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dogs just don’t live as long as people do

“. . . owning a dog always ended with this sadness because dogs just don’t live as long as people do.”  John Grogan,  Marley and Me

I am sitting with Bax. His kidneys are failing. His time with us is about to end, so forgive me for the delays in posting. He needs my undivided attention and I need to say goodbye. I’ll be back soon with poetic responses to last week’s writing prompt and with this Wednesday’s Writing Prompt.

To be featured:
Renee Espiru
Paul Brookes
Sonja Benskin Mesher, RCA
Colin Blundel

Thank you for your patience.
Jamie

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The BeZine, May 2017, Honesty & Transparency, The Post-truth (Post-factual Politics) Era

May 15, 2017

“In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
—George Orwell

This is an extraordinary time; a time when post-truth culture is thriving in Russia, China, America, Australia, Britian, India, Japan and Turkey. This political climate is founded and furthered by appeals to emotion and on conclusions based on ignorance of and resistance to hard science and well-documented history. A perhaps unprecedented level of bombast replaces common sense, honesty and sincere promise creating a climate that rests on disinformation, intimidation and divide-and-conquer as its primary weapons of control. This all combines to undermine rule of law, free speech and free media. We have administrations evolving in the spirit of Orwell’s 1984 where diplomacy and statesmanship have devolved into manipulative spins calculated to influence the gullible and solidify the power of would-be autharitarians.

With the mixed blessing of social networking citizens seem unable – or perhaps unwilling – to distinguish lies from truth and fact from fallacy. President Obama is described as “obsessed” with this problem (hyperreality) and the mixed ecosystem of professional journalism and social network reportage in which “everything is true and nothing is true.”

“In an age where there’s so much active misinformation, and it’s packaged very well, and it looks the same when you see it on a Facebook page or you turn on your television, where some over-zealousness on the part of a US official is equated with constant and severe repression elsewhere, if everything seems to be the same and no distinctions are made, then we won’t know what to protect…If we can’t discriminate between serious arguments and propaganda, then we have problems.”
—Barak Obama

We’ve decided this month to address the challenges that face our countries and the world. We’ve addressed these in essay and poetry, sometimes head-on and sometimes by a thread. Though perspectives and solutions may differ to some degree, there is clear agreement that the concerns are real as is the need to “resist.”

♦

A last note: Thanks to Michael Dickel for further technical refinements to make this zine more accessible and readily readable. Thanks also to the members of our core team, to our guest contributors and to our readers for continued support, encouragement and the pleasures of our shared values.

In the spirit of peace, love and community
and on behalf of The Bardo Group Bequines,
—Jamie Dedes, Founding and Managing Editor

“Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. ”
― George Orwell

For this issue of The BeZine

  • Click HERE to read the entire magazine by scrolling (includes the intro above) and
  • To learn more about our guests contributors, please link HERE.

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SUNDAY ANNOUNCEMENTS: Calls for Submissions, Contests, Events and Other News and Information

CALLS FOR SUBMISSIONS

Opportunity Knocks

THE MUSE, An International Journal of Poetry publishes two journals a year and accepts submissions rom July 1- November 10 for December and January 1- May 10 for June. Details HERE. The Muse has a call open for its fourth annual anthology.  Details HERE.

THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF POETRY is published twice-a-year.  Both emerging and established poets are featured. There are no style or form restrictions and long poems are welcome. There is a reading fee of $5. Submission Guidelines are HERE.

QUIDDITY International Literary Journal and Public-Radio Program “is a multimedia arts venue featuring an international literary journal (print and audio), a public-radio program, and a visiting writer and artist series.  Quiddity is published and produced in partnership with NPR member/PRI affiliate WUIS, Illinois Public Radio’s hub-station.” Quiddity features prose, poetry and poetry for radio broadcast. Reading period ends December 15. Details HERE.

THOMAS McSWEENEY’S QUARTERLY CONCERN! publishes fiction and nonfiction. Details HERE.  “Poetry can be wonderful, but is not something we publish in the Quarterly. Please send completed book-length poetry manuscripts to poetry@mcsweeneys.net.”

VOICEMAIL POEMS “was created by jamie mortara during National Poetry Month in April 2012 with a simple idea: Set up a phone number (1-910-703-POEM) for people to call and share their poetry.” Submission guidelines HERE.

THE BeZINE submissions for the June 2017 issues (theme: Environmental Justice/Climate Change: Farming and Access to Water) should be in by June 10th latest.  Publication date is June 15th. Poetry, essays, fiction and creative nonfiction, art and photography, music (videos), and whatever lends itself to online presentation is welcome for consideration. Please check out a few issues first and the Intro./Mission Statement and Submission Guidelines. No demographic restrictions.

PRETTY OWL POETRY, an online quarterly journal, is supportive of emerging and established writers. This zine publishes poetry, fiction and visual arts, all style and artistic collaborations. The editors say they like “something shameful. something surreal. a deluge of desire. confessions of crimes & hearts teeming with rattlesnakes. a merry-go-round that makes you dizzy.” Submission guidelines HERE. 

THE YALE REVIEW offers no formal guidelines other than reading their journal before submitting, which is really a basic rule for every magazine whether stated explicitly or not. Editor: J.D.McClatchy. Editorial contact is HERE.

580 SPLIT is a publication of Mills College in Oakland, California. Calls for submissions are open now for Issue 19 (2016/2017). The top submission in seach category will receive a cash prize. Categories are: long and short form fiction, creative non-fiction, essays, novel/graphic novel excerpts, poetry, visual/digital art, conceptual art and design, photography, comics, interviews, scripts, transcripts, translations, Details HERE.

GETTYSBURG REVIEW, a publication of Gettysburg College, is published quarterly. The reading period for poetry, fiction and essays is September 1st – May 31st.  Submission guidelines HERE.

POST-TRUTH is a website started on U.S. inauguration day, which “invites artists, filmmakers, writers, scholars, to contribute work reflecting on living in a post-truth society. We hope this can be a site and community where artists can know that their work related to the times we live in will be shown, heard and respected.” Check it out HERE.

THE MATADOR REVIEW is an online literature and art quarterly featuring fiction and creative non-fiction, flash fiction and poetry. Submissions for issue 5 (Summer 2017) will close on May 31. Details HERE.

CONTEST/AWARD

NEW LETTERS MAGAZINE sponsors awards for writers – poetry, fiction and nonfiction – of $1,500 each. Entry fees of $20 and $15. Deadline May 18th  for the 2017 awards. Details HERE.

CALL FOR PAPERS

NORTHEAST POPULAR CULTURE ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE – WORLD LITERATURE welcomes papers that explore both individual works of world literature as well as contemporary issues in the field of World Literature.  Questions under consideration could include how to understand what world literature is, how best to teach works of world literature as well as the exploration of current trends in postcolonial, world and comparative literatures. Deadline June 1 for the fall conference, October 27 – 28 at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, MA. Details HERE.

For more calls for papers on a range of topics link HERE.

EVENT

KUDOS …

Kudos and congratulations to Krysia Jopek on the debut of her new online publication, DIAPHANOUS PRESS on May 15, 2017 at Noon, U.S. Eastern Standard Time at DiaphanousPress.com.

This  biannual journal publishes and promotes contemporary experimental and postmodern literary and visual artists side by side in a free publication.The name “DIAPHANOUS” implies Krysia’s desire to showcase finely crafted literary and visual art that has a life of its own independent of the artist or author and is not completely transparent or “accessible.” Not that the work is purposely abstruse but that the work requires the reader or viewer to determine its possible meanings through interaction with it. This kind of art is not disposable–it demands to be read and viewed repeatedly because of its power to arrest, engage, and “haunt” the reader/viewer.

Krysia Jopek, the founder and editor of Diaphonous Press offers thanks to contributing editor Michael Dickel, specifically for his WordPress design help in making this labor of love an online reality; Poetry Editor Thato Andreas Mokotjo, a young, South African poet and passionate poetry enthusiast; her remarkable staff of Contributing Editors: Meg Harris, Dale Houstman, James Audio, Kinga Fabó, and Eric Traska—in addition to all of the supportive writers and artists included in the debut issue of Diaphanous Press as well as everyone supportive of its vision of poetics / aesthetics.

Submissions Page: https://diaphanouspress.com/diaphanous-press/submissions/

DIAPHANOUS PRESS Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/diaphanouspress/

♦

Kudos to JORDAN BLUM (The Bookends Review) for his cover to cover interview of MICHAEL DICKEL (Meta/Por(e(/Play). It’s an absolutely delightful and wide-ranging discussion about books, music, poetry and more.  Check it out HERE.

THE BOOKENDS REVIEW: “Founded in 2012, The Bookends Review is an independent creative arts journal dedicated to bringing you the best original fiction, nonfiction, poetry, interviews, essays, book reviews, and visual/musical works from around the world.”  Link HERE.

JORDAN BLUM holds an MFA in fiction and teaches composition and creative writing at several colleges/universities. He’s published creative and/or scholarly pieces in several places/ jordanblum@thebookendsreview.com.

Writer and photographer MICHAEL DICKEL has work in several print and online publications. He co-edited Voices Israel Volume 36 (2010), and was managing editor for arc-23 and -24. His most recent book, The Palm Reading after The Toad’s Garden, came out in 2016. Previous books are: War Surrounds Us, Midwest / Mid-East, and The World Behind It, Chaos… He has taught at colleges and universities in both Israel and the U.S. Michael is a contributing editor to The BeZine.

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Goddess Mothers and True Heroes

Originally published on The Bardo Group blog

“All you need is a sense that there is no such thing as ‘no’ and everything is possible.” Moira Kelly

This shining face, this sweet spirit with reason to be bitter and yet he is not. He is a hero and pure inspiration. When Naomi Baltuck (Writing Between the Lines/Life from a Writer’s POV) posted this video on Facebook, I was as touched as anyone would be. I had to wonder though about his mom. What kind of hero is she, I thought, remembering the heroes of my childhood: Josephine Baker and my spiritual mother, Pearl Buck. Each of these women grew their families in unique – and extraordinarily unselfish – ways.

“All my life, I have maintained that the people of the world can learn to live together in peace if they are not brought up in prejudice.”  Josephine Baker (1906-1975)

Josephine_Baker_1950Josephine Baker was born in America but became a French citizen. She was a dancer, singer, actress and civil-rights activist.  As a child living in St. Louis, Missouri, she suffered from discrimination, abandonment, and poverty.  As an adult she had one miscarriage. She adopted twelve children, two girls and ten boys. They were from diverse races and cultures because, in addition to caring for them, she wanted to show that people can get along despite their different backgrounds. In the early ’80s two of her sons went into business together. They started Chez Josephine, which is on Theatre Row (42nd Street) in Manhattan. They dedicated the restaurant to their adoptive mom’s memory and decorated it with her memorabilia.

“. . .  the test of a civilization is the way that it cares for its helpless members.” Pearl Buck (1892-1973)

220px-Pearl_Buck_(Nobel)Pearl Buck was an American novelist, writer, humanitarian and the first woman to be awarded the Noble Prize in Literature (1938).  She grew up in China and spent most of her life there until 1934. She had a deep affection for and knowledge of the countries of the East, not just China. She suffered through the Nanking Incident when the National Revolutionary Army captured Nanking (now Nanjing) in 1927.  Many Westerners were killed, their homes destroyed, and their property stolen.  Her only biological child, Carol, had phenylketonuria (PKU), which causes mental retardation and seizures.  Pearl Buck adopted seven children. At a time when mixed-race children were considered unadoptable, Pearl Buck founded Welcome House, Inc., the first international, interracial adoption agency. At the time of this writing, Welcome House has placed some five thousand children since it was established 1949.

“The greatest act of kindness changes generations. Wherever there is the greatest evil, the greatest good can be achieved.” Moira Kelly (b. 1964)

emmanuel-kellyThis brings us to a contemporary hero: the mother of Emanuel Kelly, the young man in the video. Moira Kelly is an Australian humanitarian whose work has garnered her many awards and acknowledgements.  When she was eight years old, after seeing a movie about then Blessed (now saint) Teresa of Calcutta (now Kolkata), Moira committed herself to working with disadvantaged children.  She is the legal guardian of twins from Bangladesh, Trisha and Krishna. They are surgically separated but originally cranially conjoined twins.  Moira Kelly also adopted the Iraqi-born Emmanuel and his brother Ahmet, both born with underdeveloped limbs. Among her efforts is Children First Foundation, formed to provide transportation and healthcare for children with urgent needs in developing countries.

These women are mothers in the best senses of that word. Their ideals are real and they stand by them. They have saved children from abandonment and loneliness, from poverty and hopelessness and from early death. They are goddess mothers and true heroes.

© 2013, essay, Jamie Dedes, All rights reserved;  Photographs of Josephine Baker and Pearl Buck are in the U.S. Public Domain; I don’t know the origin or copyright of the photograph of Moira Kelly and her sons. If it is yours, let me know and I’ll credit you or take it down as you wish.

Zbaida
HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY TO MY MOM

and to all mothers and the fathers, grandparents, siblings and others who

assume a mothering role for motherless children.

(c) – Mom & me

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