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Hopeful
Will the COVID-19 curve be flattened?
hopeful
social
distancing
mandated
hopeful
community
spread
controlled
hopeful
The COVID-19 curve will be flattened.
Suzanne Cottrell
3/28/2020
Suzanne Cottrell, an outdoor enthusiast and retired teacher lives with her husband and three rescued dogs in rural Piedmont North Carolina. She enjoys reading, writing, knitting, hiking, Pilates, Tai Chi, and yoga. Her poetry has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including The Best Emerging Poets Series, Avocet, Plum Tree Tavern, The Skinny Poetry Journal, and Haiku Journal. She was the recipient of the 2017 Rebecca Lard Poetry Award, Poetry Quarterly, Prolific Press. Learn more about this writer at Suzanne’s Words.
President
Ignorance Ignoramus Trump
leads
pandemic
coffin
parades
leads
bands
of
COVID
corpses
leads
ignorance–ignoram-ass–Untrumped.
Truth Thomas
3/24/2020
(Photo by Melanie Henderson © 2020)
This is the first poem TSPJ has published while in the crosshairs of the COVID-19 pandemic. Arguably, its power is in its lines of artful honesty. The novel Coronavirus will pass. However, the pathogen of racial and cultural ignorance that keeps us from appreciating the wonderful value of all people will continue to rage. Indeed, it will continue to decimate the world if we do not attempt to mitigate it.
In the context of race, this is true white to black and sometimes black to white and, sadly, all too often, every color to every “otherized” assembly of souls. All of us need to cultivate a caring knowledge of what is beautiful about each of us–wherever humanity stands. To that end, I celebrate this courageous writer who offers, in the spirit of love, this genuine, warm, cultural self-portrait.
Truth Thomas
TSPJ Editor-in-Chief
_________________
White Girl
You do not know
me
tailgate
bologna
sandwiches
me
knobby
knee
swings
me
Know you do not
Jane Edna Mohler
3/7/2020
Jane Edna Mohler is a poet and counselor in the Philly suburbs. She is the author of Broken Umbrellas (Kelsay Books, 2019). Her work has appeared in Schuykill Valley Journal, U.S. 1 Worksheets, River Heron Review, and The Boston Globe. Mohler won the 2016 Main Street Voices Poetry Competition and is a Pushcart Prize nominee. She is an avid newcomer to Skinny Poetry.
Bay to Ocean Writers Conferencing — Skinny Workshopping 2020 — a blessing to teach and a blessing to be in the presence of a sparkling assembly of my writing life kindred. Tall love to Tara Elliott for the gig and Bill Cecil for the photo.
Love this shot. Love the work of this gifted poet–
Barbara Turney Wieland.
Reposting this poem of hers–“2017” that seems
prophetic now, given
all that has transpired in America since Donald
Trump entered White House doors. – t
~~~
2017
starts as a shit storm
warning
muted
orange
warning
voted
fear-monger
rage
warning
as a shit storm starts
2/9/2017
Barbara Turney Wieland takes time for green tea steeped in a teapot, enjoys a bit of 100% dark chocolate and putting pen or paint to paper to see what comes out. Ever in wonder, she is an Aussie living in Switzerland, longing for sun, atm.
~~~
To order your copy of The Skinny Poetry Anthology
where more of Wieland’s
sterling work appears, simply go to Cherry Castle Publishing’s
online bookstore today.
How to Write a Skinny
I
start with your end
lines
nine
inner
skin
lines
replete
with
repeat
lines
end with your start
II
bruisable fruit
distill
spill
your
veins
distill
fog
rivers
rain
distill
bruisable fruit
III
now step off the
cliff
sheer
no-fear
word
cliff
catching
your
breath
cliff
step off the now
Angela H. Dale
3/4/2020
***
Angela H. Dale is a poet and picture book author who lives in Ellicott City, Maryland. Her writing has appeared in The Baltimore Sun, Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, The Skinny Poetry Journal, Her Mind and in many other notable journals. Her picture book debut is slated for release in Fall 2022.
State Head Case
In union, me
put
here
with
you
put
together
unglued
I
put
me in union.
America
by
God
not
used
by
anyone
else
except
by
America.
America, no more limits,
have
won’t
cater
to
have
nots
for
I
have
no more limits, America.
Up in space
force
less
stamps,
welfare
force
poor
send
in
force
up in space.
Privates sacred,
your
healthcare
and
also
your
schools
hold
onto
your
sacred privates.
Into space, each child
throwing
their
hat
in
throwing
in
with
us
throwing
each child, into space.
Wall and wall
and
more
miles
taller
and
even
more
powerful
and
wall and wall.
Criminal aliens!
we
make
wall
make
tall
we
colonize
Mars,
we
criminal aliens!
At last standing, our
Prayer
Punished.
Guns,
Glory,
Prayer,
Punished.
Send
Thought
prayer
at our last standing!
Chad Parenteau
2/18/2020
Chad Parenteau is the author of Patron Emeritus, released in 2013 by FootHills Publishing. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Tell-Tale Inklings, Queen Mob’s Tea House, What Rough Beast, The Skinny Poetry Journal, Ibbetson Street, Molecule and Résonance. He serves as Associate Editor of the online journal Oddball Magazine. He has hosted the long-running Stone Soup Poetry series in Boston since 2005. His second full-length collection, The Collapsed Bookshelf, is forthcoming.
What hope for the future of all Americans looks like…
The Skinny Poetry Anthology Edited by Truth Thomas
Review by Rosetta Codling, Ph.D.
The Ski NNY (2019) is the latest issue from Cherry Castle Publishing. It is, by far, the most lyrically aesthetic from the house of Cherry Castle. Truth Thomas is the creator of the Skinny genre. It is, perhaps, an urban haiku, framed in eleven volcanic lines which surge forth. The eleventh line and the last line must be repeated using the same words from the first and opening line. The composer, Truth Thomas, does lend liberty to rearrangement. But the second, sixth, and tenth lines must be identical. Thomas, also, stresses that: “All the lines in his form, except for the first and last lines, must be composed of a single word.”
Does this all sound daunting? Yes. Is it difficult to achieve? Yes. However, the subjects of these harmonious creations are the more tedious to bear witness to. Yet, the poets in this collection do so fearlessly.
“the glint of gas oven or America’s Concentration Camps” (with acknowledgment to “who” by Sylvia Plath) is the opening ‘sonata poem’ of this collection. This poem is disarming and starkly real. Debasis Mukhopadhyay is a poet true to his mentor Sylvia Plath. The words drip and drape across the page conveying the erosion of the human spirit. In short, terse, verse, America is indicted for crimes against humanity on a single page of history.
“Jail Cell Diaries” is an entry in this collection that invades the soul in variation mode. This poem is a chronicle of 21 days of unjust incarceration. The varied repetition of words, in each stanza, are branded upon the page for the reader. “Freely…free…delirium…cry…sleep…dropped…guiltocent…dropped” are the words which descend upon the reader, slowly. Jen Schneider, the poet, paints an image that lingers long after the cell doors…open and close, again.
But, this collection is not without wit. Pam Desloges’ “Skinny Skinny” reminds the reader what lies beneath the meter and the meaning of a poem. She entreats us to explore the “nouns” and “bony verbs” absorbed in a text. She uses food imagery to aid in our envisioning of “low-carb adjectives” that are consumed in sectional, lean forms.
This collection is a whole. This collection is in harmony. This collection stands alone. Thank you, Truth Thomas, for delivering truths in many lyrical tones.
———————–
Rosetta Codling is a freelance literary critic. She has written reviews for the Ama Books, the Manhattan Book Review, the San Francisco Book Review, the Journal of African Literature, Autres Modernites, and Examiner.com. She has obtained scholarships and fellowships from Queens College (NYC), Teachers College/Columbia University (NYC), and the Open University (UK). She retired (in 2006) as a secondary school teacher and Adjunct Professor of English for over 30 years in New York. However, she attends global conferences and continues to write professionally. In addition, she now is an Adjunct Associate Professor of English at Herzing University in Atlanta, Georgia.
———————–
(Shaggy Flores, Nuyorican Poet/Scholar)
Order your copy of The Skinny Poetry Anthology from Cherry Castle Publishing today.
Thomas Locicero’s poetry sings. It has a voice as grand as the New York Island. His poem, “The Skinny on Italian Lovers,” is a cultural ode both of splendid originality and bold ingenuity. Without question, his work shines in craft and endearing uniqueness–and for that, we should all be grateful. Order your copy of The Skinny Poetry Anthology today, TO BE buoyed by Locicero’s work @ https://tinyurl.com/rqvf892
Thomas Locicero’s poems have appeared in The Skinny Poetry Journal, Roanoke Review, Boston Literary Magazine, Long Island Quarterly, The Ghazal Page, Birmingham Arts Journal, Poetry Pacific, Antarctica Journal, and Bindweed Magazine, among other journals. Originally from East Islip, NY, he resides with his wife, Lil, and sons, Sam and Ben, in Broken Arrow, OK.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on “The Three Evils of Society”: War, Racism and Poverty.
Tara Betts is a poet’s poet, to be sure. She is a deep dish of literary excellence–and perhaps, one of the reasons that the wind blows so hard in Chicago is because Betts is stirring good things up with her words. TO BE inspired by her work in The Skinny Poetry Anthology, go to https://tinyurl.com/rqvf892
Tara Betts is the author of Break the Habit and Arc & Hue. She’s a co-editor of The Beiging of America: Personal Narratives about Being Mixed Race in the 21st Century and editor of the critical edition of Philippa Duke Schuyler’s memoir Adventures in Black and White. Her work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. Betts received her B.A. in Communication at Loyola University, received her M.F.A. in Creative Writing from New England College. She received her Ph.D. in English/Creative Writing from Binghamton University.
Great depth and craft abide in the poetry of Changming Yuan. It is an honor to read his pieces, rich with layers of wisdom, capable of warming souls in winter frost. TO BE stirred by his work in The Skinny Poetry Anthology, go to https://tinyurl.com/rqvf892
Changming Yuan published monograph translations, before leaving China. Currently, Yuan lives in Vancouver, where he edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Qing Yuan. His credits include: ten Pushcart nominations, the 2018 Naji Naaman’s Literary Prize, Best of the Best Canadian Poetry and Best New Poems Online.
There is a profound reverence for humanity in the poetry of Kara Provost. Now, more than ever, in the U.S. and in the world, such love is needed like air needs breathing. TO BE moved by her work in The Skinny Poetry Anthology, go to https://tinyurl.com/rqvf892
Kara Provost has published two chapbooks, Topless (Main Street Rag) and Nests (Finishing Line), and six microchapbooks with the Origami Poems Project. Her poems appear in literary journals and a number of anthologies, including Credo: Manifestos and Sourcebook for Creative Writing; Nuclear Impact: Shattered Atoms in Our Hands; and Shifts: Women’s Growth through Change. Kara teaches writing at Curry College and lives in Rhode Island.
Praise Song for Marlin
(Sunday, October 6, 1968)
When Marlin Briscoe started for the Broncos, we cheered.
Before
Doug.
Warren.
Russell.
Before
Colin.
We
knelt
before
we cheered when Marlin Briscoe started for the Broncos.
Le Hinton
1/12/2020
Le Hinton is the author of six poetry collections, including: Sing Silence (Iris G. Press, 2018). His work can be found in The Best American Poetry 2014, Summerset Review, Pittsburgh Poetry Review, and outside of Clipper Magazine Stadium, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, incorporated into Derek Parker’s sculpture, “Common Thread.”
To follow The Skinny Poetry Anthology on Twitter, go to: @TheSkinnyPJ
What wonderful word pictures Regina Guarino paints in poetry. Her work literally Jumps off of the page of The Skinny Poetry Journal and that is a blessing for every reader who engages the pages of the book.
TO ORDER Your copy of TSPA, go to: Cherry Castle Publishing–the Soul press–all day long.
Regina Guarino is the author of Words Matter: Prayers to Heal a Feminist Soul (Blurb Books, 2018). Stockton University’s Shore Thing Writing Getaway, for which she was a scholarship recipient, inspired these poems. She has been teaching English as a second language for many years in Wilmington, Delaware.
The Skinny Poetry Journal stands with all people who earnestly work to advance the interest of love and peace in the world. That means, we’re down with our Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Agnostic, Atheist family–whomever you be. We be against War, against racism, against any “ism” that acts as a social lighter fluid to inflame hatred and violence around the globe. So, if you didn’t know, now you know. – Truth Thomas
“…noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Debasis Mukhopadhyay is, quite simply, a consistently brilliant poet with a singular voice. This happy fact abides in the Skinnys he has written that are gratefully a part of The Skinny Poetry Anthology.
TO ORDER Your copy of TSPA, go to: Cherry Castle Publishing–the Soul press–all day long.
Debasis Mukhopadhyay is the author of the chapbook kyrie eleison or all robins taken out of context (Finishing Line Press, 2017). His poems have appeared in Stride, The Honest Ulsterman, Posit, Words Dance, Erbacce, I am not a silent poet, and elsewhere. His work has been nominated for the Best of the Net. Debasis lives and writes in Montreal, Canada.
Elizabeth Jorgensen’s work in The Skinny Poetry Anthology holds the poetic grip strength that only gifted writers can wield. What a wonderful world her poetry is–for those on both two and four legs to follow.
Elizabeth Jorgensen’s memoir, Go, Gwen, Go, co-written with Nancy Jorgensen, is available from Meyer & Meyer Sport. Shorter works appear in Wisconsin English Journal, Azalea and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She has presented at NCTE, WSRA and for NCTA. Learn more at lizjorgensen.weebly.com
When I think about the people who have greatly impacted my life, it’s clear that a significant number of them are veterans. Many, like Lamont B. Steptoe, are Vietnam veterans–but not all–Dr. Tony Medina, case in point. For what they have suffered in the act of giving, I am very grateful. And certainly, the wisdom, generosity, knowledge, and inspiration they have given me is a gift beyond compare.
I mention all of that to say that I am, and TSPA is, edified by another soldier–Matthew Borczon. He is also a gift beyond compare to the world–this poet–this writer–for his sterling poetry of witness. Not unlike Yehuda Amichai, he writes about war from the point of view of painful personal experience. He writes to honor the sanctity of life and to remind all who will listen about the ongoing human cost of war.
As we are inches away from the second decade in the twenty-first century, in a world in constant conflict, it strikes me that Borczon’s poetry should be embraced with the reverence of a New Year’s Eve “Watch Night” Service. – t
TO ORDER TSPA and explore Borczon’s work
and that of multitudes of exceedingly talented poets
GO TO CHERRY CASTLE PUBLISHING
Matthew Borczon is a poet from Erie, Pennsylvania. He has published 11 collections of poetry, the most recent being Body Bag, on Nixes Mate Books. When Borczon is not writing, he is a nurse who serves adults with developmental disabilities. He has been a Navy Hospital Corpsman for the last 18 years and often writes about his time in Afghanistan and his life after living with PTSD.
“Praying for the families of all of those murdered, brutalized, and terrorized by hands of hate, at both the Hanukkah celebration in Monsey, New York and those at West Freeway Church of Christ. Praying for love to break out like a pandemic for which there will never be a cure.” – Truth Thomas
Along these lines, TSPJ is launching a call for poems that work in the interest of healing America–and the world–from its addiction to violence–whatever its roots. Send your Skinnys to theskinnypoetryjournal@gmail.com for publishing consideration.
I Ask My Grandfather Why He Won’t Speak English
He says, I keep my country in my mouth.
Exile
Sicilian-Ethiopian
Intersection
Blood
Exile
Loyal
Tongued
Vigilant
Exile
I keep my country in my mouth, he says.
Maura Alia Badji
6/2/2016
Maura Alia Badji is a poet/writer/ESL teacher. Her writing has appeared in Aeolian Harp, The Delaware Review, Pirene’s Fountain, The Buffalo News, The Phoenix Soul, Liberated Muse, Cobalt, The Wise Woman, WELTER, The Good Men Project, This City Is a Poem, Barely South Review, and other notable publications. Badji lives in Virginia Beach, with her son, Ibrahim.
ORDER THE SKINNY POETRY ANTHOLOGY HERE
NOW AVAILABLE AT CHERRY CASTLE PUBLISHING
I Never Told You
there was another suicide attempt
smoke
womb
engine
runs
smoke
warmth
whiskey
womb
smoke
another suicide attempt. there. was.
***
A Year Later
You swallowed pills down the pipe of your throat
strangers
in
scrubs
words
strangers
you
can’t
understand
strangers
Down the pipe of your throat, you swallowed pills
Elizabeth Mercurio
12/10/2019
Elizabeth Mercurio’s chapbook, Doll is forthcoming from Lily Poetry Review Books in January of 2020. She earned an MFA in poetry from The Solstice Low-Residency Program of Pine Manor College. Her work has appeared in, Third Point Press, Philadelphia Stories, The Skinny Poetry Journal, The Literary Nest, Fledgling Rag, and Lily Poetry Review.
Coming soon to Cherry Castle Publishing
The Skinny Poetry Anthology–yes, yes:
“It may be hard to imagine that 11-line poems, with nine of those lines being just one word, exude power. No need to imagine, though, because you will find poems of power in The Skinny Poetry Anthology, edited by award-winning poet Truth Thomas. Evocative and profound, these poems meet racism, white supremacy, war, homophobia, domestic violence, immigrant abuse, the prison industrial complex, and grief head on. The vulnerability will cause you to gasp. The transformation and redemption will shake your soul. With poets such as Maura Alia Badji, Brian Gilmore, Debasis Mukhopadhyay, Jimmie Smith Jr., and Rashida James-Saadiya leading the way, this collection offers the combination of fist-raising and compassion our world desperately needs right now.”
– Carmen Calatayud, author of In the Company of Spirits
Only $15.99 @ Cherry Castle Publishing
http://www.cherrycastlepublishing.com
Cover Design by Cory Thomas
Book Layout by David Saunier
#TheSkinnyPoetryAnthology
#CCP
Rep. Elijah Cummings challenged America to live up to its noble promise. That challenge has not fallen with his passing. It lives on in the moral authority of his legacy–and the love-propelled social justice work it inspires. – Truth Thomas
Coming on Black Friday
to Cherry Castle Publishing
Cover design by Cory Thomas
It brings me great joy to spread the news about a new book soon to bless the American literary canon–Frank Thomas Rosen’s auschwitz of the digital age. In an online world, where the spirit of alt-right/neo-Nazi-like hatred grows more vociferous in its daily articulations, it is good to see a reverence for all humanity expressed to counter it. Creatively and thoughtfully, ftr does just that in this new collection, and a great deal more. – Truth Thomas
Coming to the Castle 11/29/2019 auschwitz of the digital age and other poems (new cognitive poetry) by Frank Thomas Rosen – cover design: David Saunier, drawings by Frank Thomas Rosen
auschwitz of the digital age is a bracing book that casts a sidelong glance at contemporary American life, bearing witness to the failure of the grand experiment in democracy. Rosen doesn’t shy away from the quotidian horrors of 21st century America: racism, gun violence, opioid addiction, the healthcare crisis, pollution, our dependence on the news cycle and digital technology—which he catalogues with measured, concrete language. This “east-german poet / tasting the bark of / american poetic diction” is both immigrant and exile, a clear-eyed observer of our “brief american eternity” in which we all find ourselves raising “a beer glass of blood” to the new American hero, “the kid that drew the fire.” —Stephan Delbos, author of Light Reading
Only $15.99 – Pre-Order your copy today
at Cherry Castle Publishing
www.cherrycastlepublishing.com
Vintage Pigskin
Inflated bladder
sails
through
the
sky
sails
until
halftime
fans
sail,
bladders inflated.
Rekaya Gibson
9/19/2019
Rekaya Gibson is a freelance writer and author. She has contributed content for Amtrak, HuffPost, Writer’s Digest Books, and several lifestyle magazines. She also has written and published seven books in multiple genres which include tales about magical foods, social media, and colorism. In her spare time, she hosts the “Black Girls Talk Sports Podcast.” Gibson resides in Virginia.
Neo-Nero Fiddles
I.
The Arctic is on fire
melting
bones
Politicians
drone
Melting
glaciers
Starving
nature
Melting
The Arctic is on fire
II.
The Amazon is on fire
Genocide
Global
lungs
ablaze
Genocide
politics
Indigenous
rage
Genocide
The Amazon is on fire
Maura Alia Badji
9/21/2019
Maura Alia Badji is a poet/writer/ESL teacher. Her writing has appeared in Aeolian Harp, The Delaware Review, Pirene’s Fountain, The Buffalo News, The Phoenix Soul, Liberated Muse, Cobalt, The Wise Woman, WELTER, The Good Men Project, This City Is a Poem, Barely South Review, and many other notable journals. Maura lives in Virginia Beach, with her son, Ibrahim.
Larry Walker and others nobly High Post for equality in Howard County Public Schools. #aacrsupportsuperplan #defendtheplan #separateremainsunequal
(Photo courtesy of The Baltimore Sun)
Photo courtesy of https://scotteblog.com)
for the 43 members of Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Local l00, working at the Windows on the World restaurant, who lost their lives in the attack on the World Trade Center
I Miss the Wind
Childhood went by so fast like
wind-
whistles
past
me.
Wind.
Must
have
been.
Wind,
so fast like childhood, went by.
Sanjyokta Deshmukh
8/26/2019
Sanjyokta (Yukta) Deshmukh is a British-Indian writer currently studying a B.A. in English Literature and Creative Writing in the United Kingdoms. She predominantly writes poetry, but is actively trying to expand her literary arsenal and experiment with genre. Her writing often attempts to understand the world around her as she enters adulthood.
Fvck You Dan
The night the lights went out
Fist
in
the
wall
Fist
in
my
face
Fist
Went out, the lights, the night
Regina Guarino
7/31/2019
Regina Guarino is the author of Words Matter: Prayers to Heal a Feminist Soul. Stockton University’s Shore Thing Writing Getaway, for which she was a scholarship recipient, inspired these poems. Regina Guarino has been teaching English as a Second Language for many years in Wilmington, Delaware.
UnSkinny Legend
I AM A FAT LEGEND
OVERFLOWING
ROLLS
BREASTS
THIGHS
OVERFLOWING
MEALS
CLOTHING
PRIDE
OVERFLOWING
FAT, I AM A LEGEND
Aerik Francis
7/27/2019
Aerik Francis is Queer Black & Latinx poet born, raised, and based in Denver, Colorado, USA. He was awarded the 2019 Amiri Baraka Scholarship for SWP at Naropa University, is a Winter Tangerine Workshop alum, and has had his work published in Spit Poet Zine.
