An appeal to poetry critics to review The Phoenix Rising from the Ashes: Anthology of Sonnets of the Early Third Millennium
Since its publication in November 2013, The Phoenix Rising from the Ashes: Anthology of Sonnets of the Early Third Millennium, has generally been met with positive reviews from purchasers and poetry reviewers. As editor of the anthology, I for one freely admit that several authors display considerable talent, while some, I believe, are exceptional sonneteers who have penned poems, which may one day be viewed as masterpieces of the genre.
There are also scores of sonnets in languages other than English,French, Spanish, Chinese, German and Farsi, while the English sonnets run from page 15 to 135, comprising 60% of the total in the anthology, sonnets in all other languages span pages 142 to 222, accounting for the remaining 40%.
A number of reviewers have already accorded decent marks to the anthology and I sincerely believe that most new critics and informed readers will be able to dispassionately review the anthology. On the other hand, it is equally incumbent to flag at least a few of the sonnets which display considerable talent and especially those which you, as a reviewer, consider to be jewels, pièces de résistence.
I am not saying that those of you poetry critics who read English only should feel discouraged from reviewing the anthology. Far from it, it is generally taken for granted that the majority of literary critics of English literature are allophone English, given that English is almost universally considered lingua franca of the world. Of course, I also welcome bilingual or multilingual critics, who are well positioned to critique the remaining 40% of “foreign- language” sonnets.
I entreat those of you who are poetry critics to give your dispassionate opinion of the anthology, what we are looking for is an objective appraisal, insofar as it is humanly possible. It does not matter whether you find the anthology below average, average or superior.
Regardless of your overall appraisal of the merits and demerits of this anthology, I shall send you all your own copy of the PDF version. Finally, it would be beneficial to the editors and sonneteers alike if you would rate it on a scale from 1 to 5. Also, the Editor who is at present publishing this appeal, every reviewer should bear this in mind, has promised to publish any of the reviews providing they are fair minded & objective in at at least two of the three sites herein listed: Motherbird.com, Artvilla.com or Poetry Life & Times.
I am grateful for the endorsement of this appeal by Robin Ouzman Hislop of Poetry, Life and Times. Richard Vallance
The Phoenix Rising from the Ashes http://vallance22.hpage.com is also available in hard cover, soft cover and PDF formats from Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and Chapters.ca, among other online outlets.
The home page of the author, Richard Vallance, now a well-established professional historical linguist of ancient Mycenaean Greek, is Linear B, Knossos & Mycenae https://linearbknossosmycenae.wordpress.com, which has become the premier site for research into Linear B on the Internet since its inception in 2013. An internationally acknowledged historical linguist, in 2015 he was published in an international European conference proceedings and in the prestigious annual, Archaeology and Science (Belgrade), and is set to be published later this year in at least one other major international venue for historical linguistics. He is also an active member of one of the world’s most professional research sites, academia.edu, where you will find his page at https://westernu.academia.edu/RichardVallance/Papers
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Tribute to the late E. Darcy Trie by Wanda Brayton
Darcy Trie was one of my first readers on the poetry site where we met over eleven years ago. Her unique talent was so obvious, it was intimidating. Her insights were keen, intelligent, witty and bright with creative energy. Her comments on my poems are incredibly astute, funny, intuitive and enlightening, causing me to read my own work in a different light. She had so many friends and admirers from all over the world. I’m happy that now she knows, without a doubt, her effect on so many and the inspirational seeds she planted. On a poem written by one of her friends, he replied to my comment by saying “her poetry writes fires”. My response was “Her poetry burns houses down. Entire subdivisions.” My bones ache with missing Darcy, yet I know our spirits are bound to reconnect someday on another sojourn on a different path.
This column is about Darcy and her writing; I sent her the questions and she replied in her own original way.
http://allpoetry.com/column/10955759-Poets-of-AP—ONERIOS13-by-WandaLeaBrayton
I created a list where I will add poems inspired by and/or written to Darcy as they’re discovered. As of now, there are 84 poems, but it will continue to grow.
http://allpoetry.com/list/588544-Darcys_Genius_-_In_Memory_of_onerios13
E. Darcy Trie’s poems found online
http://allpoetry.com/onerios13
Her best friend Nicole Hanna created this website for Darcy:
www.e-darcytrie.com/
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Sara Russell’s Twitter page (Tribute)
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poetsporch.blogspot.com/2008/02/from-good-friend-c-darcy-trie-onerios13.html
altwrite.blogspot.com/2005/02/xing-nin-qia-lua.html
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“Ophelia [lying in the meadow]”, 1905 by John William Waterhouse
Poem for Darcy by Wanda Brayton
The One who softly calls for you to come at night
hears the wind roar as sudden storms flow through your bones;
an oasis of laughter, quiet whispers fluttering upon your hips
where sustenance may be found without a compass,
only murmurs cast into shadows to reveal the light you weave
with terrible truths and beautiful sorrows before dawn
You spend odd moments wailing wildly, walking in silence,
singing beneath moonlit stars, gathering madder,
crisped leaves fallen from sacred trees
to make your precious poultice; you create mandalas
made of jasmine ash, of myrhh’s seduction,
of frangipani memories, of green apple seeds
When you sleep, you travel swiftly, a bright arc
through time’s geography, tracing latitudes and longitudes
with purpose in your flight, fires lit within your belly,
love in your fingertips so deep, oceans rise
in envious whirls, tidal beasts howling admiration
for she who wears invincible wings
You are every woman history had once forgotten,
their existence erased by cruel men’s aspirations;
still, in their slumber, they moan your secret name –
yet, when they awaken, they cannot describe
those dire disturbances they felt so keenly,
their blood surged toward an invisible ache
Even now, they are haunted, their flesh dark with restlessness,
longing for a single glance of a beautiful bird they’ve never seen,
its song their only savior, their only sweetness, their mightiest woe –
Ophelia knew, Lilith knew, Delilah knew, and yes, even Medusa knew,
long after they’d tangled her silken hair with curses, then refused
to look into her eyes, understanding all too well
what burning thorns they’d find
Wanda Lea Brayton is a lifelong scholar, a prolific poet and a former college librarian who has been writing poetry since 1973 and columns since 2004. She’s done extensive editorial work and has assisted others with editing, compiling and promoting their own manuscripts. She married a brilliant writer in April 2009; they’ve disproved the theory that two artists cannot live together in harmony, let alone with only one computer between them. Her poems have been published by Clackamas Literary Review, Main Street Rag, World Poetry, Hudson View Poetry Digest, The Pedestal Magazine, Poetry Life & Times, Oak Bend Review, Aquillrelle, Stone Voices and other anthologies. She is a featured poet on a number of websites. A large volume of her poetry is available, titled “The Echo of What Remains Collected Poems of Wanda Lea Brayton”.
website: http://wandaleabrayton.blogspot.com/
Various links: Allpoetry author’s page: (member since June 2004) http://allpoetry.com/WandaLeaBrayton
Allpoetry columns link: http://allpoetry.com/columns/by/WandaLeaBrayton
Book: “The Echo of What Remains Collected Poems of Wanda Lea Brayton”
(8 1/2 x 11″, 556 pgs, approximately 1500-2500 poems, print and pdf)
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/the-echo-of-what-remains/16114406
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When comes a day. Poem by Sheikha.A
You query me :
how staunch I’ve been?
I would say:
I have wrestled with luck,
and hid from watchful stares,
and called unto
only when life appeared scarce,
and forgot swiftly,
and remembered only at my will,
and cried when I had nothing,
and abolished most refrains
for the benefit of my stakes
but
ever since the day of love
and heartbreak
multiplying by each night
I remember You;
I query You.
Sheikha A. comes from Pakistan and United Arab Emirates. Her work has appeared in numerous magazines, ezines and anthologies and hopes for her work to be read and discussed widely. More of her work can be found on her blog sheikha82.wordpress.com
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A Story. A Poem by Rana Pratap Nandi
Once a Lord went with a bowl
Asked for money, but received a scowl.
Tried and tried, again and again
Managed to grind a fat bargain.
A balanced deal was designed and done
The Lords smacked their lips and fawned.
Though much will redirect to the scowl
Enough will still be left in the bowl.
“To form a trainer core
Let’s spend a few crore”.
Scent of blood sends predators on prowl
The story is one of blood and gore
The very material of great folklore.
Bulls and hounds ripped in a bloody brawl
While dingoes look on, yelp and growl.
Paid monotonous babbling maniacs
And snored the most confirmed insomniacs.
All nursed from the same shore,
Lord to serf:”Must come and train
And sow the pennies in the drain.”
Serf to Lord, “My Lord said pennies but there are crores!”
“You fool! Forget ponies and crows” the Lord roared.
“My lord thou art so right”
Said the serf, with a face so bright.
The light of knowledge illuminating his face
He is ready to go out, enlighten his race.
Bio: My name is Rana Pratap Nandi. I live in Shillong, India and teach literature in a residential school. Several of my articles and poems have been published in different newspapers, literary supplements, literary e-magazines and an anthology of multi-lingual poetry. I love reading poetry and exploring and experimenting with folk culture. The North Eastern part of India, where I have spent most of my life is blessed with a wide variety of fascinating cultures still waiting to be meaningfully explored and interpreted.
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Transforming with Poetry at Inkwell Arts Centre Leeds UK
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Discovering God. – Poem by Ananya Guha
-
In all
those harangues
about life,
politics, caste and death
there is a logic. We have to justify the intellect and existence.
We have to eke out a way of living, intellectual, creative.
It is not only writing, it is also talking.
Today a man is bludgeoned to death, because of wrong ideology.
No one fears the ghost. One life taken, cannot be given.
The internet will burgeon. There will be meetings, protests
and slogans, till one day we are tired of ideologues and rogues.
If we take to the streets armed with poems, the poem will not speak.
What will, is rabid hatred. The here, there and now.
In an impoverished country, what else can we do?
Who will listen?
The man on the street pushing the tenacious cart does not know
who is killed and for what.We know, and we know how seeds of malfeasance
have been thrown, scattering ashes in drowning water.
Let’s pause for some breathless surprise. Suppose a mosque is shattered,
the temple will have breathing space in colours. Suppose
inevitably suppose we have all religions in one,
then the spaces will move away into a cauldron of one in many, many in one.
We must have one, the leader says. First eradicate poverty
but in doing that let a corporate structure capture imagination
of doting people.We need to show, show the West. We are the East.
Intellectuals sporting beards must show the way.
The way to doom and blood. They can do it. We must follow
voices, and an ancient culture, waiting to be beheaded.
Don’t panic. Mine is not a dirge. My voice is not funereal.
I am only trying to look at rationales, and why people are despised
amidst cosmopolitanism. They were iconoclasts, someone say.
Some don’t. They keep quiet, and wait for the whistling wind
to discover God.
Ananya S Guha: The killing of a man over supposed beef eating is one of the most atavistic incidents I have come across in recent history. I hang my head in shame.
Ananya S Guha has been born and brought up in Shillong, India and works in India’s National Open University, the Indira Gandhi National Open University. His poems in English have been published world wide. He also writes for newspapers and magazines/ web zines on matters ranging from society and politics to education. He holds a doctoral degree on the novels of William Golding. He edits the poetry column of The Thumb Print Magazine, and has published seven collections of poetry.
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LUCKY. A Poem by Marc Carver.
Today the beggar
who sits in the street on his sleeping bag in the rain was
on the bench
He looked like he was waiting for something
then a young girl came along with a pie and a coffee.
She gave it to him
I turned and looked at her face
it was filled with wellbeing
but my thoughts were with him
what a lucky bastard I thought
Bio.
I am an old dog of a man
dogs look at me as they pass and say
is that a man or a dog.
So i continue to write for the dogs
and the occasional email i get from someone i don’t know who tells me they like my work
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Everything was Alive and Dying. A Video Poem by Janet Kuypers
Janet Kuypers is a professional performance artist, and is a writer, an art director, webmaster and photographer. She was even the final featured poetry performer of 15 poets with a 10 minute feature at the 2006 Society of Professional Journalism Expo’s Chicago Poetry Showcase. This certified minister is even the reverend.
She sang with the acoustic bands “Mom’s Favorite Vase” and “Weeds and Flowers”, and on occasion she still performs in “the Second Axing”, and does music sampling. Kuypers has over 70 books published and close to 40 audio CD sets released, and is published in books, magazines and on the internet around thousands of times for her writing and art work in her professional career, has been profiled in such magazines as Nation and Discover U, won the award for a Poetry Ambassador and was nominated as Poet of the Year. She has also been highlighted on radio stations, and has also appeared on television for poetry repeatedly.
She turned her writing into performance art on her own and with musical groups, and ran a monthly Podcast of her work for years, as well mixed JK Radio — an Internet radio station — into Scars Internet Radio (radio stations ran 2005-2009, and there are plans to start the radio stations again in 2011). She ran the Chaotic Radio show through BZoO.org and chaoticarts.org (2006-2007). She has performed spoken word and music across the country – in the spring of 1998 she embarked on a national poetry tour, with featured performances, among other venues, at the Albuquerque Spoken Word Festival during the National Poetry Slam; her bands have had concerts in Chicago and in Alaska; in 2003 she hosted and performed at a weekly poetry and music open mike (called Sing Your Life), and from 2002 through 2005 performed quarterly performance art. Starting in 2010 Janet Kuypers also hosts the weekly Chicago poetry open mic at the Cafe, where she also runs a weekly poetry podcast.
You can see video links and short poems as tweets at http://twitter.com/janetkuypers, and all of her book releases and video releases from the Cafe and her performance art shows can be seen at http://www.facebook.com/janetkuypers, but to ever learn more about her you can see her publishing organization, Scars Publications, on line at http://scars.tv, or you can learn about her at http://www.janetkuypers.com.
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