Thursday, March 19, 2015

above, below, beneath, behind, beside



Published on Poems and Poetry HERE 






above
below
beneath
behind
beside
me
your spirit resides


an eternal yearning
met in dreams
and moments
of existential
bliss


with you
there is no
thought


an inherent
knowing
that our spirits
have met
will meet
collide like atoms
in this universe
undiscovered
like lands yet birthed
before the age of man
before languages
were spoken
when nature existed
in her
utter
holy
glory


this is where we met
the wind whispering
through pine trees
the sun loving soil
the rain drenching valleys
when lightning was born
from a solitary
cloudburst


this is how we first met

above
below
beneath
behind
beside



© Susan Marie




Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Black and Tans [Jackdaw and The Ruffians]






Every St. Patrick's Day I put this out, a fine Celtic Rock Band, my dear brothers, all of them, in rare performance with The Ruffians. 

I recorded, engineered and edited/mixed this at one Irish Feis in South Buffalo managing so many boards I am shocked it turned out good. 



This includes the most mind-blowing version of "Black and Tans" with Danny from The Ruffians playing bones. 

Be safe, enjoy, and Slainte! 

Photo © N. Vargo in Ireland 
Audio © Susan Marie and Jackdaw

Monday, March 16, 2015

Earth's Daughters at Fourth Friday Reading Series at Dog Ears Bookstore



Published on WGRZ HERE

The editors of Earth's Daughters magazine (Kastle Brill, Jennifer Campbell, Joyce Kessel, Janna Willoughby-Lohr, and ryki zuckermanwill read from their work on Friday, March 27, at 7 pm in the Fourth Friday Reading Series at Dog Ears Bookstore, 688 Abbott Rd. South Buffalo. 

The series is hosted by Fred Whitehead.  Admission is $4. Long time sponsor, Bella Pizza, will provide pizza and beverages will be available.

Earth's Daughters is both name of the magazine, which has been publishing for 44 years, and the name of the collective, comprised of the editors, each of whom is an accomplished poet.  Earth's Daughters magazine is the longest continuously published feminist literary arts periodical in the US.  

Kastle Brill is a poet, memoirist, fiction writer, artist, and editor, who has two chapbooks: One Night Stands & Other Pieces of Time and The Head

Her poems have appeared in
  • White Pine Journal 
  • Black Mountain II Review 
  • Serendipityarts 
  • Poetry on the Bus 
  • Earth's Daughters 
  • Celebrating Western New York Poets 

Kastle has read as a feature with:
  • Joanne Kyger
  • NYSCA panel with Allen Ginsberg and Jim Carroll
  • Center for Inquiry
  • Daemen College Readings at the RIC
  • Just Buffalo
  • NYSCA
  • Artists Gallery
  • Niagara-Erie Writers
  • Ujima Theatre Company

She is also a retired environmental lawyer and an active and passionate tai chi teacher.

Jennifer Campbell is a Professor of English at Erie County Community College/North. In addition to Earth’s Daughters, she co-edits Beyond Bones.  Her first book of poetry, titled Driving Straight Through, was published by FootHills in 2008. In 2013, Saddle Road Press published her collection, Supposed to Love.  

Her work appears in: 
  • Saranac Review
  • Fugue
  • The Pedestal
  • New Millennium Writings 
  • Eclipse
  • Slipstream
  • Slant
  • Sow’s Ear
  • CHEST

She has been the featured reader at:
  • Center For Inquiry
  • Empire State College Appletree Series
  • Screening Room
  • Burchfield-Penney Sunday Reading Series
  • Daemen College Readings at the RIC series
  • BuffaloEast

She is the co-curator of the  Center for Inquiry Literary Cafe Series.

Joyce Kessel teaches literature, writing, and interdisciplinary courses at Villa Maria College.  Her chapbook, Describing the Dark, was published in 2013 in the Forty-Three North Chapbook Series from Saddle Road Press. Classroom Quiche (Writer's Den) is due 2015.  

Her poems have appeared: 
  • Celebrating Western New York Poets
  • Waging Words for Peace 
  • A Touch of Saccharine 
  • Point Mass 
  • Backlit Barbie 

Her work has also appeared: 
  • WNY Metro buses through Swift Kick
  • Black Mountain II Review
  • Pure Light
  • Earth’s Daughters
  • A Room of Our Own

She has read at Hilbert College, ECC City Campus, and Empire State College at Appletree, and the CFI.

Janna Willoughby-Lohr was awarded the "Best Spoken Word Artist" title in the Artvoice Best of Buffalo Awards 2010. 

Since graduating from Warren Wilson College, she has been performing poetry and music. She was a Grand Slam finalist in 2005-2008 for the Nickel City Poetry Slam, and a member of the 2006 Nickel City Slam team at the National Poetry Slam. She performs with her band, The BloodThirsty Vegans, "a lively mix of energetic hip-hop, rock, funk, Ska, and blues, topped off with socially-conscious, positive lyrics." 

She has read her poetry at: 
  • Impact Gallery (new/reN.E.W. series)
  • Artpark (Buffalo Society of Artists International Poetry Reading)
  • Wordflight Series
  • Poetry at the Woodlawn Diner
  • Infringement Festival
  • Burchfield-Penney Sunday Reading Series
  • thinktwiceradio

She currently works as a graphic designer for Bodycandy.com.

ryki zuckerman is a poet, editor, teacher, and artist who is the author of the full-length volume, Looking for Bora Bora (Saddle Road Press, 2013), and also the chapbook, body of the work (Textile Bridge Press). She has a forthcoming volume, The Nothing That Is, from Benevolent Bird Press (2015).

Her poems have appeared in :

  • Black Mountain College II Review
  • Slipstream
  • Steel Bellow
  • Swift Kick
  • Lips
  • Escarpments
  • Paunch
  • The Other Herald
  • Pure Light
  • Buffalo News
  • Artvoice
  • poetrysuperhighway
  • Moondance
  • A Celebration of Western New York Poets 
  • Brigid's Fire
  • Mo' Joe anthology
  • Broadsides for Serendipity Arts 
  • Tea Leaves Collection.

She has been a featured reader at:
  • Empire State College Appletree Series
  • Daemen College Readings at the RIC
  • Center for Inquiry
  • The Woodlawn Diner Poetry and Dinner Series
  • Brighton Library "Art All Over the Place" Buffalo State's Rooftop Series
  • Tru-Teas Series
  • Raiders of Niagara Reading Series
  • The Screening Room
  • Artspace Annual Poetry Reading
  • Buffalo Society of Artists International Poetry Reading at Artpark
  • WNED-TV
  • WBFO-FM
  • WHLD-AM (AudibleInk Radio)
  • thinktwiceradio

In 2009, ryki was a featured reader for the Poetry Collection of the University of Buffalo at the Butler Mansion. She created, curates, and hosts two series: the Wordflight at Red Doors Series and, for Earth's Daughters, the Gray Hair Series.




Sunday, March 8, 2015

i am spirit









i am
universe


spirit

a thoroughbred on fire

Vesuvius exploding
millenniums
of age old stories
told by firelight


dancing flames of mouths of ancestors
ring in my
external auditory meatus
creating intense magnetic fields
between both palms
placed upon ears


a circuit to free my thinking brain
from onslaught of
data,
technology
information
fear
love
death
hate
and all that exists


in divine ugliness and beauty

this universe encompasses
all that is, was, will be
and I, human, here and now


am spirit

i am spirit, i say
and stand and scream
opening my lungs to this most holy sky
and it blazed like photogenic supernovas
across my inner eyelids
closed, sleeping, awake
my still small hands shake
beneath starry skies in eve


for i am spirit
in this shell
on this Earth,
existing in a Universe


as human.


© Susan Marie