wonder. From a prayer whispered to the daughter through the mother’s moon belly to, after her birth, the toddler’s first words, and first scar, the adoration and tenderness in these poems is unflinching. You/Wee is an incredibly moving, brilliant look at fatherhood.” —Alex Lemon, author of Feverland: A Memoir in Shards and Another Last Day “Thompson’s poetic tribute to his daughter invites us to share in the astonishing revelation of new life—and a rediscovery of the self. These poems rightfully encompass a vast terrain, as the powers of the female body are innumerable. What a gift Thompson has given us, celebrating, through verse, a family's genesis.” —Jenny Molberg, author of Marvels of the Invisible

Vinnie peers into the mind of the sister overlooked by history, who kept the household going and defended Emily’s reputation against rumor and judgment. These poems, in part based on Vinnie’s 1851 diary, help to fill out her image and give her the role she deserves. Janet McCann taught for 46 years at A&M. Now retired and widowed, she lives with her two large, unruly dogs in Texas, and volunteer-teaches at the prison. Her work has appeared in KANSAS QUARTERLY, PARNASSUS, NIMROD, SOU'WESTER, AMERICA, CHRISTIAN CENTURY, CHRISTIANITY AND LITERATURE, NEW YORK QUARTERLY, TENDRIL, and others. A 1989 NEA Creative Writing Fellowship winner, she taught at Texas A & M University from 1969-2016, is now Professor Emerita. She has co-edited anthologies with David Craig, ODD ANGLES OF HEAVEN (Shaw, 1994), PLACE OF PASSAGE (Story Line, 2000), and POEMS OF FRANCIS AND CLARE (St. Anthony Messenger, 2004), and written books on Wallace Stevens and Emily Dickinson. Most recent poetry collection: THE CRONE AT THE CASINO (Lamar University Press, 2014).

Drowning at the Pool Party for Lifeguards visits the intersection of the broadly historical and the deeply personal, and explores how each works to inform the other. Mingling with poems about the Nazi resistance, World War I, and Civil War burials are verses about personal relationships both successful and otherwise, and a number of other subjects. A reticent father, a romantically grounded farmer, and the avaricious widow of a seventeenth-century adventurer are a few of the characters and voices that are heard from. Even the mother of Death herself makes an appearance. By turns serious and playful, the poems suggest a glimpse of who we have been and who are. We are authors of broken hearts and botched love affairs, as well as breathtakingly courageous acts in defense of those who otherwise have none.

About the book: A bus trip in the fall of 2016 from Kansas City, Missouri to Minneapolis, Minnesota. It couldn’t be more “American heartland” than that. But if you’re thinking farmers in coveralls or sweet, little ladies balancing apple pies on their laps, think again. The passengers on this bus appear wearing hijabs, Nigerian geles, and little white bonnets. The trip includes musical boys with hair braided into elaborate crowns, men in broad-brimmed hats, and tall, slender Somalians. This bus resounds with a cacophony of languages, accents, and road noises. And in this mix, an aging woman, “an old white lady” by her own description. It is through her eyes that we get to know some individuals from this varied assortment: a huge man making a very, very long and delayed journey home; a shy, self-effacing, middle-aged woman who asks little more of life than to have a home free of roaches and a job with health insurance to carry her through to Medicare; a newcomer appalled by America’s fast food eating habits. The speaker is alive, rooted in the strange bouncing moments and aware of the passing world, with its news and political antics. We can only hope that her journey, turned celebration of life, a life shared by a colorful assortment of brilliant and captivating souls, will not become the eulogy of her pivoted life. About the poet: Eve Ott was an English major at the University of Connecticut, where she earned a degree in education from Milton College, Milton, Wisconsin, and did graduate work in creative writing at Emporia State University. She has had multiple poems and short stories published in the following journals: The Same, I-70 Review, Thorny, Locust, and Kansas City Voices in which one of her essays, A Faded Photo from the Seventies, placed third in a prose contest. Her work also has been included in the following anthologies: Whirlybird KC Anthology: “Accidental Angel;” 365 Days Volume 1: “Promises to Keep;” “Words Gone Wild;” “Turning Point;” “Now and Now and Now;” “Pennies and Poems.” 365 Days Volume 2: “July 4th;” “When the Curtain Opens;” “When the New Year Has Come.” Gimme Your Lunch Money: “Once Upon a Time;” “My Bully;” “Pedal Harder,” and in the Kansas Time and Place Anthology: “The House with the Mansard Roof.” Her book Album from the Silent Generation was published in 2014 by Aldrich Press. Eve taught composition as an adjunct at Emporia State University and Butler County Community College, among other jobs. Now retired, she works enthusiastically as a member of the Riverfront Reading Series and The Writers Place Program Committees to give writers, both new and established, a voice in the literary community. Praise for Eve Ott: "A long, Greyhound Bus ride would bring out the grumpy face on most of us, but Eve Ott spotted the beaming giant because she beams, too. Then, one-by-one, she took in her other fellow passengers. Lucky you. You get to meet them." -Alarie Tennille; Poet "Hop aboard for a multicultural slice of American life on a bus while landscape ‘[rolls] endlessly past the window.’ Eve Ott captures [the] character and the experience of traveling so well [that] you’ll feel like you’re there. This is a book you’ll definitely want to read, perhaps while traveling." -Maryfrances Wagner; Co-editor of I-70 Review.

Joel Van Valin’s first collection of poetry is a stroll through a lyrical forest filled with sonnets, aubades, hymns, spells and love poems. His verse signals a return to form, evoking Frost, Millay, Dickinson and Byron. Joel Van Valin is the publisher of the literary journal Whistling Shade, which he founded in 2001. He is the author of a time travel novel, The Grand Dissolute (2015), and a fantasy novel, The Flower of Clear Burning (2002), and he often blogs for the time travel website timetravelnexus.com. His poetry and fiction have appeared in journals such as Dislocate, The Avalon Review, Knockout and The Talking Stick. His poem “Fairy Tale” won the 2017 Park Bugle poetry contest, and his sonnet “The Empty Road” won Best Farewell Sonnet in 2012 in the Maria W. Faust Sonnet Contest. Van Valin has been writing poetry since high school, when he was strongly influenced by the Romantics and early 20th century American lyric poets such as Robert Frost, Elinor Wylie and Edna St. Vincent Millay. He currently works as a technical writer and lives with his wife and twin sons in St. Paul.

The poems in Lyrics from the Central Plateau express the tension between the dominant culture and the developing world culture of Haiti, as witnessed by the speaker who is deeply rooted in serving marginalized, yet resilient, Haitians. These poems are set in the remote place of Cerca, Haiti, which is home to a resilient people who live off the little that the land yields. The poems express the anxiety, joy, regret, anguish, glory and affirmation of the speaker who is trying to collaborate with the church, the villagers and his home in America to bring about peace, prosperity and justice to a small community, which has suffered from the corruption, alienation, and ignorance of government powers – both foreign and domestic. The poems, which appear on one level hopeless, offer on a much deeper level of the true spirit of the human condition’s willingness to survive in the most unfavorable conditions. The poems chronicle the Haitians ability to cling to the “hope buried deep in Haiti’s great mountains." From the rugged geography to the lack of clean water, from those “who farm// In dust and stone” to those who are “ignorant of tomorrow’s promise,” the poems move seamlessly through hope and despair, faith and resilience, and death and resurrection. In a world where the poor suffer and have little representation at the table of plenty, Lyrics from the Central Plateau gives a voice to the Haitian brother who cries out. About the poet: Tim Gavin is an Episcopal Priest who serves as Head Chaplain of The Episcopal Academy. He has served The Episcopal Academy for over 30 years. In addition, he has supervised the school’s partnership with St. Marc’s School in Cerca, Haiti. The focus of the partnership rests on the principles that every community has its assets and can be developed to become self-sustainable. Therefore, Gavin has overseen the building of school in Cerca, development of clean water, the creation of a farm, and the annual operations of a medical clinic. His theological principles that all people share in the divine nature of God solidifies his faith that people, no matter how different their backgrounds, can work together to make the world a better place for all people. Gavin has been an educator for over 30 years and has taught at every age lever from pre-school through graduate school. His poems have appeared in many literary journals. He enjoys distance running and has retired from racing ultra-marathons and now enjoys running for the sake of running. He loves learning about other cultures and understanding the history and literature that articulates the life of those cultures. He lives with his wife in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania and has two adult sons.

A book of short poems about things Les saw, or wished he had seen, or is very sorry indeed that he saw. Les Bohem was part of the great Los Angeles music scare of the early 1980s. His band, Gleaming Spires, had a cultish hit with their single, “Are You Ready For the Sex Girls‚” (if you grew up on Revenge of the Nerds, you know it). At the same time, he was holding down a day job as the bass player with the band, Sparks. After this burgeoning career in rock and roll stopped burgeoning, he found a job writing screenplays about rock and roll musicians whose careers had stopped burgeoning. But no one makes movies about rock and roll musicians whose careers etc, and so he wrote A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 5, The Horror Show, and bits and pieces of several other memorable epics. His feature film screenwriting credits include Twenty Bucks—a movie he wrote based on a 1935 script by his dad, Endre, a screenwriter and producer from the 1920s through the 1970s which was developed in both the Sundance writers and directors labs. The film won several awards, including an Independent Spirit Award. Twenty Bucks was followed by Daylight, Dante’s Peak, The Alamo, Kid, Nowhere To Run, and The Darkest Hour. He also wrote and executive produced the mini-series Taken with Steven Spielberg for which he won an Emmy, as well as a Television Critics Award and a Saturn award. In addition, he and Taken were nominated for a Golden Globe and a Writers Guild award. Last year, he created the show, Shut Eye, but he advises against watching it. Les has never stopped playing music. He's had songs recorded by Emmylou Harris, Randy Travis, Freddy Fender, Steve Gillette, Johnette Napolitano (of Concrete Blonde), Alvin (of the Chipmunks), and the awesome Misty Martinez. He wrote and performs Walk On Well Lighted Streets, the title song for Shut Eye, for which me won a BMI songwriter award. His first album, Moved to Duarte, was released in January to rave reviews and absolutely no sales or downloads. Learn more about Les Bohem by visiting his website. *Poet image by: Bonnie Perkinson

Set in the deserts of the Southwest United States, these poems explore dreams that sometimes dry up and get lost, people who sometimes feel small in an expansive landscape, an environment shaped by inner struggles. About the poet: Lisa Stice is a poet/mother/military spouse, the author of two poetry collections Permanent Change of Station (Middle West Press, 2018) and Uniform (Aldrich Press, 2016), and a Pushcart Prize nominee. She volunteers as a mentor with the Veterans Writing Project, as an associate poetry editor with 1932 Quarterly, and as a contributor for The Military Spouse Book Review. She received a BA in English literature from Mesa State College (now Colorado Mesa University) and an MFA in creative writing and literary arts from the University of Alaska Anchorage. While it is difficult to say where home is, she currently lives in North Carolina with her husband, daughter and dog. Learn more about Lisa Stice on her website: https://lisastice.wordpress.com/

Spanning a period from the mid-nineties to the early aughts, the linked stories in Patron Saints feature a cast of recurring characters who are irresistibly, undeniably real. A young girl comes-of-age in a town full of hunters, wolf pits, and traps. An ex-con makes a home between rocks and hard places while trying to please both his boss and his probation officer. A prostitute snaps a heel, and her pimp, a self-described "soul poacher," feels compelled to take action. Patron Saints explores the symbiotic relationship between dominant and submissive personalities: lost children and their surrogates, hustlers and hoes, hunters and their human prey—characters consumed by ambition and wracked with guilt. This is a world of lapsed Catholics and burnouts. Beauty queens and bulimics. Like sheep, they were sent into a world of wolves by God, and they haven't forgiven him since. About the poet: Daniel Riddle Rodriguez is a full-time student and father from San Lorenzo, California, where he lives with his wife and son. He is the author of Low Village (CutBank 2016) and Low Village: Rules of the Game (Nomadic Press 2016). Previous publications include Fourteen Hills, Eleven Eleven, MonkeyBicycle, Juked, Literary Orphans, Gulf Stream Magazine, Glassworks, Mid-American Review, Word Riot, Prairie Schooner, The Penn Review, and others. Moonlighting as a performance poet, he represented the Oakland Slam Team at National Poetry Slam 2014.

About the book: Still Life, Requiem and an Egg is a collection of poems reflecting on a life in its final decades and the cyclical nature of the universe underlying the aging process. Loss, hunger and the metaphysical are interwoven with the natural world; rivers branch like the veins of the body, a scar glints like fish bones. The forests and rivers of Vermont or the ocean off Cape Cod, are tinged with elements of science, the political and the sensual; the geometry of a snowflake, a bandolier of bullets, ocean’s salty tongue. These are poems of contemplation. Marian Willmott writes in the poem River 1, “I write to listen, to feel its power in my bones, to feel what I cannot know.” About the poet: Marian Willmott is an artist and writer living in Vermont, enjoying both the solitude of the mountains and a vital artistic community. She received a BA in psychology and painting in 1968 from Goddard College and an MFA in painting in 1987 from Goddard College and the Vermont Studio Center, working with oil paints, primarily focused on landscapes. She began writing poetry in high school but it wasn’t until 1999 that she began to focus and develop a writing practice. She now enjoys the balance and interaction of both forms of expression. She worked part time as an art teacher in the public schools, balancing a family of three children and her creative pursuits. She’s now retired from teaching. Much of her writing begins in nature, usually with a ‘free write’ – writing to see what emerges. Often it takes some time before reaching words that resonate and are deeply felt. It is a matter of discovering what she has to say and then honing in on it, expanding or fine tuning it, based on a feeling/intuitive response. She strives to stay present to the mystery we are a part of and deepen the encounter. Her work has been published in Calyx, Salamander, the Denver Quarterly, The Worchester Review, The Louisville Review, Karamu, and The Comstock Review, among other journals and in an anthology, Unbearable Uncertainty. In 2014, a poem was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Turnings, a poetry chapbook, was published by Pudding House Publications in December 2007. Praise for Still Life, Requiem and an Egg: "The poems in this collection are as honest and personal as they are contemplative and profound. How might a man begin to understand what it is to be a woman. How might anyone experience what it is to be this human, to endure her challenges and share her joys. In the opening “River” series, the poet invites readers to abide with her, beside and within the river that is at once her history, her own body, and a body of water in revealing intimacy. And in Part 2 poems of love and compassion for the woes of others. These are the keen observations of an accomplished painter, drawn with elegant imagery, restraint, and deft turns of phrase. Grief is a part, and also patience with the life and the writing. I look forward to more poems by Marian Willmott." ~Daniel Lusk, author of The Shower Scene from Hamlet, The Vermeer Suite, and other books "In this lovely chapbook, Marian Wilmott weaves a place in her world with stories of family, tending, and reclamation. Like the movement in the rivers that make up the first section, the poems here have an undercurrent of clarity and elements of surprise. Connections to earth layer through the later poems. Here the natural world anchors extraordinary images as the poet lives the ordinary, intermingling the erotic with the everyday. These are certainly poems to be savored slowly." ~Patricia Fontaine, author of Lifting My Shirt and editor of Healing Art & Writing: Using Creativity to Meet Illness

Poetica de Poetica is an entertaining-yet-instructive journey through the basic elements of poetic craft: metaphor, free verse, analogy, and more. With skill and humor, Joe Masi invites us into his enjoyable poetry classroom, treating us to memorable examples of basic building blocks every poet should learn and know. Praise for Poetica de Poetica: "Poetica de Poetica is a delightful little primer for beginning poets that reminds me of Strunk and White's The Elements of Style in its humor, concision, and clarity. Masi gives the beginner not only useful advice but also examples that echo Elements of Style. Don't "Use weak nouns that hop along/on their adjective crutches//Clog a line's arteries/with passive verbs." Do "Pick nouns and verbs that require/no adjective, adverb hangers-on." I recommend Poetica de Poetica, not only for the poet just starting out, but also as a humorous reminder to the experienced poet who is perhaps getting too smug." ~Art Elser, author of A Death at Tollgate Creek and To See a World in a Grain of Sand. "As the title implies, Joe Masi's Poetica de Poetica is both a series of poems about poetry—and a smart, savvy instruction manual on poetic craft. The poet deftly navigates an instructive journey through the basic elements of poetry, all while thoroughly entertaining the reader. At 88 years young, Joe possesses a remarkable, fresh voice—one distinguished by both his humor and poetic skill. Don't miss this one." ~Joy Roulier Sawyer author of Tongues of Men and Angels and Lifeguards "Joe Masi is a brilliant wordsmith, Jack of all trades, and consummate humanist. His new Poetica de Poetica is a captivating synopsis dealing with the etiology of poetic inspiration and literary craftsmanship. It is a tight, succinctly written symphony of creative issues and inspirations, conducted deftly by Joe's inimitable insight and acumen. Highly recommended, even for non-poets." ~Thomas A. Myers, author of Cancer as an Opportunity About the Poet: Joe Masi was born in 1930 and grew up as a townie in Greenwich, CT. The recipient of a work scholarship to Princeton, he lettered in both football and track, and graduated with a degree in economics in 1952. In 1951, Joe was featured in a five-page spread in LIFE, which chronicled his career as a B-team quarterback, daily facing off against the No. 4 football team in the nation. For many years, Joe worked as a management consultant for Deloitte, and in his retirement years has intently pursued honing his poetic craft. His work appears in such publications as Anti-Aging Articles, Baseball Bard, Evening Street, Poet's Haven, Trajectory, and WestWard Quarterly. His latest project is an unpublished poetry memoir, Depression Baby. Joe is a member of Lighthouse Writers Workshop in Denver, the largest literary center in the West, where he has studied with faculty members Joy Roulier Sawyer and former Denver poet laureate Chris Ransick. He has also both taught and created original coursework in ethics and American politics at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.

Baggage May Shift takes the reader on a remarkable journey from Terez Peipins’s immigrant past, from a childhood on a farm in Western New York to broader horizons in Europe and America. With dazzling images she transports us to Paris, Irish roads, and a ship crossing the Atlantic after the Second World War. The focal point of this collection of poems is the need of the writer to belong to a place in the world and she has found that place in nature and a variety of lands. Peipins is truly a citizen of the world. Poetry

About the book: Part love poem, part speculative memoir, An August Nightmare is an exploration of grief and fear, the fear of grief. If loss can haunt a loved one left behind, how might one find what remains of himself within the shatter? Dudas takes up this question in a collection of prose fragments that unsettle familiar spaces to imagine how a particular emptiness moves in. About the poet: Stephen Dudas teaches at Miami University in Oxford, OH. He earned an MA in Creative Writing from Miami University in 2013. Dudas is currently pursuing a PhD in literature. His writing has been published in The Great Lakes Book Project, drupe fruits, Ohio’s Best Emerging Poets (Z Publishing House), and Rain Taxi. Dudas is a founding co-editor of Threadcount Magazine.

Dreams of Somewhere Else is a short collection of poetry released by the Prolific Press International Chapbook Series. Praise for Ken L. Jones... “I have been a champion of this project from the beginning, I consider myself one of the lucky few who get to read Ken’s poetry daily with his “Poem of the Day” which he sends via email. The poems really do mean a lot to me and I don’t take them for granted.” David Todd Ocvirk, director of Kolobos and Gangs of the Dead. “The Poetry of Ken L. Jones is amazing. Not defined, Ken echoes Edgar Allan Poe Saki, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth with tinges of Shel Silverstein. His verse is anagrammatic, yet his work emerges lyrically complex and visually precise. This is not poetry for the Dick and Jane crowd. Enjoy.” Tim Lasiuta, former reviewer for Comic Buyer’s Guide, author and popular culture historian. "I have been blessed by being able to read many of Ken L. Jones’ poems. Ken paints with words and often sparks ideas for my own paintings and drawings from a few lines.” Phil Yeh, Godfather of the graphic novel.” “In poetry circles, Ken is known for his cut-up poetry and eccentric fiction works, as well as his collage paintings.” Tom Luth, artist for Mad Magazine.

One Step Ahead is a stunning collection of poetry by Ken Jones. These poems sing, here and now, in all the right ways. The subtle nuances of voice and intonation are like treasures for the reader - things the reader witnesses because the poet points the way. A wealth of imagery jumps off the page, making these poems approachable and enjoyable for everyone. Some readers will view these poems as complex creations that rest innocently on the page, with all the appearance of simplicity on the first read, but with layers of meaning that unfold on subsequent reads. With that in mind, Jones opens this collection with a poetic instruction to the reader, “Do not look / for hidden meaning / in the words I write…” but adept readers will look beneath the sheets and behold the splendor of places that weren’t really meant to be seen. One look isn’t enough, not for any of us. Praise for One Step Ahead: "Shelley defined the poet as one “who beholds the present intensely as it is." To read Ken Jones’s “Close Encounter” is to behold present, past and future – all intensely, all at the same time with a dizzying frisson of recognition. With the physicist’s gift for apprehending the convergence of forces that press upon the immediate and the artist’s gift for capturing the numinous, the inchoate, the hidden, Jones in his poetry remakes the world, stripping from it the veil of familiarity, recreating it, making it new again -- both rich and strange." Dr Kathleen Schultheis, English department, Oak Park HS, California. "Ken Jones’ poems place us right smack dab in the present. These heart poems, this English voice is immersed in the wonder of the word the world. This book embraces the awe the spectacle of the moment. These “scribblings” look inward and in that journey, life is there “ … all the while / like a flowing river / and you / just / happen / to it." Phil Taggart, Ventura County Poet Laureate (www.philtaggart.com)

Michael Flanagan never fails to create breathtaking haiku, filled with depth and beauty. His images of nature remind us all that we are part of the natural world, not so unlike the creatures we see every day, and rarely give a voice to. Flanagan offers that voice, and also speaks to the questions raised by the human condition -- each haiku a gift of an ever-present moment, sometimes contemplative, always a reflection of ourselves. He shows us the world one tiny moment at a time, inviting us to live in that moment with his creation. The revelation of the readers' perspective helps make us aware of our higher-self, and grounds us in our humble roots. Haiku has that power. Flanagan wields it like a sword we embrace.

True stories of loss over differing cultures and times in history. Emmerich is a native Canadian, a soldier’s daughter, and a daughter of communism. She has spent all of her professional life in the mental health field where she currently practices as a psychotherapist in Sedona, AZ. Through the experiences of her parents and clients, she has learned much about suffering, pain, and joy. Ashes of Memories sifts the voices of her past. Through her words and extraordinary talents, you are invited to go with Jen Emmerich on her journey. Listen to those same voices and live the experiences of a rich and beautiful life through her words. You may never get closer to a passion like this.

Now available! Mark Tulin arrives with epiphany and confidence. Magical Yogis is about magic, the magic of words to bring balance and upheaval simultaneously. These poems stretch the mind, twist the conscious, and leave the spirit in a puddle of sweat, under which the mind is pinned to the mat of a new reality. Tulin’s approachable voice expresses a harmony that all people can gravitate to and enjoy. About Mark Tulin: Mark Tulin retired from psychotherapy and moved to Santa Barbara, California five years ago to pursue writing poetry and short stories. When he’s not writing, he’s in the yoga studio doing headstands and slow vinyasa. He has published in the elephant journal, Fiction on the Web, San-ta Barbara Independent, Family Therapy Magazine, Dual Coast Magazine, Page and Spine, the Creating Writing Outloud podcast and many others. He is a featured writer on HubPages and his website, www.crowonthewire.com., features links to all his writings.

The Ten Most Important Questions of the Twentieth-Century, articulated by a multiplicity of voices and dialects, is a sometimes comic, sometimes tragic, sometimes absurd meditation upon questions that seemed to haunt the era. The voices, manipulated by a ubiquitous, unseen narrator, include those of historical personages like Freud, William James, Abbot & Costello, Heidegger, Max Planck, Jackie Wilson, Schrodinger, et al; and some fictitious characters like Old Blues Man and Shaman. All to ensure a Byzantine babel. The “answers,” if any, range from serious meditations on existence to outright, vaudevillian jokes. Or often the “answers” are irrelevant, the questions mere prompts for one of the voices to wax and wane. About the poet: Louis Gallo’s work has appeared or will shortly appear in Southern Literary Review, Fiction Fix, Glimmer Train, Hollins Critic,, Rattle, Southern Quarterly, Litro, New Orleans Review, Xavier Review, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, Missouri Review, Mississippi Review, Texas Review, Baltimore Review, Pennsylvania Literary Journal, The Ledge, storySouth, Houston Literary Review, Tampa Review, Raving Dove, The Journal (Ohio), Greensboro Review,and many others. Chapbooks include The Truth Change, The Abomination of Fascination and Status Updates. He is the founding editor of the now defunct journals, The Barataria Review and Books: A New Orleans Review. He teaches at Radford University in Radford, Virginia. 52 Pages. Chapbook bound. Full Color Cover ISBN: 978-1-63275-062-4 Printed in the U.S.A.

About the poet: Howie Good has been a journalism professor at the State University of New York at New Paltz since 1985. He received his bachelor’s degree from Bard College, his master’s from the University of Iowa, and his Ph.D. from University of Michigan. Prior to embarking on an academic career, he worked on daily newspapers in Michigan, North Carolina, and North Dakota. He has written scholarly books on media ethics and the image of journalists in American popular culture as well as collections of essays on public education. His forthcoming book of poems, Dangerous Acts Starring Unstable Elements, won the 2015 Press Americana Prize for Poetry. His other poetry books include A Special Gun for Elephant Hunting (Dog on a Chain Press), The Complete Absence of Twilight (MadHat Press), Fugitive Acts (Right Hand Pointing) and Dark Specks in a Blue Sky (Another New Calligraphy). He lives in New York’s Mid-Hudson Valley with his wife, Barbara, and their dog, Dewey. Poetry: (5.5 X 8.5) 56 Pages, Chapbook Bound. ISBN: 978-1-63275-047-1