Poems from the 20th Anniversary Authors' Anthology

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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Posted in: Forever Journal

Brandon Cesmat

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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James Downs 

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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BLESSINGS AND CURSES poems by Anne Whitehouse

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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Joe O’Connell

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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DAN  THARP

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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Diana Festa

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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Joan Michelson, London England

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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Iris Orpi - 5 Poems

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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Poems from Raphael Block's book, Strings of Shining Silence

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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New poems by James Downs

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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Sandeep Kumar Mishra, India

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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Clifford Browder

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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Joe Bisicchia

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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John Grey

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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Silvia Marijuan

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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James Downs

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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Holly Day

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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FRANCISCO X. ALARCÓN

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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TWIXT 5 poems

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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John Grey

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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Gail Rudd Entrekin and Charles Entrekin

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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Poetry from Katrina by Lyn Lifshin

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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Charles Entrekin and Gail Rudd Entrekin

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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Lindsey Lewis Smithson

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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John

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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James Downs

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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Richard Luftig

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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MALALA by Lyn Lifshin

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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Melodic Rose

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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Joel Netsky

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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Tomás Gayton

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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Solar Eclipse by Francisco X. Alarcón (click here for full poem)

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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OK by John Peterson

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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Landscape of a Woman and a Hummingbird

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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Malala

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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Spangling Darkness

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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I am Homeland

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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Poems by James B. Nicola

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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Poems by Erren Geraud Kelly

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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In Malala's Spring Dream – Lyn Lifshin

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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When I was Young and Proud – Raphael Block

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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Men and Women I've Kissed – Brandon Cesmat

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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From the Empress Hsi-Ling-Shi – Joseph Zacardi

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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Kings River Canyon – Joe Milosch

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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Morning, River Camp – Chris Hoffman

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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Bells – Raphael Block

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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Welcome from John Peterson, Publisher

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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tadpoles – John Peterson

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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Work of Antoni Gaudí – Kiirsti Peterson

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. [caption id="attachment_17" align="aligncenter"...

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