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A Beautiful Place for Mortal Beings, a poem


look at those trees, will you, look!
sun bursting into dazzling columns
and eucalyptus dripping its stringy
bark, drizzling its medicinal scent

dragonflies stretch stenciled wings
zephyr mambos with wild grasses
sunshine camps out on shoulders
the damp salty air curls our hair

we tumble into the sea’s embrace
to find that this is salvation and
the mountain expanse a cathedral
the ocean’s roar is its Te Deum

for mortal beings: a beautiful place,
voluptuous and wanton and willing
to be caressed, like Life, held close
never understanding the mysteries

our existence, the sea-held mountain,
we love them in our frailty, we grasp
these gifts until we can’t, until
letting go is just as it should be

© 2013, poem, Jamie Dedes, All rights reservedPhoto – a Monterey Cypress (Pebble Beach, CA, USA) courtesy of rickpawl’s photostream  Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

500 Organizations Worldwide Collaborate to Provide Lifesaving Services to Artists at Risk


Livestream happening at 6 pm Eastern tonight.

Ai Wei Wei 2008 courtesy of Andy Miah under CC BY-SA 2.0

The Artists at Risk Connection launches today in tandem with a public event in New York featuring one of the world’s most prominent threatened artists, Ai Weiwei. Ai, who will be in conversation with author and PEN America President Andrew Solomon, was detained in China without charge for 81 days during 2011 and later denied his passport to travel. The event will be streamed live online at 6pm (Eastern) at PEN.org Livestream.


“Fats was starting to think that if you flipped every bit of received wisdom on its head you would have the truth. He wanted to journey through dark labyrinths and wrestle with the strangeness that lurked within; he wanted to crack open piety and expose hypocrisy; he wanted to break taboos and squeeze wisdom from their bloody hearts; he wanted to achieve a state of amoral grace, and be baptised backwards into ignorance and simplicity.”
― J.K. Rowling, The Casual Vacancy


PEN America announced today the launch of the Artists at Risk Connection (ARC), an online collaboration of more than 500 global organizations that provide life-saving resources to artists worldwide who face oppression, persecution, arrest, and violence for their creative work.

Recent reported threats against New York’s Guggenheim Museum, the cancellation of a major planned work from the Louvre in Paris, and the withdrawal of a major film from Russian theatres offer stark reminders of the hotly contested terrain that artists occupy. There were more than a thousand attacks on artists in 2016, according to the Copenhagen-based Freemuse—more than double the prior year. While hundreds of organizations offer assistance to imperiled artists, ARC is a first-of-its-kind platform bringing all of these resources together in a single online hub, accessible in 104 languages.

“Artist face backlash when they push up against intellectual, social, and ideological boundaries,” said Suzanne Nossel, Executive Director of PEN America. “While global campaigns and U.N. resolutions have been mounted to protect journalists and human rights defenders, threats to artists have gotten limited international attention. The Artist at Risk Connection brings together an extraordinary network of global organizations committed to augmenting the assistance available to artists who risk their freedom and their lives in the name of creative expression.”

ARC collates resources—including emergency funding, housing opportunities, residencies, fellowships and grants, and legal, immigration, and resettlement services—in an interactive online catalogue to help threatened artists quickly identify programs for which they’re eligible. This exhaustive database is the first of its kind for artists-at-risk, who have typically had to piece together assistance through a combination of personal contacts, referrals, and web searches, often under dire circumstances.

ARC also provides training and facilitates collaboration within a network of artist assistance organizations, including Index on Censorship (United Kingdom), ICORN (Norway), Al Mawred (Lebanon), and the Sundance Institute (United States), to strengthen each organization’s ability to provide comprehensive support to artists in dire need. Over time, ARC will work to elevate the visibility of artists at risk, seeking to mobilize an even greater breadth global arts institutions to play a more prominent role in assisting their field’s most vulnerable.

“At-risk artists often operate in the shadows, striving to continue to work amid pressures and dangers to their livelihoods and safety,” said Julie Trébault, Director of the Artist at Risk Connection. “Given the central role of the arts in society and culture, those who pay the heaviest price for their contributions need and deserve greater support and recognition for their sacrifices.”

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PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect open expression in the United States and worldwide. We champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. Our mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible.

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The Artists at Risk Connection (ARC) safeguards the right to artistic freedom of expression and ensures that artists everywhere can live and work without fear. An interactive hub to gather, share, and coordinate the many resources, services, and forms of assistance available to artists at risk, ARC aims to strengthen connections between threatened artists and the organizations that support them.

“Stories of Hope” …. and other poems in response to the last Wednesday Writing Prompt


Such beautiful and uplifting responses to the last Wednesday Writing Prompt, l’chaim, October 4, 2017. Together, these are a small gift of antidote to news reports. Grab a cup of tea. Take a breath. Read. Ponder. Smile! These are as Paul Brookes says, “happy poems.”

Thanks to Paul, Lady Nimue, Renee Espiru, Sonja Benskin Mesher, Colin Blundell and Kakali Das Gosh for coming out to play.

Please join us for tomorrow’s Wednesday Writing Prompt, always theme – not form – based. You are welcome no matter the stage of your career – beginner, emerging, professional. It’s all about getting to know other poets and having your say.


Stories of Hope

The world thrives on stories of hope,

Little cracked,but surviving homes;

I live each moment in awe

From when life picked me first

So out of line, yet so full of want;

You are home to me,my world,

The only constant reminder,

My prayers and wishes answered;

No matter what changes around,

Am blessed;love can be found

If you raise a toast for the gifts

That equally to strangers, you receive to give.

© 2017, Lady Nimue, Prats Corner: Pages of my mind: collecting words, experiences and memories …

Lady Nimue is new to our pages but has been blogging and posting her poems and other works for years. She says in her “I, Me, Myself” – “I love to experiment in reading, watching and listening to all that suggested to Me by close friends and trusted sources; and then i maintain a record here of my reactions and impressions – what i hear myself say in my head and heart about all the living and non !

“Hope you find something of your liking too !! And  if you don’t let me know about that too ..”

We welcome Lady Nimue to The Poet by Day, Wednesday Writing Prompt.


there was a time

when one bottle of wine
seemed as if it was going to last forever;
the one I’m thinking of (purchased
one dinnertime in summer at 7/6d)
occupied a space in my life
a mile high and spanned the gap
all the way to Tibet; as you drank a glass
that dinnertime it seemed to refill itself
from the dregs of love

when one kiss would last
as long as the Rachmaninov cello sonata
whenever you put the record
on the turntable and let the needle fall –
obliterated in the so well-known cadences
which I could have been whistling
had my lips not been squashed against hers

when a bicycle ride would construct a day
down to the sea and back
across the long valley and over the downs –
magic ride often repeated –
I fill it from these dregs of memory

© 2017, Colin Blundell (Colin Blundell, All and Everything)

From a forthcoming book of poems by Colin Blundell

NOTE: 7/6d old money in 1964 = what would be 36p now
= after inflation in 2017 £6.80 = US$ 8.80


.the year.

gently go forward, then gently back
recreating past deeds and misdemenours
you thought forgotten.

gently go forward knowing we are mostly
all the same, with motes not spoken of,
except disorder.

gently it passed behind you, seen
clearly while looking for god.

gently gather winter leaves to keep
in paper bags. these are the golden
days .

my friend.

© 2017, Sonja Benskin Mesher  (Sonja Benskin Mesher, RCA and Sonja’s Drawings)

..earth & heaven..

I have been away, this is the first day back.

not floods, yet death, and roofs flying, to produce home less ness.

I understand nothing of your situation, yet I know some stuff, and mostly i can only listen.

I guess we have to help ourselves. I met some good people away.

© 2017, Sonja Benskin Mesher (Sonja Benskin Mesher, RCA and Sonja’s Drawings)


Every New Beginning

To every newborn baby born
to those that overcome
to family diverse and all

for every new sunrise bright
for every moonlit night

the seasons that bring change
mother nature nurturing growth
remains

as seen in fields of flowers
kaleidoscope colors
in seeding fields & in
fields laid fallow

to harvesting and being thankful
for the celebration of life
& living

within each beginning
lies peace
Meta

© 2017, Renee Espriu (Renee Just Turtle Flight and Inspiration, Imagination & Creativity with Wings, Haibun, AR, Haiku & Haiga)


#An appeal to endure #

A dark tunnel
A murky avenue
A lunatic   storm
Puzzled looks
Embarrassed scenes
Pixilated hearts
A giggling child
A lotus pond
A blooming daffodil
Vanished agony
Annihilated pain
An appeal to endure …

© 2017, Kakali Das Ghosh


A Little Girl

places an autumn oak leaf
in all its yellow and red on my conveyor belt.

I consider my potential responses:

Sorry love you can’t buy that here.

Sorry love it has no barcode, so won’t go through.

That’s a free gift from nature, love.

At the finish I advise

Sorry you can’t put that through, love

and she removes the leaf from the belt.

At the finish it is all child’s play
in the adult buy and sell.

© 2017, Paul Brookes (The Wombwell Rainbow, Inspiration, History, Imagination)

A Grandkid’s Hug

1.

You’re such a klutz!
as I pull out my wallet
and silver coin falls out

I hold your warm hand
after all these years
and something passes
something does not fall

2.

Magic a grandkids hug
Round the middle
Softens sharp nails
Smooths frayed edges

Unaware hug anyway
any how whatever any why
all hammering
all awkward shaving down.

Gone in an instant.
Grandkids hugs should be
ever prescribed
On NHS

© 2017, Paul Brookes (The Wombwell Rainbow, Inspiration, History, Imagination)

In A Hush

of winter
from bare limbs silhouetted

against a grey sky
a sudden voice
from tiny lungs

your full heart lifts
as if the tree had blossomed
unexpectedly.

© 2017, Paul Brookes (The Wombwell Rainbow, Inspiration, History, Imagination)

A Breathless

small boy in an angry bird t shirt,
mock flight jacket,
Hawaiian shorts and trainers
bursts into the shop shouting

“What-What-time-is-it?
When-do-you-close?
I’ve got fifty pee.”

I reply that we close at eight,
so he has an hour.

“Just ran all way here.
What can I buy? he asks
mouth open before a wall of sweets.

I show him in one corner trays full
of small chocolate eggs at 49p.
“Yes. Yes one of these.”

His delight makes me smile.

© 2017, Paul Brookes (The Wombwell Rainbow, Inspiration, History, Imagination)


ABOUT THE POET BY DAY

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

CALLS FOR SUBMISSIONS

Opportunity Knocks

THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF POETRY publishes from 100-150 poets in each of its biannual editions. The editors are screening submissions for their fourth edition and are open to emerging and established poets and long poems and simultaneous submissions. $5 submission free for up to six poems. Details HERE.

LUXINE, We live off your creative impulses is a publication created by two students in Edinburgh who feature the work of students.  Themes are color based and for issue five, the color is nude.  Featured: art, articles, interviews and poems. Deadline: 25 October 2017. Details HERE.

HOWL, Where Writers Go to Read accepts submissions of fiction, non-fiction, graphic narratives, poetry, art, and drama. This is a lit art mag published by the students of Deitona High School in Deitona, Florida. Submission guidelines HERE. I love this:

 “Mission Statement: Howl is the vanguard of education in the publishing of the literary arts for the perennial generations. Our goals are to publish great literature from around the world, promote the literary arts in our own community, and all the while educate young writers and editors to carry the “lit” torch into the 21st century.”

EDINBURGH REVIEW is in the process of reviewing a backlog of submissions and moving their offices. The editors will announce their reopening of submission calls on their Facebook page and through their Twitter account. Follow and stay tuned.

AGNI is an American literary magazine that publishes poetry, fiction, essays, reviews, interviews, and artwork twice a year in print and biweekly online from its home at Boston University. Its editor is Sven Birkerts, the literary critic and essayist; its senior editor is William Pierce.”AGNI regularly features emerging writers and ‘among readers around the world . . . is known for publishing important new writers early in their careers, many of them translated into English for the first time” (PEN American Center). Most of what we publish is unsolicited. The print magazine appears twice yearly, in spring and fall. The website grows biweekly with postings of new online-only fiction, poetry, essays, reviews, and interviews. AGNI welcomes unsolicited manuscripts between September 1st and May 31st. Details HERE.

CALLALOO, A Journal of African Diaspora Arts and Letters “is a journal devoted to creative work by and critical studies of the work of African Americans and peoples of African descent throughout the African Diaspora. Visual art and studies of life and culture in the Black world are also published regularly in Callaloo, as is wide-ranging cultural criticism. Callaloo is published five times a year (Winter, Spring, Summer, Art, and Fall), and accepts original submissions of scholarly articles, book reviews, interviews, nonfiction essays, short fiction, poetry, and visual art.” Details HERE.

MOTHER JONES works mostly with writers with whom there is an established relationship but “will consider solidly reported, hard-hitting, groundbreaking news stories. We’re also open to thought-provoking, timely opinion and analysis pieces on important current issues.” Details HERE.

BENEATH CEASELESS SKIES, Literary Adventure Fantasy publishes “stories with a secondary-world setting and some traditional or classic fantasy feel, but written with a literary approach.” Word count limit: 14,000. Details HERE.

SEQUESTRUM “is a competitive, paying market which publishes high-quality short fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and visual arts on a rolling basis. Recent contributors include Pulitzer Prize nominees, Guggenheim and NEA Fellows, award-winning novelists and poets, as well as many new and emerging voices. We’re committed to publishing the bulk of our publications from unsolicited manuscripts and are open to all stylistic schools and “isms,” including the occasional genre piece.” Details HERE.


THE BeZINE

THE BeZINE call for submissions for the November 2017 issue – themed Hunger, Poverty and Working-class Slavery –  is now open and the deadline is November 10thSend submissions to me at bardogroup@gmail.com. Publication is November 15th. Poetry, essays, fiction and creative nonfiction, art and photography, music (videos or essays), and whatever lends itself to online presentation is welcome for consideration.  No demographic restrictions.

Submissions of work on your country and its history and culture are welcome no matter your citizenship, national origin, first language, religion or lack thereof. The more diverse the representation, the better. English only or accompanied by translation into English. Please check out a few issues first and the Intro/Mission Statement and Submission Guidelines. We DO NOT publish anything that promotes hate, divisiveness or violence or that is scornful or in any way dismissive of “other” peoples.

I do consider previously published work if you hold the copyright. / J.D.

HEADS-UP ON THE NOVEMBER ISSUE OF The BeZine: the theme is Spirituality (Spiritual Paradigms, Awakenings, Miracles). Deadline: November 10.

THE BeZINE NEWS: Beginning January 2018, we’ll move to a quarterly format with themes and – possibly – sub-themes. Your suggestions for sub-themes are welcome. Email me at bardogroup@gmail.com


CONTESTS

Opportunity Knocks

SEQUESTRUM New Writer Awards: Poetry deadline is October 15. $15 submission fee. Cash awards. Details HERE including those for Fiction and Nonfiction awards.

GLIMMER TRAIN PRESS Short Story Award for New Writers. Details HERE.

CLOUDBANK BOOKS: Vern Rutsala Book Prize $1,000 and publication, Deadline October 31. Reading Fee $25; the Cloudbank Poetry Prizes and Flash Prizes, $200. Deadline February 28, 2018. Reading Fee: $25. Details HERE.

TWO SPECIAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR STUDENT WRITERS AND GRAPHICS ARTS DESIGNERS. Details HERE.

Asking yourself: What can I do about horrors like Las Vegas and Sandy Hook? Give your thoughts a platform, be apart of the solution…design our 2017 logo. Facebook friends, fans and followers will be the judges. Send entry to poetsout@gmail.com.

DEADLINE: December 1st, 2017 

EVENTS

  • Who Reads Poetry: A Conversation with Fred Sasaki and Don Share, October 14, 3 pm – 4:30 pm CDT. The Seminary Co-op Bookstores, 5751 S. Woodlawn Ave., Chicago. Details HERE.
  • Poetry & Music: Stephen Alltop ad Josefien Stoppelenburg, October 10, 7 pm – 8 pm CDT, Poetry Foundation and Poetry Magazine, 61 W Superior St., Chicago. Details HERE.
  • Massachusetts Poetry Festival, May 4 and 5, poetry readings, workshops, lit fair,panels, and slams. Proposals deadline is October 30. Details HERE.
  • O, Miami Poetry Festival, April 1 – 30, community based. Details HERE.
  • 14th Annual Palm Spring Poetry Festival, January 15 – 20, Delray Beach,Florida. Details HERE.

Accessible from anywhere in the world:

The Poet by Day, Wednesday Writing Prompt, online every week and all are invited to take part no matter the stage of career (emerging or established) or status (amateur or professional). Poems related to the challenge of the week (always theme based not form based) will be published here on the following Tuesday.

The Poet by Day, Sunday Announcements. Every week opportunity knocks for poets and writers.

THE BeZINE, Be Inspired, Be Creative, Be Peace, Be, Vol. 4, Issue 1, theme: Music, will publish on October 15. This is our Four-Year Anniversary.


NEWS AND OTHER INFORMATION


FOR OUR FRIENDS IN GREECE:

Introducing children’s books by Eva Petropoulou Lianou. available in Greece at Analogion – xylokastron, Adalakēs – xylokastron and other bookstores

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SILICON VALLEY

PENNINSULA/SOUTH BAY

Off-subject but worthy of your attention

LET’S TALK ABOUT IT: Special for our Silicon Valley/South Bay friends, a workshop hosted by Jazz Singer Candice Hawley as part of a good works project: Let’s Talk About It, a free and open discussion of Anxiety and Depression, Chemical Imbalances and overall Mental Health. Candice says, “you’ll hear stories of lived experience, see a presentation by Tanya Pekker, MFT, on anxiety and depression, engage in a Q&A with all participants and more . . .”  Saturday, October 28, 10 am – Noon, Boys & Girls Club of the Peninsula, Moldaw-Zaffaroni Clubhouse, 2031 Pulgas Avenue, East Palo Alto, CA. Register HERE.


YOUR SUNDAY ANNOUNCEMENTS may be emailed to thepoetbyday@gmail.com. Please do so at least a week in advance.

If you would like me to consider reviewing your book, chapbook, magazine or film, here are some general guidelines:

  • nothing that foments hate or misunderstanding
  • nothing violent or encouraging of violence
  • English only, though Spanish is okay if accompanied by translation
  • though your book or other product doesn’t have to be available through Amazon for review here, it should be easy for readers to find through your site or other venues.

DISCLAIMER

Often information is just thatinformation – and not necessarily recommendation. I haven’t worked with all the publications or other organizations featured in my regular Sunday Announcements or other announcements shared on this site. Awards and contests are often a means to generate income, publicity and marketing lists for the host organizations, some of which are more reputable than others. I am homebound due to disability and no longer attend events. Please be sure to verify information for yourself before submitting work, buying products, paying fees or attending events et al.


ABOUT THE POET BY DAY