At Central Station
in the center of the snack joint
the drunk railwaymen
are drinking their twentieth beer…
Boys that hang around
are hitting on Diddy
once again,
Diddy, the beauty behind the buffet;
time and again they raise their glass trumpets
blowing them ardently,
then at the cash register
they search their pockets for small change…
At the end of the workday,
at the endlessness of the workday
the clock stands astride
the NO SMOKING sign.
A cloth cap – downbeat and dejected –
cups a cigarette and blows
the smoke down his sleeve
after a day of glorious, dignified labor…
The militiaman on duty doesn’t drink –
responsibilities, you know.
He shrugs, refusing to kiss either Diddy
or the bottle… Read on →
Sonja de Vries is a documentary filmmaker, writer, activist and a mother. Born in Kentucky but raised by her family in Amsterdam, she grew up hearing family stories of resistance to Nazi Occupation. Sonja also spent time growing up on a farm, where she lives today with her son Devlin and partner Beth. She has lived in Cuba, the Netherlands and San Francisco before returning to her birthplace. In 2009, Sonja graduated from the MFA program at Spalding University.
Literary Term of the Week is brought to you by Katerina Stoykova-Klemer and the international arts journal Public Republic. This segment offers definitions of various literary terms, along with unique examples of their use, in brief audio excerpts from Accents radio show interviews with writers, publishers, and journalists.
They love each other.
There is no loneliness like theirs.
James Wright, “A Blessing”
Now there are two. Seven deer, I’m told, before
the cougar’s appetite growled: one by one they were taken
down to the forest’s soft floor. Just these two escaping:
a tale told by the ragged ear of the one, the nervous
watching by the other. But now they still themselves.
Aware that I am near they do not startle, barely move
across the grass, pause like warm brown statues framed
against trees nearly black in the dusk, but silvery
with mist near their tops. There are two: just enough to take care
of the business of grooming. They stand neck-to-neck,
each licking, nuzzling, teasing the ticks and lice from the other’s
coarse fur, enjoying the comfort, the contact, like horses do.
As do humans. As do you; as do I. Touch me here, then,
softly as deer’s breath. I will touch you there, where
your mother held you in her arms, your neck against her shoulder.
Not where the raging fire begins, where undergrowth sparks
and catches and we are lost in its blaze. No, here,
where the hushed forest opens and the two quiet bodies
have disappeared into the green darkness within.
Alderson Experimental Forest
March, 2007
Lancaster, Kentucky
From Little Fires, Finishing Line Press
Barry George’s haiku have been distinguished through numerous publications and awards. Wrecking Ball and Other Urban Haiku, to be released April 1, 2010 by Accents Publishing, is his first collection of haiku. George’s haiku blend a distinctly urban content with the nature-oriented perspective of traditional haiku. A true son of haiku lineage, George’s haiku are sensory-bound sketches, alive with the sounds, smells, textures and colors of the city as a unique phenomenon in the natural world. At play in these haiku are well-balanced juxtapositions of the natural and man-made, vis-à-vis our societal habits and quirks, observed with humor and with heart.
George writes accessible, highly imagistic and insightful haiku that freeze-frame familiar moments in a way that captures our senses and engages our minds. Crafted with a gift for description, wit and delightful irony, Barry George achieves the poet’s task: to lift an experience from a quotidian backdrop and place it squarely in his reader’s imagination, whether that reader resides in city, town or country.
I had the great pleasure of interviewing Barry about the Japanese literary tradition, his own experience writing haiku and how, over the years, the process has served both as a lens on the world and a mirror into the soul.
When did you first encounter and become inspired to write haiku? What element of the haiku form appeals to your poetic sensibilities?
Like many other people, I imagine, I was introduced to a 5-7-5 syllable idea of haiku in school, by my fourth and fifth grade teachers. Years later, when I began to realize that the longer poetry I was writing was getting shorter and shorter, I wondered if it might possibly be considered haiku. So I looked around to find what haiku journals existed. I discovered there were quite a few, and also that what I was writing was not quite haiku. But it was close. I found that I identified with the values the contemporary haiku writers espoused – compression, immediate perception, suspense, surprise, close observation of nature and human nature. Since then I’ve been writing mostly haiku. Read on →
An interview with the photographer Valentin Dimitrov by Yana Radilova
Translation by Asya Draganova
You often mention that your passion for photography is inherited from your grandfather – the famous photographer and interior designer Valentin Stoitsov. When did you realize that you love taking photographs and this was your vocation?
This was dictated by my visit to Vietnam in 2005. I had the chance to gather impressions from a different world which was something new and which stimulated me to visualize those new moments. Moments of emotion, moments from a way of life in such an exotic country. That emotion indeed, and those cadres made me continue dealing with photography, realizing that it was my future vocation.
In what does photography surpass other types of art?
I would not say that photography surpasses any other types of art but for me, it is the right way to express myself, to describe and deliver my message to people. Read on →
Chris Mattingly is currently pursuing an MFA in poetry from Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky. His poems have appeared in public-Republic, Margie: The Journal of American Poetry, Moonshot, The Louisville Review, and the forthcoming chapbook Ad Hoc from Q Avenue Press. Chris is also a banjo player and long time member of The Fatted Calf String Band. Chris works on a vegetable farm and a Co-op.
Literary Term of the Week is brought to you by Katerina Stoykova-Klemer and the international arts journal Public Republic. This segment offers definitions of various literary terms, along with unique examples of their use, in brief audio excerpts from Accents radio show interviews with writers, publishers, and journalists.
Patrick McGuigan on "Two": This is a very moving poem. I have to say that it really spoke to me. I And the picture is lovely. Thanks for writing this!
MarianaVel on "Two": Christina, I guess your poem has inspired me to find the right picture. I am glad you like it. I wish you a lot of inspiration! Thank you, Katya for your appreciation!...
Donal Mahoney on "Two": I haven’t read a poem this good online in long time. And just to see James Wright’s name in 2011 was startling. As one who had the good fortune to be typing when...
Karen George on "Two": Christina: What a sweet, wise poem. And the epigraph makes it even more special. Wright’s A BLESSING is my favorite poem of all time, if such a thing is possible. I...
Barbara Sabol on "Two": I love how the description of place, of the deers’ attention to each other creates an intimate tone that shifts the focus so seamlessly to the two people in the poem....
Katerina on "Two": Christina, I cannot take credit for finding the photo. Our excellent editor in Sofia, Mariana Velichkova finds most photos. I do agree that she does an excellent job.
