Was it attenuating just to be
a treealabra, whimsically, there
above a horned pale head? Ebony
aphid eyes when he says beware
these woods, decapitated deer who wilt
their budding heads this time of year. He speaks
of trample by flowered herd with gilt
of lips, a lilt of hummingbird. Your cheek
he touches first will sting, a blush of flesh
molested, tingling while he's twinkling, lit
by candled pine - you'll query its express
design. Perfection, maybe counterfeit,
illuminates this tête-à-tête decreed
innocent as seeds - or were you deceived?
Sonnet Poetry: The Blade by Kristin GarthA Fevers of the Mind Quick-9 Interview with Kristin GarthSonnet from Kristin Garth : Submergence in Fevers of the Mind Press Presents the Poets of 2020Bio: Kristin Garth is a Pushcart, Rhysling nominated sonneteer and a Best of the Net 2020 finalist. Her sonnets have stalked journals like Glass, Yes, Five:2:One, Luna Luna and more. She is the author of a short story collection You Don’t Want This ( Pink Plastic Press) and The Stakes (Really Serious Literature) and many more. She is the founder of Pink Plastic House a tiny journal and co-founder of Performance Anxiety. [Follow her on Twitter: (@lolaandjolie) and her website http://kristingarth.com]
Q1: When did you start writing and first influences?
David: I believe I began writing after having my older brother read his poetry to me. I would constantly read his stuff. He was always obsessed with song lyrics (Prince, U2, The Cure, The Smiths, The Beatles, etc) I really got into the Beatles around 12 years old, and began to write bad love songs & songs against war that were pretty cheesy. I’ve always had a storytelling imagination. I began reading Anne Sexton as a teenager and always have been a big song lyric absorber. With A.D.D. I wasn’t always the most patient with reading.
Q2: Who are your biggest influences today? Well once I started writing & reading aloud more at coffeehouses, I began learning & reading more poetry & writers. Burroughs, Kerouac, Sylvia Plath, Tom Waits, Townes Van Zandt, Phil Ochs, Bob Dylan, my favorite Leonard Cohen, Ilya Kaminsky, so many contemporaries I interact with in the Poetry & Writing Community.
Q3: Any pivotal moment when you knew you wanted to be a writer?
David: I still want to be a writer/poet. I am still learning at 41 years old the ins and outs. I guess I had that inkling around 12, then again at 20 writing angsty stuff (mad about women letting me down) and then 24/25 when I began frequenting a coffeehouse in Evansville. I began writing a scrapped up novel “The Bible Belt Bachelor” in the same vain as “On the Road” I had a break in writing through most of my 30s and then when my dad got sick with ALS I began writing more & more. Self published some stuff & began Fevers of the Mind.
Q4: Who has helped you most with writing?
David: My brother, my wife, the Penny Lane Coffeehouse, Reading aloud for several years (not so much anymore), Jean Kizer, Jerry Masterson, Heidi Krause, Twitter vss 365 getting me motivated again, Poetry Community, Leonard Cohen
Q5: Where did you grow up and how did that influence your writing & did any travels away from home influence your work?
David: I grew up in a small town in Kentucky called Sebree.
So, I do have many poems based on small town living in a Southern/Midwestern town. I carry over some personality (ies) from the town and interact them into new characters and situations at times. I have lived in Evansville, Indiana most of my adult life & now in Henderson, KY and I still write the same way. Perspectives from where i’m writing from doesn’t necessarily come from where i’m living. I have visited & lived for a short time in New Orleans, so much of my big city themed poetry comes from time living there, or visiting Nashville, Louisville, Lexington, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Bloomington and other Midwestern cities/towns.
Q6: What do you consider your most meaningful work you’ve done creatively so far to you?
David: This will be a slightly weird answer. I helped contribute poems to an anthology about ALS “Voices for the Cure” ran by Paul Rowe and the late Eric Valor. I am unsure if it ever came out, but the poems I placed in there are about my father and his battle with ALS. Some of these poems have seen the light of day in my self published work or also on this site. 2 poems by David L O’Nan about my father’s battle with ALS in 2016
I’m very proud of the community I’ve helped shape together with many writers for this site with active contributors, interviews, the Fevers of the Mind Poetry Digest Issues/Anthologies.
Q7: Favorite activities to relax?
David: General Anxiety/ADD/OCD/parenthood…relax? I try to read some, I watch wrestling, basketball, listen to music like crazy, taking walks with my wife, play in the park with my kids. Youtube wormholes, research/history.
Q8: What is a favorite line/stanza from a poem of yours or others?
David: From Leonard Cohen’s “Stories From the Street”
We are so small between the stars So large against the sky And lost among the subway crowds I try to catch your eye
Q9: Any recent or forthcoming projects that you’d like to promote?
David: Why Sure! Thanks for asking…ummm Fevers of the Mind Anthology Issue 5: Overcome will be coming out soon (currently editing) I have 6 self-published books that i’m revising (added pics to the poems, changing them up some, some revised poems) “The Famous Poetry Outlaws are Painting Walls and Whispers” “Our Fears in Tunnels” “Taking Pictures in the Dark” “New Disease Streets” “The Cartoon Diaries” “Lost Reflections” still on Amazon currently…will be replaced by new versions when announced. Stay tuned. Raw forms of these books are still out there for now. There are several past issues of Fevers of the Mind Poetry Digest: Issue 1 (June 2019) under Fevers of the Mind Poetry & Art Digest, Fevers of the Mind Issue 2 In Memoriam, Fevers of the Mind Issue 3: The Darkness & the Light, Fevers of the Mind Press Presents the Poets of 2020, the aforementioned Leonard Cohen inspired Avalanches in Poetry Writings & Art Inspired by Leonard Cohen with artwork from Geoffrey Wren Wonderful Artwork from Avalanches in Poetry Writings & Art Inspired by Leonard Cohen by artist/writer Geoffrey Wren
The 2nd Leonard Cohen Anthology will be worked on in the next month “Before I Turn Into Gold” and also Fevers of the Mind Anthologies will be coming out at least every other month as far as I can keep it going.
Personally, I have more poems/stories coming out soon with Icefloe Press. A project on facebook “Curved Air” edited by Theresa Haffner. Possibly something with the Midwest Writers Guild. I’ve recently had work in Anti-Heroin Chic, Punk Noir Magazine. In the past I’ve had stuff in 3 Moon, Nymphs Publishing, Royal Rose Magazine, Elephants Never, Headline Poetry & Press, Dark Marrow, Voices for the Cure ALS Anthology, Spillwords, Ghost City Press, a feature in Cajun Mutt Press, I’ve had some stuff of mine read by Damien Donnelly on his podcast “Eat the Storms” https://eatthestorms.com/ and will have more read by Damien in a couple of weeks. Stay tuned!
I don’t send too much out due to RSD and I put tons of time in editing, writing, my brain scrambling in and out of exhaustion. Follow us on twitter @feversof @davidLONan1 Facebook Author Page is DavidLONan1 (I don’t use it much) I don’t have Instagram…sorry.
Here are some links:
There are a million I think on this site… just search my name if interested in my poems.
The euphemism,
"Healthy set of lungs"
had me gasping for rectitude
Once my pulse normalized
I searched for the protagonist
slightly sidetracked by the bloody compass
of my magnifying glass
Any drunk is liable to offer
his opinion when climbing
the towers of narcissism
Up yours, grandeur!
Selflessness is the most obstinate
of the modern conveniences.
Bio from 2019:
Colin James has a book of poems, Resisting Probability from Sagging Meniscus Press. He lives in Massachusetts.
Bio from 2019 from Heidi:
Since childhood, I have dabbled in and created artwork. I have changed my use of mediums many times throughout my art journey.
I now use a variety of tools and mediums in order to express myself. I create according to my mood, and truly love experimenting. You may see a painting one day, a collage another and...my style is ever evolving. I am happier not being bored or bound to one style or medium at this time. For me, it is more fun to learn through trial and error, turning my mistakes into beauty and allowing whatever medium I am using lead me into that finished piece.
My paintings are inspired by the massive size of infinity in space, or the tiniest of cells and bacteria that cannot be seen by the naked eye. My collages are more about my dreams and my own feelings and experiences in life. My work is meant to inspire, heal, and create a longing in others to dig deeper into their own personal convictions.
keep the sound out
keep your hands to yourself
let me think on my own
loneliness does not
faze me at all
companionship is the
root of all my problems
wait for me to come to you
or else I will shatter at your feet
Going Backwards
today
caffeine lacks its usual potency
I am out of my body
a hollow chalky sound
bouncing off a long hallway
stumbling further and further from
where i belong
after you left
I fell into a sinkhole
where i started beating
myself up over losing you
Invisible Violinsfor Krystal
We listen to a song
from a contemporary composer.
She closes her eyes
Fingering every note (in the air)
I try to imagine
Krystal's violin
in her hands,
but it doesn't come
into full colour.
Later, I conjure
an image of Krystal
with her fingers
weaving along my spine -
across my shoulders,
forming wings.
She's following
a different melody now,
wings unfurling, statuary.
We can fly.
Emotional Barriers
Invisible walls got their name
because every time we think
we're breaking ground,
we pratfall
on our flummoxed asses.
Hang out with enough
emotionally unavailable people
and the falls
become abrasive,
impaled by boulders
in a lake
of fatalism.
Blind devotion
means hitting your head
on the way down.
Confessional
I still eat chocolate bars
and cake.
They fill me
to this day.
Faith catches me
with a left hook
on occasion,
and on those occasions
I'm glad I prebooked
a date with a pine box
Available plots
are becoming fewer
and far between,
land splitting six ways
from Sunday.
Bio from 2020Samuel Strathman is a poet, author, educator, and the founder/editor-in-chief of Floodlight Editions.
Some of his poems have appeared or are forthcoming in White Wall Review, Blank Spaces, Dreich Mag, and elsewhere. His debut chapbook, "In Flocks of Three to Five" was published by Anstruther Press (2020) His second chapbook, "The Incubus" was published by Roaring Junior Press
Fevers of the Mind 