Halcyone Blog
The Skald and the Drukkin Troll, by Paul Brooke
Posted on September 26, 2019
Told using 21 different types of hattatal (Norse verse forms). Hyrniardi –The Troll’s Verse Swollen and locked in this curse, stuck, Swept & cajoled into a troll, Bypassing crass laws, conviction, Consequences never ever felt. Required: reach for drink each day: Rum, gin, Brennivin (with shark) or whiskey. Dry drunk: erase dwarf, replace with […]
Read MoreOvercast, by Stephanie Roberts
Posted on September 24, 2019
you’ve tasted the soup of scorched tomato and broccoli that set your teeth on edge but you’ve not met that loss that permanently skews the jaw grief that plants sunset in the eye forever remember the high-spirited mum with a quick and rainbow smile whose daughter died at nine many decades ago she carries that […]
Read MoreEinige Kreise (Several Circles), by Stephanie Roberts
Posted on September 24, 2019
January – February 1926 I imagine it was cold. The exhibit audio said there was a voice, he got lost in it, switchboard operator, had to find her, have dinner that same night. Several circles may well be a season grounded on nocturnal skyscape, colour scumbled, opaque & transparent, all of life and […]
Read MoreThe Sixty-Four, Best Poets of 2018
Posted on September 19, 2019
The Sixty-Four Special Congratulations to: *First Place Poet – Stephanie Roberts* Stephanie Roberts is our first place poet. In 2018, she had work featured or forthcoming in over four dozen periodicals and anthologies. A 2018 Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee, she was born in Central America, grew up in Brooklyn, NY, […]
Read MoreMan. Horse. Tree., by Stuart Gunter
Posted on September 18, 2019
The guy next to me at the meeting is drawing as he takes notes. Simple, black figures: a man, a horse, a tree. I imagine preparations for a hanging. Or the beginnings of a campaign to hunt down an unseen enemy. He is here. He is early. Have I been here, too? Or is […]
Read MoreSon of a Bitch, by Stuart Gunter
Posted on September 18, 2019
For Mark Goldstein Nazareth’s Hair of the Dog plays on an endless loop in my tinnitus-wild ears these days. A reflection of how I currently see myself. It’s not a question of metaphysics, or where I land on the time-space continuum (or is it?) but a darker reckoning, blooming from a conversation about a […]
Read MoreA Time to Rebuild, by Ikeogu Oke
Posted on September 17, 2019
The brisk clock of a nation tolls, Ringing in a time to rebuild; It rouses its people with its sound that rolls; and bids them, “Arise?” for it’s sure they would. “Arise, Nigerians, arise from your slumber! Learn to build on the strength of your number! Your vast land ever burgeoning with life! Arise […]
Read MoreWe Heard Nothing, by Ikeogu Oke
Posted on September 17, 2019
We heard nothing until we walked the labyrinths And came to the path of thunder, and heard his voice crack The clouds, trailing a forked tongue of lightning, A rainbow of words, resplendent and mysterious, Cascading on its curved path Yet we heard so much Even as we heard nothing. Did we not hear because […]
Read MoreThe 64, Best Poets of the Year is out, published by the Black Mountain Press
Posted on September 14, 2019
https://www.ebay.com/itm/The-64-Best-Poets-of-the-Year-6×9-trade-paperback-162-pages-Black-Mtn-Press/352790347452?hash=item5223f17ebc:g:QUEAAOSwpVxdfRIF The 64 Best poets of the year is out! Congratulations to the 64 writers that were selected this year. Submissions are open for next year’s edition. Enter at: https://thehalcyone.submittable.com/submit You can also apply for a writer-in-residence award, Chapbook Contest, Literary Magazines and more!
Read MoreLorenzo Dow under My Daylilies, by John Surowiecki
Posted on September 12, 2019
I. CRAZY DOW He was the most famous preacher of his time (his books had thousands more readers than his poem ever will). Before my garden was a garden, when it was just dirt and moss, it was saturated with the desperate piss of camp- meeting-goers, his followers and fools, filling our valley like a […]
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