2019 Fischer Prize in Poetry deadline May 1

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Alameda Island Poets reading Wednesday March 6

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1601 Paru St., Alameda, California

Alameda Island Poets Proudly Present:

Alameda Island Poets reading

First Wednesday of each month:

March 6, 2019

Celebrating International Women's Month

7:00 - 9:00 PM

featured readers:

Susan Cohen, Sharon Coleman &  
Angela Chung

special guest feature:

Berkeley Poet Laureate  
Rafael Jesús González

featured readers followed by open mic 8:00-9:00 PM

This is a free event 
although the hat is passed for donations.

Alameda Poetry Writers' Workshop:

FREE upcoming Alameda Island Poets Workshop

Poets, Awake! - 
the Political Poem & Activism

with Rafael Jesús González, 
Berkeley Poet Laureate

Thursday, March 14, 2019, 7:00 PM

Hosted by Nanette Deetz 
& Alameda Poet Laureate Cathy Dana

 

Frank Bette Center for the Arts by Mark Monsarrat

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Pisces

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-------------
-----------------Piscis

El par de peces nada
entre cristales de amatistas,
entre peñas de heliotropo —
----la luz de Júpiter les llega
----como un reflejo en estaño;
Neptuno perezosamente los vigila.
Si vadeas en las aguas inconstantes,
los verás a tus pies
nadar como imágenes de sueños,
-------pacíficos,
------------------benévolos.



 ------------------© Rafael Jesús González 2019




----------------Pisces

The pair of fish swim
among amethyst crystals,
among boulders of bloodstone —
---the light of Jupiter comes to them
---like reflections on tin;
---Neptune lazily watches.
If you wade in the inconstant water,
you will see them at your feet
swimming like the images of dreams,
-----peaceful,
----------------kind.



---------------------© Rafael Jesús González 2019

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Full Moon of the Boar Year 4717

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Katsushika Hokusai 1760–1849

Full Moon of the Boar Year 4717

Great sow, the full moon

roots among flowering stars

in the loam of night

for the truffles of our dreams

rich with the sweet taste of earth.

© Rafael Jesús González 2019

                                           

Luna llena del Año del Jabalí 4717

Gran cerda, la luna plena

excava entre las estrellas floridas

en la marga de la noche

por las trufas de nuestros sueños

ricas con el sabor dulce de la tierra.

 © Rafael Jesús González 2019

 

Edo period 18-19 cent

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EMERGENCY CALL

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Trump has just declared a national emergency to satisfy his whim of an expensive, unnecessary, vile wall he justifies by a humanitarian crisis he himself created.

There is a petition to Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House and The United States House of Representatives and The United States Senate calling on Congress to stop this fake national emergency and take action against Trump's racist and anti-immigrant policy. Please add your name to the petition. 

We must stop Trump; his "national emergency" to build his wall is the act of a would-be tyrant. It is no exaggeration that if we do not stop him now, we may lose whatever democracy we have been able to build in the 242 years this country has existed. We must do this immediately.

Please join the National Mobilization Against Trump's Power Grab this Presidents Day, Monday February, 18 at noon local time.

Pledge to attend at: crisisresponse.us / details about individual events will be posted here by Saturday morning.

 How serious the situation is cannot be overstated. The Atlantic is very clear about this warning among many other threats that:

1. The moment the president declares a “national emergency”—a decision entirely within his discretion—he is able to set aside many of the legal limits on his authority. (This is especially likely with a Supreme Court heavy with his ilk of fascists ready to do his bidding.)

2. The president could seize control of U.S. internet traffic, impeding access to certain websites and ensuring that internet searches return pro-Trump content as the top results including social-media platforms. The government could monitor emails or prevent them from reaching their destination. It could exert control over computer systems (such as states’ voter databases) and physical devices (such as Amazon’s Echo speakers) that are connected to the internet.

3. The president can readily call in military participation in police activity and deploy troops inside the United States to suppress any citizens' protest.

Trump is the national emergency. Register here to take action this Monday.

------------See you in the streets.

 

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St. Valentine's Day, feast of love

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a menos que prevalezca el amor no nos salvaremos

unless love prevail we will not survive

--------------------Breve historia del amor

El primogénito de Madre Caos, se dice,

fue Eros de las saetas penetrantes, dadoras de vida.

Y luego a través de eones y eones de agitación Cósmica

nació la Tierra que en unión con el Sol

a través de eones y eones de preñez

dio luz a la Vida. A través de más eones y eones

de calamidad, catástrofe y prueba,

la Vida se hizo sensible —colores y sonidos,

olores, sabores, tacto de las cosas.

Y más tarde después de eones y eones

(aunque muchos menos) se hizo consciente

de asombro y de mito, de historia y ciencia,

extrañas mixturas de amor y de miedo,

curiosidad, invención y torcidos deseos

hasta que ahora Tonantzin, la Gran Madre

es herida por nosotros, sus hijos desviados.

===-------------Despertando a lo que es

------ahora tendremos que defender a la Tierra 
---------------------de nostoros mismos

----------------------con un amor feroz.

 

-----------------------© Rafael Jesús González 2019

 

----------------A Brief History of Love

The first-born of Mother Chaos, it is said,

was Eros of the piercing, life-giving darts.

And then through eons & eons of Cosmic turmoil

was born Earth who in union with the Sun

through eons & eons of gestation

gave birth to Life. Through more eons & eons

of calamity, catastrophe & trial,

Life grew sentient —colors & sounds,

smells, tastes, the feel of things.

And later after eons & eons

(though far less) it grew conscious

of wonder & of myth, of history & science,

strange mixtures of love & fear,

curiosity, invention, & awry desires,

until now Tonantzin, the Great Mother

is wounded by us, her wayward children.

---------------Awaking to what is

-------now we must defend the Earth 
------------------from ourselves

----------------with a fierce love.

=======--------------© Rafael Jesús González 2019

 

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A World Without Walls reading Thursday, February 28

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see & hear the video of the reading

(R. J. G. at 1:09:49)

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riverbabble 34

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riverbabble 34---------------Winter  2018-19

Delta Fire, Hornbrook #1, 12/23/18 by Michael Johnson-Chase

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riverbabble 34

Winter Issue

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Poetry

Dennis J Bernstein:
          Final Slice: Compliments of Paul
         Uncle Norman: The Blizzard of 59

Lucille Lang Day:
          Unfinished
         Global Warming in the Galápagos

Rafael Jesús González:
           Cuando muere un poeta / When a Poet Dies
           La luna en humo / Moon in Smoke

Robert Hasselblad:
           January at Ruby Beach
           How Orcas Found Their Way Back to the Sea

Diana Raab:
           New York Euphoria
           Savannah Inn

d. n. simmers:
           Like the Dust of the Dead
           Down in the gathering shadows

Don Thompson:
          Not an Item for a Gossip Column (Hedy Lamarr)
          Keeping Up Morale (Paulette Goddard)

Anne Whitehouse:
           My Grandmother Listens to Paul Robeson
           Recite "Othelio"
           Koko and Robin

Steve Abbott:    Pause

Dee Allen.:    The Eternal Hunt

Felice Aull:    After Seeing the Rauschenberg Exhibit

Virginia Barrett:    Man & Woman

Robert Beveridge:    Grave Wisdom

Patrick Cahill:    Frequentcies

Barbara Campbell:    Polite as Handcuffs

Joe Cottonwood:    The Waiting Room

Judy DeCroce:    Something is Up

Robin Wyatt Dunn:    far above my head is a red door

John Grey:    Gator and Heron

Jan Haag:    Flying Saucer

Majella Haugh:    Hacker

Randel McCraw Helms:    The Last Glacier

Maureen Brady Johnson:    Drawn

Miriam Kotzin:    After a Brief Illness

Joan McNerney:    Winter in New England

JB Mulligan:    hymn without notes or words

edward Mycue:    Most of the Time I Tell Myself

James B. Nicola:    Hotel

Carl "Papa" Palmer:    the suitcase

Anne Paterson:    Sea of beds

Jim Ross:    Sliding Down Together

Gerard Sarnat:    Hiroshima Mon Amour's Second Coming

Janel Spencer:    The False Mirror

John Swain:    On the Roof Terrace

Penelope Thompson:    Ella and Me

Hardarshan Singh Valia:    Scene at the Poetry Recital Venue

Emery Veilleux:    Red River Freezing Over

Phibby Venable:    Moving to the City

Julene Tripp Weaver:    80s Disco Night

Fiction

udy Cabito:    Pumping

William Cass:    Unfinished

Nicole Dyakanoff:    Bail Out

Suzanne Nielsen:    The Reservoir

Eileen O'Reilly:    Destination: Anywhere

Jon Sindell:    The Bitter World of Sweet Compliments

Tom Sheehan:    When Titanic Drowned

Scot Walker:    The Bowstring of Life

Flash Fiction

KJ Hannah Greenberg:
          A View With a Room
          Seeking

Dennis J Bernstein:    A Fourth of July in My Right Eye

Roy Dorman:    Rencontire Fortuite (Chance Encounter)

Jane Hertenstein:    Kickstarter

Charlotte Platt:    Zom-bees

Lenore Weiss :    Janis in Port Arthur, Texas

Essay

im Ross:    School Interrupted

Hardarshan S. Valia:    A Particle in Perpetual Motion

Cover

by Michael Johnson-Chase
Delta Fire, California (photo essay)

 

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| Submissions | Contact Us | Archives | BLOGS   ~
Pandemonium Press  
2nd printing available  from
the publisher: pandemoniumpress@gmail.com
_________________________________

Leila Rae, editor
riverbabble
http://iceflow.com/riverbabble/Welcome.html-



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Year of the Boar 4717

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Edo period 18-19 cent

Year of the Boar 4717

 

The wise pig, the boar
with a quick toss of the head, 
a curve of the tusk,
wriggle of its curly tail,
pricks the windbags of the smug.

       
---------------------------------------------© Rafael Jesús González 2019

Año del jabalí 4717

 

El cerdo sabio, el jabalí
con súbito tirón de la cabeza,
una curva del colmillo,
un menear de su cola enroscada, punza
las bolsas de viento de los presumidos.

       
------  ------------------------------------------© Rafael Jesús González 2019

Mori Sosen 1747 – 1821

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