The Weekly Avocet #396 Newsletter, July 5, 2020
Thank you Charles, Vivian, and Valerie Portolano.
redheaded tulips
sashay down
garden catwalks
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masks on beaches
pandemic pollution
rises with the tide
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at Coney Island
seagulls hold their own parade
mermaids in lockdown
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an empty beach
except for wind
sand in sandals
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Brooklyn sunshine
girls on fire escape
social distancing
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the orangutan
defends ancestral forests
greed defeats nature
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vesper moon
wears crescent smile
crickets chant
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Bear Creek Haiku Blogspot, Friday, July 10, 2020
Much gratitude to Ayaz Daryl Nielsen and his kitty crew for publishing my Catku. Shout outs to Miriam Sagan, Anthony Ward, Peggy Dugan French (a Friday poem), t. kilgore splake, Billy Antonio, Judith Partin-Nielsen, Cathy Porter, and, Teresinka Pereira!
click below to read:
https://bearcreekhaiku.blogspot.com/2020/07/poets-miriam-sagan-anthony-ward-peggy.html
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Bear Creek Haiku Blogspot, Wednesday, July 15, 2020
Pleased to be in Bear Creek Haiku again. Thank you, Ayaz Daryl Nielsen. You are the cat’s MEOW!
Kudos to Janet Ruth Heller, Boyd Bauman, Linda Fuchs, Don Wentworth, John McDonald, Jack Kerouac, Chris Faiers, and Kelly Jean White.
https://bearcreekhaiku.blogspot.com/2020/07/poets-janet-ruth-heller-boyd-bauman.html
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Bear Creek Haiku Blogspot, Tuesday, July 21, 2020Thanks again, Ayaz Daryl Nielsen and kudos to
Robert Hirschfeld, William Wordsworth, Dennis Rhodes, Angelee Deodhar, t kilgore splake, Peggy Dugan French, John McDonald, Charles Bukowski, Judith Partin-Nielsen, r soos, and, Tomas Tranströmer
https://bearcreekhaiku.blogspot.com/2020/07/poets-robert-hirschfeld-william.html
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Bear Creek Haiku Issue #165, August 2020
Thanks again, Ayaz Daryl Nielsen and kudos to Rachel Ikins, pl wick, Paula Yup, Robert Hirschfield, Linda Fuchs, Judith Patin-Nielsen, Miriam Sagan, Jane Stuart, Dennis Rhodes, Cathy Porter, Janet Ruth Heller, John McDonald, t kilgore splake, and more.
by the tulip patch
a momma cat
hides her kittens
~~~~~~~~~~~~
nocturnal love nest
outside my building
kitty hookers in heat
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outdoor litter box
kittens spread fertilizer
rose bushes thrive
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The Poet’s Art, Issue #65, July 2020
Thank you, David Fox for Publishing “Misty” and “El Cóndor Pasa.” Congrats to writers Gene Olsen, Julie Spencer, Robert E. L. Nesbitt, Joanne Tolson, Linda Amos, Ginny Cope, Arthur Morris, David Fox, pl. wick, Michael Crayton Powell, and more.
Misty
From her perchabove the human drama,
Misty, the cream-colored cat,washed her paws clean.
She knew her way around
her master’s apartment.
Her kitten days,faded like the album cover
by the turntable.
Ella Fitzgerald sang
the cat’s namesake’s song.
Seductionfor her master’s friend,
still irritable on the chaise lounge.
Whenever mad,she’d kick off her pumps—
her right foot would cross her left.
After another glassof Chardonnay,
she asked
about his thousand violins
and why his hello
no longer sounded sweet?
He poured himself
another glass of wine, lost in words
that lost their meaning.
She took her hat and gloves,
said a swift goodbye.
The cat ran to the closed door,
encircled her master’s legs.
His eyes,too misty to notice.
El Cóndor Pasa(sung by Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel)
Wild like the condor,
he followed the distant flute.
Strands of hair,
negro azulado,
blew across his face.His horse left ghosts
on the Peruvian playa.
I walked on broken shells,
hummed the saddest song,
El Cóndor Pasa.
I became the hammer, not the nail,
the sparrow, not the snail,the forest,
not the street,
the swan wanting to sail away.
The song forgot about my necklace,
Andalusian beads
inside two hoofprints.
Strands of hair,
marrón rojizo,
blew across my face.
The ghosts on the playa,
the sand beneath my feet,
found peace in the twilight tide.
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The Alien Buddha Contracts COVID-19, June 2020
Thank you Red Focks for publishing “Moonlight Serenade.” Kudos to Carrie Magness Radna and Megha Sood, Red Focks, et al.
Moonlight Serenade
Charlie was in bed,
tubes attached to his body,
listened to cartoon
son a nineteen-inch screen,
thought of Sophia,
his “Belle of Flatbush.”
When la luna was full,
Charlie used to sing
Moonlight Serenade
outside Sophia’s gate.
They’d slow-dance
to Glenn Miller’s rendition.
He’d relax his rhythm,
hold Sophia closer,
recall how safe she felt.
Her soft brown curls
would drape on his shoulder—
her smoky eyes—
stelle colorate, tinted stars
over a make-believe Brooklyn sky.
His protective hold couldn’t save her
from breast cancer twenty years ago,
their two sons from Viet Nam’s death call,
or their daughter from her husband’s fists.
A massive stroke took Sonny,
his last living friend.
His relatives were either dead
or couldn’t care less.
Charlie was in bed,
tubes attached to his body,
alone—
except for routine visits from
the nursing home staff,
wondered if Sophia would be there for him
when he leaves for the morgue.
He hummed
Moonlight Serenade,
but a dry cough cut his tune short.
Sadness, age, and high fever
drained his cognition and will to live.
His memory was of the past,
not the present.
He prayed for Death’s visit—
Death would wear a white coat,
walk past the rooms,
make decisions on who’s to come
and who’s to stay.
But Death forgot about him—
perhaps Death’s eyesight was fading
when he came by last week,
took Hector instead.
Tina, his favorite nurse,
no longer visited him—
was in critical condition
due to a new virus going around.
He closed his eyes,
saw Glenn Miller and his band
perform Moonlight Serenade
at the Waldorf Astoria.
Everything was in Technicolor.
Sophia,
radiant and youthful,
rose from her table.
She came closer,
her smoky eyes—
stelle colorate, tinted stars
over a make-believe Brooklyn sky.
By the entrance,
a man in a white coat
checked his clipboard,
greeted Charlie with a smile
and opened the gate.
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Bluepepper Blogspot, Sunday, August 2, 2020
Pleased to be in this wonderful online journal, Bluepepper. A big thank you to Justin Lowe. I see Karen Neuberg is in it as well.
https://bluepepper.blogspot.com/2020/08/new-poetry-by-patricia-carragon.html
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Nomination for Sundress Publications Annual
Best of the Net Anthology.
Thank you Marie C Lecrivain for nominating my fiction piece, “What Will Happen Next:” Congrats to all nominees.
Dear Al-Khemia Poetica Contributors:
If you’re receiving this email, it means your work has been selected, and nominated for Sundress Publications Annual Best of the Net Anthology.
I have, according to the submission guidelines, provided them with an email address for contact purposes. Sometime after 09/30/20, the winners and finalists will be announced. You will, if you make the cut, be contacted by the judge(s) of this contest. Winners’ work will be included in an online anthology.
Below is the list of nominees for 2020. Good luck, and thank you for providing my publication with quality literature.
Marie C Lecrivainmarie.lecrivain.pd@gmail.compublisher/curatorAl-Khemia PoeticaList of Nominees
Creative Nonfiction
1) Judy Baratt’s “Me and Eleanor”
http://alkhemiapoetica.blogspot.com/2020/03/sunday-march-8-2020-national-womens.htmlPublication date: 03/08/20
2) Lisa Marguerite Mora’s “The Year I Left My Mother
https://alkhemiapoetica.blogspot.com/2020/03/tuesday-march-10-2020-national-womens.htmlPublication date: 03/10/20
Fiction
1) Patricia Carragon’s “What Happens Next”
https://alkhemiapoetica.blogspot.com/2020/03/tuesday-march-24-2020-national-womens.htmlPublication Date: 03/24/202) Lynne Bronstein’s “Not Going to Happen”
https://alkhemiapoetica.blogspot.com/2020/03/saturday-march-7-2020-national-womens.htmlPublication date: 03/07/20Poetry
1) Ann Tweedy’s “Face Value”
https://alkhemiapoetica.blogspot.com/2020/03/thursday-march-26-2020-national-womens.htmlPublication Date: 03/26/20
2) Viola Weinberg Spencer’s “For Better or Worse”
https://alkhemiapoetica.blogspot.com/2020/03/saturday-march-21-2020-national-womens.htmlPublication Date: 03/21/20
3) Puma Perl’s “The Taste of Rebellion”
https://alkhemiapoetica.blogspot.com/2020/03/sunday-march-1-2020-national-womens.htmlPublication Date: 03/01/20
4) Jack G Bowman’s “Impeachment Proceedings”
https://alkhemiapoetica.blogspot.com/2019/12/two-poems-by-jack-g-bowman-after.htmlPublication Date: 12/12/19
5) Afric McGlinchy’s “Going Silent”
https://alkhemiapoetica.blogspot.com/2020/03/wednesday-march-25-2020-national-womens.htmlPublication Date: 03/25/20
6) Gabriella Garafolo’s “ ‘Cause This is What a Blue Wave Looks Like”
https://alkhemiapoetica.blogspot.com/2020/03/saturday-march-14-2020-national-womens.htmlPublication Date: 03/14/20
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North of Oxford-The Pandemic Issue #6
Pleased to be in North of Oxford’s Pandemic Poetry Series #6, Tuesday August 11, 2020.Thank you G. Emil Reutter for publishing my pandemic poems “the trapper and the furrier” and “send me an angel.”A shout out to Megha Sood, Jane Spoken Word, and others.
reutterhttps://northofoxford.wordpress.com/2020/08/11/north-of-oxford-the-pandemic-issue-6/
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Life in Quarantine:
Witnessing Global Pandemic Project Organization August 2020
Thank you Megha Sood for publishing my 5 COVID-19 poems,the trapper and the furrier, send me an angel, Tenderly, Moonlight Serenade, and Having A Party. So honored to be with David Dephy, Susana H. Case, and Megha Sood. http://liqproject.org/patricia-carragon/
Patricia Carragon's Blog: Words Give Me the Will to Write 