Carolyn Kari Bell
Heart Strings
(6x9 oil and cold wax)
Copyright © 2017 by Carolyn Kari Bell.
August
(18x22 oil and cold wax)
Copyright © 2016 by Carolyn Kari Bell.
Lough Lame
(24x30 oil and cold wax)
Copyright © 2018 by Carolyn Kari Bell.
About the Artist
Carolyn Kari Bell works primarily in oil and cold wax and is influenced by everything, from the mundane to the complex. Color, texture and light inform her work along with a no fears approach. Breaking and bending the rules gives rise to creativity. Kari thrives in Colorado. www.karibellart.com
María Teresa Ogliastri Featured in ArLiJo Issue No. 107.
Otro lirio
El anciano abre el cofre
y acaricia dos palomas dormidas
lo impulsa el deseo
unos pies tan pequeños
en el suelo las chinelas con peonías
muestran un ave que abanica su cola
y marca el territorio del cortejo
a lo lejos un reclamo
un grito timbrado
el flujo y el reflujo
las olas
la niña de vuelta al harén
con las mujeres solas
otra escoba de palacio
otra anciana que conspira
otro lirio
Otro lirio Copyright © 2013 by María Teresa Ogliastri.
Another Lily
The old man opens the chest
and strokes two sleeping doves
he is driven by desire
such a dainty pair of feet
on the floor her slippers with peonies
show a bird that fans its tail
and marks the courtship territory
a trill from afar
a melodious call
the ebb and flow
of waves
the girl back to the harem
with the unmarried women
another palace broom
another conspiring old lady
another lily
Another Lily Copyright © 2013 by María Teresa Ogliastri (co-translated by Yvette Neisser with Patricia Bejarano Fisher).
Brotes de alfalfa
Mi madre era de bambú
cuando la brisa movía su falda
veía las marcas en sus piernas delgadas
mi padre tomaba la cintura de sauce
y la zarandeaba como una marioneta sin hilos
la última concubina
haría todo el trabajo de la casa
si no tenía un hijo varón
los pies de mi madre eran una carreta
andaban andaban andaban
sin cansarse
la recuerdo tumbada en la hierba
cerca de la pequeña alberca
donde nadaban los patos
con una jarrita de porcelana recogía agua
y me acercaba hasta donde ella estaba
para regar cada dedo
cada brote de alfalfa
fue la única vez que la vi sonreír
ese es el recuerdo más antiguo que tengo del amor
Brotes de alfalfa by María Teresa Ogliastri (co-translated by Yvette Neisser with Patricia Bejarano Fisher). Previously published in Blue Lyra Review 2.1 (Spring 2013).
Alfalfa Sprouts
My mother was made of bamboo
whenever the breeze moved her skirt
I saw the marks on her thin legs
my father would grab her willowy waist
and shake her like a stringless marionette
the last concubine
would do all the housework
if she didn’t have a son
my mother’s feet were a wheelbarrow
going going going
never tiring
I remember her sprawled on the grass
by the small pond
where the ducks always swam
with a porcelain jug I’d draw water
then go over to where she lay
and sprinkle every toe
every alfalfa sprout
that was the only time I saw her smile
it is my oldest memory of love
Alfalfa Sprouts by María Teresa Ogliastri (co-translated by Yvette Neisser with Patricia Bejarano Fisher). Previously published in Blue Lyra Review 2.1 (Spring 2013).
Para ser emperatriz
Para ser emperatriz
no bastaba
el sello de jade
ni entrelazar las escamas
en el lecho imperial
necesitaba una armadura de piedra
un corazón de lagarto
y engullir entero
pero cuanto más alto es el árbol
más larga es su sombra
cuando se vive tan cerca del peligro
debemos arreglar la tumba
con pieles de osos
soldados de terracota
y amuletos de jade
cuando se vive tan cerca del peligro
debemos conocer el camino
a la Vía de los Espíritus
y esperar la bondad de los dioses
cuando se vive tan cerca del peligro
la sombra del árbol
no debe arroparnos
Para ser emperatriz by María Teresa Ogliastri (co-translated by Yvette Neisser with Patricia Bejarano Fisher). Previously published in Blue Lyra Review 2.1 (Spring 2013).
To Be Empress
To be empress
it wasn’t enough
to have a jade seal
or to ravel our scales
on the imperial bed
I needed an armor of rock
the heart of a lizard
and to swallow things whole
but the taller the tree
the longer its shadow
when you live so close to danger
you must prepare your grave
with skins of bears
soldiers of clay
amulets of jade
when you live so close to danger
you must learn the way
to the Spirit Path
and hope for mercy from the gods
when you live so close to danger
you must not take shelter
in the shadow of the tree
To Be Empress by María Teresa Ogliastri (co-translated by Yvette Neisser with Patricia Bejarano Fisher). Previously published in Blue Lyra Review 2.1 (Spring 2013).
About the Authors
Maria Teresa Ogliastri lives in Caracas, Venezuela. She is the author of five collections of poems: Del diario de la señora Mao (From the Diary of Madame Mao, 2011), Polo Sur (2008), Brotes de Alfalfa (Alfalfa Sprouts, 2007), Nosotros los inmortales (We, the Immortals, 1997) and Cola de Plata (Silver Tail, 1994). Her poems have appeared in several anthologies of contemporary Venezuelan poetry.
Yvette Neisser is the author of Grip, winner of the 2011 Gival Press Poetry Award. Her translations from Spanish include South Pole/Polo Sur by María Teresa Ogliastri and Difficult Beauty: Selected Poems by Luis Alberto Ambroggio. Her poems, translations, essays, and reviews have appeared in such publications as Foreign Policy in Focus, Virginia Quarterly Review, and the Bloomsbury Anthology of Contemporary Jewish American Poetry. She is a founding Board Member of the DC-Area Literary Translators Network (DC-ALT) and has taught writing at George Washington University and The Writer’s Center.
Patricia Bejarano Fisher is an experienced translator now focusing exclusively on poetry. Her work includes a co-translation of Venezuelan poet MT Ogliastri’s South Pole/Polo Sur (Settlement House, 2012) and From the Diary of Madame Mao. Her translations have appeared in literary journals, as well as in Laura Shovan’s The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary (2016), and in Danuta E. Kosk-Kosicka (Ed.) Szklana góra/Glass Mountain (2017), among others.
Simon Read
The Way We Move
The pub was empty. All the lights were on and some of the bar stools had been knocked over. Like everyone had left in a hurry. Evidently some kind of ’happening’ had just happened.
I walked to the bar and looked behind it - the barman was sitting on the floor holding a gun to his head. “OK if I fix myself a beer?“ I asked.
“Sure thing buddy,“ he replied, “help yourself. I’m just about to blow my brains out. Any time now.“
“What shape are those things in your head?“ I enquired. I poured out a beer and watched him. He put the gun down. “Close your eyes and take a look. And notice the colours too“. A money spider was descending in slow motion from the ceiling. A clock was ticking somewhere. “Tell me,“ I said.
“Orange,“ he answered, “no, wait. No, red, bright red. They’re all red. And tubey. Red and tubey.“ He opened his eyes and looked at me with raised eyebrows.
“Scarlet tubulars,“ I explained. “That’s not good, my friend.“
“What do they mean?“
“They mean you’re fucked and nobody gives a rat’s ass. They mean you’re a dead man“.
The lights flickered off and the gun fired. I felt the urge to leave. The streets were out there. Concrete jungle calling. I needed to roam.
Somebody somewhere once said something about man being the wildest beast of all. I left the pub singing softly what was in my head.
“I like the way that crows move.
I like the way that squirrels move too.
I like the way that you move baby.
I think we gonna boogaloo.“
Copyright © 2018 by Simon Read.
About the Author
Simon Read lives in the UK. His work includes short fiction, poetry, lyrics, songs, and word-based artworks. Simon’s work has been published, or is forthcoming, in a variety of magazines including Mystic Blue Review, Riggwelter, Moon Magazine, and Spontaneity. You can find out more at: https://ashadowfalling.wordpress.com
Stacey Silverfink
[In my world of denial]
In my world of denial,
Life was merely a terrible entity,
And as love itself was insufficient,
There was no peace or any saving grace,
And it was simply comparable to an insolvable crime,
And I only rationalized all of my emptiness,
And as I also counted all of my chickens long before they hatched,
I also believed that money could always buy happiness,
And I saved old thread,
Only scraping the bottom of the barrel,
And I only cared to stay home perpetually,
Never caring to obtain any new knowledge,
And I could do nothing but stagnate,
But your love is like a magnet that sustains me.
Copyright © 2018 by Stacey Silverfink.
About the Author
Stacey Silverfink, born in Manhattan, has worked and lived on the North Shore of Long Island, New York. She graduated from the New York Institute of Technology and has worked as a generalist paralegal. The themes of her poems center on the redeeming value of love over many of life—s vicissitudes. She hopes to inspire through her poems.