Wednesday 16 November 2011

Exposed

Natural three
in those days spent,
red lights.
It's not too late to cross them off your list.

I saw it in your pocket.
I saw you place it there
under supervision
in wed-locked circumstance,
across the stoney floor
we fall.

Through smoke and dim lit forests
we grow and tackle to the ground,
until
our bodies, clothes
are smeared in blood and grit.
To be the act of violence
and dance with its ideas.

By Robert William Atherton

Tuesday 25 October 2011

Poetry in the Mens Room




Graffiti that caught my attention in the toilets of a bar in Liverpool.

Wednesday 12 October 2011

THE BE-GOOD-NEWS CARNIVAL DREAM


Here come officiators
on all-terrain bikes
semaphore animal companion hands.
The herd ogle ambient shadows
under an automated teller machine.
Dancing juveniles in hoop-skirts
stagger as flutes choke.
The Attitude Queen gawps
at the tar-black tongue
of a hanged bail bandit.

by Chris Barnes.

In 1998 I won a Northern Arts writers award. In July 200 I read at Waterstones bookshop to promote the anthology 'Titles Are Bitches'. Christmas 2001 I debuted at Newcastle's famous Morden Tower doing a reading of my poems. Each year I read for Proudwords lesbian and gay writing festival and I partake in workshops. 2005 saw the publication of my collection LOVEBITES published by Chanticleer Press, 6/1 Jamaica Mews, Edinburgh.

On Saturday 16Th August 2003 I read at the Edinburgh Festival as a Per Verse poet at LGBT Centre, Broughton St.

I also have a BBC web-page: http://www.bbc.co.uk/tyne/videonation/stories/gay_history.shtml

Sunday 14 August 2011

Reoccurring Dream (Including The Soundtrack)


It starts the way it ends-


someone yells Hallelujah

and the hooligans put away their

brass knuckles and firearms then

sing lullabies to coax the wings out.


Pin the tail on the donkey is replaced

with games of ball and jacks.


The bungo juice is passed around one

final time and then the soberest one

in the bunch stumbles up to read out

aloud the note scotch-taped to the pearly

gates, you know, the one that says;


Picking-up some Chinese takeaway,

Be Back In A Jiffy!




Biography

After almost a decade of working as a freelance photographer in Europe,

Maurice Oliver returned to America in 1990. Then, in 1995, he made a

life-long dream reality by traveling around the world for eight months. But

instead of taking pictures, he recorded the experience in a journal which

eventually became poems. And so began his desire to be a poet. His

poetry has appeared in numerous national and international publications

and literary websites including Potomac Journal, Pebble Lake Review,

Frigg Magazine, Dandelion Magazine, (Canada), Stride Magazine (UK),

Cha Asian Literary Journal, (Hong Kong), Kritya (India), Blueprint Review,

(Germany) and Arabesques Review (Algeria). His forth chapbook was One

Remedy Is Travel (Origami Condom, 2007). He edits the literary ezine

Eye Socket Journal at: http://eyesocketjournal.blogspot.com . He lives

in Portland, OR, where he works as a private tutor.

Monday 13 June 2011

Our second poet on the blog!


Beat Until Smooth

I am in the middle of discussing my recipe

for caramel nut brownies with Janet,

the woman seated next to me on the flight home

when there is a loud popping noise

and the plane starts losing altitude fast.


I can hardly breathe.

I can hardly believe this is happening.

This plane is really going down;

we’re really going to die.


It occurs to me that

when I hugged my wife

goodbye at the airport,

I only kissed her on the cheek,

and not on the lips like I should have.


It also occurs to me

that an airliner’s rapid descent from the sky

goes by way too fast for anyone

to be able to get their prayers organized

in any sort of way that would make sense to God.


So listen, I say to Janet,

we really don’t have a lot of time,

but, as I was saying, you only want to use

the black walnuts from Diamond for this recipe

because the other kinds of walnuts

always seem to come out tasting weird

when you take them out of the oven!


Bio:

A past member of five national poetry slam teams (Worcester, Mass. (x2), Washington, D.C., Wilmington, Del. and Albuquerque, N.M.), Rich has published four chapbooks of poetry and for seven years hosted an open reading and slam in Newark, Delaware. Since moving to Albuquerque in March of 2008, Rich has been performing and writing steadily in the Duke City, and is a regular contributor/editor at localpoetsguild.wordpress.com. He is also an educator, adventurer and desert compound prophet. Rich’s poems have appeared in Adobe Walls: An Anthology of New Mexico Poetry, Fickle Muses, The Rag, Menagerie, Clutching at Straws, Shot Glass Journal, Mutant Root, The Mas Tequila Review, and The Legendary.

Friday 29 April 2011

Our First Poet

Congratulations to Kenneth and his poem Summer Home. The first poetry post. I enjoyed reading all work submitted for April, here's hoping May will bring me equal pleasure.


Summer Home

We all suddenly disappear from time to time.

It is not intentional, even when the thought

is as plain as the hands on a clock face.

It is the path that leads into the woods

or the rails that the hobos ride

or the long American ribbon of highway.

And even though all paths and roads and rails

eventually lead to the banks of the Acheron

that is farther than anyone I know

will travel today—a Saturday in April

with blooms bursting forth from trees

and all the colorful tulips tall in the garden.

I own a house upon the Acheron’s near shore

and rent the spare room upstairs

to the dark angel who glows white light

that illuminates the river and far bank—

that tunnel feeling, that warm grip of wood

as oars stoke the river’s water.

But my house is not where you disappeared

when you vanished last Wednesday

somewhere between George R. R. Martin

and J. R. R. Tolkien at the local library.

Your fantastical search continues

in its attempt to locate the thirteenth century

in the Allegheny Mountains

long before the white men arrived

with their cutting tools

that harvest both trees and rock.


-Kenneth P. Gurney -


bio: Kenneth P. Gurney lives in Albuquerque, NM, USA. He edits the New Mexico Poetry anthology Adobe Walls. His poems appear regularly in print and on the web. For complete publishing credits and available books visit http://www.kpgurney.me/Poet/Welcome.html.

Saturday 16 April 2011

April is the Cruelest Month



Two weeks until this months successful poet is announced and posted!
It's always hard to choose who goes in first but who ever doesn't make it, remember you can submit for each month.

Keep the submissions coming!

Wednesday 6 April 2011

To Submit!

Submissions Guidelines:

Poetry - 1-5 poems (please send in the body of the email)

Artwork - Send as a (jpg) file or link to online portfolio.

Please send submissions or queries to robertatherton18@gmail.com