New Feature: Poem of the Week

If you would like your best poem considered send to gypsysubmissions@yahoo.com
If it has been previously published state where so we can give credit if we use it. If accepted we will ask for a very short bio and photo of yourself.

For now here's one borrowed from the FAMOUS POETS AND POEMS website:

For Jane: With All The Love I Had, Which Was Not Enough
by Charles Bukowski

I pick up the skirt,
I pick up the sparkling beads
in black,
this thing that moved once
around flesh,
and I call God a liar,
I say anything that moved
like that
or knew
my name
could never die
in the common verity of dying,
and I pick
up her lovely
dress,
all her loveliness gone,
and I speak to all the gods,
Jewish gods, Christ-gods,
chips of blinking things,
idols, pills, bread,
fathoms, risks,
knowledgeable surrender,
rats in the gravy of 2 gone quite mad
without a chance,
hummingbird knowledge, hummingbird chance,
I lean upon this,
I lean on all of this
and I know:
her dress upon my arm:
but
they will not
give her back to me.


The fact is that Bukowski has published extensively in various small literary publications for over thirty years. These publications exist in small numbers and are difficult if not impossible to find. Fortunately, John Martin of Black Sparrow Press has managed to cull together these poems and stories over several collections, until catching up with his contemporary writings in the 80s.

In total, there are over forty books in print written by Bukowski. Since his death on March 9, 1994, a growing number of books deal with Bukowski as a critical source and literary legend.

Introducing our new Poetry Book Reviewer, BL Kennedy

BL KENNEDY, POETRY REVIWER, in his own words:

Well, it's 6:35 AM outside, 36 degrees, in my Sacramento apartment it's a cool 68 degrees. Last night (late), I was the recipient of an email that simply had the word "idea" written in the message bar it was from my buddy poet, Belinda Subraman, you know, Belinda, she of books, Skype, radio inter-views, generally political ramplings and all the whipped cream that you can find.

So, I said "yep" let's see what happens. Belinda then told me the the introduction of me as the official Poetry Book Reviewer for her BlogSpot, had to be exciting. So, here's my whipped cream.

Here I am..BL Kennedy who will be reviewing poetry for Belinda Subraman's Blog. So, I think it's only fair that you know something about me. Okay, I was born in The Bronx, NYC and I am a Yankees fan. This is really for my late father William Kennedy who loved the game and loved the Yankees. I now, as you can tell live in Sacramento, California and the Yankees are far away.

A little about me, I love poetry, all kinds of good poetry. This means no religious or over-the-top political philosophies.

Okay, I was raised in a home with no books but had a deal with the local BOOKSTORE, library, and corner newsstand. In other words I was a reader. Early on I discovered heroes like Henry Miller, Bukowski, Kenneth Patchen, Sinatra, Godzilla. Ann Menebroker, Val Lewton, The FireSign Theater, Kerouac, Mike Hammer, Ursalla Duziux, Miles Davis, Nelson Algren, Hubert Selby, Jr, Earl Thomson, d.a.levy, Harlan Ellison, The MC5, Patti Smith, Allen Ginsberg, Kathy Acker, Charles Chaplin. Harpo, Anne Waldman, Sharon Doubiago, Jo Ann Kyger, Robin Rule, and we can never forget "The Creature from the Black Lagoon" Or how that fool Custer ran into that mess!

I am kind of like Custer. As I said, I love poetry. And I am a fair, honest critic with an artistic bent toward all things exciting and experimental, yet I love a good Stephen King, get the picture? I think you get the picture those names listed above have contributed in way which got me on the path of becoming a poet and book reviewer. Of course this amazing feat took years of going to colleges like the famed Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poets in the Writing Program at Naropa Institute, and California State University, Sacramento, and many nights of down on my ass drunk and in philosophical conversation with other drunk Artists, Poets, Extraterrestrials, Ghosts,Writers, and Frank Zappa.

So, buckle-up because we are gonna go fast and introduce you to some very cool poetry along the way.


BL Kennedy

1201 P Street, # 5, Sacramento, CA. 95814

PH. (916) 444-7606

SEND BOOKS FOR REVIEW TO THE ABOVE ADDRESS.


A few poems by BL Kennedy

The Hands Of Lovers
With the restored language
Of your paschal flesh

I wander
Along orchard paths
Drunk

On the odor of reverie
Faith cried into noir hands

It utters our lives to earth
But earth does not
Abolish it pulls

From testimonials
Truncated
In the convex stream of dreams


Some Notes On The Way Of Things

You ask for simple things
Luminous blackberries,
A wreath of stars & yellow ribbons,
Some broken tree branches to weave

Across the naked breasts
Of a woman spying
The abandoned follies

Created above heaven &
So filled with beatitude

That even God would cry


Meditation

This poem is a prayer
Filled with sacred teachings

This poem rebel lyric
Of light

It wobbles language

It burst bubblebops

It composes with peddlewood pencils
It bleeds residue from leather girdles of Shiva
It sits with Buddha

It shoots night full of orange flowers
Fills its mouth with tropical jewels

It is necessary to travel with this poem
Because it is yet to be heard by strangers

Children of Guerrero by Nina Vida

Mexico is in the news. But what do we know about this country on our border and its explosive history?

CHILDREN OF GUERRERO fills in the blanks, weaves fiction and fact, exposes exploitation by outsiders and revolution by its citizens. From 1511 when a Spanish ship is wrecked on the coast of Yucatan to Emperor Maximilian’s attempt to sit on the Mexican throne to the upheaval of the student rebellion in Mexico City a hundred years later, the novel exposes Mexico’s witches’ brew of intrigue and corruption as well as the beauty of the land and the bravery of its citizens. CHILDREN OF GUERRERO tells a tale of love and deception that reverberates to this day.

Nina Vida's writing career began when her children went off to college and she enrolled in the University Without Walls program at California State University Dominguez Hills to pursue a long-deferred degree in English. One of the requirements of the degree was a semester of creative writing. Nina, who had never written fiction before, decided to write a story about her 38-year-old sister's open-heart surgery. The professor said it brought her to tears. Nina's husband had been a Navy journalist in the Korean War, and when he read the story he said he thought Nina had the makings of a writer and should try her hand at a novel. That was in 1980. Since then Nina has had seven novels published and this month added an e-book to the list, CHILDREN OF GUERRERO, a novel about Mexico. It can be found on Amazon Kindle as well as on Barnes & Noble Nook.
Nina is a native Californian, and lives with her husband Marvin in Huntington Beach, California. They have two grown children.

Direct links to Amazon Kindle and Barnes and Noble Nook

Peggy Kelsy and Her Afghan Women's project

Belinda interviews Peggy. Listen HERE.







Peggy was inspired to begin the Afghan Women’s Project after meeting with a delegation of Afghan women who passed through Austin, Texas during the fall of 2002. The strength, humor and resiliency of these women was contrary to the media image of Afghan women as helpless victims. It inspired Peggy to create The Afghan Women’s Project in order to share this side of Afghan women with western audiences. This project’s goal, seeking out wisdom and sources of strength from women who have experienced such repression and hardship, is one of the ways Peggy can merge her love of photography with her interest in human psychology as well as concretely benefit both Afghan women and the viewers.

Peggy traveled to Afghanistan in August and September of 2003, returning with photographs and interviews of 40 women. They are of various ages and come from differing social classes, ethnic groups and areas of the country. Currently, 23 of the women form an exhibit that also includes their biographies and excerpts from their interviews.

Since that time, she has interviewed Malalai Joya, the member of Parliament who stood up the first day it was in session to declare “how can we have a democracy when there are warlords and criminals in the government?” In July of ‘09, she interviewed Shakila Haidari, one of the organizers of the demonstration against the marital rape provisions of the Haraza Family Law.

Use of the exhibit, Afghan Women, Portraits and Stories, is available to organizations worldwide that wish raise awareness about Afghan Women. Additionally, Peggy offers three different slide shows: Spirit of Afghanistan, showing Afghanistan in general and her observations there, Women of Afghanistan which focuses on the lives and stories of individual women, half of whom are not included in the exhibit. Spirit of Afghanistan for Photojournalists expands Spirit of Afghanistan to cover what it takes to put together a project, tells stories about the photographs and gives tips on working in foreign countries.



Visit Peggy's website.