Description
Next, CONGRATULATIONS to the winners of the second Angela Consolo Mankiewicz Poetry Prize: Nancy Shiffrin – FIRST place, Austin Alexis – SECOND place and B.J. Buckley – THIRD place! They all receive a cash prize, plus some cool swag.
IN THIS ISSUE
There is POETRY, lots of it, some of the best I’ve seen in a while. There are the three winners of the Angela Consolo Mankiewicz Poetry Prize, as mentioned above.
MICRO-FICTION
Then in the Micro-fiction section, there are a variety of little stories by some writers who range from bent to warped in their fiction mindset. They are RD Armstrong – Fear Moves to a New Town (from his Manx Tales series); Seven Dhar – The Shaman; Helen Donahoe – Lives Change; Alexis Fancher – She Says Stalker / He Says Fan; Roseanna Frechette – For Sarah; Micheal Meloan –Papoulis; Jeanine Stevens – The Language of Corn; H. Lamar Thomas – A Red Mule Named Red Mule; and Felice Zoota-Lucero – You Can Call Me Mom.
As Tom Waits once said “They all came from good families but somewhere along the line they just got kinda weird!”
Articles / Essays
In June, I was surprised to hear that this is the bicentennial of Walt Whitman’s birth year (a vision just surged through my imagination as a flash mob of academics danced around a giant statue of Uncle Walt while the rest of the poetry rabble get on with their ignorant lives), so I had to throw in my two cents with the article, Walt Whitman – Radical Optimist? I asked Gil Hagen Hill to help me out with his poem, We Was Robbed and Henry Crawford came in with a nice poem entitled: Walt Whitman Ekphrastic. Then there’s Poetry X Hunger: Looking into the Empty Cupboard by Hiram Larew. This is a project that Hiram has been working on for several years with the goal in mind to tackle world hunger, no less! A worthy cause, indeed. Then we have an excerpt from Acetylene Sunsets, a new book of selected essays (due out this year from Lummox Press), Tony Scibella: the Poet in America by John Macker. This is a memoir of sorts as Macker knew Tony back in the day. Homage to Pierre Seghers, French Publisher and Songwriter-Poet (1906-1987) by Basia Miller is an essay about one of the most influential poets / songwriters of his time. Through his publishing house, he brought French poetry out of the“dark ages” (of lyrical expression) into a more expanded, reality based world view, using all styles including free verse. For thirty years from 1939 to 1969 his influence spread across France, through WWII and subsequent crisises, Pierre was the Quincey Jones of French Culture. I think it’s a fascinating article and I hope you will agree… Imagine being a hungry fly on the wall of Allen Ginsburg‘s Haight Ashberry address, listening to the intellectual conversations over some delish dish recipes… Can you? By reading this article, Eating And Drinking With The Beats (part one) by Charles Plymell, perhaps you’ll understand. Plymell was an integral part of the beat experience and still has a hand in the game today. This next rather personal essay came by way of an email exchange. It was sent as a sort of bio by Ms, Ramirez but it was too long for a bio and too short for an essay. I was pleased when she took me up on my request for more details (to be more informational not more grisly). The result is Living on the Edge by Coco Ramirez. It’s an insight into what many of us struggle with, finding and keeping our balance. Memories of Hubert “Cubby” Selby by M. G. Stephens is a remembrance of a different time in Brooklyn, NY and a book entitled Last Exit to Brooklyn. Perhaps Mr. Plymell knew Hubert Selby too. This guy actually has a lot of friends. ANTS by G. Murray Thomas explores the relationship between the group (or ‘superorganism’) and the individual. He uses ants as an example. I found it interesting, so here it is. Finally, an interesting article on Normon Olson, artist and poet, who’s work has been seen by thousands of readers of Small Press magazines and books over the last twenty years or so. Notes on the Drawings of Norman Olson by Bill Tremblay provides some insight into Olson’s work. He is one of the most prolific artists I know (his work has been featured in most of these Lummox issues).
Reviews
The Blues Drink Your Dreams Away – Selected Poems (1983 – 2018) by John Macker
Reviewed by RD Armstrong…. A rare full length review of John Macker’s latest collection. Good stuff.
Café Crazy by Francine Witte
Reviewed by Linda Lerner. Linda is no slouch in the poetry dept. herself and if she applauds a book then I can endorse it too. I trust her implicitly.
New Found Land by Carolyn Clark
Reviewed by Thelma T. Reyna, Ph.D. Dr. Reyna was very impressed by this book! Her thoughts: “thoughts and values find themselves voiced elegantly in this book, much to the enrichment and contentment of our collective souls!”
Fairfax and Other Poems by David Del Bourgo
Reviewed by Nancy Shiffrin. While this is an old review, the work of the poet, David Del Bourgo, still holds up according to Ms. Shiffrin. Worth checking out.
Flow by Robin Scofield
Reviewed by Donna Snyder. “Robin Scofield’s book is well named as both the poet and the poems in it epitomize the diverse theories of flow, a law, not a theory, that can be seen as applying to everything from the design of leaves to the natural pattern of rivers. 
Here are your contributors:
California – RD Armstrong, Belinda Berry, Jay Blommer, Lynn Bronstein, Helmut Calabrese, Don Campbell, Chuka S Chesney, Jacki Chou, Sharyl Collin, Beverly Collins, Kit Courter, Sue Crisp, Seven Dhar, Alicia Viguer-Espert, Alexis Fancher, Gwen Fleischer, William Galasso, Martina R. Gallegos, Bill Gainer, Kathleen Goldman, Lorraine Gow, Friday Gretchen, Charles Harmon, Gil Hagen Hill, Lori Holloway, Jackie Joice, Frank Kearns, Lalo Kikiriki, Radomir Luza, Marie Lecrivain, Rick Leddy, Felice Zoota-Lucero, John Pappas, Michael Meloan, Joseph Milosch, Elaine Mintzer, Laura Munoz-Larbig, Linda Neal, Terri L. Niccum, Corrine Ramirez, Thelma Reyna, Kevin Ridgeway, Gerard Sarnat, Patricia Scruggs, Lisa Segal, Nancy Shiffrin, Linda Singer, Dr. Rick Smith, Jeanine Stevens, Carl ‘Calokie’ Stilwell, Patricia Sullivan, Kevin Sullivan, Mary Thompson, Maja Trochimczyk, Wyatt Underwood, Rolland Vasin, Richard Vidan, Mike West. Colorado Kenneth Greenley, Diane Klammer, Kyle Laws, Tony Moffeit, Bill Tremblay, Roseanna Frechette. Florida – Chris Bodor. Georgia – H. Lamar Thomas. Illinois – Wanda Clevenger. Iowa – Jeannine Pitas. Louisiana – Dennis Formento. Maryland – Clarinda Harris (Peter Bruun), Henry Crawford, Hiram Larew. Michigan – T. K. Splake. Minnesotta – Norman Olson. Mississippi – Ben Newel. Montana – B.J. Buckley.New Jersey – Dave Roskos, Jen Dunford-Roskos, Helmut Calabrese. New Mexico – Dr. Patricia Brown, James Gould, Vijali Hamilton, Jane Lipman, John Macker, Georgia Santa Maria, Mary McGinnis, Basia Miller, Linda Whittenberg, Pamela Williams, Stewart Warren, Michou Landon. New York – Austin Alexis, Alan Catlin, Steve Dalachinsky, Matt Galleta, Alex Johnston, Linda Lerner, normal, Charles Plymell, G. Murray Thomas. Pennsylvainia – Heath Brougher, William Craychee, Ann Curran, Joseph Farley, Sarah Henry, Michael Mahoney, Judith Robinson. Texas – Donna Snyder. Vermont – Wayne Burke. Washington – Edward Nudelman, Judith Skillman, Doc Sigerson. Canada – Patrick Conners, TG Hamilton, Debra Hill, Maureen Korp, Donna Langevan, John B. Lee, Bernice Lever, Michael Mirolla, Marion Mutala, David Pratt, Lynn Tait. Australia – Brenton Booth. Portugal – Mark Evans. 135 strong!
