January 6th, 2018 by admin
New poem by Kim Shuck
2017 Poet Laureate of San Francisco
Drought Break
Weaving of water is layered
Sitting in the rain
Feet dragging in the runoff
I know there are trees coming down tonight
Drought tired
Clots of soil run free
Sailors still catch...
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Tags: Francisco X. Alarcón, James Downs, Joe Milosch, John Peterson, Kim Shuck
Posted in: Forever Journal
June 11th, 2017 by admin
From our 20th Anniversary Anthology
Light in All Directions
Brandon Cesmat
Light in All Directions
I felt your gaze all day as you drove the road toward me.
That night in the observatory, we leaned into the telescope,
held our breath to focus on Jupiter...
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Tags: Poetry
Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
May 27th, 2017 by admin
Refining the moment
Reach out a quavering hand to touch rock
bird bones may be Hollow... but they are heavy
.
colors of Fall are proportional to colors of Spring
there's a giant in the Sky prepared to roar
.
find yourself in company of No...
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Tags: James Downs, Poetry
Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
May 18th, 2017 by admin
From our 20th Anniversary Anthology
BLESSINGS AND CURSES
poems by Anne Whitehouse
BLESSING XVI
There is something to be said
for being a renter,
of watching over a place
without the obligation
to improve it.
The Native Americans
made it a practice
to...
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Tags: Anne Whitehouse, Poetry
Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
May 18th, 2017 by admin
From our 20th Anniversary Anthology
Dingle Day
poems by Joe O’Connell
Music-energy
In Flanders fields
Did Bob Seeger and the Silver Bullet Band
Buoy us up on a Spring morning
With a driving force,
Ebullient, hoarse and sound,
Prophetic energy about nothing...
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Tags: Joe O'Connell, Poetry
Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
May 18th, 2017 by admin
From our 20th Anniversary Anthology
A ROSE IN THE BRIAR PATCH
poems by DAN THARP
Oscar
We dropped his ashes from the bridge
into the Canadian River below;
left our words upon the breeze and
watched the current
sweep him away…
followed soon by two...
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Tags: Dan Tharp, Poetry
Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
May 18th, 2017 by admin
From the forth coming 20th Anniversary Anthology
The Gathering
poems by Diana Festa
Odors
After Umberto Eco’s
The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana
The soil’s peculiar smell,
fog filtering into clusters of trees,
rain on pavement,
the earthy odor of artichokes,...
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Tags: Diana Festa, Poetry
Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
March 22nd, 2017 by admin
Lament
And are you gone from me?
And are you dead?
Who loved me always
and now prefer the wind.
And is it spring
with an untimely frost?
And are the bushes sticks?
And berry-flowers dew?
And do I waking wake?
And is this floor the earth?
And do I...
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Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
January 17th, 2017 by admin
Equinox
Like wings,
the reclaiming of the dark hours
arches across the rosy-eyed lull
of not knowing,
plumed in possibility
and iridescent visions,
flourishes of sacred geometry
stirring what once felt like
the...
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Tags: Iris Orpi, poems
Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
September 28th, 2016 by admin
Strings of Shining Silence
When shadows lengthen,
our breaths grow closer, and
bundled bodies huddle against
drizzle-slanting snow and rain.
To warmth we turn,
the nearness of a cello heartbeat;
strings of shining silence
fill my chest with crimson tones....
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Tags: poems, Raphael Block
Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
September 7th, 2016 by admin
A CUT ABOVE
Stems lay flat when
first cut for display
.
we can play like it
is not a big deal
or it will grow to
full size of the sun
.
we tend to put
emphasis where
.
we already want
it to be…
within
all this change
.
it doesn’t and
then it does
.
it’s...
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Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
June 14th, 2016 by admin
Morning
Reluctant night after a brooding duty, slowly retreating
The earth in gray, some dim shades still hovering
Dawn strides out leisurely to wake every farm
The sleepy sun, in liquid light, making the sand warm
Morning nymph rising from the ocean...
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Tags: India, Poetry, Sandeep Kumar Mishra
Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
June 14th, 2016 by admin
Use This Day
Use this day
For love, for friendship, for rage,
For justice, for hope,
For worship, if your gods are worthy of it.
Use it
To build, to create,
To bring meaning,
To fight the void and navigate the flux.
Don’t shirk, don’t slouch.
Use it....
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Tags: Clifford Browder, Poetry
Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
April 27th, 2016 by admin
Born
Some of this is make believe.
Or at least, it starts that way,
as a faraway dream,
a dream of all that we can be.
So it is inside every me.
Life ain’t always easy.
In fact, it’s often quite stinky
heartbreakingly.
Rhymes often fail at the line,...
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Tags: Joe Bisicchia, Poetry
Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
April 27th, 2016 by admin
NOW THAT I’VE MADE IT HERE
Pink sheets of pleasure
open like petals,
float across bare knees.
My head adrift in pillow,
yours warming my naked chest,
serenity keeps us in mind
for moments like this.
Love-making over,
I taste the wine of the results,...
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Tags: John Grey, Poetry
Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
March 4th, 2016 by admin
Bilingual hearts
In memory of Francisco X. Alarcón
From the East to the West
From the snow to the hills
where life becomes
a fairy tale
Your gentle eyes gave me peace
Your light kindled my voice
on a night when fatigue
rained down on me shamelessly...
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Tags: Poetry, Silvia Marijuan
Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
February 21st, 2016 by admin
Here are two poems that have similar subjects enough to be connected.
Speak it into being
I didn't believe but
.......I spoke it into being
and ever infinitesimal
.......I became what I am
and that is what I was meant
.......to be
all this...
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Tags: James Downs, poems, Poetry
Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
February 21st, 2016 by admin
Mermaids
we were going to take the boat out, sail
to the edge of the world, tease
the monsters waiting there with our
bare, dangling feet, toes tickling the ocean skin
like tiny pink fish
but you had to go and ruin it
chase shore-hugging mermaids instead...
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Tags: Holly Day, poems
Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
January 16th, 2016 by admin
We have lost a rare and beautiful person. To Francisco, my friend, my love to you on your new journey. It has been my privilege and my joy to have gotten to know you and to work with you. Thanks to James Downs for introducing us and thanks to Devon,...
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Tags: Francisco X. Alarcón, Press Notes
Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
January 6th, 2016 by admin
Water Tactics
Drops’ jots and tittles form icicles
that lock up in temperature drops and yet
drip in more warm phenom clear and present
placebo venom.
Is Defines Is
This beautiful panorama of is
somehow has arrived at being what’s there,
and...
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Tags: poems, TWIXT
Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
November 13th, 2015 by admin
PARADE
Some are big-boned, some are egret-thin.
For every tall one, there's another squat and dumpy.
Most are brunettes, a few blondes, now and then, a red-head.
Many noses are up, many chins are down.
Some chatter constantly. Others remain silent.
Morose,...
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Tags: John Grey, Poetry
Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
October 5th, 2015 by admin
The Art of Healing
by Gail Rudd Entrekin and Charles Entrekin
Gail and Charles are well known to Poetic Matrix Press. We have published two books by Gail and one by Charles. In this volume they alternate pieces exploring the very trying journey through...
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Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
August 27th, 2015 by admin
Hurricane Katrina 10th Anniversary
AS ONE MAN SAT IN AN EVACUATION
CENTER IN BATON ROUGE
he could not stop watching
the images of hurt and
crying children on TV.
Known as Grandpa Grady
the elderly man in his
River Ridge neighborhood
was sickened...
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Tags: Katrina, Lyn Lifshin, Quote
Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
August 10th, 2015 by admin
The Art of Healing a new books of poetry on healing from cancer due out fall 2015 ...
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Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
July 19th, 2015 by admin
Untitled
When I was a kid
I would go into my Dad’s
garage and tear apart
anything I could grab
I never wanted to know
how it worked
to destroy
to see the insides
bare on the table
to name each piece
see it’s function
The Ninja Turtles
The phone’s bell...
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Tags: Lindsey Lewis Smithson, Poetry
Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
July 1st, 2015 by admin
Go ahead dive down
It is alright something beautiful is in there
You'll see
More beautiful then even you're sadness
It will take your sorrow and turn
It cloudy and bright
Like the shine on that red amber place
You've seen once or twice
Just before...
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Tags: John Peterson, poems
Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
May 30th, 2015 by admin
137 bullets (a lament)
.
.
shots rang out…rang out…rang out
they have them cornered and shots
started ringing out…it was as if 13
fingers resting against 13 triggers
couldn’t hold back any more and so
shots rang out…rang out…rang out
.
no one even knew...
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Tags: James Downs, Quote
Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
April 26th, 2015 by admin
Prospero’s Book
It possessed all
his magic to keep
a daughter close.
But one cannot hold
the moon forever
or its rhythms still
and even a sorcerer
must yield to such
first, inevitable facts.
Here, I give you,
the best...
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Tags: poems, Richard Luftig
Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
April 5th, 2015 by admin
Excepts from MALALA by Lyn Lifshin published by Poetic Matrix Press
Pakistani Malala Yousafzai was awarded the Noble Peace Prize for 2014 along with Indian child advocate Kailash Satyarthi.
LIKE CHILDREN TRAILING GLORY
Malala, still playing with dolls,...
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Tags: Lyn Lifshin, poems, Poetry
Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
March 20th, 2015 by admin
REVOLUTION
Lay the earth bare
Let every child resound
Let every voice
throw its weight
against the sky.
Let every lost soul
succumb to the day of reckoning
How the temperature rose
higher than the
oceans tide
How bodies
sound like symphonies
the night...
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Tags: Melodic Rose, poems, Poetry
Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
February 8th, 2015 by admin
"Howl"
A soul confronting primal chaos, the cosmos exponentially decrepitating until even walls begin melting and all structure ceases, one by one family and friends into the smirking unanimity of sheer darkness, casually into a typewriter slips a leaf...
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Tags: Joe Netsky, poems
Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
November 20th, 2014 by admin
Serengeti
Africa is billowy primrose clouds
on sky blue canvas
barefoot Masai boys wearing red plaid blankets
herding scrawny goats and cattle
over ruddy dry earth, purple-green foothills—
our primal ancestral common ground
Thompson’s gazelles graze sparse...
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Tags: Poetry, Tomás Gayton
Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
October 21st, 2014 by admin
Solar Eclipse
I
Mother Moon embraces
Father Sun above the clouds –
we, their children, rejoice!
Mamá Luna abraza
a Papá Sol sobre las nubes –
sus hijos nos regocijamos
Tugann an Mháthair, an Ghealach,
Barróg don Athair, an Ghrian, os cionn na néalta –...
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Tags: Francisco X. Alarcón, Poetry
Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
May 31st, 2014 by admin
OK
OK, mid morning on a Monday
Diana Krall comin through the speakers
The latte is hot and smooth
Like the sun on my shoulders
Yes it's Starbucks, the coffee and sounds
Are canned, chosen in the hip board room,
Still it's good
Traffic and Bart going...
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Tags: John Peterson, poems
Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
March 4th, 2014 by admin
Landscape of a Woman and a Hummingbird
Joseph Milosch
New from Poetic Matrix Press
Available on our website
Climbing Modjeska Peak
It is the same, climbing a mountain
or a high-tension power pole.
The world becomes smaller
as I climb, fixing my eyes
on...
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Tags: Joe Milosch, poems
Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
March 4th, 2014 by admin
Malala
Lyn Lifshin
New from Poetic Matrix Press
Available on our website
ON THAT DAY
the teenagers
chattered with their
teachers as the school
bus rattled along the
country road. They
just finished a term
paper and broke out
singing a Pashton...
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Tags: Lyn Lifshin, poems
Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
March 4th, 2014 by admin
Spangling Darkness
Raphael Block
poetry and songs
New from Poetic Matrix Press
Available on our website
New Year
Our celebrations were small affairs
with one or two present at most,
like the welcome my wife and daughter
gave the New Year, with carefully...
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Tags: poems, Raphael Block
Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
December 13th, 2013 by admin
I am Homeland
Twelve Korean-American Poets
Edited by Yearn Hong Choi
New from Poetic Matrix Press
Available on our website
By Doo Hyun Chung
An Empty Tomb
In the midst of fire shell of the Korean War,
Vanished
My father, missing
No traces to his death...
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Tags: poems
Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
November 19th, 2013 by admin
Touch Red
Touch red
Ouch
Touching red is like knowing you
But can you touch red at all?
Is it the red of the red
Or the red of the thing
That makes touching red
Touching red?
The bright and the blare
And the...
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Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
October 25th, 2013 by admin
Buffalo Girl (Annie)
Knew a chic named Annie
Who wrote poetry
Later taught herself to play
Guitar and discovered she was
Pretty good at it
I met her in a coffeehouse in Greenpoint, Brooklyn
One night, when I was reading
And looking to score some
Boodah...
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Tags: Erren Geraud Kelly, poems
Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
August 14th, 2013 by admin
In Malala's Spring Dream
the pond is a
dark blossom
unfolding. If she
were to move to
the window in the
dream, there
would be white
lilies thru blinds,
suspended
instead of a
moon.
Fog lips on roots
and willows
filtering into
dreams of swans....
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Tags: Lyn Lifshin, poems
Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
August 12th, 2013 by admin
When I was Young and Proud
When I was young and proud
owner of a lawn
it would have caused offense.
But now, singing dandelions
innocently declare summer's height
while...
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Tags: poems, Raphael Block
Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
July 26th, 2013 by admin
Men and Women I've Kissed
Sometime during my second year at college, Eva comes to a party
at our apartment while her boyfriend was studying.
I fall behind the couch and she falls on top of me.
When...
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Tags: poems
Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
July 23rd, 2013 by admin
From the Empress Hsi-Ling-Shi
The mulberries will soon bear white fruit.
On thin branches silkworms
feed on heartshaped leaves.
In early summer they will spin their silken
threads, spin silk threads as a gift.
We will take the coccoons, boil them,
and...
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Tags: Joseph Zacardi, poems
Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
July 15th, 2013 by admin
Kings River Canyon
This old, bald pine has to know it's dying.
Maybe it over heard the whispers
of evergreens, growing on these
glacier-sheered cliffs, or maybe
the pine knows it intuitively
as it knows yearly it has to manage
to squeeze out a thin ring...
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Tags: Joe Milosch, poems
Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
June 25th, 2013 by admin
Morning, River Camp
(Desolations and Gray Canyons, Green River)
It is early yet—the hour of the gray dawn.
All night we have slept on the smooth thigh of the sand.
Our first waking breath is of air scrubbed
clean by sage and sun, tamarisks and swift water....
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Tags: Chris Hoffman, poems
Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
June 20th, 2013 by admin
Bells
No bells ringing
no incense burning
no one but you.
No spoken sounds
no embracing arms
no one else but you.
Inner voices buzzing
deepening breathing
you’re coming to you.
With or without stilling
something is flowing.
You’re entering
a cavern...
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Tags: poems, Raphael Block
Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
June 7th, 2013 by admin
Welcome to our new re-visioned website and this our latest version of our poetry journal. We started this in the late 90s as an occasional mail-out newsletter, changed to a twice yearly on-line version in the mid 2000s and now we change again to a blog...
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Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
February 13th, 2013 by admin
-for devon
last night the pond was the size of a small hat
ten or fifteen of you holding on enough water
only to cover your back and keep the sun off
foot prints of coon and coyote dog and deer
and small bird circling down from reed covered
banks across...
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Tags: John Peterson, poems
Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal
January 4th, 2013 by admin
Kiirsti Peterson studied at the University of Barcelona, Spain in the summer of 2012 and had the opportunity of seeing the work of the amazing architect and builder Antoni Gaudí. Here are a few of the photos she took.
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Tags: photo essays
Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal