Granite Obelisk

Legananny Dolmen

Weighted.

A Mystery Of Maps

             La La I can't hear you as whose wannabes these are I wouldn't care to know. The infinite regress a pyramid of human pyramids, a stack of stacks of hats, the physical dimension, envied, positively glows.

             As from some cul-de-sac I come out blindly fighting, at each address is another address, so my mission is accomplished. She who hesitates to edit misses out. Potential may not exercise this mystery of maps.

         The anarchist in me says nihilists are unreliable. What won't they renegotiate? For love they're looking where the light is bad and three days sober. What a luster on your flood plain, what an answer, what charisma!

           We have ways of making you live in the present. Between the impossible and the unnecessary are the seven blessings.

This Profound Land

Reflections on Stone

Reflections on Stone The hard truth … the unending and ever impending truth … is that everything comes to an end. No matter how weathered, even stone is ground down by the erosive power of rain, wind, and time. Rock, pulverized over millennia, turns to sand that spills through your fingers.

Beware of the pebble in your shoe and a stone heart. The pain you live day in and day out, the hard knocks that grind you down that are hung like a millstone around your neck. Over and over again you call them to mind until they chill your bones. Those tectonic plates, the burdens upon burdens shift, leaving you tired and worn. You steel yourself and harden your heart, and weep behind closed doors or rail against all that is ugly, what others did to you; what you can’t undo. Soften.

Stone is hard, ever enduring, patient and stoic. It doesn’t matter what its size. Mountains are climbed, boulders heaved, rocks thrown. In ancient days, the Hebrews placed stacks of stones to commemorate the great things God had done for them, whether crossing into the Promised Land or thwarting an enemy or prayers answered. They commemorate promises, victories, loved ones. Around the world there are cairns and prehistoric monuments that catch the sun to tell the time, the season. Renew, refresh, and remember.

Balance your stones in artful ways. Along Lake Michigan, stones wash up on the shore and are gathered in plastic pails. A beautiful stone, a colorful rock, holds enchantment. Paint them with what’s on your heart. Stack them, balance them, remember them.

While hard, stones have purpose. The sculptuor looks at the marble block and sees the shape of her vision. She taps and chisels and smooths the masterpiece into shape, creating great beauty that endures. In gardens and at intersections, pillars and arches of stone beckon the passerby to walk through.

Work with what is at hand. A wise bird who needed a drink from a skinny-necked water pitcher took pebbles and dropped them into the pitcher, causing the water to rise and the crow not to die of thirst. The anvil, they say, never complains. It may be beaten, but it doesn’t relent. Decisions determine your destiny. Don’t cast the first stone. While it appears that stone is unforgiving, it endures in strength as a cornerstone built as a memorial to your undying love.

Deliberately Buried, An Object of Unknown Function, Substance & Origin

                                                                                after 2001:
                                                                        A Space Odyssey

Amain

Sea Creatures

Sgeir Mhor

In Praise of Sandstone

                                                        after W.H. Auden

What a Stone Throws

Through Hagstones

Cleft-split Rock

Aggregate 

A story of many stones

Breakwater

lapis_00

Strength (Reversed)

Rock Art

Gateway to Better Things

Grace

Thoughts on a Stone

Memorialize, Loss

Vulcanization

The Ziggaret of Burgh St. Peter

gargoyles would do great on instagram

Fragments

Beach

As a child, I created my own beach in our inland garden, a collection of the stones I picked up and clasped in my tiny palm wherever we went. Sparkling fragments of quartz, chunks of black basalt, slivers of grey slate. The beach is gone now, the bigger pieces lining paths and the smaller ones sunk into the soil. The garden itself is built atop a maze of grey limestone, water suddenly disappearing into the earth through unseen swallow holes and into caverns below.

In the summer I went to see Long Meg and Her Daughters, a wide stone circle at the end of a long boreen. Long Meg is tall and made of red sandstone with a smattering of blue grey lichen. She was sun-warmed with a rough texture as I traced her mysterious markings, gently following the spiral in and out with my fingertip. The only other visitors were a small family sitting in the shade of one of the stones, three generations of women. On the ground near Long Meg, there was a bird’s foot bound with white string.

To celebrate Spring Equinox, I went to a rushing burn in Edinburgh. The paths were busy, the ground covered with bright wild garlic shoots. I took off my shoes and socks and forded the burn, wading through the icy water. Under my feet, thousands of stones, each step a delicate balancing act. Amid the slippery green algae, I spotted two tiny pieces of white quartz and fished them out. Once across, I scrambled up the muddy bank back onto the path and dried my cold red skin as birds sang overhead.

Deep in the right-hand pocket of my winter coat there is a smooth black bean of basalt, gathered on a gusty October walk on the beach. A buttery yellow lump of quartz is carefully placed on a shelf in my bedroom, found on a perfect summer day. Beside my bed sits a small pink glass bowl from Ikea, full of crystals. Some come from my childhood collection – lavender amethyst and navy sodalite. The triangular green moss agate holds a tiny forest, and the sunstone glows like the sun in the heart of the winter.

Years ago, when I worked unsociable hours in a nightclub and struggled to pay my bills, I got a taxi home one night. The taxi driver told me to buy a piece of yellow citrine and put it in my purse to attract money. When I think back now, there is a dreamlike quality to the memory and I remember feeling compelled to take his advice. I bought the crystal in a museum giftshop and it has been in my purse ever since, pale gold fading to cloudy white at one end and covered in tiny chips from living amongst coins for so long.

Beaming Down to Cappadocia

mouthpiece

Tor

SHINE BALLARD, the cachinnating choplogic, currently creates and resides on this plane(t). @xShine14

BRITTA BENSON is a circus skills instructing German, a writer, performer and linguist thriving in Scotland, her chosen habitat since the year 2000. She writes a daily blog, Britta's Blog - Letters from Scotland brittasblog422041504.wordpress.com as well as the poetry blog, Odds & Ends oddsends707138946.wordpress.com. She also stares out of her window a lot and drinks far too much tea. Her story 'Mum's shoes' has been published by the Scottish Book Trust as part of the Book Week Scotland anthology and was also featured in The Scotsman on 13th October 2021, her story 'The Lioness' was shortlisted for the Bold Types Story Competition in November 2021. She regularly contributes prose and poetry to online literary magazines, runs a creative writing group and is currently editing the first draft of her novel about a dragon on the Isle of Skye.

ROBERT BEVERIDGE (he/him) makes noise (xterminal.bandcamp.com) and writes poetry in Akron, OH. Recent/upcoming appearances in FEED October Series, Breathe, and Passager, among others.

MICHAEL BLACK lives in the south of Manchester in the UK. His poems and poetry reviews are hosted in online places like: Adjacent Pineapple, Re-Side, -algia, Beir Bua, Osmosis Press, Ink Drinkers, the Babel Tower Noticeboard, and SPAM 003. Twitter: @beakyblack.

NICK DORMAND is a photographer and artist who captures images on his daily walks at the seaside of East Devon in the UK.

PAULETTE DUBÉ was two years old when she watched her third sister come into the world via the kitchen table. She has been hooked on creation, and miracles ever since. Today, she relies on the good fortune of living in Jasper National Park for her daily dose of magic realism. Her poetry and prose have garnered a number of rewards and short list nominations including the Milton Acorn Memorial People’s Poetry Award, the CBC Alberta Anthology, the CBC Literary Awards, the Alberta Writers’ Guild Best Novel Award, the Starburst Award, the Exporting Alberta Award and the Fred Kerner Award.You can find me on twitter @paulettedube on FB and on instagram @pauletteblanchettedube and paulettedube

MIKE FERGUSON is an American permanently resident in East Devon, UK. His most recent publications are 'And I Used to Sail Barges' (The Red Ceilings Press, 2020) and 'Drawing on Previous Learning' (Wrecking Ball Press, 2021).

JEFF GALLAGHER is a poet and playwright from Sussex, England. His poems have appeared in a number of magazines including Rialto, One Hand Clapping, The Journal and Spellbinder. He has had numerous plays for young people published and performed in various locations nationwide. He has also appeared in an Oscar-winning movie. He has no social media ‘handles’ but runs an occasional blog called ‘The Poetry Show With Gally G.’

FIONA GLEN is a writer and artist from Edinburgh and currently based in London, where she graduated in 2020 from the MA Writing at the Royal College of Art. Bridging essay, poetry, script, and fiction, her writing explores messy embodiment, unruly ecologies, and how human beings understand themselves through other beings and things. Glen's work has been published in anthologies from Dark Mountain to Letters to the Earth, and in periodicals including 3:AM Magazine, MAP Magazine, and Aesthetica online.

KEVIN GRAUKE is the author of Shadows of Men (Queen's Ferry Press), winner of the Steven Turner Award from the Texas Institute of Letters.

ED HIGGINS’ poems and short fiction have appeared in various print and online journals including: Monkeybicycle, Danse Macabre, Ekphrastic Review, and Triggerfish Critical Review, among others. Ed is Asst. Editor for Brilliant Flash Fiction. He has a small farm in Yamhill, OR, raising a menagerie of animals—including a rooster named StarTrek.

In a past century HEIKKI HUOTARI attended a one-room school and spent summers on a forest-fire lookout tower. He's a retired math professor and has published poems in numerous literary journals, including Spillway, the American Journal of Poetry and Willow Springs. His fifth collection, When Correlation Is Causation, is in press.

Exercising through various mediums, HENRY HU’s (born 1995 Hong Kong) emerging practice commits to an infusion. An exchange. An immediacy. A link between the interior and the exterior — of a self, a being, an identity, a consciousness. Each individual series offers an overarching narrative, steps away from the present for a spell: tasked with casting new perspectives, fresh air to breathe, a spiritual relief. Often juxtaposing the past with the future, differing forms of surrealistic fantasies unfold across his works; along with a recurring structure, the heart of all series rests in harmony.

XINYI JIANG was born in China’s Qingdao and studied in Nanjing and Shanghai. She taught in Fudan University before moving to the UK. She had lived in England and Wales before settling in Scotland.

SCARLET KATZ ROBERTS is 23 years old. After graduating from her English degree at Oxford University, she has now begun an MA in Poetry at UEA. Her work is often concerned with figures from medieval literature — she is interested in how their emotional range interacts with modern landscapes.

J.I. KLEINBERG’s poems have been published in print and online journals worldwide. An artist, poet, freelance writer, and three-time Pushcart and Best of the Net nominee, she lives in Bellingham, Washington, USA, and on Instagram @jikleinberg.

TERESA H. KLEPAC enjoys writing poetry and fiction, and has been a journalist, corporate editor/writer and magazine designer for many years. Most recent publications include: Vagrant Magic in Blood and Bourbon Issue #9; American Ramble in Pure Slush Sept. 2021; Catbird Seat in StillPoint Arts Quarterly March 2021; Counting Stars, Counting Crows in ArtAscent Oct. 2020. Her fiction Safe Person was included in the Hard Times Happen Anthology 2021, and Heirloom Rocker, a poem, was featured in TigerShark. She is a member of The Merry Bombadils chapter of the MSPS and Columbia Writers Group.

ELIZABETH JOY LEVINSON teaches and writes on the southwest side of Chicago. She has an MFA in Poetry from Pacific University and an MAT in Biology from Miami University. Recent work has been published in Whale Road Review, FEED, Tiny Spoon, Floresta, SWWIM, Cobra Milk, and others. She is the author of two chapbooks: As Wild Animals (Dancing Girl Press) and Running Aground (Finishing Line Press). Her first full length collection, Uncomfortable Ecologies, will be published in the fall of 2023 (Unsolicited Press).

NASIM LUCZAJ is a Glasgow-based poet, translator, DJ and life model. She is the author of HIND MOUTH, a pamphlet for the Earthbound Poetry Series, and her work has appeared in the anthology the weird folds: everyday poems from the anthropocene. Her new pamphlet Enskyment is forthcoming with OrangeApple Press.

RUTH MAINLAND is a native Shetlander living in Glasgow who works as a Primary Teacher in Paisley. When she isn’t tying wet shoelaces, she writes poetry and short stories. She was awarded the Grierson Verse prize for her writing, and has been published in Gutter magazine, The Island Review and Culture Matters, among others.

FERN MARSHALL is a writer based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Writing is a source of solace and escape for her, with a focus on nature and mental health. Her work has appeared in Little Livingroom. She is on Instagram @fernmarshal.

RODDIE McKENZIE lives in Dundee and is a member of Wyvern Poets and Nethergate Writers. He has published short stories in Nethergate Writers anthologies since 2006 and recently his poetry and prose have appeared in: "Tether's End Magazine,“ "Lallans",“Seagate III”,“New Writing Scotland 35”, "Northwords Now 36", “50 Shades of Tay”, "Writers Cafe Magazine 16" and “Rebel”. His poetry explores journeys, both physical and internal, whereas his stories favour the anti-hero or underdog. He is working on a novel composed of interlinked short stories based on his ten years living in Canada. For further details see: www.nethergatewriters.com>

KARLA LINN MERRIFIELD has had 900+ poems appear in dozens of journals and anthologies, with 14 books to her credit. Following her 2018 Psyche’s Scroll (Poetry Box Select) is the newly released full-length book Athabaskan Fractal: Poems of the Far North from Cirque Press. She is currently at work on a poetry collection, My Body the Guitar, inspired by famous guitarists and their guitars; the book is slated to be published in December 2021 by Before Your Quiet Eyes Publications Holograph Series (Rochester, NY). Web site: https://www.karlalinnmerrifield.org/; blog at https://karlalinnmerrifeld.wordpress.com/; Tweet @LinnMerrifiel; Instagram: https://www.facebook.com/karlalinn.merrifield.

KATE MEYER-CURREY moved to Devon in 1973. A varied career in frontline settings has fuelled her interest in gritty urbanism, contrasted with a rural upbringing, often with a slipstream twist. Since September 2020 she has had over a hundred poems published in print and online journals, both in the UK and internationally.Her first chapbook ‘County Lines’ (Dancing Girl Press) comes out this Autumn. Her second Cuckoo’s Nest’ (Contraband Books) is due in February 2022.

A resident of Connecticut, JOHN MURO is a graduate of Trinity College, Wesleyan University and the University of Connecticut. In the Lilac Hour, John’s first volume of poems, was published last fall by Antrim House, and it is available on Amazon. His poems have been published or are forthcoming in numerous literary journals, including River Heron, Moria, Sheepshead, Writer Shed, Euonia, Third Wednesday and the French Literary Review. John is also a two-time nominee for the 2021 Pushcart Prize.

SHARI LAWRENCE PFLEEGER’s poems, inspired by human, technical and natural interactions, are published in several literary journals, including Thimble Literary Magazine, Green Light Literary Magazine, Blue House Journal and District Lines. Her first chapbook, Yorkshire Sonnets, is available here. Pfleeger’s work has won awards at several Ripon Poetry Festivals, and she read most recently at Ripon and for Poets vs the Pandemic. An enthusiastic board member for Alice James Press, Pfleeger lives, writes and rides her bicycle in Washington, DC.

FABRICE POUSSIN teaches French and English at Shorter University. Author of novels and poetry, his work has appeared in Kestrel, Symposium, The Chimes, and many other magazines. His photography has been published in The Front Porch Review, the San Pedro River Review as well as other publications.

IAN RICHARDSON lives on the East coast of Scotland. He was overall winner in Scottish Borders 'Waverley Lines' in September 2015. In November 2015 his postmodern poem 'Notes for my Frankenstein Film' was published and performed at The Poetry Club Raum 2, Glasgow's international poetry magazine. In 2016 Ian was presented with the Anstruther Writing Award and was a regular contributor to 'Lies, Dreaming' spoken word podcast. More recently his poetry has been published in several places including blackboughpoetry.com. In 2019/20 Ian studied haiku and micro poetry, many examples of which can be found on Twitter @IanRich10562022

MARKA RIFAT lives in north-east Scotland. She writes stories, poems, plays and articles. Recently selected for the Lancaster 1 Minute Monologue booklet, awarded 3rd in the inaugural international Saki short story competition, commended in the Toulmin and Janet Coats Memorial prizes and featured in the John Byrne Award, her work appears in more than 20 North American, UK and Australian anthologies.

FABIO SASSI makes photos and acrylics using whatever is considered to have no worth by the mainstream. He often puts a quirky twist to his subjects or employs an unusual perspective that gives a new angle of view. He really enjoys taking the everyday and ordinary and framing it in a different way. He also likes the imperfect in things and believe that those imperfections add a lot of value. Fabio lives in Bologna, Italy. His work can be viewed at fabiosassi.foliohd.com

WILLIAM THOMPSON is totally blind, and he teaches children’s literature for MacEwan University in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. His work appears in journals from both North American and the UK, including Hippocampus Magazine, Penmen Review, Ponder Review, COB Magazine, Literary Orphans, and Firewords Magazine. He has two collections of stories ¬ The Paper Man and Other Stories and Fractured and Other Fairy Tales.

CHRISTIAN WARD s a UK-based writer who can be recently found in Red Ogre Review, Discretionary Love and Stone Poetry Journal. Future poems will be appearing in Dreich, Uppagus and Spillwords. He was recently shortlisted for the 2021 Canterbury Poet of the Year Competition and the 2021 Plough Prize.

COLE W. WILLIAMS is the author of Hear the River Dammed: Poems from the Edge of the Mississippi (Beaver’s Pond Press, 2017) as well as several books for children. Her poems are forthcoming in About the Art, FERAL, North Dakota Quarterly; and found in Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, Intima: Journal of Narrative Medicine, Martin Lake Journal, Indolent Books online, Waxing & Waning, Harpy Hybrid Review, and other journals, as well as in a number of anthologies. She recently attended Rockvale Writer’s Colony and graduated from the MFA program at Augsburg University in Minneapolis.

JOHN WINDER is a landscape and creative photographer working in both colour and black and white. He began photography many years ago and enjoys trudging around outdoors, hauling camera gear, and spending time behind the camera lens. He has been developing his abstract landscape imagery more recently using unusual viewpoints and long exposure techniques. He has art work previously published in The Bangor Literary Journal and The Fly on the Wall Press.