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POETRY Reading: Romance Poem by Arrianna Gumbus
Performed by Val Cole
POEM:
Your love isn’t something I would willingly give away.
I wouldn’t dare make a mistake, so that your love would decay.
They say I’m on a leash, but I wouldn’t care anyway.
Your love is for me like a flower on a rainy day. -
POETRY Reading: Game of Risk, by Richard Stimac
Performed by Val Cole
POEM:
The rules are simple, and simplistic
(but not as much as War).
Each territory holds a name,
descriptive and endearing:Central America; Ukraine,
Middle East; Siam; Congo;
each has a border with the other,
colored and separate.The plastic men, with tiny guns,
atta... -
POETRY Reading: Siren, by Kathryn Davey
Performed by Val Cole
POEM:
Give me wine and the ocean, and hyacinth hair
A casket of flotsam and crystalline care.
Speak of the currents in deep fluid blue and bring to the surface a mirror of you
Hers is the wave and quickening tide, touched by the moon I secretly hide.
Give me wine and hyac... -
Short Story Video Reading: MISS NOTHING, by Wren Valentino
Performed by Val Cole
When broken-hearted Melody Notting comes face-to-face with her ex-boyfriend at a beach, she makes the moment a first step on her journey to
independence.Women's Fiction/Contemporary Fiction
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Poetry Video Reading: A HAIKU COLLECTION, by Jiel Narvekar
Performed by Val Cole
A Haiku Collection, by Jiel Narvekar
1. Heart Shaped Box
Once handled with care.
For contents were prized treasures.
Silly me, I laugh.2. Childhood’s end
Childhood’s end looms near.
Not quite adults nor children.
On the cusp, waiting.3. Postcard
Eagerly await
The ar... -
Poetry Video Reading: ARTISTS CANT DIE, by John Ganshaw
Voice Over: Val Cole
Artists Can’t Die, by John Ganshaw
It is raining now as it was then
The pitter-patter on the roof
Will it never end
Today is a rebirth of the man he is
To leave the past, let a new life beginAll had planned so much for this day
When a devil wished for him to fail and go ... -
Poetry Video Reading: Four Untitled Self-Help Sonnets, by K.D. Battle
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Poetry Video Reading: I'M SCARED THAT IM A NARCISSIST, by Kailah Peters
Voice Over: Val Cole
POEM:
I’m scared that I’m a narcissist, by Kailah Peters
But really I think I just like myself
For the first time in 25 years
And this shit is wildLike I used to introduce myself with sadness first
And now I lead with laughter
Because I’m laughing all the timeI stand ...
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Poetry Video Reading: KINDNESS, by Rita McDermott
Performed by Val Cole
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Poetry Video Reading: LIFE AFTER BOB, by Roy Smith
Voice Over by Val Cole
Life after Bob, by Roy Smith
I wish I had a bosom
I would not put my fishing lures there
Rather, money from a friend for dope or rent
folded like an origami chicken so it would poke and itch
not slide to my belly button
A stash for Belle Lettres, you know, notes from fore... -
Poetry Video Reading: THAT UNSPEAKABLE THING, by Daniel Thomas Moran
That Unspeakable Thing, by Daniel Thomas Moran
When, in good time, a thoughtful person reflects,
There can be no subject to confound us like sex.
Which had one singular apparent intention,
But wound up with more than one can mention.We begin misconstruing the endless inferences,
That day we re... -
Poery Video Reading: THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE, by Vijay R Nathan
Voice Over: Val Cole
The Art of the Possible, by Vijay R Nathan
www.VijayRNathan.com
On Kehinde Wiley’s Portrait of Barack Obama
The waves of gray hair, forehead shines
over creased brows. Flowers emerge
from green tableau: from chicago,
from Hawaii, from Kenya.The leaves wrap around the fe...
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Poetry Video Reading: THE THINGS THAT RUINED MY PROM NIGHT, by Brianna Corona
Voice over by Val Cole
The Things that ruined my prom night, by Brianna Corona
1. Pine needles sprinkled down like confetti.
2. -prom closed with reflective confetti.
3. Scattered rocks that shine [ motor oil.]
4. -black out/black liquid, everyone has different prom nights.
5. [deafening. ] Wi... -
POETRY Reading: You Never Know, by Martha Fox
Narrated by Val Cole
POEM:
For Gregg 1946-2023
When the boulder exploded
everything came at me—your car keys a bar of soap
that stroked your skin yesterdayyour pillow scent hurtled past
I couldn’t grasp itblast wave gut punch
blast windspiking lightning
from a burned-out god, signso...
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POETRY Reading: The Whispers I Have Heard, by Jackie Greenwood
Performed by Val Cole
POEM:
Though I cherish
the quiet I have earned,
there are days I miss
the whisper of animals
all around meYouthful energy
bounding in,
I’m easy to please
I’m easy to forgiveNervous purr, saying
Do what you must,
just be quick
just be gentleNext come the sick
cradled... -
POEM: Secrets in the Morning, Early, by by Christiana Ares-Christian (interview)
Performed by Val Cole
POEM:
Inspired by Li-Young Lee’s “Early in the Morning”
Before the paperboy
delivers the news,
Before the sun has broken the horizon,
Before the coffee machine starts
the morning brew–I sit on the bed,
run the ebony comb
through my matted hair,
and listen to it snap th... -
Poetry Reading: MY WILD DESIRES, by A J Chilson
Performed by Val Cole
POEM:
I just can’t tell you exactly how much
I love looking at your sexy body,
And how badly I want my hands to touch,
And my lips to kiss – I am so naughty,
Wishing to be with you, and hoping you
Would make my wild desires come true. -
POETRY Read: Intimacy – The Duality of being Ace, by Eleanor Graydon (interview)
Performed by Val Cole
POEM:
I write a lot about intimacy. I write about my understanding of it. Using cannibalism and feasting as metaphors for sex. About bruises and teeth as symbols of love. Of fighting and commitment, all things both cruel and kind. But what I don’t write about, is the empt...
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POETRY Reading: The Light at Eastern and Eastern, by Joan Drescher Cooper
Performed by Val Cole
POEM:
I think of you that last day
Happy–probably drunk,
but I couldn’t tell
(I never could).
You were having such a good
time plotting a prank on an old
friend’s son over a soccer jersey.You were happy that moment,
a slice between 2 and 2:15 while
we talked. Me, at wor... -
Poetry Reading: Death Wish, by Jordanna Miller (interview)
Voice over by Val Cole
POEM:
I wish you were dead.
Does that make me a bad
person?Maybe.
Anyway.
I wish you were dead.
It’s strange, you know?
Carrying around
this kind
of hate.Because it’s not the
boiling burning bubbling
kind that wakes me up at night.No.
it’s the quiet kind, the ...
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Poetry Reading: “Kaleidoscopic Portraits”, by Tierney Chapman
https://youtu.be/SdXX45Ec4lo
Voice Over: Val Cole
POEM:
Holy water smells like fresh herbs
or maybe it was the older women in the back pews
with the flower laced hats, and rosemary scented skin.
Skin so thin, the stained glass saints
stained the paper thin veins.
I didn’t like church much as ... -
Poetry Reading: For My Piece, by Manuel Valdez
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Poetry Reading: You’re Pretty Strong, For a Girl, by Cathy Hollister
Performed by Val Cole
POEM:
I was a scrappy little thing,
short, no-fuss hair,
T-shirts & jeans,
questionable hygiene
the term then was tom-boy
I don’t know what they call independent, strong-willed, opinionated little girls nowHe was the neighborhood bully
big and smug, followed by toadies
... -
Poetry Reading: THE LOST THINGS, by Nicholas Fowler
Performed by Val Cole
POEM:
We’ve broken things and smashed them,
torn them to pieces,
burned them and buried them.
Words left unspoken,
Love left unmade.
You took everything that I had,
and then you left me where I laid.You soaked me with your love,
but then you hung me out to dry,
leaving m...