Stress My minds in a mess Everything is upside down and back to front Trump Off you go to the Florida keys Keep hitting those wayward drives off the tees! Complications with the vaccine Teens Worried about their exams Sick of attending the classroom with their video cams United top of the league! A season with no fans providing some intrigue A time in history parallel with no other Mothers Home schooling the kids whilst trying to avoid blowing their lids Everybody hoping and praying this will be all over Laughter and smiles are as rare as a four leaved clover!
Vicious Circle Round and round we go Lock us up lock us down Drowning in a sea of uncertainty and unrelenting tides Washing away hope and optimism every single day Exhausted By the incessant rise and fall of the numbers A feeling there is no tomorrow Every day is the same Blame Roll out the vaccine as a matter of urgency Otherwise the whole country is going to go insane We will never forget living in these horrendous times And the long term effect it is having on all our minds
Liam Flanagan is a 47 year old living in Galway, Ireland. Degree in English and Philosophy and a Teaching Diploma. Ten years experience in the IT industry. Likes Sport, Film and Music.
A full moon casts a yellow glow illuminating the clock face of Auld Simon
The old cemetery sits comfortably at the bottom of the Jonshill A proud village relic surrounded by cobbled stone walls
When we were children Our nana would tell us stories of the families buried in the grounds
Pestilence had claimed the lives of many diphtheria, smallpox, cholera and tuberculosis Death didn’t discriminate It came for the young, old And everyone in between
When dusk falls in Old Lochineuch Sometimes you will catch a glimpse of the lost children playing Hide and seek in the shadows
Bird Song
The day the earth Stopped moving – I found my voice, No longer drowned out By the incessant chatter of the world
I spread my petals Like butterfly wings I was blooming in adversity
My bird song Rang out over the rooftops Skimming the skyline as it looped and soared There was a lightness in truth An honest moment I was the beginning of something beautiful
Bio: A writer/poet/mother living in Scotland. A big fan of Greek Mythology and feminist reimaginings, old Hollywood Actresses/films, the theatre, ballet and music. I’ve always written creatively for the catharsis and only started tinkering with poetry in the pandemic. My inspiration comes from poets such as Mary Oliver, Carol Ann Duffy, Emily Dickinson, Sappho, Anne Stevenson, Sylvia Plath, Dorothy Molloy, Derek Mahon, Dylan Thomas – the list is endless. To read more about Lisa go to her website at https://lisaarmstrong2179.wixsite.com/website
A derelict cave lurks under my rib cage, holds years of ragged breath, smothering kudzu,
and time-laden clay, hides the hammering of living things near dead, the dawn of every morning
sucked up into prayers. In a firestorm of words, terror waited in silence,
air washed in red like Mars, like blood, like the shredded heart of a broken child.
Swaddling the Beast
Why do the blues creep up my spine on the most glorious days? Balmy spring in its best finery, riotous
color, silken breezes, benevolent sunshine – why does it mock me, tease me, test me? Sometimes there’s loneliness
in so much beauty, despondency in such perfection. The whole of creation is indifferent, has no reason to consider
my blue moods so I hold on for storm clouds, their shades of purple and gray, their softness of light, how they swaddle my bête noire.
Charlotte Hamrick’s creative work has been published in numerous online and print journals, most recently including The Citron Review, Emerge Journal, and New World Writing. She’s had nominations for the Pushcart Prize, Best Microfiction 2021, and was a Finalist for Micro Madness 2020. She reads for Fractured Lit and was the former CNF Editor for Barren Magazine. She lives in New Orleans with her husband and a menagerie of rescued pets where she sometimes does things other than read and write.
Bio: Charlotte Hamrick’s poetry, prose, and photography has been published in numerous online and print journals, recently including Emerge Journal, Flash Frontier, Love in the Time of Covid Chronicle, and New World Writing. She’s had nominations for the Pushcart Prize, Best Microfiction 2021, and was a Finalist for the 15th Glass Woman Prize and for Micro Madness 2020. She is Creative Nonfiction Editor for The Citron Review and reads flash fiction for Fractured Lit. She lives in New Orleans with her husband and a menagerie of rescued pets where she sometimes does things other than read and write.
1) Please describe your latest book, what about your book will intrigue the readers the most, and what is the theme, mood? Or If you have a blog or project please describe the concept of your project, blog, website
Abuh Monday: My latest book is Piary . It was published in 2019 in Ibadan, a city in Nigeria known for it’s aged lifestyle and beautiful rooftops. Intrigue? Hmmmm…it is a poetic diary. Who doesn’t want to take a peek at ones diary?
2) What frame of mind and ideas lead to you writing your current book?
Abuh Monday: Basically, Piary , is an anthology of poems that houses the mind blowing experience of poet who tries not sell his humanity to feminism, sexism, culture, lewdness and a whole lot of things you may want to tag as frivolous in the society. As a way of spicing up the art of reading and understanding poetry, I gave explanatory notes for some poems in the anthology.
3) How old were you when you first have become serious about your writing, do you feel your work is always adapting?
Abuh Monday: I really do not know. Sometimes I feel it was the need to hold on to a strong resolve which keeps me from frivolity but most times, it all comes down to the one who created me. I feel him greatly inspiring. 12 years old, i guess. Yes! It is adapting.me to write, then, I write.
4) What authors, poets, musicians have helped shape your work, or who do you find yourself being drawn to the most?
Abuh Monday: William Shakespeare, Bob Marley, Asa, Buju Banton, Stormzy, Chinua Achebe, Festus Iyayi, Frederick Forsyth etc The list is quite long but these are the people who inspire me when I write.
5) What other activities do you enjoy doing creatively, or recreationally outside of being a writer, and do you find any of these outside writing activities merge into your mind and often become parts of a poem?
Abuh Monday: Emmm… Podcasting, Singing, and Video/Sound editing. Yes.
6) What is your favorite or preferred style of writing?
Abuh Monday: For that I have no preference. Style to me is based on how I feel. I may end up using a free verse today and end up with a sonnet or series of couplets with rhyme scheme.
7) Are there any other people/environments/hometowns/vacations that has helped influence your writing?
Abuh Monday: Yes. For each place( city, town or village) that I visit in Nigeria I write. The place that influenced my writing mostly is Daily Wisdom Words. An online writing community I joined some years ago.
8) What is the most rewarding part of the writing process, and in turn the most frustrating part of the writing process?
Abuh Monday: The most rewarding part of writing is getting thoughts out on paper and the frustrating part of it all is inability to get it out. It is damn frustrating.
9) How has the current times affected your work?
Abuh Monday: Not so badly, if I must be sincere. It may have limited or changed the focus of humans but all we can do is try.
10) Please give us any links, social media info, upcoming events, etc for your work.
Abuh Monday: Yes. You can read my articles on Daily Wisdom Words and listen to my podcast on poetry on soundcloud . I am working on my first novel. Three more chapters to go and it’ll be sent for proof reading.Find Abuh Monday on Instagram & Twitter at MondayDPoet
In a narrow space, nothing space, an overflow of emotion turned
novocaine place
sucked down
into a deep marsh
weightless and heavy at the same time
as a collapsing star
swirls into oblivion
of a black hole.
Pools of rainbow glitter-gel
whirl sky-side
Catherine Wheels in the blackness
of space –
I let it take me
lights mesmerise and hypnotise
to slumber
so I welcome
the dark
expanse.
KC Bailey is a writer/poet from the UK. Publication credits include The Ekphrastic Review, The Hellebore, Black Bough Poetry, Monkey Kettle, The Tide Rises, Black Flowers, The Failure Baler, Idle Ink, CaféLit and the BBC. Twitter: @KCBailey_Writer.
Fevers of the Mind 