“White Girl” by Jane Edna Mohler

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.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on “The Three Evils of Society”

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on “The Three Evils of Society”: War, Racism and Poverty.

The Skinny Poetry Anthology–on the publishing runway

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

Frank Thomas Rosen’s “auschwitz of the digital age” — talking about love.

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

High Posting for Equality

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)

Rashida James-Saadiya shares her narrative photographic work “Betraying the Spectacle” which highlights the intersections of blackness, spirituality and creative resistance in the lives of Black Muslim women living and working in the American South. Rashida James-Saadiya is a visual artist, writer, and cultural educator invested in transforming social perceptions through creative literature. This presentation is sponsored by the John Hope Franklin Center, the Duke Islamic Studies Center, and the Duke University Center for International and Global Studies.