Two Ekphratic Poems
Two poems to go with paintings of Greenland. Art by Judith Appleton, poems by Michael Dickel.
Flash Surrealism
Programming cultural DNA The troglodyte tree emerged from its cave exactly when three lights lit the evening sky on the New Moon that fell before the birth-month of mother owl. Just a hatchling of course, in her first month, and a growth to maturity away from motherhood—but she […]
Flash Fiction— Late for Dinner
Why she was late for dinner… A bag falls to the sidewalk, glass shatters, wine spills—a ghost woke and walked by her, a forgotten moment now scented by shiraz evaporating on hot cement. These days she simply shrugs off such occurrences—hidden minutes pour out along her path wherever […]
Yesterday—a poem of remembrance
Yesterday in Pansy Bradshaw’s memory, may it be for a blessing for gary, as he grieves Parents of an infant girl prayed in thanks at the Kotel after so many years believing they “didn’t merit” a child— the weather nice, reasonably warm for October. At the light rail stop […]
Poem: It wasn’t the sharks
It wasn’t the sharks I lost myself, drowning in waves of sunshine and fear. During stormy weather and when it was clear, I dove underwater to stay out of sight—that is, until sharks came that one lonely night. They struck at my legs and I knew […]
Flash Fiction: Moshe’s House in Space
The following flash fiction responds to a prompt (the photo above) from the Short Story and Flash Fiction Society, for their second flash fiction contest; the story is 392 words, not counting the title (or this blog-post introduction). Moshe is our son’s name, he is three (almost four), and […]
Klezmer evenings…a poem from Tzfat
In Tzfat this Evening The Klezmer festival music plays on and the fireworks blast into the sky exactly on time at ten, brilliant and loud. But the ceasefire broke apart before then, hours before—and Code Red sirens blasted in the South, in Tel Aviv, in Jerusalem, shortly after […]
A Poem from Jerusalem
As the War Continues i That war in the little southwest strip, its violence drowns out all sounds— words drain of meaning and become white spaces against blood-red paper. The numbers rise up, a large pile of bodies reaching toward the sun to ignite and burn, a pyre […]
Escaping Rooster
A bit over a week ago we visited the Jerusalem Zoo. In the children’s area, goats and roosters run loose. Other animals stay in pens nearby, and both the goats and roosters can escape into the pens. It’s all made of wood with a very distinct ranch feeling. […]
The Toad’s Garden ToC
UPDATE 6 January 2017: The book is out! Published December 30, 2016. Read more here. Current working title: Riding the Chariot The Toad’s Garden This post invites you to preview my next book by following the tentative table of contents links (below). I’ve been working on a book […]
The Poetry Reading (29 March 2014)
The Poetry Reading Saturday evening, 29 March 2014, as I scurried about the house preparing to head out to participate in Jerusalism’s Wordplay reading, one of the organizers called me. Lonnie Monka told me that the photographer scheduled to cover the event had to cancel at the last minute. Lonnie […]
May you have a joyous year
Ison Tonic Expressions—Flash Fiction
Flash Fiction on the theme of Ison, the comet.
Nematode Garden Crisis
Nematode Garden Crisis “While most of the thousands of species of nematodes on Earth are not harmful, some nematodes parasitize and cause diseases in humans and other animals. Also, unfortunately, there are many that attack and feed on living plants.” —Organic Gardening.com The garden-shutdown, precipitated by a minority […]
Flash: Soon the trumpets
The woman with a beard contemplates the Toad’s garden in relationship to the decline of empires and the inevitable sound of martial music. Soon the trumpets of war may or may not blow. What we know for certain is that we do not know for certain. Two erstwhile […]
Up against the wall,
Up against the wall, …sits odd statuary, sullen sadness created by hand from nothing more or less than general failures that anyone might turn away from on some given day: A house taken by bankers who would not settle for anything less from two buyers, work taken by […]
Layering viral time across Armageddon
Photo montage / digital art / with poem Note: Updated 31 March 2021 with NFT-auction links for the main images—time for auction ending is approximate and for US East Coast time zone. Tel Meggido, an ancient ruin where Armageddon begins—under the depths of lime an old crayfish and […]
Flash Fiction: As Far as I Go
As Far as I Go Mingled in dark hoops of time, moving faster against lashes of space drawn out then foreclosed as the speed of light calls, casting shadows of reality into the heat of the moment to cool against that woman, Eleanor Rigby, who waits at the […]
Meta/ Phor(e) /Play 