Literary Revelations is thrilled to bring you the poetry of Marion Berndt. I hope you enjoy it.
BIO
Marion Berndt was born in 1968 in Oldenburg in Northern Germany. Even as a preschooler, she loved books and dreamed of writing. She always made up stories and wrote as soon as she learned to. At the age of five Marion announced to the family that she would become a teacher and “book writer.”
First she set out on the teacher’s path. After graduating from high school in 1988, Marion studied German, religion and mathematics at the Carl von Ossietzky University in Oldenburg until 1992 to become a teacher at primary and secondary schools. The trainee service in Verden an der Aller followed from 1992-94. Since 1994 she has been teaching at primary schools in the district of Cloppenburg, currently at the GS Halen / Emstek.
Between 2004 and 2008 she completed two distance learning courses at the Axel-Andersson-Akademie in Hamburg parallel to her teaching activity, in order to fulfill her dream of becoming a “book writer”. In 2014 Marion started publishing teaching materials at Persen-Verlag and the GSV.
Since 2020 she also ventures into poetry. Her poetry can be found on her Twitter, Instagram and Facebook accounts. A few of Marion’s poems can be listened to at Dead Letter Radio Podcast, and she joined the Move Me Poetry community. Her first poetry collection Lockdown Poetry is available since January 2022 at Olympia Publishers London.
Ghostly
An eager emptiness. A ghostly longing covered in a lingering twilight. A fathomless hole of deep intimacy. Heartfelt in the mirror of the untenanted moon. Swallowing star nebula nourish a desperate hope to sink into the roaring silence of a numbing sleep soon…
Timeless
Timeless moment, all masks fall, and the smile is finally real. Even the day gives in, and the truth meets the moon. Sleep beats the fake. Sigh of letting go. Long breaths so deep. Brain loses control. Timeless sinking into a dream. For a long walk the soul is freed…
Literary Revelations is thrilled to invite you to Montreal, Canada, where our wonderful correspondent and writer Virginia Mateias takes you to visit two beautiful art galleries. I hope you enjoy this Sunday feature.
Let’s listen to Virginia:
If you are an art lover, like me, you’d enjoy a stroll through the art galleries of Montreal. Inside the over 225 existing galleries, painters, sculptors, and photographers sell and exhibit their original works. All styles are present: modern art, classical art, naive style, figurative and abstract.
Spending an afternoon in an art gallery means escaping everyday life in the happiest way possible. There are many art galleries in Montreal that deserve our time and interest. I stopped at two less known and I discovered true artistic gems at affordable prices.
Art Gallery Valmi
Located in the fancy Outremont neighborhood, the Valmi Gallery has been operating for 21 years. Unlike other galleries, the prices are accessible to all budgets, starting at $20 for a watercolor greeting card and going up to $15,000 for large oil paintings designed for those who appreciate the classical style.
The owner of the Valmi Gallery is Valeria Gruia. A member signatory of the prestigious Canadian Society of Watercolorists. Valeria comes from a family of artists and had her first exhibition at the age of 11. As a unique feature, the artists who exhibit here pay only 10% of their sales to the gallery, not the usual 50%.
1595 Ave Van Horne, Outremont, Quebec H2V 1L6
Art Gallery BOA
Located in Montreal’s touristic area, Boa Gallery exhibits modern art, contemporary art and pop art from around the world. Thanks to its highly varied offer, you are sure to find interesting new paintings for your home or office. The prices of the paintings range from $1,000 $ to $3,000 $.
Opened in October 2022, the gallery also rents space for events. You will also discover books in the gallery. It was here that art critic Andre Seleanu’s book “Comprendre l’art contemporain” was launched. The gallery’s director and owner is the writer Bob Ore. Passionate about art and literature, he states that one of the gallery’s goals is to promote Quebec art worldwide.
263 Rue de la Commune est, Montréal-Nord, QC, Canada, Quebec
I will close here with the promise that Literary Revelations will be back from Montreal.
Have a great week ahead.
Featured picture: Tour de l’Horloge, Vieux-Port de Montréal, Gabriela Marie Milton
Literary Revelations is thrilled to bring you the poetry of a very accomplished author: R.C. Thomas. I hope you enjoy it.
BIO
R.C. Thomas resides in Plymouth, UK, with his daughter, where he received a BA in Creative Writing from Plymouth University. His first collection ‘The Strangest Thank you’ (2012), and his pamphlet ‘Zygote Poems’ (2015) were published by Cultured Llama. His poetry and haiku have appeared in journals internationally. Of creative writing publications, he edited Symmetry Pebbles, was Creative Writing Editor of Tribe, co-edited it’s sister journal Thief, and was Managing Editor of INK, Plymouth University’s creative writing journal. R.C. Thomas was selected as one of the ‘Top Creative Haiku Authors’ in Europe in 2021 and 2022; he received joint first place in the Sharpening the Green Pencil Haiku Contest 2022, first place in the Third Maya Lyubenova Haiku Contest, had a ‘Selected Haiku Submission’ in the 13th Yamadera Basho Memorial Museum English Haiku Contest and was shortlisted for the Touchstone Best Individual Poem Award. His short story, ‘My Third Wife Was Called Wendy-Ellen’ received an Honourable Mention in the Globe Soup Open Short Story Competition 2022. R.C. Is currently working on various projects, including a collection of fauna-based haiku.
winding down around the mountain mouflons lower horns
Literary Revelations is thrilled to bring you the poetry of Tina Mowrey. We hope you enjoy this feature.
BIO
Educator and lifelong learner, Tina spends much of her free time reading, writing, and observing the world around her. Most recently, she has been focusing on the craft of short form poetry (haiku, senryu, tanka) with original pieces published in the following journals: Mayfly, Frogpond, Presence, Wales Haiku, Modern Haiku, Trash Panda, Folk ku, Cold Moon, and Poetry Pea. Tina’s work has also appeared in several anthologies including Hidden in Childhood, To Live Here, and From One Line – If I Were A House.
In another life, Tina is a picture book author, with three books to her name and a singer/songwriter. She loves listening to music, traveling with her family, spoiling their five pets, and eating tacos. Lots of tacos!
4 haiku/senryu by Tina Mowrey
warm winds stirring the foliage summer’s last dance
recalling how distant we’ve become desert sky
water lilies a flight of dragonflies tends the nursery
Tanka poems are a representative type of classical Japanese poetry with a long history. Beginning as waka, which were widely composed starting in the 7th century, today they continue to be produced by people of diverse backgrounds while retaining their ancient characteristics. In other words, tanka poems can be regarded as a valuable part of Japanese cultural heritage that are loved and enjoyed in contemporary Japan…
It can be said that social media has had a great impact on modern tanka. As a result, the traditional framework of social exclusiveness of this poetic genre from ancient times has been removed, leaving an environment where people of any social status and cultural background can easily create and read tanka and join the tanka community.
Kensuke, Koshida. “Globalization of tanka: how Twitter contributes to development of traditional Japanese poetry.” Relacje Międzykulturowe= Intercultural Relations 2 (8) (2020).
Literary Revelations is thrilled to bring you the magnificent art and tanka of Hikari, a fabulous Japanese artist. Read more about Hikari here. Some of the art that you will see in this feature is done by Hikari in collaboration with her mentor the Japanese artist Naoki Kimura. Read more about Naoki Kimura here.
The introduction to tanka, the art, the poems, and the translations below belong to Hikari, unless otherwise noted.
Introduction to Japanese Tanka by Hikari
Tanka is one of the forms of Japanese poems consisting of 31 syllables of 5, 7, 5, 7, 7 (*a).
By comparison, Japanese haiku consists only of 17 syllables of 5, 7, 5.
◆Haiku is mostly liked to seasons. tanka is not.
◆Tanka conveys one’s feelings in more detail than haiku because of its longer form.
◆The origin of tanka is said to be around the latter half of the 7th century in Japan.
Famous Tanka Anthologies
The most famous anthologies of tanka in Japan include “Manyoshu” (*b) and “Kokin Wakashu”, as well as the “Hyakunin Isshu”, a collection of poems selected from various anthologies.
I would like to introduce one of the representative tanka in Japan.
It is composed by Lady Murasaki, who depicts “The Genji Monogatari” (*c), and has been translated in many languages around around the world.
“I met you, my friend, for the first time in a long time and enjoyed talking to you, but at night, you hurried home like the moon hiding in the clouds. I wonder if that was really you…”
Tanka by Hikari/painting Hikari with Naoki Kimura
I always add a tanka written by me to the painting I drew.
Even if you regret it, put on your mask and quietly wait for the light at the gate of tolerance
“la porta della Tolleranza”(*d),
Tanka and painting by Hikari
(Japanese)残照に 今日の佳き事焼き付けて 悔い燃し進む 沖つ船みる
“Za-N-Sho-Ni Kyo-U-No-Yo-Ki-Ko-To Ya-Ki-Tsu-Ke-Te
Ku-I-Mo-Shi-Su-Su-Mu O-Ki-Tsu-Fu-Ne-Mi-Ru”
(English translation)
“In the afterglow I’m going to burn today’s good things in my heart and at the same time burn up my regret. Watching the ship sailing offshore. Moving forward to tomorrow”
“Amidst the light, where cherry blossoms dance, you twirl. Though the world may change, the seasons continue to turn”
Thank you for reading.
*a 31 characters is not an absolute rule.
*b Manyoshu is the oldest collection of poetry in Japan(Late 7th century), and includes Chinese poems and waka poems too.
*c “The Genji Monogatari” is a story about Hikaru Genji, the main character, and the feelings of the women surrounding him. It was written around the beginning of the 11th century.
Norinaga Motoori , 18th century Japanese scholar of literature, advocated that “Genji Monogatari” is the literature at the top of “Mono no Aware,” a feeling unique to Japan.
This idea also influenced Naoki Kimura, a Fine photographic artist.
Literary Revelations hopes you enjoy our Sunday Feature: The Poetry of Bartholomew Barker.
BIO
Bartholomew Barker is one of the organizers of Living Poetry, a collection of poets and poetry lovers in the Triangle region of North Carolina. His first poetry collection, Wednesday Night Regular, written in and about strip clubs, was published in 2013. His second, Milkshakes and Chilidogs, a chapbook of food inspired poetry was “served” in 2017. He was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2021. Born and raised in Ohio, studied in Chicago, Bartholomew worked in Connecticut for nearly twenty years before moving to Hillsborough where he makes money as a computer programmer to fund his poetry habit at bartbarkerpoet.com
Canis Redivivus!
My dog sleeps like a beach towel drying in the sun after a vibrant afternoon throwing his tennis ball into the lake, scaring fish and snapping gnats.
When he’s had his fill of fecund water, he collapses onto the sand, panting, tongue drooped. I cajole him home, where I wash the souvenir smells from his fur.
It’s the best way to get some quiet time to work until I hear the distinctive music of his tags shaking and he yawns into my office where I proclaim,
“Behold! Bobo Redivivus!” He returns my wag, ready for dinner.
I was more popular when I drove a pickup
She asked me to drop her at the airport and I was happy to repay the favor until I discovered it also involved moving her out of my apartment
Please check our latest #1 Amazon Bestseller Building Sandcastles: A Book of Short Poems by C.X. Turner and James Welsh. Launched on August 11, 2023 Building Sandcastles was still #1 in the Poetry/Haiku category last night.
Thank you for your love and support. I am thrilled to let you know that next year I will publish a bilingual English-Spanish poetry book entitled Thorns that bloom/Espinas que echan flor. More about the book and how it came about later. For the moment I will share a poem I selected to include in the book entitled Seduction. Seduction was first published in English in my poetry collection Passion: Love Poems in Other Writings accompanied by an Italian translation belonging to Flavio Almerighi, a wonderful Italian poet. This time I hope you enjoy Seduction in English and Spanish.
Gabriela Marie Milton
Seduction
The rhythm of castanets awakens the moon on opal rings your kisses spin a cricket’s hitting a crescendo waves tattoo dark shadows on your skin sonority, you who vibrates the souls of those who haunt at night the Port of Cartagena
I toss in smells of apricots and plumes the Hand of Fatima takes off my veils your forehead sinks into the sweat of lovers who sever their veins oh, dream of the unknowns, you, latency, the sigh of blood which flows in spring both mud and flowers grow
didn’t you know that when you said I love you you stepped on roads of fables and folk tales? you glued your heart onto a purple sunset smells of lilac and of roses, impregnated strolls, seduction, it wasn’t me it was you who stole his soul.
Seducción (Spanish Translation)
El ritmo de las castañuelas despierta a la luna, sobre anillos de ópalo giran tus besos, un grillo se marca un crescendo las olas tatúan oscuras sombras sobre tu piel; sonoridad, tú que haces vibrar las almas de aquellos que rondan de noche el Puerto de Cartagena.
Me balanceo entre olores de albaricoque y ciruela, la mano de Fátima retira mis velos, tu frente se hunde en el sudor de los amantes que inflaman sus venas. ¡Oh! amor de desconocidos, tú, latencia, suspiro de sangre que fluye en primavera alimentando tanto flores como tierra
¿No sabías que al decir te quiero te adentraste en senderos de fábulas y cuentos? tu corazón quedó prendado de un atardecer púrpura impregnado de aromas a lilas y a rosas; paseos, seducción, vosotros robasteis su alma, no fui yo.
Literary Revelations is thrilled to bring you the poetry of Christina Chin and Uchechukwu Onyedikam. Together they wrote two excellent Japanese Tan-Renga.
BIOS
Uchechukwu Onyedikam is a Nigerian creative artist based in Lagos, Nigeria. His poems have appeared in Amsterdam Quarterly, Brittle Paper, Poetic Africa, Hood Communists and in print anthologies. He and Christina Chin co-authored Pouring Light on the Hills (2022).
Christina Chin is a painter and haiku poet from Malaysia. She is a four-time recipient of the top 100 in the DAC Summit Contests, exhibited at the Palo Alto Art Center, California. She is also the 1st prize winner of the 34th Annual Cherry Blossom Sakura Festival Haiku Contest (2020).
Tan-Renga
the dull midnight star a trailer to the homestead mother lay still breathless the solemn departure of the village babu
Uchechukwu Onyedikam/Christina Chin
the young boy clings to her lifeless body screams above the breath a scene of loss family mourning
Christina Chin/Uchechukwu Onyedikam
Please check our latest #1 Amazon Bestseller Building Sandcastles: A Book of Short Poems by C.X. Turner and James Welsh. Launched on August 11, 2023 Building Sandcastles is still #1 in the Poetry/Haiku category.
Spyder is a simple wraith that spins odd and fantastic tales of horror and dark fantasy. As well, his web has been known to spawn melancholy and sometimes horrific poetry. Spyder dwells at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean or at times in the Rocky Mountains. No matter where he may be, rest assured darkness accompanies his adventures. Publishing credit of his work can be found at: Quill and Crow Publishing and Hellbound Books.
In Her
In her I’ve found the comfort of silence the crisp autumn air & the ocean’s tide she is my twilight the warmth of a blanket of stars where I can curl up & simply be no need for wasted words to say that which is known but always room for tenderness inviting arms that soothe she warms my heart & brightens my soul I have found where I belong with her
Fate’s Unholy Grave
Grave the fate of the desirous Call devotion moderna, blind lust Cardinal, your sin lies upon avarice The hymns of angels are cancerous
Tout your glutton-like holy charms Spite humanity no matter whom it harms Light the wanting with candle fire Lust for greed stakes the saints on the pyre
Quiet, you sulk as the glow fades Upon the black mass altar, your soul is laid Death weaves your flesh like lattice bone & eternity burns beneath tears to atone
Deaf are the ears of light & divinity Cast your essence to the fiery sea This fate of greed’s overreaching sin Hush now your cries lost to the sinking din
Literary Revelations wishes you and your family a Happy Saturday.
We are thrilled to let you know that Building Sandcastles: A Book of Short Poems by C.X. Turner and James Welsh – 8 days after its launch – is still a #1 bestseller in the UK. It is not only a bestseller in Hot New Releases. It is #1 in all published haiku poetry books.
Both authors are under a pen name. We could not publicize the book the way others can. And yet we reached the sky. That’s because of those who recognize talent no matter what. That’s because of those of you who love great poetry. That’s because of those who love quality. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. This is the kind of readership we want.
Roberta Beach Jacobson Editor, Cold Moon Journal and Five Fleas (Itchy Poetry) tells us: “Building Sandcastles: A Book of Short Poems, the stunning new collection by C.X. Turner and James Welsh, is a must-have for your shelves. These thought-provoking haiku and senryu left me breathless.”
Please stay tuned for more exciting news, including news that involves our Literary Revelations poetry community.
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