To be considered as a feature poet/artist, please send me an email with at least 5 poems/works of art that you would like to be featured here. Please include a short bio. At this time I am only accepting submissions via email. Please note any poems/works of art that support any forms racism, discrimination, and/or violence will be immediately rejected and will remove you from any future consideration as a feature here.
Our first feature Poet (and a very good friend of mine) is Christina M Brooks. She is a life long Michigan native and a proud resident of the little near northern suburb of Detroit called Ferndale. She is a writer, poet, student, mom, gardener, sword fighter, tennis player, leather-crafter, paper-arts artist and heavy metal music fan. She is also a vegetarian, Taoist Buddhist-Pagan religious eclectic.Christina is active in the writing and poetry community. You can find her on FaceBook and MySpace. She has had her poetry published in The City Poetry Zine, the Deep Cleveland Junk Mail Oracle, The Crisis Chronicles Online Poetry Library, Poet’s Haven PodCasts, and several other poetry zines.
She is currently working on a fantasy story called Rune Warrior: Tales of the Shattered Tower, which she hopes will be published some time in late 2011.
If she is not at home, in front of her computer writing then she is enjoying the library, open mic poetry readings (anywhere from Ferndale to Cleveland), playing tennis, participating with her son in his hobby of miniatures gaming and sword fighting or preparing to study for her graduate degree in counseling.
Her other interests range from Eastern religion and philosophy, to Celtic and medieval history and culture.
Thank you Christina for volunteering as my first feature. It is my pleasure to present you and your poetry here in this new venture. Welcome to *Mnemosyne*!
Spring Revel
Just outside the yellow curtains
Hanging low, a mango moon
Hanging there pregnant, full
Transforming dreams into saffron pistils
Quivering, it’s light bent around trees and under bramble
A delicate dance of chestnut shadows
Ivy speaking in tongues
Only to be silenced by
The hoot owl’s questioning query
A laughing ripple lingers upon the silent pond
It leaves no kiss upon the further shore
It is only Spring, who has arrived
And removes her daily dress
Revealing herself naked in her dark nightly scents.
By c.m.brooks ~~ 2009
Posts
I fell into a shadowy trance reading "Spring Revel" and wondered how that could happen instantly. The evocation of mysterious night is so effortlessly wrought. Then, I wondered if the blog's black background had been playing a trick on me...helping the poem to cheat its way into my head. So, I copied the poem and pasted it into a document. I wanted to try reading it on a white background.
ReplyDeleteTurns out, the spell was not artificially induced. It is borne on the images and the rhythm of the poem itself. And that cadence! It flows as if off the tongue of a strange, nocturnal fairy or Nordic elf. The words practically sing themselves into my imagination. Man...I wish this could be translated into Finnish or Icelandic and then set to an eccentric, impressionistic tune. With just a lone guitar, in some kind of exotic open-tuning.
I like the soft, implicit rhyming of "curtains" -- "pistils" and "bramble" -- "shadows" and "tongues" -- "pond," as well as the long-arcing alliteration of "kiss" -- "dress" -- "scents."
This poems spell of gentle magic is transfixing. If only for a while -- during the reading and some time afterwards -- the prosaic and the moribund fall away, leaving us with a re-enchanted Nature.
~ Tim Buck
Oh, my! In my last paragraph, "poems" is not plural. But after previewing, I saw no way to edit in the required possessive apostrophe.
ReplyDeleteBut now I see: clicking the "x" doesn't delete the comment, just throws you back for editing. Live and learn.
~ Tim
An excellent idea, Jen - beautifully conceived and executed! And I'm very pleased to see our dear friend Christina featured. Love your poem, Chris!
ReplyDeleteTim, I love your luscious "review" of Christina's Poem.
ReplyDeleteJohn, your support means the world to me as well!
Thanks to both of you for taking the time to stop by, read and comment. :-)
the one inside the yellow curtains
ReplyDeleteis hiding from the full moon
Thanks for stopping by to comment Charlax!
ReplyDelete