Ten Most Read Poets 2023 at North of Oxford as of National Poetry Month

Three Poems by T. J. Masluk

https://northofoxford.wordpress.com/2023/01/07/three-poems-by-t-j-masluk/

Three Poems by Akshaya Pawaskar

https://northofoxford.wordpress.com/2023/02/06/three-poems-by-akshaya-pawaskar/

Calder at the Top of the Stairs by John Timpane

https://northofoxford.wordpress.com/2023/02/06/calder-at-the-top-of-the-stairs-by-john-timpane/

Our Children Are in the Fields Today by Cydney Brown

https://northofoxford.wordpress.com/2023/02/06/our-children-are-in-the-fields-today-by-cydney-brown/

Two Poems by Charles Carr

https://northofoxford.wordpress.com/2023/03/06/two-poems-by-charles-carr/

Two Poems by Cameron Morse

https://northofoxford.wordpress.com/2023/01/07/two-poems-by-cameron-morse/

Two Poems by Evan Anders

https://northofoxford.wordpress.com/2023/02/06/two-poems-by-evan-anders-2/

September in the Meadow by Robert Milby

https://northofoxford.wordpress.com/2023/01/07/september-in-the-meadow-by-robert-milby/

Purple Flowering Grief by Brian Builta

https://northofoxford.wordpress.com/2023/01/07/purple-flowering-grief-by-brian-builta/

Hotel Krupa Lounge by Mark J. Mitchell

https://northofoxford.wordpress.com/2023/03/06/hotel-krupa-lounge-by-mark-j-mitchell/

.

.

.

Advertisement

A Great Time at Chase’s Hop Shop

Thanks to all the poets and those in attendance for our celebration – North of Oxford Presents – National Poetry Month at Chase’s Hop Shop. Thanks to Frank and the staff for all their assistance. Photos from the event appear below of Diane Sahms-Guarnieri, Charles Rammelkamp, , Ezra Solway, Jane Rebecca Cannarella, Paul Ilechko, Cleveland Wall,  Carl Kaucher, and Michael Griffith.

.

North of Oxford Presents – National Poetry Month @ Chase’s Hop Shop – 4-30-22

North of Oxford Presents

Live

National Poetry Month @ Chase’s Hop Shop

7235 Rising Sun Ave

Philadelphia, PA 19111

April 30^th – 2pm to 5pm

Poets Reading 

Diane Sahms-Guarnieri, a native Philadelphia poet living in Lawndale since 1986, is author of four full-length poetry collections and most recently a chapbook, COVID-19 2020 A Poetic Journal (Moonstone Press, 2021). Published in North American Review, Sequestrum Journal of Literature & Arts and Brushfire Literature & Arts Journal, among others, she is poetry editor at North of Oxford’s online literary journal and teleworks full-time for the government.  www.dianesahmsguarnieri.com .

.

Charles Rammelkamp is Prose Editor for Brick House Books in Baltimore and Reviews Editor for The Adirondack Review. His most recent releases are Sparring Partners from Mooonstone Press, Ugler Lee from Kelsay Books and Catastroika from Apprentice House.

Sawyer Lovett is a writer, bookseller, and professor. He is a pretty good person, but he is always trying to be better.

Ezra Solway is a jack of some trades. A poet, fiction writer, reporter living in Philadelphia, where he earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Temple University. He has  taught English in Akko, Israel; sold electricity door-to-door; and waited tables at a Japanese karaoke lounge, among other eclectic posts. Currently, he is the Assistant Editor of the Jewish Community Voice, a local newspaper covering Southern New Jersey. https://www.ezrasolway.com/

.

Jane-Rebecca Cannarella (she/her) is a writer and editor living in Philadelphia. She is the editor of HOOT Review and Meow Meow Pow Pow Lit, and a former genre editor at Lunch Ticket. She’s the author of Better Bones and Marrow, both published by Thirty West Publishing House, The Guessing Game published by BA Press, and Thirst and Frost forthcoming from Vegetarian Alcoholic Press. https://www.instagram.com/anotherintro/?hl=en

.

Paul Ilechko is the author of three chapbooks, most recently “Pain Sections” (Alien Buddha Press). His work has appeared in a variety of journals, including Rogue Agent, January Review, North Dakota Quarterly, Book of Matches and Pithead Chapel. He lives with his partner in Lambertville, NJ.

.

Cleveland Wall is a poet, teaching artist, and maker of things out of other things. She performs with interactive poetry troupe No River Twice and with musical combo The Starry Eyes. Her first full-length poetry collection, Let X=X , was published by Kelsay Books in the fall of 2019. She is also the sole librarian at Books on the Hill, a mighty twig of the Bethlehem Area Public Library. https://www.clevelandwall.com/

Carl Kaucher is a poet, photographer, and urban explorer who lives in Temple, Pa. He is the author of two chap books, “Sideways Blues ( Irish mountain and beyond )”, “Postpoemed” and most recently “Peripheral Debris.” His work has appeared in numerous publications and on line. The writing explores his experiences wandering urban spaces near his home and throughout Pennsylvania. Using his photography and writing, Carl has been exploring the overlooked places and documenting the chance occurrences that happen to him and by doing so gives us the opportunity to reflect upon those similar events happening in our lives also. More info can be found at https://www.facebook.com/CarlKaucher/  and on instagram @Carlkaucher.

Dave Worrell is the author of  We Who Were Bound and Close to Home featuring paintings by Catherine Kuzma. Dave’s poems have appeared in Slant, Canary, Heroin Chic, Shot Glass Journal, Referential Magazine, Wild River Review, and elsewhere. He has performed his music-backed poems at Chris’ Jazz Café in Philadelphia and The Cornelia Street Café in New York. He began writing poetry toward the end of his 30-plus year law career, has taught writing at area community colleges and business law to undergraduates at Drexel University’s LeBow College of Business.

Michael Griffith is a story-teller at heart, a teacher, problem-solver, and helper at heart. He has been freelance writing and editing on-and-off on the professional level for over 25 years. Michael has taught courses in communication, public speaking, mass media, film studies, logic, developmental English, and creative writing. He currently teaches for-credit classes at Raritan Valley Community College in Branchburg, NJ and Mercer County Community College in West Windsor, NJ. https://michaelgriffithwordpress.wordpress.com/

     

Host – g emil reutter 

https://northofoxford.wordpress.com/ 

.

Chase’s Hop Shop

https://www.facebook.com/Chases-Hop-Shop-319982001828515/

.

.

Celebrate National Poetry Month in Sellersville – April 23rd

Diane Sahms-Guarnieri, g emil reutter, Steven Walker 

Followed by an Open Mic 

April 23rd @ 1pm

Daddy O’s Studio –116 N. Main Street, Sellersville, Pa.

On Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/events/384018440251171/?ref=newsfeed

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=164396312674234&id=112912697822596&m_entstream_source=timeline&__tn__=%2As%2AsH-R

Diane Sahms-Guarnieri, a native Philadelphia poet living in Lawndale since 1986, is author of four full-length poetry collections and most recently a chapbook, COVID-19 2020 A Poetic Journal (Moonstone Press, 2021). Published in North American Review, Sequestrum Journal of Literature & Arts and Brushfire Literature & Arts Journal, among others, she is poetry editor at North of Oxford’s online literary journal and teleworks full-time for the government.  www.dianesahmsguarnieri.com .

g emil reutter is a writer of poems and stories. Sixteen collections of his poetry and fiction have been published. He can be found at: https://gereutter.wordpress.com/about/

Steven Walker is an award-winning writer, poet, playwright and journalist with approximately 1500 published credits including two horror novels, “Desmodus” and “Hell and Back” and two true crime books, “Blood Trail” and “Predator”.  He helped to establish The Writer’s Room of Bucks County, The Writer’s Web, an internet-based school and marketing tool and was the founding president of the Lehigh Valley Writers Academy.  Walker, a musician and songwriter, currently owns and operates Daddy O’s Studio in Sellersville, PA where he provides guitar lessons and sells musical instruments, books, smoking accessories, tapestries, posters, wiccan items, gemstones and other unique gifts.  Also as a talented artist and photographer, Daddy O’s Studio is a showcase to exhibit and sell his paintings and photos as well as the work of other local artists, photographers and crafters. https://www.daddyos.shop/about

.

.

North of Oxford Presents – National Poetry Month @ Chase’s Hop Shop – 4-30-22

 

North of Oxford Presents

Live

National Poetry Month @ Chase’s Hop Shop

7235 Rising Sun Ave

Philadelphia, PA 19111

April 30^th – 2pm to 5pm

Poets Reading 

Diane Sahms-Guarnieri, Charles Rammelkamp, Sawyer Lovett, Ezra Solway, Jane Rebecca Cannarella, Paul Ilechko, Cleveland Wall,  Carl Kaucher, Dave Worrell, Michael Griffith,

Host – g emil reutter 

https://northofoxford.wordpress.com/ 

.

Chase’s Hop Shop

https://www.facebook.com/Chases-Hop-Shop-319982001828515/

.

.

From the Poetry Editor

.

During National Poetry Month and the COVID 19 scare, we start April’s issue with poems from Eastern Europe by Aura Christi (born in Chișinău, Republic of Moldova, now living in Romania) translated by Petru Iamandi & Adam Sorkin. Chosen many months ago, these two poems now appear as if they were somewhat of an artistic foreshadowing of events stirring in the air; even their titles, “Spell” and “Elegy,” have a certain heaviness surrounding them.

.

With a dark circling wand, the last stanza of “Spell” casts foreboding sounds and a lasting image of a bird:

.

What rumble swirls,

roars, grows, struggles

like a bird caught

between life and death.

.

And her poem “Elegy” has the speaker “I” in a dreamlike state questioning existence:

.

(Lines 3-5)

You look at yourself in the mirror and listen to your humming:

I no longer am, I, I no longer am,

Everything’s strange, lost and distant.

.

In an atmosphere where:

.

(Lines 9-13)

No one’s around, you keep saying, no one at all.

But then why is the air filling

with something impossible and heavy?

The darkness grows bewilderingly;

soon it will fall over everywhere…

.

Moving onward in April’s issue, poets Nicole Yurcaba (Ukrainian-American) & Stanley Galloway collaborate on the poem, “Dnipro Duet,” which takes an angsty look at exes, monogamy, & life in a city (Dnipro) located on the Dneiper River in central Ukraine, ending at the sea of Azov. With the exception of the first and last lines, this poem is ironically written in 13 couplets, with a few here to entice you:

.

Couplet #2

eyes stinging clear covering all the distance that feet won’t cross

exes and the oh’s they bring to numb lips…

.

Couplet #9

tongue sweet as caramel on sausage and nails

driven through palms and feet             into wood

.

Couplet #12

as Narcissus contemplated the nature of singularity

and a woman contemplates the silliness of monogamy

.

This duo continues with a powerful poem entitled, “Liturgy for Ukraine” with captivating lines like:

.

…where a gleam of sunlight betrays

the ship’s bow displacing what we cannot walk on

gliding over shades of Scythian, Mongol, Nazi, Soviet

borders redrawn

             redetermined

             remapped…

.

…a faith brought by Cyril and Methodius

screened through scarves and centuries

carved on box lids and church doors

                clothes and egg shells

wooden spoons and forks painted

with berries, blood, pride…

.

This poem ends with a resounding, “amen.”

.

Our next poem,  Kevin Ridgeway’s, “There Comes a Time” may or may not emulate Neil Young’s “Comes A Time,” but both have a “coming of age” feel. The last five lines are where the speaker of the poem sums it all up:

.

the meaning of life. We are

the anti-heroes who fell in love

with our own delusions of grandeur,

and we failed to save the world

from people like ourselves.

.

Luanne Castle’s poem, “Medusa’s #Metoo” mixes the classical wonder of our snake headed Gorgon in a fresh new “Metoo” way.

.

a coverup through tweet and text

a smear campaign of slut and sext

Poseidon in Athena’s studio apt

.

In texting the word “apt” in “studio apt” means “apartment” and not the dictionary definition of the actual word “apt” (having a tendency to do something). Here, Castle is clearly keeping with the modern-day texting language versus the classical meaning of look-alike words. A modern twist on an old myth indeed.

.

Lastly, we have Tim Suermondt’s poem, “Gulls Flying Over the Construction Site.” Tim’s poems are always filled with wonderful similes, images, and quiet contemplation.

.

In his opening line’s simile: “Like stealth bombers that are suddenly upon you—” and then the subtle but pronounced: “there they are.”

.

He has a seeable list of junkyard images. Then another simile for the workers at the site.

.

workers going at it with fervor / like the Egyptians of old.

.

With the gulls flying & his unique close comparisons to humans, this last poem is definitely worth a close read. Further, Tim’s poem also had a bit of eeriness, as stated in the last line of the poem, where the speaker turns “from the window” and goes:

.

into another room, my shadow flapping on the white walls.

.

.

But alas, it’s April and spring is everywhere, so please stay safe and know that all of you are in my thoughts & prayers.

.

In keeping with King Solomon or a Sufi poet or a Jewish folklore’s line (no definitive knowledge of its actual origin): “this, too, shall pass.” The sooner the better, I hope.

.

Peace & much love,

.

Diane Sahms

Poetry Editor – North of Oxford

.

.

Submissions Open For National Poetry Month

Submissions are open until March  31st for our April issue. It will be National Poetry Month and if you have that book you love or that has moved you and desire to review it, send it along for consideration of publication. Essays and commentary are also welcome.

Submissions:

Submissions of book reviews, essays, and commentary are welcome. Send your submission for consideration of publication in word doc with any images or photographs attached , Include a brief bio. All submissions are to be sent to:  sahmsguarnieriandreutter@gmail.com  Please note in the subject line of the email- submission- your name. Our response time should be less than two weeks.