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Experimental Short Story: WHISKERUM: THE BEDTIME EDITION, by Gillie Easdon
Performed by Val Cole
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POETRY Reading: The Shape of Me, by Joanne DeTore
Performed by Val Cole
POEM:
36- 26 -36
My measurements were an hour glass shape
Before children
After children
Before menopause
Before breast cancerDoctors scooped out cancer like ice cream
a triple scoop, a banana split of tissue
until I was left with divots
valleys or hollows haunting me i... -
POETRY Reading: Graphite Grim Reaper, by Josh Stone
Performed by Val Cole
POEM:
Locked and loaded
I’ve practiced with it before
I know how to use it
Tonight
is the night
there’s no going back
all options exhausted
my pencil a gun
I press hard against my header
of this blood red notepad page
and pull the goddamn triggerBut the lead breaks
gun ... -
POETRY Reading: Humming Hymm, by Ace Anzaldua
Performed by Val Cole
POEM;
Little fuzzy wuzzy buzzle bees,
quietly working away unseen.
Oh, how you sing amongst the trees.Pollinating plumage of Persephone,
bring life to all through spring,
Little fuzzy wuzzy buzzle bee.Sugar snaps and strawberries,
every color of the spectrum seen.
Oh,... -
POETRY Video: Yemojah’s Lullaby, by Tamara T. Frederick
Performed by Val Cole
Read POEM:
There are many different children around the world,
some little boys and some little girls,
Different languages and culture,
But all have their peacocks and all have their vultures,
Finding beauty can be hard, before a lullaby makes a wish upon a star.
Earth yo... -
POETRY Reading: The Earth is Cooking Bon Appetit, by Astrid Fernandes
Performed by Val Cole
POEM:
The ice is gone, the seas are high,
But hey, at least your stocks won’t die.
The forests burn, the rivers choke,
And billionaires? They buy more coke.
They told us, “Recycle! Do your part!”
While drilling Earth down to its heart.The oil spills? Just close your eye...
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POETRY Reading: Deposing Dictators with Poets, by Alves dos Santos
Performed by Val Cole
POEM:
Faced with itself
humanity once again reveals its boundless capacity for destruction.
How hardened must our hearts grow
to endure the inhumanity we choose for ourselves?
The black clouds gathering in the east are more than a storm;
they carry the promise of a future... -
Poetry Reading: All the things The Don’t Tell Women, by C. Joi Sanchez
https://youtu.be/OoVVNaKIMtU
Narrated by Val Cole
POEM:
Dear Young Joi,
Your body is not an apology…
Stop giving it away to anyone who tells you or tells you to feel sorry for or about yourself…Your body is not a toy…
Stop allowing people to play with it as children do, without instruction ... -
Poetry Reading: Accolade to a Nameless Station, by Inge Sorensen (interview)
Performed by Val Cole
POEM:
September 29th, 2020
Air from Terra Rising
Quivering in the Mountains
Rocks Rumble Beneath Earth, & One’s Feet
Wind Blares Down on All of Us
Nature Plays Tambourines – Touching Each of Our Ears
Terrene Mother Drums her Hands’ Down on the Planet’s Crust
Manmade Iron ... -
Poetry Reading: Reason Enough, by Brooke Bianchi-Pennington
https://youtu.be/nEdWr4lIOFc
Performed by Val Cole
POEM:
I don’t remember ever being beautiful.
Must have been, at some point.
Kindergarten maybe?
All I know is, by third grade,
My tummy was a tad too
Big to be beautiful.But don’t worry. This isn’t a poem
About hating my body. Actually,
I’v... -
Poetry Reading: X, by Ruthie Marlenee
Performed by Val Cole
POEM:
Look at the big, beautiful Moon tonight.
See the little red spot that is called Mars.
See the almighty Elon Musk take flight.
Launched from the earth through its cosmos and stars.But lo, it’s only his robot doppelganger
on a mission to plant the American flag.
Oh ... -
POETRY Reading: The Toddler King, by Christine V. Harapiak
Narrated by Val Cole
POEM:
What should we make of a country that takes
Donald Trump as its leader
a second time?
The first time could be seen as an unplanned marriage –
that pounding head waking up the morning after in Vegas
married to the wedding singer moment.
But the second time? Knowing wha... -
POETRY Reading: Strip me Down to my Embers, by Addie Hemsley
Narrated by Val Cole
POEM:
Am I disgusting for letting him strip my shirt from my skin so I can feel an ounce of what I think love could possibly be? How can I hate my body so much, but then also only believe a man could ever want me for my curves, a braless chest made for his hands. I want to...
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POETRY Reading: When the Tide Went Out, by Terry Joseph
Narrated by Val Cole
POEM:
April 1, 1946
Hilo, HawaiiIt was the natural thing to do,
send the whole class
to play on the beach.Where else could you enjoy recess
on the shore but the Aloha state?
Reflective Popsicle green waves toppedwith whipped cream, every child’s fantasy.
Even the tid... -
POETRY Reading: Some March Night, by Ken Hada
Narrated by Val Cole
POEM:
when no one knows,
the wind will gust
again and again
until the final push
and the dead Elm
crashes in darkness –
and you won’t even know
it happened.In darkness
Spring wind reforms
with pressure and gravity –
the touring planets
and conspicuous moon
cycles – the ... -
Poetry Reading: Stardust, by Karl Stand
https://youtu.be/m3VNkbFm6gc
Performed by Val Cole
POEM:
I write my love to you
From the stardust
And the grains of sand along the beach
From the dew of the mountain air
An atom from within my soul
I write I love you
Using the drops of rain
I make a canvas of love
Written in the stars
So that... -
Poetry Reading: Mother’s Warning, by Ami Offenbacher-Ferris
Performed by Val Cole
POEM:
She told us, she warned us,
repeatedly through story,
through song and finally,
she showed us.Even with the showing,
we did not listen.
Even when chaos reigned down
on us from above.When fiery rockets of molten lava
spewed from below.
When oceans rose and dese... -
Poetry Reading: Hinds County 215, by Elizabeth Curley
Performed by Val Cole
POEM:
In pauper’s field, no flowers lie,
on our graves of chosen number.
How different is grief from public outcry?
There is no comforting answer.Is God or the state our true gatekeeper?
Both took away our chance to say goodbye.
But which one silently buried us here,
... -
Poetry Reading: Anastasia, by Murphy Carpenter
Performed by Val Cole
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Poetry Reading: The Unelected, by David Lohrey (interview)
Performed by Val Cole
Get to know the poet:
1) What is the theme of your poem?
political oppression in the form of suffocation
2) What motivated you to write this poem?
to draw an analogy between political harassment and the harassment of a mosquito
3) How long have you been writing poetry...
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Poetry Reading: Can we talk, by Sara Pothmann Cullen
Performed by Val Cole
POEM:
Talking endlessly and without reason,
I should have something to say,
something to tell you that would help you on your way,
I pause,
ready to speak,
yet nothing,
not even something little,
not even something great,
just silence,
silence so small,
so cogent,
it ca... -
Poetry Reading: THE SILT OF GRIEVING, by Natalie Haynes (interview)
Performed by Val Cole
POEM:
—For my mother
while night scoops down to transform silt in the veins
spilling into day a slow drowning in songs from the waters of life
stretched fraying before day breaks
to dying embers of temporariness
wind blows like candle flames struggling,
calling with moan... -
Poetry Reading: SLEEPOVER, by Erik Rosales
Performed by Val Cole
POEM:
We were just boys,
and we had spent
the best hours
of the day,
committing ourselves
to children’s parades
and folly crusades
and lost causes.
And we came home,
hungering and ravenous,
and ate amongst ourselves
candies and red meats
and angel cake, till,
full as pigs... -
Poetry Reading: SOMETHING HAPPENED IN OUR NEIGHBORHOOD, by Gayle Baldwin
Narrated by Val Cole
POEM:
People disappeared.
Not just people but our neighbors. All five of them. Momma, Poppa and the three kids with
thick black hair who played with our kids, wispy blonde blue-eyed, all three.When they moved in, I remember
You were a little uneasy.
We only speak English...