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THE BeZINE, Vol. 2, Issue 9, The Joys of Friendship, Table of Contents with Links

June 15, 2016

“Friendship improves happiness, and abates misery, by doubling our joys, and dividing our grief” Marcus Tullius Cicero

Friendship: Such a homely topic and yet where would we be without friends, whether from childhood or new to us in retirement, whether with family, schoolmates, coworkers, online or in the flesh, our friends do indeed double our joys and make our grieving more bearable. Friends may share specific times in our lives or specific values and interests. Each friend is without a doubt among the great treasures of life and living.

This month our contributing writers and our guests explore the wide range of friendships, their observations and notably, their gratitude. From newborn friendships to one that has stood the great test of time and is in its sixtieth year, from friends who share our family life to those who accompany us in retirement, all are savored this month.

Many of our reader-faves are back this month. Writing on theme Contributing Editor Priscilla Galasso, and Contributing Writers John Anstie, Corina Ravenscraft, Naomi Baltuck, Liliana Negoi and Charlie Martin. Frequent guest contributors Imen Benyoub and Aprilia Zank share their world-class poetry.

Poet Maggie MacKay debuted with us last month. We’re delighted to bring another of her poems to you today. We extend a warm welcome to poet Patricia Leighton, new to our pages.

Father’s can be our greatest champions and friends and we celebrate Father’s Day with Juan Felipe Herrera, former poet laureate of the United States. He’s a joy. Don’t miss that feature.

In our “More Light” section: We continue our well-received “Getting to Know You” series this month with interviews of Silva Merjanian, a frequent guest contributor, and Michael Watson, a member of the Bardo team from almost the beginning.

With Michael we also explore the consequences of disability in a special collection of features on illness and disability. You’ll find an inspiring piece there about a heroic friend of mine who, despite being legally blind, continues to ply her passion, fine art photography.

Contributing Writer, Joe Hesch, and Mendes Biondo – Mendes debuted with us last month – share their world class poety.

Among the features included in “More Light” is M.J. Tenerelli’s article about the process of publishing a poetry collection – Grabbing the Apple, An Anthology of New York Women Poets – which just launced a few weeks ago.  A long-time friend of The Bardo Group Beguines, Dutch nature artist, Paula Kuitenbrouwer, shares the tranquility in her art, “Lotus Plant” and “Lotus Pond and Tortise.”

Enjoy all and thank you for being the peace.

On behalf of The Bardo Group Beguines and in the spirt of peace, love and community,
Jamie Dedes
Founding and Managing Editor

FRIENDSHIP

Features

Friendships and the Serious Introvert, Priscilla Galasso
You Rock, Naomi Baltuck
Musings on Friendship, Corina Ravenscraft
There Are Friends … and there are Friends, John Anstie
Bonds, Liliana Negoi

Poetry

scars and stars, Imen Benyoub
Eying the Landscape, Patricia Leighton
Musing on a Sixty-Year Friendship, Maggie MacKay
of lovers and friends, Charles W. Martin
you really didn’t say that, Charles W. Martin
re: your account, Charles W. Martin
photographs, Aprilia Zank

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY

Father’s Day with Juan Felipe Herrera, Performance Artists and former California Poet Laureate

MORE LIGHT

Special Section: Disability

Illness, Disability and Servitude, Michael Watson
Living …. the operative word …. With Disability, Jamie Dedes
Legally Blind Photographer, Wendy Alger, Jamie Dedes

Feature

“Grabbing the Apple” … or, How a Regional Anthology of Women Poets Was Created and Successfully Launced, M. J. Tenerelli

Poetry

In Chorus We Breath, Joseph Hesch
It’s spring, folk!, Mendes Biondo

Art

“Lotus Plant” & “Lotus Pond with Tortise”, Paula Kuitenbrouwer

Getting to Know You

Silva Merjanian, From War-torn Lebanon to Peace in California
Dreaming the World, An Interview with Michael Watson

IMG_9671CONNECT WITH US

Beguine Again, Spirtual Community and Practice

Facebook, The Bardo Group Beguines

Twitter, The Bardo Group Beguines

Access to the biographies of our core team, contributing writers and guest writers is in the blogroll to your left on site.where you can also find links to archived issues of The BeZine, our Mission Statement and Submission Guidelines.

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THE SUNDAY POESY: Opportunities, Events and Other Information and News

PBD - blogroll

RESOURCES

THE POET & THE POEM: Webcasts and Podcasts from the Poetry and Literature Center at the Library of Congress HERE.

SOUTH CAROLINA POETS offer healing through poetry on the anniversary of the church shooting. On PBS website HERE.

CALLS FOR SUBMISSIONS

Opportunity Knocks

SUPERSTITION [REVIEW], an online literary publication of Arizona State University, welcomes “submissions of art, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry during our two reading periods in fall (September and October) and spring (January and February).” Details HERE.

BALTIMORE REVIEW, Space for expression publishes online and imprint including creative nonfiction, fiction, poetry and video. Submission periods are August 1 through November 30 and February 1 through May 31. The video category is reportedly open all year. Details HERE.

MINOLA, A JOURNAL OF WOMEN’S LETTERS is a fledgling publication with three issues published to date that include poetry and prose. “Minola is now accepting poetry, fiction, essays, reviews, and visual art exclusively from those who identify as women. To be clear this includes non-binary and femme identifying. Minola publishes a select number of only the boldest, most simultaneously raw and refined material.” Details HERE.

THE BeZINE is now accepting submissions of poetry, essays, art and video for its July issue. The theme is Faith: In Things Seen and Unseen, which does not have to be addressed from a religious or spiritual perspective. There is also a “More Light” section in most issues for worthy material that is not on theme.   Deadline for this issue is July 10th. Please read several issues, the mission statement and submission guidelines before sending work to bardogroup@gmail.com. Details HERE. The May issue of The BeZine just came out.

BLACK HEART MAGAZINE, We Heart Art will begin reviewing submissions in August for its anti-gun anthology. “In the wake of only our latest most-deadly shooting here in the U.S. – the Orlando Pulse nightclub shooting that left 50 dead and more wounded – we feel it’s time to take action. No more “thoughts and prayers.” No more fuzzy sentiments. No more excuses. No more bullshit. We’re looking for stories to include in an Anti-Gun anthology, which will wholly benefit the Gun Control Lobby. (See Everytown for Gun Safety for more info on our proposed beneficiary.)” Black Heart Magazine publishes poems, short stories, essays and narative nonfiction  Deadline for the next issue is July 31.  Details for the magazine and the anthology are HERE.

SLICE magazine publishes fiction, nonfiction and poetry. Details HERE. It’s current reading period for issue #20 closes on August 1.

EVENTS

MAKE MUSIC CHICAGO: Janice Misurell-Mitchell a free event offering poetry and music is sponsored by The Poetry Foundation. June 21 @ 12:30 p.m. Details HERE.

THE EPICENTER: Natashia Deón in Conversation (Fiction),  7:00 PM – 8:30 PM at the Alamo Drafthouse at the New Mission, 2550 Mission St. San Francisco, CA 94110

CULTURE RAPIDE PROGRAMME (ongoing through the end of June) (France) Juin 2016, 103 rue Julien Lacroix 75020 Paris, M°Belleville / Pyrénées, 01 46 36 08 04 Details HERE.

POETRY ON THE LAKE (Italy) Isola San Giulio, 28016 Orta (NO) Italy, Information: Gabriel Griffin, tel: +39 0322 911938, e-mail: poetryonthelake@yahoo.co.uk

TIDBITS

“Like a sculptor, if necessary,
carve a friend out of stone.
Realize that your inner sight is blind
and try to see a treasure in everyone.”
Rumi

THE POET BY DAY SUNDAY POESY

Submit your event, book launch and other announcements at least fourteen days in advance to thepoetbyday@gmail.com. Publication is subject to editorial discretion.

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Happy Father’s Day with Mexican-American Poet and former California Poet Laureate, Juan Felipe Herrera … the immigrant experience

Juan Felipe Herrara (b. 1948), American poet and writer, photo by SlowKing
Juan Felipe Herrera (b. 1948), Mexican-American poet and writer, photo by SlowKing under GNUFDL

I posted this a few years ago here and just included it in this month’s issue of The BeZine.  I’m re-posting it now because it highlights the quality and character of immigrants to the United States of America, which seems a good thing to do at this time. I’ll post this Sunday’s Poesy later today. 

Juan Felipe Herrera is a Mexican-American poet and performance artist, a writer and cartoonist, a teacher and an activist.

“Many poets since the 1960s have dreamed of a new hybrid art, part oral, part written, part English, part something else: an art grounded in ethnic identity, fueled by collective pride, yet irreducibly individual too. Many poets have tried to create such an art: Herrera is one of the first to succeed.”  Punk Half Panther by Stephen Burt in the New York Times

Herrara incorporates into his writing his experience of family and the life of the compesinos, migrant farm-workers.

“Into the tilted factories, the smeared taxis,
the stunted universities, into the parlor of bank notes,
in the cramped cookhouse where the dark-skinned
humans still stoop and pitch the daily lettuce bags …”

He sometimes tells stories that arise from what is for him a pivotal moment: the early school experience of trying to fit in though he had no English-language skills. He also writes stories that illustrate the problems of immigration, which often separates families.

In 2012, California Governor, Jerry Brown, named Herrera California Poet Laureate, the first Chicano poet to be so honored.

Many of us – like Juan Felipe Herrara – had fathers or grandfathers who came to the United States to make a better life for themselves and eventually for their children and future generations and who went on to make substantive contributions to this country. Sometimes we like to remember and acknowledge them for their vision, courage and hard work. Today seems like a good day to do so. The video below is charming children’s story, A Tale for Father’s Day, about Herrera’s immigrant father. Enjoy! …

Happy Fathers’ Day to all the dads and to all the moms who, for one reason or other, are both dad and mom.

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BROWN EYES . . . poems in memory of my father

hikmet

Hello, Nazim … Hello!

After Nazim Hikmet

What happiness that today
I can be “open and confident”
Though normally I would hide
in the safety of feigned ignorance,
feign joy, pretend
that I can see my clear sky
in spite of his clouds

Respectfully, I provide the detail requested …

The year is 2016
The month, January
This the first Wednesday
The hour is 6 a.m.

now that i am getting to know you,
now that i am chest-high in your poesy
it’s your time that interests me
……….1902 ~

You were birthday twins, Nazim
You and my mysterious father,
born the same year, into the same culture,
spent your youth in that turmoil

If I study you, Nazim, will I find him, my diffident father,
in the dissident roots of your Turkish sensibility ~
they said he left with a price on his head
only to be caught, chained, imprisoned
in America, between a lover and a wife,
……….strong women . . .
………………..well, at least stronger than he

Hello Nazim!
I say “Hello!” gleefully
……….without a wink
I think we could have been perfect friends
that we might have understood each other
……….Hello! to you and your poetry
……………….Hello Nazim, Hello!

51TpdCJHSxL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_Note: My father and Nazim Hikmet would have come of age just as WW I (1914-1918) was ending and the Turkish War of Independence (1919-1923) was beginning. Hikmet (1902-1963) was a renown poet, playwright and novelist, a communist and a revolutionary who spent his life in and out of jail. He won the International Peace Prize in 1950. My father (1902-1977) was a furrier. I didn’t know him well and saw him only two or three times a year, always at his office. This poem is after Hikmet’s Hello Everybody from Things I Didn’t Know I Loved.

brown eyes

we took the subway to meet you,
the train screeching like a warning omen,
rocketing me heart-first into destiny;
mom wore her best mended gloves,
had me in my sunday dress, hem let-down,
you came in a cashmere coat, a felt
stingy-brimmed fedora, leather gloves

there was some to-do over coffee or tea,
hot chocolate for me and a red balloon;
you examined my face, shook your head,
your brown eyes looked into mine, No!
you said, beautiful child, not mine

you turned away then, a chimera
floating down a city street …
now and again over time
you looked back; but your denial drew
life from mom, stole my red balloon,
tossed it up in your wake; i watched, daddy,
watched you with your warm cashmere coat,
your wife, two sons and those brown eyes,
they stare back at me from my mirror,
No! they say, but you were never quite sure

your mother

a tattered memoir in sepia tones
hanging on the wall of your office
a tiny plump sparrow of a woman
by a lone stone cottage
toothless, poor old thing
a warm shawl pulled to cover her head
an apron, worn shoes
from a time long past
from another world
my Turkish grandmother
what was her name?
you never said
i never asked

MAY ALL FATHERS BE PRESENT.

MAY ALL FATHERS BE LOVED.

MAY ALL FATHERS BE BLESSED.

MAY ALL FATHERS FIND PEACE.

© 2016, poems and illustration, Jamie Dedes, All rights reserved.