The Nano Poem Collection Anthology
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The Nano Poem Collection Anthology Poems by contest winners
Poems Šthe contributors Published by: Miracle e-zine http://miracleezine.wix.com/miracle-e-zine and Nostrovia! Poetry http://www.nostroviatowriting.com/
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Contents Introduction
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Mitchell Kirkham-Cooper
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Nilofer Neubert
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Mike Jewett
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Joel Harris
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Carissa Callison
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In Conversation with the winners
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About the poets
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Introduction This Nano Poem Collection is a team publication between Miracle Ezine and Nostrovia! Poetry. We are excited to present you the Miracle Nano Poem Collection Anthology. This publication is an anthology featuring winning poems by 5 different poets who won our collaborative contest held earlier this year. The winners are as follows; Contest Winners 1. Mitchell Kirkham-Cooper 2. Nilofer Neubert 3. Mike Jewett 4. Joel Harris 5. Carissa Callison
We hope you enjoy reading the poems in this anthology and may they inspire you!
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A Miracle Nano Poem Collection
Mitchell Kirkham-Cooper
The Hair I found a long blond hair tangled In the chain of my bracelet. It wasn’t yours. But it reminded me of you.
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Derelict Church The stopped clock reads ten 2 twelve. I assume it was at this point, or sometime thereabouts, that the lord left these hallowed halls. Now it is only Time that delivers stern lectures from the pulpit. And the tumbled sarcophagi echo amen to the inevitable glory of his sermon. And somewhere in a back office, a cold cup of tea quietly sublimates into the atmosphere.
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The Arrest No ink can inscribe silence; After 20 odd hours of loneliness. Urine steam in the October cold, The small shutter, Footsteps, And shadows under the door. The shame of a blank page is all the world. No words now. Not even a confession for a poet.
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re-entry I say, beautiful, the city. And I see it has taken root and grown up, almost as trees, Almost, but not quite as alive as trees are. Out above the city lashes the iris sky should be such a puddle of blue. It is sunset at re-entry. From my patch of frost-touched plastic I sit sentry and see that all of the world’s oil slicks and all of its tears make rainbows of the sun. Below is a skin and a network of veins. They spread like webs cells living and dying all at the same time.
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Poetry Showers
Nilofer Neubert Sometimes epiphanies come to me when nearly burning rivers trickle down my body. My bank is a foggy bathroom, much like the secluded villages of Italy during winter. Maybe it’s the sound of water that heightens the poetic gland to overdrive or maybe being naked is when my speakers are alert enough to pick up word waves whispered through a microphone by poems that live in my hard-to-reach places.
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of cigarettes Mike Jewett I love her breath Of cigarettes Freshly lit tobacco Lingering on her tongue The aromatic spiciness Pungently sexy Blowing past plump lips Her smoke Imbued with her scent Finds its way to me She sighs a smoke-filled sigh And walks away A lingering scent of sweet Unburnt tobacco leaf Is all that’s left
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Toothless Joel Harris I wake and realize my dream has frozen the rain-it goes popping and taps up on the window as ice becomes coal, then diamond, snapping, cracking on glass and frame. Smiling, proud, I shake off the smoke and shrug out from under you, your voice now a jilted shade, receding: reticent, toothless, clipping softly in my thighs, a distant nod of the head but no sure command. I smile again; and, noting what does not belong, I throw you off.
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Cards Against Humanity Carissa Callison Maybe She’s Born with it, maybe it’s _____ -AIDS -Flesh Eating Bacteria -Penis Envy -Michael Jackson Each card read ignites laughter, but my poetry drunk brain reads them like prompts. We’re sitting in a darkened bar before Wednesday finals, and organic chemistry is performing a electrophilic attack on my cortex—like the steric strain of elections I shove the molecules and line structures from my brain, my hands thirsty, not for the drink they cradle, but for a pen. For paper, for words not copied from a chalkboard, my own words chased from ephemera to reality.
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In Conversation with the winners About poetry and their poetry world
How would you describe your poetry style? Joel Harris: I would describe my poetry style, foremost as narrative prose; I seldom rely on typical and/or traditional poetic mechanisms in as much as I do simple descriptive lyricism. That said, there are random occasions when known poetic mechanisms naturally arise in my writing but it's generally not a planned thing and nor is it pre determined. My writing is by far more survival oriented in it's derivation than it is in any daily desire to simply make some new thing. Invariably, this results in long dry spells wherein I will write nothing at all and nor will I feel as though I should be writing. Then, out of nowhere I will have a conversation that destroys me in some way or I will see some thing moving in the sky and then I will find myself writing. A certain, beautiful quote from Raymond Carver comes to mind here: "Writers don't need tricks or gimmicks or even necessarily need to be the smartest fellows on the block. At the risk of appearing foolish, a writer sometimes needs to be able to just stand and gape at this or that thing- a sunset or an old shoe- in absolute and simple amazement.�
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Where do you think poetry in this era is heading to? Joel Harris: Not to insult any of the more prolific among you poets out there or to in any way demean those who are a part of the poetry "scene," ‌ but I really have no answer to that. I'm simply not too much involved in poetic goings on. In fact, my submissions to Miracle and the like, here recently, are my first ever efforts to submit anything, anywhere. So I'll have to maybe get back to you on that when I learn more about other folk's poetry and the poetry "scene," in general. How would you describe the poetry in 21st century? Carissa Callison: I think the best thing about poetry in the 21st century is that it's accessible. You don't have to buy books or rely on a public library in order to read/hear a lot of poetry. Between the many online(and free) lit mags, blogs, and YouTube, anyone can find a poet or poem that really draws them in. What is your favourite thing about poetry? Carissa Callison: I have a lot of favorite things about poetry, but I really love the connection that poetry brings. When I read a poem that punches me in the gut, it's because something in there rang true for me, and that knowledge that I'm not alone with that feeling or experience holds a lot of power. The same goes for writing a poem that someone reads and connects with. According to you, what is the state of poetry today? Is poetry flourishing or dying?
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Mitchell Kirkham-Cooper: I think the perception of poetry in the mainstream is that, if it isn't dying, it is at least esoteric or obsolete. As such, it has been made niche. As we all know with niche phenomena, they become darlings of avant garde movements and are, therefore, pushed back into the limelight as something dangerous, new and edgy. Poetry I hope, by its very nature, isolates and destroys itself and is therefore constantly renewing itself. Like drinking on a hangover. What does being creative mean to you? Mitchell Kirkham-Cooper: Being creative means nothing to me. We all create, or more precisely recycle. There is nothing special about it. We put it under the banner Poetry (capital P) and think ourselves very special and clever. The modern social media age has uncovered the fact that everything we do is an act of creation. Every action in life is a brush stroke to a wonderfully complex character profile that we call "I". We're all creative, to live is to create. Do you think poets and artists are viewed and valued differently today than they use to be? Nilofer Neubert: I think that in the past, poets/artists were seen as an elite group. Recently, I feel that a lot of that has gone, and that's a good thing. Any form of art should be for everyone and not just for the rich. I think that the 21st century has changed that. Also, because of certain artists in the past, there is this misconception that art can only be created when someone is drunk or high. I think that this has also changed because more artists are getting more exposure. However, I feel that we still distinguish between poets and artists (creators of visual arts). In my opinion, poetry is a form of art and poets are artists as well.
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Has your idea of what poetry is changed since you began writing poems? Nilofer Neubert: I used to write poems that are more generic as I feared that my readers would know too much about me, or that my family or friends might get offended if I was honest. I was afraid of exposing myself on the page. However, this has definitely changed. A lot of my poems are written in first person rather than third. I still have that fear within me, but I figured that if I was so fearful of how others might view my opinion, then there was not cut out to be a poet. My favourite poems are the ones that are dripping with honesty. I hope that my poems does that as well.
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About
The Poets
Mitchell is a 22 year old writer, spoken-word performer and traveller currently sleeping in London. "Many people become bankrupt through having invested too heavily in the prose of life. To have ruined one's self over poetry is an honor.". www.soundcloud.com/catsandjackets
Nilofer Neubert is an educator, writer and spoken word poet. She conducts creative writing workshops for children where they use poems, short stories as well as performance poetry to express themselves. She also facilitated writing groups for adults through Writingthecity, Singapore. She is the Editor and Co-Founder of Prosaic Magazine, a literary and arts magazine. She has performed her poetry at various locations in Singapore as well as open mics in England. Her poems have been published in The Fat City Review and other online magazines. Some of her writing can be found on blackvspurple.tumblr.com and http://blackvspurple.com.
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Mike Jewett is the editor and publisher of Boston Poetry Magazine and hasn't been published elsewhere because he created Boston Poetry Magazine to bypass some of the myriad rules and regs of submitting to many literary magazines. You can view his poetry, as well as more than 100 other poets published on our site, at http://bostonpoetry.wordpress.com. Boston Poetry Magazine's first printed anthology is in the works.
Joel lives, works and writes in Texas.
Carissa Callison was born and raised on the wet side of Washington. She attended the University of Montana Western and received a BA in biology. While in college, she rediscovered a passion for words and hasn’t looked back.
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